Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Study on HED/UT Attitude towards Leisure Consumption

Leisure and leisure consumption are becoming increasingly popular in our market, but there lacks studies on leisure and consumers’ behavior in our country. The paper makes a study of the consuming attitude of domestic leisure consumption and its impact on the behavior of leisure consumption from the perspective of consumers’ behavior science. The paper tries to develop a two-dimensional structure of hedonism and functionalism and verifies its impact on the intention of leisure consumption through an empirical testing. The study shows that the attitude of leisure consumption is of obvious characteristics of two-dimensional structure of hedonism and functionalism. Both of the attitudes have more significant and positive impact on the intention of leisure consumption, while the impact of the attitude of functionalism is even larger.
Stylized rendering techniques for scalable real-time 3D animation

Researchers in nonphotorealistic rendering (NPR) have investigated a variety of techniques to simulate the styles of artists. Recent work has resulted in methods for pen-and-ink illustration, pencil sketching, watercolor, engraving, and silhouette edge rendering. This paper presents real-time methods to emulate cartoon styles. We also present variations on a texture mapping technique to achieve real-time pencil sketching. We demonstrate our method of inking silhouettes, material and mesh boundaries, and crease edges. In addition, we present techniques for emphasizing motion of cartoon objects by introducing geometry into the cartoon scene. The rendering system is integrated with an animation system and a runtime multiresolution mesh (MRM) system to achieve scalability, ensuring real-time performance on any platform. Such solutions allow us to take advantage of evolving hardware in order to make nonphotorealistic animation and rendering achievable on lowand high-end consumer platforms. All of the techniques described can be applied to models created with standard modeling tools and require no additional mark-up information from the modeler. CR
Signature‐based analysis of MET proto‐oncogene mutations using DHPLC

Research tools which improve mutation detection, SNP discovery, and allele characterization will facilitate studies of cancer, inherited disease, and genomic evolution. Denaturing High‐Performance Liquid Chromatography (DHPLC) is a recently developed methodology for detection of heteroduplexes formed in DNA samples containing mismatches between wild type and mutant strands. In an effort to develop a rapid, sensitive mutation detection method for studies of families with inherited kidney cancer, we evaluated DHPLC for detection and analysis of MET proto‐oncogene mutations in papillary renal carcinomas (PRC). We found DHPLC to be 100% accurate in detecting 15 known disease‐associated MET mutations. Significantly, each MET mutation and two novel SNPs generated a characteristic chromatographic profile or signature with reproducible distinguishing features. Standardization of DHPLC reagents and improved methods design were critical to the reliability and accuracy of mutation prediction. Improvements included addition of a 75% acetonitrile wash followed by a rejuvenating gradient, and detailed analysis of signature shape, retention time (RT), RT differences (ΔRT), and temperature‐dependent (melt) profiling. We used signatures to predict mutations in new PRC samples, mutation carriers in asymptomatic hereditary PRC family members, and in a blind study of previously characterized DNAs. Application to SNP discovery is discussed. Hum Mutat 16:68–76, 2000. Published 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparative precision analysis of Precision-controls on automated chemistry analyzers

Background: Automated diagnostic equipments took over manual testing in last three decades, that allowed enhanced reproducibility, precision and accurateness of results; in addition to 24/7 availability of major lab testing profiles. Aim: In this regard, present study described comparative equipments’ precision assessment of conventional chemistry analyzer, Hirachi 912 with Cobas c501 on parametric panels of Preci-controls, both normal (PNU) and pathological (PPU). Materials and Methods: Comparative performance assessment of instruments, the conventional automated Hitachi chemistry analyzer 912 and Cobas c501 (Roche Diagnostics, Basil), was done through analysis of either PNU or PPU, 30 times each on either instruments. For precision, samples for five parameters, creatinine, urea, sugar, total protein and calcium from both PNU and PPU were analyzed by standard methods during January 2015 to Feb 2015. Results: Comparative analysis showed excellent precision correlations among all five parameters on both instruments with R regression ranging from 0.990 to 0.999 for PNU and 0.993 to 0.997 for PPU depicting the precision and reliability of methods, standardization and system equivalency. Conclusion: Regression analysis exhibited nearequivalent data ranging from 84.3% to 99.8%, thus ensuring that standardization and proper calibration of both instruments is upto the mark for routine chemistry analysis of referred parameters.
Context aware energy efficient optimization for video on-demand service over wireless networks

Video on-demand (VOD) service is widely requested, and is becoming a dominant application in wireless networks, where energy efficiency (EE) is a major design goal. Reducing the energy consumption of VOD service with given quality of service (QoS) requirement can improve the EE of wireless systems. Recent finding shows that user mobility is highly predictable, and hence future location information is possible to know. In this paper, we study EE-optimal transmit power and bandwidth allocation for VOD service in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system by exploiting context information. We consider two kinds of context information, i.e., the predictive average channel gains and the QoS of VOD service. The optimal resource allocation policy that minimizes the average energy consumption for VOD service is proposed. At the beginning of the service, the average transmit power and number of used subcarriers are allocated with future average channel gains. During the procedure of the service, the instantaneous transmit power is allocated to different subcarriers after the instantaneous channel gains becomes available. Simulation results show that the energy consumed for VOD service with the proposed policy is around half of that with an existing policy.
The Evolution of Multiagent Coordination Strategies

The design and development of behavioral strategies to coordinate the actions of multiple agents is a central issue in multiagent systems research. We propose a novel approach of evolving, rather than handcrafting, behavioral strategies. The evolution scheme used is a variant of the Genetic Programming (GP) paradigm. As a proof of principle, we evolve behavioral strategies in the predator{prey domain that has been studied widely in the Distributed Artiicial Intelligence community. We use the GP to evolve behavioral strategies for individual agents, as prior literature claims that communication between predators is not necessary for successfully capturing the prey. The evolved strategy, when used by each predator, performs better than all but one of the handcrafted strategies mentioned in literature. We analyze the shortcomings of each of these strategies. The next set of experiments involve co{evolving predators and prey. To our surprise, a simple prey strategy evolves that consistently evades all of the predator strategies. We analyze the implications of the relative successes of evolution in the two sets of experiments and comment on the nature of domains for which GP based evolution is a viable mechanism for generating coordination strategies. We conclude with our design for concurrent evolution of multiple agent strategies in domains where agents need to communicate with each other to successfully solve a common problem.
Aerial torsional manipulation employing multi-rotor flying robot

We describe an implementation of torsional work at high altitude employing an aerial robot equipped with an upward directed hand on top of a hexarotor airframe, considering its workspace above the airframe. The aerial robot in this study consists of a small hexarotor platform and a robotic hand module including a gripper. After grasping the object, the torsional work is executed by using yaw rotation of the body of the robot. For increasing a torque for the torsional task, an impact device is embedded at the base of the hand module. A maximum instant torque generated with this impact device was more than 4 N·m. In addition, the number of rotations of the body is measured through images captured by an onboard camera mounted beside the hand. Through experiments, we verified the feasibility of the present robot by successfully unscrewing a light bulb set to the socket above the robot and safely landing with the detached bulb.
Integrating visual search with visual memory in a knowledge directed image interpretation system

We describe an improved implementation of ANON, a schema-driven image analysis system capable of producing high level interpretations of greyscale images of mechanical engineering drawings. The system has been extended to incorporate a drawing memory into which completed schema instances are placed and which may be accessed as an integral part of ANON's knowledge directed visual search. This memory provides a basis for the integration into a coherent whole of the piecewise interpretations previously supplied by the system. It leads to a richer description of drawing content, improves efficiency and allows ANON to deal with partially complete interpretations. The new system's structure and operation are discussed and examples shown of it's interpretation of real mechanical drawings.
Glucose-responsive hydrogel electrode for biocompatible glucose transistor

Abstract In this paper, we propose a highly sensitive and biocompatible glucose sensor using a semiconductor-based field effect transistor (FET) with a functionalized hydrogel. The principle of the FET device contributes to the easy detection of ionic charges with high sensitivity, and the hydrogel coated on the electrode enables the specific detection of glucose with biocompatibility. The copolymerized hydrogel on the Au gate electrode of the FET device is optimized by controlling the mixture ratio of biocompatible 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) as the main monomer and vinylphenylboronic acid (VPBA) as a glucose-responsive monomer. The gate surface potential of the hydrogel FETs shifts in the negative direction with increasing glucose concentration from 10 μM to 40 mM, which results from the increase in the negative charges on the basis of the diol-binding of PBA derivatives with glucose molecules in the hydrogel. Moreover, the hydrogel coated on the gate suppresses the signal noise caused by the nonspecific adsorption of proteins such as albumin. The hydrogel FET can serve as a highly sensitive and biocompatible glucose sensor in in vivo or ex vivo applications such as eye contact lenses and sheets adhering to the skin.
A Genome-Wide Scan for Breast Cancer Risk Haplotypes among African American Women

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) simultaneously investigating hundreds of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) have become a powerful tool in the investigation of new disease susceptibility loci. Haplotypes are sometimes thought to be superior to SNPs and are promising in genetic association analyses. The application of genome-wide haplotype analysis, however, is hindered by the complexity of haplotypes themselves and sophistication in computation. We systematically analyzed the haplotype effects for breast cancer risk among 5,761 African American women (3,016 cases and 2,745 controls) using a sliding window approach on the genome-wide scale. Three regions on chromosomes 1, 4 and 18 exhibited moderate haplotype effects. Furthermore, among 21 breast cancer susceptibility loci previously established in European populations, 10p15 and 14q24 are likely to harbor novel haplotype effects. We also proposed a heuristic of determining the significance level and the effective number of independent tests by the permutation analysis on chromosome 22 data. It suggests that the effective number was approximately half of the total (7,794 out of 15,645), thus the half number could serve as a quick reference to evaluating genome-wide significance if a similar sliding window approach of haplotype analysis is adopted in similar populations using similar genotype density.
AN INEXPENSIVE METHOD FOR QUANTIFYING INCUBATION PATTERNS OF OPEN-CUP NESTING BIRDS, WITH DATA FOR BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERS

Abstract Quantifying incubation patterns has often involved long observation periods in the field, video cameras, or the use of other electronic devices that sometimes require the partial destruction of clutches and insertion of artificial eggs. In this study, we used an inexpensive, nondestructive method involving temperature probes combined with data loggers to examine the incubation rhythm of female Black-throated Blue Warblers (Dendroica caerulescens). The method provided detailed records of on–off patterns for females for selected 24-h periods during incubation. Female warblers spent an average (±SE) of 64.0% of daylight hours incubating in bouts lasting 20.5 ± 1.5 min and made 2.4 ± 0.1 departures from the nest/h on trips that lasted 10.6 ± 0.7 min. Incubation bouts were longer and females spent more time incubating per hour in the mornings and late afternoons than at mid-day. Older females had longer incubation bouts and tended to have shorter incubation periods than did yearling females, suggesting that experienced individuals were more effective incubators. Because of its ease of use and because nests with probes were not depredated at a higher rate than controls, we suggest that the temperature probe/data logger method is an efficient and effective way to quantify incubation rhythms for open-cup nesting birds.
DNA macroarray study of skin aging‐related genes expression modulation by antioxidant plant extracts on a replicative senescence model of human dermal fibroblasts

The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a widely accepted pivotal mechanism leading to skin aging. It increases with age, while the endogenous defense mechanisms that counter them decrease. This imbalance, called oxidative stress, leads to the progressive damage of cellular structures and results in accelerated aging. Antioxidant compounds can provide protection from endogenous and exogenous oxidative stress by scavenging free radicals. The main phenolic compounds of oak wood, mate leaf and benjoin resin antioxidant extracts were identified and the effects of these extracts on skin aging markers were evaluated using DNA macroarray technology. The transcriptional effect of the three antioxidant extracts was evaluated in vitro on a replicative senescence model of normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF), using a customized DNA macroarray specifically designed to investigate aging markers such as dermal structure, cell renewal, inflammatory response and oxidative stress mechanisms. Among the 149 genes detected, the three antioxidant extracts presented a significant regulation of five genes involved in inflammatory response, cell renewal and antioxidant defenses. The collective transcriptional effects of these extracts suggest interesting antiaging properties which could be utilized in nutraceutical antiaging formulations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Enhancement of cell-specific transgene expression from a Tet-Off regulatory system using a transcriptional amplification strategy in the rat brain

The Tet‐Off system uses a tetracycline‐controlled transactivator protein (tTA) and a tetracycline‐responsive promoter element (TRE) to regulate expression of a target gene. This system can be used to achieve regulatable transgene expression in specific cell types by employing a cell‐specific promoter to drive tTA expression. Wide applications of this attractive approach are, however, hindered by relatively weak transcriptional activity of most cell‐specific promoters. We report here the feasibility of using a transcriptional amplification strategy to overcome the problem.
A Lyapunov method analysis for double integrator with bounded perturbation

For a parameterized family of homogeneous sliding mode based controllers under the influence of bounded perturbation, a strong Lyapunov function is presented for the first time. The family of controllers range from twisting algorithm, the linear PD control law, to the uniformly stable control law. The strict homogeneous Lyapunov function proposed here allows the estimation of the ultimate bound of convergence of the trajectories of the system, in finite-time, exponentially, or uniformly, by exploiting the homogeneity properties of the system, even in the case when it is affected by bounded non-vanishing persistent external perturbation.
An efficient meshless method based on a new shape function

Although, the finite element method numerically is efficient it exhibits difficulties whenever the remeshing of the analysis domain must be performed. For such problems, utilizing meshless computation methods is very promising. But, their large computational cost, which arises from following a time‐consuming process to find shape functions, is one of the most important factors limiting the use of these methods. In this paper, we introduce a direct approach, based on properties required for any shape function, to prepare the shape function and propose a new meshless method. The proposed method does not need any predetermined basis or weighting functions and can be performed faster and more efficiently. Another advantage of the introduced method is its capability to apply desirable changes to the shape function. Application of the proposed approach for electrostatic field computation and verification of the obtained results using theoretically known solution is also presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analogue space vector modulator for two-phase loads using a three-leg voltage source inverter

This paper proposes implementation of a carrier-based space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) strategy through an analogue method for a three-leg voltage source inverter (VSI) providing both balanced and unbalanced two-phase outputs. The phase difference angle of output voltages is kept at 90 degrees whilst the amplitude is adjustable. The mathematical approach to a waveform synthesis is proposed. The circuit design in accordance with mathematical equations of the analogue modulator is given. The correctness of the proposed method is verified by both simulated and experimental results.
Ex ante evaluation of policy measures: Testing effecfts of reward or punishment with different probabilities in a framed field experiment about fertilizer reduction in palm oil production

Palm oil production creates negative externalities, e.g., through intensive fertiliser application. Policies to limit externalities need an effective, sustainable and efficient measure We use a business simulation game in a framed field experiment in Indonesia to test ex ante different incentives for reducing such negative externalities. This setting allows inclusion of adequate contextual features, required for reasonable ex ante evaluation of policy measures. The different designs of the test incentives (either a reward or punishment) varied in their magnitude and probability of occurrence but with constant effects on expected income. Results show that participants react differently to these incentives, indicating that the design can contribute significantly to effectiveness, sustainability or efficiency. A high reward with a low probability was found to be the most effective and sustainable incentive. Moreover, for the most efficient design, a low and certain reward is indicated.
Joint Learning of Representation and Structure for Sparse Regression on Graphs

In many applications, including climate science, power systems, and remote sensing, multiple input variables are observed for each output variable and the output variables are dependent. Several methods have been proposed to improve prediction by learning the conditional distribution of the output variables. However, when the relationship between the raw features and the outputs is nonlinear, the existing methods cannot capture both the nonlinearity and the underlying structure well. In this study, we propose a structured model containing hidden variables, which are nonlinear functions of inputs and which are linearly related with the output variables. The parameters modeling the relationships between the input and hidden variables, between the hidden and output variables, as well as among the output variables are learned simultaneously. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method, we conducted extensive experiments on eight synthetic datasets and three real-world challenging datasets: forecasting wind power, forecasting solar energy, and forecasting precipitation over U.S. The proposed method was more accurate than state-of-the-art structured
A network under stress: using embeddedness to understand uncertainty management and resilience in campus emergencies

ABSTRACT Persistent school shootings have generated ongoing pressure to assess and enhance crisis communication effectiveness via strategies such as resilience-building and post-crisis restoration. A network perspective offers a robust, multilevel approach for examining complex information flows among community, campus, and individual actors affected by crises. Drawing on relational and structural embeddedness and Uncertainty Management Theory, we offer nine propositions that help explain structural and relational changes in a network over time. Although theoretically driven, these propositions are primarily functional, offering practical implications for safety officials and administrators trying to understand, prepare for, and respond to crises. Thus, we suggest measures and recommendations to improve information flow, uncertainty management, and resilience before, during, and after a crisis.
A reestimation algorithm for probabilistic dependency grammars

A probabilistic parameter reestimation algorithm plays a key role in the automatic acquisition of stochastic grammars. In the case of context-free phrase structure grammars, the inside-outside algorithm is widely used. However, it is not directly applicable to Probabilistic Dependency Grammar (PDG), because PDG is not based on constituents but on a head-dependent relation between pairs of words. This paper presents a reestimation algorithm which is a variation of the inside-outside algorithm adapted to probabilistic dependency grammar. The algorithm can be used either to reestimate the probabilistic parameters of an existing dependency grammar, or to extract a PDG from scratch. Using the algorithm, we have learned a PDG from a part-of-speech-tagged corpus of Korean, which showed about 62·82% dependency accuracy (the percentage of correct dependencies) for unseen test sentences.
Artistic thresholding

We consider the problem of depicting continuous-tone images using only black and white. Traditional solutions to this problem include halftoning, which approximates tones, and line drawing, which approximates edges. We introduce "artistic thresholding" as a technique that attempts to depict forms in an image. We apply segmentation to a source image and construct a planar subdivision that captures segment connectivity. Our artistic thresholding algorithm is a combinatorial optimization over this graph. The optimization is controlled by parameters that can be tuned to achieve different artistic styles.