Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Gravity Recommendation System

The Netflix Prize is a collaborative filtering problem. This subfield of machine learning has become popular from the late 1990s with the spread of online services that use recommendation systems, such as e.g. Amazon, Yahoo! Music, and of course Netflix. The aim of such a system is to predict what items a user might like based on his/her and other users previous ratings. The dataset of Netflix Prize is much larger than the previously known benchmark sets, therefore we first show in the paper how to store it efficiently and adaptively to various algorithms. Then we describe the outline of our solution, called the Gravity Recommendation System (GRS), to the Netflix Prize contest, which is in the leader position with RMSE 0.8808 at the time of the submission of the paper. GRS comprises of the combination of different approaches that are presented in the main part of the paper. We then compare the effectiveness of some selected individual and combined approaches against a designated subset of the dataset, and discuss their important features and drawbacks. Beside the description of successful experiments we also report on the useful lessons of (temporarily) failed ideas and algorithms.
African American male offenders experiences of successful parole/post-release completion

African American male offenders experiences of successful parole/post-release completion. " PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, ii To my loving, patient, and supportive husband Kelvin, I dedicate this dissertation to you. Your attentiveness and kind heart has been the fuel to my fire in gaining my doctoral degree. I love you dearly and could not have accomplished this goal without you. iii The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would genuinely and sincerely, like to say thank you…………. To my mother, Mary M.C. Barnes, who taught me how to be independent and resilient. To my ride-or-die friend, Shelecia Johnson. To my life coach, Joyce Evans To my moral, compass Maggie Butler To my loyal companion Chaz-Nate-Ray-Veale, love you so much To my supporters, Last but not least. I saved the best for last, to Claudia Bischoff; there are not enough words in the English language, dictionary or thesaurus, to express how thankful I am, for your constant support, hard work and dedication. Without you all, I would have never made it through this journey. v ABSTRACT A qualitative research study was conducted to explore the factors that affect African American male offenders' ability to resist crime and complete parole/post-release supervision. The effects of recidivism and parole violation continuously add to the ever-growing prison population within the United States. In this study, social and personal factors were analyzed. Specifically, the researcher interviewed six former African American felony male offenders who had resisted crime and completed parole supervision successfully. The results revealed that African American men have the ability to resist crime and complete parole supervision. Based on the results, social and personal factors such as employment, education, support, social networking, individual characteristics, and programs, along with other factors all aid in the process. Explicitly, employment status, level of education, targeted support, vouching, behavior change, and programs designed to rehabilitate, in addition to social ties play a significant part in how the offenders progress through the process of resisting crime and completing parole supervision. These and other areas for future research are recommended. Implications of the research study's findings and future research directions are also presented. The results presented in this research study may facilitate improvement in understanding how offenders reintegrate back into society; desist from crime, especially African America men who account for the largest race and gender currently incarcerated in the …
Volumetric Object Reconstruction Using the 3-D MRF Model-Based Segmentation

A number of segmentation algorithms have been developed, but those algorithms are not effective on volume reconstruction because they are limited to operating only on two-dimensional (2-D) images. In this paper, we propose the volumetric object reconstruction method using the three-dimensional Markov random field (3D-MRF) model-based segmentation. The 3D-MRF model is known to be one of efficient ways to model spatial contextual information. The method is compared with the 2-D region growing scheme under three types of interpolation. The results show that the proposed method is better in the aspect of image quality than other methods.
GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC PARAMETERS OF SOME LIFETIME AND LONGEVITY TRAITS IN HOLSTEIN COWS OF COMMERCIAL FARM IN EGYPT

Data used in this study comprised 2730 lactation records for 850 Holstein cows sired by 316 sires. Holstein cows belonging to a commercial farm. The objectives were to estimate the heritability and genetic and phenotypic correlations of some lifetime and longevity traits of Holstein cows. Traits studied were total lifetime milk (TLM), productive life or longevity (Plife), age at disposal or lifetime (Cull age), average calving interval (CIAV), and longevity index (LI, %). The mean of TLM, Plife, Cull age, CIAV and LI were 26935 Kg, 47.5 month, 74.8 month, 508.5 day and 51.5%, respectively. The heritability estimates for these traits were 0.24, 0.18, 0.18, 0.12 and 0.17, respectively. The genetic and phenotypic correlations between TLM and Plife and Cull age and LI traits were positive and greater than 0.75. The genetic correlations between CIAV and other traits were negative.
Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Objectives. Baseball remains one of the most popular and safest games played by children and adults in America and worldwide. Rules and equipment changes have continued to make the game safer. For youth leagues, pitching restrictions, safety balls, helmets, and face mask equipment continue to make the game safer. With increased utilization of safety equipment, the objective was to analyze recent trends in baseball-related facial injuries. Study Design. Cross-sectional analysis of a national database. Methods. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was searched for baseball-related facial injuries with analysis of incidence, age, and sex and specific injury diagnoses, mechanisms, and facial locations. Results. From 2009 to 2013, there were 5270 cases entries, or 187,533 estimated emergency department (ED) visits, due to baseball-related facial injuries. During this time, there was a significant decline in the incidence of ED visits (P = .014). Inclusion criteria were met by 3208 visits. The majority of injuries occurred in patients 18 years old (81.5%). The most common injury was laceration (33.2%), followed by contusion (29.7%) and fracture (26.9%), while the most common injury site on the face was the nose (24.9%). The injuries were most commonly due to impact from a baseball (70%) or a bat (12.5%). Conclusion. The overall incidence of ED visits due to baseball-related facial injuries has decreased over the past 5 years, concurrent with increased societal use of protective equipment. Nonetheless, these injuries remain a common source for ED visits, and a continued effort to utilize safety measures should be made, particularly in youth leagues.
Cantus Lamentus: Navigating HIV positive mothers subjectivities in Egypt post 2011

APA Citation Hassan, W. (2015). Cantus Lamentus: Navigating HIV positive mothers subjectivities in Egypt post 2011 [Master’s thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt. edu/etds/330 MLA Citation Hassan, Wesam Adel. Cantus Lamentus: Navigating HIV positive mothers subjectivities in Egypt post 2011. 2015. American University in Cairo, Master's thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt. edu/etds/330
Laser‐Assisted Tympanostomy

Laser‐assisted tympanostomy (LAT) was performed in 70 ears to ventilate the middle ear space without using a pressure‐equalizing tube. Using a CO2 laser attached to an operating microscope with a Microslad (microscope laser adaptor device), tympanostomies of 1.0 to 3.0 mm (average, 1.6 mm) in diameter were created and remained patent for an average of 3.14 weeks. Patency time was directly related to the size of the opening. Nearly all (97.9%) of the tympanostomies healed with no noticeable scarring and no persistent perforations. Seventy‐eight percent of patients at the Florida Ear & Sinus Center (FESC, Sarasota, Fla.) and 84% of patients at the Head & Neck Surgery Group (New York) showed no evidence of recurrent effusion after a minimum follow‐up of 3 months. LAT appears to be a safe, cost‐effective procedure which can easily be performed in an office setting when bloodless opening in the tympanic membrane is needed for either treatment or diagnosis using endoscopes.
Measurement Research on the Decoupling Effect of Industries’ Carbon Emissions—Based on the Equipment Manufacturing Industry in China

Economic development usually leads to increased energy consumption, which in turn will result in an increase in carbon emissions. To break the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions, scholars have turned their attention to the phenomenon of decoupling. In this paper, we studied the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth of the equipment manufacturing industry in China from 2000 to 2014. We adapted the LMDI decomposition method, and we used the Tapio decoupling evaluation model to analyze our data. We found that the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth of China’s equipment manufacturing industry is weak, which indicates the industry is experiencing faster economic growth than carbon emission growth. We found the economic output is the factor that has the strongest influence on the industry’s carbon emission, and energy consumption intensity has the strongest relationship with the decoupling of economic growth and carbon emission. The indicators of the industry’s decoupling-effort are all less than 1.0, which indicates that the industry is in the state of weak decoupling, and we also observed an annual decreasing trend in the industry’s indicators. Toward the end of this paper, we used the Grey forecasting model to predict the decoupling relationship between carbon emission and economic growth for 2015–2024, and we discussed the implications of our research.
TT Virus : A Mother-to-Child Transmitted Rather Than Bloodborne Virus

couple of hours later, there was swelling and reddening of the margins of the ulcers, frequently accompanied by fever up to 38°C. These symptoms lasted for a few hours and subsided spontaneously or with the help of minor analgesics. The patients tolerated this inconvenience, because they soon saw a favorable response. In fact, the latter was dramatic in three of them (patients no. 1, 2, and 4) in the sense that the rotten and unclean tissue was gradually replaced by healthy tissue and the ulcer healed completely in approximately 2 months (Fig 1). The ulcers of patient no. 3 showed remarkable improvement but not complete healing. This may be attributed to their large size, their severe persistent contamination with staphylococcus aureus and other Gram-negative bacteria (despite the intensive local care and systematic administration of the appropriate antibiotics), and the premature termination of therapy because of an acute inflammatory reaction extending from one of the ulcers up to her groin, which appeared by the end of the second week. To this date, several months after this treatment, the ulcers have not recurred. The assay of various cytokines showed a clear increase of IL-1 and TNF along with a decrease of IL-8 (Table 1). These changes probably account for the high temperature observed in the patients after the injections of GM-CSF. The fact that the number of leukocytes in the peripheral blood did not change after each injection suggests that the action of GM-CSF was mainly local. In conclusion, subcutaneous perilesional injections of GMCSF may play an important role in the healing of chronic ulcers in patients with hemoglobinopathies, especially when these have persisted over several years despite intensive treatment, as in the case of the patients of this report. Treatment is relatively well-tolerated and the associated side effects (pain and fever) respond easily to mild analgesics. The activity of GM-CSF is pleiotropic. It includes local attraction of neutrophils, hence improving the clearance of bacteria and debris, promotion of neovascularization, enhancement of keratinization, and acceleration of the formation of new tissue.
Research on Window-Constrained Constant Bandwidth Server to Support Adaptive QoS

Advances in computing applications in recent years have prompted the demand for more flexible scheduling models for QoS demand. The DWCS (dynamic window- constrained scheduling) is a flexible scheduling algorithm. This paper applies DWCS into the open realtime system to support QoS demand. We propose a window-constrained CBS with which the real-time system can use the characteristic of DWCS to improve the scheduling performance. Moreover, the new scheduler can provide some QoS guarantee for real-time tasks. To evaluate the performance of the new server, the two server mechanisms have been implemented on the Linux kernel. The experimental results show that the new server is better than the old server. In the end, the future research directions are discussed.
The Meningococcal Minor Pilin PilX Is Responsible for Type IV Pilus Conformational Changes Associated with Signaling to Endothelial Cells

ABSTRACT Neisseria meningitidis crosses the blood-brain barrier (BBB) following the activation of the β2-adrenergic receptor by the type IV pili (TFP). Two components of the type IV pili recruit the β2-adrenergic receptor, the major pilin PilE and the minor pilin PilV. Here, we report that a strain deleted of PilX, one of the three minor pilins, is defective in endothelial cell signaling. The signaling role of PilX was abolished when pili were not retractable. Purified PilX was unable to recruit the β2-adrenergic receptor, thus suggesting that PilX was playing an indirect role in endothelial cell signaling. Considering the recent finding that type IV pili can transition into a new conformation (N. Biais, D. L. Higashi, J. Brujic, M. So, and M. P. Sheetz, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 107:11358–11363, 2010), we hypothesized that PilX was responsible for a structural modification of the fiber and allowed hidden epitopes to be exposed. To confirm this hypothesis, we showed that a monoclonal antibody which recognizes a linear epitope of PilE bound fibers only when bacteria adhered to endothelial cells. On the other hand, this effect was not observed in PilX-deleted pili. A deletion of a region of PilX exposed on the surface of the fiber had phenotypical consequences identical to those of a PilX deletion. These data support a model in which surface-exposed motifs of PilX use forces generated by pilus retraction to promote conformational changes required for TFP-mediated signaling.
Detection and Isolation of Speed-, DC-Link Voltage-, and Current-Sensor Faults Based on an Adaptive Observer in Induction-Motor Drives

A sensor fault detection and isolation unit is considered for induction-motor drives based on an adaptive observer with rotor-resistance estimation. Generally, closed-loop induction-motor drives with voltage-source inverters use a speed or position, a dc-link voltage, and two or three phase-current sensors. In the proposed fault-detection and isolation unit, the estimated phase currents and rotor resistance are sent to a decision-making unit, which identifies the faulty sensor type based on a deterministic rule base. In the case of a current-sensor failure, it also detects the phase with erroneous sensor output. It is shown that, unlike the other proposed model-based fault-tolerant systems, using a bank of observers is not necessary, and only one current observer with rotor-resistance estimation is sufficient for isolation of all sensors' faults. The accuracy of the proposed approach is analytically proved. Furthermore, extensive simulation and experimental tests verify the effectiveness of the proposed method at different operating conditions.
Unsupervised Discovery of Scenario-Level Patterns for Information Extraction

Information Extraction (IE) systems are commonly based on pattern matching. Adapting an IE system to a new scenario entails the construction of a new pattern base---a time-consuming and expensive process. We have implemented a system for finding patterns automatically from un-annotated text. Starting with a small initial set of seed patterns proposed by the user, the system applies an incremental discovery procedure to identify new patterns. We present experiments with evaluations which show that the resulting patterns exhibit high precision and recall.
A W-Band 2nd Subharmonic Injection-Locked Phase-Locked Loop with Large Locking Range

This paper introduces a simple approach to obtain the equivalent locking range of the 2nd subharmonic injection-locked phase locked loop (S-ELPLL). Furthermore, the phase noise of the 2nd S-ILPLL is analyzed by using a linear phase noise model. Finally, a W-band 2nd S-ILPLL circuit was designed and tested; the experimental results demonstrate that the locking range is 60 times larger than that of the 2nd subharmonic injection-locked oscillator (S- ILO) . On the other hand, the phase noise will not deteriorate in the entire locking range as compared with that of the S-ILO. Therefore, it can be used in novel millimeter wave frequency synthesizer.
Inter-individual variability in levels of human microsomal protein and hepatocellularity per gram of liver.

AIMS To determine levels of microsomal protein (MPPGL) and hepatocellularity (HPGL) per gram of human liver and their interindividual variability. METHODS Triplicate liver samples were used to determine values of MPPGL (n = 20) and HPGL (n = 7) after accounting for the fractional loss of microsomal protein or hepatocytes during processing. Repeated measurements from each liver sample allowed the estimation of true interindividual variability in MPPGL and HPGL using ANOVA. RESULTS The value of MPPGL ranged from 26 to 54 mg g(-1) (mean(geo)= 33 mg g(-1)). The value of HPGL ranged from 65 to 185 x 10(6) cells g(-1) (mean(geo)= 10(7) x 10(6) cells g(-1)). CONCLUSIONS There is significant interindividual variability in MPPGL, which has implications for the accurate extrapolation of in vitro data on drug metabolism to predict in vivo metabolic clearance.
A major histocompatibility complex class II restriction for BioBreeding/Worcester diabetes-inducing T cells

Inbred diabetes-prone (DP) BioBreeding/Worcester (BB/Wor) (RT1u) rats develop spontaneous autoimmune diabetes, which, like human insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus, is mediated by autoreactive T lymphocytes. Breeding studies have shown an absolute requirement for at least one copy of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) RT1u haplotype for spontaneous diabetes expression. Concanavalin A-activated spleen cells from acutely diabetic DP rats adoptively transfer diabetes only to recipients that express at least one RT1u haplotype. To investigate the basis for the MHC requirement in BB/Wor autoimmunity, diabetes-inducing T cell lines were derived from the spleens of acutely diabetic DP rats. Upon activation in vitro with islet cells, the T cell lines adoptively transfer insulitis and diabetes into young DP recipients and non- diabetes-prone RT1 congenic rat strains that are class IIu. Recipients that are RT1u at only the class I A or C locus, but not at the class II B/D loci, do not develop diabetes after T cell transfer. The adoptive transfer of diabetes by Concanavalin A-activated diabetic DP spleen cells also requires that donor and recipient share class II B/Du gene products. Furthermore, the adoptive transfer of diabetes into MHC class IIu congenic rats is independent of the class I haplotype; i.e., it occurs in the presence of class I Aa Cu or Au Ca gene products. BB/Wor T cells can be activated in vitro for the transfer of diabetes with islet cell antigens and class II-positive but not class IIu-negative antigen-presenting cells. The inductive phase of BB diabetes is therefore MHC class II restricted, and this appears to operate at the level of interaction between inducing T cells and class IIu antigen- presenting cells. These results may explain the well-documented, but not yet understood, MHC class II genetic contribution to insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus pathogenesis, and they may facilitate the development of protocols designed to prevent diabetes onset in susceptible individuals.
Reducing the cost of persistence for nonvolatile heaps in end user devices

This paper explores the performance implications of using future byte addressable non-volatile memory (NVM) like PCM in end client devices. We explore how to obtain dual benefits - increased capacity and faster persistence - with low overhead and cost. Specifically, while increasing memory capacity can be gained by treating NVM as virtual memory, its use of persistent data storage incurs high consistency (frequent cache flushes) and durability (logging for failure) overheads, referred to as `persistence cost'. These not only affect the applications causing them, but also other applications relying on the same cache and/or memory hierarchy. This paper analyzes and quantifies in detail the performance overheads of persistence, which include (1) the aforementioned cache interference as well as (2) memory allocator overheads, and finally, (3) durability costs due to logging. Novel solutions to overcome such overheads include (1) a page contiguity algorithm that reduces interference-related cache misses, (2) a cache efficient NVM write aware memory allocator that reduces cache line flushes of allocator state by 8X, and (3) hybrid logging that reduces durability overheads substantially. With these solutions, experimental evaluations with different end user applications and SPEC2006 benchmarks show up to 12% reductions in cache misses, thereby reducing the total number of NVM writes.