Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neighborhood Attachment in the Multiethnic Metropolis

In acknowledging that patterns of neighborhood attachment—a key component in the maintenance of neighborhood vitality—may shift as a result of growing racial and ethnic diversity, this study develops a multiethnic and multilevel framework to examine the link between racial diversity and attachment among Los Angeles residents. the expansion of the Asian and Hispanic populations may affect attachment patterns if group members exhibit different levels of attachment compared with blacks and whites, due to factors such as illegal citizenship and poorer neighborhood resources. Additionally, their presence in neighborhoods may influence other residents’ attachment by triggering racial prejudice or concerns about local resources. Using the 2001 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS), this analysis demonstrates that Asians and Hispanics modestly diverge from blacks and whites in the strength of their attachment, due in part to individual and neighborhood characteristics. Although the neighborhood presence of blacks and Hispanics moderately diminishes some aspects of residents’ attachment, regardless of individual race, in many instances neighborhood racial composition fails to exert a significant impact on neighborhood attachment.
Active Graph Cuts

This paper adds a number of novel concepts into global s/t cut methods improving their efficiency and making them relevant for a wider class of applications in vision where algorithms should ideally run in real-time. Our new Active Cuts (AC) method can effectively use a good approximate solution (initial cut) that is often available in dynamic, hierarchical, and multi-label optimization problems in vision. In many problems AC works faster than the state-of-the-art max-flow methods [2] even if initial cut is far from the optimal one. Moreover, empirical speed improves several folds when initial cut is spatially close to the optima. Before converging to a global minima, Active Cuts outputs a multitude of intermediate solutions (intermediate cuts) that, for example, can be used be accelerate iterative learning-based methods or to improve visual perception of graph cuts realtime performance when large volumetric data is segmented. Finally, it can also be combined with many previous methods for accelerating graph cuts.
Astaxanthin profiles and corresponding colour properties in Australian farmed black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) during frozen storage

The colour of commercial cooked black tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) is a key quality requirement to ensure product is not rejected in wholesale markets. The colour, due to the carotenoid astaxanthin, can be impacted by frozen storage, but changes in colour or astaxanthin profile, during frozen storage, have not been studied in detail. Subsequently in this study, the aims were to define the astaxanthin (as cis, trans, mono-ester and di-ester forms) content, together with the colour properties, in both pleopods (legs) and abdominal segments. Changes in astaxanthin content and colour properties were further determined during frozen storage (−20°C). Total astaxanthin content was seen to decrease in all samples over time, with the rate of degradation being significantly greater (P < 0.05) in pleopods than abdomen. In both pleopods and abdomen, rate of degradation of esterified forms was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than non-esterified forms. Hue angle (increase), a* value (decrease) and L value (increase) were all seen to significantly change (P < 0.05) during storage, with changes being more prevalent in the pleopods. The pleopods are the key indicator of astaxanthin and colour loss in cooked black tiger prawns and preservation strategies are required to preserve astaxanthin and colour during frozen storage.
MODELING OF VSWT DRIVEN SYNCHRONOUS GENERATOR

—With the scenario of wind power constituting up to 20% of the electric grid capacity in the future, the need for systematic studies of the impact of wind power on transient stability of the grid has increased. This paper investigates possible improvements in grid transient stability while integrating the large-scale variable speed wind turbine driven synchronous generator. A dynamic modeling and simulation of a grid connected variable speed wind turbine (VSWT) driven synchronous generator with controllable power inverter strategies suitable for the study was developed, tested and verified. This dynamic model with its control scheme can regulate real power , maintain reactive power, generate voltage, and speed at different wind speeds. For this paper, studies were conducted on a standard IEEE 9 bus system augmented by a radially connected wind power plant (WPP) which contains 28 variable speed wind turbines with controllable power inverter strategies. Also it has the potential to control the rotor angle deviation and increase the critical clearing time during grid disturbance with the help of controllable power inverter strategy. Keywords: Variable speed wind turbine, direct drive synchronous generator , rotor angle deviation and critical clearing time, transient stability, grid connected.
Cloning, purification, and biochemical characterization of the pneumococcal bacteriophage Cp-1 lysin

Cp-1, a small virulent bacteriophage infecting Streptococcus pneumoniae, encodes its own lytic enzyme (CPL). A fragment of Cp-1 DNA containing the gene cpl coding for CPL was cloned and expressed in high amounts in Escherichia coli. CPL was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity by using affinity chromatography on choline-Sepharose (T. Briese and R. Hakenbeck, Eur. J. Biochem. 146:417-427, 1985), and the enzyme showing a Mr of 39,000 was characterized as a muramidase. This muramidase required for in vivo and in vitro activity the presence of choline in the teichoic acids of the pneumococcal cell walls. Free choline or lipoteichoic acid noncompetitively inhibited the activity of CPL.
Automatic feature engineering for prediction of dangerous seismic activities in coal mines

In this paper we present our submission to the AAIA'16 Data Mining Challenge, where the objective was to predict dangerous seismic events based on hourly aggregated readings from different sensor and recent mining expert assessment of the conditions in the mine. During the course of the competition we have exploited a framework for automatic feature extraction from time series data that did not require any manual tuning. Furthermore, we have analyzed the impact of overlapping of input data on model robustness. We argue that training an ensemble of classifiers with distinct (i.e. non-overlapping) chronological data rather than one classifier with all available data can produce more reliable and robust prediction models. By doing that, we were able to avoid overfitting and obtain the same score performance on the evaluation and test datasets, despite the significant data drift in the datasets.
Development and evaluation of a concise food list for use in a web-based 24-h dietary recall tool

Abstract Foodbook24 is a self-administered web-based 24-h dietary recall tool developed to assess food and nutrient intakes of Irish adults. This paper describes the first step undertaken in developing Foodbook24 which was to limit participant burden by establishing a concise list of food items for inclusion in the tool. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether using a concise food list (as opposed to an extensive list) with generic composition data would influence the estimates of nutrient intakes in a nationally representative sample of Irish adults. A 2319-item food list generated from the Irish National Adult Nutrition Survey (NANS) (2008–2010) (n 1500) was used as the basis for a shortened food list for integration into the tool. Foods similar in nutritional composition were recoded with a generic type food code to produce a concise list of 751 food codes. The concise food list was applied to the NANS food consumption dataset and intake estimates of thirty-five nutrients were compared with estimates derived using the original extensive list. Small differences in nutrient intakes (<6 %) with limited effect size (Cohen's d < 0·1) were observed between estimates from both food lists. The concise food list showed strong positive correlations (r s 0·9–1·0, n 1500, P < 0·001) and a high level of agreement with the extensive list (80–97 % of nutrient intakes classified into the same tertile; >90% of intakes similarly categorised according to dietary reference values). This indicates that a concise food list is suitable for use in a web-based 24-h dietary recall tool for Irish adults.
CPU and Memory Utilization by improving performance in network by Live Migration technology

The aim of this paper is to improve the performance of network communication between some Virtual Machines in LAN by modifying a script in Xen. Also in this paper we have tested the utilization of CPU and Memory during the live migration phase. After these tests we have concluded that there is no dependency between Memory of Virtual Machines and CPU Consumed. These experiments are performed in Xen Hypervisor, because it offers paravirtualization approach which support more flexibility for
Cortical Brain Regions Associated with Color Processing: An FMRi Study

To clarify whether the neural pathways concerning color processing are the same for natural objects, for artifacts objects and for non-objects we examined brain responses measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) during a covert naming task including the factors color (color vs. black&white (B&W)) and stimulus type (natural vs. artifacts vs. non-objects). Our results indicate that the superior parietal lobule and precuneus (BA 7) bilaterally, the right hippocampus and the right fusifom gyrus (V4) make part of a network responsible for color processing both for natural objects and artifacts, but not for non-objects. When color objects (both natural and artifacts) were contrasted with color non-objects we observed activations in the right parahippocampal gyrus (BA 35/36), the superior parietal lobule (BA 7) bilaterally, the left inferior middle temporal region (BA 20/21) and the inferior and superior frontal regions (BA 10/11/47). These additional activations suggest that colored objects recruit brain regions that are related to visual semantic information/retrieval and brain regions related to visuo-spatial processing. Overall, the results suggest that color information is an attribute that can improve object recognition (behavioral results) and activate a specific neural network related to visual semantic information that is more extensive than for B&W objects during object recognition.
In vivo administration of liposomal vincristine sensitizes drug‐resistant human solid tumors

Here we evaluated the antitumor efficacy of vincristine (VCR) encapsulated in sphingomyelin/cholesterol liposomes (SM/Chol) on drug‐resistant human solid tumors. We firstly used the M14 human melanoma line and the counterpart resistant derivative, M14/R. The M14/R, selected after doxorubicin exposure, was cross resistant to VCR: the in vitro treatment with free VCR reduced the survival of M14, while M14/R line was completely resistant to VCR. Encapsulation in liposomes improved the efficacy of VCR in M14 cells and sensitized the M14/R line to the drug. Experiments in vivo confirmed these results. The treatment of M14 bearing mice with VCR resulted in marked reduction of tumor growth, while no antitumoral effect was observed in M14/R tumors. The administration of VCR encapsulated in liposomes was able to sensitize M14/R tumors to the drug, the antitumoral effect being comparable to that observed in M14 tumors after the same treatment. By injecting animals with the same dose of liposomal VCR fractionated into 3 daily injections and administering repeated cycles of treatment, to a marked improvement of the antitumor activity of liposomal VCR was observed. TUNEL assay in tumor sections indicated that the improved efficacy of liposomal VCR was related to the induction of massive necrosis and apoptosis. To confirm the efficacy of liposomal VCR on drug‐resistant tumors, MCF7 breast and LoVo colon carcinomas, sensitive and resistant to VCR treatment, were also employed. The results showed that the treatment with liposomal VCR of mice bearing breast or colon resistant tumors reduced the tumor mass and delayed the tumor regrowth to the same extent observed in the sensitive counterpart. Together, these results demonstrate the ability of VCR encapsulated in liposomes in sensitizing drug resistant tumors of different histotypes. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Perceptions of middle school assessment: an ecological view

Background: The ecology of physical education is created through the interaction of three task systems: managerial task system, instructional task system, and the student social system. Within the ecological framework tasks are presented and task development is influenced by concepts such as ambiguity, risk, and accountability. Teachers' and students' perceptions of assessment tasks have been examined to some extent in physical education; however, they have not been investigated through an ecological lens. Purpose of study: The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students' and their teacher's perceptions of assessment through an ecological lens in order to investigate how assessment influenced both the teacher's and the students' agenda in the classroom. Setting: The research took place in a suburban middle school located in the western part of Massachusetts. Participants: Participants were an intact class of 36 seventh-grade students and their teacher. Research design: Qualitative case study. Data collection and analysis: Data were collected in four ways: (a) videotaped record of each lesson, (b) field notes, (c) formal interviews using a semi-structured interview guide and (d) documents. Field notes and interview data were inductively analyzed using constant comparison. Categories were developed and examined for common elements that ran throughout and tied them together. Themes were then extracted from these categories. Data were selectively coded for examples that illustrated the themes. Results: Three main findings are reported. First, students' perceptions of assessment were influenced by the ambiguity of what was being assessed and the lack of risk associated with their level of performance on the assessments. Although ambiguity was present, there was little to no risk because students were not held formally accountable by a grade exchange for assessment tasks. Second, since the assessments were not used as a form of formal accountability (i.e., not linked to a grade) the students did not value assessment. Furthermore, the teacher did not value assessment tasks because she was not held accountable to assess student learning. Finally the student social system impacted students' perceptions of assessment. The students wanted to have fun and many believed assessments were not fun, rather they were boring. Students also perceived that working with their friends to do assessments resulted in more effort because students wanted to work and socialize with their friends, as well as perform the skills correctly in front of their friends. Conclusions/recommendations: Specific recommendations for practice include designing assessments that are implemented in the context of the activity. Assessments may be more effective as well as meaningful to students if physical educators are able to design assessments that incorporate students' agendas of working with friends and having fun. Future research should be conducted at other educational levels to further ascertain the role of assessment tasks in the ecology of physical education at these levels.
TWEAST: a simple and effective technique to implement concrete-syntax AST rewriting using partial parsing

Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) are commonly used to represent an input/output program in compilers and language processing tools. Many of the tasks of these tools consist in generating and rewriting ASTs. Such an approach can become tedious and hard to maintain for complex operations, namely program transformation, optimization, instrumentation, etc. On the other hand, concrete syntax provides a natural and simpler representation of programs, but it is not usually available as a direct feature of the aforementioned tools. We propose a simple technique to implement AST generation and rewriting in general purpose languages using concrete syntax. Our approach relies on extensions made in the scanner and the parser and the use of objects supporting partial parsing called Texts With Embedded Abstract Syntax Trees (TWEASTs). A compiler for a simple language (Tiger) written in C++ serves as an example, featuring transformations in concrete syntax: syntactic desugaring, optimization, code instrumentation such as bounds-checking, etc. Extensions of this technique to provide a full-fledged concrete-syntax rewriting framework are presented as well.
Putting Consumers to Work

Co-creation is a new paradigm that has captured the imagination of marketing and management professionals and scholars. Drawing on Foucault's notion of government and neo-Marxist theories of labor and value, we critically interrogate the cultural, social, and economic politics of this new management technique. We suggest that co-creation represents a political form of power aimed at generating particular forms of consumer life at once free and controllable, creative and docile. We argue that the discourse of value co-creation stands for a notion of modern corporate power that is no longer aimed at disciplining consumers and shaping actions according to a given norm, but at working with and through the freedom of the consumer. In short, administering consumption in ways that allow for the continuous emergence and exploitation of creative and valuable forms of consumer labor is the true meaning of the concept of co-creation.
Sirtuin 1 Reduction Parallels the Accumulation of Tau in Alzheimer Disease

Aging and metabolism-related disorders are risk factors for Alzheimer disease (AD). Because sirtuins may increase the life span through regulation of cellular metabolism, we compared the concentration of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) in the brains of AD patients (n = 19) and controls (n = 22) using Western immunoblots and in situ hybridization. We report a significant reduction of SIRT1 (messenger RNA [mRNA], −29%; protein, −45%) in the parietal cortex of AD patients, but not in the cerebellum. Further analyses in a second cohort of 36 subjects confirmed that cortical SIRT1 was decreased in AD but not in individuals with mild cognitive impairment. SIRT1 mRNA and its translated protein correlated negatively with the duration of symptoms (mRNA, r2 = −0.367; protein, r2 = −0.326) and the accumulation of paired helical filament tau (mRNA, r2 = −0.230; protein, r2 = −0.119), but weakly with insoluble amyloid-&bgr; 42 (mRNA, r2 = −0.090; protein, r2 = −0.072). A significant relationship between SIRT1 levels and global cognition scores proximate to death was also found (r2 = +0.09, p = 0.049). In contrast, cortical SIRT1 levels remained unchanged in a triple-transgenic animal model of AD. Collectively, our results indicate that loss of SIRT1 is closely associated with the accumulation of amyloid-&bgr; and tau in the cerebral cortex of persons with AD.
Opposite Effects of Dextran Sulfate 500, the Polyene Antibiotic MS-8209, and Congo Red on Accumulation of the Protease-Resistant Isoform of PrP in the Spleens of Mice Inoculated Intraperitoneally with the Scrapie Agent

ABSTRACT The mode and the site of action of the major antiscrapie drugs have been studied by investigating their effects on the abnormal protease-resistant isoform of PrP (PrPres) and on its accumulation in mouse spleen. Day-by-day PrPres accumulation in the spleen and in other peripheral organs was first monitored to describe the early steps of scrapie pathogenesis. Three phases were identified: the detection of scrapie inoculum on the day of scrapie infection, a clearance phase, and then the peripheral accumulation of PrPres. In a second step, the effects of the polyene antibiotic MS-8209, the polyanion dextran sulfate 500 (DS500), and Congo red were assessed on these phases, after the drugs were coincubated with scrapie inoculum. Highly different mechanisms and sites of action were apparent. MS-8209 had a weak effect on the accumulation of PrPres in spleen, suggesting another site of intervention for this drug. DS500 delayed the beginning of the clearance phase but then blocked PrPres synthesis for a long period of time, probably because of its immunological effects on the spleen. Surprisingly, Congo red suppressed the clearance phase of scrapie inoculum and then increased transiently accumulation of PrPres in spleen. We showed in vitro that this effect was related to a direct enhancement of the protease resistance of PrPres by the drug.
Application of Microfluidic Device for Lactic Biosensor

In this paper, the RuO2 sensing film is fabricated by the sputtering system, and the miniature reference electrode is fabricated by the screen printed technique for integrating the RuO2 thin film in the array flexible sensor. Furthermore, the computer numerical control technique is used to fabricate the stainless model of the fluidic channel, and polydimethylsiloxane is used as the material of the fluidic channel. Finally, the array flexible sensor is integrated fluidic channel to form the potentiometric biosensor of the fluidic. The property of the fluidic channel is analyzed by differential pressure meter to measure the pressure drop and discuss the effect of related factors. In this paper, the RuO2 based pH sensor can obtain a higher sensing value at 61.3 mV/pH with super-Nernstian response. Besides, due to silver's excellent stability and conductivity, the miniature reference electrode is fabricated by screen printed technique to fix silver at the polyethylene terephthalate substrate. The sensitivities of the sensor of 61.31, 59.65, and 56.45 mV/pH with flow rates of 10, 20, and 30 ml/min, respectively, are obtained. The experimental result demonstrates that the potentiometric biosensor can be applied to detect the fluidic concentration.
Enhancing the accuracy of radio tomographic imaging using channel diversity

Radio tomographic imaging (RTI) is an emerging device-free localization (DFL) technology enabling the localization of people and other objects without requiring them to carry any electronic device. Instead, the RF attenuation field of the deployment area of a wireless network is estimated using the changes in received signal strength (RSS) measured on links of the network. This paper presents the use of channel diversity to improve the localization accuracy of RTI. Two channel selection methods, based on channel packet reception rates (PRRs) and fade levels, are proposed. Experimental evaluations are performed in two different types of environments, and the results show that channel diversity improves localization accuracy by an order of magnitude. People can be located with average error as low as 0.10 m, the lowest DFL location error reported to date. We find that channel fade level is a more important statistic than PRR for RTI channel selection. Using channel diversity, this paper, for the first time, demonstrates that attenuation-based through-wall RTI is possible.