Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phenol-Explorer: an online comprehensive database on polyphenol contents in foods

A number of databases on the plant metabolome describe the chemistry and biosynthesis of plant chemicals. However, no such database is specifically focused on foods and more precisely on polyphenols, one of the major classes of phytochemicals. As antoxidants, polyphenols influence human health and may play a role in the prevention of a number of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, some cancers or type 2 diabetes. To determine polyphenol intake in populations and study their association with health, it is essential to have detailed information on their content in foods. However this information is not easily collected due to the variety of their chemical structures and the variability of their content in a given food. Phenol-Explorer is the first comprehensive web-based database on polyphenol content in foods. It contains more than 37 000 original data points collected from 638 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The quality of these data has been evaluated before they were aggregated to produce final representative mean content values for 502 polyphenols in 452 foods. The web interface allows making various queries on the aggregated data to identify foods containing a given polyphenol or polyphenols present in a given food. For each mean content value, it is possible to trace all original content values and their literature sources. Phenol-Explorer is a major step forward in the development of databases on food constituents and the food metabolome. It should help researchers to better understand the role of phytochemicals in the technical and nutritional quality of food, and food manufacturers to develop tailor-made healthy foods. Database URL: http://www.phenol-explorer.eu
Diagnosing insulin resistance by simple quantitative methods in subjects with normal glucose metabolism.

OBJECTIVE To identify a reliable yet simple indirect method for detection of insulin resistance (IR). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 65 subjects (44 men and 21 women aged 30-60 years) were selected by a simple random sampling method. Inclusion criteria were voluntary participation from staff and hospital personnel, absence of abnormal glucose tolerance, and normal results of lipid profile and basic blood chemistry. A blood sample was taken after a 12-h overnight fast to determine plasma lipid, glucose, and insulin levels. An intravenous glucose tolerance test with administration of insulin after 20 min and extraction of multiple blood samples for glucose and insulin measurements and calculation of the minimal model approximation of the metabolism of glucose (MMAMG) S(i) value were performed. Three indirect indexes used to predict insulin sensitivity or IR were calculated, and metabolic syndrome was diagnosed using the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) criteria. All results were correlated with those of the MMAMG. RESULTS The 75th percentile value as the cutoff point to define IR corresponded with a fasting plasma glucose level of 12 mU/l, a homeostasis model assessment of 2.6, a 25th percentile for S(i) value of 21, and QUICKI (quantitative insulin sensitivity check index) and McAuley indexes of 0.33 and 5.8, respectively. The S(i) index correlated (P < 0.001) with all the indirect indexes and parameters of the metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS When compared with the S(i) index, the most sensitive and specific indirect method was the score proposed by McAuley et al. (specificity 0.91, sensitivity 0.75, 9.2 probability ratio of a positive test), followed by the existence of metabolic syndrome (specificity 0.91, sensitivity 0.66, 7.8 probability ratio of a positive test).
Motion estimation and tracking for urban traffic monitoring

The use of traffic monitoring techniques based on image processing algorithms for supervising urban vehicle flows could be very useful. Classical inductive loops can only compute traffic density on a single lane but are unable to estimate, for example, the behaviour of the vehicle flow at a crossroad. In this paper a system that estimates the turning rates at an urban crossroad by processing the sequence of images taken by a videocamera is presented. Block matching motion estimation, segmentation, and moving object tracking techniques are used. The good results obtained are presented and their relation to the camera position is discussed.
The Role of Grandmothers in the Lives of Preschoolers Growing Up in Urban Poverty

Abstract Little is known about how grandmothers may influence children's development, although they may frequently assist parents in the raising of their children, especially among low-income families. Data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study were used to explore how preschoolers function academically and psychologically over time based on grandmothers' residential status and level of caretaking responsibility. Longitudinal regression analyses suggest that children who consistently have custodial grandmothers lag behind their peers in the development of their academic achievement, whereas those in multigenerational households consistently have more socioemotional problems over time. However, many of these differences are accounted for by co-occurring family characteristics. Furthermore, children transitioning into the care of custodial grandmothers were found to have positive changes in self-regulation and socioemotional functioning, and those transitioning into multigenerational households had more problems with self-regulation over time.
Enabling More Meaningful Post-Election Investigations

Author(s): Cordero, Arel Lee | Advisor(s): Wagner, David A. | Abstract: Post-election audits and investigations can produce more transparent, trustworthy, and secure elections. However, such investigations are limited in cases by inadequate tools and methods, an absence of meaningful evidence, and high costs. In this dissertation, I address these concerns in the following three lines of research. First, I describe my research on verifiable and transparent random sample selection for post-election audits. I investigate how counties have typically approached random sample selection, and I analyze the implications and limitations of those approaches. I propose a sampling method that has since found use in counties across the country. Second, I describe a novel approach for logging events in direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems. My approach gives investigators more meaningful evidence about the behavior of DREs on election day. In particular, I propose to record interactions between the voter and the voting machine such that they can be replayed by investigators while preserving the anonymity of the voter. Last, I describe a novel process for efficiently verifying elections that use optical scan voting systems. My process uses image superposition to let an investigator visualize the content of many ballot images simultaneously while allowing individual treatment of anomalous ballots. I evaluate this process and demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement in the time it takes to inspect ballot images individually. This approach will let investigators more cost-effectively verify that all ballots have been accurately counted as intended by the voters.
Reliability and accuracy of differentiating pervasive developmental disorder subtypes.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the ability of the DSM-IV criteria for the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) to reliably and accurately differentiate PDD subtypes. METHOD The sample consisted of 143 children with various types of developmental disabilities. A diagnosis of PDD and PDD subtype was made by one clinician using information obtained from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. The raw data from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, clinical notes (excluding diagnostic opinion), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, IQ, and other available data were independently assessed by three experienced raters, each of whom then made a separate, blind diagnosis. If there was any disagreement, a consensus best-estimate (CBE) diagnosis was made after discussion. To assess reliability, the agreement between the three raters was calculated using k. Accuracy was assessed by calculating the agreement between the clinician's diagnosis and the CBE and by calculating the error rates associated with the three raters using latent class analysis. RESULTS The current DSM-IV criteria show good to excellent reliability for the diagnosis of PDD, Asperger's disorder (AsD), and autism, but they show poor reliability for the diagnosis of atypical autism. The clinician (compared to the CBE) had little difficulty differentiating PDD from non-PDD children and autism from AsD but had more difficulty identifying children with atypical autism. The latent class analysis also showed that the average error rates of the three raters for a differentiation of atypical autism from autism were unacceptably high. CONCLUSIONS Although the psychometric properties of the current DSM-IV criteria for autism and AsD appear quite acceptable, there is likely to be a high rate of misclassification of children given a diagnosis of atypical autism.
Congregating by cassette

A single communications device has transformed interactions between members of widely dispersed transnational Haitian religious communities: the audiocassette recorder. Messages, hymns and prayers taped on them crisscross the sea between Haiti and its diaspora, engaging distantly separated co-religionists in sporadically sequenced, yet effectively intimate conversations and rituals. For both Vodouist and Catholic religious congregations, tape recordings in Haitian Creole effectively circumvent scriptural French and help cement transnational ties by creating vast transnational performative spaces. This article draws on ethnographic research in Haiti and Florida to describe and theorize the important role that audiocassettes have played, in the transnational Haitian case, in cementing `assembled groups' and recreating `certain mental states of those groups' in ways that Durkheim might not have imagined when developing his epic argument about the socially cohesive function and essence of religion, an argument from which we take our theoretical orientation.
Access points selection in super WiFi network powered by solar energy harvesting

Super Wi-Fi is expected to enable the Internet access everywhere in a country. Considering the infrastructure deployment issues, energy harvesting technology is a promising solution for power supply. Most of existing works focused on the energy scheduling from the network operator's point of view. In this paper, we study the access point selection strategy from users' perspectives and consider Super WiFi networks powered by solar energy harvesting. Although the network selection problem has been studied, the energy harvesting scenario has not been well investigated and the influence of battery condition has not been taken into account. In our work, we consider the utility of the access users is affected not only by the total number of accessed users, but also the battery condition. In order to formulate the battery states and user states, we incorporate the physical characteristics of solar cell, as well as the dynamic access behaviors of users through Markov Decision Process (MDP)model. By using the value iteration method, the set of optimal network selection strategies is obtained. Simulation results validate that our method has a remarkable performance improvement of utility over the myopic and random access strategies.
Relative Humidity Sensor Based on an Agarose-Infiltrated Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometer

We report a detailed study of a miniature optical relative humidity (RH) sensor based on a polymer-infiltrated photonic crystal fiber interferometer. The sensor shows a high sensitivity to RH variations with a change in its reflected power of about 12 dB for a humidity change of 84% RH. The sensor has the advantages of a very compact length of 1 mm, and an end-type probe configuration makes it suitable for monitoring humidity in microenvironments. The repeatability, long-term stability, measurement accuracy, and temperature dependence of the sensor are studied in this paper. The observed low thermal sensitivity of the sensor suggests that temperature compensation may not be needed if it is used in normal environments. The response time of the sensor is found to be 400 ms for a change in RH of ~ 30% RH. The fast response time suggests that the sensor can potentially be used as a human breath rate monitor in a clinical situation.
Approximate Inference with the Variational Holder Bound

We introduce the Variational Holder (VH) bound as an alternative to Variational Bayes (VB) for approximate Bayesian inference. Unlike VB which typically involves maximization of a non-convex lower bound with respect to the variational parameters, the VH bound involves minimization of a convex upper bound to the intractable integral with respect to the variational parameters. Minimization of the VH bound is a convex optimization problem; hence the VH method can be applied using off-the-shelf convex optimization algorithms and the approximation error of the VH bound can also be analyzed using tools from convex optimization literature. We present experiments on the task of integrating a truncated multivariate Gaussian distribution and compare our method to VB, EP and a state-of-the-art numerical integration method for this problem.
Longitudinal Assessment of Dissociation in Holocaust Survivors With and Without PTSD and Nonexposed Aged Jewish Adults

Abstract: The trajectory of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD‐related symptoms in relation to aging is not well understood. We previously observed higher levels of dissociation as measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) among older Holocaust survivors with, compared to those without, PTSD, though scores on the DES in Holocaust survivors were markedly lower than those that had been reported for younger cohorts. We undertook a longitudinal evaluation of dissociation in Holocaust survivors. Twenty‐six Holocaust survivors with current PTSD, 30 Holocaust survivors without current PTSD, and 19 nonexposed were evaluated at the initial evaluation and subsequently 8.11 years later. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the DES scores from these times demonstrated a significant main effect for time and a significant group by time interaction, reflecting a marked decline in Holocaust survivors, particularly those with PTSD. Controlling for age obliterated the effect of time, but not the group by time interaction. A similar pattern was shown with The Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) scores. Different symptoms related to PTSD show different trajectories of change with age, with dissociation appearing to be less prominent with age.
Chinese disyllabic words in conversation

This paper presents a study of segment duration in Chinese disyllabic words. The study accounts for boundary-related factors at levels of syllable, word, prosodic unit, and discourse unit. Face-to-face conversational speech data annotated with signal-aligned, multi-layer linguistic information was used for the analysis. A series of quantitative results show that Chinese disyllabic words have a long first syllable onset and a long second syllable rhyme, suggesting an edge effect of disyllabic words. This is in line with disyllabic merger in Chinese that preserves the onset of the first syllable and the rhyme of the second syllable. A shortening effect at prosodic and discourse unit initiation locations is due to a duration reduction of the second syllable onset, whereas the common phenomenon of pre-boundary lengthening is mainly a result of the second syllable rhyme prolongation including the glide, nucleus, and coda. Morphologically inseparable disyllabic words in principle follow the “long first onset and long second rhyme” duration pattern. But diverse duration patterns were found in words with a head-complement and a stem-suffix construction, suggesting that word morphology may also play a role in determining the duration pattern of Chinese disyllabic words in conversational speech.
Crowdsourcing research opportunities: lessons from natural language processing

Although the field has led to promising early results, the use of crowdsourcing as an integral part of science projects is still regarded with skepticism by some, largely due to a lack of awareness of the opportunities and implications of utilizing these new techniques. We address this lack of awareness, firstly by highlighting the positive impacts that crowdsourcing has had on Natural Language Processing research. Secondly, we discuss the challenges of more complex methodologies, quality control, and the necessity to deal with ethical issues. We conclude with future trends and opportunities of crowdsourcing for science, including its potential for disseminating results, making science more accessible, and enriching educational programs.
Promoting Inclusive (and Dialogic) Leadership in Higher Education Institutions

Higher education institutions are facing major challenges requiring traditional leadership and administrative policies and practices to be rethought and renewed. These challenges concern the whole academic community but mostly the institutions’ administrative leaders. This article suggests how applying the democratic principles of “inclusion”, which stresses critical dialogue and social justice, can reach beyond the traditional managerial and administrative policies when meeting the new requirements; and be a catalyst for change in leadership practices.
Assessment of murine lung mechanics outcome measures: alignment with those made in asthmatics

Although asthma is characterized as an inflammatory disease, recent reports highlight the importance of pulmonary physiology outcome measures to the clinical assessment of asthma control and risk of asthma exacerbation. Murine models of allergic inflammatory airway disease have been widely used to gain mechanistic insight into the pathogenesis of asthma; however, several aspects of murine models could benefit from improvement. This review focuses on aligning lung mechanics measures made in mice with those made in humans, with an eye toward improving the translational utility of these measures. A brief description of techniques available to measure murine lung mechanics is provided along with a methodological consideration of their utilization. How murine lung mechanics outcome measures relate to pulmonary physiology measures conducted in humans is discussed and we recommend that, like human studies, outcome measures be standardized for murine models of asthma.
Diet inequality prevails among consumers interested and knowledgeable in nutrition

Background Previous studies have demonstrated a correlation between diet cost and adherence to nutritional recommendations among consumers in general. This has adverse effects on diet and health inequality. It could be hypothesized that consumers knowledgeable in nutrition escape this correlation. Objective Investigate whether the previously observed relationship between diet cost and nutritional quality prevails among consumers with an above-average interest in and knowledge of nutrition. Design Full open diet registrations of 330 students taking a basic university-level course in nutrition over a total of 780 days. Results The consumers with the highest daily average diet cost differ from the lowest cost quartile: The diets had higher micronutrient density, more fruits and vegetables, and lower energy density. The highest cost daily diet quartile had a significantly higher energy adjusted intake of the micronutrients that were on average consumed below the recommendation (vitamin D, folate, and iron for women). On the other hand, alcohol intake was significantly higher among the high diet cost group. The highest diet cost respondents consumed more fish, meat, coffee, and spreads, whereas the lowest diet cost respondents had a higher consumption of cereals, bread, jam, sausage, and milk. Conclusions Dietary differences prevail even in the above-average interested and knowledgeable group. The respondents did not use their higher level of knowledge to break this commonly observed relationship. This suggests that an increased minimum level of knowledge in nutrition may not by itself eliminate dietary inequality.
A Framework for Unified Spectrum Management (USM) in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

In the information age, spectrum is a valuable natural resource. Currently, there is a great deal of ongoing research into architectures for spectrum (or more generally, radio resource) management for next generation wireless communications systems. This article proposes a framework for unified spectrum management (USM), where both licensed and license-exempt bands are managed by a hierarchical band management method. An outline for developing the required entities in this architecture is introduced, as well as the protocols that are required for USM operation. We also discuss spatial and temporal coordination of resource usage in such a heterogeneous wireless environment. Finally, a number of open research issues for future study are outlined.
Roles of Leisure in the Post-Disaster Psychological Recovery after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

The roles of leisure have been significantly underexplored in postdisaster psychological recovery contexts. In this study, we explore this topic through a case study of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami (GEJE). In July 2012, in-depth interviews were conducted with both survivors and disaster volunteers to examine postdisaster life. A culturally unique term tanoshimi was used in the interviews, which means fun or hobby. The interview data suggested that tanoshimi served as both emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies, and that it became meaningful for survivors as an opportunity to explore new purpose in life, a source of normalcy and continuity, and a context to express personal transformation. The findings are discussed in relation to leisure-based stress coping, transcendence of negative life events, and Japanese cultural influences. Potential implications of leisure research to disaster relief are suggested.
Reliability of the Jackson Personality Inventory

Internal consistency reliability estimates were obtained for two samples of college students for the Jackson Personality Inventory using Bender's coefficient theta. In the California sample (n = 82), values ranged from . 84 to . 95, with a median of . 93. The Pennsylvania sample (n = 307) yielded a range of . 75 to . 93, with a median of . 90.
Graduate leadership students’ perspective on including spiritual topics

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore working students’ perspectives on the inclusion of spiritual topics in graduate leadership and management programs at secular, nonreligious, and multifaith universities. The growth in interest in spiritual issues at work and in leadership and management education suggests that spiritual topics have a role to play in leadership and management education, but this has not been systematically researched from a student perspective. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 128 graduate students in leadership and management programs were surveyed using a 22-item rating scale-based questionnaire, with three additional open-ended items. Questions were developed from a survey of the literature. Findings – Descriptive analysis suggests support for the inclusion of spiritual components in courses but emphasizes students’ desire for an unbiased learning experience. Factor analysis not only revealed student perceptions being influenced by openness to and interest in the.