Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[The relationship between assessment of family relationships and depression in girls with various types of eating disorders].

AIM The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between depressive symptoms and girls' assessment of their family relations in a group of (female) patients with a diagnosis of various subtypes of eating disorders in comparison with (female) patients with a diagnosis of depressive disorders (episode of major depression, dysthymia, adjustment reaction with depressive mood) and female students in Krakow, Poland schools. METHOD Data from 54 (female) patients with a diagnosis of restrictive anorexia (ANR), 22 with a diagnosis of binge-purge anorexia (ANB), 36 with a diagnosis of bulimia (BUL), 36 with a diagnosis of depressive disorders (DEP) and a 85 (female) Krakow school students (CON) were used in the statistical analyses. There were no significant differences between age of the girls in studied groups. In analyses, results of the Polish version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and also the Family Assessment Questionnaire (KOR) were used. RESULTS In the CON group, correlations attesting to a link between depressiveness and a negative assessment of the family were observed on all scales of the questionnaire with the exception of the Values and Norms scale. In the DEP group, such a dependence was ascertained on scales: Completing Tasks, Communication, Emotionality, Control, Defence, Positive Statements. In the case of the ANR group, no statistically significant relationship between results of the questionnaires was noted. In group ANB, correlations attesting to a link between depressiveness and a negative picture of the family were ascertained on scales: Communication and Defence. The same dependence was ascertained in the BUL group on scales: Completing Tasks, Emotionality, Emotional involvement, Control, General result, Negative Statements. CONCLUSIONS An increase in depressiveness is linked in a significant way with a worsening assessment of the family relations amongst girls with a diagnosis of bulimia, depressive disorders and students.
LTRT: An efficient and reliable topology control algorithm for ad-hoc networks

Broadcasting, in the context of ad-hoc networks, is a costly operation, and thus topology control has been proposed to achieve efficient broadcasting with low interference and low energy consumption. By topology control, each node optimizes its transmission power by maintaining network connectivity in a localized manner. Local Minimum Spanning Tree (LMST) is the state-of-the-art topology control algorithm, which has been proven to provide satisfactory performance. However, LMST almost always results in a 1-connected network, without redundancy to tolerate external factors. In this paper, we propose Local Tree-based Reliable Topology (LTRT), which is mathematically proven to guarantee k-edge connectivity while preserving the features of LMST. LTRT can be easily constructed with a low computational complexity of O(k(m + n log n)), where k is the connectivity of the resulting topology, n is the number of neighboring nodes, and m is the number of edges. Simulation results have demonstrated the efficiency of LTRT and its superiority over other localized algorithms.
APEG-1, a Novel Gene Preferentially Expressed in Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells, Is Down-regulated by Vascular Injury*

Despite the importance of phenotypic alterations in arterial smooth muscle cells (ASMC) during the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis, little is known about genes that define differentiated ASMC. Using differential mRNA display, we isolated a novel gene preferentially expressed in the rat aorta and termed this gene APEG-1. The cDNA of rat APEG-1 contained an open reading frame encoding 113 amino acids, which would predict a basic protein of 12.7 kDa. The amino acid sequence of rat APEG-1 was highly conserved among human and mouse homologues (97 and 98%, respectively). Using an APEG-1 fusion protein containing an N-terminal c-Myc tag, we identified APEG-1 as a nuclear protein. By in situ hybridization, APEG-1 mRNA was expressed in rat ASMC. Although APEG-1 was expressed highly in differentiated ASMC in vivo, its expression was quickly down-regulated and disappeared in dedifferentiated ASMC in culture. In vivo, APEG-1 mRNA levels decreased by more than 80% in response to vascular injury as ASMC changed from a quiescent to a proliferative phenotype. Taken together, these data indicate that APEG-1 is a novel marker for differentiated ASMC and may have a role in regulating growth and differentiation of this cell type.
The BlueJ System and its Pedagogy

Many teachers experience serious problems when teaching object-orientation to beginners or professionals. Many of these problems could be overcome or reduced through the use of more appropriate tools. In this paper, we introduce BlueJ, an integrated development environment designed for teaching object-orientation, and discuss how the use of this tool can change the approach to teaching.
Using induction to prove properties of distributed programs

Proofs of distributed programs are often informal due to the difficulty of developing formal proofs. Properties of distributed programs are often stated using Lamport's causally-precedes relation and its complement, not-causally-precedes. Properties that involve the causally-precedes relation are fairly straight forward to prove using induction. However, properties that involve not-causally-precedes are quite difficult to prove. Such properties are common since predicates on the global state of a system implicitly use the not-causally-precedes relation. This paper presents a method of induction on the not-causally-precedes relation and demonstrates the technique by formally proving a variant of the well known algorithm for maintaining a vector clock. <<ETX>>
CYTOKINE THERAPY IN MULTIPLE MYELOMA*

In vitro and in vivo studies performed during recent years have provided evidence that cytokines exert a major biological role in multiple myeloma (MM). Cytokines control myeloma cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, and are involved in the tumour-induced bone destruction mediated by activated osteoclasts. Interferon(Inf) was introduced for therapeutic purposes in MM more than 15 years ago, and other cytokines have been evaluated more recently. Although controversies still exist, it seems appropriate in 1996 to discuss the indications for cytokine therapy in MM, and to correlate results obtained in vitro with the effects observed in vivo.
Using symbolic techniques to find the maximum clique in very large sparse graphs

Several problems arising in CAD for VLSI, especially in logic and high level synthesis, are modeled as graph-theoretical problems. In particular minimization problems often require the knowledge of the cliques in a graph. This paper presents a new approach for finding the maximum clique in realistic graphs. The algorithm is built around a classical branch-and-bound, but exploits the efficiency of Binary Decision Diagrams and Symbolic Techniques to avoid explicit enumeration of the search space. The approach is proven to be more efficient than classical algorithms, which suffer from the enumeration problem, as well as purely symbolic implementations, which suffer from the explosion in the size of BDDs. As a result, we are able to compute the maximum clique without introducing approximations for graphs with billions of vertices and transitions. <<ETX>>
High-performance polynomial GCD computations on graphics processors

We propose an algorithm to compute a greatest common divisor (GCD) of univariate polynomials with large integer coefficients on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). At the highest level, our algorithm relies on modular techniques to decompose the problem into subproblems that can be solved separately. Next, we employ resultant-based or matrix algebra methods to compute a GCD of each modular image in parallel. Our approach exhibits block structure to distribute the computation of a single modular GCD over several thread blocks, and thus to remove any hardware limitations on the maximal size of polynomials that can be handled. To “combine” all modular results, we have adopted Mixed-Radix Conversion (MRC) algorithm running on the GPU. Our approach shows a significant speed-up over host-based GCD algorithm from Maple 13.1
Automatically Grouping Questions in Yahoo! Answers

In this paper, we define and study a novel problem which is referred to as Community Question Grouping (CQG). Online QA services such as Yahoo! Answers contain large archives of community questions which are posted by users. Community Question Grouping is primarily concerned with grouping a collection of community questions into predefined categories. We first investigate the effectiveness of two basic methods, i.e., K-means and PLSA, in solving this problem. Then, both methods are extended in different ways to include user information. The experimental results with real datasets show that incorporation of user information improves the basic methods significantly. In addition, performance comparison reveals that PLSA with regularization is the most effective solution to the CQG problem.
Robust ℋ∞ consensus for multi-agent systems with time-varying input delay using dynamic IQCs

In this paper, the distributed consensus control problem for linear multi-agent systems, subject to external disturbance and time-varying input delays, is addressed under the robust ℋ∞ and dynamic integral quadratic constraint (IQC) analysis framework. A novel distributed protocol is proposed using both relative plant state and IQC dynamics state information. It is shown that under the proposed design scheme, the consensus performance can be reached by solving the ℋ∞ control problems for a set of independent linear fractional transformation (LFT) systems, whose dimensions are equal to that of a single agent plant plus a single IQC dynamics. Furthermore, the synthesis conditions for the proposed IQC-based distributed consensus control are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), such that the optimal ℋ∞ consensus protocol can be synthesized via convex optimization. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Space-Time-Frequency Degrees of Freedom: Fundamental Limits for Spatial Information

We bound the number of electromagnetic signals which may be observed over a frequency range [F-W, F+W] a time interval [0, T] within a sphere of radius R. We show that the such constrained signals may be represented by a series expansion whose terms are bounded exponentially to zero beyond a threshold. Our result implies there is a finite amount of information which may be extracted from a region of space via electromagnetic radiation.
Correction of vibration artifacts in DTI using phase-encoding reversal (COVIPER)

Diffusion tensor imaging is widely used in research and clinical applications, but still suffers from substantial artifacts. Here, we focus on vibrations induced by strong diffusion gradients in diffusion tensor imaging, causing an echo shift in k‐space and consequential signal‐loss. We refined the model of vibration‐induced echo shifts, showing that asymmetric k‐space coverage in widely used Partial Fourier acquisitions results in locally differing signal loss in images acquired with reversed phase encoding direction (blip‐up/blip‐down). We implemented a correction of vibration artifacts in diffusion tensor imaging using phase‐encoding reversal (COVIPER) by combining blip‐up and blip‐down images, each weighted by a function of its local tensor‐fit error. COVIPER was validated against low vibration reference data, resulting in an error reduction of about 72% in fractional anisotropy maps. COVIPER can be combined with other corrections based on phase encoding reversal, providing a comprehensive correction for eddy currents, susceptibility‐related distortions and vibration artifact reduction. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Mining User Lifecycles from Online Community Platforms and their Application to Churn Prediction

Recent work has studied user development in the domains of both telecommunication and online community platforms, examining how users develop in terms of the company they keep (socially) and the language they use (lexically). Such works afford key insights into user changes along individual dimensions, yet they do not examine how users develop relative to their prior behaviour along multiple dimensions. In this paper we examine how users develop along various properties (in-degree, out-degree, posted terms) in three online community platforms (Facebook, SAP Community Network, and Server Fault) and using three models of user development: (i) isolated lifecycle periods, (ii) historical contrasts, and (iii) community contrasts. We present an approach to mine the lifecycle trajectories of users as a means to characterise user development along the different properties and development models, and demonstrate the utility of such trajectories in predicting churners. We find consistent effects with past work: users tend to reflect the behaviour of the community in early portions of their lifecycles, before then diverging from the community towards the end. We also find that users form sub-communities with whom they communicate and remain within.
Globule: a collaborative content delivery network

We present Globule, a collaborative content delivery network developed by our research group. Globule is composed of Web servers that cooperate across a wide area network to provide performance and availability guarantees to the sites they host. We discuss the issues involved in developing and setting up a large-scale collaborative CDN and provide solutions for many of its unique problems
The Influence of Organizational Factors on Inter-team Knowledge Sharing Effectiveness in Agile Environments

Agile software development is known by focusing on interaction among team members to share knowledge. However, little guidance is provided to encourage interaction across agile teams. Based on a preliminary conceptual model, this paper examines influencing factors, such as organizational strategy, and communication flow and channels, regarding inter-team knowledge sharing (KS) effectiveness in agile environments. We analyze the characteristics and the influence of the mentioned factors through a survey research method. Data was gathered from seven Brazilian agile software organizations. We employed statistical analysis techniques, e.g., structural equation modeling and cross-table analysis, to analyze the results. Within the surveyed companies, organizational strategy reflects on moderate commitment towards knowledge. KS practices are carried out to an acceptable standard. Extensive communication flow and the use of several channels denote that agile companies are also fostering interaction across teams. We found strong relationship between these factors and the companies' experience on agile methods. As companies continue on an agile adoption program, they growingly focus on long-term goals and consider knowledge as strategic resource. However, they still need to improve strategy alignment to all organization levels. Thus, we recommend that agile companies consider these factors when striving on this endeavor.
Large-Scale Regioselective Formation of Well-Defined Stable Wrinkles of Multilayered Films via Embossing

We report on large-scale fabrication of wrinkled polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) with well-defined surface relief structures by embossing. The embossed assembly films show hierarchical topography consisting of patterns on the micrometer scale defined by the stamp used for embossing that are decorated by stable and highly regular patterns on the submicrometer scale. The periodicities of the concentric wrinkles can be controlled well down to 250 nm. We propose that a new mechanism of combining inelastic deformation of the support and selective wetting by the PEM film to be responsible for the above wrinkling with high stability in the wet state and enhanced aspect ratio.
Traffic Management for Heterogeneous Networks With Opportunistic Unlicensed Spectrum Sharing

This paper studies how to maximize the per-user-based throughput in an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-tier heterogeneous wireless network (HetNet) by optimally managing traffic flows among the access points (APs) in the HetNet. The APs in the first <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M-1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> tiers can use the licensed spectrum at the same time whereas they share the unlicensed spectrum with the APs in the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula>th tier by the proposed opportunistic CSMA/CA protocol. We characterize the statistical property of the cell load and channel access probability of each AP using a general AP association scheme. For an AP in each tier, the tight bounds on its mean spectrum efficiencies in the licensed and unlicensed spectra are derived in a low-complexity form for general random channel gain and AP association weight models and they can give some insights on how channel gains, AP association weights and void AP probabilities affect the mean spectrum efficiencies. We define the per-user link throughput and per-user network throughput based on the derived the mean spectrum efficiencies and maximize them by proposing the decentralized and centralized traffic management schemes for the APs in the first <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M-1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> tiers under the constraint that the per-user link throughput of the tier-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> APs must be above some minimum required value. Finally, a numerical example of coexisting LTE and Wi-Fi networks is provided to validate our derived results and findings.
The Benefit of Force Feedback in Surgery: Examination of Blunt Dissection

Force feedback is widely assumed to enhance performance in robotic surgery, but its benefits have not yet been systematically assessed. In this study we examine the effects of force feedback on a blunt dissection task. Twenty subjects used a telerobotic system to expose an artery in a synthetic model while viewing the operative site with a video laparoscope. Subjects were drawn from a range of surgical backgrounds, from inexperienced to attending surgeons. Performance was compared between three force feedback gains: 0 (no force feedback), 37, and 75. The absence of force feedback increased the average force magnitude applied to the tissue by at least 50, and increased the peak force magnitude by at least 100. The number of errors that damage tissue increased by over a factor of 3. The rate and precision of dissection were not significantly enhanced with force feedback. These results hold across all levels of previous surgical experience. We hypothesize that force feedback is helpful in this blunt dissection task because the artery is stiffer than the surrounding tissue. This mechanical contrast serves to constrain the subject's hand from commanding inappropriate motions that generate large forces.
Characteristics of the cathodic arc discharge with a hot boron cathode

Recently, the authors developed a cathodic arc evaporation source with a heated boron cathode and successfully applied it to the deposition of cubic BN thin films. The cathode surface area under operation exhibits an extended red-hot area and therefore the so-called distributed arc mode was suspected first. Nevertheless, high-speed photography has revealed that cathode spots exist which move randomly in a similar manner as cathode spots on metal. The discharge mode of the hot boron cathode has been characterized both in Ar and a N/sub 2//Ar atmosphere. The properties of the ion component of the emitted plasma were investigated by energy-resolved mass spectroscopy and conclusions are drawn on the potentials of the boron are evaporation as a deposition process for c-BN films.
Information and knowledge exchange in a multi-agent system for stock trading

A distributed problem solving system can be characterised as a group of individual agents running and co-operating with other agents to solve a problem. As dynamic domains such as stock trading am continuing to grow in complexity, it becomes more difficult to control the behaviour of agents in the domains where unexpected events can occur. This paper presented an information and knowledge exchange framework to support distributed problem solving in the stock trading domain. It addresses two important issues: (1) how individual agents should be interconnected so that their capacities are efficiently used and their goals are accomplished effectively and efficiently; and (2) how the information and knowledge transfer should take place among agents to allow them to respond successfully to user requests and unexpected situations in the outside world. The focus of this paper is dynamic knowledge exchange among MASST agents. The co-ordinator agent together with a decision enabling warehouse acting as a dynamic blackboard plus direct intercommunication among the agents enable facts, commands, and rules to be transferred between MASST agents. Knowledge can be exchanged among the agents by using a combination of facts, rules and commands transfers.
Communication Pattern Monitoring: Improving the Utility of Anomaly Detection for Industrial Control Systems

Attacks on Industrial Control Systems (ICS) continue to grow in number and complexity, and well-crafted cyber attacks are aimed at both commodity and ICS-specific contexts. It has become imperative to create efficient ICS-specific defense mechanisms that complement traditional enterprise solutions. Most commercial solutions are not designed for ICS environments, rely only on pre-defined signatures and do not handle zeroday attacks. We propose a threat detection framework that aims to detect zero-day attacks by creating models of legitimate, rather than malicious ICS traffic. Our approach employs a contentbased analysis that characterizes normal command and data sequences applied at the network level, while proposing mechanisms for achieving a low false positive rate. Our preliminary results show that we can reliably model normal behavior, while reducing the false positive rate, increasing confidence in the anomaly detection alerts.
No Association Between rs7077361 in ITGA8 and Parkinson’s Disease in Sweden

Background: Integrin alpha 8 (ITGA8) encodes the alpha 8 subunit of the integrin alpha8beta1 protein and has recently been suggested as a new candidate gene for Parkinson’s disease, an age related neurodegenerative disease with unknown etiology. ITGA8 is a transmembrane protein involved in several cellular processes, such as cell adhesion, migration and cytoskeletal rearrangement. Objective: Screen a Swedish case control material for rs7077361, a genetic variant in ITGA8, in order to investigate its possible implication in Parkinson’s disease in Sweden. Method: Rs7077361 was genotyped using TaqMan quantitative Real-time PCR and tested for association using appropriate statistical methods. Results: We have screened 502 Swedish Parkinson patients and 599 healthy control individuals for rs7077361 in ITGA8. This genetic variant was in Hardy Weinberg equilibrium in the Swedish population. Allele and genotype frequencies were highly similar between the patients and controls and statistical testing showed that this genetic maker did not associate with Parkinson’s disease (p=0.67). Conclusion: Our results do not support the hypothesis of ITGA8 as a candidate gene for Parkinson’s disease in Sweden.