Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model checking for performability

This paper gives a bird's-eye view of the various ingredients that make up a modern, model-checking-based approach to performability evaluation: Markov reward models, temporal logics and continuous stochastic logic, model-checking algorithms, bisimulation and the handling of non-determinism. A short historical account as well as a large case study complete this picture. In this way, we show convincingly that the smart combination of performability evaluation with stochastic model-checking techniques, developed over the last decade, provides a powerful and unified method of performability evaluation, thereby combining the advantages of earlier approaches.
Lifecycle-Based Event Detection from Microblogs

Microblog like Twitter and Sina Weibo has been an important information source for event detection and monitoring. In many decision-making scenarios, it is not enough to only provide a structural tuple for an event, e.g., a 5W1H record like . However, in addition to event structural tuples, people need to know the evolution lifecycle of an event. The lifecycle description of an event is more helpful for decision making because people can focus on the progress and trend of events. In this paper, we propose a novel method for efficiently detecting and tracking event evolution on microblogging platforms. The major features of our study are: (1) It provides a novel event-type-driven method to extract event tuples, which forms the foundation for event evolution analysis. (2) It describes the lifecycle of an event by a staged model, and provides effective algorithms for detecting the stages of an event. (3) It offers emotional analysis over the stages of an event, through which people are able to know the public emotional tendency over a specific event at different time periods. We build a prototype system and present its architecture and implemental details in the paper. In addition, we conduct experiments on real microblog datasets and the results in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure suggest the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposal.
A Novel Cross-Layer Design with QoS Guarantee for WiMAX System

WiMAX standard defines the QoS (Quality of Service) signaling framework and different types of service flows, but the actual QoS guarantee algorithms are open to developers. Admission control in medium access control (MAC) layer without physical (PHY) layer information has a low efficiency. In this paper, to provide the QoS guarantee, we propose a novel cross-layer QoS design which consisting of admission control and subchannel assignment, taking physical layer channel information into account. The occupation of physical resource is an important feedback for the admission controller and we provide simulation results to demonstrate that our algorithms can bring higher spectral efficiency of the system than the no cross-layer method.
NURTURING ENTREPRENEURIAL LEARNING THROUGH MENTORING

This study highlights the factors that maximize the entrepreneur’s learning that occurs throughout a mentoring relationship. To achieve this, we conducted a hierarchical regression analysis involving a sample of 314 mentees participating in a business-mentoring program. The findings show that to maximize the learning from this relationship, the entrepreneur must perceive similarity and mutual trust with his or her mentor. The data shows that in exerting psychological and career-related functions, the mentor enables the entrepreneur’s learning.
Prevalence of clopidogrel non-responders among patients with stable angina pectoris scheduled for elective coronary stent placement

Summary Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel decreases the rate of stent thrombosis in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, despite intensified antiplatelet treatment, up to 4.7% of the patients undergoing coronary stenting develop thrombotic stent occlusion, suggesting incomplete platelet inhibition due to clopidogrel resistance. We evaluated the percentage of clopidogrel nonresponders among 105 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing elective PCI. All patients were treated regularly with aspirin 100 mg/d and received a loading dose of 600 mg clopidogrel followed by a maintenance dose of 75 mg/d before PCI. Clopidogrel non-responders were defined by an inhibition of ADP (5 and 20 μMol/L) induced platelet aggregation that was less than 10% when compared to baseline values 4 h after clopidogrel intake. Semi-responders were identified by an inhibition of 10 to 29%. Patients with an inhibition over 30% were regarded as responders. We found that 5 (ADP 5 μMol/L) to 11% (ADP 20 μMol/L) of the patients were non-responders and 9 to 26% were semi-responders. Among the group of nonresponders there were two incidents of subacute stent thrombosis after PCI. We conclude that a subgroup of patients undergoing PCI does not adequately respond to clopidogrel, which may correspond to the occurrence of thromboischemic complications. Point-of-care testing may help to identify these patients who may then benefit from an alternative antiplatelet therapy.
Ranking-based Method for News Stance Detection

A valuable step towards news veracity assessment is to understand stance from different information sources, and the process is known as the stance detection. Specifically, the stance detection is to detect four kinds of stances ("agree'', "disagree'', "discuss'' and "unrelated'') of the news towards a claim. Existing methods tried to tackle the stance detection problem by classification-based algorithms. However, classification-based algorithms make a strong assumption that there is clear distinction between any two stances, which may not be held in the context of stance detection. Accordingly, we frame the detection problem as a ranking problem and propose a ranking-based method to improve detection performance. Compared with the classification-based methods, the ranking-based method compare the true stance and false stances and maximize the difference between them. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Cubelet Detection and Localization by Template Matching

We describe a method for detecting and localizing Modular Robotics Cubelets in a scene, for use as a subsystem in a system for autononmous assembly of Cubelets constructions using a robotic arm and grasper. We use a camera mounted over the work surface. Our method returns two-dimensional position and angle of rotation as well as the type of Cubelet. We obtain position and rotation using template matching on images preprocessed with a novel line detection algorithm. We obtain the type of Cubelet by using color information. We also describe a method to obtain depth information from a camera with an RGB-D sensor such as the Xbox Kinect.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy of spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a complex disease process that involves both primary and secondary mechanisms of injury and can leave patients with devastating functional impairment as well as psychological debilitation. While no curative treatment is available for spinal cord injury, current therapeutic approaches focus on reducing the secondary injury that follows SCI. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy has shown promising neuroprotective effects in several experimental studies, but the limited number of clinical reports have shown mixed findings. This review will provide an overview of the potential mechanisms by which HBO therapy may exert neuroprotection, provide a summary of the clinical application of HBO therapy in patients with SCI, and discuss avenues for future studies.
Successful Patterns of Scientific Knowledge Sourcing - Mix and Match

Valuable knowledge emerges increasingly outside of firm boundaries, in particular in public research institutions and universities. The question is how firms organize their interactions with universities effectively to acquire knowledge and apply it successfully. Literature has so far largely ignored that firms may combine different types of interactions with universities for optimizing their collaboration strategies. We argue conceptually that firms need diverse (broad) and highly developed (deep) combinations of various interactions with universities to maximize returns from these collaborations. Our empirical investigation rests upon a survey of more than 800 firms in Germany. We find that both the diversity and intensity of collaborative engagements with universities propel innovation success. However, broadening the spectrum of interactions is more beneficial with regard to innovation success. Applying latent class cluster analysis we identify four distinct patterns of interaction. Our findings show that formal forms of interaction (joint/contract) research provide the best balance between joint knowledge development and value capture.
An organizational coordination model for IoT: A case study of requirement engineering of city-government in Tokyo in city platform as a service

Advances in sensors, wireless communications, embedded software, artificial intelligence, and data mining provide rapid growth of IoT, the Internet of Things, instances worldwide. Penetration of IoT has been increasingly visible every part of life on this planet. It also increases new conflicts between technologies and people. Smart cities, city-scale IoT platforms, are getting more common in many countries. We are engaged in one of such projects, CPaaS.io, City Platform as a Service, as an EU-Japan collaborative research. The author presents lessons learned on organizational coordination during IoT realization from requirement engineering with city governments in Tokyo. Then, the author presents a general view of organizational coordination model of IoT based on the learned lessons.
Synthesis and Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integrase Activity of Hydroxybenzoic and Hydroxycinnamic Acid Flavon-3-yl Esters

A series of new hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acid flavon-3-yl esters were synthesized in order to obtain compounds targeting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 integrase (IN). The esters were tested for anti-IN and anti-reverse transcriptase (RT) activity in enzyme assays and for anti-HIV-1, anti-proliferative and anti-topoisomerase activity in cell-based assays. In enzyme assays, the two gallic acid flavon-3-yl esters showed a notable IN inhibition (IC50 values were 8.3 and 9.1 µM, respectively), while the two caffeic acid flavon-3-yl esters exhibited a modest activity (IC50 75 and 60 µM, respectively). Replacement of hydroxyl groups resulted in loss of potency. Caffeic acid 3′,4′-dichloroflavon-3-yl ester also inhibited the RT activity whereas it was not active on human topoisomerases. It therefore represents an interesting example of a compound specifically targeting more than one step of the virus replication cycle.
Symptomatology and adaptive functioning for children exposed to normative stressors, dog attack, and parental violence.

OBJECTIVE To examine and identify predictors of posttraumatic symptomatology and adaptive functioning of children exposed to single and repetitive adverse events that varied in severity. METHOD A sample of 86 patients and their children, aged 4 to 9 years, were interviewed after three types of adverse experiences; repetitive exposure to parental violence, a dog attack, or a milder stressor. The PTSD Reaction Index, Child Dissociative Checklist, and Child Behavior Checklist were used. RESULTS Trauma symptoms were greater for the first two groups, younger children, and girls. Gender effects were most evident in the dog attack group and depended on type of symptoms and informant. Supportiveness in the parenting relationship aided prediction of both trauma symptoms and adjustment. CONCLUSIONS Children appear to experience elevated posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology after both single and repetitive adverse events that are potentially life-threatening. A positive parental relationship is associated with fewer symptoms and better adaptive functioning. The mechanisms through which this support interacts with behavioral and physiological systems to facilitate better regulation await further research.
The Role of Non-Numerical Stimulus Features in Approximate Number System Training in Preschoolers from Low-Income Homes

Recent findings have suggested that adults’ and children’s approximate number system (ANS) acuity may be malleable through training, but research on ANS acuity has largely been conducted with adults and children who are from middle- to high-income homes. We conducted 2 experiments to test the malleability of ANS acuity in preschool-aged children from low-income homes and to test how non-numerical stimulus features affected performance. In Experiment 1, mixed-effects models indicated that children significantly improved their ratio achieved across training. Children’s change in probability of responding correctly across sessions was qualified by an interaction with surface area features of the arrays such that children improved their probability of answering correctly across sessions on trials in which numerosity conflicted with the total surface area of object sets significantly more than on trials in which total surface area positively correlated with numerosity. In Experiment 2, we found that children who completed ANS acuity training performed better on an ANS acuity task compared with children in a control group, but they only did so on ANS acuity trials in which numerosity conflicted with the total surface area of object sets. These findings suggest that training affects ANS acuity in children from low-income homes by fostering an ability to focus on numerosity in the face of conflicting non-numerical stimulus features.
Resting-state functional MRI in behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease leading to early-onset dementia with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 10 to 30 cases per 100000 individuals in the age group of 46 to 65 years. Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is the most common FTLD subtype. It is characterized by a progressive deterioration of behavior and personality as well as executive dysfunction. In Finland, almost 50 % of familial FTLD cases are attributable to the C9ORF72 mutation. bvFTD is associated with a characteristic pattern of brain atrophy detectable in structural MRI. However, these changes are typically not visible in the early stages of the disease. Resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) is being increasingly used to evaluate changes in functional connectivity within neuronal networks in the brain but only a few RS-fMRI investigations of bvFTD patients have been published with inconsistent results. The object of this thesis was to investigate functional connectivity changes detected in the salience (SLN) and default mode networks (DMN) in bvFTD. Another aim was to clarify the role of other cognitive resting-state networks in this disease. A cohort of 26 bvFTD patients was studied, with 8 of these patients carrying the C9ORF72 expansion. Connectivity changes were detected in multiple clinically relevant cognitive networks. Decreased functional connectivity was observed in the SLN, which is associated with guiding of behavior. Increased activity was present in the DMN and the dorsal attention network (DAN). In C9ORF72 associated bvFTD, there was an abnormal linkage detected between the DMN and the thalamus. Currently, fMRI is generally used as a research tool and in a group setting. Different study methods have been used in the literature and also in the studies of this thesis, the analysis procedures differed to some extent. The variety of analysis methods may explain the heterogeneity in fMRI findings in bvFTD patients. There is a need for standardization of the fMRI methodology, larger study groups and also in the future the methodology should be improved so that single patient analysis would provide results to allow a confident diagnosis of this disease.
Data mining for hypertext: a tutorial survey

With over 800 million pages covering most areas of human endeavor, the World-wide Web is a fertile ground for data mining research to make a difference to the effectiveness of information search. Today, Web surfers access the Web through two dominant interfaces: clicking on hyperlinks and searching via keyword queries. This process is often tentative and unsatisfactory. Better support is needed for expressing one's information need and dealing with a search result in more structured ways than available now. Data mining and machine learning have significant roles to play towards this end.In this paper we will survey recent advances in learning and mining problems related to hypertext in general and the Web in particular. We will review the continuum of supervised to semi-supervised to unsupervised learning problems, highlight the specific challenges which distinguish data mining in the hypertext domain from data mining in the context of data warehouses, and summarize the key areas of recent and ongoing research.
Preclinical Species and Human Disposition of PF-04971729, a Selective Inhibitor of the Sodium-Dependent Glucose Cotransporter 2 and Clinical Candidate for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

(1S,2S,3S,4R,5S)-5-[4-Chloro-3-(4-ethoxybenzyl)phenyl]-1-hydroxymethyl-6,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2. 1]octane-2,3,4-triol (PF-04971729), a potent and selective inhibitor of the sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter 2, is currently in phase 2 trials for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. This article describes the preclinical species and in vitro human disposition characteristics of PF-04971729 that were used in experiments performed to support the first-in-human study. Plasma clearance was low in rats (4.04 ml · min−1 · kg−1) and dogs (1.64 ml · min−1 · kg−1), resulting in half-lives of 4.10 and 7.63 h, respectively. Moderate to good bioavailability in rats (69%) and dogs (94%) was observed after oral dosing. The in vitro biotransformation profile of PF-04971729 in liver microsomes and cryopreserved hepatocytes from rat, dog, and human was qualitatively similar; prominent metabolic pathways included monohydroxylation, O-deethylation, and glucuronidation. No human-specific metabolites of PF-04971729 were detected in in vitro studies. Reaction phenotyping studies using recombinant enzymes indicated a role of CYP3A4/3A5, CYP2D6, and UGT1A9/2B7 in the metabolism of PF-04971729. No competitive or time-dependent inhibition of the major human cytochrome P450 enzymes was discerned with PF-04971729. Inhibitory effects against the organic cation transporter 2-mediated uptake of [14C]metformin by PF-04971729 also were very weak (IC50 = ∼900 μM). Single-species allometric scaling of rat pharmacokinetics of PF-04971729 was used to predict human clearance, distribution volume, and oral bioavailability. Human pharmacokinetic predictions were consistent with the potential for a low daily dose. First-in-human studies after oral administration indicated that the human pharmacokinetics/dose predictions for PF-04971729 were in the range that is likely to yield a favorable pharmacodynamic response.
‘Northernness’, gender and Manchester’s creative industries

This article explores northernness and gender in the context of creative industries in Manchester. I argue that a version of northernness has been mobilised by those within the creative industries and that this identity is strongly linked with masculinity. The article examines the emergence of new creative industries in Manchester from the 1980s onwards. Many of these new creative industries were connected with music and club culture and often prioritised ‘lads’ and their interests. The ‘heritage’ and influence of this seedbed stage of Manchester’s creative industries and the dominant discourses about Manchester’s pop cultural creativity has had a profound influence on the ‘gendering’ of subsequent creative industries in this city. A paradigm of northern ‘laddishness’ pervades the creative sector in Manchester, and this is amplified and sustained by a powerful, media fuelled, cultural identity of the city and its popular culture. A number of local specificities have had an impact on linking creativity to ‘northern’ masculinity in the Manchester case. This has contributed to the ascendency of closed, male-dominated networks in the creative sector. This appears to stand in the way of women’s full access to, and participation in, the city’s creative industries. I suggest that all empirical case studies of creative industries could find value in reflecting on the local context and specificities of place. Using Manchester as a case study, I argue that place-specific identities could productively be explored in debates about exclusion and underrepresentation of women in creative industries.
A Validation Study of Korean Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised (ASI-R)

Objectives：Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety-related sensations based on beliefs about their harmful consequences. Despite its status as the most popular measure of AS, the anxiety sensitivity index is too abbreviated to adequately measure the somatic, cognitive, and social factor. The Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised (ASI-R) is a revised and expanded version of the ASI that was developed to improve the assessment of AS and its dimensions. The present study was conducted to determine the validity and reliability of the Expanded Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Methods：Five hundred sixty six community samples and 77 patients with panic disorders were enrolled in this study. All subjects completed a psychometric assessment package which included the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), ASI-R, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait (STAI-T). Results：1) ASI-R showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’ =.93). 2) ASI-R demonstrated high test-retest reliabilities (r=.82). 3) Moderate correlations were observed among ASI-R, BDI(r=.50), STAI-T(r=.41), and BAI(r=.67). 4) An exploratory factor analysis revealed four ASI-R factors. 5) Panic patients had significantly higher ASI-R scores than the community samples(t=7.787, p
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cancer: A register-based study in Sweden

Abstract Comorbidity of cancer with ALS has been studied previously. Detailed description of the temporal relationship between cancer and ALS is, however, lacking. We conducted a nested case-control study of ALS in Sweden during 1987−2009, including 5481 cases of ALS identified from the Swedish Patient Register and 27,405 controls randomly selected from the general Swedish population. Odds ratios (ORs) for association of ALS with previous cancer diagnosis and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) of cancer after diagnosis were calculated to compare ALS patients with ALS-free individuals. Overall, a previous cancer diagnosis was not associated with subsequent risk of ALS (OR 1.00; 95% CI 0.91−1.10). No overall association was observed for any specific cancer type. An increased risk of ALS was observed during the first year after cancer diagnosis (OR 1.50; 95% CI 1.17−1.92). In contrast, a lower risk of cancer was observed in ALS patients after diagnosis compared with ALS-free individuals (IRR 0.84; 95% CI 0.69−1.02). The risk reduction was seen primarily two or more years after ALS diagnosis (IRR 0.64; 95% CI 0.45−0.88). Our results provide no evidence for comorbidity of cancer and ALS overall. Surveillance biases seem the most likely explanation for the limited associations detected.