Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When is the evaluation of conjunctive queries tractable?

The evaluation of conjunctive queries is hard both with respect to its combined complexity (NP-complete) and its parameterized complexity (W[1]-complete). It becomes tractable (PTIME for combined complexity, FPT for parameterized complexity), when the underlying graphs of the conjunctive queries have bounded tree-width [2]. We show that, in some sense, this is optimal both with respect to combined and parameterized complexity: For every class C of graphs, the evaluation of all conjunctive queries whose underlying graph is in C is tractable if, and only if, C has bounded tree-width. A technical result of independent interest is that the colored grid homomorphism problem is NP-complete and, if parameterized by the grid size, W[1]-complete.
Activity Recognition with Smartphone Sensors Second Exam Literature Review

The ubiquity of smartphones together with their ever-growing computing, networking and sensing powers have been changing the landscape of people’s daily life. Among others, activity recoginition, which takes the raw sensor reading as inputs and predicts a user’s motion activity, has become an active research area in recent years. It is the core building block in many high-impact applications, ranging from health and fitness monitoring, personal biometric signature, urban computing, assistive technology and elder-care, to indoor localization and navigation, etc. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the recent advances in activity recognition with smartphones’ sensors. We start with the basic concepts such as sensors, activity types, etc. We review the core data mining techniques behind the main stream activity recognition algorithms, analyze their major challenges and introduce a variety of real applications enabled by activity recognition.
Vitamin E-based therapy is effective in ameliorating transaminasemia in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

BACKGROUND Comparative trials of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), vitamin E and weight management programs among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are lacking. AIM To find an effective single agent or combination of agents for management of NAFLD. METHODS In this retrospective study, consecutive patient with histologically confirmed NAFLD with raised ALT were included. The patients received either weight management (exercise and therapeutic lifestyle changes [TLC] diet with a target to reduce body weight 10% in 6 months) (group I) ; weight management + UDCA (300 mg BID) (group II); or weight management + UDCA + vitamin E (400 mg OD) (group III). Outcome measure was normalization of ALT. RESULTS 42 patients (18, 12 and 12 in groups I, II and III, respectively) were included between 1996 and 2004. All patients in group III normalized their ALT levels, which was significantly higher than numbers in group I (8/18) and group II (5/12); (p=0.003). Post treatment ALT was significantly lower in group III (28.6 [9.3]) as compared to group I (59.3 [32.2]) and group II (49.0[31.8]); (p=0.01). Type of therapy received was the only factor predictive of ALT normalization. CONCLUSION Combination regimen containing vitamin E appears to be effective in normalizing ALT among NAFLD patients.
Adaptive Multiuser Turbo Receiver Structure for Oversaturated MIMO Communication System

In this paper we show that an adaptive turbo (iterative) multiuser receiver employing imperfect decision feedback compared to perfect decision feedback has a signal to interference ratio (SINR) gain of over 1 dB at bit error rate (BER) of 10-2 for an oversaturated multiuser multicellular wireless communication system. A (turbo) iterative multiuser receiver system consists of a bank of adaptive linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimators that retrieves user signatures followed by non-linear MMSE detectors and dedicated log maximum a-posteriori (MAP) decoders to decode user information in an uplink multiuser communication system. We find that estimating filter coefficients every turbo iteration (successive training) assuming perfect feedback does not provide any SINR gain over non successive training based adaptive multiuser receiver. We show that there is a gain of over 1.5 dB in using non-successive training over successive training at BER of 10-2 for an oversaturated multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system
Minerva: A Scalable and Highly Efficient Training Platform for Deep Learning

The tooling landscape of deep learning is fragmented by a growing gap between the generic and productivity-oriented tools that optimize for algorithm development and the task-specific ones that optimize for speed and scale. This creates an artificial barrier to bring new innovations into real-world applications. Minerva addresses this issue with a layered design that provides language flexibility and execution efficiency simultaneously within one coherent framework. It proposes a matrix-based API, resulting in compact codes and the Matlab-like, imperative and procedural coding style. The code is dynamically translated into an internal dataflow representation, which is then efficiently executed against different hardware. The same user code runs on modern laptop and workstation, high-end multi-core server, or server clusters, with and without GPU acceleration, delivering performance and scalability better than or competitive with existing tools on different platforms.
The Value of Completing Crowdfunding Projects

Crowdfunding systems are social media websites that allow people to donate small amounts of money that add up to fund valuable larger projects. These websites are structured around projects: finite campaigns with well-defined goals, end dates, and completion criteria. We use a dataset from an existing crowdfunding website --- the school charity Donors Choose --- to understand the value of completing projects. We find that completing a project is an important act that leads to larger donations (over twice as large), greater likelihood of returning to donate again, and few projects that expire close but not complete. A conservative estimate suggests that this completion bias led to over $15 million in increased donations to Donors Choose, representing approximately 16\% of the total donations for the period under study. This bias suggests that structuring many types of collaborative work as a series of projects might increase contribution significantly.
Active Contours without Edges for Vector-Valued Images

In this paper, we propose an active contour algorithm for object detection in vector-valued images (such as RGB or multispectral). The model is an extension of the scalar Chan? Vese algorithm to the vector-valued case 1]. The model minimizes a Mumford? Shah functional over the length of the contour, plus the sum of the fitting error over each component of the vector-valued image. Like the Chan? Vese model, our vector-valued model can detect edges both with or without gradient. We show examples where our model detects vector-valued objects which are undetectable in any scalar representation. For instance, objects with different missing parts in different channels are completely detected (such as occlusion). Also, in color images, objects which are invisible in each channel or in intensity can be detected by our algorithm. Finally, the model is robust with respect to noise, requiring no a priori denoising step.
Chemical barriers to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection: retrovirucidal activity of UC781, a thiocarboxanilide nonnucleoside inhibitor of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase

UC781, a thiocarboxanilide nonnucleoside inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT), inhibited RT DNA polymerase activity in vitro with marked potency. Significant inhibition was noted at a 1:1 molar ratio of UC871 to RT, characteristic of a tight-binding inhibitor. Infectivity of the HIV-1(IIIB) laboratory strain was eliminated in a concentration-dependent manner following short exposure of isolated virion particles to UC781. Neither nevirapine nor certain other carboxanilide nonnucleoside inhibitors were effective in this manner. Endogenous reverse transcription in UC781-treated virus particles was markedly reduced. Treatment of chronically HIV-1-infected H9 cells with UC781 did not alter virus production, but the infectivity of the virus produced by the cells during drug exposure was markedly reduced. Moreover, the infectivity of nascent virus produced by the UC781-treated H9 cells after removal of exogenous drug was dramatically attenuated. Similarly, pretreatment of peripheral blood lymphocytes isolated from HIV-infected patients abolished the infectivity of virus produced by these cells after removal of exogenous drug, as measured by coculture experiments with uninfected cord blood mononuclear cells, indicating the utility of UC781 against a variety of clinical HIV samples. Importantly, preincubation of uninfected MT2 cells with UC781 rendered these cells refractory to subsequent HIV infection in the absence of extracellular drug, an effect that persisted for several days following removal of exogenous drug. These unique properties of UC781 indicate that this nonnucleoside inhibitor may have considerable promise for use in retrovirucidal formulations to minimize the spread of HIV from infected to noninfected individuals.
Helping patients make informed choices: a randomized trial of a decision aid for adjuvant chemotherapy in lymph node-negative breast cancer.

BACKGROUND In recent years, patients have indicated a desire for more information about their disease and to be involved in making decisions about their care. We developed an aid called the "Decision Board" to help clinicians inform patients with lymph node-negative breast cancer of the risks and benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy. We determined whether adding the Decision Board to the medical consultation improved patient knowledge and satisfaction compared with the medical consultation alone. METHODS Between October 1995 and March 2000, 176 women with lymph node-negative breast cancer who were candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy were randomly assigned to receive the Decision Board plus the medical consultation (83 patients) or the medical consultation alone (93 patients). One week after the consultation, patients completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge about breast cancer and chemotherapy. Satisfaction with decision making was assessed 1 week and 3, 6, and 12 months after randomization, and differences between groups were analyzed by a repeated measures analysis of variance. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Patients in the Decision Board arm were better informed about breast cancer and adjuvant chemotherapy than patients in the control arm (mean knowledge score = 80.2 [on a scale of 0-100], 95% confidence interval [CI] = 77.1 to 83.3, and 71.7, 95% CI = 69.0 to 74.4, respectively; P<.001). Over the entire study period, satisfaction with decision making was higher for patients in the Decision Board arm than for patients in the control arm (P =.032). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the number of patients who chose adjuvant chemotherapy (77% and 70% for patients in the Decision Board arm and those in the control arm, respectively; P =.303). CONCLUSION When making decisions regarding adjuvant chemotherapy, patients with early breast cancer who had been exposed to the Decision Board had better knowledge of the disease and treatment options and greater satisfaction with their decision making than those who received the standard consultation.
KIAA1199 interacts with glycogen phosphorylase kinase β-subunit (PHKB) to promote glycogen breakdown and cancer cell survival

The KIAA1199 gene was first discovered to be associated with non-syndromic hearing loss. Recently, several reports have shown that the up-regulation of KIAA1199 is associated with cancer cell migration or invasion and a poor prognosis. These findings indicate that KIAA1199 may be a novel target for cancer therapy. Therefore, we explored in detail the function of KIAA1199 in cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the interaction of KIAA1199 protein with intracellular proteins in cancer cells. To this end, we expressed KIAA1199-MBP fusion protein and performed a pull-down assay. In addition, KIAA1199-overexpressing cancer cell lines were constructed using a retroviral vector and were used for further experiments. A pull-down analysis showed that the glycogen phosphorylase kinase β-subunit (PHKB) interacted with the C-terminal region of KIAA1199 protein. Furthermore, we observed the interaction of KIAA1199 with glycogen phosphorylase brain form (PYGB) under serum-free conditions. The interaction promoted glycogen breakdown and cancer cell survival. Our findings indicate that KIAA1199 plays an important role in glycogen breakdown and cancer cell survival and that it may represent a novel target for cancer therapy.
Chaos-based random number generators-part I: analysis [cryptography]

This paper and its companion (Part II) are devoted to the analysis of the application of a chaotic piecewise-linear one-dimensional (PL1D) map as random number generator (RNG). Piecewise linearity of the map enables us to mathematically find parameter values for which a generating partition is Markov and the RNG behaves as a Markov information source, and then to mathematically analyze the information generation process and the RNG. In the companion paper we discuss practical aspects of our chaos-based RNGs.
Science Arts & Métiers (SAM)

— The aim of the study was to investigate how kinematic and kinetic adjustments between level and slope locomotion of persons with transtibial amputation are related to their individual muscular and functional capacities. A quantified gait analysis was conducted on flat and slope surfaces for seven patients with transtibial amputation and a control group of eight subjects to obtain biomechanical parameters. In addi-tion, maximal isometric muscular strength (knee and hip extensors) and functional scores were measured. The results of this study showed that most of the persons with transtibial amputation could adapt to ramp ascent either by increasing ankle, knee, and hip flexion angles of the residual limb and/or by recruiting their hip extensors to guarantee enough hip extension power during early stance. Besides, 6-minute walk test score was shown to be a good predictor of adaptation capacities to slope ascent. In ramp descent, the increase of knee flexion moment was correlated with knee extensor strength and residual-limb length. However, no correlation was observed with functional parameters. Results show that the walking strategy adopted by persons with transtibial amputation to negotiate ramp locomotion mainly depends on their muscular capacities. Therefore, muscular strengthening should be a pri-ority during rehabilitation.
Identification of human remains from the Second World War mass graves uncovered in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Aim To present the results obtained in the identification of human remains from World War II found in two mass graves in Ljubuški, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Methods Samples from 10 skeletal remains were collected. Teeth and femoral fragments were collected from 9 skeletons and only a femoral fragment from 1 skeleton. DNA was isolated from bone and teeth samples using an optimized phenol/chloroform DNA extraction procedure. All samples required a pre-extraction decalcification with EDTA and additional post-extraction DNA purification using filter columns. Additionally, DNA from 12 reference samples (buccal swabs from potential living relatives) was extracted using the Qiagen DNA extraction method. QuantifilerTM Human DNA Quantification Kit was used for DNA quantification. PowerPlex ESI kit was used to simultaneously amplify 15 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci, and PowerPlex Y23 was used to amplify 23 Y chromosomal STR loci. Matching probabilities were estimated using a standard statistical approach. Results A total of 10 samples were processed, 9 teeth and 1 femoral fragment. Nine of 10 samples were profiled using autosomal STR loci, which resulted in useful DNA profiles for 9 skeletal remains. A comparison of established victims' profiles against a reference sample database yielded 6 positive identifications. Conclusion DNA analysis may efficiently contribute to the identification of remains even seven decades after the end of the World War II. The significant percentage of positively identified remains (60%), even when the number of the examined possible living relatives was relatively small (only 12), proved the importance of cooperation with the members of the local community, who helped to identify the closest missing persons’ relatives and collect referent samples from them.
Author's Personal Copy Displacement Risk and Asset Returns

We study asset-pricing implications of innovation in a general-equilibrium overlappinggenerations economy. Innovation increases the competitive pressure on existing firms and workers, reducing the profits of existing firms and eroding the human capital of older workers. Due to the lack of inter-generational risk sharing, innovation creates a systematic risk factor, which we call ‘‘displacement risk. ’’ This risk helps explain several empirical patterns, including the existence of the growth-value factor in returns, the value premium, and the high equity premium. We assess the magnitude of displacement risk using estimates of inter-cohort consumption differences across households and find support for the model. & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Microfluidic mixing using chaotic signals from the Chen-Lee system

A design and analysis of an application to enhance microfluidic mixing through the use of electrodes which are controlled by the chaotic Chen-Lee system and its fractional-order system are presented in this project. At first, a microfluidic mixer with two pairs of electrodes on side walls is built. Varying electric fields are generated using the chaotic signals produced from the Chen-Lee system, resulting in enhancement of micro-scale stirring through stretch-and-fold mechanism. After that, the performance is evaluated by varying the main frequency band of the chaotic signals. Furthermore, the parametric analysis and the use of signal from the fractional-order Chen-Lee system are to be investigated in the mixing application.
Predictive power of task orientation, general self-efficacy and self-determined motivation on fun and boredom

El objetivo de este estudio fue comprobar el poder de prediccion de las orientaciones disposicionales, la autoeficacia general y la motivacion autodeterminada sobre la diversion y el aburrimiento en clases de educacion fisica, con una muestra compuesta por 459 adolescentes de entre 13 y 18 anos con una media de edad de 15 anos (DS = 0.88). Los adolescentes contestaron a cuatro escalas tipo Likert: Cuestionario de Percepcion de Exito, Escala de Autoeficacia General, Escala de Motivacion en el Deporte y Cuestionario de Satisfaccion Intrinseca en el Deporte. Los resultados revelan que el modelo de regresion estructural mostro que la orientacion hacia la tarea y la autoeficacia general predecian positivamente la motivacion autodeterminada, y esta a su vez, predecia positivamente una mayor diversion y un menor aburrimiento en las clases de educacion fisica. El fomento de un entorno educativo orientado a la tarea, donde los discentes perciban sus progresos y les hagan sentir mas competentes, les permitiran superar las tareas motivados intrinsecamente, y por tanto, se divertiran mas. Se discuten las implicaciones pedagogicas para un menor aburrimiento.
Mediation Role of Destination Image in Connection With Perceived Value and Costumer Value Toward Satisfaction Tourists (Case Study of Tourism in Sanur Area)

Bali has been imaged as a destination which describes the cultural diversity and its peaceful society. The image was one of the realities of Bali as the island of paradise that inspired many parties as a promising destination for peace and tranquility. It was characterized by unique attribute in each area tourist destinations at Sanur. It can create a Destination Image that was truly authentic in order to achieve the satisfaction of creating value expected by the tourists who visit, so as to form a perceived value rating and increase the value of customers through a destination image, This study aims to determine the perceptual maps of each region as a tourist destination, through the fulfillment of customer satisfaction was driven the value and satisfaction rating was influenced by the overall experience through destination image at Sanur. The populations in this study are foreign tourists who are visiting at Sanur. The study was to use a sample of 30 foreign tourists as respondents. The sampling method was held by purposive sampling method. The analysis technique that used in the study was Smart PLS (Partial Least Square), the findings of this study has a results of the evaluation of the structural model proved the value of Destination Image (0.582) and Satisfaction (0.437). Costumer Value has less significant toward to destination image as a mediation variable toward the satisfaction. Implication of this study has provided some insight of model satisfaction by the destination image as a mediation role.
Using Noninvasive Wearable Computers to Recognize Human Emotions from Physiological Signals

We discuss the strong relationship between affect and cognition and the importance of emotions in multimodal human computer interaction (HCI) and user modeling. We introduce the overall paradigm for our multimodal system that aims at recognizing its users' emotions and at responding to them accordingly depending upon the current context or application. We then describe the design of the emotion elicitation experiment we conducted by collecting, via wearable computers, physiological signals from the autonomic nervous system (galvanic skin response, heart rate, temperature) and mapping them to certain emotions (sadness, anger, fear, surprise, frustration, and amusement). We show the results of three different supervised learning algorithms that categorize these collected signals in terms of emotions, and generalize their learning to recognize emotions from new collections of signals. We finally discuss possible broader impact and potential applications of emotion recognition for multimodal intelligent systems.