Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thalidomide Effects in Patients with Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia During Therapeutic Treatment and in Fli-EGFP Transgenic Zebrafish Model

Background:Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by recurrent epistaxis, mucocutaneous telangiectasia, and arteriovenous malformations. The efficacy of traditional treatments for HHT is very limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic role of thalidomide in HHT patients and the effect in FLI-EGFP transgenic zebrafish model. Methods:HHT was diagnosed according to Shovlin criteria. Five HHT patients were treated with thalidomide (100 mg/d). The Epistaxis Severity Score (ESS), telangiectasia spots, and hepatic computed tomography angiography (CTA) were used to assess the clinical efficacy of thalidomide. The Fli-EGFP zebrafish model was investigated for the effect of thalidomide on angiogenesis. Dynamic real-time polymerase chain reaction assay, ELISA and Western blotting from patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma were used to detect the expression of transforming growth factor beta 3 (TGF-&bgr;3) messenger RNA (mRNA) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein before and after 6 months of thalidomide treatment. Results:The average ESS before and after thalidomide were 6.966 ± 3.093 and 1.799 ± 0.627, respectively (P = 0.009). The “telangiectatic spot” on the tongue almost vanished; CTA examination of case 2 indicated a smaller proximal hepatic artery and decreased or ceased hepatic artery collateral circulation. The Fli-EGFP zebrafish model manifested discontinuous vessel development and vascular occlusion (7 of 10 fishes), and the TGF-&bgr;3 mRNA expression of five patients was lower after thalidomide therapy. The plasma VEGF protein expression was down-regulated in HHT patients. Conclusions:Thalidomide reverses telangiectasia and controls nosebleeds by down-regulating the expression of TGF-&bgr;3 and VEGF in HHT patients. It also leads to vascular remodeling in the zebrafish model.
Interval-based Synthesis

We introduce the synthesis problem for Halpern and Shoham's modal logic of intervals extended with an equivalence relation over time points, abbreviated HSeq. In analogy to the case of monadic second-order logic of one successor, the considered synthesis problem receives as input an HSeq formula phi and a finite set Sigma of propositional variables and temporal requests, and it establishes whether or not, for all possible evaluations of elements in Sigma in every interval structure, there exists an evaluation of the remaining propositional variables and temporal requests such that the resulting structure is a model for phi. We focus our attention on decidability of the synthesis problem for some meaningful fragments of HSeq, whose modalities are drawn from the set A (meets), Abar (met by), B (begins), Bbar (begun by), interpreted over finite linear orders and natural numbers. We prove that the fragment ABBbareq is decidable (non-primitive recursive hard), while the fragment AAbarBBbar turns out to be undecidable. In addition, we show that even the synthesis problem for ABBbar becomes undecidable if we replace finite linear orders by natural numbers.
Risks in Commodity and Currency Markets

El objetivo de esta tesis es analizar los factores del riesgo del mercado de las materias primas y las divisas. Esta centrada en el impacto de los eventos extremos tanto en los precios de los productos financieros como en el riesgo total de mercado al cual se enfrentan los inversores. En el primer captulo se introduce un modelo simple de difusion y saltos (jump-diffusion) con dos factores para la valuacion de activos contingentes sobre las materias primas, con el objetivo de investigar las implicaciones de shocks en los precios que son exogenos a este mercado. En el segundo capitulo se analiza la naturaleza e implicaciones para la valuacion de los saltos en los tipos de cambio, asi como la capacidad de estos para explicar las formas de sonrisa en la volatilidad implicada. Por ultimo, en el tercer capitulo se utiliza la idea de que los resultados principales de la Teoria de Valores Extremos univariada se pueden aplicar por separado a los componentes principales de los residuos de un modelo ARMA-GARCH de series multivariadas de retorno. El enfoque propuesto produce pronosticos de Value at Risk mas precisos que los convencionales metodos multivariados, manteniendo la misma eficiencia.
Panning interaction development for citation network visualization

A citation network visualizer tool has been developed in an earlier research. The tool is able to visualize multiple data at the same coordinates. However, all of the citation network data are displayed in a full view that is limited to the cartesian coordinates system. This will make citation network be more complex when the number of citation network data to be visualized increases. A complex citation network will make it difficult to users to get focus on data or specific part of the citation network. Therefore, an interaction or navigation such as panning is needed to help users get the desired focus by changing the view of citation network. Unfortunately, the existing tool does not provide the panning feature. In this paper, we present a panning method to handle the problems. Panning techniques used to deal with these problems are direct repositioning (grab and drag), navigation window, and cartesian distortion. Users can perform panning in all directions (freeform panning) with the three of panning techniques. The results of usability testing involving ten users show that software can achieve considered usability and user experience goals. Usability goals that can be achieved are effectiveness, learnability, efficiency, and utility. While the user experience goals are helpful, satisfying, enjoyable, and fun.
Gaining power and precision by using model–based weights in the analysis of late stage cancer trials with substantial treatment switching

In randomised controlled trials of treatments for late‐stage cancer, it is common for control arm patients to receive the experimental treatment around the point of disease progression. This treatment switching can dilute the estimated treatment effect on overall survival and impact the assessment of a treatment's benefit on health economic evaluations. The rank‐preserving structural failure time model of Robins and Tsiatis (Comm. Stat., 20:2609–2631) offers a potential solution to this problem and is typically implemented using the logrank test. However, in the presence of substantial switching, this test can have low power because the hazard ratio is not constant over time. Schoenfeld (Biometrika, 68:316–319) showed that when the hazard ratio is not constant, weighted versions of the logrank test become optimal. We present a weighted logrank test statistic for the late stage cancer trial context given the treatment switching pattern and working assumptions about the underlying hazard function in the population. Simulations suggest that the weighted approach can lead to large efficiency gains in either an intention‐to‐treat or a causal rank‐preserving structural failure time model analysis compared with the unweighted approach. Furthermore, violation of the working assumptions used in the derivation of the weights only affects the efficiency of the estimates and does not induce bias or inflate the type I error rate. The weighted logrank test statistic should therefore be considered for use as part of a careful secondary, exploratory analysis of trial data affected by substantial treatment switching. ©©2015 The Authors. Statistics inMedicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Entropy Non-increasing Games for the Improvement of Dataflow Programming

In this article, we introduce a new conception of a family of esport games called Samu Entropy to try to improve dataflow program graphs like the ones that are based on Google's TensorFlow. Currently, the Samu Entropy project specifies only requirements for new esport games to be developed with particular attention to the investigation of the relationship between esport and artificial intelligence. It is quite obvious that there is a very close and natural relationship between esport games and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the project Samu Entropy focuses not only on using artificial intelligence, but on creating AI in a new way. We present a reference game called Face Battle that implements the Samu Entropy requirements.
RegScan: a GWAS tool for quick estimation of allele effects on continuous traits and their combinations

Genome-wide association studies are becoming computationally more demanding with the growing amounts of data. Combinatorial traits can increase the data dimensions beyond the computational capabilities of the current tools. We addressed this issue by creating an application for quick association analysis that is ten to hundreds of times faster than the leading fast methods. Our tool (RegScan) is designed for performing basic linear regression analysis with continuous traits maximally fast on large data sets. RegScan specifically targets association analysis of combinatorial traits in metabolomics. It can both generate and analyze the combinatorial traits efficiently. RegScan is capable of analyzing any number of traits together without the need to specify each trait individually. The main goal of the article is to show that RegScan can be the preferred analytical tool when large amounts of data need to be analyzed quickly using the allele frequency test. Availability: Precompiled RegScan (all major platforms), source code, user guide and examples are freely available at www.biobank. ee/regscan. Requirements: Qt 4.4. 3 or newer for dynamic compilations.
Bayesian methods for dynamic multivariate models

If dynamic multivariate models are to be used to guide decisionmaking, it is important that probability assessments of forecasts or policy projections be provided. When identified Bayesian vector autoregression (VAR) models are presented with error bands in the existing literature, both conceptual and numerical problems have not been dealt with in an internally consistent way. In this paper, the authors develop methods to introduce prior information in both reduced-form and structural VAR models without introducing substantial new computational burdens. Their approach makes it feasible to use a single, large dynamic framework (for example, twenty-variable models) for tasks of policy projections. Copyright 1998 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.
Radial temperature profiles for a large sample of galaxy clusters observed with XMM-Newton

Aims. We measure radial temperature profiles as far out as possible for a sample of ≈ 50 hot, intermediate redshift galaxy clusters, selected from the XMM-Newton archive, keeping systematic errors under control. Methods. Our work is characterized by two major improvements. First, we used background modeling, rather than background subtraction, and the Cash statistic rather than the $\chi^2$. This method requires a careful characterization of all background components. Second, we assessed systematic effects in detail. We performed two groups of tests. Prior to the analysis, we made use of extensive simulations to quantify the impact of different spectral components on simulated spectra. After the analysis, we investigated how the measured temperature profile changes, when choosing different key parameters. Results. The mean temperature profile declines beyond 0.2 R 180 . For the first time, we provide an assessment of the source and the magnitude of systematic uncertainties. When comparing our profile with those obtained from hydrodynamic simulations, we find the slopes beyond ≈ 0.2 R 180 to be similar. Our mean profile is similar but somewhat flatter with respect to those obtained by previous observational works, possibly as a consequence of a different level of characterizing systematic effects. Conclusions. This work allows us to not only constrain cluster temperature profiles in outer regions with confidence, but also, from a more general point of view, to explore the limits of the current X-ray experiments (in particular XMM-Newton ) with respect to the analysis of low surface-brightness emission.
JOB SATISFACTION AS A PREDICTOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIPBEHAVIOR

Job Satisfaction (JS) at work has an influence on the level of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and in turn on work performance. The aim of this study is to determine and establish a relationship between Job Satisfaction (JS) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) among faculty in higher education institutions. In this study we have employed the Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior inventories to quantify the Job Satisfaction (JS) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) levels respectively. Samples from 252 faculty members in University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka (UHAMKA) University were used to obtain the empirical base for the study. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to interpret the data. Our results demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between Job Satisfaction and factors that constitute the Citizenship Behavior (OCB).
The Historical Dynamics of Financial Exchanges

The historical dynamics of financial exchange formation and closure are analyzed for a sample of 19 countries from 1855 through 2010. We focus on the economic, technological, and regulatory factors that jointly determine the observed pattern of financial exchanges and whether those factors are consistent with existing financial theories in a time-series setting. The results suggest waves of formation and closure primarily driven by underlying structural change, not business-cycle fluctuations. We find that exchange births are positively correlated with economic growth and commodity booms, while closures are associated with advances in communications technology, such as telephone and the Internet, and heightened regulation, such as the 1934 Securities Exchange Act and state-level blue sky laws in the United States and the 1963 Stock Transfer Act in the United Kingdom.
AN XML-BASED SYSTEM FOR FIXED AND MOBILE DELIVERY OF ELECTRONIC SERVICES

The rapid advancements in database, web and wireless technologies have given rise to new bread of information systems that were impossible just few years ago. These systems are characterized by the ability to deliver electronic services anywhere, anytime and through any electronic device. This paper details the design and implementation of this type of systems taking “student grade delivery within a university setting” as an example. The implemented system is capable of delivering grades to different types of connecting devices including web browsers, WAP-enabled devices (Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), smart phone,. etc.) and regular SMS-based phones. To avoid the creation of different web pages customized to the individual connecting devices, the system separates the data content from its presentation form. To achieve such a separation, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) is used to represent the web data content, whereas, the Extensible Style Language Transformation (XSLT) style sheets are used to customize the presentation of such content on different connecting devices, thus achieving true “author once, publish to any device” design and implementation.
Coreference-Based Summarization and Question Answering: a Case for High Precision Anaphor Resolution

Approaches to Text Summarization and Question Answering are known to benefit from the availability of coreference information. Based on an analysis of its contributions, a more detailed look at coreference processing for these applications will be proposed: it should be considered as a task of anaphor resolution rather than coreference resolution. It will be further argued that high precision approaches to anaphor resolution optimally match the specific requirements. Three such approaches will be described and empirically evaluated, and the implications for Text Summarization and Question Answering will be discussed.
Adaptive User Modeling for Query Expansion

Web users are often overwhelmed by the number of result pages retrieved by search engines. Query expansion is a common search strategy to narrow the search scope and to increase the relevance of the result lists. Existing query expansion systems proposed by search engines rely on techniques like term co-occurrence or synonymy which do not take into account the user’s search behavior. In this article we present an approach that recommends refinement terms with respect to the user’s needs and search strategies. The approach is unintrusive and only relies on implicit feedbacks extracted from the navigation trails. This article also presents Conqueries, an implementation of the proposed approach, describes the current version which has been used for almost a year and outlines the future improvements.
Video rushes summarization using spectral clustering and sequence alignment

In this paper we describe a system for video rushes summarization. The basic problems of rushes videos are three. First, the presence of useless frames such as colorbars, monochrome frames and frames containing clapboards. Second, the repetition of similar segments produced from multiple takes of the same scene and finally, the efficient representation of the original video in the video summary. In the method we proposed herein, the input video is segmented into shots. Then, colorbars and monochrome frames are removed by checking their edge direction histogram, whereas frames containing clapboards are removed by checking their SIFT descriptors. Next, an enhanced spectral clustering algorithm that both estimates the number of clusters and employs the fast global k-means algorithm in the clustering stage after the eigenvector computation of the similarity matrix is used to extract the key-frames of each shot, to efficiently represent shot content. Similar shots are clustered in one group by comparing their key-frames using a sequence alignment algorithm. Each group is represented from the shot with the largest duration and the final video summary is generated by concatenating frames around the key-frames of each shot. Experiments on TRECVID 2008 Test Data indicate that our method exhibits good performance.
Infant Locomotion, the Language Environment, and Language Development: A Home Observation Study

Developmental transitions, such as the onset of walking, are associated with changes in a broad range of domains, including language development and social interactions. This study used a full-day home observation recording to compare the language environment of age-matched crawling and walking infants. Central to the study was exploring how the language environment related to vocabulary development of each locomotor group. Adult words, infant vocalizations, and parent-child conversational turn-taking were positively associated with infant vocabulary development, but only for walking infants. These findings provide further evidence for the integrated nature of infant locomotion, language development, and the social and linguistic environment.
Intelligently Creating Contextual Tutorials for GUI Applications

Contextual tutorials provide precise, real-time indicators and instructions within context for learning GUI applications that are often complex albeit useful to many users. However, very few tools and platforms exist for peer users to efficiently generate and share such interactive tutorials. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a peer-to-peer tutorial (PPTutorial), a prototype system that serves 1) a novel tool to intelligently generate contextual tutorials across major GUI applications, saving contributors' efforts and improving users' learning experience, and 2) a crowd sourcing platform to facilitate producing, sharing, redeveloping, and searching for tutorials, via advanced design and implementation (e.g., Merging, labeling, and contextual search). We report findings from two experiments and interviews to evaluate the performance and user experience for both creating tutorials and learning. The results demonstrate that PPTutorial is well accepted and considered by the participants to provide easy and confident experience. This suggests PPTutorial is a valuable tool to explore the possibility of developing solutions to crowd-source and share contextual tutorials among vast Internet users.
Converting Flip-flop

Multi-supply voltage design using Cluster Voltage Scaling (CVS) is an effective way to reduce power consumption without performance degradation. One of the major issues in this method is performance and power overhead due to insertion of Level Converting Flip-Flops (LCFF) at the interface from lowsupply to high-supply clusters to simultaneously perform latching and level conversion. In this paper, an improved version of clocked pseudo-NMOS LCFF called Clock Branch Sharing pseudo-NMOS LCFF has been proposed, which combines the Conditional Discharge technique, pseudo-NMOS technique and Clock Branch Sharing technique. Based on Simulation results, the proposed flip-flop exhibits up to 32.5% delay reduction and saves power up to 8.1% as compared to clocked pseudoNMOS LCFF. doi: 10.5829/idosi.ije. 2013.26. 03c.12
Scalable adaptive group communication on bi-directional shared prefix trees

E cient group communication within the Internet has been implemented by multicast. Unfortunately, its global deployment is missing. Nevertheless, emerging and progressively establishing popular applications, like IPTV or large-scale social video chats, require an economical data distribution throughout the Internet. To overcome the limitations of multicast deployment, we introduce and analyze BIDIR-SAM, the rst structured overlay multicast scheme based on bi-directional shared pre x trees. BIDIRSAM admits predictable costs growing logarithmically with increasing group size. We also present a broadcast approach for DHT-enabled P2P networks. Both schemes are integrated in a standard compliant hybrid group communication architecture, bridging the gap between overlay and underlay as well as between interand intra-domain multicast.
Understanding Software-as-a-Service Performance - A Dynamic Capability Perspective

How to increase a client’s capability through outsourcing remains a problem. This papers draws on strategic management literature and the relational view to develop a theoretical model that explains the relationships between collaboration, agility, and outsourcing performance in software-as-a-service (SaaS) context. Collaboration are characterized as knowledge sharing and process alignment between a supplier and its client, agility as a supplier’s sensing agility and responding agility. This study also investigates the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the relationships between agility and performance. The proposed hypotheses are largely supported by the empirical data from 215 firms. The results show that SaaS performance is affected by both sensing agility and responding ability, which, in turn, are impacted by collaboration between a supplier and its client. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results.