Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Approach to Feature Selection for Ensemble Creation

Ensembles of classifiers have been shown to be very effective for case-based classification tasks. The vast majority of ensemble construction algorithms use the complete set of features available in the problem domain for the ensemble creation. Recent work on randomly selected subspaces for ensemble construction has been shown to improve the accuracy of the ensemble considerably. In this paper we focus our attention on feature selection for ensemble creation using a genetic search approach. We compare boosting and bagging techniques using three approaches for feature selection for ensemble construction. Our genetic-based method produces more reliable ensembles and up to 80% in memory reduction on the datasets employed.
Study on Information Retrieval Model Based on Rough Set Theory

Information retrieval is the science of searching for documents, for information within documents and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching relational databases and the World Wide Web. Rough set theory is a new data analysis method which can deal with ambiguous and uncertain problems. The data processing technologies which base on rough set theory are being applied in more and more fields. The paper, on the base of comparatively analyzing characteristics and shortages of traditional information retrieval models, proposed an information retrieval model based on rough set theory and analyze the retrieval strategies.
Genre-based approach and the teaching of writing through reading assisted by Blackboard Learning System

This paper introduces the reader to the genre-based approach to text learning and the training of writing. A design for teaching the narrative genre as a way of improving the student's reading and writing of English text in the virtual classroom assisted by the Blackboard Learning System is proposed before the paper concludes. Both the teachers and students find learning to be both exciting and challenging in the Internet environment. The genre-based approach especially provides us with an effective tool to improve the students' language learning efficiency and to stimulate the initiative of both teachers and students.
Faster random walks by rewiring online social networks on-the-fly

Many online social networks feature restrictive web interfaces which only allow the query of a user's local neighborhood through the interface. To enable analytics over such an online social network through its restrictive web interface, many recent efforts reuse the existing Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods such as random walks to sample the social network and support analytics based on the samples. The problem with such an approach, however, is the large amount of queries often required (i.e., a long “mixing time”) for a random walk to reach a desired (stationary) sampling distribution. In this paper, we consider a novel problem of enabling a faster random walk over online social networks by “rewiring” the social network on-the-fly. Specifically, we develop Modified TOpology (MTO)-Sampler which, by using only information exposed by the restrictive web interface, constructs a “virtual” overlay topology of the social network while performing a random walk, and ensures that the random walk follows the modified overlay topology rather than the original one. We show that MTO-Sampler not only provably enhances the efficiency of sampling, but also achieves significant savings on query cost over real-world online social networks such as Google Plus, Epinion etc.
Analysis and Modeling of Human Impedance Properties for Designing a Human-Machine Control System

A human can control dynamic properties of his/her own body naturally and effectively according to tasks by utilizing the perceived information of environmental characteristics. If dynamic properties of human movements depending on environmental characteristics can be described quantitatively, there would be expected to design and develop a novel human-machine system in which an operator can manipulate more comfortably. This paper discusses a design methodology of human-machine systems integrating human motor characteristics. A vehicle interface system manipulated by the foot is focused on, and mechanical impedance properties of human lower extremities during maintained leg posture are investigated according to the leg posture and the foot force
THE REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY DESIGN: A NOVEL APPROACH TO ASSESSING THE REAL-WORLD EFFECTIVENESS OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) VACCINATION ON ANOGENITAL WARTS

Background The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and corresponding vaccination programs have been in Canada for over six years, yet there is no information on their effectiveness in reducing anogenital warts. Objectives To assess the effect of the HPV vaccine (vaccine impact) and Ontario's Grade 8 HPV vaccination program (program impact) on anogenital warts using the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD; a quasi-experimental, instrumental variable-based technique used to assess the causal effects of policy interventions). Methods By linking Ontario's 36 immunization databases with provincial health records, we will identify a population-based cohort of all girls in Grade 8 in 2003/04-2008/09. Girls will be followed from September 1 of Grade 8 until August 31 of Grade 11. Exposure will be categorized based on HPV vaccine program eligibility (2003/04-2006/07 vs. 2007/08-2008/09) and actual vaccine receipt (0-2 vs. 3 doses). Outcomes will be identified based on a new diagnosis of and treatment for anogenital warts. For the RDD analysis, a continuous instrument will be created using birth month and year, where December 1993 (end of ineligible birth cohort) and January 1994 (start of eligible birth cohort) define the program eligibility cut-off. To estimate the program impact, local linear regression will be employed at the cut-off; here, exposure will be based on program eligibility (intention-to-treat). To estimate vaccine impact, we will use two-stage local linear regression, which will account for actual vaccination status. Several strategies will be used to test and minimize potential confounding bias – e.g., comparison of baseline characteristics, use of triangular kernel, optimal bandwidth selection. Results Based on preliminary data (21 immunization databases), we identified a cohort of 155,999 ineligible and 75,508 eligible girls (N=231,507). Eligibility cohorts were similar across factors like age, urban/rural status, and vaccination history, suggesting they are balanced on factors other than program exposure. A graph of the probability of vaccination by instrument confirmed two additional RDD assumptions – there was discontinuity in exposure at the cut-off (4.6% vs. 45.8%) and no discontinuities at locations other than the cut-off. Conclusions Preliminary results confirm the RDD is appropriate for use in this context. Complete, provincial-level results will be available by June 2013.
Mechanisms of Cell Death Induced by Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors in Androgen Receptor–Positive Prostate Cancer Cells

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACI) are potential therapeutic agents that inhibit tumor cell growth and survival. Although there are several publications regarding the effects of HDACIs on prostate cancer cell growth, their mechanism(s) of action remains undefined. We treated several human prostate cancer cell lines with the HDACI trichostatin A and found that trichostatin A induced cell death in androgen receptor (AR)–positive cell lines to higher extent compared with AR-negative cell lines. We then discovered that trichostatin A and other HDACIs suppressed AR gene expression in prostate cancer cell lines as well as in AR-positive breast carcinoma cells and in mouse prostate. Trichostatin A also induced caspase activation, but trichostatin A–induced AR suppression and cell death were caspase independent. In addition, we found that doxorubicin inhibited AR expression, and p21 protein completely disappeared after simultaneous treatment with trichostatin A and doxorubicin. This effect may be attributed to the induction of protease activity under simultaneous treatment with these two agents. Further, simultaneous treatment with trichostatin A and doxorubicin increased cell death in AR-positive cells even after culturing in steroid-free conditions. The protease/proteasome inhibitor MG132 protected AR and p21 from the effects of trichostatin A and doxorubicin and inhibited trichostatin A–induced cell death in AR-positive prostate cells. Taken together, our data suggest that the main mechanism of trichostatin A–induced cell death in AR-positive prostate cancer is inhibition of AR gene expression. The synergistic effect of simultaneous treatment with trichostatin A and doxorubicin is mediated via inhibition of AR expression, induction of protease activity, increased expression of p53, and proteolysis of p21. (Mol Cancer Res 2006;4(2):113–23)
Safe Learning: bridging the gap between Bayes, MDL and statistical learning theory via empirical convexity

We extend Bayesian MAP and Minimum Description Length (MDL) learning by testing whether the data can be substantially more compressed by a mixture of the MDL/MAP distribution with another element of the model, and adjusting the learning rate if this is the case. While standard Bayes and MDL can fail to converge if the model is wrong, the resulting \safe" estimator continues to achieve good rates with wrong models. Moreover, when applied to classication and regression models as considered in statistical learning theory, the approach achieves optimal rates under, e.g., Tsybakov’s conditions, and reveals new situations in which we can penalize by ( logprior)=n rather than p ( logprior)=n.
A Collective Case Study of Mobile E-Book Learning Experiences

This research was designed to explore the learning experiences of state college students using mobile e-book readers. The purpose of the study was to build a rich description of how students used electronic textbooks delivered on mobile computing devices for college-level, introductory sociology courses. This research employed a multiple case study design that thoroughly investigated and documented student experiences with this instructional technology. The bounding frame was comprised of the literature on mobile technology, mobile learning theories, and e-books. Situated within the mobile learning framework was a theoretical lens of learning theories commonly found in the literature on mobile learning (constructivism, social cognitive theory, self-efficacy theory, expectancy x value theory, self-determination theory, and situated cognition). This lens was used to provide insight into the student’s learning experiences. This study was comprised of data from a variety of sources that were chosen for their ability to produce insight into the learning experiences of mobile e-book students taking introduction to sociology courses at a Southeastern public state college. The data analysis was comprised of three levels of increasing stages of granular examination. These included level one: descriptive summaries of student cases, level two: student and instructor interview data and excerpts from audio recording transcriptions organized by topical categories, and level three: cross-case synthesis relating to the theoretical framework and research questions.
Structured Information Extraction from Natural Disaster Events on Twitter

As soon as natural disaster events happen, users are eager to know more about them. However, search engines currently provide a ten blue links interface for queries related to such events. Relevance of results for such queries can be significantly improved if users are shown a structured summary of the fresh events related to such queries. This would not just reduce the number of user clicks to get the relevant information but would also help users get updated with more fine grained attribute-level information. Twitter is a great source that can be exploited for obtaining such fine-grained structured information for fresh natural disaster events. Such events are often reported on Twitter much earlier than on other news media. However, extracting such structured information from tweets is challenging because: 1. tweets are noisy and ambiguous; 2. there is no well defined schema for various types of natural disaster events; 3. it is not trivial to extract attribute-value pairs and facts from unstructured text; and 4. it is difficult to find good mappings between extracted attributes and attributes in the event schema. We propose algorithms to extract attribute-value pairs, and also devise novel mechanisms to map such pairs to manually generated schemas for natural disaster events. Besides the tweet text, we also leverage text from URL links in the tweets to fill such schemas. Our schemas are temporal in nature and the values are updated whenever fresh information flows in from human sensors on Twitter. Evaluation on ~58000 tweets for 20 events shows that our system can fill such event schemas with an F1 of ~0.6.
Constructivist teacher education : building new understandings

Constructivist teacher education - theory and practice, Virginia Richardson Piagetian and emancipatory constructivsm, Jennifer Vadeboncoer constructivism - contradictions and confusions, Allan MacKinnon and Carol Seatter applying cognitive theory to teacher education, Nancy Winitzky and Don Kauchak thinking about teaching and teaching about thinking, Magdelene Lampert learning about how to plan in a constructivist manner, Sharon Feiman-Nemser using constructivist approaches, Jolie Mayer-Smith and Ian Mitchell the lived curriculum of a constructivist teacher education class, Francine Peterman meeting student teachers on their own terms, John Loughran and Tom Russell.
Towards Automated Software Verification and Validation

Today, it's an important requirement to have software systems without any bug. Model checking has proven to be a viable solution for reasoning about behavior properties of many different software artifacts. In this paper, we present an efficient solution to verify software models which formally specified by layered graph transformation systems - special types of graph transformation systems - using a model checker called Bogor.
A scheme for the dynamic formation of robust multipoint to point LSPs

Multiprotocol label switching provides a flexible forwarding mechanism for traffic engineering in data networks. A valuable way of further simplifying the forwarding process, particularly within IP networks, is through the use of multipoint to point label switched paths (LSPs); this was identified in even the earliest IETF drafts of the protocol. Whilst some work has been carried out into the formulation of such multipoint to point (MP2P) LSPs, only a couple of schemes have been proposed, and it is recognised that the formation of such LSPs is non trivial. Furthermore, resilience in such configurations has only been partially addressed. The paper describes an improved method for the creation of multipoint to point LSPs. In addition, the new notion of dynamically adaptive multipoint to point LSPs is presented in that the MP2P LSPs are created dynamically and are maintained by the exploitation of ad hoc algorithms that can lead to fast localised healing.
Dynamic Resource Allocation for Spot Markets in Cloud Computing Environments

The advent of cloud computing promises to provide computational resources to customers like public utilities such as water and electricity. To deal with dynamically fluctuating resource demands, market-driven resource allocation has been proposed and recently implemented by public Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers like Amazon EC2. In this environment, cloud resources are offered in distinct types of virtual machines (VMs) and the cloud provider runs an auction-based market for each VM type with the goal of achieving maximum revenue over time. However, as demand for each type of VMs can fluctuate over time, it is necessary to adjust the capacity allocated to each VM type to match the demand in order to maximize total revenue while minimizing the energy cost. In this paper, we consider the case of a single cloud provider and address the question how to best match customer demand in terms of both supply and price in order to maximize the providers revenue and customer satisfactions while minimizing energy cost. In particular, we model this problem as a constrained discrete-time optimal control problem and use Model Predictive Control (MPC) to find its solution. Simulation studies using real cloud workloads indicate that under dynamic workload conditions, our proposed solution achieves higher net income than static allocation strategies and minimizes the average request waiting time.
The past, present, and future of inverse multiplexing

Inverse multiplexing refers to the process of aggregating channels to allow applications greater freedom in selecting the optimum communication bandwidth and cost. The history of the Bandwidth On Demand Interoperability Group (BONDING) standard and its relationship to current and emerging network architectures are discussed. Applications of bandwidth-on-demand products to videoconferencing, multimedia, and LAN interconnection are described with respect to current and future equipment capabilities. Many data transmission applications require transmission at bit rates higher than those available from carriers. Services are most cost effectively provided if they have characteristics common among many user applications. The present paper describes an increasingly popular solution to this problem given today's expanding switched digital networks. Referred to as "inverse multiplexers" current implementations are providing national and international connectivity for diverse applications involving high-quality videoconferencing, variable-demand LAN interconnections, and low-cost network backup. <<ETX>>
Information security governance implementation within Ghanaian industry sectors: An empirical study

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to assess the levels of information security governance (ISG) implementation among major Ghanaian industry sectors. The intent is to benchmark inter-industry sector ISG implementation and to identify areas that may require improvement. Design/methodology/approach – Random sampling strategy was used, and data were collected via Web survey. The data analysis utilized a one-way analysis of variance to determine the differences in means of the levels of implementation of ISG focus areas among five main industry sectors. Findings – The results showed that, as a whole, all the industry sectors have only partially implemented ISG. In particular, there existed statistical significant differences in ISG implementation among the industry sectors. Ranking ISG implementation, Financial Institutions were close to completion, Utility Companies, Others (Information Technology, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing) and Public Services had PI ISG and health care and educational institutions we.
cAMP Analog Mapping of Epac1 and cAMP Kinase

Little is known about the relative role of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (cAPK) and guanine exchange factor directly activated by cAMP (Epac) as mediators of cAMP action. We tested cAMP analogs for ability to selectively activate Epac1 or cAPK and discriminate between the binding sites of Epac and of cAPKI and cAPKII. We found that commonly used cAMP analogs, like 8-Br-cAMP and 8-pCPT-cAMP, activate Epac and cAPK equally as well as cAMP, i.e. were full agonists. In contrast, 6-modified cAMP analogs, like N6-benzoyl-cAMP, were inefficient Epac activators and full cAPK activators. Analogs modified in the 2′-position of the ribose induced stronger Epac1 activation than cAMP but were only partial agonists for cAPK. 2′-O-Alkyl substitution of cAMP improved Epac/cAPK binding selectivity 10–100-fold. Phenylthio substituents in position 8, particularly with MeO- or Cl- in p-position, enhanced the Epac/cAPK selectivity even more. The combination of 8-pCPT- and 2′-O-methyl substitutions improved the Epac/cAPK binding selectivity about three orders of magnitude. The cAPK selectivity of 6-substituted cAMP analogs, the preferential inhibition of cAPK by moderate concentrations of Rp-cAMPS analogs, and the Epac selectivity of 8-pCPT-2′-O-methyl-cAMP was also demonstrated in intact cells. Using these compounds to selectively modulate Epac and cAPK in PC-12 cells, we observed that analogs selectively activating Epac synergized strongly with cAPK specific analogs to induce neurite outgrowth. We therefore conclude that cAMP-induced neurite outgrowth is mediated by both Epac and cAPK.
Characterization of an Equine α-S2-Casein Variant Due to a 1.3 kb Deletion Spanning Two Coding Exons

The production and consumption of mare’s milk in Europe has gained importance, mainly based on positive health effects and a lower allergenic potential as compared to cows’ milk. The allergenicity of milk is to a certain extent affected by different genetic variants. In classical dairy species, much research has been conducted into the genetic variability of milk proteins, but the knowledge in horses is scarce. Here, we characterize two major forms of equine αS2-casein arising from genomic 1.3 kb in-frame deletion involving two coding exons, one of which represents an equid specific duplication. Findings at the DNA-level have been verified by cDNA sequencing from horse milk of mares with different genotypes. At the protein-level, we were able to show by SDS-page and in-gel digestion with subsequent LC-MS analysis that both proteins are actually expressed. The comparison with published sequences of other equids revealed that the deletion has probably occurred before the ancestor of present-day asses and zebras diverged from the horse lineage.
Au nanostructure fabrication by pulsed laser deposition in open air: Influence of the deposition geometry

We present a fast and flexible method for the fabrication of Au nanocolumns. Au nanostructures were produced by pulsed laser deposition in air at atmospheric pressure. No impurities or Au compounds were detected in the resulting samples. The nanoparticles and nanoaggregates produced in the ablated plasma at atmospheric pressure led to the formation of chain-like nanostructures on the substrate. The dependence of the surface morphology of the samples on the deposition geometry used in the experimental set up was studied. Nanocolumns of different size and density were produced by varying the angle between the plasma plume and the substrate. The electrical, optical, and hydrophobic properties of the samples were studied and discussed in relation to their morphology. All of the nanostructures were conductive, with conductivity increasing with the accumulation of ablated material on the substrate. The modification of the electrical properties of the nanostructures was demonstrated by irradiation by infrared light. The Au nanostructures fabricated by the proposed technology are difficult to prepare by other methods, which makes the simple implementation and realization in ambient conditions presented in this work more ideal for industrial applications.
Data Reduction or Data Fusion in Bisoginal Processing?

A method of applying magnification changing processing to an image in a digital copier or the like. The processing consists of subprocessing which is effected by operating optics of a scanner, and subprocessing which is effected by space filter processing of the kind using a threshold matrix. When digital video data read by the scanner on a pixel basis and quantized with respect to multiple levels are to be binarized by the space filter processing, the size of the threshold matrix is changed to roughly change the magnification. A delicate change of magnification is performed by the operation of the optics while the scanner reads the image.