Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crash types: markers of increased risk of alcohol-involved crashes among teen drivers.

OBJECTIVE Teens drink/drive less often than adults but are more likely to crash when they do drink/drive. This study identified alcohol-related crash types for which teen drivers were at greater risk compared with adults. METHOD Michigan State Police crash records for drivers ages 16-19 (teens) and 45-65 years (adults) who experienced at least one crash from 1989 to 1996 were used to create alcohol crash types consisting of alcohol-related crashes that included specific combinations of other crash characteristics, such as drinking and driving at night (i.e., alcohol/nighttime). These data were combined with data from the 1990 and 1995 National Personal Travel Surveys and the 2001 National Household Travel Survey to estimate rates and rate ratios of alcohol-related crash types based on person-miles driven. RESULTS Teens were relatively less likely than adults to be involved in alcohol-related crashes but were significantly more likely to be in alcohol-related crashes that included other crash characteristics. Teen males' crash risk was highest when drinking and driving with a passenger, at night, at night with a passenger, and at night on the weekend, and casualties were more likely to result from alcohol-related nighttime crashes. All the highest risk alcohol-related crash types for teen female drinking drivers involved casualties and were most likely to include speeding, passenger presence, and nighttime driving. CONCLUSIONS The frequency with which passengers, nighttime or weekend driving, and speeding occurred in the highest risk alcohol-related crash types for teens suggests that these characteristics should be targeted by policies, programs, and enforcement to reduce teen alcohol-related crash rates.
A body-biased wide-band VCO

In this paper, a 3.24 GHz~4.56 GHz wide-band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) fabricated in a 0.18 ¿m 1P6M CMOS process is presented. This VCO is designed with a CMOS complementary-Gm oscillator topology, features two accumulation mode MOS varactors, and body-biased pMOSs. With 1.8 V power supply, when center frequency is 3.547 GHz, the phase noise is -119.2 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The oscillation frequency can be tuned from 3.24 GHz to 4.46 GHz. The best figure of merit (FoM) is -181.18 dB, the maximum power consumption is 16.2 mW.
Demonstration of ultrafast all-optical wavelength conversion utilizing birefringence in semiconductor optical amplifiers

High-extinction-ratio wavelength conversion has been demonstrated in a semiconductor optical amplifier using a mixture of cross-gain and cross-phase modulation in a polarization rotation technique. 40-ps-wide pulses at 1311 nm have been generated using 47-ps, 5.7-mW peak-power input pulses at 1300 nm. Excellent agreement with experiment has been obtained using a computer model.
How Can Semantics and Context Awareness Enhance the Composition of Context-aware Services?

The context-aware services refers to applications that use so-called contextual information to provide appropriate services or relevant information to the user or other applications to perform a specific task. An important challenge in context-aware service oriented systems is the creation of a new service on demand to carry out more complex tasks through the composition of existing services. In this work, we aim to propose a semantic based architecture for the development of context aware services composition using Artificial Intelligence (AI) planning. The straightforward translation between AI planning through PDDL and Semantic web services via OWL-S allows to automate the composition process. Thus planning based service composition launches a goal-oriented composition procedure to generate a plan of composite service corresponding to the user request.
Automatic age and gender classification using supervised appearance model

Abstract. Age and gender classification are two important problems that recently gained popularity in the research community, due to their wide range of applications. Research has shown that both age and gender information are encoded in the face shape and texture, hence the active appearance model (AAM), a statistical model that captures shape and texture variations, has been one of the most widely used feature extraction techniques for the aforementioned problems. However, AAM suffers from some drawbacks, especially when used for classification. This is primarily because principal component analysis (PCA), which is at the core of the model, works in an unsupervised manner, i.e., PCA dimensionality reduction does not take into account how the predictor variables relate to the response (class labels). Rather, it explores only the underlying structure of the predictor variables, thus, it is no surprise if PCA discards valuable parts of the data that represent discriminatory features. Toward this end, we propose a supervised appearance model (sAM) that improves on AAM by replacing PCA with partial least-squares regression. This feature extraction technique is then used for the problems of age and gender classification. Our experiments show that sAM has better predictive power than the conventional AAM.
The History Continues: Reflections About the Theory of the End of History from Francis Fukuyama

Fukuyama's thesis about "the end of history" is controversial. History is not an ideology. History cannot be ended, if by history we mean the past, which we remember and interpret for the purpose of orientating ourselves in the present and the future. Fukuyama has a right to declare the victory of liberal democracy, but other political ideologies have not become extinct. If we look at the thesis of the "end of history" from a scientific point of view, then we can conclude that such a thing is impossible: for after the "end of history", history continues. Therefore, there is no real end to history. It is continuing a quarter of a century after the Fukyama's thesis was published. Even if we can accept the thesis of the end of history as an ideology, we still cannot accept the end of philosophy. Phenomenology, Critical Realism, Existentialist Philosophy, Hermeneutics, Structuralism etc. are just some of the evidence that contemporary philosophy continues to exist and evolve, despite the rising and falling of various ideologies in the 20th century and the early 21st century. This can also be said about art, culture and history as a science.
Effect of organic zinc supplementation in hens on fertility from cryopreserved semen

Organic zinc supplementation in hen has been reported to improve fertility. The current study evaluated the effect of organic zinc supplementation in hens on fertility after insemination with cryopreserved semen. White Leghorn rooster semen was cryopreserved using 4% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in 0.5ml French straws. Different semen parameters and fertility were assessed in post-thaw samples. White Leghorn hens were divided into 5 groups with 30 birds in each group. Each group was further divided into six replicates of five birds each. The control group was fed basal diet, other groups were fed with basal diet supplemented with 40, 60, 120 and 160 mg/kg organic zinc (zinc proteinate). After two weeks of feeding insemination was done in hens per vagina using thawed semen (200 million sperm/0.1 ml). Basal group hens were inseminated with fresh or cryopreserved semen and served as control groups. Sperm motility, live sperm, and acrosome intact sperm parameters were significantly (p < 0.05) lower in post-thaw semen samples. Fertility from cryopreserved semen was significantly (p < 0.05) lower and organic zinc supplemented hens had fertility similar to that of cryopreserved semen inseminated into basal diet group hens. In conclusion, organic zinc supplementation in hens does not improve fertility after insemination with 4% DMSO cryopreserved semen.
Novel Metagenome-Derived, Cold-Adapted Alkaline Phospholipase with Superior Lipase Activity as an Intermediate between Phospholipase and Lipase

ABSTRACT A novel lipolytic enzyme was isolated from a metagenomic library obtained from tidal flat sediments on the Korean west coast. Its putative functional domain, designated MPlaG, showed the highest similarity to phospholipase A from Grimontia hollisae CIP 101886, though it was screened from an emulsified tricaprylin plate. Phylogenetic analysis showed that MPlaG is far from family I.6 lipases, including Staphylococcus hyicus lipase, a unique lipase which can hydrolyze phospholipids, and is more evolutionarily related to the bacterial phospholipase A1 family. The specific activities of MPlaG against olive oil and phosphatidylcholine were determined to be 2,957 ± 144 and 1,735 ± 147 U mg−1, respectively, which means that MPlaG is a lipid-preferred phospholipase. Among different synthetic esters, triglycerides, and phosphatidylcholine, purified MPlaG exhibited the highest activity toward p-nitrophenyl palmitate (C16), tributyrin (C4), and 1,2-dihexanoyl-phosphatidylcholine (C8). Finally, MPlaG was identified as a phospholipase A1 with lipase activity by cleavage of the sn-1 position of OPPC, interfacial activity, and triolein hydrolysis. These findings suggest that MPlaG is the first experimentally characterized phospholipase A1 with lipase activity obtained from a metagenomic library. Our study provides an opportunity to improve our insight into the evolution of lipases and phospholipases.
A case analysis of business process outsourcing project failure profile and implementation problems in a large organisation of a developing nation

As is the case for many developing economies, internationally published research on information systems (IS) practice in Kuwait is in short supply. The few reports of Kuwaiti IS/information technology (IT) practice highlighted in studies of Middle Eastern or Arab computing, have also largely discussed them in terms of these broader regional identities rather than their specific national context. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is becoming a widely‐accepted management practice throughout the world. In recent years, outsourcing of information services has become a pervasive phenomenon. Increasingly, organisations rely on external service providers for IS/IT services. Kuwait has been used as an example of a developing country where the data collection for this study was done there. This study employed case study methodology because the author was interested in answers for “how” and “why” questions and because the study was partly exploratory. The primary data on IS/IT outsourcing practices, obtained for the first time in Kuwait, were collected by means of semi‐structured interviews supported by organisational documentation. The case study discussed in this paper brought to the surface critical elements missing in the contract that led to the demise of the BPO project. Studying failure is preventive because it helps organisations reduce the probability of failure in the future. A central argument of this paper concerns the need to understand the complex cultural and political implications of outsourcing within a global context (perspectives), a policy that is becoming increasingly important. The case study findings are crucial as they provide a careful diagnosis of failed IT outsourcing project.
Internalization of EGF receptor following lipid rafts disruption in keratinocytes is delayed and dependent on p38 MAPK activation

The receptor for epidermal growth factor (EGF) plays an important role in epidermal keratinocytes and is known to move out of lipid raft after cholesterol depletion, leading to ligand‐independent activation. Accumulation of evidence indicates the ability of EGF receptor (EGFR) to undergo internalization without participation of the ligand under the control of p38 MAPK during stress conditions. Since cholesterol depletion using methyl‐beta‐cyclodextrin is known to induce ligand‐independent activation of EGFR in keratinocytes, we investigated by confocal microscopy and ligand‐binding tests the processing and localization of EGFR following lipid raft disruption. Here, we report the dimerization and the slow internalization of the receptor accompanied by the delayed phosphorylation of tyrosine 1068 and its degradation by the proteasome. We also demonstrate the involvement of p38 MAPK during the process of internalization, which can be considered as a protective response to stress. Moreover, cholesterol‐depleted keratinocytes recover their ability to proliferate during the recovery period that follows lipid raft disruption. J. Cell. Physiol. 217: 834–845, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Genetic Targeting of an Adenovirus Vector via Replacement of the Fiber Protein with the Phage T4 Fibritin

ABSTRACT The utility of adenovirus (Ad) vectors for gene therapy is restricted by their inability to selectively transduce disease-affected tissues. This limitation may be overcome by the derivation of vectors capable of interacting with receptors specifically expressed in the target tissue. Previous attempts to alter Ad tropism by genetic modification of the Ad fiber have had limited success due to structural conflicts between the fiber and the targeting ligand. Here we present a strategy to derive an Ad vector with enhanced targeting potential by a radical replacement of the fiber protein in the Ad capsid with a chimeric molecule containing a heterologous trimerization motif and a receptor-binding ligand. Our approach, which capitalized upon the overall structural similarity between the human Ad type 5 (Ad5) fiber and bacteriophage T4 fibritin proteins, has resulted in the generation of a genetically modified Ad5 incorporating chimeric fiber-fibritin proteins targeted to artificial receptor molecules. Gene transfer studies employing this novel viral vector have demonstrated its capacity to efficiently deliver a transgene payload to the target cells in a receptor-specific manner.
Multi-model evaluation of phenology prediction for wheat in Australia

Predicting wheat phenology is important for cultivar selection, for effective crop management and provides a baseline for evaluating the effects of global change. Evaluating how well crop phenology can be predicted is therefore of major interest. Twenty-eight wheat modeling groups participated in this evaluation. Our target population was wheat fields in the major wheat growing regions of Australia under current climatic conditions and with current local management practices. The environments used for calibration and for evaluation were both sampled from this same target population. The calibration and evaluation environments had neither sites nor years in common, so this is a rigorous evaluation of the ability of modeling groups to predict phenology for new sites and weather conditions. Mean absolute error (MAE) for the evaluation environments, averaged over predictions of three phenological stages and over modeling groups, was 9 days, with a range from 6 to 20 days. Predictions using the multi-modeling group mean and median had prediction errors nearly as small as the best modeling group. About two thirds of the modeling groups performed better than a simple but relevant benchmark, which predicts phenology by assuming a constant temperature sum for each development stage. The added complexity of crop models beyond just the effect of temperature was thus justified in most cases. There was substantial variability between modeling groups using the same model structure, which implies that model improvement could be achieved not only by improving model structure, but also by improving parameter values, and in particular by improving calibration techniques.
The Effect of Stimulus Repetition on Cortical Magnetic Responses Evoked by Words and Nonwords

Stimulus repetition improves performance and modulates event-related brain potentials in word recognition tasks. We recorded evoked magnetic responses from bilateral temporal sites of the brain to determine the cortical area related to the word repetition effect. Fourteen Japanese volunteers read words or pronounceable nonwords, some of which occurred twice with a lag of eight items. Clear magnetic responses were observed bilaterally. In the left hemisphere, a reduction of the magnetic responses by repetition was observed for words but not for nonwords in the latency range of 300-500 ms poststimulus. The sources of the responses were estimated to be in the left perisylvian area adjacent to the auditory cortex and the left parietal area. Only the perisylvian source activity showed the reduction by the word repetition. The left perisylvian area was thus suggested to be related to the word repetition effect. The activity in this area might be associated with the lexical memory process.
Simulation and forecasting of international trade dynamics using non-linear mathematical models and fuzzy logic techniques

The authors describe paper non-linear mathematical models, from dynamical systems theory, that can be used to study the dynamics of international trade. Mathematical models of international trade (IT), between three or more countries, can show very complicated dynamics in time (with the possible occurrence of behavior known as chaos). The simulation of these models is critical in understanding the behavior of the relevant financial and economical variables for the problem of IT. Also, performing the simulations for different parameter values of the models will enable the prediction of future IT. The problem of modelling and simulation of IT has been solved in this paper by using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. An intelligent system for automated modelling and simulation of IT has been developed to obtain the "best" mathematical model for a particular situation and then to obtain the "best" simulations for the model. The use of fuzzy logic techniques enables automated modelling of IT using as input real data (time series) for this problem and the use of expert systems technology enables the selection of the appropriate parameter values for the simulation, to obtain all the dynamic behaviors of the corresponding mathematical model. The importance of modelling, simulation and forecasting of IT can be measured if one considers that one of the goals for a specific country is to find the optimum benefit from its international trade with other countries.
The end of computing science?

I would therefore like to posit that computing’s central challenge, “How not to make a mess of it,” has not been met. On the contrary, most of our systems are much more complicated than can be considered healthy, and are too messy and chaotic to be used in comfort and confidence. The average customer of the computing industry has been served so poorly that he expects his system to crash all the time, and we witness a massive worldwide distribution of bug-ridden software for which we should be deeply ashamed. For us scientists it is very tempting to blame the lack of education of the average engineer, the shortsightedness of the managers, and the malice of the entrepreneurs for this sorry state of affairs, but that won’t do. You see, while we all know that unmastered complexity is at the root of the misery, we do not know what degree of simplicity can be obtained, nor to what extent the intrinsic complexity of the whole design has to show up in the interfaces. We simply do not know yet the limits of disentanglement. We do not know yet whether intrinsic intricacy can be distinguished from accidental intricacy. We do not know yet whether trade-offs will be possible. We do not know yet whether we can invent a meaningful concept for intracacy about which we can prove theorems that help. To put it bluntly, we simply do not know yet what we should be talking about, but that should not worry us, for it just illustrates what was meant by “intangible goals and uncertain rewards. ” And this was only an example. The moral is that whether computing science is finished will primarily depend on our courage and our imagination.
Heritability of the effect of corticosteroids on intraocular pressure.

In the late 1950's and early 1960's, it became evident that some glaucoma patients developed elevations of intraocular pressure, which were difficult to control, following prolonged use of systemic or ocular medications containing corticosteroids (Chandler, 1955, Alfano, 1963; Armaly, 1963). In addition, some patients without glaucoma, when treated with steroids for long periods of time, developed clinical signs of chronic simple glaucoma (McLean, 1950; Fran$ois, 1954; Covell, 1958; Linner, 1959; Goldman, 1962). Fortunately, the elevation of intraocular pressure was reversible if the drug was discontinued. Over the past decade, extensive investigation of the " steroid response " has been undertaken. For this presentation, the steroid response may be considered as a gradual elevation of intraocular pressure, occurring over several weeks, in an eye being medicated with corticosteroid drops several times a day. The elevation in pressure is usually accompanied by a reduction in the facility of aqueous outflow. When relatively large numbers of subjects were tested with topical steroids, so that a wide range of responsiveness could be observed, a variation in individual sensitivity was demonstrated. Frequency distributions of intraocular pressure or change in pressure following steroids showed a skew toward the high side. On the basis of trimodal characteristics which they observed in such frequency distributions, Becker and Hahn (1964), Becker (1965) and Armaly (1965, 1966) considered the possible existence of several genetically determined subpopulations. These investigators distinguished three subpopulations on the basis of low, intermediate, and high levels of pressure response. It was hypothesized that these levels of response characterized three phenotypes, corresponding to the three possible genotypes of an allele pair, wherein one member of the pair determined a low level of response, and the other member determined a high level of response (Armaly, 1967).
Traction forces exerted by epithelial cell sheets

Whereas the adhesion and migration of individual cells have been well described in terms of physical forces, the mechanics of multicellular assemblies is still poorly understood. Here, we study the behavior of epithelial cells cultured on microfabricated substrates designed to measure cell-to-substrate interactions. These substrates are covered by a dense array of flexible micropillars whose deflection enables us to measure traction forces. They are obtained by lithography and soft replica molding. The pillar deflection is measured by video microscopy and images are analyzed with home-made multiple particle tracking software. First, we have characterized the temporal and spatial distributions of traction forces of cellular assemblies of various sizes. The mechanical force balance within epithelial cell sheets shows that the forces exerted by neighboring cells strongly depend on their relative position in the monolayer: the largest deformations are always localized at the edge of the islands of cells in the active areas of cell protrusions. The average traction stress rapidly decreases from its maximum value at the edge but remains much larger than the inherent noise due to the force resolution of our pillar tracking software, indicating an important mechanical activity inside epithelial cell islands. Moreover, these traction forces vary linearly with the rigidity of the substrate over about two decades, suggesting that cells exert a given amount of deformation rather than a force. Finally, we engineer micropatterned substrates supporting pillars with anisotropic stiffness. On such substrates cellular growth is aligned with respect to the stiffest direction in correlation with the magnitude of the applied traction forces.