Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Web analytics of user path tracing and a novel algorithm for generating recommendations in Open Journal Systems

Purpose – The use of articles from scientific journals is an important part of research-based teaching at universities. The selection of relevant work from among the increasing amount of scientific literature can be problematic; the challenge is to find relevant recommendations, especially when the related articles are not obviously linked. This paper seeks to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper focuses on the analysis of user activity traces in journals using the open source software “Open Journal Systems” (OJS). The research questions to what extent end users follow a certain link structure given within OJS or immediately select the articles according to their interests. In the latter case, the recorded data sets are used for creating further recommendations. The analysis is based on an article matrix, displaying the usage frequency of articles and their user selected successive articles within the OJS. Furthermore, the navigation paths are analysed. Findings – It was found th.
A note on evolutionary stochastic portfolio optimization and probabilistic constraints

In this note, we extend an evolutionary stochastic portfolio optimization framework to include probabilistic constraints. Both the stochastic programming-based modeling environment as well as the evolutionary optimization environment are ideally suited for an integration of various types of probabilistic constraints. We show an approach on how to integrate these constraints. Numerical results using recent financial data substantiate the applicability of the presented approach.
Ultrasound compared with nerve stimulation guidance for peripheral nerve catheter placement: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare the efficacy and safety of ultrasound (US) vs nerve stimulation (NS) guidance for peripheral nerve catheter placement. METHODS This meta-analysis was performed according to the PRISMA statement and the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration. For dichotomous outcomes relative risks [RRs; 95% confidence intervals (CIs)] were calculated, while for continuous outcomes, mean differences (MDs; 95% CI) were calculated. All statistical analyses were performed using the Revman® statistical software (Version 5.1). RESULTS Fifteen randomized controlled trials including 977 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria. Peripheral nerve catheters placed under US guidance showed a higher RR of 1.14 (95% CI: 1.02-1.27; P=0.02) for an overall successful block in comparison with NS. However, postoperative pain scales at movement (numeric rating scale: 0-10) were comparable between US- vs NS-guided peripheral nerve catheters 24 (MD: 0.08; 95% CI: -0.77 to 0.94; P=0.85) and 48 (MD: 1.0; 95% CI: -0.3 to 2.3; P=0.13) h after surgery. Patients receiving a US-guided peripheral nerve catheter had a lower RR of 0.13 (95% CI: 0.04-0.38; P=0.0002) for an accidental vascular puncture. CONCLUSIONS There is evidence that US-guided peripheral nerve catheters show a higher success rate and a lower risk for an accidental vascular puncture compared with NS guidance. However, this difference resulted only in marginally lower postoperative pain scores at rest. Nevertheless, these results were influenced by heterogeneity and should be interpreted with caution.
Controlled Fusion of Multiple Partial Models to Reconstruct a Regularized 3D Complete Model

This paper describes a controlled method for fusioning several partial models corresponding to the same object, with the purpose of reconstructing a regularized 3D object model. The method takes advantage of previously defined partial modeling structures, in the context of spherical representation. Concerning the fusion method itself, in this work we show how partial structures are combined to reconstruct the complete model. The control goal is the global mesh regularization. Because each partial mesh has been regularized separately, the regularization parameters can be different from one to the other. In that sense, an iterative process is performed in order to achieve the convergence of the parameters. At each step all the partial meshes are recomputed and then fusioned. The overall method has been demonstrated with experimental results. Partial views range data of a sample object, their corresponding partial models, and the evolution of the model fusion after several iterations are shown in the paper. Special attention is paid to show the efficacy of the control algorithm proposed.
International Comparative Studies in Mathematics Education: Opportunities for Collaboration and Challenges for Researchers

The recent releases of two major international comparative studies that addressed mathematics-the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 (TIMSS 2003) and the Program for International Student Assessment 2003 (PISA 2003)provide opportunities and challenges for mathematics education researchers interested in using the findings, instruments, and conceptual and theoretical perspectives of these studies as catalysts for secondary analysis and additional research. In particular, a number of important questions in mathematics education in the United States can be pursued, using various resources from these studies as a base, by mathematics education researchers and mathematicians collaborating with statisticians and assessment experts. We highlight some of the main findings of TIMSS 2003 and PISA 2003, and suggest how some of the instruments that were used in these studies, as well as the conceptual frameworks and priorities that guided them, might be beneficial in pursuing pressing questions in such areas as the role of curriculum in mathematics performance, the ways in which social contextual variables interact with mathematics learning, and the challenges in measuring the ability to use mathematics in real-world situations.
Printed Embedded Data Graphical User Interfaces

In a graphical user interface (GUI), interaction is based upon selection and action at positions in the graphical display, guided by graphical content and the user's intent. Printed embedded data GUIs (PEDGUIs) generalize the interaction domain to images and objects in order to enable interaction with passive objects and active displays throughout the user environment. The interface can be almost any object. The selection and control tool is an image capture device. The embedded data helps to establish the selection location and gesture, as well as the identity or context of the chosen substrate and links to other resources. Even in the case of multiple active and passive display substrates, the GUI system captures and interprets user interactions throughout the workspace. DataGlyph technology, based on self-clocking glyph code, is a particularly efiective and flexible encoding technology for embedded data GUIs.
Investigation on the mass sensitivity of quartz crystal microbalance gas sensor using finite element simulation

The increasing global trends in healthcare priorities towards improving the effectiveness of diagnostic procedure by utilizing a non-invasive method which is breath analysis. This will benefit in increasing treatment efficiency and also reducing healthcare costs. Breath is a simple technique where the sample are easily obtained and can be provided immediately. The most popular method that had been used in hospital are urine and blood. Contradict with breath, urine and blood take too much time to analyse the disease and a painful process. The detection technique of breath analysis is done by using electroacoustic wave sensor from piezoelectric substrate. This acoustic wave sensor has been used to detect the changes in the frequency where it will be used to detect the disease. Breath analysis is a technique where it uses an electronic nose (E-nose) as a device. E-nose consist of Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) sensor in order to differentiate odor in human breath. QCM is a sensitive weighing device which have a high efficiency. AT-cut quartz was chosen as the piezoelectric material and aluminum as the electrode. The objective of this paper is to design and simulate a QCM sensor for breath analysis application. Other than that, it also to determine the important key parameters that influence the performance of breath analysis which is sensitivity and resonant frequency. QCM sensor is being simulate by using COMSOL Multiphysics software. This is to evaluate the behavior of QCM sensor in terms of Eigen frequency analysis. The simulated QCM sensor with quartz radius of 166 um resonates at 8.871 MHz. The sensitivity of the sensor is 0.167 MHz/ng after exposed to acetone gas which act as the breath marker for detection of diseases in exhaled breath. Hence, the proposed design can be used as a non-invasive approach for early detection of disease through breath analysis.
Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Procedures: The Current State

Since its early days, cardiac surgery has typically involved large incisions with complete access to the heart and the great vessels. After the popularization of the minimally invasive techniques in general surgery, cardiac surgeons began to experiment with minimal access techniques in the early 1990s. Although the goals of minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) are fairly well established as decreased pain, shorter hospital stay, accelerated recuperation, improved cosmesis, and cost effectiveness, a strict definition of minimally invasive cardiac surgery has been more elusive. Minimally invasive cardiac surgery started with mitral valve procedures and then gradually expanded towards other valve procedures, coronary artery bypass grafting, and various types of simple congenital heart procedures. In this paper, the authors attempt to focus on the evolution, techniques, results, and the future perspective of minimally invasive mitral valve surgery (MIMVS).
A data-driven color feature learning scheme for image retrieval

This paper addresses content based image retrieval based on color features. Several previous works have addressed color based image retrieval based on hand-crafted features. In this paper, a data-driven learning framework is proposed for generating color based signatures. To obtain the features, a linear transformation is learned from the pixel values based on its reconstruction error. Using this linear transformation, the original pixel values are transformed into a higher dimensional space. In the higher dimensional space, a dictionary is learned to obtain the sparse codes of the pixels. A max pooling strategy is used to obtain the dominant color features of a region and the final feature vector for an image is obtained by concatenating the pooled features. We evaluate our approach following the standard evaluation criteria for the INRIA Holidays and University of Kentucky Benchmark datasets. The approach is compared with several baselines such as histograms in RGB, HSV, YUV and Lab color spaces and several other color based features proposed for addressing this problem. Our approach shows competitive results on these datasets and outperforms all the baselines.
Problem Gambling as a Response to Social and Occupational Stressors: Exploring a Moderation Model of Stress and Coping

The current study explored specific stressors (loneliness and job stress) and coping strategies (problem-focused, emotional approach, avoidance, and religious coping) as predictors of outcomes relevant to problem gambling (problem gambling symptoms, gambling behaviours, and depressive symptoms). A sample of 217 frequent gamblers was recruited (a) using online advertisements (i.e., on classified sites, search engines, and Facebook); (b) using paper advertisements posted at problem gambling treatment centres; and (c) through a university student participant pool. Participants completed an online survey, which included an online version of the Gambling Timeline Followback (GTLFB; Weinstock, Whelan, & Meyers, 2004). Six multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore the main and interactive effects of stress and coping variables on outcomes in the context of Wills’ stress-coping model of addictive behaviour (Wills & Hirky, 1996; Wills & Shiffman, 1985). Generally consistent with previous reports, loneliness, job stress, and avoidance coping predicted higher levels of the outcomes, whereas problem-focused coping with job stress predicted fewer problem gambling and depressive symptoms. Emotional approach coping (EAC) and religious coping were introduced to the problem gambling literature in this study. EAC predicted lower levels of the outcomes when used in response to job stress, and it attenuated the relationship between loneliness and problem gambling when used in response to loneliness. Meanwhile, among individuals who endorsed some positive religious coping with loneliness, higher levels of this variable predicted more depressive symptoms. Negative religious coping in response to loneliness or job stress generally predicted higher levels of all three outcome variables, although endorsement of some negative religious coping
A synthesis of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion

This synthesis discusses the emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel combustion and cement production. While much is known about these emissions, there is still much that is unknown about the details surrounding these emissions. This synthesis explores our knowledge of these emissions in terms of why there is concern about them; how they are calculated; the major global efforts on inventory- ing them; their global, regional, and national totals at differ- ent spatial and temporal scales; how they are distributed on global grids (i.e., maps); how they are transported in mod- els; and the uncertainties associated with these different as- pects of the emissions. The magnitude of emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels has been almost continuously in- creasing with time since fossil fuels were first used by hu- mans. Despite events in some nations specifically designed to reduce emissions, or which have had emissions reduction as a byproduct of other events, global total emissions con- tinue their general increase with time. Global total fossil- fuel carbon dioxide emissions are known to within 10 % un- certainty (95 % confidence interval). Uncertainty on individ- ual national total fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions range from a few percent to more than 50 %. This manuscript con- cludes that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel com- bustion continue to increase with time and that while much is known about the overall characteristics of these emissions, much is still to be learned about the detailed characteristics of these emissions.
The Influence of Negative Emotions on Prospective Memory: A Review and New Data (Invited Paper)

The persuasive cognitive ability to encode, store, and execute intended actions, such as remembering to keep appointments or to pick up the kids from school after work, is termed prospective memory. In the present paper, we provide a review over the currently available studies that were interested in how the ability to prospectively remember is subject to emotional influences, such as fluctuations in mood, enduring (negative) emotional states, or clinically relevant affective disorders. The general finding is that negative emotional states and inner-states of anxiety or depression seem to interfere with the ability to exe- cute intended actions, although the direction of this relationship seems to reverse under certain circumstances. In addition, we present novel data from a recent study that further investigated how specific negative emotions (i.e., anxiety and depression) are correlated with performance in different prospective memory tasks. Additionally, the multifaceted pattern of findings on how emotions might influence the execution of different types of in- tended actions in the laboratory and in everyday life is discussed. Finally, we provide some avenues for future research investigating the connection between cognition and emotion within the realm of prospective memory. Copyright c ∞ 2006 Yang's Scientific Research Institute, LLC. All rights reserved.
Automated Diagnosis of Oral Cancer Using Higher Order Spectra Features and Local Binary Pattern: A Comparative Study

In the field of quantitative microscopy, textural information plays a significant role very often in tissue characterization and diagnosis, in addition to morphology and intensity. The objective of this work is to improve the classification accuracy based on textural features for the development of a computer assisted screening of oral sub-mucous fibrosis (OSF). In fact, the approach introduced is used to grade the histopathological tissue sections into normal, OSF without dysplasia (OSFWD) and OSF with dysplasia (OSFD), which would help the oral onco-pathologists to screen the subjects rapidly. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the use of Higher Order Spectra (HOS) features and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) features extracted from the epithelial layer in classifying normal, OSFWD and OSFD. For this purpose, we extracted twenty three HOS features and nine LBP features and fed them to a Support Vector Machine (SVM) for automated diagnosis. One hundred and fifty eight images (90 normal, 42 OSFWD and 26 OSFD images) were used for analysis. LBP features provide a good sensitivity of 82.85% and specificity of 87.84%, and the HOS features provide higher values of sensitivity (94.07%) and specificity (93.33%) using SVM classifier. The proposed system, can be used as an adjunct tool by the onco-pathologists to cross-check their diagnosis.
A Scalable Technique for Large Scale, Real-Time Range Monitoring of Heterogeneous Clients

Range monitoring is the continuous query on location data of mobile, real-world objects in real-time. Such real world objects are typically wireless, low capability clients. Therefore, tracking techniques must limit client computation and memory overhead, allow for client/server heterogeneity, and most importantly, minimize wireless transmissions. This paper presents a technique for range monitoring based on multi-level spatial hashing. The technique addresses: (1) real-time queries on mobile object locations, (2) real-time query on the proximity of mobile objects in relation to each other, (3) user defined special query areas, and (4) allows for variable levels of mobile client capability (heterogeneity). The spatial hashing-based method presented here provides a level of scalability similar to the best existing methods for client processing requirements, transmission si/. e, and transmission frequency. Additionally, it provides the flexibility of multiple tracking modes, proximity queries, and support for multiple server base stations which other methods may not. The results of a simulation that computes total transmission overhead and data server requirements based on mobile object characteristics are presented.
Image Segmentation and Shape Analysis of Blood Vessels with Applications to Coronary Atherosclerosis

To my parents Chen, Kaixuan and Yang, Jisheng, and my husband Tinghao. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank those who have been supporting me and helping me throughout my doctorate years. Allen Tannenbaum for your invaluable guidance throughout my study and research at Georgia Tech. It has been a privilege to be a student of yours, to learn from you and to be inspired by you. I am so grateful to have had such great advisors who not only have incredible foresight and view of the big picture, but also guided me through numerous technical details. I would like to thank my thesis reading committee, Professor Ray Vito, Professor Anthony Yezzi and Professor John Oshinski for your helpful comments and suggestions, which improved my thesis in many aspects. Thanks to Dr. Arthur Stillman for teaching me useful knowledge in medicine, sending me many real-world clinical data sets, and helping me with the validation of the algorithms. Thank you to everyone who is currently in the Biomedical Imaging Lab and who have been heresimiliano, Sungho and Annica. I have learned much from each and everyone of you, and it's always been a pleasure to spend time in the lab, attend group meetings, and share the knowledge and happiness with you. I would also like to thank my intern supervisors, Gozde Unal at Siemens Corporate Research and Zhujiang Cao at Vital Images, for being great mentors to me and guiding me through two wonderful internship experiences. I have learned so much from you which I couldn't have learned at school. iv To my dear husband Tinghao, your love and support have been keeping me warm at heart for so many years. I cherish all the memories we have had together, and I look forward to creating and sharing many more new memories with you. Thanks to my parents and every family member in China, for supporting me unconditionally all the time. The distance across half of the earth will never separate you and me. The last but not least, thanks to every Chinese friend I have met in the US, it's you who have made this place another home away from home.
The Catalytic Site Atlas: a resource of catalytic sites and residues identified in enzymes using structural data

The Catalytic Site Atlas (CSA) provides catalytic residue annotation for enzymes in the Protein Data Bank. It is available online at http://www.ebi. ac.uk/thornton-srv/databases/CSA. The database consists of two types of annotated site: an original hand-annotated set containing information extracted from the primary literature, using defined criteria to assign catalytic residues, and an additional homologous set, containing annotations inferred by PSI-BLAST and sequence alignment to one of the original set. The CSA can be queried via Swiss-Prot identifier and EC number, as well as by PDB code. CSA Version 1.0 contains 177 original hand- annotated entries and 2608 homologous entries, and covers approximately 30% of all EC numbers found in PDB. The CSA will be updated on a monthly basis to include homologous sites found in new PDBs, and new hand-annotated enzymes as and when their annotation is completed.
The myogenic potency of HLH-1 reveals wide-spread developmental plasticity in early C. elegans embryos

In vertebrates, striated muscle development depends on both the expression of members of the myogenic regulatory factor family (MRFs) and on extrinsic cellular cues, including Wnt signaling. The 81 embryonically born body wall muscle cells in C. elegans are comparable to the striated muscle of vertebrates. These muscle cells all express the gene hlh-1, encoding HLH-1 (CeMyoD) which is the only MRF-related factor in the nematode. However, genetic studies have shown that body wall muscle development occurs in the absence of HLH-1 activity, making the role of this factor in nematode myogenesis unclear. By ectopically expressing hlh-1 in early blastomeres of the C. elegans embryo, we show that CeMyoD is a bona fide MRF that can convert almost all cells to a muscle-like fate, regardless of their lineage of origin. The window during which ectopic HLH-1 can function is surprisingly broad, spanning the first 3 hours of development when cell lineages are normally established and non-muscle cell fate markers begin to be expressed. We have begun to explore the maternal factors controlling zygotic hlh-1 expression. We find that the Caudal-related homeobox factor PAL-1 can activate hlh-1 in blastomeres that either lack POP-1/TCF or that have down-regulated POP-1/TCF in response to Wnt/MAP kinase signaling. The potent myogenic activity of HLH-1 highlights the remarkable developmental plasticity of early C. elegans blastomeres and reveals the evolutionary conservation of MyoD function.