Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bacillus anthracis TIR Domain-Containing Protein Localises to Cellular Microtubule Structures and Induces Autophagy

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognise invading pathogens and mediate downstream immune signalling via Toll/IL-1 receptor (TIR) domains. TIR domain proteins (Tdps) have been identified in multiple pathogenic bacteria and have recently been implicated as negative regulators of host innate immune activation. A Tdp has been identified in Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax. Here we present the first study of this protein, designated BaTdp. Recombinantly expressed and purified BaTdp TIR domain interacted with several human TIR domains, including that of the key TLR adaptor MyD88, although BaTdp expression in cultured HEK293 cells had no effect on TLR4- or TLR2- mediated immune activation. During expression in mammalian cells, BaTdp localised to microtubular networks and caused an increase in lipidated cytosolic microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 (LC3), indicative of autophagosome formation. In vivo intra-nasal infection experiments in mice showed that a BaTdp knockout strain colonised host tissue faster with higher bacterial load within 4 days post-infection compared to the wild type B. anthracis. Taken together, these findings indicate that BaTdp does not play an immune suppressive role, but rather, its absence increases virulence. BaTdp present in wild type B. anthracis plausibly interact with the infected host cell, which undergoes autophagy in self-defence.
Text independent speaker recognition using micro-prosody

The acoustic aspects that differentiate voices are difficult to separate from signal traits that reflect the identity of the sounds. There are two sources of variation among speakers: (1) differences in vocal cords and vocal tract shape, and (2) differences in speaking style. The latter includes variations in both target vocal tract positions for phonemes and dynamic aspects of speech, such as speaking rate. However, most parameters and features are in the former. In this paper, we propose the use of a prosodic feature that represents micro prosody of utterances. The robustness of the prosodic feature on noise environment becomes clear. Also we propose a combined model. The combined model uses both the spectral feature and the prosodic feature. In our experiments, this model provides robust speaker recognition in noise environments.
The role of identification with a joke target in perceptions of disparaging humor

In the present research I focus on identifying the variables that affect women’s perceptions of sexist humor. Previous research and theory have identified attitude toward women as the critical predictor of amusement with sexist humor; I propose that the degree of dis-identification with women as a social category is also an important predictor. I conducted two studies to investigate the role that dis-identification with women plays in predicting women's perceptions of sexist humor. In support of my hypothesis, results of Study 1 showed that more dis-identification with women predicted more amusement with sexist humor. Further, in addition to gender attitudes, degree of dis-identification with women mediated the effect of gender on amusement with sexist humor. In Study 2 I found that hostile sexism was related to dis-identification with feminists to a greater degree than with women in general or housewives, and that insofar as women are high in hostile sexism, they interpret the message of humor disparaging feminists less critically than humor disparaging other subgroups of women. Overall, my findings provide support for the hypothesis that women perceive sexist humor more positively to the extent that they dis-identify with women as a social category.
Game Theoretic Best-Response Dynamics for Evacuees' Exit Selection

We present a model for evacuees' exit selection in emergency evacuations. The model is based on the game theoretic concept of best-response dynamics, where each player updates his strategy periodically by reacting optimally to other players' strategies. A fixed point of the system of all players' best-response functions defines a Nash equilibrium (NE) of the game. In the model, the players are the evacuees and the strategies are the possible target exits. We present a mathematical formulation for the model and show that the game has a NE with pure strategies. We also analyze different iterative methods for finding the NE and derive an upper bound for the number of iterations needed to find the equilibrium. Numerical simulations are used to analyze the properties of the model.
Building a tree-bank of modern hebrew text

This paper describes the process of building the first tree-bank for Modern Hebrew texts. A major concern in this process is the need for reducing the cost of manual annotation by the use of automatic means. To this end, the joint utility of an automatic morphological analyzer, a probabilistic parser and a small manually annotated tree-bank was explored. An initial tree-bank that consists of 500 annotated sentences from a daily newspaper is de- scribed. The annotation scheme that underlies the analyses in the tree-bank integrates morphol- ogy and syntax. An existing morphological analyzer and a language-independent probabilistic parser were applied to this tree-bank. Based on the results of some experiments with these tools, a semi-automatic procedure for future enlargement of the tree-bank is outlined. This procedure starts out with the manual segmentation of words into morpheme sequences, then continues with automatic POS tagging and parsing of these morpheme sequences, followed by manual correction of the resulting parse-trees. The proposed procedure is expected to reduce the cost of the next annotation stages in this corpus.
What You See Isn't Always What You Get: A Measurement Study of Usage Fraud on Android Apps

We studied a new type of fraudulent activities, usage fraud, on Android platform in this paper. Different from previous fraud on mobile platforms targeting advertisers or mobile users, usage fraud was invented to boost usage statistics on third-party analytics platforms like Google Analytics to cheat investors. To understand the business model and infrastructures employed by the fraudsters, we infiltrated two underground services, Laicaimao and Anzhibao. A number of insights have been gained during this course, including the use of emulators and manipulation of user identifiers. In addition, we evaluated the efficacy of the existing fraud services and the defense status quo on 8 popular analytics platforms. Our result indicates that the fraud services are indeed capable of crafting valid usage numbers and the basic checks are missed by analytics platforms. We give several recommendations in the end and call for the contribution from the community to fight against this new type of fraud.
Fuzzy Analysis of Delivery Outcome Attributes for Improving the Automated Fetal State Assessment

ABSTRACT Cardiotocography (CTG) is a standard procedure for fetal monitoring during pregnancy and labor. A number of automated methods for the classification of CTG recordings are based on supervised learning. Machine learning requires a set of parameters that quantitatively describe the acquired signals accompanied by a reference interpretation. This article presents a method of retrospective fetal-state assessment using the results of the fuzzy analysis of delivery outcome attributes. In real clinical datasets the class of signals related to an abnormal fetal state is usually underrepresented, which adversely affects the efficiency of the automated evaluation. Additionally, a method for reducing the disproportion between the class sizes based on the proposed fuzzy model is described. The fuzzy-inference-based learning of the Lagrangian Support Vector Machine (LSVM) increased the resulting efficiency of the fetal-state assessment.
Multivariate analysis of randomized response data

The thesis describes the multivariate analysis of randomized response data. Randomized response was introduced in 1965 as an interview technique to eliminate evasive response behavior (Warner, 1965). The questions are answered based on the outcome of a randomizer (a pair of dice, a deck of cards), so that the privacy of the respondents is protected. Research has shown that randomized response results in more valid answers than direct questions (van der Heijden et al., 2000 and Lensvelt-Mulders et al. 2005). During the past decade randomized response is used regularly by the Dutch administration to assess regulatory noncompliance. A well-known randomized response design is forced response (Boruch, 1971). In this design the respondent tosses two dice and answers the sensitive question based on the outcome of the two dice. If the outcome is 2, 3 or 4 the respondent has to answer is "yes", and if the outcome is 11 or 12, the respondents has to answer "no". If the outcome is 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10, the respondents has answer truthfully. Since only respondent knows the outcome of the dice, confidentiality is ensured. Until recently randomized response was used to obtain a prevalence estimate of the sensitive behavior under study. Lately multivariate techniques have been developed to analyze the dependence of the sensitive behavior on other variables, like age, gender, education, etc. It has also become possible to analyze the associations between different sensitive behavior. The latest development is the estimation of self-protective response behavior, which occurs when respondents consistently give the non-sensitive response, irrespective the outcome of the randomizer. In this thesis four models for the multivariate analysis of randomized response data are presented. The models include the log-linear model, the proportional odds model, and two version of the zero-inflated Poisson model. Te models are applied to data from nationwide social welfare surveys that were conducted by the Dutch administration in the years 200, 200, 2004 and 2006.
Social Work Practice Placements in Aotearoa New Zealand: Agency Managers Perspectives

Agency managers are one of the key stakeholders in social work education, particularly in respect of practice placements. Managers play several roles within the placement context, acting as gatekeepers, supporters, mentors, potential employers and sometimes assessors of students. This study sought the perspectives of the managers of 13 social service organisations in New Zealand on practice placements. The findings of the study show that managers have preferences for specific attributes in social work students, including flexibility, humility, confidence and resilience. Challenges with placements are associated with student personal, interpersonal and cognitive capabilities, organisational factors and the tertiary institution. The findings also illustrate that the main benefits and motivations for supporting students are for the professional development of staff, completion of agency work, recruitment and workforce development. The article concludes that it is time for a new focus on understanding and supporting the development and assessment of student personal and interpersonal capabilities as well as skill and knowledge competencies. Furthermore, since managers are directly engaged with social work practice and are ultimately deciding which graduates to employ, greater consideration should be given to how institutions and employers can work together to determine which personal and interpersonal capabilities are relevant and necessary for the workplace.
Finding the needles in the haystack: Generating legal test inputs for object-oriented programs

A test input for an object-oriented program typically consists of a sequence of method calls that use the API defined by the program under test. Generating legal test inputs can be challenging because, for some programs, the set of legal method sequences is much smaller than the set of all possible sequences; without a formal specification of legal sequences, an input generator is bound to produce mostly illegal sequences. We propose a scalable technique that combines dynamic analysis with random testing to help an input generator create legal test inputs without a formal specification, even for programs in which most sequences are illegal. The technique uses an example execution of the program to infer a model of legal call sequences, and uses the model to guide a random input generator towards legal but behaviorally-diverse sequences. We have implemented our technique for Java, in a tool called Palulu, and evaluated its effectiveness in creating legal inputs for real programs. Our experimental results indicate that the technique is effective and scalable. Our preliminary evaluation indicates that the technique can quickly generate legal sequences for complex inputs: in a case study, Palulu created legal test inputs in seconds for a set of complex classes, for which it took an expert thirty minutes to generate a single legal input.
Article in press-uncorrected proof Letter to the Editor Measurement of nitrotyrosine in plasma by immunoassays is fraught with danger : commercial availability is no guarantee of analytical reliability

In a recent article, Safinowski and colleagues reported that the use of four different commercially available immunoassays for plasma nitrotyrosine led to contradictory results (1). The authors concluded that all three ELISA methods tested were inadequate, while the competitive luminescence assay (CLIA) method (Millipore St. Charles, MO, USA) is the method of choice for nitrotyrosine measurement in human plasma when the liquid tandem chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method is not available. Although I agree with a few of the points addressed by Safinowski and colleagues, there are numerous other issues which deserve critical discussion. In recent years, many groups have critically discussed the problems fraught with the measurement of the soluble amino acid 3-nitrotyrosine (NO2Tyr) and its protein-associated form (NO2TyrProt), determined either by immunological, chromatographic or mass spectrometry (MS) methods (2–8). Regrettably, most research groups, including Safinowski and colleagues, have not given sufficient attention to these constructive critiques and the helpful suggestions made therein. Analytical problems do not only occur in immunological assays (3), but may be seen with HPLC methods using various detection techniques, and even with MS-based methods including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), GC-MS/MS, LC-MS and LC-MS/MS (4–8). Methodological problems that occur with analysis of nitrotyrosine have been thoroughly addressed by many groups, and adequate solutions have been provided to overcome the difficulties (2–8). In particular, the source and nature of the analytical problems associated with NO2Tyr analysis have been unequivocally
Processing Continuous Historical Queries over XML Update Streams

We address the problem of processing continuous historical queries over streams of XML data, returning continuous, exact answers. The stream data considered are tokenized XML data with embedded updates for inserting, removing, or replacing stream subsequences that correspond to complete XML tree nodes when they are fully materialized to trees. Our query language for expressing historical queries is XQuery extended with temporal annotations that specify sliding windows that focus on the stream results of query subexpressions, rather than on the query input streams. We have developed a novel architecture that can evaluate historical queries over large XML data streams using short history lists. Instead of buffering a fixed-size window, sliding through the input stream events, we focus on the temporal requirements of individual operations derived from the query and use history lists to cache the state history of the operation as long as necessary to answer the query.
PDFgetXgui: a graphical user interface for PDFgetX3 for high throughput pair distribution function transformation and visualization

The xPDFsuite software program is described. It is for processing and analyzing atomic pair distribution functions (PDF) from X-ray powder diffraction data. It provides a convenient GUI for SrXplanr and PDFgetX3, allowing the users to easily obtain 1D diffraction pattern from raw 2D diffraction images and then transform them to PDFs. It also bundles PDFgui which allows the users to create structure models and fit to the experiment data. It is specially useful for working with large numbers of datasets such as from high throughout measurements. Some of the key features are: real time PDF transformation and plotting; 2D waterfall, false color heatmap, and 3D contour plotting for multiple datasets; static and dynamic mask editing; geometric calibration of powder diffraction image; configurations and project saving and loading; Pearson correlation analysis on selected datasets; written in Python and support multiple platforms.
An accurate and efficient gate level delay calculator for MOS circuits

The authors describe an accurate and efficient gate-level delay calculator that automatically characterizes and computes the gate delays of MOS circuits. The high accuracy is attributed to a sophisticated delay model, which includes an accurate representation of the waveform, a consistent and meaningful definition of delay, a consideration of waveform slope effects at both the input and output of a gate, and an innovative approach for handling transmission gate circuits. The highly efficient delay characterization is accomplished through a fast timing simulation technique, a theorem that reduces a two-dimensional delay table into a scaled one-dimensional table, and an incremental characterization process. The delay calculator has been used in a production timing analyzer and a production multiple delay simulator since 1986. The multiple delay simulator performs 5000 times faster than a SPICE-like circuit simulator at only 15% cost of accuracy. Gate delay models, delay characterization, and practical examples are presented. <<ETX>>
Robust human face recognition based on locality preserving sparse over complete block approximation

Compressive Sensing (CS) has become one of the standard methods in face recognition due to the success of the family of Sparse Representation based Classification (SRC) algorithms. However it has been shown that in some cases, the locality of the dictionary codewords is more essential than the sparsity. Also sparse coding does not guarantee to be local which could lead to an unstable solution. We therefore consider the statistically optimal aspects of encoding that guarantee the best approximation of the query image to a dictionary that incorporates varying acquisition conditions. We focus on the investigation, analysis and experimental validation of the best robust classifier/predictor and consider frontal face image variability induced by noise, lighting, expression, pose, etc. We compare two image representations using a pixel-wise approximation and an overcomplete block-wise approximation with two types of sparsity priors. In the first type we consider all samples from a single subject and in the second type we consider all samples from all subjects. The experiments on a publicly available dataset using low resolution images showed that several per subject sample sparsity prior approximations are as good as the results presented from SCR and that our simple overcomplete block-wise approximation provides superior performance in comparison to the SRC and WSRC algorithm.
RBM: A Role Based Mobility Model for VANET

Simulation is an important approach to evaluate protocols. Realistic simulations lead to accurate evaluations. However, most of evaluations in VANET recently were still using MANET mobility models or MANET models with a map bounder. Existing VANET mobility models, which treat all nodes identical, cannot reach most researchers' demand. In this paper, we develop a role based mobility model for VANET. On contrast to existing models, nodes are differentiated by their roles. And nodes playing different roles have different strategy on both macro and micro mobility scope. Simulation shows that this new model are more realistic than existing models and can lead to many daily traffic situations that is easily observed in real life.
Dentists’ practice patterns regarding caries prevention: results from a dental practice-based research network

Objective The purposes of this study were to (1) quantify dentists' practice patterns regarding caries prevention and (2) test the hypothesis that certain dentists' characteristics are associated with these practice patterns. Design The study used a cross-sectional study design consisting of a questionnaire survey. Participants The study queried dentists who worked in outpatient dental practices who were affiliated with the Dental Practice-Based Research Network Japan, which seeks to engage dentists in investigating research questions and sharing experiences and expertise (n=282). Measurement Dentists were asked about their practice patterns regarding caries preventive dentistry. Background data on patients, practice and dentist were also collected. Results 38% of dentists (n=72) provided individualised caries prevention to more than 50% of their patients. Overall, 10% of the time in daily practice was spent on caries preventive dentistry. Dentists who provided individualised caries prevention to more than 50% of their patients spent significantly more time on preventive care and less time on removable prosthetics treatment, compared to dentists who did not provide individualised caries prevention. Additionally, they provided oral hygiene instruction, patient education, fluoride recommendations, intraoral photographs taken and diet counselling to their patients significantly more often than dentists who did not provide individualised caries prevention. Multiple logistic regression analysis suggested that the percentage of patients interested in caries prevention and the percentage of patients who received hygiene instruction, were both associated with the percentage of patients who receive individualised caries prevention. Conclusions We identified substantial variation in dentists' practice patterns regarding preventive dentistry. Individualised caries prevention was significantly related to provision of other preventive services and to having a higher percentage of patients interested in caries prevention, but not to the dentist's belief about the effectiveness of caries risk assessment. (Clinicaltrials.gov registration number NCT01 680 848).
Decentralized querying of topological relations between regions without using localization

This paper proposes an efficient, decentralized algorithm for determining the topological relationship between two regions monitored by a geosensor network. Many centralized algorithms already exist for this purpose (used for example in spatial databases). However, these algorithms are not suited to decentralized spatial computing environments, like geosensor networks, which must operate without global knowledge of the system state and without centralized control. Unlike many existing decentralized spatial algorithms, the proposed algorithm is also able to operate in the absence of information about a node's coordinate location. This makes the algorithm suitable for applications of geosensor networks where GPS or other positioning systems are unavailable or unreliable. The algorithm approach is founded on the well-known 4-intersection model, using in-network data aggregation and spatial filtering (involving nodes only at some region boundaries). This ensures only a relatively small proportion of the network is involved in computation, thus increasing efficiency. Our analysis shows that while the overall communication complexity of the algorithm is O(n), the load balancing is optimal leading to a constant O(1) communication complexity for individual nodes. This expectation is confirmed with empirical investigation using simulation, which demonstrates the practical efficiency of the algorithm.