Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The viability of outercourse for HIV prevention within the Puerto Rican context.

BACKGROUND As the number of HIV/AIDS cases continues to increase in Puerto Rico, outercourse, or non-penetrative sexual activities, may be one alternative for healthy sexual living for persons living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS. METHODS Between April and August 2006, we surveyed 1138 women living in low-income housing in Ponce, PR on their attitudes toward and participation in outercourse activities. RESULTS The majority of the sample were aged >25 years (80.2%), with a mean sample age of 36.77 (SD = 12.31). Approximately one half (49.8%) of the women in the sample were legally married or involved in a common-law relationship. Mutual masturbation and the use of sex toys were viewed as "real sex" by only 33% and 16%, respectively, of the women surveyed. A slight majority had at least a high school education (57.5%). Of those with a steady sex partner in the previous 12 months, 47% engaged in mutual masturbation, and 17% used sex toys. Of those with a non-steady sex partner in the previous 12 months, 41% engaged in mutual masturbation, and 14% used sex toys. Logistic regressions indicated that persons who perceived mutual masturbation and the use of sex toys as real sex were more likely than those who did not perceive them to be so to engage in either or both behaviors with their most recent steady sex partner (OR = 4.5, CI =3.3-6.2 and OR=18.11, CI = 11.5-28.6, respectively); the same relationship emerged with their most recent non-steady sex partner (OR = 4.0, CI = 1.9-8.3 and OR = 15.9, CI = 5.3-47.4). CONCLUSIONS The levels of participation in outercourse were low across the sample; also low was the perception of outercourse as being real sex. Outercourse appears to be, primarily, a precursor to penetrative sex, especially with steady sex partners. If culturally sensitive prevention messages were to promote outercourse as real sex and as an ultimate sexual goal, couples might be able to maintain an intimate, yet safe, sexual relationship. Outercourse should not be promoted as the only option for safer sex relationships but instead in the context of a comprehensive prevention message, which would also include protected sexual intercourse for those who choose to engage in penetrative activities.
Holographic 4x4 star coupler fabricated in silver-halide gelatin

We demonstrate a 4 X 4 holographic star coupler fabricated at He-Ne laser light in silver- halide gelatin. A new approach has been tested for reducing the required number of gratings. It requires a simple recording geometry and a 3D arrangement of the replay beams based on Bragg degeneracy. This element can operate in a large window of replay wavelengths by adjusting the Bragg angles. Experimental results are presented.
SplitX: high-performance private analytics

There is a growing body of research on mechanisms for preserving online user privacy while still allowing aggregate queries over private user data. A common approach is to store user data at users' devices, and to query the data in such a way that a differentially private noisy result is produced without exposing individual user data to any system component. A particular challenge is to design a system that scales well while limiting how much the malicious users can distort the result. This paper presents SplitX, a high-performance analytics system for making differentially private queries over distributed user data. SplitX is typically two to three orders of magnitude more efficient in bandwidth, and from three to five orders of magnitude more efficient in computation than previous comparable systems, while operating under a similar trust model. SplitX accomplishes this performance by replacing public-key operations with exclusive-or operations. This paper presents the design of SplitX, analyzes its security and performance, and describes its implementation and deployment across 416 users.
Do Utilitarian/Hedonic Subject and Personal Relevance Matter in Users' Choice of Best Knowledge in Online Questionanswering Community?

This study investigates how people conduct elaborat ion and develops confidence in healthcare and travel knowledge in Yahoo! Kimo Knowledge+, the mos t popular online question-answering community in Taiwan. A context analysis based on th e Elaboration Likelihood Model shows that people seeking for healthcare knowledge rely on bot h central route and peripheral route cues to choose best knowledge (answers), while those seekin g travel knowledge rely more on peripheral route cues. In addition, personal relevance influences th amount of central route cues for those seeking fo r travel knowledge. Further analysis shows that hyper links play a critical role in people’s choice, reflecting the increasing importance of the Interne t as the primary form of transactive memory. Implications to the design of online knowledge plat forms are discussed.
Lecture Notes 4: UOWHF from any One-Way Function

Digital signatures are one of the main primitives in cryptography with many applications. Unfortunately the existence of digital signatures implies P 6= NP and more strongly the existence of one-way functions (OWF). So with our current knowledge in complexity theory the best we can do is to construct schemes which are secure based on believable assumptions, and at best we would like to base the existence of signature schemes on the sole assumption of the existence of one-way function. The first suggestion on how to construct signature schemes was in the paper of Diffie and Hellman [DH76]. The assumption they used for getting signatures was the existence of trapdoor one-way functions. A family of trapdoor functions has a generation algorithm which generates (the description of) a function f together with a trapdoor t. Then f can be computed efficiently, but without knowing t it is hard to invert f on a random image with more than negligible probability. In order to sign a message using trapdoor permutations, (roughly speaking) the signature for a message m will be f−1(m) using t (which is the signing key), and the correctness of the signature can be verified by only knowing how to compute f (which is the verification key). Later there were constructions for trapdoor functions based on algebraic assumptions that RSA trapdoor permutation [RSA78] among them is quite well known. Then Naor and Yung [NY89] introduced the notion of universal one-way hash functions (UOWHF) and showed that its existence is enough for having signature schemes, and showed how to construct UOWHF from any one-way permutation. Finally Rompel [Rom90] showed how to construct UOWHF from any one-way function. Katz and Koo recently wrote the full proof of Rompel’s scheme [KK08]. In the next section we see the formal definition of UOWHF and see a simple construction using RSA assumption (which gives us collision resistence —something stronger than just UOWHF). Then in Section 3 we will see the construction from one-way permutations and then finally in Section 4 we see the construction based on any OWF.
Adaptive damping and mean removal for the generalized approximate message passing algorithm

The generalized approximate message passing (GAMP) algorithm is an efficient method of MAP or approximate-MMSE estimation of x observed from a noisy version of the transform coefficients z = Ax. In fact, for large zero-mean i.i. d sub-Gaussian A, GAMP is characterized by a state evolution whose fixed points, when unique, are optimal. For generic A, however, GAMP may diverge. In this paper, we propose adaptive-damping and mean-removal strategies that aim to prevent divergence. Numerical results demonstrate significantly enhanced robustness to non-zero-mean, rank-deficient, column-correlated, and ill-conditioned A.
Using AOP to develop architectural-neutral operating system components

The architecture of an operating system, e.g. micro kernel or monolithic kernel, is usually seen as something static. Even during the long lasting evolution of operating system code it is extremely hard and, thus, expensive to change the architecture. However, our experience is that architectural evolution is often required and an architecture-neutral way to develop operating system components should be found. After analyzing why architectural flexibility is so difficult to achieve, we propose Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) as a solution. An example from the PURE OS family, which is implemented in an aspect-oriented programming language called AspectC++, will demonstrate the usefulness of the approach, which allows to separate the code that implements architectural properties from the core functionality.
HPMV: Human protein mutation viewer - relating sequence mutations to protein sequence architecture and function changes

Next-generation sequencing advances are rapidly expanding the number of human mutations to be analyzed for causative roles in genetic disorders. Our Human Protein Mutation Viewer (HPMV) is intended to explore the biomolecular mechanistic significance of non-synonymous human mutations in protein-coding genomic regions. The tool helps to assess whether protein mutations affect the occurrence of sequence-architectural features (globular domains, targeting signals, post-translational modification sites, etc.). As input, HPMV accepts protein mutations - as UniProt accessions with mutations (e.g. HGVS nomenclature), genome coordinates, or FASTA sequences. As output, HPMV provides an interactive cartoon showing the mutations in relation to elements of the sequence architecture. A large variety of protein sequence architectural features were selected for their particular relevance to mutation interpretation. Clicking a sequence feature in the cartoon expands a tree view of additional information including multiple sequence alignments of conserved domains and a simple 3D viewer mapping the mutation to known PDB structures, if available. The cartoon is also correlated with a multiple sequence alignment of similar sequences from other organisms. In cases where a mutation is likely to have a straightforward interpretation (e.g. a point mutation disrupting a well-understood targeting signal), this interpretation is suggested. The interactive cartoon can be downloaded as standalone viewer in Java jar format to be saved and viewed later with only a standard Java runtime environment. The HPMV website is: http://hpmv.bii. a-star.edu. sg/ .
Herbal medicine (Gan Mai Da Zao decoction) for depression: a systematic review protocol

Introduction The aim of this systematic review is to analyse trial data on the effectiveness of a herbal medicine (Gan Mai Da Zao (GMDZ) decoction) in treating depression. Methods and analysis 12 databases will be searched from their inception: PubMed, EMBASE, AMED, the Cochrane Library, five Korean medical databases (KoreaMed, DBpia, OASIS, the Research Information Service System (RISS) and the Korean Studies Information Service System (KISS)) and three Chinese medical databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), the Wanfang Database and the Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP)). Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs using a GMDZ decoction for any type of depression will be considered. The selection of the studies, data abstraction and validations will be performed independently by two researchers. Dissemination The findings will be disseminated to appropriate audiences via peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations. Trial registration number PROSPERO 2013:CRD42013005100.
Joint anchor-less tracking and room dimensions estimation through IR-UWB peer-to-peer communications

In this paper we jointly address the problems of node location tracking and indoor mapping in the absence of infrastructure, relying on peer-to-peer IEEE 802.15. 4a Impulse Radio - Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) links. Coarse Time of Arrival (ToA) measurements, which are obtained within a low complexity Energy Detection (ED) receiver, are mapped into the direct path and single-bounce reflected multipath components. Then these measurements feed a multi-hypothesis tracking filter to retrieve the peers' normalized coordinates and the room dimensions. Preliminary results are provided in a canonical mobile scenario, where dense multipath channels are generated through realistic UWB Ray-Tracing simulations. On this occasion, remaining structural transmitter/receiver and mirror ambiguities are pointed out and illustrated.
Aeration system control in biological waster water treatment plants

The basic implementations of waste water aeration systems using microprocessor-based control equipment have been discussed. The configurations of the passive control systems with one-step and two-step blowers and the systems with PED controllers as well as fuzzy controllers have been presented. The advantages and disadvantages of such solutions and the experience gained in operation of the projects realised have been discussed.
Impaired Th1 cytokine production in spondyloarthropathy is restored by anti-TNFα

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of anti-TNFα on the Th1 and Th2 cytokines in patients with spondyloarthropathy (SpA). METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from 20 patients with active SpA treated with infliximab (5 mg/kg). For comparison, PBMC were also obtained from 15 healthy controls and 19 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). After stimulation with PMA/ionomycin, the intracellular cytokines interleukin (IL)2, IL4, IL10, and interferon (IFN)γ were determined in CD3+ T cells and in CD3+/CD56+ natural killer (NK) T cells by flow cytometry. RESULTS At baseline the percentage of T cells positive for IFNγ (p=0.020) and IL2 (p=0.046) was decreased in patients with SpA compared with healthy controls, while IL10 (p=0.001) was increased. This cytokine profile, confirmed by the mean fluorescence intensities (MFI), was more pronounced in CD3+/CD8– cells and contrasted with higher IL2 production in RA. NK T cells, characterised by high IL4 and IL10 numbers, were also increased in patients with SpA (p=0.017). Treatment with infliximab induced a significant and persistent increase in IFNγ and IL2 in patients with SpA. Moreover, there was a transient decrease in IL10 and NK T cells in patients with high baseline values, resulting in values comparable with those of healthy controls. This switch in cytokine profile was seen in both the CD3+/CD8– and CD3+/CD8+ subsets. CONCLUSIONS Before treatment patients with SpA had an impaired Th1 cytokine profile compared with healthy controls and patients with RA. TNFα blockade induced restoration of the Th1 cytokines, resulting in a normal cytokine balance. These data confirm the effect of anti-TNFα on the immune changes in SpA, and provide insights into the mechanisms involved in TNFα blockade.
Architecture of a communication middleware for VANET applications

As one of the main tasks of a project for developing an Advanced Cooperative Infomobility System (ACIS), we have devised and partly implemented a communication middleware for infomobility applications on vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). In this paper we illustrate and motivate some of the architectural choices underlying the ACIS middleware.
Learning Database Content for Spoken Dialogue System Design

Spoken dialogue systems are common interfaces to backend data in information retrieval domains. As more data is made available on the Web and IE technology matures, dialogue systems, whether they be speech- or text-based, will be more in demand to provide user-friendly access to this data. However, dialogue systems must become both easier to configure, as well as more informative than the traditional form-based systems that are currently available. We present techniques in this paper to address the issue of automating both content selection for use in summary responses and in system initiative queries.
Irinotecan in the treatment of small cell lung cancer: a review of patient safety considerations

A water soluble derivative of camptothecin, irinotecan (CPT-11) is effective against small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), as well as non-SCLC and gastrointestinal cancers. This extended review of recently concluded and ongoing studies focuses on irinotecan in the treatment of limited (LD) and extensive (ED) SCLC specifically considering the safety of patients. Irinotecan-induced diarrhoea is pervasive, and can be severe and life-threatening especially in combination with neutropenia. It can have a significant impact on patient quality of life, negatively influencing compliance with therapy and dose-intensity. For LD SCLC, irinotecan can be administered with radiotherapy concurrently or sequentially. In a Phase III study for ED SCLC comparing etoposide and cisplatin (EP) and irinotecan and cisplatin (IP) regimens, severe myelosuppression was more frequent in the EP arm than in the IP arm, and conversely severe or life-threatening diarrhoea was more frequent in the IP arm than in the EP arm. IP resulted in significantly higher response rates and overall survival in Japan, and confirmatory Phase III studies are ongoing. Irinotecan should not be administered to patients with any degree of ongoing diarrhoea above their baseline. Irinotecan can be administered with relative safety for patients with SCLC only through careful patient monitoring, especially regarding diarrhoea and myelosuppression.
A Fifteen-Amino-Acid TVB Peptide Serves as a Minimal Soluble Receptor for Subgroup B Avian Leukosis and Sarcoma Viruses

ABSTRACT The TVB receptor for subgroup B, D, and E avian sarcoma and leukosis viruses (ASLVs) is a tumor necrosis factor receptor-related protein that is most closely related to the TRAIL receptors. Here we show that the major subgroup B viral interaction determinants of TVB are contained within a linear 15-amino-acid peptide derived from the N-terminal region of the receptor. Moreover, this peptide was sufficient not only for binding to ASLV-B but also for activating viral entry into mammalian cells that lacked the cognate viral receptor. Peptide-dependent viral entry was blocked in the presence of bafilomycin A1, indicating that virions can be trafficked to an acidic endosomal fusion compartment without the need for physical attachment of the viral receptor to a cellular membrane.
The Influence of pH Values on Corrosion Properties of 316L Stainless Steel in Simulated Circulating Cooling Water

Effects of pH values on corrosion properties of 316L stainless steel were investigated to clarify the usability of 316L SS in circulating cooling water system. The polarization, EIS and Mott-Schottky measurements showed the superior corrosion resistance of 316L SS in the simulated cooling water solution with NaCl+Na2SO4. The Fe hydroxides and oxides products resulted in the passive film of 316L SS thicker during the cooling water convection, as the pH increased from 6.5 to 9.0.
Feasibility Study on Distributed Simulations of BGP

The Autonomous System (AS) topology of the Internet (up to 61k ASs) is growing at a rate of about 10% per year. The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) starts to show its limits in terms of the number of routing table entries it can dynamically process and control. Due to the increasing routing information processing and storage, the same trend is observed for routing model simulators such as DRMSim specialized in large-scale simulations of routing models. Therefore, DRMSim needs enhancements to support the current size of the Internet topology and its evolution (up to 100k ASs). To this end, this paper proposes a feasibility study of the extension of DRMSim so as to support the Distributed Parallel Discrete Event paradigm. We first detail the possible distribution models and their associated communication overhead. Then, we analyze this overhead by executing BGP on a partitioned topology according to different scenarios. Finally, we conclude on the feasibility of such a simulator by computing the expected additional time required by a distributed simulation of BGP compared to its sequential simulation.
City traffic prediction based on real-time traffic information for Intelligent Transport Systems

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been considered important technologies to mitigate urban traffic congestion. Accurate traffic prediction is one of the critical steps in the operation of an ITS. While techniques for traffic prediction have existed for many years, the research effort has mainly been focused on highway networks. Due to the fundamental difference between the traffic flow pattern on highways and that on city roads, much of the existing models cannot be effectively applied to city traffic prediction. In this paper, we propose two city traffic prediction models using different modeling approaches. Model-1 is based on the traffic flow propagation in the network, while Model-2 is based on the time-varied spare flow capacity on the concerned road link. The proposed models are implemented to predict the traffic volume in Cologne in Germany, and the real data are collected through simulations in the traffic simulator SUMO. The results show that both of the proposed models reduce the prediction error up to 52% and 30% in the best cases compared to the existing Shift Model. In addition, we found that Model-1 is suitable for short prediction interval that is in the same magnitude as the link travel time, while Model-2 demonstrates superiority when the prediction interval is larger than one minute.
Analysis of intrachromosomal duplications in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a possible model for their origin.

The complete genome of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was investigated for intrachromosomal duplications at the level of nucleotide sequences. The analysis was performed by looking for long approximate repeats (from 30 to 3,885 bp) present on each of the chromosomes. We show that direct and inverted repeats exhibit very different characteristics: the two copies of direct repeats are more similar and longer than those of inverted repeats. Furthermore, contrary to the inverted repeats, a large majority of direct repeats appear to be closely spaced. The distance (delta) between the two copies is generally smaller than 1 kb. Further analysis of these "close direct repeats" shows a negative correlation between delta and the percentage of identity between the two copies, and a positive correlation between delta and repeat length. Moreover, contrary to the other categories of repeats, close direct repeats are mostly located within coding sequences (CDSs). We propose two hypotheses in order to interpret these observations: first, the deletion/conversion rate is negatively correlated with delta; second, there exists an active duplication mechanism which continuously creates close direct repeats, the other intrachromosomal repeats being the result, by chromosomal rearrangements of these "primary repeats. "
Scanning probe microscopy : analytical methods

1. Introduction. - 2. Chemical Information from Scanning Probe Microscopy and Spectroscopy. - 3. Thermovoltages in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. - 4. Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. - 5. Photon Emission from the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. - 6. Laser Scanning Tunneling Microscope. - 7. Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy.