Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk factors for excess body fatness in New Zealand children.

OBJECTIVE To identify demographic and lifestyle risk factors for excess body fatness in a multiethnic sample of New Zealand children. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1229 European, Polynesian, Asian, and 'Other' children aged 5-11 y (603 male, 626 female) living in New Zealand. MEASUREMENTS Percentage body fat (%BF) was measured using hand-to-foot bioelectrical impedance analysis, and overfat participants were defined as those with a %BF greater than 25% (boys) and 30% (girls). A parent proxy questionnaire was developed for assessing demographic and lifestyle factors, and multiday memory pedometers were used to estimate physical activity levels over five days. RESULTS After controlling for differences in sex, age, and socioeconomic status (SES), Asian children were more likely to have excess body fat than European children. The adjusted odds of overfat also increased with age and decreased with SES. Three lifestyle risk factors related to fat status were identified: low physical activity, skipping breakfast, and insufficient sleep on weekdays. Clustering of these risk factors resulted in a cumulative increase in the prevalence of overfat. Active transport, sports participation, lunch bought at school, fast food consumption, sugary drink consumption, and weekend sleep duration were not associated with fat status after adjustment for the selected demographic variables. CONCLUSION The findings from this study enhance our understanding of the risk factors for excess body fatness in New Zealand children, and highlight key demographic and lifestyle priorities for future interventions.
The progressive target search mechanism of visual scene

Local saliency of a target describes the difference between the target and its surroundings, an effective way to improve the efficiency of searching for a target is to enhance its local saliency. To resolve the visual search and localization problem in vision-based robotics, this paper proposes a stepwise method that approaches the target in a successive way. The method has two main features: (1) a search path is established in searching for objects with high saliency based on saliency analysis; (2) In the process of target search and localization, the relationship between object locations is utilized to reduce the size of search regions step by step and, simultaneously, enhance the saliency of objects inside regions. Experimental results indicate the efficiency of the method for target search and localization under complex scenes.
Interpreting angina: symptoms along a gender continuum

Background ‘Typical’ angina is often used to describe symptoms common among men, while ‘atypical’ angina is used to describe symptoms common among women, despite a higher prevalence of angina among women. This discrepancy is a source of controversy in cardiac care among women. Objectives To redefine angina by (1) qualitatively comparing angina symptoms and experiences in women and men and (2) to propose a more meaningful construct of angina that integrates a more gender-centred approach. Methods Patients were recruited between July and December 2010 from a tertiary cardiac care centre and interviewed immediately prior to their first angiogram. Symptoms were explored through in-depth semi-structured interviews, transcribed verbatim and analysed concurrently using a modified grounded theory approach. Angiographically significant disease was assessed at ≥70% stenosis of a major epicardial vessel. Results Among 31 total patients, 13 men and 14 women had angiograpically significant CAD. Patients describe angina symptoms according to 6 symptomatic subthemes that array along a ‘gender continuum’. Gender-specific symptoms are anchored at each end of the continuum. At the centre of the continuum, are a remarkably large number of symptoms commonly expressed by both men and women. Conclusions The ‘gender continuum’ offers new insights into angina experiences of angiography candidates. Notably, there is more overlap of shared experiences between men and women than conventionally thought. The gender continuum can help researchers and clinicians contextualise patient symptom reports, avoiding the conventional ‘typical’ versus ‘atypical’ distinction that can misrepresent gendered angina experiences.
A Potential Approach to Overcome Data Limitation in Scientific Publication Recommendation

Data are essential for the experiments of relevant scientific publication recommendation methods but it is difficult to build ground truth data. A naturally promising solution is using publications that are referenced by researchers to build their ground truth data. Unfortunately, this approach has not been explored in the literature, so its applicability is still a gap in our knowledge. In this research, we systematically study this approach by theoretical and empirical analyses. In general, the results show that this approach is reasonable and has many advantages. However, the empirical analysis shows both positive and negative results. We conclude that, in some situations, this is a useful alternative approach toward overcoming data limitation. Based on this approach, we build and publish a dataset in computer science domain to help advancing other researches.
Mining Knowledge from Data: An Information Network Analysis Approach

Most objects and data in the real world are interconnected, forming complex, heterogeneous but often semistructured information networks. However, many database researchers consider a database merely as a data repository that supports storage and retrieval rather than an information-rich, inter-related and multi-typed information network that supports comprehensive data analysis, whereas many network researchers focus on homogeneous networks. Departing from both, we view interconnected, semi-structured datasets as heterogeneous, information-rich networks and study how to uncover hidden knowledge in such networks. For example, a university database can be viewed as a heterogeneous information network, where objects of multiple types, such as students, professors, courses, departments, and multiple typed relationships, such as teach and advise are intertwined together, providing abundant information. In this tutorial, we present an organized picture on mining heterogeneous information networks and introduce a set of interesting, effective and scalable network mining methods. The topics to be covered include (i) database as an information network, (ii) mining information networks: clustering, classification, ranking, similarity search, and meta path-guided analysis, (iii) construction of quality, informative networks by data mining, (iv) trend and evolution analysis in heterogeneous information networks, and (v) research frontiers. We show that heterogeneous information networks are informative, and link analysis on such networks is powerful at uncovering critical knowledge hidden in large semi-structured datasets. Finally, we also present a few promising research directions.
On Binary Probing Signals and Instrumental Variables Receivers for Radar

The so-called merit factor approach (MFA) to radar binary sequence design has led to several theoretical contributions in fairly diverse research areas including information theory, computer science, combinatorial optimization, and analytical number theory. However, the MFA-which basically aims at minimizing the clutter effect on radar performance-implicitly assumes the use of a least squares (LS) receiver that is optimal only when there is no clutter. This problem can be eliminated by using a more general optimal instrumental-variables (IV) receiver in lieu of the LS receiver. The IV receiver can reject clutter more efficiently than the LS receiver. Additionally, the binary sequence design problem associated with the IV approach has an interesting form.
Let Chaos Reign, then Rein in Chaos - Repeatedly: Managing Strategic Dynamics for Corporate Longevity

Combining longitudinal field research and executive experience, we propose that corporate longevity depends on matching cycles of autonomous and induced strategy processes to different forms of strategic dynamics, and that the role of alert strategic leadership is to appropriately balance the induced and autonomous processes throughout these cycles. We also propose that such strategic leadership is the means through which leadership style exerts its influence on corporate longevity. Our findings can be related to organizational research on structural inertia, learning and adaptation, as well as to formal theories of complex adaptive systems. They also contribute to resolving the seeming contradiction between a study of corporations that attributes exceptional long-term success to leadership style, and the more common proposition that strategy is the determinant of long-term performance.
Language policy and teacher team coordination practices in secondary CLIL schools

Foreign language learning at schools protects not only Europe's cultural heritage but it is also a key issue for our children to become world citizens. One of the ways in which educational systems are coping with this demand is through the CLIL teaching approach where content teachers and language teachers need to work in teams and to collaborate. Though the relationships established between teachers are key processes when dealing with CLIL programmes, few empirical studies from an emic point of view have been carried out. The present case study analyses the role of coordinator teachers supporting CLIL teachers to develop pedagogical practices in their CLIL classes. Direct observation, interviews and questionnaires help to describe CLIL teams in Spanish/Andalusian secondary schools and examine the development of their professional learning. Results indicate some training guidelines that should be included in European language policies of similar contexts to help CLIL teachers in their professional development.L'apprentissage des langues étrangères dans les écoles protège non seulement l'héritage culturel de l'Europe, mais c'est aussi un élément clé pour que nos enfants deviennent des citoyens du monde. Une des façons dont les systèmes éducatifs font face à cette demande est l'approche d'enseignement CLIL/EMILE où les enseignants et les enseignants de langues doivent travailler en équipe et collaborer. Bien que les relations établies entre les enseignants soient des processus clés lorsqu'ils traitent des programmes CLIL, peu d'études empiriques ont été réalisées d'un point de vue émique. La présente étude de cas analyse le rôle des enseignants coordonnateurs qui soutiennent les enseignants de CLIL pour développer des pratiques pédagogiques dans leurs classes CLIL. L'observation directe, les entretiens et les questionnaires permettent de décrire les équipes CLIL dans les écoles secondaires espagnoles et andalouses et d'examiner le développement de leur apprentissage professionnel. Les résultats indiquent certaines lignes directrices de formation qui devraient être incluses dans les politiques linguistiques européennes de contextes similaires pour aider les enseignants CLIL dans leur développement professionnel.
Multi-period Mean-Variance Model with Uncertain Exit Time

By using Lagrange duality methods, this paper studies the multi-period mean-variance portfolio selection problem with uncertain exit time. Firstly, according to Lagrange duality theorem, we turn the original mean-variance problem into a multi-period optimization problem, which contains a Lagrange multiplier with separability and so can be solved by dynamic programming approach. Secondly, we obtain the analytical solution to the corresponding basic equation, and explicitly obtain the efficient investment strategy and efficient frontier for the original mean-variance problem.
Increased DNA Dicarbonyl Glycation and Oxidation Markers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Link to Diabetic Nephropathy

Aim. The aim of this study was to assess the changes of markers of DNA damage by glycation and oxidation in patients with type 2 diabetes and the association with diabetic nephropathy. Methodology. DNA oxidation and glycation adducts were analysed in plasma and urine by stable isotopic dilution analysis liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. DNA markers analysed were as follows: the oxidation adduct 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OxodG) and glycation adducts of glyoxal and methylglyoxal—imidazopurinones GdG, MGdG, and N2-(1,R/S-carboxyethyl)deoxyguanosine (CEdG). Results. Plasma 8-OxodG and GdG were increased 2-fold and 6-fold, respectively, in patients with type 2 diabetes, with respect to healthy volunteers. Median urinary excretion rates of 8-OxodG, GdG, MGdG, and CEdG were increased 28-fold, 10-fold, 2-fold, and 2-fold, respectively, in patients with type 2 diabetes with respect to healthy controls. In patients with type 2 diabetes, nephropathy was associated with increased plasma 8-OxodG and increased urinary GdG and CEdG. In a multiple logistic regression model for diabetic nephropathy, diabetic nephropathy was linked to systolic blood pressure and urinary CEdG. Conclusion. DNA oxidative and glycation damage-derived nucleoside adducts are increased in plasma and urine of patients with type 2 diabetes and further increased in patients with diabetic nephropathy.
Examination of Science and Technology Teachers’ Attitude and Opinions Related Giftedness and Gifted Education in Turkey

In this study, it is aimed to examine the Science and Technology teachers’ attitude and views related giftedness and gifted education. This research used both qualitative and quantitative research designs, is a mixed pattern research. The study group of the research consists of 111 Science and Technology teachers in the academic year 2011-2012 in the province of A. These participants were applied Teacher Attitude Scale towards Gifted Education (TASGE) as collection of quantitative data. For obtaining qualitative data, semi-structured interview was used with four science and technology teachers. For the analysis of quantitative data, percentage, frequency, t-test and analysis of variance were used. The data obtained from the interview were subjected to content analysis. As a result, science and technology teachers' attitudes towards gifted education were found to be slightly above the undecided attitude. In addition, science and technology teachers stated that supportive education for gifted children in Science and Art Centers (SACs) was insufficient and they adequately could not cooperated with this institution.
Using rating scales to evaluate quality early childhood education and care: reliability issues

ABSTRACT Four rating scales for accessing aspects of early childhood education and care programs’ quality were employed for the present study. The aim of the study was to examine scales’ reliability by using them in one preschool and one infant/toddler classroom during the course of a week. Research results suggest that early childhood education and care programs include both static and dynamic variables. Activities and types of interaction were found to fluctuate over days whereas the other aspects of the global quality of the classrooms remained consistent over days. Implications of these findings are discussed. The paper emphasizes the importance of using multiple rating scales in order to assess quality dimensions in early childhood education and care programs.
Toward a Taxonomy of Information Needs of Informal Carers - a Case Study of a Carer of a Child with Diabetes

Objective: This paper proposes and reports on an empirical test a taxonomy of information needs of informal carers that assists in understanding their information needs comprehensively. Background: Little research has been done into the kinds of information needs that arise over time and during different situations in the lived experience of being an informal carer. Moreover, this research has concentrated on carer's information needs that are most directly related to their patients' needs. Information needs related to other aspects of being a carer have hardly been addressed in the literature. Drawing upon previous research on the information needs of informal carers, this paper suggests four main categories of information needs of informal carers: (i) information needs related to the persons needing care, (ii) information needs related to the informal carers themselves, (iii) information needs related to the interaction between the persons needing care and informal carers; and (iv) information related to the interaction between informal carers and other parties. Methods: This paper adopts a qualitative case study approach and utilises data from a carer of a child with Type 1 diabetes. The qualitative approach combined data from a seven-day activity diary and a semi-structured interview. Results: Analysis of the case study shows information needs in all four categories, although not evenly distributed across them. Discussion: The paper discusses the adequacy of the four proposed categories to describe the information needs in this case study, and outlines directions for further research.
A Functional Pattern Generation Method For Faulty Scan Chain Diagnosis

For functional failure analysis, use of the scan design for effective testing of sequential circuits is very popular and can be considered as the normal procedure in the LSI industry because the scan circuitry in high density logic ICs can detect and locate defects by observing internal nodes. The result can be used to turn up the fabrication process and improve quality, but the trade off is that the logic circuitry associated with the scan path may occupy as much as 30% of the total area of the circuit. In this paper, we will describe a new technique for the efficient diagnosis of the faulty scan chain. We used logic functional vectors to generate the scan chain diagnostic patterns to fill up cells with the known values, in order to differentiate between faulty scan cells and good chains. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Access Control with Effective User Revocation for Cloud Data Sharing System

With the development and benefits of cloud computing, nowadays more and more users outsource their data to third party cloud storage servers for ease of sharing and cost saving. Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) is a promising tool for enabling fine-grained access control over the shared data in the cloud. However, the practical application of CP-ABE in cloud data sharing system also has its own inherent challenge to regard with user revocation. To address this challenge, the paper proposes a CP-ABE scheme which supports an effective user revocation mechanism by introducing "the essential attribute" and by considering minimally trusted proxy servers, the essential attribute must be included in both ciphertext and update-key. By excluding the revoked users from update-key (which is a part of a decryption key) and by re-encrypting the only component in ciphertexts, which is associated with the essential attribute, our scheme achieves immediate and complete user revocation mechanism in CP-ABE. The proposed scheme enables a scalable and fine-grained access control for cloud data sharing system. Our scheme provides more efficiency and security level simultaneously comparing to the existing user revocable CP-ABE scheme.
Bayesian Approach to Imputing a Consumption-Income Panel Using the PSID and CEX”

Many important questions in Macro and Labor economics can only be answered using a panel of income and consumption data. Since there is no existing joint panel in the U.S., previous papers have developed estimation strategies to impute consumption data from the CEX to the PSID. This paper develops an alternative Bayesian imputation algorithm that uses the full information from the likelihood of data contained in both the PSID and CEX and provides information about the uncertainty surrounding imputed values. Food consumption is available in both datasets, while total consumption is only available in the CEX. Following Blundell, Pistaferri, and Preston (2006) we specify a statistical relationship between food consumption, total consumption, and other (jointly available) covariates. We treat an individual agent’s total consumption at time t as a latent variable and sample from the joint posterior distribution of latent states and parameters governing the food demand equation, given the data contained in the PSID and CEX simultaneously. This extremely high dimensional posterior distribution imposes sampling challenges that are overcome by exploiting derivatives of the posterior distribution using a variant of the Metropolis Adjusted Langevin Algorithm. ∗Contact Information: matthew.e. smith@gmail.com; tonetti@stanford.edu. We thank Taisuke Nakata, Tom Sargent, Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, and Gianluca Violante for useful comments and suggestions and Eran Hoffmann for excellent research assistance. Disclaimer: This paper represents the personal work product and views of Matthew Smith and have neither been reviewed nor endorsed by Hutchin Hill Capital, LP, its affiliates, any funds advised by them, or any of their officers, directors, employees, agents, partners, principals, owners, or shareholders (collectively, “Hutchin Hill Parties”). No representation or warranty is made by Matthew Smith or any Hutchin Hill Party about the completeness or accuracy of any information provided herein, and such parties expressly disclaim all liability for any of the information contained in these materials. These materials have been prepared for educational use only and may not be relied upon for any other purpose (including without limitation any commercial purpose). These materials do not constitute an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any security or financial instrument or investment advisory services. No Hutchin Hill Party shall be liable or have any obligation with respect to this paper or any reliance thereon.
Hybrid, Three-stage Named Entity Recognizer for Tamil

The aim of this paper is to present the construction of a hybrid, three-stage named entity recognizer for Tamil. Named entity recognition performs an in-place tagging task for a given Tamil document in three phases namely shallow parsing, shallow semantic parsing and statistical processing. The E-M algorithm (HMM) is used in the statistical processing phase, with initial probabilities obtained from the shallow parsing phase, and a modification to the E-M algorithm deals with inputs from the shallow semantic parsing phase. This study is concentrated on entity names (personal names, location names and organization names), temporal expressions (dates and times) and number expressions. Both NER tags and POS tags are used as the hidden variables in the E-M algorithm. The average Fvalues obtained from the system 72.72% for the various entity types.
Modeling and Controlling Downgrading Operations in Information Systems

In existing systems, information are protected by security models that control the accesses to the information, depending on their security level. In such systems, allowing accesses that were previously denied by diminishing the security level of the information is called downgrading. Controlling this downgrade of sensitive information is an important issue in computer security, as it requires the definition of formal security models able to express contextual authorisations for some information flows. In traditional security models, information downgrading is however most of the time not taken into account and must be managed by external systems. In some recent security models, information downgrading is defined, but for specific security policies, which limits the downgrading controls. In order to be able to express a generic information downgrading control, we present in this article a formalization of the different concepts of downgrading and we propose a model to specify and control downgrade operations. Contrary to existing downgrading models, our model relies on an abstract security policy in order to define downgrading controls that are not restricted to specific scenarios.