Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk of lung cancer among cigarette and pipe smokers in Southern China

Studies in Shanghai and in north‐east China indicate that cigarette smoking is a major contributor to the high rates of lung cancer in those areas, but doubts persist regarding the influence of cigarette use on lung cancer rates in other areas of China. In addition, the risk of lung cancer associated with other methods of tobacco consumption—in particular, the use of bamboo water‐pipes and long‐stem pipes—is uncertain. A population‐based case‐control study of 427 male lung cancer patients residing in a mining area of Southern China and 1,011 controls was carried out to address this and other issues. Of these patients, 63% smoked cigarettes and (water and longstem) pipes; 17% and 14% smoked only cigarettes or pipes, respectively; and 6% did not smoke. Compared to non‐smokers, smokers of cigarettes only, smokers of pipes only and mixed smokers were at increased risk; OR = 2.6 (95% CI 1.1–6.2), 1.8 (95% CI 0.8–4.2) and 4.1 (95% CI 2.3–9.2), respectively. Risk increased with duration of tobacco use; however, the rate of increase with years of cigarette use was significantly greater than for years of pipe use (p = 0.03). In addition, risks increased 8‐fold in the highest quartile of number of cigarettes per day compared to non‐cigarette smokers vs. 2.3‐fold for the highest quartile of number of liang (50 g) smoked per month compared to non‐pipe‐smokers; the trends in the ORs differed significantly (p < 0.001). Results suggest that, in this area of China, tobacco use is an important cause of lung cancer, and that smoking cigarettes may be more deleterious than smoking pipes (primarily water pipes).
Rethinking Security after the Cold War

This paper examines aspects of the debate amongst traditionalist, widening and critical approaches to Security Studies. It looks at how the security agenda has expanded away from the narrow military focus generated by the Cold War, and argues against the traditionalist criticism that widening the concept of security necessarily makes it incoherent. To carry this argument, it proposes a constructivist method for security analysis that offers a way of confining the application of security, and some reintegrative potential, to all three schools. In this approach, security is understood not as the content of a particular sector (military), but as a particular type of politics defined by reference to existential threats and calls for emergency action in any sector. The paper concludes by examining some of the political issues raised by any attempt to widen the scope of security, setting the liberal case for narrowing security as much as possible against the pressures to widen the security agenda that ironically arise from the contemporary success of the liberal project.
A note on social drinking: In Vino Veritas

It has been a persistent phenomenon in many societies that a large proportion of alcohol consumption takes place in company of other people. While the phenomenon of social or public drinking is well discussed in disciplines such as social psychology and anthropology, economists have paid little attention to the social environment of alcohol consumption. This paper tries to close this gap and explains social drinking as a trust facilitating device. Since alcohol consumption tends to make some people (unwillingly) tell the truth, social drinking can eventually serve as a signaling device in social contact games.
Peer acceptance and self-perceptions of verbal and behavioural aggression and social withdrawal

This study presents a model of maladaptive social interactions that includes both behavioural and communication correlates of peer acceptance and self-perceived social competence. Tested in a sample of 377 Hong Kong secondary school students, verbal and nonverbal aggression contributed concurrently and longitudinally to peer acceptance. Communication avoidance was predictive only of self-perceived social competence but not of peer acceptance, whereas, as observed in Western children, social withdrawal negatively predicted peer acceptance and self-perceived social competency. These findings are presented in a discussion of the verbal and nonverbal involvement in defining aggression and social withdrawal in adolescent social interactions.
Extension of a Social Skills Intervention Program for School-Age Children to the Head Start Population

This article describes a manualized social skills intervention for children with peer relationship problems developed by Milich and colleagues (Milich et al., 1995, 2004). The program includes deficits-based components and problem-solving/anger-management components. This intervention is meant to be delivered in a group format over 8 sessions. It was designed for children ages 7 to 13 years and 2 treatment efficacy studies have been conducted with this age group (Antshel & Remer, 2003; Lefler et al., 2008). The program has also been adapted for use with younger children in a Head Start setting, but treatment outcome research with this age group has not yet been completed. This article addresses 3 issues. First, an introduction to social skills interventions is presented. Second, the Milich et al. social skills program is described. Third, our recommendations for adapting the Milich et al. intervention for younger children is detailed as well as our clinical experience in using the intervention in Head Start.
Genome-Wide Association Mapping for Tomato Volatiles Positively Contributing to Tomato Flavor

Tomato volatiles, mainly derived from essential nutrients and health-promoting precursors, affect tomato flavor. Taste volatiles present a major challenge for flavor improvement and quality breeding. In this study, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to investigate potential chromosome regions associated with the tomato flavor volatiles. We observed significant variation (1200x) among the selected 28 most important volatiles in tomato based on their concentration and odor threshold importance across our sampled accessions. Using 174 tomato accessions, GWAS identified 125 significant associations (P < 0.005) among 182 SSR markers and 28 volatiles (27 volatiles with at least one significant association). Several significant associations were co-localized in previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTL). This result provides new potential candidate loci affecting the metabolism of several volatiles.
Human-Friendly Interface Based on Visual Attention for Multiple Mobile Robots

This paper discusses human-friendly interface of a teleoperated mobile robot. We consider that a human interface which is simple with intuitive operation capability reduces confusion of an operator. When operating a complicated system, easy operations are required in each step of the operation. Also in teleoperation, in order to tell an operator the situation of workspace, it is necessary to display information by a suitable method. This paper proposes a teleoperating system using touch panel for two teleoperated mobile robots to improve the ease of operation and a method of calling operator's attention based on image processing.
On securely enabling intermediary-based services and performance enhancements for wireless mobile users

Intermediary-based services and performance optimizations are increasingly being considered, by network service providers, with a view towards offering value-added services and improving the user experience of wireless mobile clients at reduced costs. However, in the presence of an end-to-end security mechanism such as IPsec, it is impossible to offer such services without fully compromising end-to-end security. We propose a new architecture to enable intermediary-based services for wireless mobile users while maintaining an acceptable level of end-to-end security. As a part of our architecture, we present a new IPsec option called Encapsulating Security Variable Payload (ESVP). We identify several important issues related to the architecture and discuss methods for addressing them.
Vocational Subject-Making and the Work of Schools: A Case Study

The rhetoric of the new vocationalism is about creating a new type of person: an enterprising, flexible, portfolio-oriented, lifelong learner. The rhetoric of contemporary Australian government policy is that schools should be more vocational. This article focuses on schooling and a case study of a site where two vocational ‘dual accreditation’ subjects are being taught. It argues (a) that different visions of schooling and vocational knowledge are evident at different levels of the system, but also between teachers involved in the same formal structure and between students within the same classes; (b) that the dual assessment regimes observed here embody not only different epistemologies, but different imputed identities of the learner-worker; and (c) that class and gender attributes matter but are not adequately acknowledged in the new agendas for school. The article illustrates ambiguities in what teachers and students are expected to do, and, in particular, a mixture of different ideas about what knowledge counts and what attributes are valued within the school-based vocational subjects.
Building Relationships between Consultants and Clients

Intended to provide the person who is new to the field of consulting with a guide to building professional relationships with clients, this article covers some of the main factors that govern the relationship, highlights potential pitfalls, and offers advice. Included is advice on how firm size affects the client relationship, how the specific consulting service affects the relationship, how a consultant goes about getting clients, and how relationships are built. Also included is the description of a typical consulting project and references to descriptions of other consulting projects. The advice is based on firsthand experiences and observations from 25 years as a consultant to government and business.
Des dynamiques de proximité innovantes : le cas des SYAL en France

Proximite, territoire, cooperation, organisation, dynamique, innovation. L’objet de recherche constitue par les SYAL s’inscrit dans le vaste champ de reflexion qui vise a estimer la complexite des relations entre dimension industrielle et dimension spatiale des systemes productifs.
Gazetop: interaction techniques for gaze-aware tabletops

GazeTop is a tabletop system that tracks multi-user eye movement in a co-located setting. Knowledge of eye movement is highly relevant to tabletop interaction: eyes can point to distant targets on large tables, address usability issues imposed by rotation sensitive objects, such as menu and text, and facilitate new types of multimodal interactions. This research will evaluate a set of novel eye-controlled interactions and explore the design space of gaze-aware tabletop systems.
Why data is not enough: Digital traces as control of self and self-control

As an alternative to the seemingly natural objectivity and self-evidence of “data,” this paper builds on recent francophone literature by developing a critical conceptualization of “digital traces. ” Underlining the materiality and discursiveness of traces allows us to understand and articulate both the technical and sociopolitical implications of digital technology. The philosophies of Gilbert Simondon and Michel Foucault give strong ontological and epistemological groundings for interpreting the relationships between technology and processes of subjectification. In this light, digital traces are framed as objects and products of heteronomous interventions, the logics of which can be traced through the programs and algorithms deployed. Through the empirical examples of “Predictive Policing” and “Quantified Self” digital traces are contrasted with the premises and dreams of Big Data. While the later claims to algorithmically correlative, predict and preempt the future by reducing it to a “what-is-to-come,” the digital trace paradigm offers a new perspective on how forms of self-control and control of the self are interdependent facets of “algorithmic governmentality. ”
Robust observer with higher-order sliding mode for sensorless speed estimation of a PMSM

This paper addresses the problem of sensorless speed estimation for the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). A higher-order sliding mode (HSM) observer is developed to provide estimation of back electro motive forces (EMFs) that are treated as unknown inputs without the use of lowpass filter. A finite-time smooth estimation is obtained and the chattering phenomenon is eliminated. An accurate speed estimate of PMSM can be algebraically computed with the estimated back EMFs. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Choosing preclinical study models of diabetic retinopathy: key problems for consideration

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus in the eye. Although the clinical treatment for DR has already developed to a relative high level, there are still many urgent problems that need to be investigated in clinical and basic science. Currently, many in vivo animal models and in vitro culture systems have been applied to solve these problems. Many approaches have also been used to establish different DR models. However, till now, there has not been a single study model that can clearly and exactly mimic the developmental process of the human DR. Choosing the suitable model is important, not only for achieving our research goals smoothly, but also, to better match with different experimental proposals in the study. In this review, key problems for consideration in choosing study models of DR are discussed. These problems relate to clinical relevance, different approaches for establishing models, and choice of different species of animals as well as of the specific in vitro culture systems. Attending to these considerations will deepen the understanding on current study models and optimize the experimental design for the final goal of preventing DR.
Linear Interactive Encoding and Decoding for Lossless Source Coding With Decoder Only Side Information

Linear interactive encoding and decoding (IED) for near lossless source coding with decoder only side information is considered, where the interactive encoder uses linear codes (described by parity-check matrices over a finite field X) for encoding. It is first demonstrated how to convert any classical universal lossless code Cn (with block length n and with side information available to both the encoder and decoder) into a universal random linear IED scheme based on Gallager's parity check ensemble. It is then shown that there is no performance loss by restricting IED to linear IED, and that the universal random linear IED scheme based on Gallager's parity check ensemble achieves essentially the same rate performance as does Cn for each and every individual sequence pair (xn, yn) while the word decoding error probability goes to 0 as n → ∞ . Define the density of a linear IED scheme as the percentage of nonzero entries in its parity-check matrix. To reduce the encoding complexity of linear IED, low density linear IED is further investigated in terms of the trade-off among its rate, decoding error probability, and density.
A Neural Comprehensive Ranker (NCR) for Open-Domain Question Answering

This paper proposes a novel neural machine reading model for open-domain question answering at scale. Existing machine comprehension models typically assume that a short piece of relevant text containing answers is already identified and given to the models, from which the models are designed to extract answers. This assumption, however, is not realistic for building a large-scale open-domain question answering system which requires both deep text understanding and identifying relevant text from corpus simultaneously. In this paper, we introduce Neural Comprehensive Ranker (NCR) that integrates both passage ranking and answer extraction in one single framework. A Q&A system based on this framework allows users to issue an open-domain question without needing to provide a piece of text that must contain the answer. Experiments show that the unified NCR model is able to outperform the states-of-the-art in both retrieval of relevant text and answer extraction.
Comparative and Evolutionary Analysis of the HES/HEY Gene Family Reveal Exon/Intron Loss and Teleost Specific Duplication Events

Background HES/HEY genes encode a family of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors with both bHLH and Orange domain. HES/HEY proteins are direct targets of the Notch signaling pathway and play an essential role in developmental decisions, such as the developments of nervous system, somitogenesis, blood vessel and heart. Despite their important functions, the origin and evolution of this HES/HEY gene family has yet to be elucidated. Methods and Findings In this study, we identified genes of the HES/HEY family in representative species and performed evolutionary analysis to elucidate their origin and evolutionary process. Our results showed that the HES/HEY genes only existed in metazoans and may originate from the common ancestor of metazoans. We identified HES/HEY genes in more than 10 species representing the main lineages. Combining the bHLH and Orange domain sequences, we constructed the phylogenetic trees by different methods (Bayesian, ML, NJ and ME) and classified the HES/HEY gene family into four groups. Our results indicated that this gene family had undergone three expansions, which were along with the origins of Eumetazoa, vertebrate, and teleost. Gene structure analysis revealed that the HES/HEY genes were involved in exon and/or intron loss in different species lineages. Genes of this family were duplicated in bony fishes and doubled than other vertebrates. Furthermore, we studied the teleost-specific duplications in zebrafish and investigated the expression pattern of duplicated genes in different tissues by RT-PCR. Finally, we proposed a model to show the evolution of this gene family with processes of expansion, exon/intron loss, and motif loss. Conclusions Our study revealed the evolution of HES/HEY gene family, the expression and function divergence of duplicated genes, which also provide clues for the research of Notch function in development. This study shows a model of gene family analysis with gene structure evolution and duplication.
Psychometric properties and validation of two global impression questionnaires (PGI‐S, PGI‐I) for stress incontinence in a German‐speaking female population

The Patient Global Index of Severity (PGI‐S) and the Patient Global Index of Improvement (PGI‐I) are global impression questionnaires developed in English and validated in women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). This validation study tested the psychometric properties of German‐language versions of the two questionnaires in German‐speaking women with SUI.
Three-dimensional eye-head coordination is implemented downstream from the superior colliculus.

How the brain transforms two-dimensional visual signals into multi-dimensional motor commands, and subsequently how it constrains the redundant degrees of freedom, are fundamental problems in sensorimotor control. During fixations between gaze shifts, the redundant torsional degree of freedom is determined by various neural constraints. For example, the eye- and head-in-space are constrained by Donders' law, whereas the eye-in-head obeys Listing's law. However, where and how the brain implements these laws is not yet known. In this study, we show that eye and head movements, elicited by unilateral microstimulations of the superior colliculus (SC) in head-free monkeys, obey the same Donders' strategies observed in normal behavior (i.e., Listing's law for final eye positions and the Fick strategy for the head). Moreover, these evoked movements showed a pattern of three-dimensional eye-head coordination, consistent with normal behavior, where the eye is driven purposely out of Listing's plane during the saccade portion of the gaze shift in opposition to a subsequent torsional vestibuloocular reflex slow phase, such that the final net torsion at the end of each head-free gaze shift is zero. The required amount of saccade-related torsion was highly variable, depending on the initial position of the eye and head prior to a gaze shift and the size of the gaze shift, pointing to a neural basis of torsional control. Because these variable, context-appropriate torsional saccades were correctly elicited by fixed SC commands during head-free stimulations, this shows that the SC only encodes the horizontal and vertical components of gaze, leaving the complexity of torsional organization to downstream control systems. Thus we conclude that Listing's and Donders' laws of the eyes and head, and their three-dimensional coordination mechanisms, must be implemented after the SC.
Evaluating a General Model of Emotional Appraisal and Coping

Introduction In our research, we have developed a general computational model of human emotion. The model attempts to account for both the factors that give rise to emotions as well as the wide-ranging impact emotions have on cognitive and behavioral responses. Emotions influence our beliefs, our decision-making and how we adapt our behavior to the world around us. While most apparent in moments of great stress, emotions sway even the mundane decisions we face in everyday life [1, 2]. Emotions also infuse our social relationships [3]. Our interactions with each other are a source of many emotions and we have developed a range of behaviors that can communicate emotional information as well as an ability to recognize and be influenced by the emotional arousal of others. By virtue of their central role and wide influence, emotion arguably provides the means to coordinate the diverse mental and physical components required to respond to the world in a coherent fashion [4].
Impact of public reporting on unreported quality of care.

OBJECTIVE The impact of quality improvement incentives on nontargeted care is unknown and some have expressed concern that such incentives may be harmful to nontargeted areas of care. Our objective is to examine the effect of publicly reporting quality information on unreported quality of care. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING The nursing home Minimum Data Set from 1999 to 2005 on all postacute care admissions. STUDY DESIGN We studied 13,683 skilled nursing facilities and examined how unreported aspects of clinical care changed in response to changes in reported care after public reporting was initiated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on their website, Nursing Home Compare, in 2002. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We find that overall both unreported and reported care improved following the launch of public reporting. Improvements in unreported care were particularly large among facilities with high scores or that significantly improved on reported measures, whereas low-scoring facilities experienced no change or worsening of their unreported quality of care. CONCLUSIONS Public reporting in the setting of postacute care had mixed effects on areas without public reporting, improving in high-ranking facilities, but worsening in low-ranking facilities. While the benefits of public reporting may extend beyond areas that are being directly measured, these initiatives may also widen the gap between high- and low-quality facilities.