Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health Communication| The Narrative Within the Narrative: The Effectiveness of Narrative HIV Prevention Ads Depends on Their Placement Within a Context Narrative

Audiovisual HIV prevention ads in a narrative format are an extensively used health communication strategy. However, if the ad is placed in the context of another narrative, it may create an unpleasant disruption and result in negative attitudes. We argue that the persuasive effects of narrative ads depend on the narrative properties of the context narrative and the narrative properties of the story used in the ad. To investigate this interaction effect, a 2 (context scene high versus low in narrativity) × 2 (HIV prevention ad high versus low in narrativity) experiment was conducted. Results demonstrate that interruptions in a scene that is high in narrativity are perceived as more disruptive and result in more negative attitudes toward the ad than interruptions in a scene that is low in narrativity. In a low-narrativity scene, a high-narrativity prevention ad increases narrative ad engagement, which in turn strengthens attitudes toward both the ad and HIV prevention.
SPUDS : Simple Pictures for Updating Data Structures

We introduce SPUDS (Simple Pictures for Updating Data Structure) – a construct used in the visual programming language HyperPascal to simplify programming of dynamic data structure manipulations. Each SPUD comprises a picture of a data structure a linked list, for example before and after an op r tion. The Afte -Picture in a SPUD d fines an updated version of the data structure which should be Figure 1. A scope tree shows the whole program as a tree of subroutines.
3D reconstruction of freeform shapes from 2D line drawings

This paper presents a method in constructing a 3D freeform surface patch from a 2D line drawing. The study focuses on drawings containing four edges that form the boundary of surface patches. The four edges form two pairs of opposite edges which are used as the basis of interpolation to create two sets of 2D backbone curves. Each curve of one set intersects the curves of the other set at specific points. By assuming that two curves are orthogonal at their crossing point, it is possible to apply the Cubic Corner Theory to recover the 3D coordinates of the point. A complete curve can be reconstructed in 3D by recovering sufficient 3D points on it. After recovering all the 3D curves of one set of backbones, a freeform surface is fitted over them. Experimental results show that the recovered surfaces are promising. Controls are provided within the system to adjust the shape of a surface; this is a useful tool given the non-unique nature of the result.
A Survey of Automatic Deep Web Classification Techniques

devise vision of the next generation of the web, deep web technologies have gained larger attention in a last few years. An eminent feature of next generation of web is the automation of tasks. A large part of Deep web comprises of online structured domain specific databases that are accessed using web query interfaces. The information contained in these databases is related to a particular domain. This highly relevant information is more suitable for satisfying the information needs of the users and large scale deep web integration. In order to make this extraction and integration process easier, it is necessary to classify the deep web databases into standard\ non-standard category domains. There are mainly two types of classification techniques i.e. manual and automatic. As the size of deep web is increasing at an exponential rate with the passage of time, it has become nearly impossible to classify these deep web search sources manually into their respective domains. For this purpose, several automatic deep web classification techniques have been proposed in the literature. In this paper apart from the literature survey, we propose a framework for analysis of automatic classification techniques of deep web. The framework provides a baseline for the analysis of rudiments of automatic classification techniques based on the parameters such as structured, unstructured, simple/advance query forms, content representative extraction methodology, level of classification, performance evaluation criteria and its results. Furthermore, we studied a number of automatic deep web classification techniques in the light of proposed framework.
Live seeding: Performance bounds of seeders for P2P live streaming

Seeders (peers that do not request anything hut contribute to the system) allow to leverage the capacities of a P2P system. While seeding is a natural idea for fllesharing or Video-on-Demand applications, it seems somehow counter-intuitive in the context of live streaming. This paper aims at describing the feasibility and performance of P2P live seeding. After a formal definition of "live seeding" and efficiency, we consider the theoretical performance of systems where the overhead is neglected. We then propose a realistic overhead model and extend the results for this model. The performance of a single seeder and a set of seeders are considered, as it is not always possible to perfectly aggregate individual efficiencies. In details, we provide an explicit upper bound of seeders' achievable efficiency in a P2P system with linear overhead. We also propose and study two simple mechanisms that allow to deploy a live seeding architecture while handling seeders aggregation, providing near-optimal seeding.
ATTENTION DURING VIRTUAL PEER FEEDBACK IN YOUTH WITH A HISTORY OF ANXIETY COMPARED TO HEALTHY YOUTH

Attention bias toward threatening stimuli has long been theorized to play a causal role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. However, most research has examined attentional patterns at initial stages of orienting although later stages of attention may be just as or more of a critical index to study. Research on attentional biases is typically studied in laboratory paradigms that simply present faces as stimuli, therefore limiting the ecological validity of attentional research, particularly when studying youth. In order to evaluate attentional biases toward threat in a paradigm that mimics situations occurring in adolescents’ life, this study examined attention in youth using eye-tracking methodology using the Chatroom-Interact task. Additionally this study assessed pupil dilation as an index of cognitive and emotional processing during the Chatroom-Interact task. 25 previously treated anxious youth (18 F, mean age= 13.6) and 22 healthy youth (13 F, mean age= 13.8) completed this task. In this task, virtual peers are shown to either choose (accept) or reject the participants to talk about a common interest. We hypothesized that the previously-treated anxious youth would spend longer time looking at their photo when rejected by peers compared to healthy youth. Furthermore, we expected the previously-treated anxious youth would display greater recruitment of attentional resources when coping with rejection, as indexed by greater pupil dilation, compared to healthy youth. Across all participants, we expected that youth would spend longer looking at their own photo and have greater pupil dilation during rejection feedback compared to non-feedback, control trials. In order to examine if hypotheses were specific to rejection feedback, we examined acceptance feedback as well. We found that social feedback from peers (rejection and acceptance) captures attention and is associated with greater pupillary reactivity compared to the non-feedback control condition across all youth. This finding may suggest that psychotherapy treatment ameliorated attentional biases toward threat in anxious youth. Furthermore, during acceptance feedback, the previously treated anxious youth displayed greater pupil response compared to healthy youth, suggesting positive feedback from peers may differentially affect anxious youth.
Searching and Tracking for Multi-Robot Observation of Moving Targets

Searching and tracking are important issues in multi-robot observation of multiple moving targets. In this paper, our distributed memory based searching and artificial potential field based tracking algorithms are presented. For searching, a memory table, either local or shared, helps to find targets. For tracking, an artificial potential field based motion control algorithm provides real-time tracking with collision avoidance. Simulations demonstrate the capability of our distributed searching and tracking works.
Failure Risk and the Cross-Section of Hedge Fund Returns

Modeling a hedge fund’s probability of failure by a dynamic logit regression, I document that a probability of fund failure has a significantly negative effect on the fund’s future returns. A quintile portfolio with highest failure probability underperforms a quintile portfolio with lowest failure probability by 5~6% per year from 1997 to 2012. The results are robust to the definition of hedge fund failure and controlling for a large set of risk factors and fund characteristics. Moreover, the negative effect of failure probability on future fund returns is stronger for funds with weak share restrictions.
Low Power Dendritic Computation for Wordspotting

In this paper, we demonstrate how a network of dendrites can be used to build the state decoding block of a wordspotter similar to a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) classifier structure. We present simulation and experimental data for a single line dendrite and also experimental results for a dendrite-based classifier structure. This work builds on previously demonstrated building blocks of a neural network: the channel, synapses and dendrites using CMOS circuits. These structures can be used for speech and pattern recognition. The computational efficiency of such a system is >10 MMACs/μW as compared to Digital Systems which perform 10 MMACs/mW.
Part-based clothing segmentation for person retrieval

Recent advances have shown that clothing appearance provides important features for person re-identification and retrieval in surveillance and multimedia data. However, the regions from which such features are extracted are usually only very crudely segmented, due to the difficulty of segmenting highly articulated entities such as persons. In order to overcome the problem of unconstrained poses, we propose a segmentation approach based on a large number of part detectors. Our approach is able to separately segment a person's upper and lower clothing regions, taking into account the person's body pose. We evaluate our approach on the task of character retrieval on a new challenging data set and present promising results.
The Ighmbp2 helicase structure reveals the molecular basis for disease-causing mutations in DMSA1

Mutations in immunoglobulin µ-binding protein 2 (Ighmbp2) cause distal spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (DSMA1), an autosomal recessive disease that is clinically characterized by distal limb weakness and respiratory distress. However, despite extensive studies, the mechanism of disease-causing mutations remains elusive. Here we report the crystal structures of the Ighmbp2 helicase core with and without bound RNA. The structures show that the overall fold of Ighmbp2 is very similar to that of Upf1, a key helicase involved in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Similar to Upf1, domains 1B and 1C of Ighmbp2 undergo large conformational changes in response to RNA binding, rotating 30° and 10°, respectively. The RNA binding and ATPase activities of Ighmbp2 are further enhanced by the R3H domain, located just downstream of the helicase core. Mapping of the pathogenic mutations of DSMA1 onto the helicase core structure provides a molecular basis for understanding the disease-causing consequences of Ighmbp2 mutations.
Design considerations for direct-conversion receivers

This paper describes the issues and tradeoffs in the design and monolithic implementation of direct-conversion receivers and proposes circuit techniques that can alleviate the drawbacks of this architecture. Following a brief study of heterodyne and image-reject topologies, the direct-conversion architecture is introduced and effects such as dc offset, I/Q mismatch, even-order distortion, flicker noise, and oscillator leakage are analyzed. Related design techniques for amplification and mixing, quadrature phase calibration, and baseband processing are also described.
Noise reduction for dual-microphone mobile phones exploiting power level differences

This paper discusses the application of noise reduction algorithms for dual-microphone mobile phones. An analysis of the acoustical environment based on recordings with a dual-microphone mock-up phone mounted on a dummy head is given. Motivated by the recordings, a novel dual-channel noise reduction algorithm is proposed. The key components are a noise PSD estimator and an improved spectral weighting rule which both explicitly exploit the Power Level Differences (PLD) of the desired speech signal between the microphones. Experiments with recorded data show that this low complexity system has a good performance and is beneficial for an integration into future mobile communication devices.
Verifying System Components with Memory

This paper presents the speciication of a generic class of components that have memory, the programmable-lter class. This class consists of components that process inputs one at a time and send a corresponding output derived from the current input and previous inputs. Systems in this class are secure not only if the security classiication of the outputs is at the same or higher level as the corresponding input but also if the output is independent of any previous higher level inputs. We show that a subset of this class of components satisses McCullough's restrictiveness security property. As an example we take the generic class and specialize a simple database component which we instantiate to specify a simple multi-level le server.
Exploring multiplexity in Twitter - the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing Case

This paper presents an exploratory study of Twitter communications in the context of the 2013 Boston marathon bombings. The primary focus of the study is to explore the concept of multiplexity in Twitter characterized by mentions, retweets and reply mechanisms. The study reveals that there is a significant impact of multiplexed relationships on the retweet influence of users. A comparison of the three multiplexed networks namely mentions, retweets and reply networks was performed and insights on structural differences among their graphs are provided. This study also investigates the effects of centralities in each of th e three networks and arrives at a conceptual model for multiplexed Retweet Influence.
Evaluation of an intervention program for assisting family caregivers with placement decisions

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . v LIST OF TABLES. ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION The Caregiver Experience. 1 Problems Caregivers Face . 2 Decisions Caregivers Make. 4 Decisions in the Caregiving Continuum. 7 Nature of Decisions in Caregiving. 8 Factors Influencing the Caregiver's Decision-making Process. 9 The Placement Decision. 10 Health Issues as the Precipitating Factor in Placement. 12 Coping Skills and the Decision to Place in Out-of-Home Care. 13 Personal Experience in the Placement Process. 14 Intervention. 16 The Professional's Role in the Placement Decision-making Process. 16 Types of Intervention Programs. 18 Coping Skills with the Placement Process. 21
A statistical comparison of grammatical evolution strategies in the domain of human genetics

Detecting and characterizing genetic predictors of human disease susceptibility is an important goal in human genetics. New chip-based technologies are available that facilitate the measurement of thousands of DNA sequence variations across the human genome. Biologically-inspired stochastic search algorithms are expected to play an important role in the analysis of these high-dimensional datasets. We simulated datasets with up to 6000 attributes using two different genetic models and statistically compared the performance of grammatical evolution, grammatical swarm, and random search for building symbolic discriminant functions. We found no statistical difference among search algorithms within this specific domain
Using filesystem virtualization to avoid metadata bottlenecks

Parallel file systems are very sensitive to adverse conditions, and the lack of synergy between such file systems and some of the applications running on them has a negative impact on the overall system performance. Our observations indicate that the increased pressure on metadata management is one of the relevant causes of performance drops. This paper proposes a virtualization layer above the native file system that, transparently to the user, reorganizes the underlying directory tree, mitigating bottlenecks by taking advantage of the native file system optimizations and limiting the effects of potentially harmful application behavior. We developed COFS (COmposite File System) as a proof-of-concept virtual layer to evaluate the feasibility of the proposal.
Pricing Decision for Two Differentiated Products

The traditional newsvendor problems is extended to a more realistic structural features: market demand that is sensitive to the selling prices of two differentiated products, direct competition in the marketplace, and multi- echelon interaction. Detailedly, one manufacturer who produces two differentiated products, and sells the two products to two different competitive retailers, and the two retailers then sell the two products to end consumer where consumer demand for each product is stochastic. Using game-theoretical approach, in the manufacturer Stackelberg game case, the decisions on the retail prices and order quantities of two products for the two different retailers and the decisions on the wholesales prices of two products for the manufacturer are explored.
A new customized testing technique using a novel design of droplet motion detector for digital microfluidic Biochip systems

Digital microfluidic biochip (DFMB) systems have been developed as a promising platform for Lab-on-chip systems that manipulate individual droplet of chemicals on a 2D planar array of electrodes. Because of the safety critical nature of the applications these devices are intended for high reliability and thereby dependability becomes a major issue for the design of DMFBs. Therefore, such devices are required to be tested frequently both off-line (e.g., post-manufacturing) and prior to each assay execution. Under both scenarios, testing is accomplished by routing one or more test droplets across the chip and recording their arrival at the scheduled destination. In this paper, we have proposed a new design of a droplet motion detector based on capacitive sensing, which can be manufactured with the cell electrodes for detection of the presence (arrival) of a droplet at a predetermined location. Using this sensor, we have further proposed a customized testing technique for a specified layout with an objective of 1) optimizing the total number of test droplets for testing a particular bioassay, 2) optimizing the number of dispensers, 3) minimizing the overall test completion time, 4) detection of a specific segment at fault within the given layout, and 5) optimizing the number of locations where the detectors are to be activated. The test simulation has been carried out on two testbenches of Benchmark suite III and the results are found to be encouraging compared to the existing methods.
Mining and characterizing hybrid apps

Mobile apps have grown tremendously over the past few years. To capitalize on this growth and to attract more users, implementing the same mobile app for different platforms has become a common industry practice. Building the same app natively for each platform is resource intensive and time consuming since every platform has different environments, languages and APIs. Cross Platform Tools (CPTs) address this challenge by allowing developers to use a common code- base to simultaneously create apps for multiple platforms. Apps created using these CPTs are called hybrid apps. We mine 15,512 hybrid apps and present the first study of its kind on such apps. We identify which CPTs these apps use and how users perceive them. Further, we compare the user-perceived ratings of hybrid apps to native apps of the same category. Finally, we compare the user-perceived ratings of the same hybrid app on the Android and iOS platforms.
Propofol-induced GABAergic Tonic Inhibition Diminishes α-rhythms and Induces δ-rhythms in neuronal populations

Anaesthetic agents such as propofol are known to have an effect on both synaptic and extra-synaptic receptors. On the one hand, binding of propofol to GABA A synaptic receptors induces a phasic inhibition, as opposed to tonic inhibition which seems mainly induced by binding to extra-synaptic receptors. On the second hand, under aneasthesia, an increase in amount of slow oscillations, mainly δ (0-4Hz), concurrent to a decrease of α oscil- lations (8-12Hz), is observed in EEG recordings of occipital areas in most mammals including humans. The latter observation cannot be explained by sole phasic inhibition. Therefore, we propose to investigate, through numer- ical simulations, the role of tonic inhibition in the increase (in amount) of slow oscillations under propofol anaesthesia. To account for the biological realism of our simulations, the cortical model includes two neuronal popu- lations, one excitatory modeled by Type I Leaky integrate-and-fire neurons, one inhibitory modeled by Type II Morris-Lecar neurons, the stimulations are noisy, and the intrinsic cellular properties heterogeneous. The cells are connected through exponential conductance-based synapses. We show that, in presence of tonic inhibition, 1) the oscillation frequency of the network de- creases as well as subthreshold oscillations, inducing δ-rhythms in EEG-like recordings; 2) simulatneously, the amount of α-rhythms decreases supporting experimental evidence about the role of tonic inhibition.
UMDuluth-BlueTeam: SVCSTS - A Multilingual and Chunk Level Semantic Similarity System

This paper describes SVCSTS, a system that was submitted in SemEval-2015 Task 2: Semantic Textual Similarity(STS)(Agirre et al., 2015). The task has 3 subtasks viz., English STS, Spanish STS and Interpretable STS. SVCSTS uses Monolingual word aligner (Sultan et al., May 2014), supervised machine learning, Google and Bing translator API’s. Various runs of the system outperformed all other participating systems in Interpretable STS for non-chunked sentence input.
An automated information integration technique using an ontoly-based database approach

Developing intelligent systems to integrate numerous heterogeneous data sources in order to give end users an uniform query interface is a great challenging issue. The process of constructing a global schema of the integrated system is usually done manually. This is because of the mechanisms of solving different conflicts existing in an heterogeneous context. Even more these data sources do not contain enough knowledge to help solving these conflicts and then generating the global schema. In this paper, we present a new approach to integrate heterogeneous sources based on a priori approach (ontology-based database). The originality of our approach is that each data source participating in the integration process contains an ontology that defines the meaning of its own data using an ontology model called PLIB. This approach ensures the automation of the integration process when (1) all data sources have the same ontology, and (2) all sources reference a shared ontology, and each one can extent this ontology by adding new concepts. Finally, we present integration algorithms for the previous cases.