Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of commitment strength in enhancing safe water consumption: mediation analysis of a cluster-randomized trial.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to investigate the importance of commitment strength in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and to test whether behaviour change techniques (BCTs) aimed at increasing commitment strength indeed promote switching to arsenic-safe wells by changing commitment strength. DESIGN A cluster-randomized controlled trial with four arms was conducted to compare an information-only intervention to information plus one, two, or three commitment-enhancing BCTs. METHODS Randomly selected households (N = 340) of Monoharganj, Bangladesh, in seven geographically separate areas, whose members were drinking arsenic-contaminated water at baseline and had access to arsenic-safe wells, participated in this trial. The areas were randomly allocated to the four intervention arms. Water consumption behaviour, variables of the TPB, commitment strength, and socio-demographic characteristics were assessed at baseline and at 3-month follow-up by structured face-to-face interviews. Mediation analysis was used to investigate the mechanisms of behaviour change. RESULTS Changes in commitment strength significantly increased the explanatory power of the TPB to predict well-switching. Commitment-enhancing BCTs - public self-commitment, implementation intentions, and reminders - increased the behaviour change effects of information by up to 50%. Mediation analyses confirmed that the BCTs indeed increased well-switching by increasing commitment strength. Unexpectedly, however, mediation via changes in behavioural intentions was the strongest mechanism of the intervention effects. CONCLUSIONS Commitment is an important construct to consider in water- and health-related behaviour change and may be for other health behaviours as well. BCTs that alter behavioural intentions and commitment strength proved highly effective at enhancing the behaviour change effects of information alone. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Millions of people drink contaminated water even if they have access to safe water alternatives and despite increased awareness of the consequences to health. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and commitment strength are predictive of safe water consumption. The potentially commitment-enhancing behaviour change techniques (BCTs) - reminders, implementation intentions, and public self-commitment - can promote health behaviours, including safe water consumption. What does this study add? Changes in commitment strength significantly added to the prediction of switching to arsenic-safe wells by the TPB. Information-plus-BCTs aimed at increasing commitment strength led to >50% more well-switching than information alone. Behaviour change effects of the BCTs were mediated by changes in commitment strength and behavioural intentions.
Increasing Damage to Tumor Blood Vessels during Motexafin Lutetium-PDT through Use of Low Fluence Rate

Abstract Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with low light fluence rate has rarely been studied in protocols that use short drug–light intervals and thus deliver illumination while plasma concentrations of photosensitizer are high, creating a prominent vascular response. In this study, the effects of light fluence rate on PDT response were investigated using motexafin lutetium (10 mg/kg) in combination with 730 nm light and a 180-min drug–light interval. At 180 min, the plasma level of photosensitizer was 5.7 ng/&mgr;l compared to 3.1 ng/mg in RIF tumor, and PDT-mediated vascular effects were confirmed by a spasmodic decrease in blood flow during illumination. Light delivery at 25 mW/cm2 significantly improved long-term tumor responses over that at 75 mW/cm2. This effect could not be attributed to oxygen conservation at low fluence rate, because 25 mW/cm2 PDT provided little benefit to tumor hemoglobin oxygen saturation. However, 25 mW/cm2 PDT did prolong the duration of ischemic insult during illumination and was correspondingly associated with greater decreases in perfusion immediately after PDT, followed by smaller increases in total hemoglobin concentration in the hours after PDT. Increases in blood volume suggest blood pooling from suboptimal vascular damage; thus the smaller increases after 25 mW/cm2 PDT provide evidence of more widespread vascular damage, which was accompanied by greater decreases in clonogenic survival. Further study of low fluence rate as a means to improve responses to PDT under conditions designed to predominantly damage vasculature is warranted.
Virtuality Builder II: on the topic of 3D interaction

Most of today's user interfaces for 3D graphics systems still predominantly use 2D widgets,even though current graphical hardware should make it possible to create applications inwhich the user directly manipulates aspects of three-dimensional synthetic worlds. Thedifficulties associated with achieving the key goal of immersion has led the research invirtual environments to concentrate far more on the development of new input and displaydevices than on higher-level techniques for 3D interaction.It is only recently that interaction with synthetic worlds has tried to go beyondstraightforward interpretation of physical device data (NSF 1992), (Balaguer and Mangili1992). The design space for 3D interaction tools and techniques remains mostly unexplored,while being far larger than in standard 2D applications. Moreover, as stated by Myers, "theonly reliable way to generate quality interfaces is to test prototypes with users and modifythe design based on their comments" (Myers 1989, p.15). The creation of complexinteractive applications is an inherently iterative process that requires user interface tools,such as toolkits or frameworks.The lack of experience in 3D interfaces makes it extremely difficult to design 3Dinterface toolkits or frameworks. We believe that offering the possibility to rapidly prototypeand test novel interaction techniques should be the primary goal of such tools. It is thereforemore important for these tools to provide a wide range of interaction components, than toenforce a particular interface style.
Multilevel Simulation of Nonfunctional Properties by Piecewise Evaluation

As the technology shrinks, nonfunctional properties (NFPs) such as reliability, vulnerability, power consumption, or heat dissipation become as important as system functionality. As NFPs often influence each other, depend on the application and workload of a system, and exhibit nonlinear behavior, NFP simulation over long periods of system operation is computationally expensive, if feasible at all. This article presents a piecewise evaluation method for efficient NFP simulation. Simulation time is divided into intervals called evaluation windows, within which the NFP models are partially linearized. High-speed functional system simulation is achieved by parallel execution of models at different levels of abstraction. A trade-off between simulation speed and accuracy is met by adjusting the size of the evaluation window. As an example, the piecewise evaluation technique is applied to analyze aging caused by two mechanisms, namely Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) and Hot Carrier Injection (HCI), in order to identify reliability hotspots. Experiments show that the proposed technique yields considerable simulation speedup at a marginal loss of accuracy.
The prediction of protein contacts from multiple sequence alignments.

We have studied the question of how much extra predictive power the correlated mutational behaviour of pairs of amino acid residues separated along a sequence has concerning the likelihood of those residues being in contact in the folded protein. The mutational behaviour is deduced from multiple sequence alignments. Our findings are that there is, indeed, some valuable information available from this source and that it is sufficient to make a significant improvement in our ability to predict contacts, when compared with earlier methods that do not take into account the correlations between the mutations. This improvement is approximately twice as large as can be obtained by the more economical method of simply averaging pair preferences over the same sequence alignment. Even when using a method based on pair preferences, a further significant improvement can be made by penalizing more variable regions (on the reasonable assumption that invariant residues are relatively more likely to be in contact), though we have found no way of improving the pair preference method to the extent that it matches the method based on correlated behaviour. Our new method is thought to be the best data-based method of contact prediction developed so far, achieving, on average, an improvement over a random (i.e. information-free) prediction of a factor of five when the number of contacts predicted is chosen to match the number that actually occur.
Identifying Language Impairment With Standardized Tests

Some apps that claim to teach rhyming have children drag pictures of rhyming words together without allowing them to hear the words pronounced. When children touch images, the app should say the names of pictured rhyme words so that children learn that rhyming words sound the same at the end. This same principle applies to “reading” words that have been blended together from individual letters. Some of the apps we reviewed have a separate button to allow users to hear a word they see on the screen, but hearing the word pronounced is not integrated into the activity. Having letters say their sounds as children push them together to form a word allows them to play with blending. When children push together letters but do not hear the sounds, they learn to push letters together randomly. This does not reinforce the way that sounds are put together to form words. Children should be able to play with the sounds to create a word that is then “read” back to them. Insufficient feedback. When a child’s response is not correct, most of the apps we reviewed give a generic reply such as “try again” or simply repeat the directions. It is difficult for children to know why what they did was wrong if they do not receive any directions or feedback on how to correct it. Similarly, when a child gives a correct response, many apps give generic praise (like “great job! ”) or make a special sound (like applause). But they do not tell the child why the answer was correct. If the children guess an answer that happens to be correct, simply saying “great job! ” does not help them learn. In contrast, an app should provide specific feedback such as “Yes, the words back and sack rhyme” or “Uh oh, track and car don’t rhyme—but track and crack do sound alike. ” Both moments— when children get it right or when they make a mistake—should be used as learning opportunities.
Lerna : Transparent and Effective Speculative Loop Parallelization

In this paper, we present Lerna, a system that automatically and transparently detects and extracts parallelism from sequential code using speculation combined with a set of techniques including code profiling, dependency analysis, instrumentation, and adaptive execution. Lerna is cross-platform and independent of the programming language. The parallel execution exploits memory transactions to manage concurrent and out-of-order memory accesses. This scheme allows Lerna to parallelize sequential applications with data dependencies. Our experimental study involves the parallelization of 13 applications. Results show an average of 2.7x speedup for micro-benchmarks and 2.5x for the macrobenchmarks.
The Theory and Development of a Relationship Matrix-based Approach to Evaluating e-Marketplaces

The process of joining an electronic marketplace (e‐marketplace), and the evaluation of which particular ones offer the most suitable mix of services for a particular business, is not a straightforward undertaking. With a myriad of variants on offer, and with the numerous membership models, features, services, functionality, product types, and technology platforms in existence, it can prove to be a very confusing process for any prospective company looking to join. For that reason this paper take steps toward developing an effective, intuitive, and user friendly mechanism for assisting in e‐marketplace selection, to be employed by practitioners looking to either subscribe to existing e‐marketplaces or examining the prospect of developing a bespoke e‐marketplace of their own. The investigation describes two case studies, one depicting the development of an e‐marketplace, by an SME in the UK, and the other describing a set of three new classification models derived after analysis of the wider global e‐marke.
Propagating uncertainty in microarray data analysis

Microarray technology is associated with many sources of experimental uncertainty. In this review we discuss a number of approaches for dealing with this uncertainty in the processing of data from microarray experiments. We focus here on the analysis of high-density oligonucleotide arrays, such as the popular Affymetrix GeneChip array, which contain multiple probes for each target. This set of probes can be used to determine an estimate for the target concentration and can also be used to determine the experimental uncertainty associated with this measurement. This measurement uncertainty can then be propagated through the downstream analysis using probabilistic methods. We give examples showing how these credibility intervals can be used to help identify differential expression, to combine information from replicated experiments and to improve the performance of principal component analysis.
Some ideas for the automatic acquisition of dialogue structure

We are reporting on some initial results on the automatic acquisition of plan operators for a plan recognizer The operators are derived from the Verbmobil corpus of negotiation dialogues hand annotated with dialogue acts The corpus is pre classi ed and a set of plan operators is derived for every class The plan operators are then tested on a set of unseen data We also show some initial results
ANFIS tuned no-reference quality prediction of distorted/decompressed images featuring wavelet entropy

Assessing quality of distorted/decompressed images without reference to the original image is difficult due to vagueness in extracted features and complex relation between features and visual quality of images. The paper aims at assessing the quality of distorted/decompressed images without any reference to the original image by developing an adaptive network based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). First level Haar approximation entropies of test images from LIVE database and region based features extracted from the benchmark images are considered as inputs while mean opinion score (MOS) based quality of the images used as output to the fuzzy inference system (FIS). The input-output variables of the FIS are expressed using linguistic variables and fuzzified to measure the vagueness in extracted features. Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) inference rule has been applied to the FIS to predict the quality of a new distorted/decompressed image. The FIS has been trained to tune the parameters of the membership functions of the fuzzy sets that assess quality of the image more accurately. Quality of decompressed and various noise incorporated distorted test images are predicted using the proposed method producing output comparable with other existing no reference techniques. Results are validated with the objective and subjective image quality measures.
Resource management issues in 5G ultra dense smallcell networks

The opportunities and challenges of 5G rapidly gain great attention from academics, industries, and governments. International standard organizations such as 3GPP and ITU, have initiated working groups for establishing standards of a faster and more efficient next generation (called the 5G) wireless network. One of the advances of the 5G beyond the previous standards is its ambitious performance requirements, such as high peak transmission rate, high spectrum utilization, and high energy efficiency. A promising solution answers part of performance requirement of the 5G, especially for stationary or low velocity users, is an ultra dense small cell wireless network with massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antennas and MU-MIMO technique for improving spectrum utilization. Moreover, the 5G network should allow heterogeneous wireless device communication, perform the cooperative mechanism for enhancing the transmission diversity, use cognitive radio technology for spectrum reuse, and consider energy efficiency. This paper lists several resource management issues in ultra-dense 5G smallcell networks.
Managing Uganda ' s Forests in the Face of Uncertainty and Competing Demands : What is the Precautionary Approach ?

The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material , do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Affairs. The contents can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of either institution. Biodiversity and the precautionary principle: risk and uncertainty in conservation and sustainable use I edited by Rosie Cooney and Barney Dickson. p. cm. ISBN 1-84407-276-2 (hardback)-ISBN 1-84407-277-0 (paperback) 1. Biological diversity conservation-Government policy. 2. Precautionary principle.
Chromatic Scheduling of Dynamic Data-Graph Computations

Data-graph computations are a parallel-programming model popularized by programming systems such as Pregel, GraphLab, PowerGraph, and GraphChi. A fundamental issue in parallelizing data-graph computations is the avoidance of races between computation occuring on overlapping regions of the graph. Common solutions such as locking protocols and bulk-synchronous execution often sacrifice performance, update atomicity, or determinism. A known alternative is chromatic scheduling which uses a vertex coloring of the conflict graph to divide data-graph updates into sets which may be parallelized without races. To date, however, only static data-graph computations, which do not schedule updates at runtime, have employed chromatic scheduling. I introduce PRISM, a work-efficient scheduling algorithm for dynamic data-graph computations that uses chromatic scheduling. For a collection of four application benchmarks on a modern multicore machine, chromatic scheduling approximately doubles the performance of the lock-based GraphLab implementation, and triples the performance of GraphChi's update execution phase when enforcing determinism. Chromatic scheduling motivates the development of efficient deterministic parallel coloring algorithms. New analysis of the Jones-Plassmann message-passing algorithm shows that only O(A + In A in V/ In ln V) rounds are needed to color a graph G = (V, E) with max vertex degree A, generalizing previous results for bounded degree graphs. A new log-degree ordering heuristic is described which can reduce the number of colors used in practice, while only increasing the number of rounds by a logrithmic factor. An efficient implementation for the shared-memory setting is described and analyzed using the CRQW contention model, showing that this algorithm performs 6(V + E) work and has expected span O(A In A + 1n 2A In V/In In V). Benchmarks on a set of real world graphs show that, in practice, these parallel algorithms achieve modest speedup over optimized serial code (around 4x on a 12-core machine). Thesis Supervisor: Charles E. Leiserson Title: Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Minimum Standards for the Description of Participants in Learning Disabilities Research

In 1984, the research committee of the council for learning disabilities (CLD) noted that the available descriptions of individuals with LD in research reports were vague and inconsistent. Recognizing that such descriptions made it difficult to evaluate research findings, the committee recommended that specific guidelines for participant descriptions be followed in reports on research involving individuals with LD. Eight years after this call for greater uniformity, vague participant descriptors remain a matter of great concern. What follows is a report on this issue from the current cld research committee. Updated guidelines for the description of participants are provided for both small-sample and large-group research activities. Also, suggestions for promoting compliance with the minimum standards are forwarded. Rather than being viewed as a fixed, immutable product, the current attempt at identifying the minimum standards for the description of participants should be viewed merely as one step in an ongoing process. Clearly, as our multidisciplinary field continues to learn more about LD, additional information about participants may be deemed necessary. With this in mind, the cld research committee welcomes your comments on the present set of guidelines and invites your suggestions for future iterations of this document.
Efficient IDUA Gene Mutation Detection with Combined Use of dHPLC and Dried Blood Samples

Objectives. Development of a simple mutation directed method in order to allow lowering the cost of mutation testing using an easily obtainable biological material. Assessment of the feasibility of such method was tested using a GC-rich amplicon. Design and Methods. A method of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC) was improved and implemented as a technique for the detection of variants in exon 9 of the IDUA gene. The optimized method was tested in 500 genomic DNA samples obtained from dried blood spots (DBS). Results. With this dHPLC approach it was possible to detect different variants, including the common p.Trp402Ter mutation in the IDUA gene. The high GC content did not interfere with the resolution and reliability of this technique, and discrimination of G-C transversions was also achieved. Conclusion. This PCR-based dHPLC method is proved to be a rapid, a sensitive, and an excellent option for screening numerous samples obtained from DBS. Furthermore, it resulted in the consistent detection of clearly distinguishable profiles of the common p.Trp402Ter IDUA mutation with an advantageous balance of cost and technical requirements.
Overexpression of the mTERT gene by adenoviral vectors promotes the proliferation of neuronal stem cells in vitro and stimulates neurogenesis in the hippocampus of mice

We sought to construct the adenoviral vector carrying the gene encoding mouse telomerase reverse transcriptase (mTERT), as well as detect its expression and effect on the proliferation of neuronal stem cells. mTERT was amplified by RT-PCR and then the eukaryotic expression vector of pDC-EGFP-TERT was constructed. After DNA sequence analysis, we detected that there were 293 cells transfected with pDC-EGFP-TERT and helper adenovirus plasmid pBHG lox ΔE1, and three Cre using Lipofectamine 2000 mediation, named Ad-mTERT-GFP, to package adenoviral particles. The Ad-mTERT-GFP was used to infect neuronal stem cells and then the expression and activity of mTERT were detected. In addition, Bromodeoxyuridine labeling test identified the impact of mTERT overexpression on proliferation of neuronal stem cells. The recombinant adenoviral vector confirmed that mTERT was successfully constructed. Overexpression of mTERT stimulated the proliferation of neuronal stem cells both in vitro and in vivo. mTERT overexpression via adenoviral vector carrying mTERT cDNA upregulated the ability of proliferation in neuronal stem cells.