Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Usenet newsgroups’ profile analysis, utilising standard and non-standard statistical methods

The paper explores building profiles of newsgroups from a corpus of Usenet e-mail messages, employing some standard statistical techniques as well as fuzzy clustering methods. A large set of data from a number of newsgroups has been analysed to elicit some text attributes, such as number of words, length of sentences and other stylistic characteristics. Readability scores have also been obtained by using recognised assessment methods. These text attributes were used for building newsgroups’ profiles. Three newsgroups, each with a similar number of messages, were selected from the processed sample for the analysis of two types of one-dimensional profiles: one by length of texts and the second by readability scores. Those profiles are compared with corresponding profiles of the whole sample and also with those of a group of frequent participants in the newsgroups. Fuzzy clustering is used for creating two-dimensional profiles of the same groups. An attempt is made to identify the newsgroups by defining centres of data clusters. It is contended that this approach to newsgroups’ pro-file analysis could facilitate a better understanding of computer-mediated communication on the Usenet, which is a growing medium of informal business and personal correspondence.
Theory-Driven Evaluation in School Psychology Intervention Research: 2007–2012

Abstract. This study is an investigation of the extent to which school psychology intervention research is guided by theory and addresses theoretical implications of findings. Intervention studies published during 2007–2012 in four journals, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Quarterly, and School Psychology Review, were classified based on inclusion of critical components of theory-driven evaluation (Chen & Rossi, 1983): specification of causal program theory indicating mechanisms of intervention effects, assessment of constructs relevant to causal program theory, testing of mediation and moderation, and discussion of theoretical implications of findings. In addition, explicit and implicit theoretical frameworks used in the studies were identified. The results indicated that although nearly half of the reviewed studies discussed causal program theory, other elements of theory-driven evaluation were incorporated in the studies less frequently. Challenges in applying the theory-driven evaluation paradigm within the theoretical frameworks and research methods commonly used in school psychology are discussed, and possible solutions to these challenges are presented.
Differential induction of tumor necrosis factor alpha in murine and human leukocytes by Mycoplasma arthritidis-derived superantigen

Mycoplasma arthritidis-derived superantigen (MAS) is exclusively produced by M. arthritidis, which is the only known mycoplasma to produce a superantigen. As a superantigen, MAS shows properties similar to those of the staphylococcal enterotoxins and related substances, such as binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II and V beta-specific stimulation of T cells. In this series of experiments, we demonstrate some differences between MAS and other superantigens. MAS induced the production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) mRNA in human as well as in murine leukocytes. However, only in murine leukocytes was the mRNA adequately translated into the protein. In human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we found only small amounts of TNF, whereas in murine spleen cells we detected levels more than three times higher. The proliferative response to MAS has been shown to be restricted to I-E alpha in the murine MHC. Furthermore, TNF was induced in I-E alpha+ bone marrow-derived macrophages by MAS. In these cells, MAS rapidly induced very high levels of TNF and the amounts of mRNA detected correlated to the amount of protein produced. In comparison with other superantigens, including the staphylococcal enterotoxins, toxic shock syndrome toxin 1, and exfoliative toxin A, the failure of MAS to induce TNF-alpha in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells is specific for MAS and not common to all superantigens. The direct activation of bone marrow-derived macrophages also seems to be specific for MAS. These data suggest that the induction of TNF-alpha by MAS is dependent on the strength of binding to the MHC class II molecule.
Association of multi‐drug resistance gene polymorphisms with pancreatic cancer outcome

The purpose of this study was to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of multidrug resistance genes that are associated with clinical outcome in patients with potentially resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma who were treated with preoperative gemcitabine‐based chemoradiotherapy at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Magnetic and spin evolution of neutron stars in close binaries

The evolution of neutron stars in close binary systems with a low-mass companion is considered, assuming the magnetic field to be confined within the solid crust. We adopt the standard scenario for the evolution in a close binary system, in which the neutron star passes through four evolutionary phases (‘isolated pulsar’–‘propeller’– accretion from the wind of a companion – accretion resulting from Roche-lobe overflow). Calculations have been performed for a great variety of parameters characterizing the properties of both the neutron star and the low-mass companion. We find that neutron stars with more or less standard magnetic field and spin period that are processed in low-mass binaries can evolve to low-field rapidly rotating pulsars. Even if the main-sequence life of a companion is as long as 1010 yr, the neutron star can maintain a relatively strong magnetic field to the end of the accretion phase. The model that is considered can account well for the origin of millisecond pulsars.
Enterocolitis Caused by Ehrlichia sp. in the Horse (Potomac Horse Fever)

Potomac horse fever was reproduced in 15 ponies by transfusion of whole blood originally from two natural cases and subsequently from ponies infected by the transfusions. Incubation periods varied from 9 to 15 days. Affected ponies developed varying degrees of fever, diarrhea, anorexia, depression, and leukopenia. Eleven affected ponies were killed, three died in the acute phase of the disease, and one did not show clinical signs. The most consistent post-mortem findings were fluid contents in the cecum and large colon, and areas of hyperemia (of inconstant degree and distribution) in mucosae of both small and large intestines. Multifocal areas of necrosis occurred in mucous membranes. Ehrlichial organisms were most common in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells, macrophages, and mast cells of the large colon.
Authenticating Location-Based Skyline Queries in Arbitrary Subspaces

With the ever-increasing use of smartphones and tablet devices, location-based services (LBSs) have experienced explosive growth in the past few years. To scale up services, there has been a rising trend of outsourcing data management to Cloud service providers, which provide query services to clients on behalf of data owners. However, in this data-outsourcing model, the service provider can be untrustworthy or compromised, thereby returning incorrect or incomplete query results to clients, intentionally or not. Therefore, empowering clients to authenticate query results is imperative for outsourced databases. In this paper, we study the authentication problem for location-based arbitrary-subspace skyline queries (LASQs), which represent an important class of LBS applications. We propose a basic Merkle Skyline R-tree method and a novel Partial S4-tree method to authenticate one-shot LASQs. For the authentication of continuous LASQs, we develop a prefetching-based approach that enables clients to compute new LASQ results locally during movement, without frequently contacting the server for query re-evaluation. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed methods and algorithms under various system settings.
Analyzing the mechanisms of interferon-induced apoptosis using CrmA and hepatitis C virus NS5A.

The dsRNA-dependent protein kinase, PKR, is a key component of interferon (IFN)-mediated anti-viral action and is frequently inhibited by many viruses following infection of the cell. Recently, we have demonstrated that IFN and PKR can sensitize cells to apoptosis predominantly through the FADD/caspase-8 pathway (S. Balachandran, P. C. Roberts, T. Kipperman, K. N. Bhalla, R. W. Compans, D. R. Archer, and G. N. Barber. (2000b) J. Virol. 74, 1513-1523). Given these findings, it is thus plausible that rather than specifically target IFN-inducible genes such as PKR, viruses could also subvert the mechanisms of IFN action, in part, at locations that could block the apoptotic cascade. To explore this possibility, we analyzed whether the poxvirus caspase-8 inhibitor, CrmA, was able to inhibit IFN or PKR/dsRNA-mediated apoptosis. Our findings indicated that CrmA could indeed inhibit apoptosis induced by both viral infection and dsRNA without blocking PKR activity or inhibiting IFN signaling. In contrast HCV-encoded NS5A, a putative inhibitor of PKR, did not appear to inhibit cell death mediated by a number of apoptotic stimuli, including IFN, TRAIL, and etoposide. Our data imply that viral-encoded inhibitors of apoptosis, such as CrmA, can block the innate arms of the immune response, including IFN-mediated apoptosis, and therefore potentially constitute an alternative family of inhibitors of IFN action in the cell.
Supporting Distributed Software Development with fine-grained Artefact Management

Distributed software development is increasingly becoming a common practice in the software industry. The increased complexity of software systems also reflects in the complexity of design documentation, thus requiring a specific tool support for change and configuration management in distributed development settings. We present the fine-grained versioning management approach adopted in the ADAMS artefact management system, focusing on support to high level documentation versioning. We also present the results of experimenting the tool in software development projects developed at the University of Salerno
Neurofunctional Characterization of the At-Risk Mental State for Psychosis

Schizophrenia is a complex and debilitating psychiatric illness characterized by positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions and negative symptoms like blunting of affect, avolition, and poverty of thought. This constellation of symptoms is hypothesized to result from dopaminergic dysfunction, glutamatergic dysfunction, and dysfunctional stress-­‐‑ reactivity. Prior to the onset of schizophrenia there is a prodromal period when individuals begin to experience sub-­‐‑ clinical symptoms and decreased functioning. This period is important to study not only to help elucidate biologic mechanisms of the illness but also to potentially alter the course of the illness through early treatment. The difficulty of studying this period lies in its recognizing it prospectively. To address this researchers have begun to study the at-­‐‑ risk mental state, a state that is associated with a high but not inevitable risk of conversion to psychosis. The studies described in this dissertation are aimed at a neurofunctional characterization of the at-­‐‑ risk mental state in three primary domains: reward-­‐‑ anticipation, hippocampus-­‐‑ dependent learning, and stress-­‐‑ reactivity. Individuals at-­‐‑ risk for psychosis and age-­‐‑ matched healthy volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing tasks targeting these domains. In the reward-­‐‑ anticipation task, at-­‐‑ risk individuals showed decreased ventral tegmental area (VTA) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) responses to reward anticipation. In the hippocampus-­‐‑ dependent v learning task, at-­‐‑ risk individuals showed deficits in hippocampus-­‐‑ dependent memory, decreased VTA engagement, and increased DLPFC activation during learning of associations between items. In the stress-­‐‑ reactivity task, at-­‐‑ risk individuals showed increased activation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis/basal forebrain (BNST), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in response to neutral faces. Collectively, these experiments show that neurofunctional deficits in reward-­‐‑ anticipation, hippocampus-­‐‑ dependent learning, and stress-­‐‑ reactivity are present in the putative prodrome, prior to the onset of psychosis. Regions implicated are those that would be expected based on current models of schizophrenia and neurofunctional studies in those with frank psychosis.
FARMER: finding interesting rule groups in microarray datasets

Microarray datasets typically contain large number of columns but small number of rows. Association rules have been proved to be useful in analyzing such datasets. However, most existing association rule mining algorithms are unable to efficiently handle datasets with large number of columns. Moreover, the number of association rules generated from such datasets is enormous due to the large number of possible column combinations.In this paper, we describe a new algorithm called FARMER that is specially designed to discover association rules from microarray datasets. Instead of finding individual association rules, FARMER finds interesting rule groups which are essentially a set of rules that are generated from the same set of rows. Unlike conventional rule mining algorithms, FARMER searches for interesting rules in the row enumeration space and exploits all user-specified constraints including minimum support, confidence and chi-square to support efficient pruning. Several experiments on real bioinformatics datasets show that FARMER is orders of magnitude faster than previous association rule mining algorithms.
Multiplex PCR Assay for Rapid Detection and Genotyping of Helicobacter pylori Directly from Biopsy Specimens

ABSTRACT We developed and evaluated a simple, novel multiplex PCR assay for rapid detection of Helicobacter pylori infection and for the determination of vacA and cagA genotypes directly from gastric biopsy specimens. This assay did not require culturing of strains or extraction of DNA from biopsy samples. This multiplex PCR assay would be of particularly great value for laboratories in developing countries.
Evaluation and Selection of Basal Reading Programs.

texts from which reading will be taught involves a choice that has more practi cal impact on day-to-day reading in struction within a school district than almost any other curricular decision. Like it or not, the composition of the chosen basal program will at least in fluence, or at most dictate, the litera ture children will read, the type of skill practice activities they will complete, and numerous other components of the process of learning to read. Obviously, the decision is an important one. Given the influence of the selection on each individual adopting school district, the true impact on a national level can be seen when the extent of basal reading series use is considered. It is often estimated that between 80 and 90% of the children in the United States are taught to read through the use of a basal reading series. In a 1962 study (Barton and Wilder), survey in formation from approximately 150 randomly selected schools across the United States indicated that basal read
Repair of acute type A aortic dissection: results in 100 patients

To determine short- and long-term outcomes after repair of type A aortic dissection, we reviewed data of 100 consecutive patients (64 men; mean age, 63 ± 12.2 years) who underwent acute type A aortic dissection repair between January 2000 and June 2008. They were divided into group A, open anastomosis (circulatory arrest; n = 59) and group B, closed anastomosis (no circulatory arrest; n = 41). Aortic valve re-suspension or replacement was performed in 77 patients, aortic root replacement in 29, and aortic arch procedures in 31. The median follow-up was 2.8 years (range, 0–8.6 years). The 30-day mortality was 14%; 16.9% in group A and 9.8% in group B. None of the 23 variables analyzed to determine predictors of death or stroke was significant on multivariate analysis. Postoperatively, there was no difference between the 2 groups with respect to stroke, sepsis, renal failure, multiorgan failure, or reoperation. Overall actuarial survival at 1, 3, 5, and 8 years was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Considerable morbidity is still associated with repair of type A aortic dissection, despite a significant improvement in mortality.
A speech enhancement preprocessor for robust speech recognition

To improve the robustness of automatic speech recognition (ASR) system in adverse environments, speech enhancement preprocessor has been widely used recently to reduce the impact of noise. In this paper, an improved noise estimation approach is proposed in the enhancement preprocessor to keep enhancement performance with low distortion and complexity. First, the noisy speech is transformed into Bark domain and the minima values are tracked. Then, these values are applied to control the smoothing factor of recursive averaging in noise estimator. Based on perceptual model, the proposed approach makes full use of correlations among frequency bins in the same Bark band to track noise better. Furthermore, this approach has low complexity and is suitable for consecutive recognition process. Simulation results show that the proposed preprocessor can effectively improve recognition accuracies at very low SNRs.
Author ' s personal copy “ Concreteness fading ” promotes transfer of mathematical knowledge

Recent studies have suggested that educators should avoid concrete instantiations when the goal is to promote transfer. However, concrete instantiations may benefit transfer in the long run, particularly if they are “faded” into more abstract instantiations. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to learn a mathematical concept in one of three conditions: generic, in which the concept was instantiated using abstract symbols, concrete in which it was instantiated using meaningful images, or fading, in which itsymbols, concrete in which it was instantiated using meaningful images, or fading, in which it was instantiated using meaningful images that were “faded” into abstract symbols. After learning, undergraduates completed a transfer test immediately, one week later, and three weeks later. Undergraduates in the fading condition exhibited the best transfer performance. Additionally, undergraduates in the generic condition exhibited somewhat better transfer than those in the concrete condition, but this advantage was not robust. Results suggest that concrete instantiations should be included in the
Analysis of the Soft Handover Procedure in Downlink Direction in UMTS WCDMA Systems

An athletic exercising device comprising a handle mounted on swing arms pivotally mounted on a support tube that is vertically moveable on an upstanding standpipe and a spring loaded set pin for adjustably fixing the support tube in desired vertical positions on the standpipe. A piston-cylinder assembly is carried by the tube, and a closed hydraulic circuit is connected to the two ends of the cylinder. A piston rod is connected to the piston of the assembly and to the swing arms so that the arms and handle can be moved for exercising purposes against the action of the fluid acted on by the piston. The tube allows the assembly to be inverted on the standpipe and also to be rotated on the standpipe through 180 degrees for different exercises.
On the $O(1/k)$ Convergence Rate of He's Alternating Directions Method for a Kind of Structured Variational Inequality Problem

The alternating directions method for a kind of structured variational inequality problem (He, 2001) is an attractive method for structured monotone variational inequality problems. In each iteration, the subproblemsare convex quadratic minimization problem with simple constraintsand a well-conditioned system of nonlinear equations that can be efficiently solvedusing classical methods. Researchers have recently described the convergence rateof projection and contraction methods for variational inequality problems andthe original ADM and its linearized variant. Motivated and inspired by researchinto the convergence rate of these methods, we provide a simple proof to show the $O(1/k)$ convergencerate of alternating directions methods for structured monotone variational inequality problems (He, 2001).
Tubular and glomerular function in children after renal transplantation

Abstract: Glomerular and tubular function of transplanted kidneys were assessed in 46 children aged 15.7 ± 4.6 yr, 4.2 ± 2.8 yr after renal transplantation. There were 34 cadaveric, and 12 living‐related donors. Twelve patients (26%) had acute episodes (acute tubular necrosis, rejection, or urinary tract infection) during follow‐up. All patients were on triple immunosuppression. The mean serum creatinine was 1.5 ± 0.6 mg/dL. Creatinine clearance (Ccreat) calculated from a 24‐h urine collection was 48.0 ± 19.7 mL/min/1.73 m2, and that estimated from the Schwartz formula, 61.0 ± 22.5 mL/min/1.73 m2. A positive correlation was found between the calculated and estimated clearances. Mean urine concentrating ability was 487 ± 184 mOsmol/kg, with a value lower than 400 mOsmol/kg in 35% of patients. There was a positive correlation between urine osmolality and estimated Ccreat. Metabolic acidosis (bicarbonate <22 mmol/L) was found in 41% of patients, with relatively alkaline urine and high chloride level. Fractional excretion (FE) of sodium was above 1% in 68% of patients (mean 1.66 ± 1.06%), and FEMg was above 3% (mean 10.9 ± 5.2%) in 93% of patients. Tubular reabsorption of phosphate (TP)/glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was 3.2 ± 0.8 mg/dL glomerular filtrate (GF). FEK, FEUA, and Ca/creatinine in urine were normal. There were no functional group differences between the cadaveric and living‐related kidneys. Significant group differences were found in those with acute episodes and those with a normal course. Estimated Ccreat was 54 ± 20 vs. 67 ± 20 mL/min/1.73 m2 in the acute episodes and the normal course groups, respectively. Also, the FENA, FEUA, and FEMg were higher in the acute episodes group −2.3 ± 1.6, 10.6 ± 4.4, and 14.8 ± 6.5%, respectively, compared with the normal course group −1.4 ± 0.6, 8.2 ± 2.8, and 9.6 ± 4.0%, respectively. There were no between‐group differences in plasma bicarbonate, FEK, TP/GFR, and urine osmolality. We believe that most, if not all tubular dysfunctions in the transplanted kidney are secondary to renal failure and interstitial damage from acute episodes and nephrotoxic drugs. These dysfunctions are similar to those in chronic renal failure, where interstitial fibrosis plays a role in kidney function deterioration.