Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genomic evidence of rapid , global-scale gene flow in a Sulfolobus species

Local populations of Sulfolobus islandicus diverge genetically with geographical separation, and this has been attributed to restricted transfer of propagules imposed by the unfavorable spatial distribution of acidic geothermal habitat. We tested the generality of genetic divergence with distance in Sulfolobus species by analyzing genomes of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius drawn from three populations separated by more than 8000 km. In sharp contrast to S. islandicus, the geographically diverse S. acidocaldarius genomes proved to be nearly identical. We could not link the difference in genome conservation between the two species to a corresponding difference in genome stability or ecological factors affecting propagule dispersal. The results provide the first evidence that genetic isolation of local populations does not result primarily from properties intrinsic to Sulfolobus and the severe discontinuity of its geothermal habitat, but varies with species, and thus may reflect biotic interactions that act after propagule dispersal. The ISME Journal (2012) 6, 1613–1616; doi:10.1038/ismej.2012. 20; published online 15 March 2012 Subject Category: microbial population and community ecology
Effect of corticosteroids on wound healing after endoscopic sinus surgery.

BACKGROUND Approximately 20% patients with chronic rhinosinusitis undergoing Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) experience impaired wound healing, leading to recurrences of sinusitis and polyps. METHODS We investigated the efficacy of oral+ local steroids in wound healing, following FESS in subjects with a chronic rhinosinusitis with/without nasal polyps. Ninety-nine subjects were randomised to receive 6 months' treatment with mometasone furoate nasal spray (MFNS) 200 microg bid or placebo in double-blind manner approximately 2 weeks after FESS. Postoperative mean total score for several endoscopic parameters scores assessed at 6 months was calculated as the primary efficacy end-point. An endoscopic combination score (for inflammation, oedema, and polyps), a total symptoms score, and percent subjects requiring rescue medication, were assessed as secondary end-points. RESULTS MFNS led to greater, although not significant, reductions in total endoscopic scores in all subjects, compared with placebo. The combination scores, however, indicated significantly improved healing with MFNS than with placebo for all subjects (median scores: 0.0 vs 2.0, p = 0.02), and particularly for subjects with nasal polyps (median scores: 2.0 vs 4.0, p = 0.03). The total symptom scores and percent subjects requiring rescue medication were similar in the two groups. MFNS was well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that treatment with MFNS following sinus surgery may improve wound healing, particularly in subjects with nasal polyps.
Prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection in children, a population-based cross-sectional study in west iran.

OBJECTIVE In developing countries, Helicobacter pylori infection is mainly acquired during childhood and may be a predisposing factor for peptic ulcer or gastric cancer later in life. Noninvasive diagnostic tools are particularly useful in children for screening tests and epidemiological studies. We aimed to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infection among Kurdish children in Sanandaj, West Iran. METHODS We used a Helicobacter Pylori Stool Antigen (HpSA) test to detect H. pylori infection. A questionnaire was used to collect data about age, sex, duration of breastfeeding, and family size. A total of 458 children aged 4 months to 15 years were enrolled in this study. FINDINGS The mean age of enrolled children was 5.6±5.4 years. Stool samples were positive for H. pylori in 294 (64.2%) children. The prevalence of H. pylori infection increased with age (P<0.001). We found a significant increase in the infection rate as the family size grew (P=0.005). There was no correlation between a positive H. pylori status and gender (P=0.6) or the duration of breastfeeding (P=0.8). CONCLUSION It seems that the prevalence of H. pylori infection is very high in children in Sanandaj. It begins at early infancy (before 4th month of age) and cumulatively increases with age.
Information Hiding: A New Approach in Text Steganography

Sending encrypted messages frequently will draw the attention of third parties, i.e. crackers and hackers, perhaps causing attempts to break and reveal the original messages. In a digital world, steganography is introduced to hide the existence of the communication by concealing a secret message inside another unsuspicious message. Steganography is often being used together with cryptography and offers an acceptable amount of privacy and security over the communication channel. This paper presents an overview of text steganography and a brief history of steganography along with various existing text-based steganography techniques. Highlighted are some of the problems inherent in text steganography as well as issues with existing solutions. A new approach is proposed in information hiding using inter-word spacing and inter-paragraph spacing as a hybrid method. Our method offers dynamic generated stego-text with six options of maximum capacity according to the length of the secret message. This paper also analyzed the significant drawbacks of each existing method and how our new approach could be recommended as a solution.
Effects of a brief tailored intervention on the process and predictors of lifestyle behaviour change in patients with type 2 diabetes

The process and predictors of lifestyle behaviour change for dietary and physical activity behaviours in response to a brief, tailored, lifestyle self-management intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes was examined in a randomized controlled trial (n = 100). Participants (aged 40 - 70 years) completed stage of change, barriers to change and self-efficacy for change measures at three time points: baseline, 3 months and 1 year. Participants were allocated to either an intervention group who received the brief tailored intervention including follow-up telephone calls, or a usual care control group. Results indicate that participants in the intervention group but not the control group perceived themselves to have changed from contemplation to action for dietary fat reduction and lifestyle physical activity levels. This was associated with a trend towards decreased barriers to change but not with increased self-efficacy. No single predictor variable was consistently associated with outcome for intervention participants. These results provide further evidence of the effectiveness of tailored interventions for lifestyle change. An increased understanding of the change process over time for multiple behaviours will allow behavioural and preventive medicine to have a more significant impact when targeting behaviour change in individuals with multiple risk behaviours such as high fat diets and sedentary lifestyles.
Toward Haptic Cinematography: Enhancing Movie Experience with Haptic Effects based on Cinematographic Camera Motions

Haptics, the technology which brings tactile or force-feedback to users, has a great potential for enhancing movies and could lead to new immersive experiences. In this paper we introduce \textit{Haptic Cinematography} which presents haptics as a new component of the filmmaker's toolkit. We propose a taxonomy of haptic effects and we introduce novel effects coupled with classical cinematographic motions to enhance video viewing experience. More precisely we propose two models to render haptic effects based on camera motions: the first model makes the audience feel the motion of the camera and the second provides haptic metaphors related to the semantics of the camera effect. Results from a user study suggest that these new effects improve the quality of experience. Filmmakers may use this new way of creating haptic effects to propose new immersive audiovisual experiences.
Assessing Information Needs

Based on a tested model for community analysis, this book offers a guide to the management of client-centered transformative information services that can be applied in any type of library or information agency. Knowing a community enables library and information professionals to prioritize the community's information needs and design appropriate services for them. Assessing Information Needs: Managing Transformative Library Services was written to provide the rationale for community analysis, a model for gathering community data, and a process for analyzing data and applying it to the management of an information agency. The book explains why information professionals should customize services, as well as the "how to" of collecting data. A model for gathering community information is described, applied, and demonstrated through a case study. The book then shows how such information is interpreted and used to plan information services that are transformative for individuals and groups in the case-study community, providing lessons that readers can use with their own institutions. Rooted in a philosophy of customer service, the method presented here is perfect for public, school, academic, and special libraries or other types of information agencies.
A Real-Time Wireless Brain–Computer Interface System for Drowsiness Detection

A real-time wireless electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) system for drowsiness detection has been proposed. Drowsy driving has been implicated as a causal factor in many accidents. Therefore, real-time drowsiness monitoring can prevent traffic accidents effectively. However, current BCI systems are usually large and have to transmit an EEG signal to a back-end personal computer to process the EEG signal. In this study, a novel BCI system was developed to monitor the human cognitive state and provide biofeedback to the driver when drowsy state occurs. The proposed system consists of a wireless physiological signal-acquisition module and an embedded signal-processing module. Here, the physiological signal-acquisition module and embedded signal-processing module were designed for long-term EEG monitoring and real-time drowsiness detection, respectively. The advantages of low owner consumption and small volume of the proposed system are suitable for car applications. Moreover, a real-time drowsiness detection algorithm was also developed and implemented in this system. The experiment results demonstrated the feasibility of our proposed BCI system in a practical driving application.
The Effect of Types of Banner Ad, Web Localization, and Customer Involvement on Internet Users' Attitudes

In this study, three characteristics of Web sites were varied: types of banner ad, Web localization, and involvement in purchasing a product. The dependent variable was attitude toward the site. In laboratory experiments conducted in Thailand and Taiwan, participants browsed versions of a Web site containing different types of banner ads and products. As a within-participants factor, each participant browsed both a standardized English-language Web site and a localized Web site. Results showed that animated (rather than static) banner ads, localized versions (rather than a standardized version) of Web sites, and high (rather than low) product involvement led to favorable attitudes toward the site.
Engineering Mathematics at the University of Melbourne

At the start of this decade, there were just two entry points into First Year Mathematics for students from all faculties within the University. Five years later, there was a greater spread in the preparedness of students entering the University's Mathematics courses. Because mathematics is a subject which relies heavily on accumulated techniques, this diversity takes two distinct forms : manipulative skills and topic exposure. The Mathematics Department has found that a pre-testing program enables each student to be placed in a subject which allows him/her to progress at a rate which is appropriate to that student's background. This approach has proved to be a viable means of catering for the diversity which exists among first year students, and enables lectures and teaching materials to be pitched at levels which are accessible to each student.
Towards convergence of methods for speech and sign segmentation

Signed languages, like spoken languages, combine sequences of arbitrary, finite, distinctive units in a continuous stream of movement (Stokoe 1960). Also like speech, determining where a particular sign begins and where it ends in a signing stream is not an easy task. Some researchers have established as the beginning of a sign the moment the hand is placed at the location where a certain sign is going to be initially or entirely produced and as its end the moment when the hand starts moving back to the rest position or to the location of the following sign (Crasborn & Zwitserlood 2008, Johnston 2009, Johnson & Liddell 2011). By doing so, these researchers leave transitional movements out of the limits of a sign. An alternative view claims that transitions should be partially or entirely regarded as part of a sign. Supporters base this view on the observations that (1) some articulatory features of a sign are visible even before or still after a sign is produced and (2) perceivers are able to guess signs solely drawing on information conveyed during transitions (Kita et al 2006, Bressem 2011, Jantunen 2010, 2013, 2015). The present study uses video data of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras; Xavier 2014) to critically evaluate the criteria traditionally used to delimit lexical items in the sign stream. Results indicate that methods used by speech researchers to delimit units in the speech stream are likely to be a good fit for delimiting units in the sign stream as well. Implications for speech and signed motor control will be discussed.
Contour Detection-Based Discovery of Mid-Level Discriminative Patches for Scene Classification

Feature extraction and representation is a key step in scene classification. In this paper, a contour detection-based mid-level features learning method is proposed for scene classification. First, a sketch tokens-based contour detection scheme is proposed to initialize seed blocks for learning mid-level patches and the patches with more contour pixels are selected as seed blocks. The procedure is demonstrated to be helpful for scene classification. Next, the seed blocks are employed to train an exemplar SVM to discover other similar occurrences and an entropy-rank criterion is utilized to mine the discriminative patches. Finally, scene categories are identified by matching the discriminative patches and testing images. Extensive experiments on the MIT Indoor-67 dataset, the 15-scene dataset and the UIUC-sports dataset show that the proposed approach yields better performance than other state-of-the-art counterparts.
The Value of Private Patient Information in the Physician-Patient Relationship: A Game-Theoretic Account

This paper presents a game-theoretical model of the physician-patient relationship. There is a conflict of interests between physician and patient, in that the physician prefers the patient to always obtain a particular treatment, even if the patient would not consider this treatment in his interest. The patient obtains imperfect cues of whether or not he needs the treatment. The effect of an increase in the quality of the patient's private information is studied, in the form of an improvement in the quality of his cues. It is shown that when the patient's information improves in this sense, he may either become better off or worse off. The precise circumstances under which either result is obtained are derived.
Enhancing Positioning Accuracy in Urban Terrain by Fusing Data from a GPS Receiver, Inertial Sensors, Stereo-Camera and Digital Maps for Pedestrian Navigation

The paper presents an algorithm for estimating a pedestrian location in an urban environment. The algorithm is based on the particle filter and uses different data sources: a GPS receiver, inertial sensors, probability maps and a stereo camera. Inertial sensors are used to estimate a relative displacement of a pedestrian. A gyroscope estimates a change in the heading direction. An accelerometer is used to count a pedestrian's steps and their lengths. The so-called probability maps help to limit GPS inaccuracy by imposing constraints on pedestrian kinematics, e.g., it is assumed that a pedestrian cannot cross buildings, fences etc. This limits position inaccuracy to ca. 10 m. Incorporation of depth estimates derived from a stereo camera that are compared to the 3D model of an environment has enabled further reduction of positioning errors. As a result, for 90% of the time, the algorithm is able to estimate a pedestrian location with an error smaller than 2 m, compared to an error of 6.5 m for a navigation based solely on GPS.
Title: Improving LIS education in teaching librarians to teach

Introduction The recent release of the 2013 Ithaka S+R Library Survey tells us that library deans and directors across the country are concerned about and value their students’ research needs and they believe in the role that librarians play in the educational mission of the academy. In fact, the report surmises that, “Academic libraries’ strong alignment around teaching and undergraduate education may have far-reaching implications for how they prioritize their other functions. ”1 In areas of library instruction, instructional design, and information literacy services, library deans and directors predict that in the next five years they will be looking to augment their current organizational structures to hire even more librarians in these areas. However, the library literature in the past decade has been warning that there is a severe mismatch between the ways our library schools prepare graduate students for the classroom and that librarians don’t receive much, if any, on-the-ground training for learning how to teach. While professional development opportunities have popped up around the country in many types of venues (e.g., ACRL Immersion, invited workshop speakers, webinars, etc.) this effort simply isn’t broad or deep enough to adequately train librarians for the reality of classroom needs. Additionally, becoming wellversed in and practicing the elements of educational theory, curricular learning goals, and student learning assessment could significantly aid in advocating for and shaping institutional long-term goals of guiding students along the long road of information literacy. It is the time dedicated to connecting the theory with practice (praxis! ) that is essential in building “teacher identity” as noted by Walter when he states, “Lack of a consistent teacher identity among academic librarians may hinder their effectiveness in meeting these expanding instructional responsibilities in a changing organizational environment. ”2 In short, there seems to be a disconnect in what library schools teach and
Rollback reduction techniques through load balancing in optimistic parallel discrete event simulation

Discrete event simulation is an important tool for modeling and analysis. Some of the simulation applications such as telecommunication network performance, VLSI logic circuits design, battlefield simulation, require enormous amount of computing resources. One way to satisfy this demand for computing power is to decompose the simulation system into several logical processes (lp) and run them concurrently. In any parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) system, the events are ordered according to their time of occurrence. In order for the simulation to be correct, this ordering has to be preserved. There are three approaches to maintain this ordering. In a conservative system, no lp executes an event unless it is certain that all events with earlier time-stamps have been executed. Such systems are prone to deadlock. In an optimistic system on the other hand, simulation progresses disregarding this ordering and saves the system states regularly. Whenever a causality violation is detected, the system rolls back to a state saved earlier and restarts processing after correcting the error. There is another approach in which all the lps participate in the computation of a safe time-window and all events with time-stamps within this window are processed concurrently. In optimistic simulation systems, there is a global virtual time (GVT), which is the minimum of the time-stamps of all the events existing in the system. The system can not rollback to a state prior to GVT and hence all such states can be discarded. GVT is used for memory management, load balancing, termination detection and committing of events. However, GVT computation introduces additional overhead. In optimistic systems, large number of rollbacks can degrade the system performance considerably. We have studied the effect of load balancing in reducing the number of rollbacks in such systems. We have designed three load balancing algorithms and implemented two of them on a network of workstations. The other algorithm has been analyzed probabilistically. The reason for choosing network of workstations is their low cost and the availability of efficient message passing softwares like PVM and MPI. All of these load balancing algorithms piggyback on the existing GVT computation algorithms and try to balance the speed of simulation in different lps. We have also designed an optimal GVT computation algorithm for the hypercubes and studied its performance with respect to the other GVT computation algorithms by simulating a hypercube in our network cluster. We use the topological properties of a star network in order to design an algorithm for computing a safe time-window for parallel discrete event simulation. We have analyzed and simulated the behavior of an open queuing network resembling such an architecture. Our algorithm is also extended for hierarchical stars and for recursive window computation.