Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human-Data Interaction in Healthcare

In this chapter, we focus on an emerging strand of IT-oriented research, namely Human-Data Interaction (HDI) and on how this can be applied to healthcare. HDI regards both how humans create and use data by means of interactive systems, which can both assist and constrain them and the operational level of data work, which is both work on data and by data. Healthcare is a challenging arena where to test the potential of HDI towards a new, user-centered perspective on how to support and assess “data work”. This is especially true in current times where data are becoming increasingly big and many tools are available for the lay people, including doctors and nurses, to interact with health-related data. This chapter is a contribution in the direction of considering health-related data through the lens of HDI, and of framing data visualization tools in this strand of research. The intended aim is to let the subtler peculiarities among different kind of data and of their use emerge and be addressed adequately. Our point is that doing so can promote the design of more usable tools that can support data work from a user-centered and data quality perspective and the evidence-based validation of these tools.
Textures in Second Life: Measurement and Analysis

We collected packet traces from second life client sessions and analyzed the packet contents. We observed that textures constitute a majority of the network traffic. We further characterized the textures from three selected regions in second life in terms of their size and spatial distributions. We found that textures in these regions exhibit a different size distribution from files on a file system or documents on the Web. We also verified the intuition that texture objects are spatially non-uniformly distributed. Surprisingly, we found that the selected second life regions can contain up to hundreds of megabytes of textures, and there exist locations in these regions that encompass a large portion of these textures within their area-of-interest. Our work motivates the need to manage textures carefully and efficiently in the design of networked virtual environments such as second life, and hints at the amount of storage and bandwidth required at a peer if peer-to-peer techniques are applied for texture caching. Our traces are useful for simulation studies and can lead to a model to generate realistic workload for networked virtual environments.
The allocation of sub-decision making units to parallel fuzzy network systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the following problem; if the manager of the parallel network systems wants to add new sub-decision making units (sub-DMUs) to each parallel network system, he/she wants to know how much new fuzzy inputs allocate to new sub-DMUs and how much outputs these new sub-DMUs produce such that the efficiency of each parallel network system improve or preserve. Design/methodology/approach – Resource allocation and target setting is a famous topic in management science, therefore many managers attention to this field. Data envelopment analysis is one approach to apply the resource. Resource allocation and target setting is a famous topic in management science, therefore many managers attention to this field. Data envelopment analysis is one approach to apply the resource allocation and target setting. In real application the structure of many DMUs are network and the data of them are imprecise. In this work first the authors calculate the fuzzy efficiency of parall.
Detection of morphine-3-sulfate and morphine-6-sulfate in human urine and plasma, and formation in liver cytosol

Morphine is still the mainstay in treatment of severe pain and is metabolized in the liver mainly by glucuronidation, partly to the pharmacologically active morphine‐6‐glucuronide (M6G). The sulfation pathway has attracted much less attention but may also form active metabolites. The aim of the present study was to study two sulfate metabolites of morphine in humans. Urine and plasma from newborns, adult heroin addicts, and terminal cancer patients was analyzed for the presence of morphine‐3‐sulfate (M3S) and morphine‐6‐sulfate (M6S) by a new liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS) method. In addition, morphine sulfation was studied in vitro in human liver cytosol preparations. M3S was present in urine and plasma from all study groups although at lower concentrations than morphine‐3‐glucuronide (M3G). The plasma M3S/M3G ratio was 30 times higher in newborns than in adults indicating that the relative sulfation is more important at early stage of life. M6S was measurable in only one plasma sample from a newborn patient, and in one of the urine sample from the drug testing group. The incubation of morphine with liver cytosol extracts resulted in approximately equal rate of formation of both M3S and M6S. In conclusion, sulfation of morphine is catalyzed in human liver but this minor metabolic pathway probably lacks clinical significance. The M6S metabolite is formed at a low rate, making it undetectable in most individuals.
A Cost Model for Parallel Navigational Access in Complex-Object DBMSs

In contrast to relational query processing, one of the most important extensions of query processing in object-oriented DBMSs (OODBMSs) is navigational access to objects. So far, optimization of this kind of access has been primarily supported by special access path structures or object clustering strategies. Parallelism, although an important topic in large relational systems, has not been explored comprehensively in OODBMSs. In order to evaluate parallel access strategies when collecting a set of objects, we present a cost model to estimate the necessary amount of page I/O. In contrast to others, our cost model covers parallel execution of navigational retrieval operations under a restricted number of available buffer frames. Finally, some measurements validate the cost model.
Simulating dense small cell networks

Through massive deployment of additional small cell infrastructure, Dense Small cell Networks (DSNs) are expected to help meet the foreseen increase in traffic demand on cellular networks. Performance assessment of architectural and protocol solutions tailored to DSNs will require system and network level simulators that can appropriately model the complex interference environment found in those networks. This paper identifies the main features of DSN simulators, and guides the reader in the selection of an appropriate simulator for their desired investigations. We extend our discussion with a comparison of representative DSN simulators.
Chattering Reduction in Sliding Mode Control : An Improvement for Nonlinear Systems

In this paper, an algorithm for the sliding mode control of typical nonlinear systems is proposed. It is based on speed/distance relation during the reaching phase and the state velocity versus state variable relation of 2nd-order nonlinear systems. A new speed control relationship in the reaching phase is developed. The result shows that such relationship performs better than similar ones, and the amount of chattering is being reduced without extra cost. Key-Words: Sliding Mode Control, Nonlinear Systems, Chattering Reduction.
Disobedience of Immoral Orders from Authorities: An Issue Construction Perspective

The purpose of this study is to examine how disobedience to immoral orders from an authority emerges in organizations. Using organizational discourse analysis to analyze the verbal communication of the original participants in Stanley Milgram’s obedience to authority experiments, I show how participants constructed the same experimental situation differently by analyzing their communication. Disobedient participants were more likely to display two different communication patterns: assessing consequences or self-referential objections. In contrast, obedient participants were more likely to seek guidance on the experimental procedure and interrupt the learner’s protests. Overall, I present a process model of how disobedience emerges in situations. This study’s findings also expand our understanding of moral imagination, moral decision making, and employee voice in organizations primarily by demonstrating how people can exercise agency in equivocal situations by constructing the situations they face.
Outsourcing de Serviços de Sistemas De Informação na Banca em Portugal

Ao longo das ultimas decadas a funcao sistemas de informacao (SI) evoluiu e tornou-se verdadeiramente fundamental no seio das organizacoes. Apesar de esta evidencia, nem sempre as organizacoes dispoem dos recursos internos e do know-how necessario para a desenvolver. O outsourcing de servicos de SI tem vindo a apresentar-se como uma alternativa e opcao estrategica no contexto da gestao desta funcao em muitas organizacoes e em varios setores de atividade. Desenvolver uma melhor compreensao sobre as principais praticas de outsourcing de servicos de SI no setor da banca, dadas as particularidades que apresenta (por exemplo relativamente aos requisitos de confidencialidade e sigilo), constitui o objetivo central deste trabalho. Para tal, foi realizado um inquerito baseado em questionario com o intuito de caraterizar, entre outros aspetos, os servicos sujeitos a outsourcing, as principais motivacoes, riscos, barreiras e impactos associados ao outsourcing, bem como aspetos de contratacao, relacao cliente-fornecedor e satisfacao. Os principais resultados obtidos sao apresentados neste artigo.
Quantitative Texture Analysis with the HIPPO TOF Diffractometer

One of the design goals of the neutron time-of-flight (TOF) diffractometer HIPPO (HIgh Pressure - Preferred Orientation) at LANSCE (Los Alamos Neutron Science Center) was efficient quantitative texture analysis. In this paper, the effects of the HIPPO detector geometry and layout on texture analysis, particularly the shape and dimensions of the detector panels, are investigated. An aluminum sample with a strong and asymmetric texture was used to determine the methodological limitations of various methods of quantitative texture analysis. Several algorithms for extracting the orientation distribution function (ODF) from the TOF-spectra are compared: discrete orientations at arbitrary positions, harmonic method in Rietveld codes (MAUD and GSAS) and discrete methods in MAUD. All methods provide a similar representation of the main texture component, but discrete methods have a fundamental advantage over harmonic methods in characterizing regions of the ODF with low orientation densities. For HIPPO data of the present sample, harmonic expansions beyond lmax= 12 introduce subsidiary maxima and minima, which are consistently identified as artifacts. The results of our analysis establishes HIPPO as an efficient instrument to quantitatively determine preferred orientations in relatively short measuring times, if the texture features are not exceedingly sharp (full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) in the ODF > 20-30°).
Genetic Structure of First Nation Communities in the Pacific Northwest

ABSTRACT This study presents genetic data for nine Native American populations from northern North America. Analyses of genetic variation focus on the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Using mitochondrial, Y chromosomal, and autosomal DNA variants, we aimed to more closely address the relationships of geography and language with present genetic diversity among the regional PNW Native American populations. Patterns of genetic diversity exhibited by the three genetic systems were consistent with our hypotheses: genetic variation was more strongly explained by geographic proximity than by linguistic structure. Our findings were corroborated through a variety on analytic approaches, with the unrooted trees for the three genetic systems consistently separating inland from coastal PNW populations. Furthermore, analyses of molecular variance support the trends exhibited by the unrooted trees, with geographic partitioning of PNW populations (FCT = 19.43%, p = 0.010 ± 0.009) accounting for over twice as much of the observed genetic variation as linguistic partitioning of the same populations (FCT = 9.15%, p = 0.193 ± 0.013). These findings demonstrate a consensus with previous PNW population studies examining the relationships of genome-wide variation, mitochondrial haplogroup frequencies, and skeletal morphology with geography and language.
Spectrometer concept and design for X-ray astronomy using a blazed transmission grating

We present a spectrometer design based on a novel nanofabricated blazed X-ray transmission grating which is modeled to have superior efficiency. Here we outline a full instrument design proposed for Constellation-X which is expected to give resolving powers ~2000 (HEW). The spectrometer advantages include lower mass budget and smaller diffractor area, as well as order-of-magnitude more relaxed alignment tolerances for crucial degrees of freedom than reflection grating schemes considered in the past1,2,3. The spectrometer readout is based on conventional CCD technology adapted to operate with very high speed and low power. This instrument will enable high resolution absorption and emission line spectroscopy in the critical band between 0.2 and 1.5 keV.
Smoking is worth the risk: Understanding adolescents' rationalisation of their smoking behaviour

Adolescents are aware of the health risks of cigarette smoking yet still they continue to smoke. This article reports on how Malaysian adolescents rationalised their smoking behaviour despite knowing its danger. In this qualitative study, 26 adolescents (23 smokers and 3 former smokers) were interviewed through 3 focus group interviews and 3 in-depth interviews. The interviews were guided by a semi-structured interview protocol and recorded using audio recorders. This study highlights that the adolescents continued to smoke despite knowing the risks of smoking. They rationalised their smoking by disengaging themselves from the risks through: (1) disregarding the immediate effects of smoking, (2) ignoring the risk information, (3) normalising the mortality risk of smoking, (4) emotionally detaching themselves from relating to the threat, (5) regarding smoking as the lesser evil than other risky behaviour, and (6) discounting the actual risks by citing the exceptional cases. In conclusion, the adolescents might have made a calculated decision after weighing the risks and benefits of smoking but they chose smoking over quitting. This study provides meaningful insights for clinicians and policy makers to understand adolescents’ reasoning for smoking, which then may result in the development of better strategies for challenging the rationalisations of adolescents.
Stat3 Downstream Gene Product Chitinase 3-Like 1 Is a Potential Biomarker of Inflammation-induced Lung Cancer in Multiple Mouse Lung Tumor Models and Humans

Over-activation of the signal transducers and activators of the transcription 3 (Stat3) pathway in lung alveolar type II (AT II) epithelial cells induces chronic inflammation and adenocarcinoma in the lung of CCSP-rtTA/(tetO)7-CMV-Stat3C bitransgenic mice. One of Stat3 downstream genes products, chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1) protein, showed increased concentration in both bronchioalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and blood of doxycycline-treated CCSP-rtTA/(tetO)7-CMV-Stat3C bitransgenic mice. When tested in other inflammation-induced lung cancer mouse models, the CHI3L1 protein concentration was also highly increased in BALF and blood of these models with tumors. Immunohistochemical staining showed strong staining of CHI3L1 protein around tumor areas in these mouse models. Analysis of normal objects and lung cancer patients revealed a significant elevation of CHI3L1 protein concentration in human serum samples from all categories of lung cancers. Furthermore, recombinant CHI3L protein stimulated proliferation and growth of Lewis lung cancer cells. Therefore, secretory CHI3L1 plays an important role in inflammation-induced lung cancer formation and potentially serve as a biomarker for lung cancer prediction. Based on our previous publication and this work, this is the first animal study linking overexpression of CHI3L1 to various lung tumor mouse models. These models will facilitate identification of additional biomarkers to predict and verify lung cancer under various pathogenic conditions, which normally cannot be done in humans.
Surface Modification of Biomaterials: A Quest for Blood Compatibility

Cardiovascular implants must resist thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia to maintain patency. These implants when in contact with blood face a challenge to oppose the natural coagulation process that becomes activated. Surface protein adsorption and their relevant 3D confirmation greatly determine the degree of blood compatibility. A great deal of research efforts are attributed towards realising such a surface, which comprise of a range of methods on surface modification. Surface modification methods can be broadly categorized as physicochemical modifications and biological modifications. These modifications aim to modulate platelet responses directly through modulation of thrombogenic proteins or by inducing antithrombogenic biomolecules that can be biofunctionalised onto surfaces or through inducing an active endothelium. Nanotechnology is recognising a great role in such surface modification of cardiovascular implants through biofunctionalisation of polymers and peptides in nanocomposites and through nanofabrication of polymers which will pave the way for finding a closer blood match through haemostasis when developing cardiovascular implants with a greater degree of patency.
Morphologically Based Automatic Phonetic Transcription

A system is described that automatically generates phonetic transcriptions for German orthographic words. The entire generative process consists of two main steps. In the first step, the system segments the words into their morphs, or prefixes, stems, and suffixes. This segmentation is very important for the transcription of German words, because the pronunciation of the letters depends also on their morphological environment. In the second step, the system transcribes the morphologically segmented words. Several transcriptions can be generated per word, thus permitting the system to take pronunciation variants into account. This feature results from the application area of the system, which is the provision of phonetic reference units for an automatic large-vocabulary speech recognition system. Statistical evaluations show that the transcription system has an excellent linguistic performance: more than 99 percent of the segmented words obtain a correct segmentation in the first step, and more than 98 percent of the words receive a correct phonetic transcription in the second step.
Line Based Visual Navigation Using Pose Clustering

In mobile robot navigation applications it is common to have camera motion and pose (position and orientation) restricted to the ground plane. This allows the pose estimation problem to be solved using only the horizontal image position of features, using a camera aligned with the ground plane. Since these applications also often require relatively high speed performance, the 2D case of pose estimation is of potentially great importance. An analytical solution for the 2D perspective 3-point problem is given. As opposed to the 3D case, this problem has a unique solution. In order to avoid, or at least reduce, matching problems, pose clustering is used for determining the pose without explicit matching. Various ways of reducing combinatorial complexity and making use of a priori knowledge are investigated. The resulting pose estimation algorithm is then used in a Kalman lter based passive motion path estimation system as well as an active robot control navigation system. i ii Acknowledgements The work presented in this thesis would not have been possible without the generous support of my advisors Jan-Olof Eklundh and Stefan Carlsson. I am deeply grateful for their guidance and the insights into the eld of computer vision that they have given me. For much the same reasons, I'm also very grateful to Magnus Andersson, who was my advisor for my Master's thesis, and to some extent also for some time after that. I also direct my gratitude to Kourosh Pahlavan for the KTH Head-eye system he has designed, built, and maintained. It has been used for most of the experiments made for this thesis. I am also very grateful to Tomas Uhlin who has provided lots of invaluable help with all sorts of programming issues and other practical matters regarding both the head-eye system and the mobile platform it is mounted on. Special thanks also go to Matti Rendahl and Harald Winroth for their numerous answers to my computer system and programming questions in my early years, and to Birgit Ekberg-Eriksson and before her Anna Thorsson for their strategic support. For all the help with any L A T E Xrelated questions, I thank Carsten Brr autigam, who also has shared room with me for several years. So has previously Lars Bretzner, and with them I've had many interesting discussions on any topic. For all the other interesting discussions, helpful advice, inspiration, and a generally friendly atmosphere, I would also like …
The long game: five years of simulating the Middle East

Scholarly literature attesting to the benefits of role play in teaching International Relations or Political Science subjects is abundant and universally positive. However, despite many case studies presenting snapshots of single examples, long term data concerning a role play exercise is difficult to find. This study presents student feedback data gathered from ten iterations of the Middle East Politics Simulation carried out over five years from 2011-15. The data obtained from hundreds of respondents establishes very clear trends in terms of satisfaction, engagement and workload. The findings demonstrate that students can be significantly engaged in the subject matter through role plays and that they value these opportunities and the learning that ensues, even though it may represent more work than they are used to allotting to traditional assignments. The results show that year after year, successive student cohorts have made a clear judgement that extra work is worthwhile when it pays off against their perceived learning. The inference can also be drawn that they do not see this same pay off when completing essay type assignments.