Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contamination of X-ray Cassettes with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus in a Radiology Department

Background We performed surveillance cultures of the surfaces of X-ray cassettes to assess contamination with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Methods The surfaces of 37 X-ray cassettes stored in a radiology department were cultured using mannitol salt agar containing 6 µg/mL oxacillin. Suspected methicillin-resistant staphylococcal colonies were isolated and identified by biochemical testing. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis was performed to determine the clonal relationships of the contaminants. Results Six X-ray cassettes (16.2%) were contaminated with MRSA. During the isolation procedure, we also detected 19 X-ray cassettes (51.4%) contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus (MRSH), identified as yellow colonies resembling MRSA on mannitol salt agar. PFGE analysis of the MRSA and MRSH isolates revealed that most isolates of each organism were identical or closely related to each other, suggesting a common source of contamination. Conclusions X-ray cassettes, which are commonly in direct contact with patients, were contaminated with MRSA and MRSH. In hospital environments, contaminated X-ray cassettes may serve as fomites for methicillin-resistant staphylococci.
The Islamic community in post-9/11 America: Which Muslims are likely to report being called offensive names?

ABSTRACT American Muslims are frequently called offensive names. Yet, despite the pernicious effects of such derogatory language, a paucity of research has examined this phenomenon. This study set out to address this gap in the literature by determining which Muslims are most at risk to report being called disparaging names. Using a community sample of Muslims (N = 275), the logistic regression results revealed that Muslims who were younger, single, and spoke primarily English at home were comparatively more likely to report being called offensive names within the past 12 months. Conversely, both Asian and African American Muslims were less likely to report being called offensive names compared to European American Muslims. The article concludes by offering some tentative explanations for the findings and suggesting some implications for practice with, and on behalf, of Muslim clients.
NWCA: A New Weighted Clustering Algorithm to form Stable Cluster in VANET

The demand of an intelligent transportation system goes high in future as the number of vehicles and accidents on the road increases with an exponential rate. A vehicular ad hoc Network (VANET) provides a prominent solution related to vehicular traffic management (VTM) in an intelligent manner. Inside VANETs, vehicle clustering improves resource reusability, reduces communication overhead and bandwidth utilization up to the significant level. The stable cluster formation is a challenging issue among research communities due to high speed variation of vehicles in VANETs. In this paper, the speed range and moving direction of the vehicles is considered to formulate the groups or cluster. As the vehicle's mobility information is the primary metrics in order to elect the cluster head among cluster members, so we proposes a new weighted clustering algorithm to form stable cluster in VANET (NWCA). The proposed algorithm not only considers the vehicle's mobility information but also, considers its transportation and status information for cluster head election. The performance metrics for the proposed algorithm are average cluster head lifetime and number of state changes over simulation time with varying traffic densities and transmission ranges. We used the Network Simulator (ns-3.21) to validate the result of the proposed algorithm with implicit mobility model.
AN EFFICIENT EXEMPLAR BASED IMAGE INPAINTING USING MULTIDIRECTIONAL CONTOURLET TRANSFORM

Problem statement: This paper proposes an exemplar based image inpainting using contourlet transform. It is a new multiscale and multidirectional image representation which effectively captures the edges and contours of images. Approach: The contourlet transform is an extension of wavelet transform in two dimensions, combines Laplacian Pyramid (LP) with a Directional Filter Bank (DFB). The Laplacian pyramid is used to capture the point discontinuities, and is then followed by a Directional Filter Bank to link point discontinuities into linear structures. The image inpainting, also known as image completion, is such a kind of art that modifies an image or video with the available information outside the region to be inpainted in an undetectable way by the ordinary observers. Results: The wavelet inpainting is the existing method in which problem of filling missing data of inpainting will occur. Compare to existing methods, contourlet transform is more effective one. The Contourlet transform has better performance in representing edges than wavelets, therefore well-suited for multi-scale edge enhancement.Conclusion: Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can fill large inpainting regions with good visual quality, presenting results comparable to or better than other approaches for image inpainting.
Compact objects with large masses

It is shown that gravitational theory allows stable equilibrium configurations of the degenerated Fermi gas, whose masses M ≫ M⊙ and sizes are less than α = 2GM/c. They have no events horizon at the distance r = α from the center. Orbits of test particles near the above objects are considered.
AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING CONTENT IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ALCOHOL ADVERTISING EXPOSURE AND UNDERAGE DRINKING

Background Young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing is a major public health issue, given its potential impact on drinking behaviors. Young people are spending significant amounts of time watching television, and alcohol marketing and promotion on TV is increasing. Little information exists on the presence of youthappealing content in U.S. televised alcohol advertisements, and whether this is associated with youth drinking behaviors. Objectives The objectives of this research are to (1) determine the extent to which youthappealing content is found in televised alcohol advertising, (2) test the influence of content on youth consumption, and (3) test the joint influence of exposure and content on youth consumption. Methods Descriptive and univariate data from a content analysis of 96 televised alcohol ads selected from among both popular and unpopular alcohol brands among youth were analyzed for the presence of primarily youthful content appeal (PYCA). Mean brand PYCA scores’ association with youth consumption and adult consumption of each brand, as well as PYCA scores’ association with youth consumption relative to adult consumption were tested through bivariate and multivariate linear regression. Associations of content and youth consumption by subgroup (popular versus unpopular brands) were also tested. A measure of brand exposure calculated using adstock was added as a predictor and the multiplicative influence of exposure and content on youth consumption was tested through bivariate and multivariate linear regression by brand subgroup. Results Primarily youthful content appeal was present in many of the televised ads and popular brands had a higher mean PYCA score (M=2.7, SD=10.16) than unpopular brands (M=-2.72, SD=9.93), t(94) = -2.61, p<. 05. There was a positive association between brand PYCA score and brand consumption among youth (β=.15, p < .001) controlling for adult consumption, alcohol type and popularity, and a negative association between brand PYCA score and adult consumption (β=-.15, p < .001) controlling for youth consumption, alcohol type and popularity. Separating by brand popularity, the association between brand PYCA score and youth consumption was present only among the popular brands (β=.33, p < .001), and the association between brand PYCA score and relative youth-to-adult consumption was only present among the popular brands (β=.68, p < .001). Among popular brands, brand exposure score was negatively associated with youth consumption (β=-.14, p < .001), and there was no interaction effect of brand PYCA score on the association. There was a main effect of brand PYCA score on youth consumption (β=.33, p < .001) controlling for brand exposure and
A scalable switch for service guarantees

Operators need routers to provide service guarantees such as guaranteed flow rates and fairness among flows, so as to support real-time traffic and traffic engineering. However, current centralized input-queued router architectures cannot scale to fast line rates while providing these service guarantees. On the other hand, while load-balanced switch architectures that rely on two identical stages of fixed configuration switches appear to be an effective way to scale Internet routers to very high capacities, there is currently no practical and scalable solution for providing service guarantees in these architectures. In this paper, we introduce the interleaved matching switch (IMS) architecture, which relies on a novel approach to provide service guarantees using load-balanced switches. The approach is based on emulating a Birkhoff-von Neumann switch with a load-balanced switch architecture and is applicable to any admissible traffic. In cases where: fixed frame sizes are applicable, we also present an efficient frame-based decomposition method. More generally, we show that the IMS architecture can be used to emulate any input queued or combined input-output queued switch.
Thematic Analysis of Words that Invoke Values in the Net Neutrality Debate

This paper describes an initial analysis of the association of specific vocabulary choices with the invocation of human values in testimonies prepared for public hearings about Net neutrality in the United States. Motivation for this work comes from an interest in understanding what people value and how they express those values in writing. Related work includes research on human values from fields ranging from social psychology to advertising to humancomputer interaction. First, human annotators used closed coding to identify human values in testimonies based on a prior meta-analysis of human values. Next, a “values dictionary” was automatically learned that identifies words that are strongly associated with sentences that human annotators coded as being related to specific values. Finally, an open-ended thematic analysis was conducted. The contribution of the paper is to enhance our understanding of how human values are expressed, as well as to introduce and evaluate a new automated tool for facilitating social science research.
Equalization or normalization? Voter–candidate engagement on Twitter in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections

ABSTRACT This study assesses the engagement between voters and political candidates on Twitter and examines its relationship with offline electoral factors such as campaign finances and election outcomes. An analysis of more than 5 million tweets from 302 candidates and their followers in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections reveals that there are large disparities in voter–candidate engagement across the candidates. The prominent candidates from bigger races have more followers, the candidates who have more followers get more @mentions and retweets, and a small number of prominent candidates dominate the political Twitterverse. Despite this, the findings also suggest that indicators of voter–candidate engagement are not solely determined by candidates’ campaign resources, suggesting the potential power-leveling effects of Twitter. Little evidence, however, supports voter–candidate engagement on Twitter as influential to an election outcome. The implications of the findings for future democracy are discussed.
Improving the survivability of RESTful Web applications via declarative fault tolerance

The popular Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style for constructing web applications offers simplicity and scalability advantages. However, to improve the survivability of a RESTful application, programmers commonly find themselves writing vast amounts of nontrivial, ad hoc fault tolerance code. Network volatility, HTTP server errors, service outages—all require custom fault handling code, whose effective implementation requires considerable programming expertise and effort. These implementation impediments hinder the survivability of RESTful applications—without proper fault tolerance functionality, these applications are likely to crash when experiencing faults. To provide a systematic and principled approach to handling faults in RESTful applications, this article presents FT‐REST—an architectural framework for specifying fault tolerance functionality declaratively and then translating these specifications into platform‐specific code. FT‐REST encapsulates fault tolerance strategies in XML‐based specifications and compiles them to modules that reify the requisite fault tolerance. To validate our approach, we have applied FT‐REST to enhance several realistic RESTful applications to withstand the faults described in their FT‐REST specifications. As REST is said to apply verbs (HTTP commands) to nouns (URIs), FT‐REST enhances this conceptual model with adverbs that render REST reliable via reusable and extensible fault tolerance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Tracks through the genome to physiological events

What is the topic of this review? We discuss tools available to access genome‐wide data sets that harbour cell‐specific, brain region‐specific and tissue‐specific information on exon usage for several species, including humans. In this Review, we demonstrate how to access this information in genome databases and its enormous value to physiology. What advances does it highlight? The sheer scale of protein diversity that is possible from complex genes, including those that encode voltage‐gated ion channels, is vast. But this choice is critical for a complete understanding of protein function in the most physiologically relevant context.
Modular termination proofs for logic and pure PROLOG programs

We provide a uniform and simplified presentation of the m ethods of Bezem (1993) (first published as (Bezem 1989)) and of A pt and Pedreschi (1993) (first published as (Apt and Pedreschi 199 0)) for proving termination of logic and PRO LOG programs. Then w e show how these methods can be refined so that they can be use d in a modular way.
Investigation and Performance Enhancement of the Empirical Mode Decomposition Method Based on a Heuristic Search Optimization Approach

Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is a relatively new, data-driven adaptive technique for analyzing multicomponent signals. Although it has many interesting features and often exhibits an ability to decompose nonlinear and nonstationary signals, it lacks a strong theoretical basis which would allow a performance analysis and hence the enhancement and optimization of the method in a systematic way. In this paper, the optimization of EMD is attempted in an alternative manner. Using specially defined multicomponent signals, the optimum outputs can be known in advance and used in the optimization of the EMD-free parameters within a genetic algorithm framework. The contributions of this paper are two-fold. First, the optimization of both the interpolation points and the piecewise interpolating polynomials for the formation of the upper and lower envelopes of the signal reveal important characteristics of the method which where previously hidden. Second, basic directions for the estimates of the optimized parameters are developed, leading to significant performance improvements.
Parental alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and risk of infant leukemia: a Childrens Cancer Group study.

BACKGROUND Whether parental drinking and smoking during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of cancer in offspring is controversial. There are some indications that maternal alcohol consumption is associated with an elevated risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appearing in very young children. Evidence for an association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of leukemia in offspring has been inconsistent. PURPOSE Using data from a Children's Cancer Group case-control study, we evaluated relationships between infant leukemia risk and parental alcohol consumption and/or cigarette smoking during pregnancy or during the month prior to it. METHODS Three hundred two leukemia cases (203 acute lymphoid leukemias [ALLs], 88 AMLs, and 11 other leukemia types) diagnosed in children at 18 months of age or younger and 558 individually matched, regional (i.e., same telephone area code and exchange number) controls were included in the analysis. Information concerning parental alcohol consumption and smoking behavior during the index pregnancy and during the month prior to it was collected by telephone interviews with the mothers of all case and control subjects and the fathers of 250 case and 361 control subjects. Odds ratios (ORs) were used to measure the risk of infant leukemia associated with parental smoking and drinking; tests for trend were used to assess dose-response relationships. The data were analyzed further after stratifying the leukemia cases according to histologic and morphologic types. Reported P values are from two-sided tests of statistical significance. RESULTS Maternal drinking during pregnancy (compared with not drinking) was associated with ORs of 1.43 (95%) confidence interval [CI] = 1.00-2.04) for ALL and 2.64 (95% CI = 1.36-5.06) for AML. A dose-response relationship was observed for total maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and risk of AML (P < .01). Alcohol-related risk appeared to be most pronounced for children who developed AML with a morphology of M1 (myeloblastic with minimal maturation) or M2 (myeloblastic with maturation (OR = 7.62; 95% CI = 2.03-28.64). Paternal alcohol consumption did not confer an increased risk of infant leukemia. Maternal smoking during pregnancy (compared with not smoking) was negatively associated with infant leukemia risk (OR = 0.66 and 95% CI = 0.46-0.94 for total leukemia; OR = 0.45 and 95% CI = 0.21-0.96 for AML), whereas paternal smoking 1 month prior to pregnancy (compared with not smoking during the same period) was related to an elevated risk of ALL (OR = 1.56; 95% CI = 1.03-2.36). CONCLUSIONS Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy increases the risk of infant leukemia, especially AML. Maternal smoking, however, does not elevate risk for either AML or ALL. IMPLICATIONS The data suggest that in utero exposure to alcohol may contribute to leukemogenesis involving myeloid cells.
ADHD, expression, and the incorporeal materialism of movement

With point of departure in a phenomenological analysis of the body as it is described and conceptualized in the diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, this paper argues that the diagnosed behavior associated with bodily movement exposes an often-neglected expressive aspect of the body. Beyond the pre-reflective dimension of the experiential body, it is argued that the expressive dimension of the body is associated with movement as a utopian or an incorporeal aspect immanent to the body. In this perspective, the phenomenological notion of the body is critically connected to a fundamental question of the materiality of sensation, which calls for a rethinking of the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-diagnosed body that gives privilege to the aesthetic and expressive aspects of sensation.
PRIOR EXPOSURE TO ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPERIENCE AND RISK PERCEPTION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF POTENTIAL ENTREPRENEURS IN CANADA AND CHINA

This project investigated how potential entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities in the pre-startup phase of a new venture creation process. Based on Busenitz and Lau’s (1997) cross-cultural cognitive model of new venture creation, I examined the relationship between risk perception and a potential entrepreneur’s intention to start a venture, as well as the moderating effect of a potential entrepreneur’s prior exposure to entrepreneurial experience on this relationship. In addition, I looked at the impact of uncertainty avoidance orientation on risk perception using samples collected from Canada and China. Results showed that risk perception was negatively related to entrepreneurial intention. However, it was found that one’s prior exposure to entrepreneurial experience did not offset the negative impact of high risk perception on entrepreneurial intention. Interestingly, Canadian students from a society with lower levels of uncertainty avoidance were found to be less risk-taking and have higher risk perception than Chinese students.
Getting to Flow in Software Development

Humans are amazing at processing information. This ability has enabled humans to create software development projects that comprise a tremendous amount of information of various forms from predominantly natural language documents like requirements to blended natural language and structured artifacts like issues to predominantly structured source and test code. So much information is generated daily in a software product that it exceeds the ability of humans to find and process all of the information that may be useful or critical for decisions that must be made. The majority of tools used in practice to access information do not help as they are predominantly aimed at returning complete information rather than just what is needed to complete a task-at-hand. In this paper, I outline the situation facing most developers today and outline new tool interaction styles that are emerging that can help address this problem and keep a software developer in the flow of a task. By improving flow, I argue that we can enable developers (and eventually a broader set of knowledge workers) to work smarter, work better and have more fun.
On the calculation of Fisher information for quantum parameter estimation based on the stochastic master equation

The Fisher information can be used to indicate the precision of parameter estimation by the quantum Cramer-Rao inequality. This paper presents an efficient numerical algorithm for the calculation of Fisher information based on quantum weak measurement. According to the quantum stochastic master equation, the Fisher information is expressed in the form of log-likelihood functions. Three main methods are employed in this algorithm: (i) we use the numerical differentiation approach to calculate the derivative of the log-likelihood function; (ii) we randomly generate a series of parameters of interest by the Metropolis Hastings (MH) algorithm; and (iii) the values of expectation can be approximated by the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) integration. Finally, as an example to testify the feasibility of the proposed algorithm, we consider the dissipation rates of the open quantum system as unknown parameters that need to be estimated. We show that the Fisher information can reach a precision close to the Heisenberg limit in the weak coupling condition. This again demonstrates the effectiveness of the new algorithm.