Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An improved k-Means Clustering algorithm for Intrusion Detection using Gaussian function

In this paper the major objective is to design and analyze the suitability of Gaussian similarity measure for intrusion detection. The objective is to use this as a distance measure to find the distance between any two data samples of training set such as DARPA Data Set, KDD Data Set. This major objective is to use this measure as a distance metric when applying k-means algorithm. The novelty of this approach is making use of the proposed distance function as part of k-means algorithm so as to obtain disjoint clusters. This is followed by a case study, which demonstrates the process of Intrusion Detection. The proposed similarity has fixed upper and lower bounds.
Specific Marker Expression and Cell State of Schwann Cells during Culture In Vitro

Schwann cells (SCs) in animals exist in different developmental stages or wound repair phases, distinguished mainly by the expression of SC-specific markers. No study has yet determined SC state under in vitro culture conditions, and the specific markers expressed in SC are obscure as well. In this study, we harvested sciatic nerves from newborn mice and isolated SCs by an enzyme-digestion method, then we examined the expression profiles of ten markers (S100, p75NTR, Sox10, Sox2, GAP43, NCAM, Krox20, Oct6, MBP, and MPZ) at both the RNA and protein levels in in vitro mouse SCs and speculated their relation with in vivo SC stages. We assayed RNA and protein levels of SC specific markers by immunofluorescence, Western Blot, and real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The results show that the expression of most markers (S100, p75NTR, GAP43, NCAM, Krox20, Oct6, MBP and MPZ) was not detectable in all of early stage cultured SCs. The expression of transcription factors Sox10 and Sox2 was, however, detectable in all SCs. After 8 days, the positive expression rate of all markers except GAP43 and Oct6 was almost 100%. These results indicates Sox10 is a necessary marker for SC identification, while S100 is not reliable. SCs cultured in vitro express Sox2, P75NTR, NCAM, GAP43, Oct6, and MPZ, suggesting that they are similar to in vivo undifferentiated iSCs or dedifferentiated iSCs after nerve injury.
From Node Embedding To Community Embedding

Most of the existing graph embedding methods focus on nodes, which aim to output a vector representation for each node in the graph such that two nodes being "close" on the graph are close too in the low-dimensional space. Despite the success of embedding individual nodes for graph analytics, we notice that an important concept of embedding communities (i.e., groups of nodes) is missing. Embedding communities is useful, not only for supporting various community-level applications, but also to help preserve community structure in graph embedding. In fact, we see community embedding as providing a higher-order proximity to define the node closeness, whereas most of the popular graph embedding methods focus on first-order and/or second-order proximities. To learn the community embedding, we hinge upon the insight that community embedding and node embedding reinforce with each other. As a result, we propose ComEmbed, the first community embedding method, which jointly optimizes the community embedding and node embedding together. We evaluate ComEmbed on real-world data sets. We show it outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines in both tasks of node classification and community prediction.
Hedonic Price Modelling of Environmental Attributes: A Review of the Literature and a Hong Kong Case Study

This paper (a) surveys leading works on hedonic pricing modelling of the impact of four main categories of environmental attributes (pollution and amenities) and the impact of zoning regulations on urban property values in western jurisdictions and in Hong Kong, as an example of a high-density high-rise urban system that characterises developing world urban morphology; and (b) examines their relevance for a discussion of urban planning and development policies.
Increased Sleep Depth in Developing Neural Networks: New Insights from Sleep Restriction in Children

Brain networks respond to sleep deprivation or restriction with increased sleep depth, which is quantified as slow-wave activity (SWA) in the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG). When adults are sleep deprived, this homeostatic response is most pronounced over prefrontal brain regions. However, it is unknown how children’s developing brain networks respond to acute sleep restriction, and whether this response is linked to myelination, an ongoing process in childhood that is critical for brain development and cortical integration. We implemented a bedtime delay protocol in 5- to 12-year-old children to obtain partial sleep restriction (1-night; 50% of their habitual sleep). High-density sleep EEG was assessed during habitual and restricted sleep and brain myelin content was obtained using mcDESPOT magnetic resonance imaging. The effect of sleep restriction was analyzed using statistical non-parametric mapping with supra-threshold cluster analysis. We observed a localized homeostatic SWA response following sleep restriction in a specific parieto-occipital region. The restricted/habitual SWA ratio was negatively associated with myelin water fraction in the optic radiation, a developing fiber bundle. This relationship occurred bilaterally over parieto-temporal areas and was adjacent to, but did not overlap with the parieto-occipital region showing the most pronounced homeostatic SWA response. These results provide evidence for increased sleep need in posterior neural networks in children. Sleep need in parieto-temporal areas is related to myelin content, yet it remains speculative whether age-related myelin growth drives the fading of the posterior homeostatic SWA response during the transition to adulthood. Whether chronic insufficient sleep in the sensitive period of early life alters the anatomical generators of deep sleep slow-waves is an important unanswered question.
English Narrative Language Growth Across the School Year: Young Spanish–English Dual Language Learners

This study aimed to describe the narrative retell performance of dual language learners (DLLs) in the fall and spring of the school year and examine predictive relationships. Participants included 74 DLLs in kindergarten and first grade from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Microstructural measures included number of different words (NDW), words per minute (WPM), and verb accuracy. Macrostructural measures included number of total story elements and number of different types of story elements. Path analysis models were used to test the relations among variables. Findings indicated that narrative measures were sensitive to developmental differences across the school year. Fall NDW performance in narrative retells was moderately related to both spring NDW and the total number of macrostructural elements in the spring. Spring WPM was uniquely predicted by fall WPM. Authors concluded that narrative retells are sensitive to developmental differences across a school year for DLLs. Findings support the use of narrative retell measures as a promising tool to examine and describe English language growth of young DLLs within a school year.
Verbal Gestures in Wolof

Wolof is a Niger-Congo language spoken widely in Senegal and the Gambia. With approximately 3,930,000 speakers, it is one of the official languages and the lingua franca of Senegal. Another 185,000 people speak Wolof in the Gambia and a relatively small number (12,000) in Mauritania. The total number of speakers worldwide is estimated to be 3,976,500 in 2006 (Lewis et al. 2013). In urban settings, it competes with French, which is the main language of education and government. Urban Wolof has been studied both linguistically and sociolinguistically (McLaughlin 2001, 2008), and there is additional research on the sociolinguistics of borrowing and language contact in Senegal. There are a number of linguistic accounts of Wolof phonology (Ka 1994), morphology (Ndiaye 1994, 2004) and syntax (Church 1981; Dunigan 1994; Mangold 1977; Martinovic 2013; Russell 2006; Torrence 2005, 2012a,b, 2013a,b). Still, given the role of Wolof in Senegal, there is surprisingly little study of its use in discourse and few studies of its semantics and pragmatics (but see Baglini to appear; Robert 1991; Creissels & Robert 1998; Martinovic to appear (a); Perrino 2005, 2007; Robert 2006). In this paper we describe a group of sounds that stand outside of the basic phonemic and lexical inventory of Wolof but are a core part of the Wolof communicative system. We call these verbal gestures. They are crosslinguistically understudied and, to the best of our knowledge, only Dialo (1985) has analyzed them in Wolof. We report on fieldwork conducted in Ronkh, a village located in northwestern Senegal, two to three kilometers south of Mauritania and approximately two hours drive from Saint Louis. Wolof is the dominant language in Ronkh and is the primary, preferred language for all speakers, although there is a small Pular community of around one hundred people living on the outskirts of the town. Village officials and teachers have good command of French, but its use is limited to official meetings and, with some restrictions, to the schools. In the home, on the street, in the marketplace and in all public gatherings, Wolof is the language of communication. Thus this variety of Wolof arguably differs from Urban Wolof of Dakar, which exhibits heavy code-mixing with French. Ronkh was selected as the fieldwork site specifically because it shows less influence from French.
Image retargeting based on spatially varying defocus blur map

This paper presents a new image retargeting method that explores blur information. Given the input image, we compute the blur map and estimate in-focus regions. For retargeting, we first try to crop image boundaries as much as possible (preserving in-focus regions). If cropping is not enough, we use seam carving exploring a novel blur-aware energy function that concentrates the seams in blurred regions of the image. Experimental results show that the proposed blur-aware retargeting scheme works better at preserving in-focus objects than other competitive retargeting algorithms.
Without Salt, the ‘Thermophilic’ Protein Mth10b Is Just Mesophilic

Most proteins from thermophiles or hyperthermophiles are intrinsically thermostable. However, though Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ΔH is a thermophilic archaeon with an optimal growth temperature of 65°C, Mth10b, an atypical member the Sac10b protein family from M. thermoautotrophicum ΔH, seems not intrinsically thermostable. In this work, to clarify the molecular mechanism of Mth10b remaining stable under its physiological conditions, the thermodynamic properties of Mth10b were studied through equilibrium unfolding experiments performed at pH 7.0 monitored by circular dichroism (CD) spectra in detail. Our work demonstrated that Mth10b is not intrinsically thermostable and that due to the masking effect upon the large numbers of destabilizing electrostatic repulsions resulting from the extremely uneven distribution of charged residues over the surface of Mth10b, salt can contribute to the thermostability of Mth10b greatly. Considering that the intracellular salt concentration is high to 0.7 M, we concluded that salt is the key extrinsic factor to Mth10b remaining stable under its physiological conditions. In other word, without salt, ‘thermophilic’ protein Mth10b is just a mesophilic one.
A Systematic Method for Designing a PR Controller and Active Damping of the LCL Filter for Single-Phase Grid-Connected PV Inverters

The Proportional Resonant (PR) current controller provides gains at a certain frequency (resonant frequency) and eliminates steady state errors. Therefore, the PR controller can be successfully applied to single grid-connected PV inverter current control. On the contrary, a PI controller has steady-state errors and limited disturbance rejection capability. Compared with the L- and LC filters, the LCL filter has excellent harmonic suppression capability, but the inherent resonant peak of the LCL filter may introduce instability in the whole system. Therefore, damping must be introduced to improve the control of the system. Considering the controller and the LCL filter active damping as a whole system makes the controller design method more complex. In fact, their frequency responses may affect each other. The traditional trial-and-error procedure is too time-consuming and the design process is inefficient. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the frequency response influence between the PR controller and the LCL filter regarded as a whole system. In addition, the paper presents a systematic method for designing controller parameters and the capacitor current feedback coefficient factor of LCL filter active-damping. The new method relies on meeting the stable margins of the system. Moreover, the paper also clarifies the impact of the grid on the inverter output current. Numerical simulation and a 3 kW laboratory setup assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.
Effects of Tai Chi on glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in older adults with type 2 diabetes: a randomised double-blind sham-exercise-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND a large proportion of adults with type 2 diabetes remain sedentary despite evidence of benefits from exercise for type 2 diabetes. Simplified Yang Tai Chi has been shown in one study to have no effect on insulin sensitivity in older adults. However, a modified Tai Chi form, Tai Chi for Diabetes (TCD) has recently been composed, claiming to improve diabetes control. METHODS subjects were randomised to Tai Chi or sham exercise, twice a week for 16 weeks. Primary outcomes were insulin resistance 72 h post-exercise (HOMA2-IR), and long-term glucose control (HbA(1c)). RESULTS thirty-eight subjects (65 +/- 7.8 years, 79% women) were enrolled. Baseline BMI was 32.2 +/- 6.3 kg/m(2), 84% had osteoarthritis, 76% hypertension, and 34% cardiac disease. There was one dropout, no adverse events, and median compliance was 100 (0-100)%. There were no effects of time or group assignment on insulin resistance or HbA(1c) ( -0.07 +/- 0.4% Tai Chi versus 0.12 +/- 0.3% Sham; P = 0.13) at 16 weeks. Improvement in HbA(1c) was related to decreased body fat (r = 0.484, P = 0.004) and improvement in insulin resistance was related to decreased body fat (r = 0.37, P = 0.03) and central adiposity (r = 0.38, P = 0.02), as well as increased fat-free mass (r = -0.46, P = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS TCD did not improve glucose homeostasis or insulin sensitivity measured 72 h after the last bout of exercise. More intense forms of Tai Chi may be required to produce the body composition changes associated with metabolic benefits in type 2 diabetes.
ON THE DETERMINANTS OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM SPANISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS

This paper explores the main determinants of productivity growth. The analysis is performed using Spanish firm-level data. We define a framework where the relative magnitudes of alternative, but not exclusive, sources of technical change are simultaneously estimated. Our main finding is that the average total factor productivity (TFP) growth is fully explained by embodied technical progress (i.e., either new capital goods or human capital). Our results contradict the existence of a positive contribution of economywide neutral technological progress in determining average TFP growth. They also leave little room for large, unpriced effects external to the firm, both at the aggregate and at the industry level. We find evidence of firm-specific learning by doing, short-lived and due to adoption of new processes.
Öğretmen Adayları için Biçimlendirici Değerlendirmeye Yönelik Tutum ve Niyet Ölçeği Uyarlaması ve Bir Yapısal Eşitlik Modeli

Bu arastirmanin birinci boyutunda, Yan ve Cheng (2005) tarafindan gelistirilen “Ogretmenler icin Bicimlendirici Degerlendirmeye Yonelik Tutum, Niyet ve Uygulamalar Olcegi (OBTNU)” nin Turkce’ye ogretmen adaylari grubuna uyarlamasi gerceklestirilmistir. Calismaya, 2015-2016 egitim-ogretim yilinda bir egitim fakultesinin farkli bolumlerinde okuyan 301 ogretmen adayi katilmistir. Olcegin yapi gecerligi kapsaminda dogrulayici faktor analizi uygulanmis ve olcegin alti boyutlu yapisi incelenmistir. Olcegin alti boyutlu yapisi dogrulanmistir. Olcegin guvenirligi ise Cronbach Alpha ve McDonald Omega ic tutarlilik katsayisi ile hesaplanmistir. Guvenirlik katsayisi degerlerinin yuksek oldugu ortaya cikmistir. Buna gore uyarlanan olcegin, Turkiye’deki ogretmen adaylarinin bicimlendirici degerlenmeyi kullanmaya iliskin tutum ve niyetlerini ortaya cikarmada kullanilabilecek gecerli ve guvenilir olcum sonucu sagladigi soylenebilir. Arastirmanin ikinci boyutunda, olcum modelinin Planlanmis Davranis Teorisi (PDT)’ ne gore olusturulan yapisal modele uygunlugu yapisal esitlik modeli ile sinanmistir. Buna gore arastirmada PDT’ye gore kuramsal cercevede olusturulan yapisal modelin, ogretmen adaylarinin bicimlendirici degerlendirmeyi kullanmaya yonelik niyetlerini acikladigi soylenebilir.
Higher education governance in Central and Eastern Europe: A perspective on Hungary and Poland

This paper seeks to answer the question of what motivates governments to introduce and implement reforms in higher education (HE). The political and economic reasons why some governments in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), for the period 1990 and 2015, have invested resources in order to facilitate cooperation between employers and universities, and have introduced quality criteria in HE finance while others have not, are identified. Use of a comparative perspective on Poland and Hungary revealed important differences in HE regulations in these seemingly otherwise very similar cases, showing that what drives regulations, at least in part, is the governments’ responses to the labour market, i.e. the dynamic between students – future workers – and employers – largely multinational companies. Moreover, differences in HE regulations in the two countries are responsive to voters’ concerns. The paper thus contributes to the literature on skill formation in Central and Eastern Europe and to the literature on political economy focusing on this part of the world.
Experiences with VI communication for database storage

This paper examines how VI-based interconnects can be used to improve I/O path performance between a database server and the storage subsystem. We design and implement a software layer, DSA, that is layered between the application and VI. DSA takes advantage of specific VI features and deals with many of its shortcomings. We provide and evaluate one kernel-level and two user-level implementations of DSA. These implementations trade transparency and generality for performance at different degrees, and unlike research prototypes are designed to be suitable for realworld deployment. We present detailed measurements using a commercial database management system with both micro-benchmarks and industrial database workloads on a mid-size, 4 CPU, and a large, 32 CPU, database server. Our results show that VI-based interconnects and user-level communication can improve all aspects of the I/O path between the database system and the storage back-end. We also find that to make effective use of VI in I/O intensive environments we need to provide substantial additional functionality than what is currently provided by VI. Finally, new storage APIs that help minimize kernel involvement in the I/O path are needed to fully exploit the benefits of VI-based communication.
The Utilization of Imaging Features in the Management of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) represent a group of cystic pancreatic neoplasms with large range of clinical behaviours, ranging from low-grade dysplasia or borderline lesions to invasive carcinomas. They can be grouped into lesions originating from the main pancreatic duct, main duct IPMNs (MD-IPMNs), and lesions which arise from secondary branches of parenchyma, denominated branch-duct IPMNs (BD-IPMNs). Management of these cystic lesions is essentially based on clinical and radiological features. The latter have been very well described in the last fifteen years, with many studies published in literature showing the main radiological features of IPMNs. Currently, the goal of imaging modalities is to identify “high-risk stigmata” or “worrisome feature” in the evaluation of pancreatic cysts. Marked dilatation of the main duct (>1 cm), large size (3–5 cm), and intramural nodules have been associated with increased risk of degeneration. BD-IPMNs could be observed as microcystic or macrocystic in appearance, with or without communication with main duct. Their imaging features are frequently overlapped with cystic neoplasms. The risk of progression for secondary IPMNs is lower, and subsequently an imaging based follow-up is very often proposed for these lesions.
Model Selection in Iterative Valuation Questions

In this article, we propose a unified framework that accomodates many of the existing models for dichotomous choice contingent valuation with follow-up and allows to discriminate between them by simple parametric tests of hypothese. Our empirical results show that the Range model, developped in Flachaire and Hollard (2007}, utperforms other standard models and confirms that, when uncertain, respondents tend to accept proposed bids.
The interleukin 1 inhibitor rilonacept in treatment of chronic gouty arthritis: results of a placebo-controlled, monosequence crossover, non-randomised, single-blind pilot study

Background: Recent studies suggest that blockade of the NLRP3 (cryopyrin) inflammasome interleukin 1β (IL1β) pathway may offer a new treatment strategy for gout. Objective: To explore the potential utility of rilonacept (IL1 Trap) in patients with chronic active gouty arthritis in a proof-of-concept study. Methods: This 14-week, multicentre, non-randomised, single-blind, monosequence crossover study of 10 patients with chronic active gouty arthritis included a placebo run-in (2 weeks), active rilonacept treatment (6 weeks) and a 6-week post-treatment follow-up. Results: Rilonacept was generally well tolerated. No deaths and no serious adverse events occurred during the study. One patient withdrew owing to an injection-site reaction. Patients’ self-reported median pain visual analogue scale scores significantly decreased from week 2 (after the placebo run-in) to week 4 (2 weeks of rilonacept) (5.0 to 2.8; p<0.049), with sustained improvement at week 8 (1.3; p<0.049); 5 of 10 patients reported at least a 75% improvement. Median symptom-adjusted and severity-adjusted joint scores were significantly decreased. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels fell significantly. Conclusions: This proof-of-concept study demonstrated that rilonacept is generally well tolerated and may offer therapeutic benefit in reducing pain in patients with chronic refractory gouty arthritis, supporting the need for larger, randomised, controlled studies of IL1 antagonism such as with rilonacept for this clinical indication.