Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regret based Robust Solutions for Uncertain Markov Decision Processes

In this paper, we seek robust policies for uncertain Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Most robust optimization approaches for these problems have focussed on the computation of maximin policies which maximize the value corresponding to the worst realization of the uncertainty. Recent work has proposed minimax regret as a suitable alternative to the maximin objective for robust optimization. However, existing algorithms for handling minimax regret are restricted to models with uncertainty over rewards only. We provide algorithms that employ sampling to improve across multiple dimensions: (a) Handle uncertainties over both transition and reward models; (b) Dependence of model uncertainties across state, action pairs and decision epochs; (c) Scalability and quality bounds. Finally, to demonstrate the empirical effectiveness of our sampling approaches, we provide comparisons against benchmark algorithms on two domains from literature. We also provide a Sample Average Approximation (SAA) analysis to compute a posteriori error bounds.
A rapid RT-PCR method for detection of intact RNA in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.

The molecular analysis of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues has application in both investigative studies and clinical practice (1). It is now possible to analyze gene expression in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues by in situ reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (in situ RT-PCR) (2). Degradation of RNA, however, can occur at various stages of tissue preparation, fixation and paraffin-embedding. To date, a rapid technique designed to determine RNA quality in formalinfixed and paraffin-embedded tissues is lacking. The most common method for monitoring RNA involves tissue extraction using guanidinium thiocyanate or acid guanidinium thiocyanatephenol-chloroform (3). Unfortunately, for many applications, this approach is time-consuming and, more importantly, results in a significant loss of material during RNA extraction. In contrast, the use of diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC) water has been described as a means for rapidly determining gene expression in fresh cells, thereby eliminating an RNA extraction step (4). However, residual DEPC is undesirable because of its tendency to inhibit reverse transcription. We have therefore developed a rapid and sensitive method which can determine RNA quality in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. Using this procedure, tissue scraped from slides was used as a direct substrate for RT-PCR in order to amplify K-ras and protein kinase CC, (PKC-Q. Using this straightforward method, RNA template can be obtained in 1.5 h, making it feasible to reverse transcribe and amplify cDNA in a single day, a time frame appropriate for both the diagnostic and research laboratories.
Molecular Approaches To Detecting Herpes Simplex Virus and Enteroviruses in the Central Nervous System

The initial presentation of symptoms and clinical manifestations of viral central nervous system (CNS) infectious diseases often makes a specific diagnosis difficult and uncertain. For example, the clinical features of CNS disease due to nonpolio enteroviruses (EV) can overlap those caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV), which sometimes occur in young infants and adults in the absence of cutaneous lesions (4, 12, 39). The etiological agent and type of infection can determine potential prognoses as well as optimal treatment modality for the patient. Enterovirus infections often do not require antiviral intervention, but at least two new antivirals are undergoing trials, the more prominent of which is pleconaril (16, 22). Also, if a mean time of 24 h to diagnosis was assumed, 1.2 to 2.8 days of hospitalization per patient could be saved over current averages (1, 13, 18, 26). Mortality from HSV, however, before the use of acyclovir was 60 to 70% and has been reported to drop to 19 to 38% with therapy (27, 38). Early diagnosis and treatment of viral CNS infections, therefore, will decrease morbidity and mortality rates.
Trajectories of Metabolic Risk Factors and Biochemical Markers prior to the Onset of Cardiovascular Disease – The Doetinchem Cohort Study

Risk factors often develop at young age and are maintained over time, but it is not fully understood how risk factors develop over time preceding cardiovascular disease (CVD). Our objective was to examine how levels and trajectories of metabolic risk factors and biochemical markers prior to diagnosis differ between people with and without CVD over a period of up to 15–20 years. A total of 449 incident non-fatal and fatal CVD cases and 1,347 age- and sex-matched controls were identified in a prospective cohort between 1993 and 2011. Metabolic risk factors and biochemical markers were measured at five-year intervals prior to diagnosis. Trajectories of metabolic risk factors and biochemical markers were analysed using random coefficient analyses. Although not always statistically significant, participants with CVD had slightly more unfavourable levels for most metabolic risk factors and biochemical markers 15–20 years before diagnosis than controls. Subsequent trajectories until diagnosis were similar in participants with incident CVD and controls for body mass index, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, random glucose, triglycerides, gamma glutamyltransferase, C-reactive protein and uric acid. Trajectories were more unfavourable in participants with CVD than controls for systolic blood pressure, waist circumference and estimated glomerular filtration rate (p≤0.05). For example, among participants with CVD, systolic blood pressure increased on average by 9 mmHg over the 18-year period preceding diagnosis, whereas the increase among controls was 4 mmHg. In conclusion, unfavourable levels of metabolic risk factors and biochemical markers are present long before CVD, which indicates that the risk of CVD is already partly determined in young adulthood. This underscores the need for early prevention to reduce the burden of CVD.
RL-huffman encoding for test compression and power reduction in scan applications

This article mixes two encoding techniques to reduce test data volume, test pattern delivery time, and power dissipation in scan test applications. This is achieved by using run-length encoding followed by Huffman encoding. This combination is especially effective when the percentage of don't cares in a test set is high, which is a common case in today's large systems-on-chips (SoCs). Our analysis and experimental results confirm that achieving up to an 89&percent; compression ratio and a 93&percent; scan-in power reduction is possible for scan-testable circuits such as ISCAS89 benchmarks.
Modeling Individual Choices in Experiments: Reply to Conte and Moffatt

In a comment to Cappelen, Hole, S. Sorensen, and Tungodden (2007b), Conte and Moffatt (2009) challenge our use of a random utility model when studying individual choices in a fairness experiment. They propose an alternative approach, what we call the random behavioral model, and they show that the choice of modeling strategy has profound implications for our understanding of the observed behavior. In this note, we discuss how the two approaches differ, and we show that the random behavioral model of Conte and Moffatt (2009) fails to fit the data from our fairness experiment.
An Adaptive n-Resolution Anti-Collision Algorithm for RFID Tag Identification

In this paper, an Adaptive n-Resolution scheme (AnR) is presented for RFID tag identification. The proposed protocol first divides target tags into two categories: staying tags and new arriving tags. Then two distinct identification processes are in-voked in sequence to recognize tags in the two tag groups. Based on our theoretical analyses and simulation experiments, AnR reduces at least 10% on communication overhead and 10% to 40% identification delay in comparison with Pair-Resolution Blocking algorithm [1-2].
THE RANDOMIZED DESIGN PROVIDES CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

There are distinctive limitations in the conditions under which we can rely on an experimental design to support the inferences we wish to draw. The issue becomes important as we try to adapt experimental designs to social experiments. Elsewhere (Levine, in press) I have used the slogan ''There is no such thing as a social vacuum" to express Toulmin' s ( 1958) thesis that the closed character of a logical system that permits precise deduction, inferences, and tests of truth is inappropriately applied in practical arguments about the real world. Toulmin' s thesis demands that we recognize that research always takes place in a social context and that the context influences the total research process. Social realities are usually experienced as obstacles to mounting powerful experiments. Methodologists have been ingenious in devising and evaluating quasi-experimental designs; but the preference for the true experiment, marked by random assignment of subjects to experimental and control groups, is clear (Campbell, 1969; Campbell & Stanley, 1963). * Given the underlying logic of experimental design and of statistical inference, the true experiment provides the strongest support for statements about the relationship between an experimental treatment and change in the dependent variable. Such clear statements are vitally important if one is to generalize the results of modest experiments undertaken to provide the basis for large-scale programs of social remediation. The randomized design assumes that all events other than the experimental treatment will affect experimental and control groups to the same degree, in the sense that all other events are expected to impinge on
Workshop über Selbstorganisierende, adaptive, kontextsensitive verteilte Systeme (SAKS 2010) Self Organized Swarms for cluster preserving Projections of high-dimensional Data

: A new approach for topographic mapping, called Swarm-Organized Projection (SOP) is presented. SOP has been inspired by swarm intelligence methods for clustering and is similar to Curvilinear Component Analysis (CCA) and SOM. In contrast to the latter the choice of critical parameters is substituted by self-organization. On several crucial benchmark data sets it is demonstrated that SOP outperforms many other projection methods. SOP produces coherent clusters even for complex entangled high dimensional cluster structures. For a nontrivial dataset on protein DNA sequence Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS) and CCA fail to represent the clusters in the data, although the clusters are clearly defined. With SOP the correct clusters in the data could be easily detected.
Deficits in spatial memory correlate with modified γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor tyrosine phosphorylation in the hippocampus

Fast synaptic inhibition in the brain is largely mediated by γ-aminobutyric acid receptors (GABAAR). While the pharmacological manipulation of GABAAR function by therapeutic agents, such as benzodiazepines can have profound effects on neuronal excitation and behavior, the endogenous mechanisms neurons use to regulate the efficacy of synaptic inhibition and their impact on behavior remains poorly understood. To address this issue, we created a knock-in mouse in which tyrosine phosphorylation of the GABAARs γ2 subunit, a posttranslational modification that is critical for their functional modulation, has been ablated. These animals exhibited enhanced GABAAR accumulation at postsynaptic inhibitory synaptic specializations on pyramidal neurons within the CA3 subdomain of the hippocampus, primarily due to aberrant trafficking within the endocytic pathway. This enhanced inhibition correlated with a specific deficit in spatial object recognition, a behavioral paradigm dependent upon CA3. Thus, phospho-dependent regulation of GABAAR function involving just two tyrosine residues in the γ2 subunit provides an input-specific mechanism that not only regulates the efficacy of synaptic inhibition, but has behavioral consequences.
Thigh Muscle Activities in Elite Rowers During On-Water Rowing

This study analysed the muscle activity levels and patterns of the major thigh muscle activation during training sections at different intensities of on-water rowing. 9 experienced rowers performed 2 imposed-pace sections (B1 and B2) and 2 maximal-speed sections (start, 500 m) of on-water rowing. The knee angle, power output, mean torque and stroke rate were measured using specific instrumentation and were synchronised with surface electromyography signals of 5 superficial quadriceps and hamstring muscles. B1 and B2 sections were not significantly different regarding mechanical parameters and EMG activities, while the start phase induced large differences. The EMG patterns for B1, B2 were similar (cross-correlation coefficients (CC) ranged between 0.972-0.984) and the moderate CC found between both B1 and start (0.605-0.720) and B2 and start (0.629-0.720). Our results suggest that the hamstring muscles have a motor action and contribute to the power production during the leg drive. During an all-out 500 m section, a decrease in power and stroke rate was found (up to 20%). However, EMG patterns were not time shifted for all muscles. During the leg drive, the muscle activity levels of the quadriceps muscles were unchanged, while the activity of the hamstring muscles decreased.
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Haemophilus Influenzae Type B Immunization in Korea

An economic evaluation of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) immunization was conducted to examine whether Hib immunization should be included in the Korea's national immunization program. The costs and benefits included direct and indirect values and an estimation of the economic efficiency. We determined that a universal Hib immunization program in Korea would prevent 17 deaths and 280 invasive Hib cases. When we assumed the one Hib immunization cost as 26,000 won, the national Hib immunization would cost 34.6 billion won. Costs for various Hib diseases were estimated at 26.8 billion won (11.8 billion won from direct costs and 14.9 billion won from indirect costs). A benefit-cost ratio of 0.77 showed that the economic efficiency of the integration of Hib immunization in Korea is low because of the low incidence rate of Hib disease and high price of vaccine. However, if the Hib immunization cost decrease to less than 20,000 won, a benefit-cost ratio increase to 1.0 and above, integrating Hib immunization into the national immunization program with economic efficiency can be considered.
Performance Evaluation of Secure Network Coding Using Homomorphic Signature

Network coding has gained significant attention by improving throughput and reliability in disruptive MANETs. Yet, it is vulnerable to attacks from malicious nodes. In order to prevent malicious attacks, we have explored the use of secure network coding schemes based on homomorphic properties of cryptographic systems. While homomorphic methods, especially those based on public key cryptography, provide strong protection against both external and internal attacks, they do increase processing overhead as they require complex cryptographic operations (e.g., exponentiation, multiplication, modular operations). The goal of this paper is two fold: assess the feasibility of implementing Homomorphic Network Coding in an off-the-shelf laptop/smartphone platform, and evaluate the processing and delay performance when such implementations are deployed in a simple network scenario. To this end, we have implemented in LINUX an RSA-based homomorphic algorithm which exhibits very competitive processing efficiency as compared with published (public-key) schemes. For the LINUX implementation we have measured the processing delay for various flow and parameter settings. We have then integrated the homomorphic processing model (with associated O/H) in a MANET network simulator. Using this simulator, we have evaluated the performance of secure network coding under various network conditions and have compared it with other secure network coding schemes. We conclude the paper with a discussion of secure coding feasibility and cost for different application scenarios.
CE-HPLC Testing of Hemoglobin A1c for Assessment of Long Term Glycemic Control in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is routinely used in the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) and for monitoring the long-term glycemic control in patients already diagnosed with DM. HbA1c is measured in the clinical laboratory based either on the charge of the glycated molecule by cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (CE-HPLC) or electrophoresis, or on the physical structure of the glycated hemoglobin via immunoassays, boronate affinity chromatography or mass spectrometry. The addition of glucose to HbA triggers a decrease in the negative charge of the molecule making chromatographic separation of HbA1c from HbA using CE-HPLC possible. Estimation of HbA1c by CE-HPLC depends upon the separation of each of the patient’s hemoglobin species from HbA1c. In this context, the estimation of HbA1c using CE-HPLC is affected by Hb mutations (Hb variants) and posttranslational modifications (e.g. carbamylation and acetylation) that also alter the charge of hemoglobin molecule. Due to the clinical implications of diagnostic of DM and maintaining glucose control, accurate quantification of HbA1c is essential. A thorough understanding of the analytical and clinical limitations of the methods used (e.g. CE-HPLC) for HbA1c evaluation is extremely important. This review discusses the interferences of Hb variants and other factors in the evaluation of HbA1c using CEHPLC methodology.
Unison Cache: A Scalable and Effective Die-Stacked DRAM Cache

Recent research advocates large die-stacked DRAM caches in many core servers to break the memory latency and bandwidth wall. To realize their full potential, die-stacked DRAM caches necessitate low lookup latencies, high hit rates and the efficient use of off-chip bandwidth. Today's stacked DRAM cache designs fall into two categories based on the granularity at which they manage data: block-based and page-based. The state-of-the-art block-based design, called Alloy Cache, collocates a tag with each data block (e.g., 64B) in the stacked DRAM to provide fast access to data in a single DRAM access. However, such a design suffers from low hit rates due to poor temporal locality in the DRAM cache. In contrast, the state-of-the-art page-based design, called Footprint Cache, organizes the DRAM cache at page granularity (e.g., 4KB), but fetches only the blocks that will likely be touched within a page. In doing so, the Footprint Cache achieves high hit rates with moderate on-chip tag storage and reasonable lookup latency. However, multi-gigabyte stacked DRAM caches will soon be practical and needed by server applications, thereby mandating tens of MBs of tag storage even for page-based DRAM caches. We introduce a novel stacked-DRAM cache design, Unison Cache. Similar to Alloy Cache's approach, Unison Cache incorporates the tag metadata directly into the stacked DRAM to enable scalability to arbitrary stacked-DRAM capacities. Then, leveraging the insights from the Footprint Cache design, Unison Cache employs large, page-sized cache allocation units to achieve high hit rates and reduction in tag overheads, while predicting and fetching only the useful blocks within each page to minimize the off-chip traffic. Our evaluation using server workloads and caches of up to 8GB reveals that Unison cache improves performance by 14% compared to Alloy Cache due to its high hit rate, while outperforming the state-of-the art page-based designs that require impractical SRAM-based tags of around 50MB.
Hiding sensitive patterns in association rules mining

Data mining techniques have been developed in many applications. However it also causes a threat to privacy. We investigate to find an appropriate balance between a need for privacy and information discovery on association patterns. We propose an innovative technique for hiding sensitive patterns. In our approach, a sanitization matrix is defined. By multiplying the original transaction database and the sanitization matrix, a new database, which is sanitized for privacy concern, is described. Moreover a set of experiments is performed to show the effectiveness of our approach.
Two mechanisms for inward rectification of current flow through the purinoceptor P2X2 class of ATP‐gated channels

1 The ATP receptor subunit P2X2 was expressed in Xenopus oocytes and human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells. ATP‐activated currents were studied with two‐electrode voltage clamp recordings from oocytes, whole‐cell recordings from HEK 293 cells, and outside‐out patch clamp recordings from both cell types. The steady‐state current‐voltage (I‐V) relation showed profound inward rectification in all recording configurations. 2 Recordings from outside‐out patches demonstrated that inward rectification does not require intracellular Mg2+ or polyamines, and that inward rectification was present when the same solution was used on both sides of the patch. 3 Voltage jump experiments were performed to evaluate the voltage dependence of channel gating. After fast voltage jumps, instantaneous current jumps were followed by substantial relaxations to the steady state. The time course of the current relaxations could be fitted by single exponential functions. The instantaneous I‐V relation was less inwardly rectifying than the steady‐state I‐V relation; however, it was not linear. 4 Single channel recordings indicated that the single channel conductance became smaller when the membrane potential became more positive. This decrease could quantitatively account for inward rectification of the instantaneous I‐V relation. 5 We conclude that inward rectification of P2X2 is due to two mechanisms: voltage‐dependent gating and voltage dependence of the single channel conductance.
Intellectual Courage and the Social Construction of Terrorism: Embodying Reality.

Undertaking the exploration of the diverse, thought-provoking interpretations students provided for the words “terrorism” and “terrorist” is the basis of this work. The purpose in describing their interpretations is to acknowledge, in some instances, their acceptance of and resistance to “official” definitions and versions of “reality” regarding terrorism and terrorist. My interest is in showing how reality is constructed and experienced by students and how we as researchers and educators may create new possibilities of reality. This display of reality utilizes seven female students’ written discourse and is presented through the lens of sociological, political, and educational theories. Over the years I have taught sociology, social theory, research methods and political science. I have watched my students react with fascination (mostly positive, but sometimes negative) when learning about other cultures, belief systems, and values; expand their critical thinking skills; accept and reject elements of official doctrine and mass media produced acquiescent knowledge; and realize how the United States, with its hegemonic standing, culture, beliefs and values, affects and is affected by the rest of the world. In planning this study, I wanted to know how my students assemble their “subjective” social reality and how they perceive, interpret, and experience “objective” world realities. The title of this work, Intellectual Courage and the Social Construction of Terrorism: Embodying Reality, reflects the three main constructs: intellectual courage, social construction, and reality. The results display an expression of open-mindedness without intimidation. When discussing and analyzing their socially constructed realities, many students were able to think more creatively and critically when viewing “reality” associate with terrorists and terrorism.