Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How consistent is your cloud application?

Current cloud datastores usually trade consistency for performance and availability. However, it is often not clear how an application is affected when it runs under a low level of consistency. In fact, current application designers have basically no tools that would help them to get a feeling of which and how many inconsistencies actually occur for their particular application. In this paper, we propose a generalized approach for detecting consistency anomalies for arbitrary cloud applications accessing various types of cloud datastores in transactional or non-transactional contexts. We do not require any knowledge on the business logic of the studied application nor on its selected consistency guarantees. We experimentally verify the effectiveness of our approach by using the Google App Engine and Cassandra datastores.
Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of the Women’s Agency Scale

We investigate the Women’s Agency Scale (WAS) using 2006-2012 panel data for 4,012 married women from the Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey. A confirmatory factor analysis shows women’s agency is a multidimensional factor and its structure is invariant across time. Pending further cross-cultural and longitudinal validation, the WAS appears to be a valid measure to assess changes in women’s ability to exercise choice over time, with important implications for testing the impact of women’s empowerment programs and for monitoring progress towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Five of gender equality and to empower women and girls.
STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE LIFE-SKILLS AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Adolescence is the period of developmental transition between childhood and adulthood, involving multiple physical, intellectual, personality, and social developmental changes. We can observe high risk behaviour among the adolescents. Due to rapid growth and changes they will fall in confusion and imbalance stage. This is a transition period. Adolescence is thus a turning point in one’s life, a period of increased potential but also one of greater vulnerability. So they need proper guidance and orientation. As today’s adolescents are the tomorrow’s adults, we should understand them in all aspects and need to inculcate Life Skills among the growing minds. Life Skills are essentially those abilities that help promote overall wellbeing and competence in young people as they face the realities of life. Life Skills enable any one to translate knowledge, attitudes and values into actual abilities. Life Skills education involves a dynamic teaching process. Method followed in teaching of Life Skills ought to be builds upon the social learning theory and on what we know of how young people learn from their environment; from observing how others behave and what consequences arise from behaviour. This paper focuses on the key issues and concerns of Adolescent Students, importance of Life Skills education to the Adolescents and Approach and Techniques to impart Life Skills. Article visualizations:
Naming game with learning errors in communications

Naming game simulates the process of naming an objective by a population of agents organized in a certain communication network topology. By pair-wise iterative interactions, the population reaches a consensus state asymptotically. In this paper, we study naming game with communication errors during pair-wise conversations, where errors are represented by error rates in a uniform probability distribution. First, a model of naming game with learning errors in communications (NGLE) is proposed. Then, a strategy for agents to prevent learning errors is suggested. To that end, three typical topologies of communication networks, namely random-graph, small-world and scale-free networks with different parameters, are employed to investigate the effects of various learning errors. Simulation results on these models show that 1) learning errors slightly affect the convergence speed but distinctively increase the requirement for memory of each agent during lexicon propagation; 2) the maximum number of different words held by the whole population increases linearly as the value of the error rate increases; 3) without applying any strategy to eliminate learning errors, there is a threshold value of the learning errors which impairs the convergence. The new findings help to better understand the role of learning errors in naming game as well as human language development from a network science perspective.
Optimization-based Method for Automated Road Network Extraction

Automated road information extraction has significant applicability in transportation. It provides a means for creating, maintaining, and updating transportation network databases that are needed for purposes ranging from traffic management to automated vehicle navigation and guidance. This paper is to review literature on the subject of road extraction and to describe a study of an optimization-based method for automated road network extraction.
An Assumption-Based Framework for Non-Monotonic Reasoning

The notion of assumption-based framework generalises and refines the use of abduction to give a formalisation of non-monotonic reasoning. In this framework, a sentence is a non-monotonic consequence of a theory if it can be derived monotonically from a theory extended by means of acceptable assumptions. The notion of acceptability for such assumptions is formulated in terms of their ability successfully to “counterattack” any “attacking” set of assumptions. One set of assumptions is said to “attack” another if the first set monotonically implies a consequence which is inconsistent with an assumption in the second set. This argumentation-theoretic criterion of acceptability is based on notions first introduced for logic programming and used to give a unified account of such diverse semantics for logic programming as stable models, partial stable models, preferred extensions, stable theories, well-founded semantics, and stationary semantics. The new framework makes it possible to generalise various improvements first introduced for the semantics of logic programming and to apply these improvements to other formalisms for non-monotonic reasoning. The paper investigates applications of the framework to logic programming, abductive logic programming, logic programs extended with “classical” negation, default logic, autoepistemic logic, and non-monotonic modal logic.
Gelatin nanoparticles as a new and simple gene delivery system.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate cationized gelatin nanoparticles as biodegradable and low cell toxic alternative carrier to existing DNA delivery systems. METHODS Native gelatin nanoparticles were produced using a two step desolvation method. In order to bind DNA by electrostatic interactions onto the surface of the particles, the quaternary amine cholamine was covalently coupled to the particles. The modified nanoparticles were loaded with different amounts of plasmid in varying buffers and compared to polyethyleneimine-DNA complexes (PEI polyplexes) as gold standard. Transfection ability of the loaded nanoparticles was tested on B16 F10 cells. Additionally, the cell toxicity of the formulations was monitored. RESULTS Different setups resulted in efficient gene delivery displayed by exponential increase of gene expression. The gene expression itself occurred with a certain delay after transfection. In contrast to PEI polyplexes, cationized gelatin nanoparticles almost did not show any significant cytotoxic effects. CONCLUSIONS Cationized gelatin nanoparticles have shown the potential of being a new effective carrier for nonviral gene delivery. The major benefit of gelatin nanoparticles is not only the very low cell toxicity, but also their simple production combined with low costs and multiple modification opportunities offered by the matrix molecule.
Ultrastructures of Colletotrichum orbiculare in the Leaves of Cucumber Plants Expressing Induced Systemic Resistance Mediated by Glomus intraradices BEG110

The colonization of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices BEG110 in the soil caused a decrease in disease severity in cucumber plants after fungal inoculation with Colletotrichum orbiculare. In order to illustrate the resistance mechanism mediated by G. intraradices BEG110, infection patterns caused by C. orbiculare in the leaves of cucumber plants and the host cellular responses were characterized. These properties were characterized using transmission electron microscopy on the leaves of cucumber plants grown in soil colonized with G. intraradices BEG110. In the untreated plants, inter- and intra-cellular fungal hyphae were observed throughout the leaf tissues during both the biotrophic and necrotrophic phases of infection. The cytoplasm of fungal hyphae appeared intact during the biotrophic phase, suggesting no defense response against the fungus. However, several typical resistance responses were observed in the plants when treated with G. intraradices BEG110 including the formation of sheaths around the intracellular hyphae or a thickening of host cell walls. These observations suggest that the resistance mediated by G. intraradices BEG110 most often occurs in the symplast of the host cells rather than in the apoplast. In addition, this resistance is similar to those mediated by biotic inducers such as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria.
Generating functional test cases in-the-large for time-critical systems from logic-based specifications

We address the problem of generating functional test cases for complex, highly structured time-critical systems starting from a modularized logic-based specification written in the TRIOR+ language, an object-oriented extension of the temporal logic TRIO.First, we present methods for producing test cases for a TRIO+ specification module, referring both to the internal, hidden, portion of the module and to its interface. Then, we discuss criteria to be used in the construction of test cases from a TRIO+ specification based on its composing modules and the connections among their interfaces. We formally define the notions related to test case derivation from TRIO+ modules and we introduce an executable language for describing a variety of strategies for constructing test cases for structured TRIO+ specifications starting from (parts of) the test cases of the composing modules. This language can be the basis for the implementation of an interactive tool for the semiautomatic construction of functional test cases from complex time-critical systems starting from their TRIO+ specification.
Enhanced in vitro and in vivo therapeutic efficacy of codrug-loaded nanoparticles against liver cancer

Paclitaxel (Ptx), one of the most widely used anticancer agents, has demonstrated extraordinary activities against a variety of solid tumors. However, the therapeutic response of Ptx is often associated with severe side effects caused by its nonspecific cytotoxic effects and special solvents (Cremophor EL®). The current study reports the stable controlled release of Ptx/tetrandrine (Tet)-coloaded nanoparticles by amphilic methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)–poly(caprolactone) block copolymers. There were three significant findings. Firstly, Tet could effectively stabilize Ptx-loaded nanoparticles with the coencapsulation of Tet and Ptx. The influence of different Ptx/Tet feeding ratios on the size and loading efficiency of the nanoparticles was also explored. Secondly, the encapsulation of Tet and Ptx into nanoparticles retains the synergistic anticancer efficiency of Tet and Ptx against mice hepatoma H22 cells. Thirdly, in the in vivo evaluation, intratumoral administration was adopted to increase the site-specific delivery. Ptx/Tet nanoparticles, when delivered intratumorally, exhibited significantly improved antitumor efficacy; moreover, they substantially increased the overall survival in an established H22-transplanted mice model. Further investigation into the anticancer mechanisms of this nanodelivery system is under active consideration as a part of this ongoing research. The results suggest that Ptx/Tet-coloaded nanoparticles could be a potential useful chemotherapeutic formulation for liver cancer therapy.
To See or Not to See: Talent Identification in the Swedish Football Association

The purpose of this article is to explore whether context and coaching cultures influence coaches’ practical experience and their unarticulated and embodied knowledge, and thus their different ways of seeing and defining talent. Using a cultural sociological perspective, we challenge the commonly held assumption that talent identification is, or can be made into, a rational and objective process. Our interpretations and analyses are based upon interviews with 15 soccer coaches in four districts within the Swedish Football Association’s talent organization program. The results imply that coaches’ talent identification is guided by what feels “right in the heart and stomach”; but what feels right is greatly influenced by their experience of previous identifications, interpretations of what elite soccer entails, and the coaching culture in which they find themselves.
Employing affection in elderly healthcare serious games interventions

Serious games for elderly healthcare provide a promising and novel way to promote the well-being of senior citizens. The gaming environment, originally designed for a younger target population, benefits from the increasing power of personal computers, mobiles devices (phones, tablets) and SmartTVs, as well as the recent emergence of motion capture technology developed for videogame consoles via worn physical sensors and controller free sensors. Measuring self-efficacy by elderly individuals on such gaming environments has characterized them in terms of their effectiveness to motivate an audience reluctant to undertake more conventional forms of activities. However, the relationship between the features making the game challenging and the senior user's behaviour in becoming motivated so as to interact with the system independently and effectively is still elusive. For instance, failure in understanding the game's instructions or adapting to the speed and complexity may be thought of as barriers that affect the seniors' satisfactory interaction within the gaming environment. A step towards this direction would require using emotions in the midst of the gaming environment so as to allow for the embodiment of real-time mental (cognitive and emotional), and physical data. The main goal is to focus on assessing the features that encourage the elderly individuals to interact with the gaming environment on a daily basis. We propose to further enhance the gaming environment through the use of personal biosensors (i.e. wireless EEG) and cameras (i.e. fisheye camera) so as to collect the user's mental and physical changes over time and fuse them in a decision support system. This information will eventually provide feedback on the gaming experience so as to modify it according to the user's affective state.
Investigation of Using Fuzzy Logic to Model Occupant Satisfaction and Behavior in a Building

Occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental conditions are in close relation to energy consumption in buildings. Despite the increasing efforts to maintain thermal comfort conditions in buildings with control strategies, occupants are not usually satisfied, and, thus, change their behavior which generally interfere with building operation systems. Therefore, modeling and characterizing occupant satisfaction and behavior are important considerations in the building energy use. However, occupant satisfaction and behavior as well as indoor environmental conditions have serious amount of uncertainty, and, thus, it is difficult to simulate them via traditional techniques. In this study, a total of 8 tests were conducted to monitor indoor environmental conditions in an educational building. A questionnaire was distributed during the monitoring period in order to understand the satisfaction level of occupants as well as their behavior preference. The results are utilized to model occupant behavior where fuzzy logic is preferred to tackle the uncertainty in the model parameters. Results denote that there is a significant potential of utilizing fuzzy logic to model occupant behavior under uncertain conditions similar to the real life.
Transcriptional mechanisms of cell fate decisions revealed by single cell expression profiling

Transcriptional networks regulate cell fate decisions, which occur at the level of individual cells. However, much of what we know about their structure and function comes from studies averaging measurements over large populations of cells, many of which are functionally heterogeneous. Such studies conceal the variability between cells and so prevent us from determining the nature of heterogeneity at the molecular level. In recent years, many protocols and platforms have been developed that allow the high throughput analysis of gene expression in single cells, opening the door to a new era of biology. Here, we discuss the need for single cell gene expression analysis to gain deeper insights into the transcriptional control of cell fate decisions, and consider the insights it has provided so far into transcriptional regulatory networks in development.
The influence of online quizzes on the acquisition of public affairs knowledge

ABSTRACT Drawing from a “mix of attributes” approach, this study analyzes whether interactive online news quizzes engage site visitors and help individuals acquire news knowledge. Results of a nationwide experiment (n = 456) indicate that online quizzes, whether using a multiple-choice or slider format, help citizens acquire public affairs knowledge and lead them to spend more time with public affairs information relative to presenting information without a quiz. Two field tests show that news site visitors engage with slider and multiple-choice quizzes at similar rates, and engage more and for longer amounts of time if two different interactive quiz formats are available on a Web page.
C to Asynchronous Dataflow Circuits: An End-to-End Toolflow

We present a complete toolﬂow that translates ANSI-C programs into asynchronous circuits. The toolﬂow is built around a compiler that converts C into a functional dataﬂow intermediate representation, exposing instruction-level, pipeline and memory parallelism. The compiler performs optimizations and converts the intermediate representation into pipelined asynchronous circuits, with no centralized controllers. In the resulting circuits, control is distributed, communication is achieved through local wires, and arbitration for datapath resources is unnecessary. Circuits automatically synthesized from Mediabench kernels exhibit excellent energy-delay.
Habituation of event related potentials: a tool for assessment of cognition in headache patients.

Delhi Psychiatry Journal 2008; 11:(1) © Delhi Psychiatric Society 48 Introduction Event related potentials are those potentials of electroencephalography which are evoked by preparation or perception for events. They can be endogenous or exogenous. Among endogenous, P3 has gained wide acceptance because it is associated by psychological processing, evoked by stimuli that are important to subject in some way. It is a broad component that peaks about 300-600 ms after stimulus onset with maximal amplitude at midline central or parietal recording sites at scalp. P3 latency from auditory stimulus is shorter than that evoked in response to visual stimulus. Some theories have proposed that P3 is evoked by unexpected stimuli, it reflects the updating of working memory, and its amplitude shows the amount of processing required. The evidence in complete favor of any one of these theories is however not convincing.
New findings on the use of static code attributes for defect prediction

Defect prediction includes tasks that are based on methods gener ated using software fault data sets and requires much effort to be completed. In defect prediction, although there are methods to conduct an analysis involving the classification of data sets and localisation of defects, those methods are not sufficient without eliminating repeated data points. The NASA Metrics Data Program (Nasa MDP) and Software Research Laboratory (SOFTLAP) data sets are frequently used in this field. Here, we present a novel method developed on the Nasa MDP and SOFTLAB data sets that detects repeated data points and analyses low level metrics. Also, a framework and an algorithm are presented for the proposed method. Statistical methods have been used for detecting repeated data points. This work sheds new lights on the extent to which repeated data adversely affects defect prediction performance, and stresses the importance of using low level metrics.
SenseCap: Synchronized Data Collection with Microsoft Kinect2 and LeapMotion

We present a new recording tool to capture synchronized video and skeletal data streams from cheap sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect2, and LeapMotion. While other recording tools act as virtual playback devices for testing on-line real-time applications, we target multi-media data collection for off-line processing. Images are encoded in common video formats, and skeletal data as flat text tables. This approach enables long duration recordings (e.g. over 30 minutes), and supports post-hoc mapping of the Kinect2 depth video to the color space if needed. By using common file formats, the data can be played back and analyzed on any other computer, without requiring sensor specific SDKs to be installed. The project is released under a 3-clause BSD license, and consists of an extensible C++11 framework, with support for the official Microsoft Kinect 2 and LeapMotion APIs to record, a command-line interface, and a Matlab GUI to initiate, inspect, and load Kinect2 recordings.
The automatic construction of large-scale corpora for summarization research

Summarization research is notorious for its lack of adequate corpora: today, there exist only a few small collections of texts whose units have been manually annotated for textual importance. Given the cost and tediousness of the annotation process, it is very unlikely that we will ever manually annotate for textual importance sufﬁciently large corpora of texts. To circumvent this problem, we have developed an algorithm that constructs such corpora automatically. Our algorithm takes as input an h Abstract, Text i tuple and generates the corresponding Extract , i.e., the set of clauses (sentences) in the Text that were used to write the Abstract . The performance of the algorithm is shown to be close to that of humans by means of an empirical experiment. The exper-iment also suggests extraction strategies that could improve the performance of automatic summarization systems.
Face super-resolution using a hybrid model

Face super-resolution is to synthesize a high-resolution facial image from a low-resolution input, which can significantly improve the recognition for computer and human. In this paper, we propose a new method of super-resolution based on hybrid model including a linear model of eigenface super-resolution and a Bayesian formulation model. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to approximately represent the input face image by linear combination of limited eigenface images. Then preliminary estimation of super-resolution result can be given by hallucinating the low-resolution eigenface images in the linear combination representation respectively. Finally, we use a Bayesian estimation algorithm to consider of the effect brought by subspace representation error and observation noise. Our method is demonstrated by extensive experiments with promising results of high-quality hallucinated results.