Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Privacy preservation in social graphs

v List of Tables . ix List of Figures . x Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 Social Graphs . 1 1.2 Privacy . 2 1.3 Privacy Breach in Social Graphs . 3 1.4 Research Issues . 4 1.4. 1 Privacy Preservation against Vertex Re-identification Attack . 4 1.4. 2 Privacy Preservation against Information Re-association Attack . 6 1.5 Dissertation Contributions . 7 1.5. 1 Edge Anonymization against Sensitive Edge Detection Attack . 7 1.5. 2 A New Information Re-association Attack . 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review . 10 2.1 Privacy Attacks in Social Graphs . 10 2.1.1 Vertex Re-identification Attacks . 10 2.1.2 Information Re-Association Attacks . 11 2.2 Privacy Preservation of Social Graphs . 12 2.2.1 Vertex Anonymization Methods . 12 2.2.2 Edge Anonymization Methods . 15
A Novel Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Microarray Data-Based Tumor Marker Gene Selection

Micorarray data are often extremely asymmetric in dimensionality, such as thousands or even tens of thousands of genes and a few hundreds of samples. Such extreme asymmetry between the dimensionality of genes and samples can lead inaccurate diagnosis of disease in clinic. Therefore, it has been shown that selecting a small set of marker genes can lead to improved classification accuracy. In this paper, a novel marker gene selection approach is proposed. Firstly, some top-ranked informative genes are selected by signal-noise ratio estimation method. Then a novel discrete particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is applied to select a few marker genes and support vector machines (SVM) is used as evaluator for getting better prediction performance. Experiments show that the proposed method produces better recognition with fewer marker genes than many other methods on colon tumor dataset. It has been demonstrated the modified discrete PSO is a useful tool for selecting marker genes and mining high dimension data.
Assessment of CYP2D6 activity in very elderly healthy subjects

Ageing has been shown to be associated with a reduction in functional liver mass and hepatic blood flow. However, ex vivo studies using human liver biopsies have shown that the amount and activity of total cytochrome P-450 and cytochrome c-reductase are not influenced by age. Thus, the influence of age on hepatic drug metabolism remains a matter for debate. The genetically determined activity of cytochrome P-450 2D6 (CYP2D6) is a major determinant of metabolism of more than 25 widely prescribed drugs. Indirect measurement of CYP2D6 activity can be performed by calculating a metabolic ratio (parent drug/metabolite) in urine after the oral administration of a CYP2D6 substrate such as dextromethorphan (Funck-Brentano et al, 1992). The purpose of the present study was to measure CYP2D6 activity in a very elderly population by use of the dextromethorphan metabolic ratio and to compare it to results obtained in young healthy subjects. Thirty-two subjects over 60 years of age (mean SD age: 78 k 10 years; range 61 to 98 years) were included after giving their written informed consent to participate. All were considered as healthy for their age based on clinical examination and standard laboratory tests, and were taking no medication at the time of the study. The study was approved by the local Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. Forty milligrams of dextromethorphan were administered orally after an overnight fast, urine was collected during the following 8 hours and dextromethorphan and dextrorphan were analysed by HPLC as previously described (Funck-Brentano et al, 1992). Results obtained in this elderly population were compared with previous results that we obtained by using the same methodology in 99 young healthy extensive metabolisers aged 24 * 6 years (range: 18 to 54 years) (Funck-Brentano et al, 1992). Data obtained in elderly and young extensive metabolisers were compared by using the Wilcoxon test for unpaired data. Eighteen of the 32 elderly subjects were women and 14 were men. Mean creatinine clearance estimated by the Cockroft formula was 49 k 17 mL/min (range 21 to 84 mL/min). One male subject (3.1%; 95% confidence interval: 0 to 16%) aged 70 years was a poor metaboliser of dextromethorphan (log metabolic ratio of 0.63). Thirty-one
Examining Thinking Skills in the Context of Large-scale Assessments Using a Validation Approach

Large Scale Assessments (LSAs) of student achievement in education serve a variety of purposes, such as comparing educational programs, providing accountability measures, and assessing achievement on a broad range of curriculum standards. In addition to measuring content-related processes such as mathematics or reading, LSAs also focus on thinking-related skills such as lower level thinking (e.g., understanding concepts) and problem solving. The purpose of the current study was to deconstruct and clarify the mechanisms that make up an LSA, including thinking skills and assessment perspectives, from a validation approach based on the work by Messick (1995) and Kane (1990). Therefore, when examining the design and student data of two LSAs in reading, (a) what common thinking skills are assessed? and (b) what are the LSAs’ underlying assessment perspectives? Content analyses were carried out on two LSAs that purported to assess thinking skills in reading: the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) and the Educational Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). As the two LSAs evaluated reading, the link between reading and thinking was also addressed. Conceptual models were developed and used to examine the assessment framework, test booklets, and scoring guide of the two assessments. In addition, a nonlinear factor analysis was conducted on the EQAO itemlevel data from the test booklets to examine the dimensionality of the LSA. The most prominent thinking skill referenced after qualitatively analyzing the assessment frameworks, test booklets, and scoring guides was critical thinking, while results from the quantitative analysis revealed that two factors best represented the item-level EQAO data. Overall, the tools provided in the current study can help inform both researchers and practitioners about the interaction between the assessment approach and related thinking skills.
Why Is Left Atrial Appendage Morphology Related to Strokes? An Analysis of the Flow Velocity and Orifice Size of the Left Atrial Appendage

A specific morphology of left atrial appendage (LAA) has been reported to be related to stroke in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. However, the mechanism is not completely understood. This study evaluated whether a specific LAA morphology was related to stroke, and whether it was related to the change of flow velocity and size of LAA in AF patients.
Pulmonary pneumaticity in the postcranial skeleton of extant Aves: A case study examining Anseriformes

Anseriform birds were surveyed to examine how the degree of postcranial pneumaticity varies in a behaviorally and size‐diverse clade of living birds. This study attempts to extricate the relative effects of phylogeny, body size, and behavioral specializations (e.g., diving, soaring) that have been postulated to influence the extent of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity. One hundred anseriform species were examined as the focal study group. Methods included latex injection of the pulmonary apparatus followed by gross dissection or direct examination of osteological specimens. The Pneumaticity Index (PI) is introduced as a means of quantifying and comparing postcranial pneumaticity in a number of species simultaneously. Phylogenetically independent contrasts (PICs) were used to examine the relationship between body size and the degree of postcranial pneumaticity throughout the clade. There is a high degree of similarity (i.e., clade‐specificity) within most anseriform subgroups. As a whole, Anseriformes demonstrate no significant relationship between relative pneumaticity and body size, as indicated by regression analysis of body mass on PI. It is apparent, however, that many clades of diving ducks do exhibit lower PIs than their nondiving relatives. By exclusion of diving taxa from analyses, a significant positive slope is observed and the hypothesis of relatively higher pneumaticity in larger‐bodied birds is only weakly supported. However, low correlations indicate that factors other than body size account for much of the variation observed in relative pneumaticity. Pneumaticity profiles were mapped onto existing phylogenetic hypotheses. A reduction in the degree of postcranial pneumaticity occurred independently in at least three anseriform subclades specialized for diving. Finally, enigmatic pneumatic features located in distal forelimb elements of screamers (Anhimidae) result from invasion of bone by a network of subcutaneous air sac diverticula spreading distally along the wings. J. Morphol. 261:141–161, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Inhibition of angiogenesis by interferons: effects on tumor- and lymphocyte-induced vascular responses.

Interferons (IFNs) have established antitumor action; the mechanism underlying this effect is, however, not yet clear. To probe the possible contribution of inhibition of angiogenesis, we have assessed angiogenesis in the mouse initiated by either human or murine tumor cell lines. Whether test cells were inoculated in the dermis or tumor fragments were grafted onto the cornea, tumor-induced angiogenesis (TIA) was inhibited by IFNs. TIA was also inhibited by the potent IFN inducer polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid. The effect of IFN was species specific; human IFNs inhibited human tumors and mouse IFNs inhibited murine tumors. This effect suggested that in contrast to other angiogenesis inhibitors, IFNs modulated the signal for angiogenesis produced by the tumor cells. Tumor cells treated in vitro with homologous IFN were significantly (P less than 0.005) less competent to initiate angiogenesis than were untreated cells. Inhibition of angiogenesis was achieved whether vascular response was assessed 1 or 3 days after tumor cell inoculation, suggesting that antiangiogenesis activity was independent of the antiproliferative effects of IFNs. To further substantiate this, L1210 leukemia cells, resistant to the antiproliferative effects of IFNs, were treated with 500 units/ml IFN-beta. IFN had no effect on their proliferation, but in four separate experiments, L1210R cells were impaired in their ability to induce angiogenesis. Thus, inhibition of TIA by IFNs was species specific, occurred at least partly by modulation of the signal inducing angiogenesis, and was expressed in the absence of antiproliferative effects. IFNs also inhibited immunologically induced angiogenesis, whether initiated by allogeneic lymphocytes (LIA) or by the mouse's own T-cells in response to an exogenous antigen (sheep RBC). LIA was markedly suppressed by treatment of host mice with homologous IFN-beta. For example, mean vessel counts induced by allogeneic mouse lymphocytes were decreased from 22.8 +/- 1.4 (SE) to 12.5 +/- 0.8 (P less than 0.0001); mouse IFN-beta had no corresponding effect on xenogeneic human lymphocytes (mean vessel counts decreased to 21.7 +/- 2.6 from 22.7 +/- 2.0). Treatment with human IFN-alpha, -beta, or -gamma in vitro or host mice in vivo reduced the ability of inoculated human peripheral blood lymphocytes to initiate xenogeneic LIA. Inhibition of LIA required a lower dose and/or a shorter incubation period than that needed to modulate TIA. Treatment of the donor of the allogeneic spleen cells in vivo with murine IFN or inducers also resulted in lesser LIA. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Report from a WHO working group: standard method for detecting upper respiratory carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Background. Numerousstudies evaluating the efficacy of conjugate pneumococcal vaccines are being conducted or planned throughout the world. Some of these studies are evaluating the effect of vaccine on nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage. Methods. The World Health Organization established a Working Group composed of representatives from these trials and other NP colonization experts to establish core, standardized methods for the study of pneumococcal NP colonization that could be used in these trials. The intent was to reduce or eliminate variability in key methods which themselves could contribute to variability of observed pneumococcal NP colonization. In this way variability of vaccine effects between trials on NP colonization could more easily be analyzed for population or vaccine differences without the confounding effect caused by differences in study methodology. Results. This paper presents the evidence base supporting the need for standardized NP colonization study methods, the methods themselves (Core Consensus Methods found in the electronic version of this article at www.pidj.com and on the WHO website at http://www.who.int/vaccines-research/rd/docsrd.shtml), including collection techniques, culture media, equipment, serotyping, storage of specimens and transport of isolates agreed on by the Working Group as well as a discussion of research priorities. Conclusions. The Core Consensus Methods provide a common methodology to conduct pneumococcal NP colonization studies with minimum interstudy method variability. The intention is to allow more meaningful comparisons of study results from conjugate pneumococcal vaccine trials.
Electroclinical features of absence seizures in childhood absence epilepsy

Objective: To accurately define the electroclinical features of absence seizures in children with newly diagnosed, untreated childhood absence epilepsy (CAE). Methods: The authors searched an EEG database for absence seizures in normal children with new onset untreated absence epilepsy. Seventy consecutive children were classified into IGE syndromes. The clinical and EEG features of the seizures in the children with CAE were analyzed using video-EEG recordings. Results: The authors analyzed 339 absence seizures in 47 children with CAE. The average seizure duration was 9.4 seconds and clinical features consisted of arrest of activity, loss of awareness, staring, and 3-Hz eyelid movements, but there was individual variation. Ictal EEG predominantly showed regular 3-Hz generalized spike and wave (GSW) with one or two spikes per wave; however, disorganization of discharges was common and three or more spikes per wave occurred rarely. Postictal slowing was frequent. Interictal abnormalities included fragments of GSW, posterior bilateral delta activity, and focal discharges. Although all 47 children met the current criteria for CAE, only 5 fulfilled the recently proposed criteria for CAE. Conclusion: The heterogeneous nature of each clinical and EEG feature of untreated absence seizures is of critical importance when determining criteria for childhood absence epilepsy.
Here's looking at you, kid: neural systems underlying face and gaze processing in fragile X syndrome.

BACKGROUND Children with fragile X syndrome (fraX) are at risk for manifesting abnormalities in social function that overlap with features of autism and social anxiety disorder. In this study, we analyzed brain activation in response to face and gaze stimuli to better understand neural functioning associated with social perception in fraX. METHODS Eleven female subjects with fraX, aged 10 to 22 years, were compared with age-matched female control subjects. Photographs of forward-facing and angled faces, each having direct and averted gaze (4 types of stimuli), were presented in an event-related design during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects were instructed to determine the direction of gaze for each photograph. Activation in brain regions known to respond to face and gaze stimuli, the fusiform gyrus (FG) and superior temporal sulcus (STS), were compared between groups to isolate neural abnormalities in the perception of directed social stimuli. RESULTS The fraX subjects had decreased accuracy in determining the direction of gaze compared with controls. Region of interest analysis of the FG revealed a significant interaction between diagnostic group and face orientation. Specifically, control subjects had greater FG activation to forward than to angled faces, whereas fraX subjects had no difference in FG activation to forward and angled faces. Controls showed greater left STS activation to all stimuli compared with fraX subjects. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that gaze aversion in fraX subjects is related to decreased specialization of the FG in the perception of face orientation. Decreased STS activation in fraX suggests aberrant processing of gaze. These data suggest that gaze aversion in fraX may be related to dysfunction of neural systems underlying both face and gaze processing.
Similar and/or Different Writing Processes?: A Study of Spanish Foreign Language and Heritage Language Learners

Following a cognitively-oriented framework, this study builds upon the authors’ previous work (Elola and Mikulski 2013; Mikulski and Elola 2011), which analyzed writing processes (planning time, execution time, revision time), fluency, and accuracy of Spanish heritage language (SHL) learners when composing in English and in Spanish. By analyzing Spanish foreign language (SFL) learners’ writing processes when composing in English and Spanish, the current study compares writing behaviors in both languages within the SFL group, as well as provides a comparison between the writing behaviors of the SHL and SFL learners completing the same writing tasks. SFL learners wrote less fluently, performed more surface revisions, and demonstrated less accuracy when writing in Spanish than in English, but monitored more in English. However, they allocated similar amounts of time to execution and planning across languages. Compared to their SHL counterparts, SFL learners wrote less fluently and accurately and devoted less time to Spanish intersentential planning and English monitoring. The SFL learners performed more surface revisions in Spanish and fewer meaning revisions in English and Spanish than the SHL learners. Insights into cross-linguistic transfer of writing skills and pedagogical suggestions are provided.
&ggr;-Aminobutyric Acid Type A Receptor Modulation by Etomidate Analogs

Background:Etomidate is a highly potent anesthetic agent that is believed to produce hypnosis by enhancing &ggr;-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptor function. The authors characterized the GABAA receptor and hypnotic potencies of etomidate analogs. The authors then used computational techniques to build statistical and graphical models that relate the potencies of these etomidate analogs to their structures to identify the specific molecular determinants of potency. Methods:GABAA receptor potencies were defined with voltage clamp electrophysiology using &agr;1&bgr;3&ggr;2 receptors harboring a channel mutation (&agr;1[L264T]) that enhances anesthetic sensitivity (n = 36 to 60 measurements per concentration–response curve). The hypnotic potencies of etomidate analogs were defined using a loss of righting reflexes assay in Sprague Dawley rats (n = 9 to 21 measurements per dose–response curve). Three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationships were determined in silico using comparative molecular field analysis. Results:The GABAA receptor and hypnotic potencies of etomidate and the etomidate analogs ranged by 91- and 53-fold, respectively. These potency measurements were significantly correlated (r2 = 0.72), but neither measurement correlated with drug hydrophobicity (r2 = 0.019 and 0.005, respectively). Statistically significant and predictive comparative molecular field analysis models were generated, and a pharmacophore model was built that revealed both the structural elements in etomidate analogs associated with high potency and the interactions that these elements make with the etomidate-binding site. Conclusions:There are multiple specific structural elements in etomidate and etomidate analogs that mediate GABAA receptor modulation. Modifying any one element can alter receptor potency by an order of magnitude or more.
Alternate Occurrence of Allergic Disease and an Unusual Form of Interstitial Cystitis

Background: It has been postulated that interstitial cystitis can be induced by an allergy. This is partly based on the observation that many patients with interstitial cystitis also have allergic diseases. In this study, an allergic evaluation was conducted on patients with interstitial cystitis complicated by bronchial asthma, a typical allergic disease.
An Examination of Differences in Psychological Resilience between Social Anxiety Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Context of Early Childhood Trauma

Background: Much of the research on anxiety disorders has focused on associated risk factors with less attention paid to factors such as resilience that may mitigate risk or offer protection in the face of psychopathology. Objective: This study sought to compare resilience in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) relative to age-, gender- and education- matched individuals with no psychiatric disorder. We further assessed the correlation of resilience scores with childhood trauma severity and type. Method: The sample comprised of 93 participants, 40 with SAD with childhood trauma), 22 with PTSD with childhood trauma, and 31 with no psychiatric disorder (i.e., healthy matched controls). Participants were administered the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—Short Form (CTQ-SF), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The mean age of participants was 34 years (SD = 11). 52 Participants were female (55.9%) and 54 Caucasian (58.1%). Analysis of variance was used to assess for significant group differences in resilience scores. Non-parametric correlation analyses were conducted for resilience and different types of childhood trauma. Results: There were significant differences in resilience between the SAD and PTSD groups with childhood trauma, and controls. Both disorder groups had significantly lower levels of resilience than healthy controls. No significant correlation was found between total resilience scores and childhood trauma scores in the childhood trauma (SAD and PTSD) groups. However, in the combined dataset (SAD, PTSD, healthy controls), significant negative correlations were found between resilience scores and emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and total childhood trauma scores. Conclusions: Patients who have PTSD and SAD with childhood trauma appear to be significantly less resilient than those with no disorder. Assessing and addressing resilience in these disorders, particularly when childhood trauma is present, may facilitate long-term recovery and warrants further investigation.
On the Degeneracy Conditions for Tri-modular Simple K3 Singularities

Defining equations of tri-modular simple K3 singularities are 7 types. The defining equations of simple K3 singularities are polynomials with parameter coefficients. We can obtain degeneracy conditions of these singularities by using computer algebra system. The forms of Groebner bases generated by polynomials depend on the values of parameters, and those calculations are not easy. In this paper, we try to decide the degeneracy conditions of tri-modular simple K3 singularities. And we show examples of the calculations.