Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical Validation of Test-Driven Pair Programming in Game Development

This paper investigates the effects of some extreme programming practices in game development by conducting a case study with 12 students who were assigned to implement a simple game application either as pairs or as individuals. The pairs used some XP practices, such as pair programming, test-driven and refactoring, while the individuals applied the traditional waterfall-like approach. The results of the case study showed that paired students completed their tasks faster and with higher quality than individuals. The programs written by pairs pass more test cases than those developed by individuals. Paired programmers also wrote cleaner code with higher cohesion by creating more reasonable number of methods. Therefore, some XP practices, such as pair programming, test-driven and refactoring could be used in game development
High Yield Production of a Soluble Human Interleukin-3 Variant from E. coli with Wild-Type Bioactivity and Improved Radiolabeling Properties

Human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) is a polypeptide growth factor that regulates the proliferation, differentiation, survival and function of hematopoietic progenitors and many mature blood cell lineages. Although recombinant hIL-3 is a widely used laboratory reagent in hematology, standard methods for its preparation, including those employed by commercial suppliers, remain arduous owing to a reliance on refolding insoluble protein expressed in E. coli. In addition, wild-type hIL-3 is a poor substrate for radio-iodination, which has been a long-standing hindrance to its use in receptor binding assays. To overcome these problems, we developed a method for expression of hIL-3 in E. coli as a soluble protein, with typical yields of >3mg of purified hIL-3 per litre of shaking microbial culture. Additionally, we introduced a non-native tyrosine residue into our hIL-3 analog, which allowed radio-iodination to high specific activities for receptor binding studies whilst not compromising bioactivity. The method presented herein provides a cost-effective and convenient route to milligram quantities of a hIL-3 analog with wild-type bioactivity that, unlike wild-type hIL‑3, can be efficiently radio-iodinated for receptor binding studies.
On the optimality of universal classifiers for finite-length individual test sequences

We consider pairs of finite-length individual sequences that are realizations of unknown, finite alphabet, stationary sources in a clas M of sources with vanishing memory (e.g. stationary Markov sources). The task of a universal classifier is to decide whether the two sequences are emerging from the same source or are emerging from two distinct sources in M, and it has to carry this task without any prior knowledge of the two underlying probability measures. Given a fidelity function and a fidelity criterion, the probability of classification error for a given universal classifier is defined. Two universal classifiers are defined for pairs of $N$ -sequence: A "classical" fixed-length (FL) universal classifier and an alternative variable-length (VL) universal classifier. Following Wyner and Ziv (1996) it is demonstrated that if the length of the individual sequences N is smaller than a cut-off value that is determined by the properties of the class M, any universal classifier will fail with high probability . It is demonstrated that for values of N larger than the cut-off rate, the classification error relative to either one of the two classifiers tends to zero as the length of the sequences tends to infinity. However, the probability of classification error that is associated with the variable-length universal classifier is uniformly smaller (or equal) to the one that is associated with the "classical" fixed-length universal classifier, for any finite length.
Discovering Frequent Patterns From Web Log based Unordered Unrooted Tree

— Mining frequent trees is very useful in domains like bioinformatics, web mining, mining semi-structured data, etc. The proposed frequent restrictedly embedded sub tree miner (FRESTM), is an efficient algorithm for mining frequent, unordered, embedded sub-trees in a database of labeled trees. The key contributions of our work are as follows: The algorithm enumerates all embedded, unordered trees. A new equivalence class extension scheme generates all candidate trees. The notion of scope-list joins is extended to compute the frequency of unordered trees. The performance evaluation on several synthetic and real world data shows that FRESTM is an efficient algorithm, which has performance comparable to TreeMiner, that mines only ordered trees.
The Moderating Role of Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Protective Effects of Health Behaviors among Clients Using Mental Health Services

Abstract: Background College-student clients using mental health services contend with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, and their vulnerability to infectious respiratory diseases and severe clinical outcomes rises. To mitigate severe outcomes, health behaviors serve as essential protective tools to reduce the risk of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Considering the escalating prevalence of anxiety and depression among college-student clients, little is known about how anxiety and depressive symptoms could potentially attenuate the protective effects of COVID-19 health behaviors (i.e., masking, social distancing, and hygiene practice). This study aims to examine the interactive effects of anxiety/depression and health behaviors in predicting COVID-19 infection. Methods: We analyzed data from the 2020–2021 Healthy Mind Study including a random sample of 9884 college-student clients in mental health services across 140 higher education institutions in the United States. We performed multivariable logistic regression to assess whether and to what extent the associations between COVID-19 health behaviors and infection depended on severity of anxiety or depressive symptoms. Results: Anxiety symptom severity negatively moderated the protective effects of social distancing against infection after adjusting for demographic characteristics and pre-existing chronic health conditions. Depressive symptom severity negatively moderated the protective effects of masking, social distancing, or hygiene practices against infection. Conclusion: The associations between certain COVID-19 health behaviors and infection were conditional on anxiety and depressive symptom severity. Findings suggest a potential public health benefit of mental health clinicians’ efforts in assessing and treating clients’ anxiety and depressive symptoms, namely reducing their vulnerability to COVID-19 infection and perhaps other infectious respiratory diseases.
Maximum entropy modelling to identify optimal locations for an IMTA system comprising Sparus aurata, Mytilus galloprovincialis and Ulva rigida on Europe’s Atlantic coastline

Meeting the resource demand for an increasing human population has led to the emergence of the aquaculture industry as the fastest growing sector for food production worldwide. Modern finfish aquaculture has raised environmental concerns and, to address this, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) has gained popularity as a means to minimise environmental impacts. This is done by culturing extractive species alongside fed species to utilise excess nutrients and enhance their own growth. The current study, based within the Atlantic Area of Europe, identified suitable habitats for the three species Sparus aurata, Mytilus galloprovincialis and Ulva rigida, for use in a new IMTA system. Models were created using MaxEnt software and input into GIS software (ArcMap 10.8.1) for analysis. For all species, the AUC results in the model were >0.9, with values of 0.931 (S. aurata), 0.928 (M. galloprovincialis) and 0.939 (U. rigida), demonstrating significant predictive power. Jackknife testing of the model for each species identified the mean sea surface temperature (°C) and Chlorophyll A (mg m–3) concentration as the two most important variables. The model showed that areas of >50% suitability could be found throughout the study area, although the most suitable sites were in coastal areas in more southern latitudes. To identify the feasibility of establishing an IMTA system in different areas, the shipping density, MPA status and the locations of harbours were added to the maps for further consideration. Using this study, and the species-specific information identified by the model, the aquaculture industry will be better equipped to identify potential IMTA sites and integrate these systems into the EU market for sustainable production.
03. The first record of Amolops himalayanus (Anura: Ranidae) from Bhutan.

During a series of surveys carried out in areas of broadleaf forest in the eastern Himalayas in early spring, Amolops himalayanus was identified for the first time in Bhutan. Information is provided on the ecology, habitat, reproduction, and geographical distribution of the species together with notes on the water chemistry of the collection site. A brief synopsis is given of the morphological differences between A. himalayanus and A. formosus, with which latter species A. himalayanus is often confused. A. himalayanus has been reported from seven localities in northern India and Nepal but, of these, only the original description of the taxon from Darjeeling was based on incontrovertible data. RESEARCH ARTICLE The Herpetological Bulletin 136, 2016: 13-18
Surface and subsurface water contributions to streamflow from a mesoscale watershed in complex mountain terrain

An understanding of surface and subsurface water contributions to streamflow is essential for accurate predictions of water supply from mountain watersheds that often serve as water towers for downstream communities. As such, this study used the end‐member mixing analysis technique to investigate source water contributions and hydrologic flow paths of the 264 km2 Boulder Creek Watershed, which drains the Colorado Front Range, USA. Four conservative hydrochemical tracers were used to describe this watershed as a 3 end‐member system, and tracer concentration reconstruction suggested that the application of end‐member mixing analysis was robust. On average from 2009 to 2011, snowmelt and rainwater from the subalpine zone and groundwater sampled from the upper montane zone contributed 54%, 22%, and 24% of the annual streamflow, respectively. These values demonstrate increased rainwater and decreased snow water contributions to streamflow relative to area‐weighted mean values derived from previous work at the headwater scale. Young water (2.3 ± 0.8 months) fractions of streamflow decreased from 18–22% in the alpine catchment to 8–10% in the lower elevation catchments and the watershed outlet with implications for subsurface storage and hydrological connectivity. These results contribute to a process‐based understanding of the seasonal source water composition of a mesoscale watershed that can be used to extrapolate headwater streamflow generation predictions to larger spatial scales.
Bacterial Antigen Expression Is an Important Component in Inducing an Immune Response to Orally Administered Salmonella-Delivered DNA Vaccines

Background The use of Salmonella to deliver heterologous antigens from DNA vaccines is a well-accepted extension of the success of oral Salmonella vaccines in animal models. Attenuated S. typhimurium and S. typhi strains are safe and efficacious, and their use to deliver DNA vaccines combines the advantages of both vaccine approaches, while complementing the limitations of each technology. An important aspect of the basic biology of the Salmonella/DNA vaccine platform is the relative contributions of prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression in production of the vaccine antigen. Gene expression in DNA vaccines is commonly under the control of the eukaryotic cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. The aim of this study was to identify and disable putative bacterial promoters within the CMV promoter and evaluate the immunogenicity of the resulting DNA vaccine delivered orally by S. typhimurium. Methodology/Principal Findings The results reported here clearly demonstrate the presence of bacterial promoters within the CMV promoter. These promoters have homology to the bacterial consensus sequence and functional activity. To disable prokaryotic expression from the CMV promoter a series of genetic manipulations were performed to remove the two major bacterial promoters and add a bacteria transcription terminator downstream of the CMV promoter. S. typhimurium was used to immunise BALB/c mice orally with a DNA vaccine encoding the C-fragment of tetanus toxin (TT) under control of the original or the modified CMV promoter. Although both promoters functioned equally well in eukaryotic cells, as indicated by equivalent immune responses following intramuscular delivery, only the original CMV promoter was able to induce an anti-TT specific response following oral delivery by S. typhimurium. Conclusions These findings suggest that prokaryotic expression of the antigen and co-delivery of this protein by Salmonella are at least partially responsible for the successful oral delivery of C-fragment DNA vaccines containing the CMV promoter by S. typhimurium.
Clustering at High Redshift: Precise Constraints from a Deep, Wide-Area Survey

We present constraints on the evolution of large-scale structure from a catalog of 710,000 galaxies with IAB ≤ 24 derived from a KPNO 4 m CCD imaging survey of a contiguous 4° × 4° region. The advantage of using large contiguous surveys for measuring clustering properties on even modest angular scales is substantial: the effects of cosmic scatter are strongly suppressed. We provide highly accurate measurements of the two-point angular correlation function, ω(θ), as a function of magnitude on scales up to 1. °5. The amplitude of ω(θ) declines by a factor of ~10 over the range 16 ≤ I ≤ 20 but only by a factor of 2-3 over the range 20 < I ≤ 23. For a redshift dependence of the spatial correlation function, ξ(r), parameterized as ξ(r, z) = (r/r0)-γ(1 + z)-(3+ϵ), we find r0 = 5.2 ± 0.4 h-1 Mpc, and ϵ ≳ 0 for I ≤ 20. This is in good agreement with the results from local redshift surveys. At I > 20, our best-fit values shift toward lower r0 and more negative ϵ. A strong covariance between r0 and ϵ prevents us from rejecting ϵ > 0 even at faint magnitudes, but if ϵ > 1, we strongly reject r0 ≲ 4 h-1 Mpc (comoving). The above expression for ξ(r, z) and our data give a correlation length of r0(z = 0.5) ≈ 3.0 ± 0.4 h-1 Mpc, about a factor of 2 larger than the correlation length at z = 0.5 derived from the Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS). The small volume sampled by the CFRS and other deep redshift probes, however, makes these spatial surveys strongly susceptible to cosmic scatter and will tend to bias their derived correlation lengths toward the low end. Our results are consistent with redshift distributions in which ~30%-50% of the galaxies at I = 23 lie at z > 1. The best-fit power-law slope of the correlation function remains independent of I magnitude for I ≤ 22. At fainter limits, there is a suggestive trend toward flatter slopes that occurs at fluxes consistent with similar trends seen by Neuschaffer & Windhorst and Campos and coworkers. The galaxy counts span 11 magnitudes and provide an accurate calibration of the galaxy surface density. We find evidence for mild galaxy evolution: about 1 mag of brightening or a doubling of the density by I = 23 relative to an Ω0 = 1 no-evolution model, about 0.5 mag of brightening or a factor of 1.5 increase in surface density relative to an open model. Our galaxy counts agree well with those from the Hubble Deep Field survey and, thus, argue against a significant inclusion of subgalactic components in the latter census for I < 24.
A truth serum for sharing rewards

We study a problem where a group of agents has to decide how a joint reward should be shared among them. We focus on settings where the share that each agent receives depends on the subjective opinions of its peers concerning that agent's contribution to the group. To this end, we introduce a mechanism to elicit and aggregate subjective opinions as well as for determining agents' shares. The intuition behind the proposed mechanism is that each agent who believes that the others are telling the truth has its expected share maximized to the extent that it is well-evaluated by its peers and that it is truthfully reporting its opinions. Under the assumptions that agents are Bayesian decision-makers and that the underlying population is sufficiently large, we show that our mechanism is incentive-compatible, budgetbalanced, and tractable. We also present strategies to make this mechanism individually rational and fair.
Solving constraint satisfaction sequencingproblems by iterative repairAndrew

Many constraint satisfaction problems involve sequencing constraints, where the aim is to nd a sequence for a domain of values such that all the constraints on the sequence are satissed. Specialised techniques have been developed to tackle this problem within the constraint programming framework using constructive, backtracking search. In this paper we investigate local search techniques to tackle this problem. By taking advantage of the structure of the sequencing problem we show that within a local search framework we can reduce the size of the search space and the number of constraints which are required to be satissed. We present SwapGenet, an iterative repair-based algorithm designed speciically for solving the constraint satisfaction sequencing problem. We present results of an empirical evaluation demonstrating the superiority of SwapGenet over Genet on the car sequencing problem.
Influences on Sexual Partnering Among African American Adolescents With Concurrent Sexual Relationships

Adolescents often engage in concurrent sexual partnerships as part of a developmental process of gaining experience with sexuality. The authors qualitatively examined patterns of concurrency and variation in normative and motivational influences on this pattern of sexual partnering among African American adolescents (31 males; 20 females), ages 15 to 17 years. Using content analysis, gender and contextual differences in social norms and motivations for concurrency were explored. Findings describe the normative influences on adolescent males and females with regard to sexual concurrency and the transfer of these norms from one generation to the next.
Satellite image analysis using crowdsourcing data for collaborative mapping: current and opportunities

ABSTRACT Researchers are continually finding new applications of satellite images because of the growing number of high-resolution images with wide spatial coverage. However, the cost of these images is sometimes high, and their temporal resolution is relatively coarse. Crowdsourcing is an increasingly common source of data that takes advantage of local stakeholder knowledge and that provides a higher frequency of data. The complementarity of these two data sources suggests there is great potential for mutually beneficial integration. Unfortunately, there are still important gaps in crowdsourced satellite image analysis by means of crowdsourcing in areas such as land cover classification and emergency management. In this paper, we summarize recent efforts, and discuss the challenges and prospects of satellite image analysis for geospatial applications using crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing can be used to improve satellite image analysis and satellite images can be used to organize crowdsourced efforts for collaborative mapping.
Affect and Mental Engagement: Towards Adaptability for Intelligent

This paper discusses novel research conducted to study the direct impact of learner’s affective changes on the value of a well established EEG-mental engagement index. An acquisition protocol for recording the electrical activity of the human brain, known as electroencephalography or EEG, was implemented in a learning environment specifically constructed for emotional elicitation. Data was collected from 35 healthy subjects using 8 sensors and two video cameras. A correlation analysis of the engagement index with emotional states was conducted. Results have shown that emotional states are strongly correlated with learners’ mental engagement index and that the later can be used in an educational setting to reliably predict performance.
Comparsion of methods for a motor imagery-based two-state self-paced brain-computer interface

Self-paced brain-computer interface (SP-BCI) has been considered a more practical BCI for users with motor disabilities. Previously, various methods have been proposed to improve the performance of the SP-BCI. However, no studies have been presented to compare the existing methods. In this study, we concentrate on a motor imagery-based two-state SP-BCI and compare the state-of-the-art methods, including various feature extraction and classification methods. Comparisons were carried on EEG data collected from four participants. True positive and false positive rates were used as the performance indices to evaluate the methods for the motor imagery-based SP-BCI. Comparison results indicate that common spatial pattern (CSP) is the best representation method. Also, support vector machine (SVM) achieves the highest true positive rate. However, its false positive rate is also the highest in most cases. Moreover, imbalanced SVM (ISVM) can keep the false positive rate below a desired threshold.
Combining Multiple Corpora for Readability Assessment for People with Cognitive Disabilities

Given the lack of large user-evaluated corpora in disability-related NLP research (e.g. text simplification or readability assessment for people with cognitive disabilities), the question of choosing suitable training data for NLP models is not straightforward. The use of large generic corpora may be problematic because such data may not reflect the needs of the target population. The use of the available user-evaluated corpora may be problematic because these datasets are not large enough to be used as training data. In this paper we explore a third approach, in which a large generic corpus is combined with a smaller population-specific corpus to train a classifier which is evaluated using two sets of unseen user-evaluated data. One of these sets, the ASD Comprehension corpus, is developed for the purposes of this study and made freely available. We explore the effects of the size and type of the training data used on the performance of the classifiers, and the effects of the type of the unseen test datasets on the classification performance.
Poxviral Ankyrin Proteins

Multiple repeats of the ankyrin motif (ANK) are ubiquitous throughout the kingdoms of life but are absent from most viruses. The main exception to this is the poxvirus family, and specifically the chordopoxviruses, with ANK repeat proteins present in all but three species from separate genera. The poxviral ANK repeat proteins belong to distinct orthologue groups spread over different species, and align well with the phylogeny of their genera. This distribution throughout the chordopoxviruses indicates these proteins were present in an ancestral vertebrate poxvirus, and have since undergone numerous duplication events. Most poxviral ANK repeat proteins contain an unusual topology of multiple ANK motifs starting at the N-terminus with a C-terminal poxviral homologue of the cellular F-box enabling interaction with the cellular SCF ubiquitin ligase complex. The subtle variations between ANK repeat proteins of individual poxviruses suggest an array of different substrates may be bound by these protein-protein interaction domains and, via the F-box, potentially directed to cellular ubiquitination pathways and possible degradation. Known interaction partners of several of these proteins indicate that the NF-κB coordinated anti-viral response is a key target, whilst some poxviral ANK repeat domains also have an F-box independent affect on viral host-range.