Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Educating for diversity: an evaluation of a sexuality diversity workshop to address secondary school bullying

Objective: To evaluate the potential of a 60-minute sexuality diversity workshop to address bullying in secondary schools. Methods: Students completed pre- and post-workshop questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise results with pre- to immediate post-workshop changes compared using t-tests. Thematic analysis was used to analyse open-ended questionnaire responses. Results: We had 229 students (mean age 13.7 years) attending 10 workshops participate in the study. Three-quarters of students thought the workshop would reduce bullying in schools, and over 95% of the participants thought that other secondary schools should offer the workshop. There was a significant increase in valuing (p < 0.001) and understanding (p < 0.001) sexuality-diverse individuals (e.g. lesbian, gay and bisexual people), between the pre- and post-workshop results. School climates were largely perceived to be ‘hard’ and included ‘bullying/mocking’ of sexuality-diverse students; however, many individual students reported a desire to be supportive of their sexuality-diverse peers. Conclusions: Sexuality-based bullying is commonplace in secondary schools. This form of bullying is associated with depression and suicide attempts. Reducing sexuality-based bullying is very likely to have a positive impact on the mental health of young people. Brief workshops, as a part of a wider suite of interventions, have some potential to create safer school environments.
Smad3 Differentially Regulates the Induction of Regulatory and Inflammatory T Cell Differentiation*

Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) is a crucial cytokine with pleiotropic functions on immune cells. In CD4+ T cells, TGF-β is required for induction of both regulatory T and Th17 cells. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this differential T cell fate decision remains unclear. In this study, we have evaluated the role of Smad3 in the development of Th17 and regulatory T cells. Smad3 was found to be dispensable for natural regulatory T cell function. However, induction of Foxp3 expression by TGF-β in naive T cells was significantly reduced in the absence of this molecule. On the contrary, Smad3 deficiency led to enhanced Th17 differentiation in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, Smad3 was found to interact with retinoid acid receptor-related orphan receptor γt (RORγt) and decrease its transcriptional activity. These results demonstrate that Smad3 is differentially involved in the reciprocal regulatory and inflammatory T cell generation.
Read-X: Automatic Evaluation of Reading Difficulty of Web Text

We are developing a web-search application to locate and evaluate potential reading material on the internet. Our application, Read-X, performs a keyword search of the internet, analyzes the readability of text from each resulting website and classifies the text according to theme. This tool will be useful to adolescent and adult low-level reading students who face, among other challenges, a troubling lack of reading material for their age, interests and reading level.
Mapping study completeness and reliability - a case study

Context: We have been undertaking a series of case studies to investigate the value of mapping (scoping) studies in software engineering. Our previous studies have assessed these using the subjective opinions of researchers. Objective: In order to provide a more objective assessment of value, for this study, we used the results of a systematic mapping study to investigate how well mapping studies identify clusters of related studies and to what extent such clusters are complete. Method: In this participant-observer case study, we undertook a mapping study of unit testing and regression testing empirical studies, which we compared with a previous expert literature review and with six other mapping studies and systematic literature reviews (SLRs) that addressed overlapping topics. Results: Our mapping study found more clusters than the expert literature review although it benefited from the set of studies identified by the expert review when refining our search process. The set of studies found by our searches were less complete than those found by SLRs addressing more specific topics, although we found some studies missed by those SLRs. Conclusions: Researchers undertaking systematic reviews and mapping studies should make use of related systematic reviews and mapping studies to identify known studies in order to refine search strings and validate search results. For completeness and traceability, mapping studies should keep a record of all multiple reports of a single study. Meta-analyses and other systematic literature reviews undertaking detailed aggregation should report on candidate primary studies that were rejected in the final screening process, as well as candidate studies that were included. This helps ensure the repeatability of aggregation results.
The distribution and kinematics of early high-σ peaks in present-day haloes: implications for rare objects and old stellar populations

We show that the hierarchical assembly of cold dark matter haloes preserves the memory of the initial conditions. Using N-body cosmological simulations, we demonstrate that the present-day spatial distribution and kinematics of objects that formed within early (z? 10) protogalactic systems (old stars, satellite galaxies, globular clusters, massive black holes, etc.) depends mostly on the rarity of the peak of the primordial density field to which they originally belonged. Only for objects forming at lower redshifts does the exact formation site within the progenitor halo (e.g. whether near the centre or in an extended disc) become important. In present-day haloes, material from the rarer early peaks is more centrally concentrated and falls off more steeply with radius compared to the overall mass distribution, has a lower velocity dispersion, moves on more radial orbits, and has a more elongated shape. Population II stars that formed within protogalactic haloes collapsing from ≥2. 5σ fluctuations would follow today an r -3.5 density profile with a half-light radius of 17 kpc and a velocity anisotropy that increases from isotropic in the inner regions to nearly radial at the halo edge. This agrees well with the radial velocity dispersion profile of Galaxy halo stars from the recent work of Battaglia et al. and with the anisotropic orbits of nearby halo stars.
A Hierarchical Approach for Rain or Snow Removing in a Single Color Image

In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm to remove rain or snow from a single color image. Our algorithm takes advantage of two popular techniques employed in image processing, namely, image decomposition and dictionary learning. At first, a combination of rain/snow detection and a guided filter is used to decompose the input image into a complementary pair: 1) the low-frequency part that is free of rain or snow almost completely and 2) the high-frequency part that contains not only the rain/snow component but also some or even many details of the image. Then, we focus on the extraction of image’s details from the high-frequency part. To this end, we design a 3-layer hierarchical scheme. In the first layer, an overcomplete dictionary is trained and three classifications are carried out to classify the high-frequency part into rain/snow and non-rain/snow components in which some common characteristics of rain/snow have been utilized. In the second layer, another combination of rain/snow detection and guided filtering is performed on the rain/snow component obtained in the first layer. In the third layer, the sensitivity of variance across color channels is computed to enhance the visual quality of rain/snow-removed image. The effectiveness of our algorithm is verified through both subjective (the visual quality) and objective (through rendering rain/snow on some ground-truth images) approaches, which shows a superiority over several state-of-the-art works.
Study on the Influence of Minor Constituents in Blast Furnace Slag Rich Cement on the Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Concrete

Until now, the influence on the thermal and mechanical properties of concrete of SO3 and calcium carbonate as minor constituents contained in binder used for concrete made with blast furnace slag rich cement was not clearly known, and neither was the optimum mixing ratio most effective for control of thermal cracking. To evaluate the influence of these minor constituents on the temperature and crack resistance properties of concrete, a simple adiabatic temperature rise test and examination by thermal stress testing machine (TSTM) were carried out in this study. The simple adiabatic temperature rise test evaluated mainly the thermal characteristics of the minor constituents under investigation, while the test using a TSTM, which is a test device that can simulate the behavior inside the member of a real structure, investigated mechanical properties such as creep characteristics, and crack resistance. Further, using the results of the simple adiabatic temperature rise test and the test using a TSTM, thermal stress analysis using a wall structure was carried out to determine the influence of minor constituents on crack resistance. As a result, as determined within the scope of this study, we found that the formation of ettringite and monosulfate accompanying the addition of SO3 has an influence on the adiabatic temperature rise characteristic and the apparent mechanical properties, and that the addition of calcium carbonate has only a small influence on thermal properties.
3D modeling from turntable sequences using dense stereo carving and multi-view consistency

This paper addresses the problem of reconstructing a 3D model, with texture, from a sequence of images of the object taken from a turntable. Previous approaches have successfully solved the problem either using active interaction techniques, like the laser pen in Immersion's LightScribe commercial system or directly relying on objects texture (not implemented commercially). In contrast, we present a general methodology, which combines silhouette carving with dense stereo and multi-view consistency. It functions even in the presence of highlights or lack of texture. Results are presented on real objects with the above-mentioned characteristics.
Analysis of hydrolytic products from choline-labeled host cell phospholipids during growth of Rickettsia prowazekii

A phospholipase activity has been associated with the interaction of Rickettsia prowazekii with the surface of erythrocytes and competent host cells as well as during the growth of the rickettsiae within their host cells. Both fatty acid and lysophosphatides have been found in the interaction of rickettsiae with the surface of eucaryotic cells; this finding provided strong evidence for the activity of a phospholipase A. However, fatty acids, but not lysophosphatides, were found during the growth of rickettsiae within cells in which the phospholipids had been radiolabeled with oleic acid; this observation left the type of phospholipase activity in doubt. In this study, the water-soluble components of phospholipid hydrolysis by phospholipase A plus lysophospholipase and phospholipase C were determined following the growth of rickettsiae in host cells in which the phospholipids had been radiolabeled with choline. In infected cells relative to mock-infected cells, there was a loss of phosphatidylcholine with a corresponding increase not in lysophosphatidylcholine but in the water-soluble components. There was a large increase in glycerylphosphorylcholine (185%) and a smaller increase in phosphorylcholine (16%). These results indicate that both phospholipase A activity (plus a lysophospholipase activity) and phospholipase C were increased during infection by R. prowazekii and that the former was the predominant activity.
Validation of MRI Determination of the Penumbra by PET Measurements in Ischemic Stroke

The concept of the ischemic penumbra was formulated on the basis of animal experiments showing functional impairment and electrophysiologic disturbances with decreasing flow to the brain below defined values (the threshold for function) and irreversible tissue damage with blood supply further decreased (the threshold for infarction). The perfusion range between these thresholds was termed the “penumbra,” and restitution of flow above the functional threshold was able to reverse the deficits without permanent damage. In further experiments, the dependency of the development of irreversible lesions on the interaction of the severity and the duration of critically reduced blood flow was established, proving that the lower the flow, the shorter the time for efficient reperfusion. As a consequence, infarction develops from the core of ischemia to the areas of less severe hypoperfusion. The translation of this experimental concept as the basis for the efficient treatment of stroke requires noninvasive methods with which regional flow and energy metabolism can be repeatedly investigated to demonstrate penumbra tissue, which can benefit from therapeutic interventions. PET allows the quantification of regional cerebral blood flow, the regional oxygen extraction fraction, and the regional metabolic rate for oxygen. With these variables, clear definitions of irreversible tissue damage and of critically hypoperfused but potentially salvageable tissue (i.e., the penumbra) in stroke patients can be achieved. However, PET is a research tool, and its complex logistics limit clinical routine applications. Perfusion-weighted or diffusion-weighted MRI is a widely applicable clinical tool, and the “mismatch” between perfusion-weighted and diffusion-weighted abnormalities serves as an indicator of the penumbra. However, comparative studies of perfusion-weighted or diffusion-weighted MRI and PET have indicated overestimation of the core of irreversible infarction as well as of the penumbra by the MRI modalities. Some of these discrepancies can be explained by the nonselective application of relative perfusion thresholds, which might be improved by more complex analytic procedures. The heterogeneity of the MRI signatures used for the definition of the mismatch are also responsible for disappointing results in the application of perfusion-weighted or diffusion-weighted MRI to the selection of patients for clinical trials. As long as validation of the mismatch selection paradigm is lacking, the use of this paradigm as a surrogate marker of outcome is limited.
Genetic Optimization for Associative Semantic Ranking Models of Satellite Images by Land Cover

Associative methods for content-based image ranking by semantics are attractive due to the similarity of generated models to human models of understanding. Although they tend to return results that are better understood by image analysts, the induction of these models is difficult to build due to factors that affect training complexity, such as coexistence of visual patterns in same images, over-fitting or under-fitting and semantic representation differences among image analysts. This article proposes a methodology to reduce the complexity of ranking satellite images for associative methods. Our approach employs genetic operations to provide faster and more accurate models for ranking by semantic using low level features. The added accuracy is provided by a reduction in the likelihood to reach local minima or to overfit. The experiments show that, using genetic optimization, associative methods perform better or at similar levels as state-of-the-art ensemble methods for ranking. The mean average precision (MAP) of ranking by semantic was improved by 14% over similar associative methods that use other optimization techniques while maintaining smaller size for each semantic model.
Is There a Standard for the Palliative Treatment of Melanoma?

ority of systemic therapy over best supportive care / placebo [4]. However, around 1.500 metastatic patients have been treated in 9 randomized trials comparing various DTIC-containing chemotherapy regimens with each other in studies accruing between 69 and up to 386 patients. 4 of the trials compared DTIC alone versus polychemotherapy regimens. Clinical response rates (RRs) of DTIC alone ranged between 9.9 and 18%, depending on the number of patients included in the treatment arm. RR were increased in several instances where chemotherapy combinations were used and which mostly included DTIC as well, however, median survival was not affected in all 9 randomized trials. RRs and overall survival were analyzed in a recent meta-analysis of 3,273 patients from 20 randomized trials that was performed comparing single-agent DTIC to combination chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy [5]. Although the analysis showed an increased odds ratio (OR) suggesting that combination drug therapies were associated with a certain increase in RR compared with single-agent DTIC, no survival benefit was detected. In a recently published report, the Dartmouth regimen, a treatment schedule widely used in the USA containing DTIC, BCNU, cisplatin and tamoxifen (TMX), was compared to DTIC alone in 240 patients by Chapman and co-workers [6]. Median survival time from randomization was 7 months and no difference in survival time between the two treatment arms was detected, however, bone marrow suppression, nausea/ vomiting, and fatigue were significantly more common in the Dartmouth arm. In the recently reported trial DTIC was compared with temozolomide, a newly developed substance which can be given orally and has the capacity to penetrate the brain-blood barrier. 305 patients were randomized. RRs were around 13% and median survival times ranged around 7 months in both groups. Median progression-free survival time was significantly longer in the temozolomide-treated group (1.9 months) than in the DTIC-treated group (1.5 months) [7]. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a thorough, explicit and rationale use of all the best available external scientific evidence in the medical care for individual patients (adapted from: Sackett DL, et al: Münch Med Wochenschr 1997;139:644–645).
Optimal inverter VAR control in distribution systems with high PV penetration

The intent of the study detailed in this paper is to demonstrate the benefits of inverter var control on a fast timescale to mitigate rapid and large voltage fluctuations due to the high penetration of photovoltaic generation and the resulting reverse power flow. Our approach is to formulate the volt/var control as a radial optimal power flow (OPF) problem to minimize line losses and energy consumption, subject to constraints on voltage magnitudes. An efficient solution to the radial OPF problem is presented and used to study the structure of optimal inverter var injection and the net benefits, taking into account the additional cost of inverter losses when operating at non-unity power factor. This paper will illustrate how, depending on the circuit topology and its loading condition, the inverter's optimal reactive power injection is not necessarily monotone with respect to their real power output. The results are demonstrated on a distribution feeder on the Southern California Edison system that has a very light load and a 5 MW photovoltaic (PV) system installed away from the substation.
Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology

Figure 1 Effect of Fingolimod on B-cell subpopulation composition in the peripheral blood. (A – C) Frequencies of B-cell subpopulations in peripheral blood of untreated patients with MS (MS), Fingolimod-treated patients with multiple sclerosis (FTY) and healthy controls (HC), determined by flow cytomety. (A) B-cell subset characterization. Naïve B cells (n): CD38-CD27-CD24-/dim ; memory B cells (m): CD38-CD27 + CD24 + , regulatory B cells (r): CD38 + CD27-CD24 + CD5 +. Numbers in histogram plot represent MFI. (B) Representative examples of B-cell subsets of the three groups (HC, MS, FTY) are shown. (C) Percentages of B-cell subpopulations within the three groups. (D) Expression levels of L-Selectin (CD62L), CCR7 (CD197) and LFA-1 (CD11a) on B-cell subpopulations of HC determined via flow cytometry. (C, D) Horizontal lines indicate mean ± SEM. P values display significant differences. FTY = Fingolimod-treated patients with multiple sclerosis; HC = healthy controls; MFI = mean fluorescence intensity; MS = untreated patients with MS; SEM = standard error of the mean. 239x338mm (300 x 300 DPI)
Personality and health: Road to well-being

1 These four categories Galen named “sanguine,” “choleric,” “melancholic,” and “phlegmatic” after the bodily humors, respectively. Each was the result of an excess of one of the humors that produced, in turn, the imbalance in paired qualities. [8] Subjective well‐being (SWB) reported as satisfaction with life has been commented upon by psychologists as one of the factors determining the positive sense of self. The moot question to be answered is as to what determines this sense of satisfaction and happiness. A review by Dienner et al.[9] found that genetic factors, e.g., inherited tendency to have pleasant, easygoing temperament contributes to positive mental health. Some of the personality factors like low on neuroticism and high in affiliation, perceived control feel positive and optimistic. [10]
Time Series Transductive Classification on Imbalanced Data Sets: An Experimental Study

Graph-based semi-supervised learning (SSL) algorithms perform well on a variety of domains, such as digit recognition and text classification, when the data lie on a low-dimensional manifold. However, it is surprising that these methods have not been effectively applied on time series classification tasks. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive empirical comparison of state-of-the-art graph-based SSL algorithms with respect to graph construction and parameter selection. Specifically, we focus in this paper on the problem of time series transductive classification on imbalanced data sets. Through a comprehensive analysis using recently proposed empirical evaluation models, we confirm some of the hypotheses raised on previous work and show that some of them may not hold in the time series domain. From our results, we suggest the use of the Gaussian Fields and Harmonic Functions algorithm with the mutual k-nearest neighbors graph weighted by the RBF kernel, setting k = 20 on general tasks of time series transductive classification on imbalanced data sets.
Sparsity-aware adaptive filters based on ℓp-norm inspired soft-thresholding technique

We propose a novel sparsity-aware adaptive filtering algorithm based on iterative use of weighted soft-thresholding. The weights are determined based on a rough local approximation of the ℓp norm (0 <; p <; 1). The proposed algorithm operates the weighted soft-thresholding for enhancing the sparsity, following estimation error managements with the affine projection. The proposed weighting technique alleviates an extra bias of no benefit caused by shrinking dominant coefficients. The numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed weighting technique outperforms the existing one when the situation changes under the fixed parameter settings.