Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Randomized controlled trial of the effects of print materials and step pedometers on physical activity and quality of life in breast cancer survivors.

PURPOSE To determine the effects of breast cancer-specific print materials and step pedometers on physical activity (PA) and quality of life (QoL) in breast cancer survivors. PATIENTS AND METHODS Breast cancer survivors (N = 377) were randomly assigned to receive one of the following: a standard public health recommendation for PA, previously developed breast cancer-specific PA print materials, a step pedometer, or a combination of breast cancer-specific print materials and step pedometers. The primary outcome was self-reported moderate/vigorous PA minutes per week. Secondary outcomes were QoL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast), fatigue, self-reported brisk walking, and objective step counts. Assessments were conducted at baseline and postintervention (12 weeks). RESULTS Attrition was 10.3% (39 of 377). On the basis of linear mixed-model analyses, PA increased by 30 minutes/week in the standard recommendation group compared with 70 minutes/week in the print material group (mean difference, 39 minutes/week; 95% CI = -10 to 89; d = 0.25; P = .117), 89 minutes/week in the pedometer group (mean difference, 59 minutes/week; 95% CI, 11 to 108; d = 0.38; P = .017), and 87 minutes/week in the combined group (mean difference, 57 minutes/week; 95% CI, 8 to 106; d = 0.37; P = .022). For brisk walking minutes/week, all three intervention groups reported significantly greater increases than the standard recommendation group. The combined group also reported significantly improved QoL (mean difference, 5.8; 95% CI, 2.0 to 9.6; d = 0.33; P = .003) and reduced fatigue (mean difference, 2.3; 95% CI, 0.0 to 4.7; d = 0.25; P = .052) compared with the standard recommendation group. CONCLUSION Breast cancer-specific PA print materials and pedometers may be effective strategies for increasing PA and QoL in breast cancer survivors. A combined approach appears to be optimal. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00221221
Exploring The Latency and Bandwidth Tolerance of CUDA Applications

CUDA applications represent a new body of parallel programs. Although several paradigms exist for programming distributed systems and many-core processors, many users struggle to achieve a program that is scalable across systems with different hardware characteristics. This paper explores the scalability of CUDA applications on systems with varying interconnect latencies, hiding a hardware detail from the programmer and making parallel programming more accessible to non-experts. We use a combination of the Ocelot PTX emulator [1] and a discrete event simulator to evaluate the UIUC Parboil benchmarks [2] on three distinct GPU configurations. We find that these applications are sensitive to neither interconnect latency nor bandwidth, and that integrated GPU-CPU systems are not likely to perform any better than discrete GPUs or GPU clusters.
LiteMat: A scalable, cost-efficient inference encoding scheme for large RDF graphs

The number of linked data sources and the size of the linked open data graph keep growing every day. As a consequence, semantic RDF services are more and more confronted with various "big data" problems. Query processing in the presence of inferences is one them. For instance, to complete the answer set of SPARQL queries, RDF database systems evaluate semantic RDFS relationships (subPropertyOf, subClassOf) through time-consuming query rewriting algorithms or space-consuming data materialization solutions. To reduce the memory footprint and ease the exchange of large datasets, these systems generally apply a dictionary approach for compressing triple data sizes by replacing resource identifiers (IRIs), blank nodes and literals with integer values. In this article, we present a structured resource identification scheme using a clever encoding of concepts and property hierarchies for efficiently evaluating the main common RDFS entailment rules while minimizing triple materialization and query rewriting. We will show how this encoding can be computed by a scalable parallel algorithm and directly be implemented over the Apache Spark framework. The efficiency of our encoding scheme is emphasized by an evaluation conducted over both synthetic and real world datasets.
Identification of a gene required for the formation of lyso‐ornithine lipid, an intermediate in the biosynthesis of ornithine‐containing lipids

Under phosphate‐limiting conditions, some bacteria replace their membrane phospholipids by lipids not containing any phosphorus. One of these phosphorus‐free lipids is an ornithine‐containing lipid (OL) that is widespread among eubacteria. In earlier work, we had identified a gene (olsA) required for OL biosynthesis that probably encodes an O‐acyltransferase using acyl‐acyl carrier protein (acyl‐AcpP) as an acyl donor and that converts lyso‐ornithine lipid into OL. We now report on a second gene (olsB) required for OL biosynthesis that is needed for the incorporation of radiolabelled ornithine into OL. Overexpression of OlsB in an olsA‐deficient mutant of Sinorhizobium (Rhizobium) meliloti leads to the transient accumulation of lyso‐ornithine lipid, the biosynthetic intermediate of OL biosynthesis. Overexpression of OlsB in Escherichia coli is sufficient to cause the in vivo formation of lyso‐ornithine lipid in this organism and is the cause for a 3‐hydroxyacyl‐AcpP‐dependent acyltransferase activity forming lyso‐ornithine lipid from ornithine. These results demonstrate that OlsB is required for the first step of OL biosynthesis, in which ornithine is N‐acylated with a 3‐hydroxy‐fatty acyl residue in order to obtain lyso‐ornithine lipid. OL formation in a wild‐type S. meliloti is increased upon growth under phosphate‐limiting conditions. Expression of OlsB from a broad host range vector leads to the constitutive formation of relatively high amounts of OL (12–14% of total membrane lipids) independently of whether strains are grown in the presence of low or high concentrations of phosphate, suggesting that in S. meliloti the formation of OlsB is usually limiting for the amount of OL formed in this organism. Open reading frames homologous to OlsA and OlsB were identified in many eubacteria and although in S. meliloti the olsB and olsA gene are 14 kb apart, in numerous other bacteria they form an operon.
Distributed lag non-linear models

Environmental stressors often show effects that are delayed in time, requiring the use of statistical models that are flexible enough to describe the additional time dimension of the exposure–response relationship. Here we develop the family of distributed lag non‐linear models (DLNM), a modelling framework that can simultaneously represent non‐linear exposure–response dependencies and delayed effects. This methodology is based on the definition of a ‘cross‐basis’, a bi‐dimensional space of functions that describes simultaneously the shape of the relationship along both the space of the predictor and the lag dimension of its occurrence. In this way the approach provides a unified framework for a range of models that have previously been used in this setting, and new more flexible variants. This family of models is implemented in the package dlnm within the statistical environment R. To illustrate the methodology we use examples of DLNMs to represent the relationship between temperature and mortality, using data from the National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study (NMMAPS) for New York during the period 1987–2000. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of groove structure on grating properties

In this paper, metallic pulse compression gratings (MPCG) with three kinds of grating structures are manufactured. The diffraction efficiency and bandwidth of samples are measured and it can be found that the different grating structure has different diffraction efficiency and bandwidth. Laser damage tests of samples are implemented by an 800±30 nm laser at pulse duration of 31 fs and it can be also found that the different grating structure has different laser-induced damage threshold. Experimental measurements illustrate that the grating structure has a great influence on bandwidth, diffraction efficiency and damage threshold. The typical damage morphologies of MPCG reveal that the damage is induced by absorption and thermal stress.
Following Eye Gaze Activates a Patch in the Posterior Temporal Cortex That Is not Part of the Human “Face Patch” System

Abstract Humans follow another person’s eye gaze to objects of interest to the other, thereby establishing joint attention, a first step toward developing a theory of the other’s mind. Previous functional MRI studies agree that a “gaze-following patch” (GFP) of cortex close to the posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) is specifically implicated in eye gaze-following. The location of the GFP is in the vicinity of the posterior members of the core face-processing system that consists of distinct patches in ventral visual cortex, the STS, and frontal cortex, also involved in processing information on the eyes. To test whether the GFP might correspond to one of the posterior face patches, we compared the pattern of blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) imaging contrasts reflecting the passive vision of static faces with the one evoked by shifts of attention guided by the eye gaze of others. The viewing of static faces revealed the face patch system. On the other hand, eye gaze-following activated a cortical patch (the GFP) with its activation maximum separated by more than 24 mm in the right and 19 mm in the left hemisphere from the nearest face patch, the STS face area (FA). This segregation supports a distinct function of the GFP, different from the elementary processing of facial information.
2 Dwelling Price Dynamics in Paris , France

These papers are preliminary in nature: their purpose is to stimulate discussion and comment. Therefore, they are not to be cited or quoted in any publication without the express permission of the author. Abstract: Using transaction level data for dwellings in Paris, France over the period 1986-92, we find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that economic fundamentals constrain movements in Parisian dwelling prices over longer term horizons. The conclusion is based on the results of two different procedures for estimating an error correction model of housing prices based on supply and demand fundamentals. The error correction models suggest that the speed of adjustment in the Paris dwelling market is about 30% per month. The paper also introduces a new econometric methodology that permits simultaneous estimation of the parameters of a dynamic hedonic price model, the price index, and the parameters of a structural model for housing prices. The new methodology is compared with the more traditional two-step procedure of first estimating a price index, and then using the estimated index in subsequent structural modeling.
Sub-10 nm patterning of gold nanostructures on silicon-nitride membranes for plasmon mapping with electron energy-loss spectroscopy

Using high-resolution electron-beam lithography and lift-off, Au structures with sub-10 nm dimensions or spacings were fabricated on 30-nm-thick silicon-nitride (SiN) membranes. Fabricating metal nanostructures on electron-transparent SiN membranes permitted their surface plasmon resonances to be measured using electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). The surface plasmons that were excited by the 300 keV electron beam exhibited spatially and spectrally distinct longitudinal and transverse modes in elongated Au nanostructures. As the plasmonic response of the nanoparticle was dependent on the point of excitation of the STEM beam, a surface plasmon map could be obtained with nanometer resolution for nanostructures with various geometries. This combination of high-resolution lithography and microscopy will facilitate the design and systematic study of plasmonic nanostructures.
Case-Based Classification System with Clustering for Automotive Engine Spark Ignition Diagnosis

Most of the pattern classification systems employ AI techniques. The most popular one is multi-layer perceptron network (MLP) because of its high computational efficiency. However, there may be some drawbacks: long training time, adjustment of hyperparameters, only a single most probable classification can be returned, etc. In this paper, casebased reasoning (CBR) approach is presented to help solve these drawbacks. One of the advantages of CBR is that multiple possible classifications for a new case can be provided to the user, who can interactively finalize the correct classification. CBR is effective, however inefficient in time because every instance in a case base must be compared during reasoning. To overcome this inefficiency, a clustering technique of kernel K-means (KKM) is employed. To illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of CBR and clustering framework, an automotive engineering diagnostic problem is shown. Its result is also compared to that of MLP. Experimental results show that CBR even outperforms than MLP.
Accelerating Stochastic Gradient Descent via Online Learning to Sample

Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) is one of the most widely used techniques for online optimization in machine learning. In this work, we accelerate SGD by adaptively learning how to sample the most useful training examples at each time step. First, we show that SGD can be used to learn the best possible sampling distribution of an importance sampling estimator. Second, we show that the sampling distribution of a SGD algorithm can be estimated online by incrementally minimizing the variance of the gradient. The resulting algorithm - called Adaptive Weighted SGD (AW-SGD) - maintains a set of parameters to optimize, as well as a set of parameters to sample learning examples. We show that AW-SGD yields faster convergence in three different applications: (i) image classification with deep features, where the sampling of images depends on their labels, (ii) matrix factorization, where rows and columns are not sampled uniformly, and (iii) reinforcement learning, where the optimized and explore policies are estimated at the same time.
Predicting gender from footfalls using a seismic sensor

This paper deals with gender classification by analyzing footfalls captured by seismic sensor. Gender classification plays an important role in developing different applications like guided navigation system that helps the customer to find different shops in a big shopping mall or to find different departments in a hospital on the basis of their gender. We have tested different classifiers (SVM-Linear, SVM-RBF, Artificial Neural Network, Linear Discriminate Analysis, Logistic Regression and Naive Bayes) on our dataset, consisting of a total 8 hours of seismic data of male and female subjects. We achieved an accuracy and F1 score of 94.56% and 94.56% respectively for SVM Linear classifier. Our event detection technique locates a seismic event and extracts only the corresponding footsteps from the signal. It reduces the feature extraction time by 50%. We have also reported an experimental realization of a real time gender classification system. Experiments were carried out to find the minimum number of samples required to train the machine learning algorithm by maintaining a respectable prediction accuracy.
Nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 promotes the metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatoblastoma cells by inhibiting miR-129-5p

The abnormal expression of nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1) may serve critical functions for the development and progression of various types of human tumor. However, the expression and biological function of NEAT1 in hepatoblastoma (HB) and the underlying mechanisms for the function of NEAT1 in HB remain largely uncharacterized. In the present study, the results of reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that the expression of NEAT1 was significantly elevated in HB tissues. HB tissues with metastasis also exhibited significantly increased levels of NEAT1 compared with tissues without metastasis. The biological functions of NEAT1 were then assessed using gain-/loss-of-function studies. The results of in vitro assays revealed that inhibiting NEAT1 expression reduced the migration and invasion of HepG2 cells. By contrast, the induced expression of NEAT1 exhibited the opposite effect. The present study also demonstrated that the inhibition of NEAT1 expression prevented the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of HepG2 cells, whereas forced expression of NEAT1 exhibited the opposite effect. In addition, it was confirmed that NEAT1 could modulate the expression of microRNA (miR)-129-5p in HepG2 cells, and that NEAT1 may exert its effect on the metastatic behaviors and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of HepG2 cells by inhibiting miR-129-5p. In conclusion, the present study indicated that NEAT1 expression was aberrantly increased in HB and that it may promote the metastasis of HB cells by inhibiting miR-129-5p. Targeting NEAT1 may potentially be a novel therapeutic option for treating patients with HB.
Antecedents and consequences of knowledge management with IT support

Knowledge management (KM) has attracted significant attention from researchers and practitioners as a facilitator of firm performance. Previous empirical research offers inconsistent support that KM enhances firm performance. Thus, the present study focuses on the performance effects of KM with information technology support (KMIT). Addition, the model of this paper includes three organizational factors: structure, culture, and incentive. Surveys collected from 119 High-tech firms were analyzed to test the model. The results confirmed the impact of organizational factors on KMIT. An overall KMIT was found to be critical for improving firm performance. Our study has implications for academics and practitioners by providing a better understanding of the importance of knowledge management in explaining firm performance.
An Implementation and Analysis of SCPS-TP in ns-3

Given the importance of TCP in transport-layer protocol studies and the numerous TCP modifications, yet the limited TCP models in ns-3, we extend the existing TCP framework in the network simulator by implementing SCPS-TP, a transport-layer protocol for space communications. The TCP backward-compatible SCPS-TP is constructed as a set of TCP enhancements through the utilization of TCP options to address the unique characteristics of space networks with error-prone, highly asymmetric, and bandwidth-constrained channels. In this paper, we present our implementation together with a set of simulations to validate our model against the original SCPS-TP paper. Through the verification, we also analyze the performance of SCPS-TP in comparison with the standard TCP.
ROTATIONAL QUENCHING OF CO DUE TO H2 COLLISIONS

Rate coefficients for state-to-state rotational transitions in CO induced by both para- and ortho-H2 collisions are presented. The results were obtained using the close-coupling method and the coupled-states approximation, with the CO–H2 interaction potential of Jankowski & Szalewicz. Rate coefficients are presented for temperatures between 1 and 3000 K, and for CO(v = 0, j) quenching from j = 1–40 to all lower j′ levels. Comparisons with previous calculations using an earlier potential show some discrepancies, especially at low temperatures and for rotational transitions involving large |Δj|. The differences in the well depths of the van der Waals interactions and the anisotropy of the two potential surfaces lead to different resonance structures in the energy dependence of the cross sections which influence the low temperature rate coefficients. Applications to far infrared observations of astrophysical environments are briefly discussed.
University of British Columbia.

Throughout the course, a series of themes will be developed linking these drivers to specific cases in BC forest policy. Special attention will be given to the challenge of preserving old growth forests in the “Great Bear Rainforest” region and adapting to the mountain pine beetle epidemic in BC’s interior. Students will be required to demonstrate an understanding of the course themes and how they apply to specific cases in BC forest policy.
Interpolating Subdivision for meshes with arbitrary topology

Subdivision is a powerful paradigm for the generation of surfaces of arbitrary topology. Given an initial triangular mesh the goal is to produce a smooth and visually pleasing surface whose shape is controlled by the initial mesh. Of particular interest are interpolating schemes since they match the original data exactly, and play an important role in fast multiresolution and wavelet techniques. Dyn, Gregory, and Levin introduced the Butterfly scheme, which yields C^1 surfaces in the topologically regular setting. Unfortunately it exhibits undesirable artifacts in the case of an irregular topology. We examine these failures and derive an improved scheme, which retains the simplicity of the Butterfly scheme, is interpolating, and results in smoother surfaces.
Empirical Evaluation of Performance in Hybrid 3D and 2D Interfaces

Experimental studies of spatial input devices have focused on demonstrating either the superiority of 3D input devices over 2D input devices, or the superiority of bimanual interaction over unimanual interaction. In this paper, we argue that hybrid interfaces that combine a 3D input device with a 2D input device have received little attention up to now and are potentially very useful. We demonstrate by means of an experimental evaluation that working with hybrid interfaces can indeed provide superior performance compared to strictly 3D and 2D interfaces.
An Innovative Wood-Fiber Composite Incorporating Nonwoven Textile Technologies

This article is the first to describe a process of manufacturing engineered wood composites that combine two nonwoven textile technologies: bicomponent fiber and needle punching. Hardwood fiber was blended with 10 percent urea formaldehyde and formed into mats. The mats were sandwiched with polypropylene/polyester bicomponent fibers and then needle punched. Needle punching was done by means of barbed needles that oscillated in a vertical direction with regard to the surface of the fiber mat. The barbed needles mechanically interlaced the bicomponent web to the wood-fiber mat and pulled some of the polymer fibers through the thickness direction of the mat. During hot pressing, the polypropylene sheath of the bicomponent fiber flowed, bonded with adjacent wood fibers, and coalesced with the sheath of the adjacent bicomponent fibers. The mats were pressed until the urea formaldehyde was fully cured. Bending and tensile properties of the needle-punched wood composite were assessed and compared with medium-den.