Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender Differences in the Validity of the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory—3 (SASSI-3) With a Criminal Justice Population

The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory—3 is a brief, self-administered screening tool designed to measure the probability of having a substance dependence disorder. The present study assessed the validity of this instrument with an inmate population using a DSM-IV diagnosis of substance dependence as the criterion measure. The study also examined instrument validity by gender. Findings revealed differences in the prediction of dependence between male and female inmates. The advantages and shortcomings of the instrument are discussed in light of these findings, and suggestions for future research are advanced.
Characterizing the Radioresponse of Pluripotent and Multipotent Human Stem Cells

The potential capability of stem cells to restore functionality to diseased or aged tissues has prompted a surge of research, but much work remains to elucidate the response of these cells to genotoxic agents. To more fully understand the impact of irradiation on different stem cell types, the present study has analyzed the radioresponse of human pluripotent and multipotent stem cells. Human embryonic stem (ES) cells, human induced pluripotent (iPS) cells, and iPS-derived human neural stem cells (iPS-hNSCs) cells were irradiated and analyzed for cell survival parameters, differentiation, DNA damage and repair and oxidative stress at various times after exposure. While irradiation led to dose-dependent reductions in survival, the fraction of surviving cells exhibited dose-dependent increases in metabolic activity. Irradiation did not preclude germ layer commitment of ES cells, but did promote neuronal differentiation. ES cells subjected to irradiation exhibited early apoptosis and inhibition of cell cycle progression, but otherwise showed normal repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Cells surviving irradiation also showed acute and persistent increases in reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that were significant at nearly all post-irradiation times analyzed. We suggest that stem cells alter their redox homeostasis to adapt to adverse conditions and that radiation-induced oxidative stress plays a role in regulating the function and fate of stem cells within tissues compromised by radiation injury.
Visualization Exploration and Encapsulation via a Spreadsheet-Like Interface

Exploring complex, very large data sets requires interfaces to present and navigate through the visualization of the data. Two types of audience benefit from such coherent organization and representation: first, the user of the visualization system can examine and evaluate their data more efficiently; second, collaborators or reviewers can quickly understand and extend the visualization. The needs of these two groups are addressed by the spreadsheet-like interface described in this paper. The interface represents a 2D window in a multidimensional visualization parameter space. Data is explored by navigating this space via the interface. The visualization space is presented to the user in a manner that clearly identifies which parameters correspond to which visualized result. Operations defined on this space can be applied which generate new parameters or results. Combined with a general-purpose interpreter, these functions can be utilized to quickly extract desired results. Finally, by encapsulating the visualization process, redundant exploration is eliminated and collaboration is facilitated. The efficacy of this novel interface is demonstrated through examples using a variety of data sets in different domains.
Complete remission of pure white cell aplasia associated with thymoma, autoimmune thyroiditis and type 1 diabetes

Abstract: Pure white cell aplasia (PWCA) is a rare disorder of unknown origin, often associated with thymoma, characterized by selective neutropenia or pure agranulocytosis, and absence of granulocyte precursors in the bone marrow, but with normal erythroblasts and megakaryocytes. We report a case of PWCA associated with thymoma. Unusual findings in this case report included simultaneous presence of autoimmune thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes, anti‐striated muscle antibodies, and the presence in the peripheral blood of CD8+ T cells that expressed a homogeneous naive phenotype. Neutrophil count became normal on immunosuppressive therapy after thymectomy.
Passages through time: chronicling users' information interaction history by recording when and what they read

The Passages system enhances information management by maintaining a detailed chronicle of all the text the user ever reads or edits, and making this chronicle available for rich temporal queries about the user's information workspace. Passages enables queries like, "which papers and web pages did I read when writing the 'related work' section of this paper? ", and, "which of the emails in this folder have I skimmed, but not yet read in detail? " As time and interaction history are important attributes in users' recall of their personal information, effectively supporting them creates useful possibilities for information retrieval. We present methods to collect and make sense of the large volume of text with which the user interacts. We show through user evaluation the accuracy of Passages in building interaction history, and illustrate its capacity to both improve existing retrieval systems and enable novel ways to characterize document activity across time.
Understanding the Electronic Structures and Absorption Properties of Porphyrin Sensitizers YD2 and YD2-o-C8 for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

The electronic structures and excitation properties of dye sensitizers determine the photon-to-current conversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In order to understand the different performance of porphyrin dye sensitizers YD2 and YD2-o-C8 in DSSC, their geometries and electronic structures have been studied using density functional theory (DFT), and the electronic absorption properties have been investigated via time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) with polarizable continuum model for solvent effects. The geometrical parameters indicate that YD2 and YD2-o-C8 have similar conjugate length and charge transfer (CT) distance. According to the experimental spectra, the HSE06 functional in TDDFT is the most suitable functional for describing the Q and B absorption bands of porphyrins. The transition configurations and molecular orbital analysis suggest that the diarylamino groups are major chromophores for effective CT excitations (ECTE), and therefore act as electron donor in photon-induced electron injection in DSSCs. The analysis of excited states properties and the free energy changes for electron injection support that the better performance of YD2-o-C8 in DSSCs result from the more excited states with ECTE character and the larger absolute value of free energy change for electron injection.
Number 195 – March 2014 STRATEGIC COORDINATION IN FORECASTING . AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Reputational herding has been considered as a driving force behind economic and financial forecasts clustered around consensus values. Strategic coordination can consequently explain poor performances of prediction markets as resulting from the distinct incentives that forecasters face. While this notion has been considered theoretically and empirically, the underlying behavioral working mechanisms have not yet been described. We thus put forth an exploratory experiment on the emergence and robustness of coordination in a forecasting setting implementing contradictory incentives for accurate forecasts and coordination. Forecasts are shown to be inaccurate and biased toward current values. This in turn has subjects aiming at coordination benefits. Predominantly, coordination is achieved through the risk-dominant equilibrium as the game proceeds. Once established, coordination is fairly stable and adds to overall welfare. Our results support the assumption of rational herding as a driving force for predictions of poor accuracy that are systematically biased towards focal points.
A Joint Model of Usage and Churn in Contractual Settings

As firms become more customer-centric, concepts such as customer equity come to the fore. Any serious attempt to quantify customer equity requires modeling techniques that can provide accurate multiperiod forecasts of customer behavior. Although a number of researchers have explored the problem of modeling customer churn in contractual settings, there is surprisingly limited research on the modeling of usage while under contract. The present work contributes to the existing literature by developing an integrated model of usage and retention in contractual settings. The proposed method fully leverages the interdependencies between these two behaviors even when they occur on different time scales or “clocks”, as is typically the case in most contractual/subscription-based business settings. We propose a model in which usage and renewal are modeled simultaneously by assuming that both behaviors reflect a common latent variable that evolves over time. We capture the dynamics in the latent variable using a hidden Markov model with a heterogeneous transition matrix and allow for unobserved heterogeneity in the associated usage process to capture time-invariant differences across customers. The model is validated using data from an organization in which an annual membership is required to gain the right to buy its products and services. We show that the proposed model outperforms a set of benchmark models on several important dimensions. Furthermore, the model provides several insights that can be useful for managers. For example, we show how our model can be used to dynamically segment the customer base and identify the most common “paths to death” i.e., stages that customers go through before churn.
On-line Recognition of Surgical Activity for Monitoring in the Operating Room

Surgery rooms are complex environments where many interactions take place between staff members and the electronic and mechanical systems. In spite of their inherent complexity, surgeries of the same kind bear numerous similarities and are usually performed with similar workftows. This gives the possibility to design support systems in the Operating Room (OR), whose applicability range from easy tasks such as the activation of OR lights and calling the next patient, to more complex ones such as context-sensitive user interfaces or automatic reporting. An essential feature when designing such systems, is the ability for on-line recognition of what is happening inside the OR, based on recorded signals. In this paper, we present an approach using signals from the OR and Hidden Markov Models to recognize on-line the surgical steps performed by the surgeon during a laparoscopic surgery. We also explain how the system can be deployed in the OR. Experiments are presented using 11 real surgeries performed by different surgeons in several ORs, recorded at our partner hospital. We believe that similar systems will quickly develop in the near future in order to efficiently support surgeons, trainees and the medical staff in general, as well as to improve administrative tasks like scheduling within hospitals.
Charge-based hysteresis compensation in low impedance piezoelectric actuators by a modified Prandtl–Ishlinskii model

Piezoelectric actuators are one of the most popular actuators in micro- and nano-applications. The main deficiency of these actuators is the hysteretic behavior. Hysteresis not only can destroy the positioning accuracy, but also may lead to instability. In previous researches, hysteresis in the mechanical domain (voltage–position) has been modeled and compensated by several approaches. The limiting condition has been position measurement by a high cost, fine resolution sensor. So, an alternative idea can be compensation in the electrical domain (voltage–charge). In fact, it can be demonstrated that hysteresis compensation in the electrical domain can simultaneously compensate the mechanical one. But, experimental results depict that voltage–charge relation may be time dependent due to low internal impedances. It would lead to “time-dependent hysteresis”. As a result, conventional models cannot be applied for hysteresis identification. In this paper, a modified time-dependent Prandtl–Ishlinskii model is proposed to identify the time-dependent hysteresis in low impedance actuators. Utilizing the proposed model, experimental results validate that the mechanical hysteresis would be appropriately compensated as a result of compensation in the electrical domain.
Domain Derivatives in Dielectric Rough Surface Scattering

The inverse scattering solution of shape and/or material parameter reconstruction is often posed as a problem in nonlinear minimization of an objective function with respect to N (usually large) number of unknown model parameters characterizing the scatterer. The minimization procedures are usually iterative, and require the gradient of the objective function in the unknown model parameter vector in each stage of iteration. For large N, finite differencing becomes numerically intensive, and an efficient alternative is domain differentiation in which the full gradient is obtained by solving a single scattering problem of an auxiliary field using the same scattering operator as that of the forward solution. A well-known technique in this direction is the so-called adjoint field method, which obtains the gradient by variationally minimizing an augmented objective function that includes the reduced wave equation via a Lagrange multiplier. Results are reported mostly for compact objects. This paper presents the domain derivative calculation of the gradient for an one-dimensional, locally perturbed, and infinitely long dielectric interface. The method is nonvariational and algebraic in nature in that it evaluates the gradient by directly domain differentiating the scattering equations. The computations are straightforward and easy to follow. The mathematical transformation of the scattering problem into the corresponding problem for the differentiated fields can be visualized explicitly. The formulation of and the motivation behind introducing the auxiliary field are explicitly demonstrated. Closed-form analytic expressions are obtained for the gradients for electromagnetic TE/TM scattering from dielectric rough surfaces and for scalar wave scattering from Neumann and Dirichlet rough surfaces. Results are compared with those of compact scatterers. Finally, the relationship between our results and Lorentz reciprocity is pointed out and clarified.
Comparative cervical profiles of adult and under-18 front-row rugby players: implications for playing policy

Objective To compare the cervical isometric strength, fatigue endurance and range of motion of adult and under-18 age-grade front-row rugby players to inform the development of a safe age group policy with particular reference to scrummaging. Design Cross-sectional cohort study. Setting ‘Field testing’ at Murrayfield stadium. Participants 30 high-performance under-18 players and 22 adult front-row rugby players. Outcome measures Isometric neck strength, height, weight and grip strength. Results Youth players demonstrated the same height and grip strength as the adult players; however, the adults were significantly heavier and demonstrated substantially greater isometric strength (p<0.001). Only two of the ‘elite’ younger players could match the adult mean cervical isometric strength value. In contrast to school age players in general, grip strength was poorly associated with neck strength (r=0.2) in front-row players; instead, player weight (r=0.4) and the number of years’ experience of playing in the front row (r=0.5) were the only relevant factors in multivariate modelling of cervical strength (R2=0.3). Conclusions Extreme forces are generated between opposing front rows in the scrum and avoidance of mismatch is important if the risk of injury is to be minimised. Although elite youth front-row rugby players demonstrate the same peripheral strength as their adult counterparts on grip testing, the adults demonstrate significantly greater cervical strength. If older youths and adults are to play together, such findings have to be noted in the development of age group policies with particular reference to the scrum.
Multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification and fluorescence in situ hybridization are complementary techniques to detect cytogenetic abnormalities in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a genetically heterogeneous disease with diverse clinical outcomes. Interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (i‐FISH) is the most commonly used approach to detect recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities in this malignancy. We aimed to assess the performance of multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification (MLPA) to reveal copy number abnormalities (CNAs) in MM. Diagnostic bone marrow samples from 81 patients were analyzed using 42 MLPA probes for the following regions: 1p32‐31, 1p21, 1q21.3, 1q23.3, 5q31.3, 12p13.31, 13q14, 16q12, 16q23, and 17p13. All samples were also screened by i‐FISH for the presence of hyperdiploidy, deletion/monosomy of chromosome 13, deletion of TP53, disruption of the immunoglobulin heavy‐chain gene, t(4;14), t(11;14), t(14;16), t(8;14), gain of 5q and abnormalities of chromosome 1. A total of 245 alterations were detected in 79 cases (98%). Investigating the same aberrations, the two methods showed a congruency of higher than 90%. A low proportion of cells with the relevant abnormality, focal CNAs and unmatched probes were responsible for the discrepancies. MLPA revealed 95 CNAs not detected by i‐FISH providing additional information in 53 cases (65%). Scrutiny of CNAs on chromosome 1, using more than 20 probes, revealed significant heterogeneity in size and location, and variable intra‐chromosomal and intra‐clonal rates of loss or gain. Our results suggest that MLPA is a reliable high‐throughput technique to detect CNAs in MM. Since balanced aberrations are key to prognostic classification of this disease, MLPA and i‐FISH should be applied as complementary techniques in diagnostic pathology. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Association of Diabetes Mellitus with Clinical Outcomes after Coronary Stenting: A Meta-Analysis

Background Previous studies have shown inconsistent results on the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and some clinical outcomes. We conducted a meta-analysis of observational studies to assess effect of DM on clinical outcomes after coronary stenting. Methods We searched for studies without language restriction in PubMed, Embase and Cochrane library prior to 2012. The clinical outcomes including in-stent restenosis (ISR), major adverse cardiac events (MACE), stent thrombosis (ST), target lesion revascularization (TLR) and target vessel revascularization (TVR). Adjusted odds ratio (OR), and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was summarized. Results 55 studies involving 128,084 total patients (38,416 DM patients and 89,668 controls) were eligible for our analysis. Overall, there were significant associations between DM and ISR (OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.53–1.89, I2 = 0.0%), MACE (OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.36–1.73, I2 = 29.0%), ST (OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.36–2.97, I2 = 47.7%), TLR (OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.26–1.68, I2 = 43.3%) as well as TVR (OR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.17–1.51, I2 = 48.3). Subgroup analysis showed that the associations were similar between BMS and DES implantation. Moreover, there was no significant association in the ST subgroup after 1–3 years follow-up. Conclusions Our meta-analysis suggests that after coronary stent implantation, DM is associated with ISR, MACE, ST, TLR and TVR. DM appears to be a vital risk factor of these clinical outcomes.
A field study of the software design process for large systems

The problems of designing large software systems were studied through interviewing personnel from 17 large projects. A layered behavioral model is used to analyze how three of these problems—the thin spread of application domain knowledge, fluctuating and conflicting requirements, and communication bottlenecks and breakdowns—affected software productivity and quality through their impact on cognitive, social, and organizational processes.
Feedback Control Algorithms for Power Management of Servers

Power delivery, electricity consumption and heat management are becoming key challenges in data center environments. Solutions have been developed for average and peak power management in the data center. However, these individual solutions are not coordinated resulting in interference and inefficiency. In this paper, we focus on feedback control algorithms for unified power management of a group of servers through frequency scaling knobs. We present individual efficiency and server capping algorithms, as well as their combined deployment through a unified control architecture. We study the dynamic control algorithms with qualitative and quantitative analysis. The overall results through trace-driven simulations show that the servers under integrated control algorithms achieve good tradeoff among power capping, efficiency and application performance.
A size-based scheduling approach to improve fairness over 802 . 11 wireless networks

Fairness over 802.11 wireless networks has been studied by several researchers. Most solutions involve modifications of the MAC protocol, e.g. [4], but only few work has focused on fairness at the TCP level. In [11], the authors study the unfairness between simultaneous TCP uploads and downloads for the case of a multi-hop ad-hoc network connected to the wired Internet. They propose to replace the FIFO scheduling discipline at the MAC layer by a non work-conserving discipline that accounts for the level of contention experienced previously by a node. Their solution addresses the exposed node problem. In [10], a RED-based solution that involves the cooperation of neighboring nodes is proposed to enforce fairness among TCP flows. In [9], the authors focus on the case of an 802.11 hotspot with simultaneous uploads and downloads. They propose to enforce fairness by adjusting the advertised window of TCP connections. More generally, it has been observed that the size of the advertised window of TCP greatly impacts the performance and consequently the achievable fairness [1]. Experimental studies, e.g. [2, 5], have confirmed the impact of the advertised window on the performance of TCP. In [3], the authors study the optimal advertised window for TCP and a chain topology. In this work, we propose to replace the FIFO policy by LAS (Least Attained Service [6], page 172). LAS has been shown to solve most of the fairness issues faced by TCP in a wired environment [8]. With the present work, we aim at investigating the ability of LAS to solve some of the fairness issues encountered in wireless environment using simulations in ns2.