Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MirrorTouch: combining touch and mid-air gestures for public displays

In this paper we present a series of three field studies on the integration of multiple modalities (touch and mid-air gestures) in a public display. We analyze our field studies using Conversion Diagrams, an approach to model and evaluate usage of multimodal public displays. Conversion diagrams highlight the transitions inherent in a multimodal system and provide a systematic approach to investigate which factors affect them and how. We present a semi-automatic annotation technique to obtain Conversion Diagrams. We use Conversion Diagrams to evaluate interaction in the three field studies. We found that 1) clear affordances for touch were necessary when mid-air gestures were present. A call-to-action caused significantly more users to touch than a button (+200%), 2) the order of modality usage was different from what we designed for, and the location impacted which modality was used first, and 3) small variations in the application did lead to considerable user increase (+290%).
Rate of Decline in Serum PFOA Concentrations after Granular Activated Carbon Filtration at Two Public Water Systems in Ohio and West Virginia

Background Drinking water in multiple water districts in the Mid-Ohio Valley has been contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which was released by a nearby DuPont chemical plant. Two highly contaminated water districts began granular activated carbon filtration in 2007. Objectives To determine the rate of decline in serum PFOA, and its corresponding half-life, during the first year after filtration. Methods Up to six blood samples were collected from each of 200 participants from May 2007 until August 2008. The primary source of drinking water varied over time for some participants; our analyses were grouped according to water source at baseline in May–June 2007. Results For Lubeck Public Service District customers, the average decrease in serum PFOA concentrations between May–June 2007 and May–August 2008 was 32 ng/mL (26%) for those primarily consuming public water at home (n = 130), and 16 ng/mL (28%) for those primarily consuming bottled water at home (n = 17). For Little Hocking Water Association customers, the average decrease in serum PFOA concentrations between November–December 2007 and May–June 2008 was 39 ng/mL (11%) for consumers of public water (n = 39) and 28 ng/mL (20%) for consumers of bottled water (n = 11). The covariate-adjusted average rate of decrease in serum PFOA concentration after water filtration was 26% per year (95% confidence interval, 25–28% per year). Conclusions The observed data are consistent with first-order elimination and a median serum PFOA half-life of 2.3 years. Ongoing follow-up will lead to improved half-life estimation.
GUBS, a Behaviour-Based Language for Design in Synthetic Biology

In this article, we propose a domain specific language, GUBS (Genomic Unified Behaviour Specification), dedicated to the behavioural specification of synthetic biological devices, viewed as discrete open dynamical systems. GUBS is a rule-based declarative language. In contrast to a closed system, a program is always a partial description of the behaviour of the system. The semantics of the language accounts the existence of some hidden non-specified actions that possibly alter the behaviour of the programmed devices. The compilation framework follows a scheme similar to automated theorem proving, aiming at improving synthetic biological design safety.
Perceived Personal Control and Attribution of Causality

The present study examined the relation between the assignment of causality for successes and failures on an ambiguous task and personal control and control ideology as measured by scales derived from factor analysis. As predicted, 60 high personal-control Ss in comparison to 60 low personal-control Ss perceived that successful outcomes were determined by skill rather than by luck and exhibited a lower tendency to attribute causality to physical surroundings and experimental factors for task failures. Furthermore, when high personal-control Ss were asked how hard they tried on the ambiguous task, these Ss indicated that they showed more effort for successful outcomes than for failure outcomes. These results suggested that high personal-control Ss believe in internal attribution of causality, while low personal-control Ss believe in external attribution of causality.
Modeling the dynamic response of outlet glaciers to observed ice-shelf thinning in the Bellingshausen Sea Sector, West Antarctica

ABSTRACT Satellite observations of gravity anomalies, ice-surface elevation and glacier velocity show significant increases in net grounded-ice-mass loss over the past decade along the Bellingshausen Sea sector (BSS), West Antarctica, in areas where warm (>1°C) sea water floods the continental shelf. These observations provide compelling but indirect evidence that mass losses are driven primarily by reduced buttressing from the floating ice shelves caused by ocean-driven ice-shelf thinning. Here, we combine recent observations of ice velocity, thickness and thickness changes with an ice flow model to study the instantaneous dynamic response of BSS outlet glaciers to observed ice-shelf thinning, alone. Our model results show that multiple BSS outlet glaciers respond instantaneously to observed ice-shelf thinning, particularly in areas where ice shelves ground at discrete points. Increases in modeled and observed dynamic mass losses, however, account for ~5% of the mass loss rates estimated from gravity anomalies and changes in ice-surface elevation, suggesting that variations in surface mass balance may be key to understanding recent BSS mass loss. Our approach isolates the impact of ice-shelf thinning on glacier flow and shows that if ice-shelf thinning continues at or above current rates, total BSS mass loss will increase in the next decade.
A Compact, Supply-Voltage Scalable 45–66 GHz Baseband-Combining CMOS Phased-Array Receiver

This paper presents a four-element phased-array receiver which achieves 38% fractional bandwidth around 55 GHz. Baseband phase-shifting is employed to eliminate wideband phase-shifters, power dividers, and quadrature splitters operating at millimeter-wave frequencies. Antenna weighting and combining are accomplished using a highly digital Cartesian phase-shifter and current summation, respectively. Transformer-coupling techniques are introduced in the LNA to simultaneously achieve wide bandwidth, reduced noise figure, gain boosting and neutralization. Cascode-free and folded topologies are used throughout to enable operation from a scalable supply voltage. To overcome challenges associated with wideband LO distribution, the LO network employs multiconductor transmission lines to distribute four-phase LO signals. The LO distribution network is absorbed into the LO buffers and terminated by distributed LC loads near the I/Q mixers in each phased-array element. The phased-array receiver is fabricated in a 45 nm SOI CMOS process and achieves 26.2 dB (20.2 dB) of element gain over 21 GHz (19 GHz) of 3 dB bandwidth with 5.5 dB/9.8 dB (7.7 dB/12 dB) minimum/maximum NF while dissipating 30 mW/element (14 mW/element) from a 1.1 V (0.6 V) supply voltage. The worst case -1 dB (input) compression is -28 dBm at 1.1 V. A worst case coupling of 26 dB (45 dB) is measured between adjacent (nonadjacent) elements. The IF bandwidth is 1.2 GHz, limited by the wirebond and PCB interface to the chip. The design occupies only 0.225 mm 2 per element including LO buffer/distribution.
Statistical analysis of the outlier events from seismic stress inversion

The seismic stress inversion method has been developed and used in the field of crustal seismology, but due to the technical challenges and lack of a mining-specific application methodology, it has rarely been used for the analysis of mining-induced seismicity. The technique is based on assumptions that the stress is uniform in the volume of study (less satisfied in mining environments and near geological structures), and slip on any fault plane occurs in the direction of maximum resolved shear stress. Currently, there is a variety of seismic stress inversion algorithms available which use multiple seismic events to constrain the fault plane solutions for determining the four parameters of the stress tensor (orientations of principal stresses and their relative magnitude). First motion stress inversion (MOTSI) is a widely used code that uses first motion data in the inversion. For a group of events, MOTSI runs a test on two factors; dS and dM. The parameter dS specifies rejection of the homogeneous stress hypothesis when it exceeds 2.32 (95% confidence level) and the parameter dM defines the similarity between the stress-constrained and unconstrained focal mechanisms (dM = 1, represents no change). Events with large deviations from acceptable levels of dS and dM should not be used in the stress inversion process. These events are expressed as outliers because there is not enough information to infer their relation to the other events. The goal of this paper is to use statistical techniques to explore the characteristics of these outlier events. Outliers are of particular interest in this case because by indicating non-compliance with the homogeneous stress hypothesis, they may be good indicators of zones where there is strong influence of geological structures on the stress field. The seismic events for this study are recorded over a period of ten months during the early stages of mining (to satisfy the uniform stress assumption) and from a specific area (to have a better coverage of focal sphere) of the Nickel Rim South Mine in Sudbury, Canada. More than 500 seismic events were manually processed and after removing noise and applying different filters, we were able to determine the orientation of the principal stresses through seismic stress inversion from the middle level of the mine. The aggregate of the inversions inferred a north–south, northeast–southwest orientation of the maximum principal stress and near vertical minimum principal stress. In each inversion processed, several events were tagged as outliers according to the mentioned criteria. Several statistical analyses including mean, standard deviation, variance, t-test, box plot, Kurskal–Walles test, and principal component analysis (PCA) were conducted over 10 seismic source parameters (i.e. source radius, seismic moment, etc.) to determine the relation between outliers and used data.
ECG Data Compression using Wavelet Transform

ECG data compression has been one of the active research areas in biomedical engineering. In this paper a compression method for electrocardiogram (ECG) signals using wavelet transform is proposed. Wavelet transform compact the energy of signal in fewer samples and has a good localization property in time and frequency domain. The MIT-BIH ECG signals are decomposed using discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The DWT provide powerful capability to remove frequency components at specific time in the data. The thresholding of the resulted DWT coefficients are done in a manner such that a predefined goal percent root mean square difference (GPRD) is achieved. The compression is achieved by the quantization technique, run-length encoding, Huffman and binary encoding methods. The proposed method, for fixed GPRD shows better performance with high compression ratios and good quality reconstructed signals. Keywords—Compression, discrete wavelet transform Electrocardiogram (ECG), PRD, quantization, thresholding.
A Study of Term Proximity and Document Weighting Normalization in Pseudo Relevance Feedback--UIUC at TREC 2009 Million Query Track

In this paper, we report our experiments in the TREC 2009 Million Query Track. Our flrst line of study is on proximitybased feedback, in which we propose a positional relevance model (PRM) to exploit term proximity evidence so as to assign more weights to expansion words that are closer to query words in feedback documents. The second line of study is to improve the weighting of feedback documents in the relevance model by using a regression-based method to approximate the probability of relevance (and thus the name RegRM). In the third line of study, we test a supervised approach for query classiflcation. Besides, we also evaluate a selective pseudo feedback strategy which stops pseudo feedback for precision-oriented queries and only uses it for recall-oriented ones. The proposed PRM has shown clear improvements over the relevance model for pseudo feedback, suggesting that capturing the term proximity heuristic appropriately could lead to a better feedback model. RegRM performs as well as relevance model, but no noticeable improvement is observed. Unfortunately, the proposed query classiflcation methods appear to not work well. The results also show that the proposed selective pseudo feedback may not work well, since precision-oriented queries can also beneflt from pseudo feedback, though not as much as recall-oriented queries.
Cellular uptake and cell-to-cell transfer of polyelectrolyte microcapsules within a triple co-culture system representing parts of the respiratory tract

Abstract Polyelectrolyte multilayer microcapsules around 3.4 micrometers in diameter were added to epithelial cells, monocyte-derived macrophages, and dendritic cells in vitro and their uptake kinetics were quantified. All three cell types were combined in a triple co-culture model, mimicking the human epithelial alveolar barrier. Hereby, macrophages were separated in a three-dimensional model from dendritic cells by a monolayer of epithelial cells. While passing of small nanoparticles has been demonstrated from macrophages to dendritic cells across the epithelial barrier in previous studies, for the micrometer-sized capsules, this process could not be observed in a significant amount. Thus, this barrier is a limiting factor for cell-to-cell transfer of micrometer-sized particles.
Feline Coronavirus Serotypes 1 and 2: Seroprevalence and Association with Disease in Switzerland

ABSTRACT To determine the prevalence of antibodies to feline coronavirus (FCoV) serotypes 1 and 2 in Switzerland and their association with different disease manifestations, a serological study based on immunofluorescence tests was conducted with Swiss field cats using transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), FCoV type 1 and FCoV type 2 as antigens. A total of 639 serum samples collected in the context of different studies from naturally infected cats were tested. The current study revealed that, with an apparent prevalence of 83%, FCoV serotype 1 is the most prevalent serotype in Switzerland. FCoV type 1 viruses induced higher antibody titers than FCoV type 2, and were more frequently associated with clinical signs and/or feline infectious peritonitis. The antibody development in seven cats experimentally infected with FCoV type 1 revealed that, with progressing duration of infection, antibodies to FCoV type 1 significantly increased over those to FCoV type 2. There was a significant relationship between antibody titers against TGEV, FCoV 1, and FCoV 2 and TGEV antigen detected the highest proportion of seropositive cats. We conclude that a vaccine against FCoV should be based on FCoV type 1-related antigens and that for serodiagnosis of FCoV infection TGEV should be used to attain the highest diagnostic efficiency. When serology is used in addition to clinical signs, hematology, and clinical chemistry results as an aid to diagnose clinical FIP, TGEV shows a diagnostic efficiency equal to that of a FCoV antigen.
Intron Length Coevolution across Mammalian Genomes

Although they do not contribute directly to the proteome, introns frequently contain regulatory elements and can extend the protein coding potential of the genome through alternative splicing. For some genes, the contribution of introns to the time required for transcription can also be functionally significant. We have previously shown that intron length in genes associated with developmental patterning is often highly conserved. In general, sets of genes that require precise coordination in the timing of their expression may be sensitive to changes in transcript length. A prediction of this hypothesis is that evolutionary changes in intron length, when they occur, may be correlated between sets of coordinately expressed genes. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed intron length coevolution in alignments from nine eutherian mammals. Overall, genes that belong to the same protein complex or that are coexpressed were significantly more likely to show evidence of intron length coevolution than matched, randomly sampled genes. Individually, protein complexes involved in the cell cycle showed the strongest evidence of coevolution of intron lengths and clusters of coexpressed genes enriched for cell cycle genes also showed significant evidence of intron length coevolution. Our results reveal a novel aspect of gene coevolution and provide a means to identify genes, protein complexes and biological processes that may be particularly sensitive to changes in transcriptional dynamics.
Internal limiting membrane peeling with indocyanine green or trypan blue in macular hole surgery: a randomized trial.

OBJECTIVE To report on anatomical and visual outcomes after vitrectomy and internal limiting membrane peeling for idiopathic macular hole repair. METHODS Forty patients with stage II to IV idiopathic macular holes were randomly assigned (1:1) in a 2-arm, single-center, randomized controlled . Internal limiting membrane delamination was performed using indocyanine green (ICG) solution (n = 20) or trypan blue (TB) (n = 20). Two patients did not complete the study, for a total of 19 in each group. Follow-up examinations included Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study visual acuity, scanning laser ophthalmoscope microperimetry, optical coherence tomography, and fluorescein angiography. Main Outcome Measure Visual acuity 3 months after surgery. RESULTS Visual acuity did not show a significant difference between study groups (95% confidence interval [CI], -2 to 1 lines). The rate of macular hole closures was identical (84%; 95% CI, 60% to 97%). Within-group visual recovery was significant only in the TB group. Central scotomata despite hole closure persisted in 8 patients (42%) in the ICG group and in 5 (26%) in the TB group. CONCLUSION Although no statistically significant difference was detected for the primary end point, the better visual recovery in the TB group and the higher rate of persistent central scotomata in the ICG group justify a larger clinical trial. Application to Clinical Practice No statistically significant difference in visual acuity between ICG and TB in the used concentrations and application method could be proved in macular hole surgery.
An empirical study to assess the effects of refactoring on software maintainability

Maintenance is the most expensive phase of software and during this process refactoring is performed to improve the code without affecting its external behaviour. This study examines the effects of refactoring on maintainability using five proprietary software systems. Internal quality attributes were measured using design metrics suite whereas external quality attributes such as the level of abstraction, understandability, modifiability, extensibility and reusability were measured through expert opinion. The original versions of software are compared with refactored versions and the changes in quality attributes were mapped to maintainability. The results reveal that refactoring significantly improves the software quality and enhances software life. It was also found that even though refactoring is very tedious and might introduce errors if not implemented with utmost care, it is still advisable to frequently refactor the code to increase maintainability. Results of this study are useful to project managers in identifying the opportunities of refactoring while maintaining a perfect balance between reengineering and over-engineering.
Reciprocal Activation of Transcription Factors Underlies the Dichotomy between Proliferation and Invasion of Glioma Cells

Histology of malignant glioma depicts dense proliferative areas rich in angiogenesis as well as dissemination of neoplastic cells into adjacent brain tissue. Although the mechanisms that trigger transition from proliferative to invasive phenotypes are complex, the dichotomy of cell proliferation and migration, the “Go or Grow” hypothesis, argues for specific and coordinated regulation of these phenotypes. We investigated transcriptional elements that accompany the phenotypes of migration and proliferation, and consider the therapeutic significance of the “Go or Grow” hypothesis. Interrogation of matched core and rim regions from human glioblastoma biopsy specimens in situ (n = 44) revealed higher proliferation (Ki67 labeling index) in cells residing at the core compared to the rim. Profiling activated transcription factors in a panel of migration-activated versus migration-restricted GBM cells portrayed strong NF-κB activity in the migratory cell population. In contrast, increased c-Myc activity was found in migration-restricted proliferative cells. Validation of transcriptional activity by NF-κB- or c-Myc-driven GFP or RFP, respectively, showed an increased NF-κB activity in the active migrating cells, whereas the proliferative, migration restricted cells displayed increased c-Myc activity. Immunohistochemistry on clinical specimens validated a robust phosphorylated c-Myc staining in tumor cells at the core, whereas increased phosphorylated NF-κB staining was detected in the invasive tumor cells at the rim. Functional genomics revealed that depletion of c-Myc expression by siRNA oligonucleotides reduced cell proliferation in vitro, but surprisingly, cell migration was enhanced significantly. Conversely, inhibition of NF-κB by pharmacological inhibitors, SN50 or BAY-11, decreased both cell migration in vitro and invasion ex vivo. Notably, inhibition of NF-κB was found to have no effect on the proliferation rate of glioma cells. These findings suggest that the reciprocal and coordinated suppression/activation of transcription factors, such as c-Myc and NF-κB may underlie the shift of glioma cells from a “growing-to-going” phenotype.
Summarizing Dynamic Bipolar Conflict Structures

We present a method for visual summary of bilateral conflict structures embodied in event data. Such data consists of actors linked by time-stamped events and may be extracted from various sources such as news reports and dossiers. When analyzing political events, it is of particular importance to be able to recognize conflicts and actors involved in them. By projecting actors into a conflict space, we are able to highlight the main opponents in a series of tens of thousands of events and provide a graphic overview of the conflict structure. Moreover, our method allows for smooth animation of the dynamics of a conflict