Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis and Calibration of Social Factors in a Consumer Acceptance and Adoption Model for Diffusion of Diesel Vehicle in Europe

While large scale diffusion of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) is widely anticipated, the mechanisms that determine their success or failure are ill understood. Analysis of an AFV transition model developed at MIT has revealed that AFV diffusion dynamics are particularly sensitive to consumer consideration as influenced by social exposure to AFVs. While some empirical research in this area exists, uncertainty regarding these social exposure parameters remains high. Following principles of partial model testing, this research examines social exposure parameters, with a focus on empirical accounts of diffusion involving diesel passenger vehicles in Europe. The research uses the historical data of diesel sales in six European countries. To complete diffusion datasets the research generates synthetic data in early stages of diffusion. The results from the calibrations yield parameters that are in line with other marketing studies. These findings help reduce uncertainty regarding social exposure parameters in the automotive industry. Further, bootstrapping confidence intervals are conducted to test the reliability of the parameter estimate. Challenges and avenues about building confidence in parameter estimate and data analysis are discussed. Thesis Supervisor: John D. Sterman Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management and Engineering Systems Director, System Dynamics Group Table of
Evaluation of approaching-strategies of temporarily required virtual assistants in immersive environments

Embodied, virtual agents provide users assistance in agent-based support systems. To this end, two closely linked factors have to be considered for the agents' behavioral design: their presence time (PT), i.e., the time in which the agents are visible, and the approaching time (AT), i.e., the time span between the user's calling for an agent and the agent's actual availability. This work focuses on human-like assistants that are embedded in immersive scenes but that are required only temporarily. To the best of our knowledge, guidelines for a suitable trade-off between PT and AT of these assistants do not yet exist. We address this gap by presenting the results of a controlled within-subjects study in a CAVE. While keeping a low PT so that the agent is not perceived as annoying, three strategies affecting the AT, namely fading, walking, and running, are evaluated by 40 subjects. The results indicate no clear preference for either behavior. Instead, the necessity of a better trade-off between a low AT and an agent's realistic behavior is demonstrated.
A Vision Based Interface for Local Collaborative Music Synthesis

The computer is an ubiquitous element of modern society, nonetheless, human computer interaction is still rather inflexible. Particularly in local collaborative environments, like office meetings, the property that the mouse and keyboard exhibit of being a gateway for the individual to act upon a workspace, makes local computer mediated collaboration uncomfortable, as users have to time-share their actions upon that workspace. We present in this paper a novel, very fast, vision based interface that allows multiple users to interact simultaneously with a single computer by performing hand gestures, which are filmed by a static video camera. This interface attempts to continuously recognize predefined postures and movements using a view-dependent method. We also present A.C. O, an application which receives input from the vision based interface and allows users around a table to collaborate playing synthesized music instruments by moving their hands
The Husband's Experience of His Wife's Childhood Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT Childhood sexual abuse is a prevalent problem that has persistent negative consequences. Although attention in the literature is focused on the survivor of the abuse, spouses of survivors of abuse also experience negative consequences of the abuse. This report summarizes the findings of a study designed to determine the experience and meanings attributed to that experience of husbands of women sexually abused as children. Using phenomenological methodology, in depth interviews were conducted with four men who did not learn until after they were married that their wives had been sexually abused as children. The study found that although the manner of discovery varied, periods of shock and disbelief were common. As the realization of the reality of the abuse set in, each of these men experienced anger. Unfortunately, the anger disrupted the marital relationship and hindered the wife's recovery. Over time, husbands learned that their role in relation to their wife and the abuse was to be a trustworthy container of information about the abuse. Husbands learned that they had to give up their role as “fixer” and adopt a role as “supporter. ”
Prenatal and early postnatal brain development: The Generation R Study

textabstractSeveral psychiatric disorders in childhood and adulthood have been hypothesized to be neurodevelopmental in origin. Numerous studies have provided evidence for subtle deviations in brain morphology in children and adults with attention-defi cit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia, compared to healthy children and adults. It is still unclear whether these subtle changes emerge in prenatal life or during brain maturation in childhood and adolescence. Findings supporting the hypothesis that (child) psychiatric disorders are related to an adverse environment in fetal life and early postnatal life include increased risk for schizophrenia in persons born after exposure to severe famine in utero and increased frequency of obstetric complications in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders. This thesis aimed to extend existing knowledge on the prenatal and early neurodevelopmental basis of behavioral and emotional problems. The studies in this thesis were conducted in the Generation R Study, a data collection project from fetal life until young adulthood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
CausalSpartan: Causal Consistency for Distributed Data Stores Using Hybrid Logical Clocks

Causal consistency is an intermediate consistency model that can be achieved together with high availability and high-performance requirements even in presence of network partitions. In the context of partitioned data stores, it has been shown that implicit dependency tracking using clocks is more efficient than explicit dependency tracking by sending dependency check messages. Existing clock-based solutions depend on monotonic psychical clocks that are closely synchronized. These requirements make current protocols vulnerable to clock anomalies. In this paper, we propose a new clock-based algorithm, CausalSpartan, that instead of physical clocks, utilizes Hybrid Logical Clocks (HLCs). We show that using HLCs, without any overhead, we make the system robust on physical clock anomalies. This improvement is more significant in the context of query amplification, where a single query results in multiple GET/PUT operations. We also show that CausalSpartan decreases the visibility latency for a given data item comparing to existing clock-based approaches. In turn, this reduces the completion time of collaborative applications where two clients accessing two different replicas edit same items of the data store. Like previous protocols, CausalSpartan assumes that a given client does not access more than one replica. We show that in presence of network partitions, this assumption (made in several other works) is essential if one were to provide causal consistency as well as immediate availability to local updates.
The Arabidopsis C2H2 Zinc Finger INDETERMINATE DOMAIN1/ENHYDROUS Promotes the Transition to Germination by Regulating Light and Hormonal Signaling during Seed Maturation[W]

This study investigates the function of ENHYDROUS (ENY), an Arabidopsis C2H2 zinc finger protein, during seed development. ENY promotes germination by counteracting aspects of seed maturation associated with abscisic acid. ENY may accomplish this partially through an interaction with the growth-restraining DELLA proteins and regulation of the gibberellin pathway. Seed development ends with a maturation phase that imparts desiccation tolerance, nutrient reserves, and dormancy degree. Here, we report the functional analysis of an Arabidopsis thaliana C2H2 zinc finger protein INDETERMINATE DOMAIN1 (IDD1)/ENHYDROUS (ENY). Ectopic expression of IDD1/ENY (2x35S:ENY) disrupted seed development, delaying endosperm depletion and testa senescence, resulting in an abbreviated maturation program. Consequently, mature 2x35S:ENY seeds had increased endosperm-specific fatty acids, starch retention, and defective mucilage extrusion. Using RAB18 promoter ENY lines (RAB18:ENY) to confine expression to maturation, when native ENY expression increased and peaked, resulted in mature seed with lower abscisic acid (ABA) content and decreased germination sensitivity to applied ABA. Furthermore, results of far-red and red light treatments of 2x35S:ENY and RAB18:ENY germinating seeds, and of artificial microRNA knockdown lines, suggest that ENY acts to promote germination. After using RAB18:ENY seedlings to induce ENY during ABA application, key genes in gibberellin (GA) metabolism and signaling were differentially regulated in a manner suggesting negative feedback regulation. Furthermore, GA treatment resulted in a skotomorphogenic-like phenotype in light-grown 2x35S:ENY and RAB18:ENY seedlings. The physical interaction of ENY with DELLAs and an ENY-triggered accumulation of DELLA transcripts during maturation support the conclusion that ENY mediates GA effects to balance ABA-promoted maturation during late seed development.
Information processing in choice‐based conjoint experiments

Purpose – This paper investigates how respondents to conjoint experiments process information and choose among product profiles, and how this varies with their knowledge about the product. Models for estimating conjoint attribute weights are almost exclusively based on principles of compensatory decision making. The paper aims to explore to what extent and in what way these basic principles of conjoint modelling are violated.Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from a verbal protocol study where 18 undergraduate students each performed a total of 28 stated choice tasks while “thinking aloud”. Findings – Results show that cognitive operations consistent with compensatory decision rules constitute a majority of the total number of operations performed across tasks and respondents. However, few respondents exhibited a consistent use of compensatory‐type processes throughout their choice sets. Results suggest that individual preferences interact with characteristics of the choice sets to instigate .
Cysteine separations profiles on protein sequences infer disulfide connectivity

MOTIVATION Disulfide bonds play an important role in protein folding. A precise prediction of disulfide connectivity can strongly reduce the conformational search space and increase the accuracy in protein structure prediction. Conventional disulfide connectivity predictions use sequence information, and prediction accuracy is limited. Here, by using an alternative scheme with global information for disulfide connectivity prediction, higher performance is obtained with respect to other approaches. RESULT Cysteine separation profiles have been used to predict the disulfide connectivity of proteins. The separations among oxidized cysteine residues on a protein sequence have been encoded into vectors named cysteine separation profiles (CSPs). Through comparisons of their CSPs, the disulfide connectivity of a test protein is inferred from a non-redundant template set. For non-redundant proteins in SwissProt 39 (SP39) sharing less than 30% sequence identity, the prediction accuracy of a fourfold cross-validation is 49%. The prediction accuracy of disulfide connectivity for proteins in SwissProt 43 (SP43) is even higher (53%). The relationship between the similarity of CSPs and the prediction accuracy is also discussed. The method proposed in this work is relatively simple and can generate higher accuracies compared to conventional methods. It may be also combined with other algorithms for further improvements in protein structure prediction. AVAILABILITY The program and datasets are available from the authors upon request. CONTACT cykao@csie.ntu. edu.tw.
Regulation of eotaxin‐3/CC chemokine ligand 26 expression by T helper type 2 cytokines in human colonic myofibroblasts

Eotaxins induce the trafficking of eosinophils to the sites of inflammation via CC chemokine receptor 3 (CCR3). In this study, we investigated eotaxin‐3/CC chemokine ligand 26 (CCL26) expression in the inflamed mucosa of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and characterized the molecular mechanisms responsible for eotaxin‐3 expression in human colonic myofibroblasts. Eotaxin‐3 mRNA and protein expression was evaluated by real time‐polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Eotaxin‐3 mRNA expression was elevated significantly in the active lesions of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. Significant elevations were also observed in the active lesions of Crohn's disease (CD) patients, but this was significantly lower than that detected in the active UC lesions. There were no significant increases in the inactive lesions of UC or CD patients. Colonic myofibroblasts were identified as a major source of eotaxin‐3 in the colonic mucosa, and interleukin (IL)‐4 and IL‐13 enhanced eotaxin‐3 mRNA and protein expression significantly in these cells. There was a significant positive correlation between mucosal eotaxin‐3 and IL‐4 mRNA expression in the active lesions of IBD patients. The IL‐4‐ and IL‐13‐induced eotaxin‐3 mRNA expression was regulated by the signal transducer and activator of transcription‐6 (STAT‐6) and suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS)1‐mediated pathways. Interferon (IFN)‐γ acts as a negative regulator on the IL‐4‐ and IL‐13‐induced eotaxin‐3 expression via STAT‐1 activation. Eotaxin‐3 expression was elevated specifically in the active lesions of IBD, in particular UC. Eotaxin‐3 derived from colonic myofibroblasts may play an important role in the pathophysiology of UC.
Audio-Visual Voice Activity Detection Using Diffusion Maps

The performance of traditional voice activity detectors significantly deteriorates in the presence of highly nonstationary noise and transient interferences. One solution is to incorporate a video signal which is invariant to the acoustic environment. Although several voice activity detectors based on the video signal were recently presented, merely few detectors which are based on both the audio and the video signals exist in the literature to date. In this paper, we present an audio-visual voice activity detector and show that the incorporation of both audio and video signals is highly beneficial for voice activity detection. The algorithm is based on a supervised learning procedure, and a labeled training data set is considered. The algorithm comprises a feature extraction procedure, where the features are designed to separate speech from nonspeech frames. Diffusion maps is applied separately and similarly to the features of each modality and builds a low dimensional representation. Using the new representation, we propose a measure for voice activity which is based on a supervised learning procedure and the variability between adjacent frames in time. The measures of the two modalities are merged to provide voice activity detection based on both the audio and the video signals. Experimental results demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed algorithm compared to state-of-the-art detectors.
Gelatin-methacrylamide gel loaded with microspheres to deliver GDNF in bilayer collagen conduit promoting sciatic nerve growth

In this study, we fabricated glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)-loaded microspheres, then seeded the microspheres in gelatin-methacrylamide hydrogel, which was finally integrated with the commercial bilayer collagen membrane (Bio-Gide®). The novel composite of nerve conduit was employed to bridge a 10 mm long sciatic nerve defect in a rat. GDNF-loaded gelatin microspheres had a smooth surface with an average diameter of 3.9±1.8 μm. Scanning electron microscopy showed that microspheres were uniformly distributed in both the GelMA gel and the layered structure. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, in vitro release studies (pH 7.4) of GDNF from microspheres exhibited an initial burst release during the first 3 days (18.0%±1.3%), and then, a prolonged-release profile extended to 32 days. However, in an acidic condition (pH 2.5), the initial release percentage of GDNF was up to 91.2%±0.9% within 4 hours and the cumulative release percentage of GDNF was 99.2%±0.2% at 48 hours. Then the composite conduct was implanted in a 10 mm critical defect gap of sciatic nerve in a rat. We found that the nerve was regenerated in both conduit and autograft (AG) groups. A combination of electrophysiological assessment and histomorphometry analysis of regenerated nerves showed that axonal regeneration and functional recovery in collagen tube filled with GDNF-loaded microspheres (GM + CT) group were similar to AG group (P>0.05). Most myelinated nerves were matured and arranged densely with a uniform structure of myelin in a neat pattern along the long axis in the AG and GM + CT groups, however, regenerated nerve was absent in the BLANK group, left the 10 mm gap empty after resection, and the nerve fiber exhibited a disordered arrangement in the collagen tube group. These results indicated that the hybrid system of bilayer collagen conduit and GDNF-loaded gelatin microspheres combined with gelatin-methacrylamide hydrogels could serve as a new biodegradable artificial nerve guide for nerve tissue engineering.
A General Modifier-Based Framework for Inconsistency-Tolerant Query Answering

We propose a general framework for inconsistency-tolerant query answering within existential rule setting. This framework unifies the main semantics proposed by the state of art and introduces new ones based on cardinality and majority principles. It relies on two key notions: modifiers and inference strategies. An inconsistency-tolerant semantics is seen as a composite modifier plus an inference strategy. We compare the obtained semantics from a productivity point of view.
Slepian-Wolf coding over cooperative networks

We present sufficient conditions for multicasting a set of correlated sources over cooperative networks. We propose a joint source-Wyner-Ziv encoding/sliding-window decoding scheme, in which each receiver considers an ordered partition of the other nodes. For each ordered partition, we obtain a set of feasibility constraints. We consolidate the results of the different ordered partitions by utilizing a result of geometrical approach to obtain the sufficient conditions. We observe that these sufficient conditions are indeed necessary conditions for Aref networks. As a consequence of the main result, we obtain an achievable rate region for networks with multicast demands. Also, we deduce an achievability result for two-way relay networks, where two nodes want to communicate over a relay network.
AI Goggles : Describing What You See and Retrieving What You Have Seen

”AI Goggles” assists recognition and memory capability of human users who wear it. It is a wearable system consisting of a camera and head mount display (HMD) attached on the goggles, and a tiny wearable PC. The AI Goggles instantly recognize images in the user’s field of view, automatically name them, and records movie clips automatically annotated with the names. The recorded data can then be searched by specifying a keyword (i.e. ”key”) in order to retrieve movie clips around the time when the specified scene was seen (i.e. leaving it at the bathroom mirror) as if the user’s ”external” visual memories. Moreover, the system can quickly learn unknown images by teaching and learn to label and retrieve them on site, without loss of recognition ability for previously learnt ones. As the core algorithm, we propose a new method of multi-labeling and retrieval of unconstrained real-world images. Our method outperforms the current state-of-the-art method, in terms of both accuracy and computation speed on the standard benchmark dataset. This is a major contribution to development of visual and memory assistive man-machine user interface.
The Effect of Diet on Simvastatin and Losartan Enhancement of Endothelial Function

Patients with hypertension take antihypertensive agents and cholesterol-lowering drugs; however, few studies describe the effects of the interaction of antihypertensive agents with statins. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to characterize the effects of losartan, simvastatin, and their combination on the progression of hypertension in the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Also, we determined whether diet influenced the drug responses. Rats were fed three different diets—low-salt (LS), high-salt (HS), and lipid-rich (LR)—and treated with either no drug (control), losartan (LOS, 10 mg/kg/day), simvastatin (SIM, 2 mg/kg/day) or LOS combined with SIM for four weeks. After four weeks on the diets, systolic blood pressure rose in all groups and remained elevated. Treatment with LOS alone or in combination with SIM reduced BP in the rats fed the LS and HS diet, respectively. Furthermore, LOS alone increased NO in the LS and LR groups; however, LOS combined with SIM completely abolished this rise in NO in LS group. Plasma PGI2 and TXA2 levels were increased in the presence of SIM alone; however LOS combined with SIM completely blocked SIM-induced increases in PGI2 and TXA2. Kidney levels of angiotensin II were higher in the LS group and significantly increased in the HS group following treatment with LOS alone. However, kidney aldosterone levels were significantly reduced in the presence of LOS in the HS group. Total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides were significantly higher in the LR group. Together, these data suggest a contribution of endogenous NO and PGs in the antihypertensive effect of LOS and SIM that may be affected by the type of diet.
A unified interpolatory subdivision scheme for quadrilateral meshes

For approximating subdivision schemes, there are several unified frameworks for effectively constructing subdivision surfaces generalizing splines of an arbitrary degree. In this article, we present a similar unified framework for interpolatory subdivision schemes. We first decompose the 2n-point interpolatory curve subdivision scheme into repeated local operations. By extending the repeated local operations to quadrilateral meshes, an efficient algorithm can be further derived for interpolatory surface subdivision. Depending on the number n of repeated local operations, the continuity of the limit curve or surface can be of an arbitrary order CL, except in the surface case at a limited number of extraordinary vertices where C1 continuity with bounded curvature is obtained. Boundary rules built upon repeated local operations are also presented.