Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carnegie Mellon University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering “ Accountability for Privacy and Fairness Violations in Data-Driven Systems with Limited Access ” Ph . D . Thesis Prospectus

Automated systems are increasingly being employed to make critical decisions about our lives. Such systems utilize the power of big data to make ever so accurate predictions. The widespread use of such systems has led to concerns over societal values like user privacy and fairness. Although these systems have policies promising to protect societal values, the blackbox nature of these systems makes it difficult to analyze whether these policies are respected. Moreover, it is difficult to hold entities accountable upon detection of a policy violation. The goal of this doctoral thesis is to enable accountability for privacy and fairness violations for automated data-driven decision making systems. To achieve this goal, we first show it is possible to evaluate some privacy and fairness properties on fully blackbox decision-making systems. Next, with limited access to the internal structure and logs of the system, we propose to enable accountability for fairness violations in the system. To study privacy and fairness properties in blackbox systems, we translate the properties into information flow instances and develop methods to detect information flow in blackbox systems. We formally establish a connection between information flow and causal effects, and leverage this connection to detect information flow using experiments traditionally used to detect causal effects. We develop AdFisher as a general framework to perform information flow experiments on web systems and use it to evaluate societal values like discrimination, transparency, and choice on Google’s advertising system. We find evidence of discrimination, a lack of transparency and respect for choice. While detecting privacy and fairness violations in blackbox systems is a non-trivial problem, enabling accountability for such violations is even harder. We posit that providing explanations and assigning responsibility for such violations is difficult, if not impossible, without more visibility into the system. As part of an ongoing investigation with Microsoft Research, we are developing methods to evaluate fairness properties and enable accountability for found violations in deployed big data decision-making systems. Since deployed systems run in real-time affecting real people and businesses, we have limited access, i.e. we are not authorized manipulate inputs and modules in the system. By enabling accountability, we aim to assign responsibility for violations to internal modules of or inputs to the system. We propose to develop and apply these methods to detect and account for fairness violations in the Bing advertising pipeline.
Prevalence estimates of problem and pathological gambling in Hong Kong.

OBJECTIVE This government-commissioned survey gauged the prevalence of problem and pathological gambling in the general population of Hong Kong and advised the government on preventative and treatment services. METHOD A modified Chinese version of the DSM-IV Gambling-Behavior Index was administered to 2,004 Hong Kong residents by means of telephone interviews. The respondents were recruited through random sampling. RESULTS Results showed that 4.0% and 1.8% of the respondents could be classified as problem and pathological gamblers, respectively. Significant differences between the survey sample and the respondents classified as problem and pathological gamblers were found in sex and education. The predictors of problem and pathological gambling were sex, education level, family income, and three specific forms of gambling: betting on horse racing, soccer games, and casino games. CONCLUSIONS Survey results promoted preventative and treatment services.
The impact of social constraints and sense of coherence on the psychological adjustment of adolescents and young adults with CF

Abstract In the last two decades, the medical understanding of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) has dramatically improved, however, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the psychological adjustment of families coping with CF. We examined the utility of the Social Cognitive Processing (SCP) Model in understanding the interactions of parents and young people with CF. We also examined the relationship between social constraints, a key construct in the SCP model, sense of coherence (SOC) and other psychological adjustment indicators for young people with CF. Participants comprised 49 individuals with CF, aged 16–25, recruited through state-based CF organisations in Australia. The results indicated that participant ratings of difficulties with communication (social constraints) were positively associated with ratings of depression, anxiety, and stress and negatively related to ratings of positive affect and seeing life challenges as predictable, manageable and meaningful (SOC). Ratings of SOC were also positively related to ratings of positive affect and negatively related to ratings of depression, anxiety and stress. A significant mediating effect of SOC was also identified in the relationships between social constraints and positive affect and social constraints and stress. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Comparison of Soft Computing Approaches for Prediction of Crude Oil Price

In this paper, we studied a vast array of machine learning approaches (ML). All are sound, robust techniques that are extremely applicable to practical prediction problems. To guarantee build successful machine learning model in predicting crude oil prices, we must apply practical steps for selecting best learning algorithm by running it over our data. We modeled the prediction process and analyzing the direct prediction models, which includes isotonic regression, SMOreg, Kstar, IBK ,ExtraTree, REPTree and several types of NNs includes FFN, RCN and RBF in previous articles . The purpose of this paper is to construct comparison among the previous direct models. Furthermore, the comparison of these algorithms is presented based on a root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) to find out the best suitable approaches. We are confident that this study will be useful to researchers for the problem of predicting oil prices and similar problem.
Essential Role for Protein Kinase B (PKB) in Insulin-induced Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Inactivation

Activation of phosphatidylinositide 3′-OH kinase (PI 3-kinase) is implicated in mediating a variety of growth factor-induced responses, among which are the inactivation of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) and the activation of the serine/threonine protein kinase B (PKB). GSK-3 inactivation occurs through phosphorylation of Ser-9, and several kinases, such as protein kinase C, mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase-1 (p90Rsk), p70S6kinase, and also PKB have been shown to phosphorylate this site in vitro. In the light of the many candidates to mediate insulin-induced GSK-3 inactivation we have investigated the role of PKB by constructing a PKB mutant that exhibits dominant-negative function (inhibition of growth factor-induced activation of PKB at expression levels similar to wild-type PKB), as currently no such mutant has been reported. We observed that the PKB mutant (PKB-CAAX) acts as an efficient inhibitor of PKB activation and also of insulin-induced GSK-3 regulation. Furthermore, it is shown that PKB and GSK-3 co-immunoprecipitate, indicating a direct interaction between GSK-3 and PKB. An additional functional consequence of this interaction is implicated by the observation that the oncogenic form of PKB, gagPKB induces a cellular relocalization of GSK-3 from the cytosolic to the membrane fraction. Our results demonstrate that PKB activation is both necessary and sufficient for insulin-induced GSK-3 inactivation and establish a linear pathway from insulin receptor to GSK-3. Regulation of GSK-3 by PKB is likely through direct interaction, as both proteins co-immunoprecipitate. This interaction also resulted in a translocation of GSK-3 to the membrane in cells expressing transforming gagPKB.
Particle-kernel estimation of the filter density in state-space models

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods, also known as particle filters, are simulation-based recursive algorithms for the approximation of the a posteriori probability measures generated by state-space dynamical models. At any given time t ,aS MC method produces as et of samples over the state space of the system of interest (often termed “particles”) that is used to build a discrete and random approximation of the posterior probability distribution of the state variables, conditional on a sequence of available observations. One potential application of the methodology is the estimation of the densities associated to the sequence of a posteriori distributions. While practitioners have rather freely applied such density approximations in the past, the issue has received less attention from a theoretical perspective. In this paper, we address the problem of constructing kernel-based estimates of the posterior probability density function and its derivatives, and obtain asymptotic convergence results for the estimation errors. In particular, we find convergence rates for the approximation errors that hold uniformly on the state space and guarantee that the error vanishes almost surely as the number of particles in the filter grows. Based on this uniform convergence result, we first show how to build continuous measures that converge almost surely (with known rate) toward the posterior measure and then address a few applications. The latter include maximum a posteriori estimation of the system state using the approximate derivatives of the posterior density and the approximation of functionals of it, for example, Shannon’s entropy.
Role of the serotonin transporter gene and family function in adolescent alcohol consumption.

BACKGROUND That the extent to which a particular individual will engage in problematic behaviors such as delinquency, violence, or drug abuse is determined by the way psychosocial, situational, and hereditary factors interact is widely accepted. However, only recently have researchers begun to investigate the interactions between specific genotypes and psychosocial factors in relation to behavior. The purpose of the present study was to investigate possible interactions between a polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene and family relations on adolescent alcohol consumption. METHODS A cross-sectional study with a randomized sample from a total population of 16- and 19-year-old adolescents from a Swedish county was conducted. Eighty-one male and 119 female adolescents, who volunteered to participate after having answered a questionnaire, were randomly selected from quartiles of volunteers representing various degrees of psychosocial risk behavior. RESULTS 5-HTT genotype (p=0.029) and family relations (p=0.022) predicted alcohol consumption independently as well as through an interaction with one another (p=0.05). The model explained 11% of the variance in alcohol consumption. In a binary logistic model, we found that adolescents with the LS variant of the 5-HTT gene and with family relations being "neutral" or "bad" had a 12- to 14-fold increased risk for high intoxication frequency. CONCLUSIONS In sum, our results show that a functional polymorphism of the 5-HTT genotype, family relations, and interactions between these variables predict adolescent alcohol consumption in a randomized sample of adolescents.
Association of breast arterial calcification with stroke and angiographically proven coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis

ObjectiveWe conducted a meta-analysis of the current literature to deduce the strength of association between breast arterial calcification (BAC) and coronary artery disease (CAD) and/or stroke. MethodsPubMed, Google Scholar, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Ovid were searched for English-language literature up to August 2013 using the terms “breast arterial calcification,” “breast vascular calcification,” “coronary artery disease,” “coronary heart disease,” “cardiovascular disease,” “abnormal coronary angiography,” and “stroke. ” A hand search of the reference lists of key articles was performed to supplement the literature search. Our literature search revealed 75 articles for further abstract review. Limiting our search to articles that quantitatively assessed the correlation between BAC and stroke or angiographically proven CAD, we reviewed 35 full manuscripts. Of these articles, 14 were included in the final analysis. ResultsWe analyzed 10 cross-sectional studies (n = 3,952) with CAD as the primary outcome (diagnosed by coronary angiography). The odds ratio (95% CI) for CAD in those with BAC versus those without BAC is 3.86 (3.25-4.59) (P < 0.0001). For stroke, six cross-sectional studies were analyzed (n = 18,888). The odds ratio (95% CI) for stroke in those with BAC versus those without BAC is 1.54 (1.25-1.90) (P < 0.0001). ConclusionsThese results suggest that BAC is significantly associated with both CAD and stroke. Although more prospective studies are warranted to clarify whether BAC is truly a predictor of the future development of CAD and stroke, the concept that BAC is a benign finding is waning.
MOODLE: estratégias pedagógicas e estudos de caso

A publicacao deste livro se constitui em um marco para o cenario academico, na medida em que estamos disponibilizando os resultados de investigacoes realizadas por pesquisadores vinculados a instituicoes brasileiras, espanholas, inglesas, portuguesas e australianas que cotidianamente constroem diferentes sentidos para o Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem Moodle. Sentidos que emergem em distintos espacos pedagogicos, presenciais ou nao, ratificando constantemente a premissa inicial de Martin Dougiamas, quando, em 1999, na Curtin University of Technology, em Perth, na Australia, criava o Moodle com intuito de fomentar um espaco de colaboracao, onde os seus usuarios poderiam intercambiar saberes, experimentando, criando novas interfaces para o ambiente em uma grande comunidade aberta. A filosofia de software livre, convidando a comunidade a interagir e modificar constantemente, contribuiu para o crescimento deste ambiente que apresenta uma interface amigavel, permitindo aos usuarios customiza-lo de acordo com os seus interesses e propositos pedagogicos. Sim, este foi o diferencial do Moodle, que conseguiu, em nove anos, um crescimento exponencial. Atualmente, existem 45.816 usuarios cadastrados e o Moodle esta presente em 198 paises, e mais de 200 instituicoes brasileiras estao utilizando este ambiente como espaco de aprendizagem. Alem dos aspectos tecnicos que envolvem linguagem de programacao, design e interface, o ambiente mobilizou educadores, estudantes e pesquisadores que, ao interagirem com o Moodle, foram construindo significados pedagogicos para as distintas interfaces presentes no ambiente. Essa riqueza de experiencias de olhares nao tinha ainda sido sistematizada, mas, com o livro Moodle – estrategicas pedagogicas e estudos de casos, o leitor pode navegar pelas trilhas 8que os autores construiram para o Moodle. A intencao e socializar essas leituras e experiencias, possibilitando a emergencia de novos caminhos de interacao pedagogica com o ambiente. O livro apresenta um universo teorico-metodologico que esta dividido em duas partes. Na primeira, apresentamos os artigos que discutem Estrategias pedagogicas para ambientes virtuais Moodle, textos respaldados em referenciais teoricos que refletem as suas praticas no moodle e a interface deste ambiente com outros softwares.Na segunda parte, Interfaces Do Moodle E Estudos De Casos, os autores apresentam ferramentas que foram desenvolvidas objetivando potencializar a mediacao do ambiente e relatam experiencias vivenciadas no Moodle que fomentaram o desenvolvimento de investigacoes. Convidamos, portanto, todos os interessados na area de educacao e tencologias a adentrar o universo sedutor do Moodle e compartilhar conosco outras possibilidades ainda nao desvendadas.
Exchanging reamed nailing versus augmentative compression plating with autogenous bone grafting for aseptic femoral shaft nonunion: a retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of exchanging reamed nailing (ERN) and augmentative compression plating (ACP) with autogenous bone grafting (BG) for the treatment of aseptic femoral shaft nonunion secondary to the treatment of intramedullary nailing (IMN). METHODS A multicenter retrospective study was performed for 178 patients (180 cases) of aseptic femoral shaft nonunion secondary to first treatment of IMN. All cases were fixed with either ERN (n=87) or ACP (n=93). In the ERN group, 42 cases (48.3%) were nonisthmal nonunions and 45 (51.7%) were isthmal nonunions. In the ACP group, 46 cases (49.5%) were nonisthmal nonunions, and 47 (50.5%) were isthmal nonunions. Operation time, blood loss, time to union, union rate, volume of drainage, time to renonunion, and complication rate were compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS All patients were followed up, with a mean period of 4.1 years (range: 1-7.1 years). Bone union occurred in 93/93 cases (100%) in the ACP group versus 75/87 cases (86.2%) in the ERN group (odds ratio [OR]=3.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.8-14). Of the 12 cases involved with renonunion in the ERN group, 10 were nonisthmal nonunions, and 2 were isthmal nonunions with cortical bone defect >3 cm. The union time, blood loss, and complication rate of the ERN group were significantly higher than those of the ACP group (p=0.028, p=0.035, and p=0.021, respectively). No significant difference was found in the average operation time of the 2 groups (p=0.151). However, for the nonisthmal nonunions, a significant difference was found between the ERN and ACP groups (p=0.018). CONCLUSION ACP with autogenous BG can obtain a higher bone union rate and shorter time to union than ERN in the treatment of aseptic femoral shaft nonunion after failed IMN. Especially for nonisthmal femoral shaft nonunions or isthmal nonunions with larger bone defects, ACP with autogenous BG can be more advantageous than ERN for patients. A future prospective observational study should be conducted.
A Integrin Expression Is Required for Type 1 Insulin-Like Growth Factor Receptor Mitogenic and Transforming Activities and Localization to Focal Contacts Hira

The cells’ ability to proliferate in response to growth factor stimulation is significantly altered during cancer progression. To investigate the mechanisms underlying these alterations in prostate cancer, the role and expression of B1A integrin and type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR), known to contribute to cell proliferation and transformation, were analyzed. Using small interfering RNA oligonucleotides to down-regulate B1A, we show that B1A expression is required for IGF-IR–mediated prostate cancer cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth. In vivo , using age-matched transgenic adenocarcinoma of mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice at different stages of prostate cancer [prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, PIN; well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, WD; and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, PD], the expression of B1A and of IGF-IR was studied. B1A and IGF-IR expression levels were concurrently up-regulated in high PIN and WD, whereas their expression did not correlate in late-stage PD. In contrast to the up-regulated expression of B1A, the levels of B1C, a B1 cytoplasmic variant that inhibits cell proliferation, were down-regulated in all stages of prostate cancer. A similar expression pattern was observed for a B1C downstream effector, Grb2-associated binder-1 (Gab1) which is known to inhibit IGF-IR phosphorylation. To analyze in vitro the mechanistic implications of B1A, B1C, and Gab1 deregulation in prostate cancer, we investigated whether expression of either B1 variant in B1-null cells affected IGF-IR localization. We found that IGF-IR and B1A were colocalized in highly specialized integrin signaling compartments, designated focal contacts. However, in the presence of B1C, IGF-IR remained diffuse on the cell surface and did not localize to focal contacts. The findings that B1 integrins and IGF-IR are concurrently deregulated and that expression of B1 integrins is necessary to achieve appropriate IGF-IR intracellular distribution point to the important role that the cross-talk between these receptors may have during prostate cancer progression and will be helpful in formulating new therapeutic strategies. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(15): 6692-700)
Transpiration‐assisted perfusion fixation provides in situ preservation of developing ray parenchyma cells in Eucalyptus nitens

The technique of animal vascular perfusion fixation was adapted for in situ fixation of the fragile and difficult to access cells of the ray parenchyma system in stems of 10‐year‐old Eucalyptus nitens trees. In situ fixation enabled tissue to be safely dissected for histological processing without risk of damage to microstructure or initiation of wound response. Fixative was perfused through the active vascular system under hydrostatic and transpiration pressure directly to vessel‐associated ray cells. Diffusion from vessels allowed fixative to access nonvessel‐associated ray cells. Acrolein was included to aid diffusion fixation and safranin dye was included to define fixed regions within the xylem. Sections prepared for light and electron microscopy from samples cut from regions showing intense safranin staining showed good microstructural preservation and were free of artefacts caused by mechanical injury or wound response.
Incidence of HIV among injection drug users entering drug treatment programs in four US cities

We estimated seroincidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and prevalence of risk behaviors among injection drug users (IDUs) who accepted voluntary HIV testing on entry to drug treatment. Record-based incidence studies were conducted in 12 drug treatment programs in New York City (n = 890); Newark, New Jersey (n = 521); Seattle, Washington (n = 1,256); and Los Angeles, California (n = 733). Records of confidential HIV tests were abstracted for information on demographics, drug use, and HIV test results. More detailed data on risk behaviors were obtained by a standardized questionnaire. Although overall incidence rates were relatively low in this population (<1/100 person-years), there was a high prevalence of risk behaviors. Needle sharing was reported by more than one-third of the participants in each of the cities. HIV seroincidence rates were up to three-fold higher among younger ID Us. We found that HIV continued to be transmitted among ID Us who had received both drug treatment and HIV counseling and testing. HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) prevention education should continue to be an important component of drug treatment.
Probing the spatial extension of light trapping-induced enhanced Raman scattering in high-density Si nanowire arrays

This paper reports an experimental investigation of surface-enhanced Raman scattering in high-density Si nanowire arrays obtained by electroless etching. A direct relationship between light trapping capabilities of Si nanowires and enhanced Raman scattering was demonstrated. Optimized arrays allowed for a remarkable increase of Raman sensitivity in comparison to reference planar samples. As a result, the detection limit of molecular probes under resonant excitation (e.g. methylene blue) can be extended by three orders of magnitude. In addition, continuous ultrathin films, that cannot be analyzed in conventional Raman experiments, are made detectable. In the case of anatase thin films, the detection limit of 5 nm was reached. Raman spectra of Si/TiO2 core/shell heterostructures demonstrate that the enhanced field resulting from surface multiple scattering is characterized by a large spatial extension (about fifty nanometers), making these materials a potential alternative to plasmonic metals for SERS experiments.