Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Effect of Self-selected Treatment on Drug Addiction

We test the hypothesis that the treatment of drug addicts reduces consumption of hard drugs by comparing the change in drug consumption of treated addicts before and after treatment with the change in drug consumption with demographically similar untreated addicts. If treated drug addicts are positively self-selected, naïve treatment evaluations that ignore self-selectivity into treatment will be over-optimistic on the benefits of treatment. Therefore, naïve evaluations that find "evidence" of a treatment effect are not informative. However, naïve evaluations that find no evidence of a treatment effect are informative because they are inconsistent with the hypothesis that treatment is beneficial. We refer to this as the “partial corroboration” methodology. We apply the partial corroboration methodology using a large longitudinal sample of treated and untreated addicts in Israel. Our main result is that the change in drug use frequency among the treated addicts is not significantly different from the change among their untreated counterparts. This naïve evaluation is inconsistent with the hypothesis that treatment reduces the drug consumption of addicts. We suggest that social security benefit for drug addicts should be regarded as an invalid benefit and not be made conditional on receiving treatment.
Peripheral deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty using a cryopreserved donor cornea for Terrien’s marginal degeneration

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy of peripheral deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) using a cryopreserved donor cornea for Terrien’s marginal degeneration (TMD). MethodsThirty-one eyes of 27 patients with TMD underwent peripheral DALK using cryopreserved donor corneas. According to the distance between the inner edge of the lesion and the limbus, a ring-shaped or D-shaped DALK was performed. All grafts were stored at −20 °C. Cryopreserved corneoscleral rims were prepared for ring-shaped grafts and cryopreserved whole eyeballs were prepared for D-shaped grafts. The general conditions, intraoperative performance, postoperative corneal reconstruction, astigmatism, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and various complications were analyzed.ResultsRing-shaped DALK was performed in 28 eyes and D-shaped DALK was performed in 3 eyes. Postoperative follow-up time was (28.4±24.8) months. There was evidence of inflammation before surgery in 12 eyes (38.7%) and intraoperative perforation occurred in 13 eyes (41.9%). The corneal structures of all eyes were reconstructed. Postoperative astigmatism and BCVA showed improvement (both P=0.00) except for cases that underwent D-shaped DALK. Ten eyes (32.2%) developed transient ocular hypertension and one eye (3.2%) developed secondary glaucoma. No primary disease recurrence or corneal allograft rejection was observed.ConclusionsPeripheral DALK for TMD using cryopreserved donor tissue is an effective technique that eliminates rejection and extends the use of donor eyes. Inflammatory history or intraoperative perforation has no adverse effect on graft recovery. However, D-shaped DALK did not achieve good visual outcomes. 概要研究目的观察采用冰冻保存供体的周边深板层角膜移植治疗Terrien’s角膜变性(TMD)的临床疗效, 探讨TMD的最佳手术治疗方式。 创新要点供体角膜为冰冻保存, 其中部分为中央角膜移植术后剩余的角巩膜环, 并改进传统的手术方法。 采用周边深板层角膜移植, 既充分利用和节约供体, 避免排斥反应, 又简化了手术操作过程, 有效地恢复了眼球完整性和提高术后视力。 研究方法研究对象为1998年6月至2012年12月期间在浙江大学医学院附属邵逸夫医院眼科中心进行周边深板层角膜移植术的27例TMD病人的31只眼。 根据病变范围和大小, 分别进行环形深板层角膜移植和D形深板层角膜移植。 所有植片均于−20 °C冰冻保存, 冰冻保存的角巩膜环植片用于环形深板层角膜移植, 冰冻保存的整个眼球用于D形深板层角膜移植。 对所有术眼的病例资料、 视频及影像学检查进行回顾性分析, 记录并总结患者的一般情况、 术中表现、 术后角膜结构的变化、 屈光及视力的变化及术后并发症等。 重要结论采用冰冻保存供体的周边深板层角膜移植治疗TMD可以有效地恢复角膜结构的完整性且能长期维持(图3和4)。 术后随访过程未发现免疫排斥反应, 环形深板层角膜移植术后视力较前明显提高, 而3例(100%)D形深板层角膜移植术后散光及视力均不提高(表1和2)。 术前炎症及术中穿孔并不影响术后最终结果。
Neural-network based measures of confidence for word recognition

This paper proposes a probabilistic framework to define and evaluate confidence measures for word recognition. We describe a novel method to combine different knowledge sources and estimate the confidence in a word hypothesis, via a neural network. We also propose a measure of the joint performance of the recognition and confidence systems. The definitions and algorithms are illustrated with results on the Switchboard Corpus.
Multimedia Content Adaptation for QoS Management over Heterogeneous Networks1

The rapid growth of Internet has resulted in an increased heterogeneity in the network devices and connections used for information access. It has also led to a proliferation of Internet applications with diverse traffic characteristics and needs. Internet Protocol has proved to be a robust and scalable solution to handle the heterogeneity of network devices and connections. However this is achieved by keeping the network core simple with only a best effort service guarantee to the Internet traffic. Several bandwidth and delay sensitive applications can suffer severe performance degradation in the absence of traffic guarantees. In this paper, we present a mechanism for providing Quality of Service (QoS) to multimedia applications in distributed heterogeneous networks. Our approach is to adapt multimedia information content based on current client, system and network state, to meet endto-end QoS requirements.
Reduced complexity sequence detection for nonminimum phase intersymbol interference channels

Controlled intersymbol interference may be used to design bandwidth efficient coded modulation schemes. The performance of the optimum receiver depends only on the free distance of the code and is independent of its phase. Large reductions in receiver complexity are obtained by using reduced search detection techniques like the M-algorithm (MA). However, we show that MA detector performance depends critically on phase, and is characterized by the partial energy of the encoder or channel. The minimum phase encoder needs by far the least detector searching. We propose modifications to the receiver, so that the reduced search can operate on all nonminimum phase channels at this same low complexity.
Assuring Software Quality by Code Smell Detection ( Invited talk , Most Influential Paper Award )

In this retrospective we will review the paper “Java Quality Assurance by Detecting Code Smells” that was published ten years ago at WCRE. The work presents an approach for the automatic detection and visualization of code smells and discusses how this approach could be used in the design of a software inspection tool. The feasibility of the proposed approach was illustrated with the development of jCOSMO, a prototype code smell browser that detects and visualizes code smells in JAVA source code. It was the first tool to automatically detect code smells in source code, and we demonstrated the application of this tool in an industrial quality assessment case study. In addition to reviewing the WCRE 2002 work, we will discuss subsequent developments in this area by looking at a selection of papers that were published in its wake. In particular, we will have a look at recent related work in which we empirically investigated the relation between code smells and software maintainability in a longitudinal study where professional developers were observed while maintaining four different software systems that exhibited known code smells. We conclude with a discussion of the lessons learned and opportunities for further research.
Stabilization of a (βα)8‐barrel protein by an engineered disulfide bridge

The aim of this study was to increase the stability of the thermolabile (βα)8-barrel enzyme indoleglycerol phosphate synthase from Escherichia coli by the introduction of disulfide bridges. For the design of such variants, we selected two out of 12 candidates, in which newly introduced cysteines potentially form optimal disulfide bonds. These variants avoid short-range connections, substitutions near catalytic residues, and crosslinks between the new and the three parental cysteines. The variant linking residues 3 and 189 fastens the N-terminus to the (βα)8-barrel. The rate of thermal inactivation at 50 °C of this variant with a closed disulfide bridge is 65-fold slower than that of the reference dithiol form, but only 13-fold slower than that of the parental protein. The near-ultraviolet CD spectrum, the reactivity of parental buried cysteines with Ellman's reagent as well as the decreased turnover number indicate that the protein structure is rigidified. To confirm these data, we have solved the X-ray structure to 2.1-A resolution. The second variant was designed to crosslink the terminal modules βα1 and βα8. However, not even the dithiol form acquired the native fold, possibly because one of the targeted residues is solvent-inaccessible in the parental protein.
Wondering about the intersection of speech acts , politeness and deixis : I wondered and I was wondering in the BNC

This paper presents a corpus-linguistic case study on the usage of Attitudinal Past in spoken communication. As representatives of the phenomenon, the two forms ‘I wondered’ and ‘I was wondering’ were selected. The aim is twofold: the first aim is to discuss frequent collocations, to analyse grammatical and structural features and to examine discourse factors governing the use of Attitudinal Past as evidenced in the British National Corpus. The second aim is to investigate the phenomenon of Attitudinal Past with respect to the theories of politeness, deixis and emotive communication, considering both the speaker’s motivation to use it and its effect on the hearer. It is argued that Attitudinal Past is poorly understood if described solely as a grammatical structure. Its potential to give proof of the connection between deixis and politeness needs yet to be realized. In the concluding section, the main findings are summarized and some implications of Attitudinal Past as a phenomenon at the crossroads of deixis and politeness are considered.
Flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display enabled by MoS2 thin-film transistor

Highly flexible organic light-emitting diode display was demonstrated using MoS2 TFTs as an active-matrix backplane. Atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been extensively investigated in semiconductor electronics but has not been applied in a backplane circuitry of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. Its applicability as an active drive element is hampered by the large contact resistance at the metal/MoS2 interface, which hinders the transport of carriers at the dielectric surface, which in turn considerably deteriorates the mobility. Modified switching device architecture is proposed for efficiently exploiting the high-k dielectric Al2O3 layer, which, when integrated in an active matrix, can drive the ultrathin OLED display even in dynamic folding states. The proposed architecture exhibits 28 times increase in mobility compared to a normal back-gated thin-film transistor, and its potential as a wearable display attached to a human wrist is demonstrated.
Investigating EEG non-stationarities with Robust PCA and its application to improve BCI performance

The analysis of non-stationarities in EEG signals is one of the key challenges in BCI research in order to understand and improve the performance of BCI systems. In this paper we propose a method to visualize spatial patterns of the most prominent variability in the data that automatically identify and rejects outlying non-informative signals. Additionally, it reduces the impact that noise has in the signal and can be used to improve the classification accuracy of Common Spatial Filters.
Harmful Coexistence Between 802.15.4 and 802.11: A Measurement-based Study

Due to recent advances in wireless technology, a broad range of standards catering to a diverse set of users are currently emerging. Interoperability and coexistence between these heterogeneous networks are becoming key issues, and proper mitigation of these issues requires a good understanding of how and why heterogeneous networks may harm each other's p.erformance. In this paper, we focus on the coexistence of 802.11 (wireless LAN) and 802.15. 4 (sensor networks) in the ISM band. These networks have very different transmission characteristics that result in asymmetric interaction patterns. Consequently, many studies assume that the impact of 802.15. 4 on 802.11 is negligible. In this paper, we examine this assumption in detail and show that, in many cases, 802.15. 4 significantly impacts 802.11 performance. Even when 802.15. 4 is executing a listen-before-send, which should theoretically prevent interference, a significant 802.11 performance degradation frequently occurs due to disparate slot sizes between the two protocols. This is one of the first papers studying the listen-before-send performance for heterogeneous networks with substantial measured data. The results raise important coexistence issues for 802.15. 4 and 802.11 in particular, but even more so for dynamic spectrum sharing between heterogeneous devices in general.
Genome Informatics: The Role of DNA in Cellular Computations

Cells are cognitive entities possessing great computational power. DNA serves as a multivalent information storage medium for these computations at various time scales. Information is stored in sequences, epigenetic modifications, and rapidly changing nucleoprotein complexes. Because DNA must operate through complexes formed with other molecules in the cell, genome functions are inherently interactive and involve two-way communication with various cellular compartments. Both coding sequences (data files) and repetitive sequences (generic formatting signals) contribute to the hierarchical systemic organization of the genome. By virtue of nucleoprotein complexes, epigenetic modifications, and natural genetic engineering activities, the genome can serve as a read-write storage system. An interactive informatic conceptualization of the genome allows us to understand the functional importance of DNA that does not code for protein or RNA structure, clarifies the essential multidirectional and systemic nature of genomic information transfer, and emphasizes the need to investigate how cellular computation operates in reproduction and evolution.
Def6 Is Required for Convergent Extension Movements during Zebrafish Gastrulation Downstream of Wnt5b Signaling

During gastrulation, convergent extension (CE) cell movements are regulated through the non-canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Wnt signaling results in downstream activation of Rho GTPases that in turn regulate actin cytoskeleton rearrangements essential for co-ordinated CE cell movement. Rho GTPases are bi-molecular switches that are inactive in their GDP-bound stage but can be activated to bind GTP through guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). Here we show that def6, a novel GEF, regulates CE cell movement during zebrafish gastrulation. Def6 morphants exhibit broadened and shortened body axis with normal cell fate specification, reminiscent of the zebrafish mutants silberblick and pipetail that lack Wnt11 or Wnt5b, respectively. Indeed, def6 morphants phenocopy Wnt5b mutants and ectopic overexpression of def6 essentially rescues Wnt5b morphants, indicating a novel role for def6 as a central GEF downstream of Wnt5b signaling. In addition, by knocking down both def6 and Wnt11, we show that def6 synergises with the Wnt11 signaling pathway.
Exploring the pareto front of multi-objective single-phase PFC rectifier design optimization - 99.2% efficiency vs. 7kW/din3 power density

Up to now, in the development of power electronics systems, the reduction of the initial costs or the increase of the power density have been of primary concern. However, with increasing energy costs also the power conversion efficiency is gaining higher and higher importance. Accordingly, while maintaining high power density, an efficiency as high as possible must be obtained. In this paper the maximum attainable efficiency and the dependency of the efficiency limit on technological parameters is determined for single-phase PFC boost rectifiers. In a first step basic PFC boost rectifier topologies are briefly compared with regard to high efficiency and a dual-boost PFC rectifier with integral common-mode filtering is selected as basis for the investigations. Next, simple approximations of the technological limits of the system performance are calculated in the efficiencypower density plane. With this, the Feasible Performance Space and the reduction in power density which has to be accepted for increasing the efficiency are clarified, and the trade-off limit curve (Pareto Front) of a multi-objective, i.e. efficiency and power density design optimization is determined. Furthermore, a comprehensive numerical efficiency optimization is carried out which identifies an efficiency limit of 99.2% for a 3.2kW system. The theoretical considerations are verified by experimental results from a laboratory prototype of the ultra-high efficiency system achieving 99.1% efficiency at a power density of 1.1kW/din3, as well as those firom an ultra-compact dual-boost PFC rectifier (95.8%, 5.5kW/dn3) and a very low switching freluency (3kHz) conventional PFC boost rectifier (96.7%, 2kW/din3). Finally, the sensitivity of the efficiency optimum with regard to various technological parameters is analyzed and an outlook on the further course of the research is given.
Measure of Integrity Leakage in Live Forensic Context

When a live digital forensic investigation is performed, a measure of integrity leakage related to the collection phase should be mandatory, by stating clearly the grade of blurredness of the acquired data object, such as the RAM memory. Current software approaches, which are often used for data acquisition, have not been able to quantify the dependency of the integrity leakage of factors observed from the host machine, which include the CPU usage, the size of the memory RAM and page file, and the execution priority of the acquisition tool. This paper analyzes the factors which affect preponderantly the integrity of the memory being collected from a live computer system. By applying fuzzy measures, we establish an integrity leakage function.
On The Performance of Space-Time Coded Multiuser MIMO Systems with Iterative Receivers

This paper considers multiuser MIMO CDMA systems with high rate space-time linear dispersion codes (LDC) and orthogonal space-time block codes (O-STBC) in time-varying Rayleigh fading MIMO channels. We propose a multi-function process integrating multi-user detection, space-time decoding and symbol demodulation, which can be coupled with soft channel decoding to improve the system performance in an iterative fashion. We show that the space-time coded CDMA systems approach the single-user bound with only two iterations, and full diversity LDCs enable the systems to utilize the time diversity inherent in fast fading channels. The space-time coded CDMA systems are also compared to the MIMO CDMA system based on spatial multiplexing, some recommendations are made on how to design a practical MIMO CDMA system based on the comparative studies.
Marine genomics: at the interface of marine microbial ecology and biodiscovery

The composition and activities of microbes from diverse habitats have been the focus of intense research during the past decade with this research being spurred on largely by advances in molecular biology and genomic technologies. In recent years environmental microbiology has entered very firmly into the age of the ‘omics’– (meta)genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics – with probably others on the rise. Microbes are essential participants in all biogeochemical processes on our planet, and the practical applications of what we are learning from the use of molecular approaches has altered how we view biological systems. In addition, there is considerable potential to use information about uncultured microbes in biodiscovery research as microbes provide a rich source of discovery for novel genes, enzymes and metabolic pathways. This review explores the brief history of genomic and metagenomic approaches to study environmental microbial assemblages and describes some of the future challenges involved in broadening our approaches – leading to new insights for understanding environmental problems and enabling biodiscovery research.
A Segmentation Text/Background Method for Degraded Ancient Arabic Manuscript

Before any process of the textual content of a given document image can be performed, the text should be separated from the background of the image. Different methods have previously been developed for this purpose. None have been proved perfect especially for degraded and very poor quality gray-scale document images. In this paper, we review some known binarization algorithms showing their incapacity to separate text from background. We exploit then a local comparison technique which proves efficient in previous works especially to preserve stroke connectivity. To improve the performance of this binarization technique, we have implemented a pre-processing phase which aims to reduce noise and to increase contrast between foreground and background in the image. The achieved results are very encouraging.
Instruction fetching: Coping with code bloat

Previous research has shown that the SPEC benchmarks achieve low miss ratios in relatively small instruction caches. This paper presents evidence that current software-development practices produce applications that exhibit substantially higher instruction-cache miss ratios than do the SPEC benchmarks. To represent these trends, we have assembled a collection of applications, called the instruction benchmark suite (IBS), that provides a better test of instruction-cache performance. We discuss the rationale behind the design of IBS and characterize its behavior relative to the SPEC benchmark suite. Our analysis is based on trace-driven and trap-driven simulations and takes into full account both the application and operating-system components of the workloads. This paper then reexamines a collection of previously-proposed hardware mechanisms for improving instruction-fetch performance in the context of the IBS workloads. We study the impact of cache organization transfer bandwidth, prefetching, and pipe-lined memory systems on machines that rely on the use of relatively small primary instruction caches to facilitate increased clock rates. We find that, although of little use for SPEC, the right combination of these techniques substantially benefits IBS. Even so, under IBS, a stubborn lower bound on the instruction-fetch CPI remains as an obstacle to improving overall processor performance.
Determination of the IPO ’ s Underwriting Price Empirical Findings from A Proposed Fuzzy Games Model

The primary goal of this study is to explore the initial public offering (IPO) pricing behavior in an underwriting system using fuzzy game theory. The profit goals of the underwriter and issuing company are established via linear programming. The fuzzy variable levels in a game are rationalized using interactive fuzzy planning. In this way, the most beneficial and appropriate offering price, for both underwriters and issuing companies, can be obtained. When the underwriter specifies the minimum level of satisfaction, how both parties can achieve maximum profit exchange satisfaction will be explored. Results of this study are: (1) In practice, the fuzzy game theory is more consistent with the human interference uncertainty relationship with independent and dependent variables using the profit return function as a potential function. Rewards for the underwriters can be judged according to the experience principle, which copes more accurately with actual situations. (2) Differences in satisfaction exist between underwriters and issuing companies for IPO pricing in the underwriting system. Profit or satisfaction exchanges can be conducted appropriately during the offering price negotiating process. (3) Change in profit and satisfaction sensitivity comparisons between the underwriters and issuing companies can serve as a reference for exchange and increase in satisfaction for underwriters and issuing companies.