Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health literacy

Health Literacy Health literacy is the ability to understand your health, medical care, and overall wellness. However, research shows that many adults find health information hard to understand. This includes what doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals say, written medical instructions, and health insurance forms. Even when people have good access to health services, lack of information can make it difficult for patients and families to properly manage their health. The September 14, 2011, issue of JAMA includes an article about health literacy in patients.
Case studies of model checking for embedded system designs

As modern embedded systems become more integrated and complex, it is crucial to be able to represent systems at multiple levels of abstraction, so that the design space can be effectively explored by successive refinements and abstractions. We present a formal verification methodology and case studies for property verification of designs represented at different abstraction levels. Utilizing Metropolis meta-model (MMM), Y-chart Application Programmer's Interface (YAPI), an automatic translator, and the model checker SPIN, we verify properties for both system level representations and refined representations.
Pancreatic β-Cell Death in Response to Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines Is Distinct from Genuine Apoptosis

A reduction in functional β-cell mass leads to both major forms of diabetes; pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) and gamma-interferon (γ-IFN), activate signaling pathways that direct pancreatic β-cell death and dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanism of β-cell death in this context is not well understood. In this report, we tested the hypothesis that individual cellular death pathways display characteristic phenotypes that allow them to be distinguished by the precise biochemical and metabolic responses that occur during stimulus-specific initiation. Using 832/13 and INS-1E rat insulinoma cells and isolated rat islets, we provide evidence that apoptosis is unlikely to be the primary pathway underlying β-cell death in response to IL-1β+γ-IFN. This conclusion was reached via the experimental results of several different interdisciplinary strategies, which included: 1) tandem mass spectrometry to delineate the metabolic differences between IL-1β+γ-IFN exposure versus apoptotic induction by camptothecin and 2) pharmacological and molecular interference with either NF-κB activity or apoptosome formation. These approaches provided clear distinctions in cell death pathways initiated by pro-inflammatory cytokines and bona fide inducers of apoptosis. Collectively, the results reported herein demonstrate that pancreatic β-cells undergo apoptosis in response to camptothecin or staurosporine, but not pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Frequency analysis of EEG signal generated from dyslexic children

Dyslexia is a neurological disorder which needs to be detected at an early stage to know their specific needs and to help them cope with the problem. One of the ways to detect dyslexia is by using Electroencephalogram (EEG). In this study, the EEG signals recorded from dyslexic's children while performing writing activities were analyzed. The EEG signals were recorded from 4 channels; C3, C4, P3 and P4 and filtered using band pass filter with frequency range 8 Hz to 30 Hz. The signal was analyzed using Fast Fourier Transform. Analysis of EEG signals showed that the range of frequency for dyslexic children during writing is 22-28 Hz which is considered high and indicates that they are trying hard to write a correct word.
Size effect in asphalt mixture at low temperature: Types I and II

Low-temperature cracking is a serious distress for asphalt pavement built in cold regions, such as northern USA. and northern Europe. Therefore, accurate assessment of the strength and fracture properties of asphalt mixtures is fundamental for ensuring the long-term integrity of the entire pavement structure. It has been shown that asphalt mixtures behave in a quasi-brittle manner at low temperatures and, consequently, its nominal strength strongly depends on the structure size. Most of the research performed in the past has experimentally addressed this phenomenon either on unnotched or deep-notched specimens corresponding to Type I and Type II size effects, respectively. However, the evolution of the pavement conditions during the service life can lead to the formation and propagation of cracks which strongly affect the response of the material and, eventually, determine a complex size effect. In this paper, a comprehensive experimental study is performed to evaluate the effect of different notch depths on the scaling law for quasi-brittle fracture. Three-point bending tests are performed on plain and notched asphalt mixture beams of different sizes at low temperature. The results on unnotched specimens are analysed through the Type I energetic-statistical size effect law (SEL) in combination with the Weakest Link Model, while, in the case of deep-notched specimens, Type II SEL is used. A significant variation in the evolution of the SEL is observed with a dramatic decrease in strength over size and notch length. In addition, an empirical relation between the initial fracture energy, Gf, and the total fracture energy, GF, is found, and the characteristic length, cf, associated with the length of the fracture process zone, is determined.
Classifying noisy protein sequence data: a case study of immunoglobulin light chains

SUMMARY The classification of protein sequences obtained from patients with various immunoglobulin-related conformational diseases may provide insight into structural correlates of pathogenicity. However, clinical data are very sparse and, in the case of antibody-related proteins, the collected sequences have large variability with only a small subset of variations relevant to the protein pathogenicity (function). On this basis, these sequences represent a model system for development of strategies to recognize the small subset of function-determining variations among the much larger number of primary structure diversifications introduced during evolution. Under such conditions, most protein classification algorithms have limited accuracy. To address this problem, we propose a support vector machine (SVM)-based classifier that combines sequence and 3D structural averaging information. Each amino acid in the sequence is represented by a set of six physicochemical properties: hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, volume, surface area, bulkiness and refractivity. Each position in the sequence is described by the properties of the amino acid at that position and the properties of its neighbors in 3D space or in the sequence. A structure template is selected to determine neighbors in 3D space and a window size is used to determine the neighbors in the sequence. The test data consist of 209 proteins of human antibody immunoglobulin light chains, each represented by aligned sequences of 120 amino acids. The methodology is applied to the classification of protein sequences collected from patients with and without amyloidosis, and indicates that the proposed modified classifiers are more robust to sequence variability than standard SVM classifiers, improving classification error between 5 and 25% and sensitivity between 9 and 17%. The classification results might also suggest possible mechanisms for the propensity of immunoglobulin light chains to amyloid formation.
The Power of Stars: Do Star Actors Drive the Success of Movies?

Is the involvement of stars critical to the success of motion pictures? Film studios, which regularly pay multimillion-dollar fees to stars, seem to be driven by that belief. This article sheds light on the returns on this investment using an event study that considers the impact of more than 1200 casting announcements on trading behavior in a simulated and real stock market setting. The author finds evidence that the involvement of stars affects movies' expected theatrical revenues and provides insight into the magnitude of this effect. For example, the estimates suggest that, on average, stars are worth approximately $3 million in theatrical revenues. In a cross-sectional analysis grounded in the literature on group dynamics, the author also examines the determinants of the magnitude of stars' impact on expected revenues. Among other things, the author shows that the stronger a cast already is, the greater is the impact of a newly recruited star with a track record of box office successes or with a strong artistic reputation. Finally, in an extension to the study, the author does not find that the involvement of stars in movies increases the valuation of film companies that release the movies, thus providing insufficient grounds to conclude that stars add more value than they capture. The author discusses implications for managers in the motion picture industry.
Developing Postfix-GP Framework for Symbolic Regression Problems

This paper describes Postfix-GP system, postfix notation based Genetic Programming (GP), for solving symbolic regression problems. It presents an object-oriented architecture of Postfix-GP framework. It assists the user in understanding of the implementation details of various components of Postfix-GP. Postfix-GP provides graphical user interface which allows user to configure the experiment, to visualize evolved solutions, to analyze GP run, and to perform out-of-sample predictions. The use of Postfix-GP is demonstrated by solving the benchmark symbolic regression problem. Finally, features of Postfix-GP framework are compared with that of other GP systems.
Monolithic, integrated high-Q inductors for RF applications

This paper presents high-Q inductors processed on 500 Ohmcm silicon substrates using a mature three layer copper metallization. The fabricated inductors have been characterized with a wide banded Q maximum roughly centered at 2GHz. The maximum Q values range from Q/sub max/ = 14 for a 20nH inductor up to Q/sub max/ = 40 for a 0.5nH inductor. By means of a 1.5nH inductor the influence of metal line width and different metallization stacks on the Q value vs. frequency behavior is presented. One typical application for these inductors are integrated passive bandpass filters for mobile phone applications. We present an ESD stable H3-bandpass-filter for PCN/PCS-applications with a low insertion loss of -1.45dB and high 3rd harmonic suppression of at least -40dB. The circuit simulations have shown an excellent correlation to the S-parameter measurement data which avoid time consuming 3D field simulations leading to reduced time to market.
Synthesis and characterization of novel fluorinated thermoplastic polyurethane with high transmittance and superior physical properties

ABSTRACT Three novel series of transparent fluorinated thermoplastic polyurethane (FTPU) elastomers based on 3-isocyanatomethyl-3,5,5-trimethylcyclohexyl isocyanate (IPDI), polytetramethylene glycol (PTMG), polycaprolactone (PCL) and 4,4′-[2,2,2-trifluoro-1-(trifluoromethyl)ethylidene] bisphenol (BPAF) were synthesized by two-step solution polymerization. The FTPU were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), UV-Visible spectrometry (UV-Vis), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and mechanical tests. The FTIR results indicate that the micro-phase separation and hydrogen bonding strength increase with increasing fluorine content, which are proved by the results of AFM and WAXD. The UV-Vis tests show high transmittance of FTPU films which is affected by crystallization easily. The TGA and mechanical tests indicate that thermal stability and mechanical properties of FTPU are improved significantly with the introduction of BPAF.
Expression of Cre recombinase in early diploid trophoblast cells of the mouse placenta

An increasing number of genes known to be critical for cell cycle control, differentiation, and tumor suppression have been found to impact development of the placenta. To elucidate how these genes contribute to development of embryonic and extra‐embryonic lineages, we generated a transgenic mouse in which the Cre transgene is driven by placenta‐specific regulatory sequences from the human CYP19 gene. Using ROSA26 conditional reporter mice, we could detect expression of the CYP19‐Cre transgene throughout the extra‐embryonic ectoderm and in the ectoplacental cone at embryonic day 6.5 (E6.5). By E11.5, recombination of LoxP reporter sites was detected in all derivatives of trophoblast stem cells, including spongiotrophoblast, giant cells, and labyrinth trophoblasts. We conclude that the CYP19‐Cre transgenic mouse developed here can be used in combination with conditional alleles to distinguish between embryonic and extra‐embryonic gene function, and to begin to map the period of time when gene function is critical during development. genesis 45:129–134, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Differences in Bone Mineral Density between the Right and Left Hips in Postmenopausal Women

Bone mineral density (BMD) using dual energy radiography absorptiometry are commonly used for the diagnosis of osteoporosis. It is usually measured at the spine and also at one hip joint. Controversy still exists regarding the use of bilateral hip scanning. We analyzed the difference of BMD at bilateral hips in 384 postmenopausal women, retrospectively. The concordance and discordance rates of the lowest T-score and BMD between both hips were evaluated. The BMDs of the femoral neck and trochanter were significantly different between both hips (P < 0.05). There were also discrepancies between the lowest T-scores of both hips (P < 0.05). The discordance rates were about 30%. Due to significant differences in BMD between both hips at the femoral neck and trochanter and high discordance rate, bilateral hip measurements using DEXA are recommended to avoid underestimating osteoporosis.
Robust control of a DC-DC boost converter: H2 and H∞ techniques

This study proposes H2 and H∞ robust controllers to be applied to a DC-DC boost converter operates in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) in a DC microgrid system. Towards this end, the DC-DC boost converter is modelled based on the state-space averaging method with possible uncertainty in its parameters and also considerable variation in the input voltage. By deriving the open loop perturbed transfer function, an unstructured uncertainty bound for the nominal system is presented. Next, two robust controllers (i.e., H2 and H∞) are designed to regulate the DC bus voltage in the presence of drastically variations in the input voltage, the input inductor, the output capacitor, and the DC bus load. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controllers are strongly robust against uncertainties and can be applied to a practical DC microgrid.
Advantage of computer aided teleoperation (CAT) in microsurgery

The authors stress the advantages of using a microtelemanipulator in the surgical area where high precision is mandatory. They first describe the SMOS (stereotaxical microtelemanipulator for ocular surgery) mechanical structure and the related control interfaces. Also presented is a comparative study of communication means aimed at finding the most flexible, easiest to handle, and least tiring one for the operator. They then show the impact of the fiber optic sensors on the global performance of a typically surgical task. Subsequently, the three main command modes (manual, telemanipulated, assisted) are compared. <<ETX>>
Cultural evolution: implications for understanding the human language faculty and its evolution

Human language is unique among the communication systems of the natural world: it is socially learned and, as a consequence of its recursively compositional structure, offers open-ended communicative potential. The structure of this communication system can be explained as a consequence of the evolution of the human biological capacity for language or the cultural evolution of language itself. We argue, supported by a formal model, that an explanatory account that involves some role for cultural evolution has profound implications for our understanding of the biological evolution of the language faculty: under a number of reasonable scenarios, cultural evolution can shield the language faculty from selection, such that strongly constraining language-specific learning biases are unlikely to evolve. We therefore argue that language is best seen as a consequence of cultural evolution in populations with a weak and/or domain-general language faculty.
A Visual Language for Querying and Updating Graphs

QGRAPH is a new visual language for querying and updating graph databases. In QGRAPH the user can draw a query consisting of some vertices and edges with specified relations between their attributes. The response will be the collection of all subgraphs of the database that have the desired pattern. QGRAPH is very useful for knowledge discovery. QGRAPH has a powerful and elegant counting feature that enables the user to easily specify how many of certain objects and links should exist in order for a subgraph to match a query. QGRAPH has a clean formal semantics which we describe in detail. We show that QGRAPH has expressive power corresponding to a well-defined subset of FO(COUNT), i.e., first-order logic with counting quantifiers.
Forgive and Forget: Who Gets Credit after Bankruptcy and Why?

Conventional wisdom holds that individuals who have gone bankrupt face difculties getting credit for at least some time. However, there is very little non-survey based empirical evidence on the availabil- ity of credit post-bankruptcy and its dependence on the credit cycle. Using data from one of the largest credit bureaus in the US, this paper makes three contributions. First, we show that individuals whole for bankruptcy are indeed penalized with limited credit access post-bankruptcy, but wend that this con- sequence is very short lived. Ninety percent of individuals have access to some sort of credit within the 18 months afterling for bankruptcy, and 75% are given unsecured credit. Second, we show that those individuals who have the easiest access to credit after bankruptcy tend to be the ones who have shown previously the least ability and least propensity to repay their debt. In fact, a signicant fraction of indi- viduals at the bottom of the credit quality spectrum seem to receive more credit afterling. We interpret the widespread post-bankruptcy credit access and the differential credit provision across borrower types as evidence that lenders target riskier borrowers. Employing a simple theoretical framework we show that this interpretation is consistent with a prot maximizing lender whose optimal strategy involves seg- menting borrowers by observable credit quality and bankruptcy status. This interpretation is also in line with survey evidence that shows lenders repeatedly solicit debtors to borrow after bankruptcy, especially with offers of revolving credit. Finally, we show that ourndings depend heavily on the aggregate credit environment: the ease of credit and limited bankruptcy credit cost observed in the initial period of our data (2003-2004) become much less signicant when we repeat the analyses in 2007, as the recent credit downturn began.
I/O-eﬃcient join dependency testing, Loomis–Whitney join, and triangle enumeration ✩

We revisit two fundamental problems in database theory. The join-dependency (JD) testing problem is to determine whether a given JD holds on a relation r . We prove that the problem is NP-hard even if the JD involves only relations each of which has only two attributes. The JD-existence testing problem is to determine if there exists any non-trivial JD satisﬁed by r . We present an I/O-eﬃcient algorithm in the external memory model, which in fact settles the closely related Loomis–Whitney enumeration problem. As a side product, we solve the triangle enumeration problem with the optimal I/O-complexity, improving a recent result of Pagh and Silvestri in PODS’14.
Analogy-Based Software Development Effort Estimation in Global Software Development

Context: Software development has always been characterised by certain parameters. In the case of global software development, one of the important challenges for software developers is that of predicting the development effort of a software system on the basis of developer details, size, complexity, and other measures. Objective: The main research topics related to global software development effort estimation are the definition and empirical evaluation of a search-based approach with which to build new estimation models and the definition and empirical evaluation of all available early data. Datasets have been used as a basis to carry out an analogy-based estimation using similarity functions and measures. Method: Many of the problems concerning the existing effort estimation challenges can be solved by creating an analogy. This paper describes an enhanced analogy-based model for the estimation of software development effort and proposes a new approach using similarity functions and measures for software effort estimation. Result: A new approach for analogy-based reasoning with which to enhance the performance of cost estimation in distributed or combined software projects dealing with numerical and categorical data. The proposed method will be validated empirically using The International Software Benchmarking Standards Group dataset as a basis. Conclusion: The proposed estimation model could be a useful approach for early stage effort estimation on distributed projects.
Chinese Word Segmentation without Using Lexicon and Hand-crafted Training Data

Chinese word segmentation is the first step in any Chinese NLP system. This paper presents a new algorithm for segmenting Chinese texts without making use of any lexicon and hand-crafted linguistic resource. The statistical data required by the algorithm, that is, mutual information and the difference of t-score between characters, is derived automatically from raw Chinese corpora. The preliminary experiment shows that the segmentation accuracy of our algorithm is acceptable. We hope the gaining of this approach will be beneficial to improving the performance (especially in ability to cope with unknown words and ability to adapt to various domains) of the existing segmenters, though the algorithm itself can also be utilized as a stand-alone segmenter in some NLP applications.
Privacy Model and Annotation for DaaS

Data as a Service (DaaS) builds on service-oriented technologies to enable fast access to data resources on the Web. However, this paradigm raises several new concerns that traditional privacy models for Web services do not handle. First, the distinction between the roles of service providers and data providers is unclear, leaving the latter helpless for specifying and verifying the enforcement of their data privacy requirements. Second, traditional models for privacy policies focus only on the service interface without taking into account privacy policies related to data resources. Third, unstructured data resources, as well as user permissions and obligations related to data that are utilized in DaaS are not taken into account. In this paper, we study data privacy as one of these concerns, which relates to the management of private information. The main contribution of this paper consists in: 1)~devising a model for making explicit privacy constraints of DaaS, and 2)~on the basis of the proposed privacy model, developing techniques that allow handling the privacy concern when querying DaaS. We validate the applicability of our proposal with some experiments.