Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An analysis of Timmermans’ critique of Prospect Theory

In the European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research (EJTIR) Timmermans (2010) discussed the suitability of Prospect Theory for travel behaviour research. In that article appeared an assertion, about the explanatory performance of Prospect Theory with respect to choices in the TV game ‘Deal or no Deal’, which was not true. A thorough examination revealed more untruthful assertions and also inaccuracies in the references, fallacies and selective use of empirical evidence. This working paper offers an extensive documentation of the analysis. A summary was published in EJTIR [Van de Kaa, E.J. (2012) . Timmermans’ misleading critique of Prospect Theory actually supports its relevance for travel choice modelling. EJTIR 12 (4): 440-458]. The same issue of EJTIR contains Timmermans’ rejoinder. In the preface of this working paper I summarize the main findings while taking Timmermans' rejoinder into account. It shows that Timmermans’ criticism is unjust and that the references that underlie it, in connection with findings from other reviews, actually support the suitability of Prospect Theory for travel choice modelling. The "nabeschouwing" provides a summary in Dutch of the main findings.
Anti-CagA Immunoglobulin G Responses Correlate with Interleukin-8 Induction in Human Gastric Mucosal Biopsy Culture

ABSTRACT Helicobacter pylori persists in the human stomach despite eliciting both cellular and humoral immune responses and inducing proinflammatory cytokines. To determine whether local humoral and cytokine responses are related to each other and to histologic responses, we studied 66 Japanese patients who underwent gastroscopy. Using specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, we examined gastric antral mucosal-organ biopsy culture supernatants to assess interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) levels and antibody responses to H. pylori whole-cell antigens CagA, HspA, and HspB. Of the patients studied, 11 were H. pylori negative and 55 were H. pylori positive; by PCR, all strains werecagA+. As expected, compared to H. pylori-negative patients, H. pylori-positive patients had significantly higher humoral responses to all H. pyloriantigens and had higher IL-8 (47.8 ± 3.5 versus 10.1 ± 4.3 ng/mg of biopsy protein; P < 0.001) and IL-6 levels (2.8 ± 0.3 versus 0.26 ± 0.2 ng/mg of protein;P < 0.001). Among the H. pylori-positive patients, supernatant anti-CagA immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels were significantly associated with H. pylori density (P < 0.005) and neutrophil infiltration (P < 0.005) scores. Anti-CagA immunoglobulin A levels were correlated with intestinal metaplasia (P < 0.05). Mononuclear cell infiltration scores were significantly associated with supernatant IL-6 levels (P < 0.005) and with IgG responses to whole-cell antigens (P < 0.05). Supernatant IL-8 levels were significantly associated with anti-CagA IgG (r = 0.75, P < 0.001). Anti-CagA responses correlated with neutrophil infiltration, intestinal metaplasia, H. pylori density, and IL-8 levels, suggesting that the absolute levels of these antibodies may be markers for gastric inflammation and premalignant changes in individual hosts.
Neuroprotective effects of salidroside through PI3K/Akt pathway activation in Alzheimer’s disease models

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by deposits of aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain parenchyma. Despite considerable research to elucidate the pathological mechanisms and identify therapeutic strategies for AD, effective treatments are still lacking. In the present study, we found that salidroside (Sal), a phenylpropanoid glycoside isolated from Rhodiola rosea L. , can protect against Aβ-induced neurotoxicity in four transgenic Drosophila AD models. Both longevity and locomotor activity were improved in Sal-fed Drosophila. Sal also decreased Aβ levels and Aβ deposition in brain and ameliorated toxicity in Aβ-treated primary neuronal culture. The neuroprotective effect of Sal was associated with upregulated phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling. Our findings identify a compound that may possess potential therapeutic benefits for AD and other forms of neurodegeneration.
Frustrated Phagocytosis on Micro-Patterned Immune Complexes to Characterize Lysosome Movements in Live Macrophages

Lysosome mobilization is a key cellular process in phagocytes for bactericidal activities and trans-matrix migration. The molecular mechanisms that regulate lysosome mobilization are still poorly known. Lysosomes are hard to track as they move toward phagosomes throughout the cell volume. In order to anticipate cell regions where lysosomes are recruited to, human and RAW264.7 macrophages were seeded on surfaces that were micro-patterned with immune complexes (ICs) as 4 μm-side squares. Distances between IC patterns were adapted to optimize cell spreading in order to constrain lysosome movements mostly in two dimensions. FcΓ receptors triggered local frustrated phagocytosis, frustrated phagosomes appeared as rings of F-actin dots around the IC patterns as early as 5 min after cells made contact with the substratum. Frustrated phagosomes recruited actin-associated proteins (vinculin, paxillin, and gelsolin). The fusion of lysosomes with frustrated phagosomes was shown by the release of beta-hexosaminidase and the recruitment of Lamp1 to frustrated phagosomes. Lysosomes of RAW264.7 macrophages were labeled with cathepsin-D-mCherry to visualize their movements toward frustrated phagosomes. Lysosomes saltatory movements were markedly slowed down compared to cells layered on non-opsonized patterns. In addition, the linearity of the trajectories and the frequency and duration of contacts of lysosomes with frustrated phagosomes were measured. Our experimental set-up is the first step toward deciphering molecular mechanisms which are involved in lysosome movements in the cytoplasm (speed, directionality, and interaction with phagosomes), and opens the door to approaches such as RNA interference, pharmacological inhibition, or mutant expression.
Location-Aware and Personalized Collaborative Filtering for Web Service Recommendation

Collaborative Filtering (CF) is widely employed for making Web service recommendation. CF-based Web service recommendation aims to predict missing QoS (Quality-of-Service) values of Web services. Although several CF-based Web service QoS prediction methods have been proposed in recent years, the performance still needs significant improvement. First, existing QoS prediction methods seldom consider personalized influence of users and services when measuring the similarity between users and between services. Second, Web service QoS factors, such as response time and throughput, usually depends on the locations of Web services and users. However, existing Web service QoS prediction methods seldom took this observation into consideration. In this paper, we propose a location-aware personalized CF method for Web service recommendation. The proposed method leverages both locations of users and Web services when selecting similar neighbors for the target user or service. The method also includes an enhanced similarity measurement for users and Web services, by taking into account the personalized influence of them. To evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we conduct a set of comprehensive experiments using a real-world Web service dataset. The experimental results indicate that our approach improves the QoS prediction accuracy and computational efficiency significantly, compared to previous CF-based methods.
Revisiting formative evaluation: dynamic monitoring for the improvement of learning activity design and delivery

Distance education courses have a tradition of a formative evaluation cycle that takes place before a course is formally delivered. This paper discusses opportunities for improving online and blended learning by collecting formative data during course presentation. With a goal of overall improvement in instructional effectiveness and identification of promising practices for inclusion in a learning activities design library, we propose the immediate and on-going monitoring of the effectiveness of learning activities, tutor facilitation and learner satisfaction during the course presentation. This has implications for constructively involving the learners and facilitators in the course improvement process. While originally conceived to reduce the time for pilot evaluation of new courses and learning activities, the proposed system could also be extended to individualized and blended learning environments, and if implemented using semantic web technologies, for research into the effectiveness of learning activity patterns.
Bayesian Classifier Combination

Bayesian model averaging linearly mixes the probabilistic predictions of multiple models, each weighted by its posterior probability. This is the coherent Bayesian way of combining multiple models only under certain restrictive assumptions, which we outline. We explore a general framework for Bayesian model combination (which differs from model averaging) in the context of classification. This framework explicitly models the relationship between each model’s output and the unknown true label. The framework does not require that the models be probabilistic (they can even be human assessors), that they share prior information or receive the same training data, or that they be independent in their errors. Finally, the Bayesian combiner does not need to believe any of the models is in fact correct. We test several variants of this classifier combination procedure starting from a classic statistical model proposed by Dawid and Skene (1979) and using MCMC to add more complex but important features to the model. Comparisons on several data sets to simpler methods like majority voting show that the Bayesian methods not only perform well but result in interpretable diagnostics on the data points and the models.
Deformable curve and surface finite-elements for free-form shape design

The finite element method is applied to generate primitives that build continuous deformable shapes designed to support a new free-form modeling paradigm. The primitives autonomously deform to minimize an energy functional subject to user controlled geometric constraints and loads. The approach requires less user input than conventional free-form modeling approaches because the shape can be parameterized independently of the number of degrees of freedom needed to describe the shape.Both a curve and a surface finite element are developed. The properties of these geometric primitives have been engineered to support an interactive three phase approach for defining very fair free-form shapes as found in automobiles, ship hulls and car bodies. The shape's character lines or folds and edges are defined with deformable curve segments. These character lines are then "skinned" with a deformable surface. The final shape is sculpted interactively by applying loads to the surface to control the surface shape between character lines. Shapes created with this technique enjoy the advantage that they are already meshed for further finite element analysis.
Bench-marking of traditional cryptographic algorithms and chaos-based algorithms with DNA operations

This paper presents a bench-marking analysis between traditional cryptographic algorithms and chaos-based cryptographic schemes with DNA operations. The study consists in the evaluation of the security and performance of each algorithm destined for image encryption purposes based on pre-established criteria which include: the key space, distribution of the cipher image, correlation between pixels, number of pixels change rate, the unified average changing intensity, and execution time. The bench-marking was performed in a processing engine developed in Matlab in order to compare the algorithms under the same scenarios and conclude which one is more secure and suitable for image encryption. As a result of this study we conclude that AES-128 is most suitable cryptographic algorithm for image encryption, followed by 3DES. This proves that chaos-based cryptosystems with DNA operation do not offer an improvement in comparison of traditional symmetric encryption schemes for the purpose presented in this article.
MatLab simulation model for dynamic mode of the Lithium-Ion batteries to power the EV

The paper presents a simulation model for the electric vehicles (EV) drive with Lithium-Ion batteries. Explanations of all the input parameters are given. Analysis of the dynamic characteristics of Lithium-Ion batteries was carried out through simulations on standardized driving regime (urban and highway drive cycles). Finally, recuperation of breaking energy of EV is explained.
Impact of Climate Change on Potential Distribution of Chinese Caterpillar Fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) in Nepal Himalaya

Climate change has already impacted ecosystems and species and substantial impacts of climate change in the future are expected. Species distribution modeling is widely used to map the current potential distribution of species as well as to model the impact of future climate change on distribution of species. Mapping current distribution is useful for conservation planning and understanding the change in distribution impacted by climate change is important for mitigation of future biodiversity losses. However, the current distribution of Chinese caterpillar fungus, a flagship species of the Himalaya with very high economic value, is unknown. Nor do we know the potential changes in suitable habitat of Chinese caterpillar fungus caused by future climate change. We used MaxEnt modeling to predict current distribution and changes in the future distributions of Chinese caterpillar fungus in three future climate change trajectories based on representative concentration pathways (RCPs: RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 6.0) in three different time periods (2030, 2050, and 2070) using species occurrence points, bioclimatic variables, and altitude. About 6.02% (8,989 km2) area of the Nepal Himalaya is suitable for Chinese caterpillar fungus habitat. Our model showed that across all future climate change trajectories over three different time periods, the area of predicted suitable habitat of Chinese caterpillar fungus would expand, with 0.11–4.87% expansion over current suitable habitat. Depending upon the representative concentration pathways, we observed both increase and decrease in average elevation of the suitable habitat range of the species.
Empowerment effects across cultures

It is evident that empowerment is in widespread use as a management tool in international organisations. A comprehensive literature review identified that empowerment exists as two distinct constructs: relational empowerment and psychological empowerment. Building on this delineation, existing literature was used to develop a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of the two empowerment constructs. Furthermore, the impact of national culture was considered, resulting in a set of testable hypotheses concerning the cross-cultural differences in the relationships between empowerment and its antecedents and consequences. A quantitative study was undertaken to test the hypothesised conceptual model. Data were collected from India and the UK, via drop-off self-administered surveys from front-line employees of both an indigenous and multinational bank in the two cultures, achieving a total of 626 fully usable responses across the four samples. Rigorous scale development for all samples was undertaken and measurement invariance examined. Following this, the conceptual model was tested using latent variable path analysis. The results for the model were both encouraging and surprising. Similar results regarding the effects of relational empowerment and psychological empowerment were found across the two cultures. However, an examination of the antecedents to relational empowerment produced significantly different results across the cultures. Relational empowerment was found to have higher practical value as it had a significant positive effect on employee job satisfaction levels across both cultures.
Stringent Response Activates Quorum Sensing and Modulates Cell Density-Dependent Gene Expression inPseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT During nutrient starvation, Escherichia coli elicits a stringent response involving the ribosome-associated protein RelA. Activation of RelA results in a global change in the cellular metabolism including enhanced expression of the stationary-phase sigma factor RpoS. In the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a complex quorum-sensing circuitry, linked to RpoS expression, is required for cell density-dependent production of many secreted virulence factors, including LasB elastase. Quorum sensing relies on the activation of specific transcriptional regulators (LasR and RhlR) by their corresponding autoinducers (3-oxo-C12-homoserine lactone [HSL] and C4-HSL), which function as intercellular signals. We found that overexpression of relA activated the expression of rpoS in P. aeruginosa and led to premature, cell density-independent LasB elastase production. We therefore investigated the effects of the stringent response on quorum sensing. Both lasR and rhlR gene expression and autoinducer synthesis were prematurely activated during the stringent response induced by overexpression of relA. Premature expression of lasR and rhlR was also observed when relA was overexpressed in a PAO1 rpoSmutant. The stringent response induced by the amino acid analogue serine hydroxamate (SHX) also led to premature production of the 3-oxo-C12-HSL autoinducer. This response to SHX was absent in a PAO1 relA mutant. These findings suggest that the stringent response can activate the two quorum-sensing systems of P. aeruginosa independently of cell density.
Gait Parameters in Stressful Virtual Environments

We share the results of a preliminary experiment where participants performed a simple task in a control immersive virtual environment (IVE) followed by a stressful IVE. Participants’ gaits were recorded with a motion capture system. We computed speed, stride length, and stride width for each participant and found that participants take significantly shorter strides in the stressful environment, but stride width and walking speed do not show a significant difference. In a future experiment we will continue to study how gait parameters relate to a user’s experience of a virtual environment. We hope to find parameters that can be used as metrics for comparing a user’s level of presence in different virtual environments.
HYBRID CLUSTERING ALGORITHM BASED ON PSO WITH THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL ASYNCHRONISM AND STOCHASTIC DISTURBANCE METHOD

It is well known that solutions of k-means algorithm depend on the initialization of cluster centers and the final solution converges to local minima. In this paper, we introduce a clustering approach that combines ideas from modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) and k-means. The potential benefits of this technique are investigated by incorporating the multidimensional asynchronism and stochastic disturbance method to the velocity in the particle swarm optimizer to create new modifications of the clustering for kmeans algorithmic model, which could keep populations diversity and ability of search global optimum as well as solve the problem of the curse of dimensionality. The simulation results of web log dataset show that the proposed algorithm, compared with the five previous developed PSO techniques, provides enhanced performance and maintains more diversity in the swarm.
Design of efficient viterbi technique for interleaving and deinterleaving

Communication System is a collection of individual communications network, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations and data terminal equipments. In transmission system wireless communication is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not connected by an electrical conductor. WiMAX is the wireless communication standard designed to provide 30 to 40 Mega bits per second data rates. WiMAX as a standards based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. WiMAX can provide at home or mobile internet access across whole cities or countries. The address generation of WiMAX is carried out by interleaver and deinterleaver. Interleaving is used to overcome correlated channel noise such as burst error or fading. The interleaver/deinterleaver rearranges input data such that consecutive data are spaced apart. The interleaved memory is to improve the speed of access to memory. The viterbi technique reduces the bit error rate.
Fluid accumulation threshold measured by acute body weight change after admission in general surgical intensive care units: how much should be concerning?

Background The objective of this study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01351506) was to identify the threshold level of fluid accumulation measured by acute body weight (BW) change during the first week in a general surgical intensive care unit (ICU), which is associated with ICU mortality and other adverse outcomes. Methods Four hundred sixty-five patients were prospectively followed for a 28-day period. The maximum BW change threshold during the first week was evaluated by the maximum percentage change in BW from the ICU admission weight (Max%ΔBW). Daily screening of adverse events in the ICU were recorded. The cutoff point of Max%ΔBW on ICU mortality was defined by considering the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, intersection of the sensitivity and specificity, and the Youden Index. Univariable and multivariable regression analyses were used to demonstrate the associations. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05. Results The appropriate cutoff value of Max%ΔBW threshold was 5%. Regarding the multivariable regression model, in overall patients, the occurrence of the following adverse events (expressed as adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]) were significantly associated with a Max%ΔBW of >5%: ICU mortality (2.38 [1.25–4.54]) (P=0.008), ICU mortality in patients without renal replacement therapy (RRT) (2.47 [1.21–5.06]) (P=0.013), reintubation within 72 hours (2.51 [1.04–6.00]) (P=0.039), RRT requirement (2.67 [1.13–6.33]) (P=0.026), and delirium (1.97 [1.08–3.57]) (P=0.025). Regarding the postoperative subgroup, a Max%ΔBW value of more than 5% was significantly associated with: ICU mortality (3.87 [1.38–10.85]) (P=0.010), ICU mortality in patients without RRT (6.32 [1.85–21.64]) (P=0.003), reintubation within 72 hours (4.44 [1.30–15.16]) (P=0.017), and vasopressor requirement (2.04 [1.04–4.01]) (P=0.037). Conclusion Fluid accumulation, measured as acute BW change of more than the threshold of 5% during the first week of ICU admission, is associated with adverse outcomes of higher ICU mortality, especially in the patients without RRT, with reintubation within 72 hours, with RRT requirement, with vasopressor requirement, and with delirium. Some of these effects were higher in postoperative patients. This threshold value might be an indicator for caution during fluid management in surgical ICU.