Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lung Cancer Risk from Occupational and Environmental Radon and Role of Smoking in Two Czech Nested Case-Control Studies

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the risk of lung cancer from combined exposure to radon and smoking. Methodologically, it is based on case-control studies nested within two Czech cohort studies of nearly 11,000 miners followed-up for mortality in 1952–2010 and nearly 12,000 inhabitants exposed to high levels of radon in homes, with mortality follow-up in 1960–2010. In addition to recorded radon exposure, these studies use information on smoking collected from the subjects or their relatives. A total of 1,029 and 370 cases with smoking information have been observed in the occupational and environmental (residential) studies, respectively. Three or four control subjects have been individually matched to cases according to sex, year of birth, and age. The combined effect from radon and smoking is analyzed in terms of geometric mixture models of which the additive and multiplicative models are special cases. The resulting models are relatively close to the additive interaction (mixing parameter 0.2 and 0.3 in the occupational and residential studies, respectively). The impact of the resulting model in the residential radon study is illustrated by estimates of lifetime risk in hypothetical populations of smokers and non-smokers. In comparison to the multiplicative risk model, the lifetime risk from the best geometric mixture model is considerably higher, particularly in the non-smoking population.
Robust flight control system using neural networks: Adaptive dynamic surface design approach

In this paper, we propose an adaptive control method for micro aerial vehicle(MAV) flight system with model uncertainties. The proposed control system is constructed by the combination of the adaptive dynamic surface control(ADSC) technique and the self recurrent wavelet neural network(SRWNN). The ADSC technique which make the virtual controller using the first order filter provides us with the ability to overcome the explosion of complexity problems of the backstepping controller. The SRWNNs are used to observe the arbitrary model uncertainties of MAV flight system, and all their weights are trained on-line. From the Lyapunov stability theory, we derive the on-line tuning algorithms for all weights of SRWNNs and prove that all signals of a closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded(UUB). Finally, we perform simulations to demonstrate the tracking performance and robustness of the proposed MAV control system during the pursuit guidance landing.
Non-intrusive scheduling of TCP flows

We investigate how to build a non-intrusive scheduled TCP. For the flows of a given origin-destination pair, the objective is to schedule their TCP segments (according to some desired criteria) without modifying the network bandwidth-share used by these flows, which in turn ensures friendliness with respect to the rest of the network. We show that in order for a scheduling algorithm to be strictly non-intrusive, a sufficient and necessary condition is that the sender's and receiver's buffers are infinite. We then show that, under the additional condition that segments are neither lost or reordered, the number of active TCP flows can be minimized by size-based schedulers, and we propose a new scheduler FAIR, which guarantees that the transfer time of every TCP flow for the origin-destination pair is reduced. We develop SCHED_TCP, a user space implementation of our scheme in order to evaluate its performance on the Internet. Our experiments illustrate the non-intrusive property of SCHED_TCP, and also illustrate that the performance gain with SCHED_TCP can be considerable. Our scheme is scalable, and it could be incrementally deployed on the Internet improving the user experience on every origin-destination pair. The main application domain of our approach correspond to situations in which there are many concurrent TCP connections within the same origin-destination pair, this might happen as a consequence of HTTP 1.1, Web 2.0 applications using AJAX (Google Maps etc.), Split TCP, Parallel Sockets, and also with the use of ChromeBook's where the user accesses to all services through the same back-end server infrastructure.
A programmable editor for developing structured documents based on bidirectional transformations

This paper presents an application of bidirectional transformation to the design and implementation of a novel editor supporting interactive refinement in the development of structured documents. The user performs a sequence of editing operations on a view of the document, and the editor automatically derives an efficient and reliable document source and a transformation that produces the document view. The editor is unique in its programmability, in the sense that transformations can be obtained through editing operations. It uses the view-updating technique developed in the database community and a new bidirectional transformation language that can describe not only the relationship between the document source and its view, but also the data dependency in the view.
Intergroup Attitudes and Relations in Childhood Through Adulthood

1. Intergroup Attitudes and Relations in Childhood Through Adulthood: An Introduction SECTION I: THE FORMATION OF INTERGROUP ATTITUDES AND RELATIONSHIPS 2. Children's subjective identification with social groups 3. Peer Group Rejection and Children's Intergroup Prejudice 4. The Development of Subjective Group Dynamics 5. Gender Stereotyping and Prejudice in Young Children: A Developmental Intergroup Perspective 6. The Development of Intergroup Social Cognition: Early Emergence, Implicit Nature, and Sensitivity to Group Status SECTION II: SOCIAL EVALUATION AND REASONING ABOUT INTERGROUP ATTITUDES AND RELATIONSHIPS 7. Intergroup attitudes and reasoning about social exclusion in majority and minority children in Spain 8. Explicit Judgments and Implicit Bias: A Developmental Perspective 9. A Social-Developmental Perspective on Lay Theories and Intergroup Relations 10. Multiculturalism and group evaluations among minority and majority groups 11. The Multifaceted Nature of Sexual Prejudice: How Adolescents Reason about Sexual Orientation and Sexual Prejudice SECTION III: FOSTERING CHANGE IN INTERGROUP ATTITUDES AND RELATIONSHIPS 12. An Integrative Approach to Changing Children's Intergroup Attitudes 13. The Common Ingroup Identity Model: Applications to Children and Adults 14. A Mutual Acculturation Model for Understanding and Undermining Prejudice Among Adolescents 15. The Role of Intergroup Contact in Predicting Children's Interethnic Attitudes: Evidence from Meta-Analytic and Field Studies 16. Intergroup Name-Calling and Conditions for Creating Assertive Bystanders
Sleep Duration and Risk of Stroke Mortality Among Chinese Adults: Singapore Chinese Health Study

Background and Purpose— Prospective relation between sleep duration and stroke risk is less studied, particularly in Asians. We examined the association between sleep duration and stroke mortality among Chinese adults. Methods— The Singapore Chinese Health Study is a population-based cohort of 63 257 Chinese adults aged 45 to 74 years enrolled during 1993 through 1998. Sleep duration at baseline was assessed via in-person interview, and death information during follow-up was ascertained via record linkage with the death registry up to December 31, 2011. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios with adjustment for other comorbidities and lifestyle risk factors of stroke mortality. Results— During 926 752 person-years of follow-up, we documented 1381 stroke deaths (322 from hemorrhagic and 1059 from ischemic or nonspecified strokes). Compared with individuals with 7 hours per day of sleep, the multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of total stroke mortality was 1.25 (1.05–1.50) for ⩽5 hours per day (short duration), 1.01 (0.87–1.18) for 6 hours per day, 1.09 (0.95–1.26) for 8 hours per day, and 1.54 (1.28–1.85) for ≥9 hours per day (long duration). The increased risk of stroke death with short (1.54; 1.16–2.03) and long durations of sleep (1.95; 1.48–2.57) was seen among subjects with a history of hypertension, but not in those without hypertension. These findings were limited to risk of death from ischemic or nonspecified stroke, but not observed for hemorrhagic stroke. Conclusions— Both short and long sleep durations are associated with increased risk of stroke mortality in a Chinese population, particularly among those with a history of hypertension.
Virtual monitoring of electrical circuitry

The use of virtual instruments has a very important role in both specialized laboratories and academic ones. Because it is a modern method, it provides increased comfort in monitoring electrical circuits in the long term, as well as reduced costs of implementing and developing laboratories. This paper deals with the efficiency of virtual instruments in monitoring electrical circuits as compared to that of conventional devices. The built equipment can measure three physical measures in real time and offers graphical representations for each value. This also offers a new perspective on new trends in didactic methodology for pupils.
THE DETERMINANTS AND EARLY DETECTION OF INADEQUATE CAPITALIZATION OF U . S . COMMERCIAL BANKS

The Basle Agreement of 1988 is a twelve-nation banking accord that established international bank capital standards. A major implication of this agreement is that capital adequacy became central to regulatory oversight of banking systems around the world. From a policy perspective bank regulators seek to identify those institutions at risk of falling below capital standards in the near future. In this regard, this paper examines the efficacy of early warning systems (EWSs) with respect to the determinants and identification of capital inadequacy among U.S. commercial banks. Based on samples of banks in the late 1980s and early 1990s, EWS models are empirically tested using financial and economic data for individual banks. The empirical results reveal that banks pending capital deficiency are much different from other banks in terms of their financial health. Also, EWS models are able to detect the early onset of financial distress in commercial banks one year in advance with a reasonable degree of accuracy. We conclude that EWS models could be useful to bank regulators as both an off-site surveillance tool and a supplement to on-site examinations by supervisory personnel.
Stereo vision image processing strategy for moving object detecting

Here, a TMS320C6416 DSK board is integrated with two CMOS color image sensors to construct a new stereovision platform instead of current PC based or multi-CPU combination structures for detecting moving objects. A novel moving object detecting strategy is proposed by combining the image temporal differencing and the sum of absolute difference (SAD) matching schemes. This system can detect and track any moving object without object color and shape limitations. The subtraction image processing technique is employed to detect the moving object first based on single image. Then, the edge and SAD stereo matching schemes are used to establish the coordinate relationship of left-right two images. Finally, the depth of a moving object can be estimated for 3D position calculation based on stereo geometry relationship. Experimental results are used to evaluate this system dynamic performance.
Impairment in cognitive and exercise performance during prolonged antarctic residence: effect of thyroxine supplementation in the polar triiodothyronine syndrome.

Humans who work in Antarctica display deficits in cognition, disturbances in mood, increased energy requirements, a decline of thyroid hormone products, and an increase of serum TSH. We compared measurements in 12 subjects, before deployment (baseline), with 11 monthly studies during Antarctic residence (AR). After 4 months of AR (period 1), half of the subjects (T(4) group) received L-thyroxine [64 nmol.day(-)(1) (0.05 mg.day(-)(1))]; and the other half, a placebo (placebo group) for the next 7 months of AR (period 2). During period 1, there was a 12.3 +/- 5.1% (P < 0.03) decline on the matching-to-sample (M-t-S) cognitive task and an increase in depressive symptoms, compared with baseline. During the intervention in period 2, M-t-S scores for the T(4)-treated group returned to baseline values; whereas the placebo group, in contrast, showed a reduced M-t-S score (11.2 +/- 1.3%; P < 0.0003) and serum free T(4) (5.9 +/- 2.4%; P < 0.02), compared with baseline. The change in M-t-S score was correlated with the change in free T(4) (P < 0.0003) during both periods, and increases in serum TSH preceded worsening scores in depression, tension, anger, lack of vigor, and total mood disturbance (P < 0.001) during period 2. Additionally, the submaximal work rate for a fixed O(2) use decreased 22.5 +/- 4.9% in period 1 and remained below baseline in period 2 (25.2 +/- 2.3%; P < 0.005) for both groups. After 4 months of AR, the L-thyroxine supplement was associated with improved cognition, which seems related to circulating T(4). Submaximal exercise performance decrements, observed during AR, were not changed with this L-thyroxine dose.
CADgene: a comprehensive database for coronary artery disease genes

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a complex, multifactorial disease and a leading cause of mortality world wide. Over the past decades, great efforts have been made to elucidate the underlying genetic basis of CAD and massive data have been accumulated. To integrate these data together and to provide a useful resource for researchers, we developed the CADgene, a comprehensive database for CAD genes. We manually extracted CAD-related evidence for more than 300 candidate genes for CAD from over 1300 publications of genetic studies. We classified these candidate genes into 12 functional categories based on their roles in CAD. For each gene, we extracted detailed information from related studies (e.g. the size of case–control, population, SNP, odds ratio, P-value, etc.) and made useful annotations, which include general gene information, Gene Ontology annotations, KEGG pathways, protein–protein interactions and others. Besides the statistical number of studies for each gene, CADgene also provides tools to search and show the most frequently studied candidate genes. In addition, CADgene provides cumulative data from 11 publications of CAD-related genome-wide association studies. CADgene has a user-friendly web interface with multiple browse and search functions. It is freely available at http://www.bioguo. org/CADgene/.
Youth information-seeking behavior : theories, models, and issues

This resource is as much a tribute to its editors and contributors, a cadre of champions who have made the study of this underrepresented group their lifework, as it is a testament to their unwavering respect for the young inquiring mind. It begins with a historical overview of the literature on children's use and understanding of electronic information systems, when these retrieval mechanisms were in their infancy. Subsequent essays by leading figures in the field, all peer-reviewed, highlight the theoretical and empirical progress that has occurred since then. Including classic papers originally published elsewhere, the result is a powerful synthesis of thought, practice, and belief.
Learning to Remove Soft Shadows

Manipulated images lose believability if the user's edits fail to account for shadows. We propose a method that makes removal and editing of soft shadows easy. Soft shadows are ubiquitous, but remain notoriously difficult to extract and manipulate. We posit that soft shadows can be segmented, and therefore edited, by learning a mapping function for image patches that generates shadow mattes. We validate this premise by removing soft shadows from photographs with only a small amount of user input. Given only broad user brush strokes that indicate the region to be processed, our new supervised regression algorithm automatically unshadows an image, removing the umbra and penumbra. The resulting lit image is frequently perceived as a believable shadow-free version of the scene. We tested the approach on a large set of soft shadow images, and performed a user study that compared our method to the state-of-the-art and to real lit scenes. Our results are more difficult to identify as being altered and are perceived as preferable compared to prior work.
The Effect of Perceived Control on Consumer Responses to Service Encounter Pace

The ability to manage the time involved in a service process is critical to effective revenue management (RM). At the same time, customer satisfaction is also a key element of time management in services. In this study, we explore the time component of RM in services that sell time implicitly by examining a dining experience. Although service managers can use pace to manage the duration of a service encounter and increase capacity during periods of high demand, manipulating the pace may interfere with customer satisfaction. Prior research has shown that the relationship of perceived pace with customer satisfaction follows an inverted U-shape. If the service pace misses the “sweet spot” that balances pacing with customer satisfaction, the revenue benefits of increasing pace may be short-lived. Using a survey-based approach, we examine the moderating effect of restaurant customers’ perceived control of pace on the relationship between perceived pace and customer satisfaction. We found that when perceived control is low, perceived pace has a significant negative effect on customer satisfaction. However, when perceived control is high, consumers are less sensitive to variations in pace. This finding suggests that consumers’ perceived control of pace is instrumental to attenuating the negative effect of a fast pace on customer satisfaction.
The Influence of Negative Newspaper Coverage on Consumer Confidence: The Dutch Case

This paper studies the empirical relationship between the real economy, consumer confidence and economic news coverage in national newspapers for the Netherlands during the period 1990-2008. Media-attention for economic developments Granger-causes consumer confidence, with more negative news decreasing consumer confidence; this result holds when controlling for the real economy (stock-market). This suggests that in line with many popular concerns negative news is among factors influencing the hardness of the landing of the current credit-crisis, whereas positive news might have been a contributing factor in the build-up of asset- and housing bubbles.
Retinex Poisson Equation: a Model for Color Perception

In 1964 Edwin H. Land formulated the Retinex theory, the first attempt to simulate and explain how the human visual system perceives color. Unfortunately, the Retinex Land-McCann original algorithm is both complex and not fully specified. Indeed, this algorithm computes at each pixel an average of a very large set of paths on the image. For this reason, Retinex has received several interpretations and implementations which, among other aims, attempt to tune down its excessive complexity. But, Morel et al. have shown that the original Retinex algorithm can be formalized as a (discrete) partial differential equation. This article describes the PDE-Retinex, a fast implementation of the Land-McCann original theory using only two DFT’s.
Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein F/H Proteins Modulate the Alternative Splicing of the Apoptotic Mediator Bcl-x*

Bcl-x is a member of the Bcl-2 family of proteins that are key regulators of apoptosis. The Bcl-x pre-mRNA is alternatively spliced to yield Bcl-xS and Bcl-xL, two isoforms that have been associated, respectively, with the promotion and the prevention of apoptosis. We have investigated some of the elements and factors involved in the production of these two splice variants. Deletion mutagenesis using a human Bcl-x minigene identifies two regions in exon 2 that modulate Bcl-x 5′-splice site selection in human HeLa cells. One region (B3) is located upstream of the Bcl-xL 5′-splice site and enforces Bcl-xL production in cells and splicing extracts. The other region (B2) is located immediately downstream of the 5′-splice site of Bcl-xS and favors Bcl-xS production in vivo and in vitro. A 30-nucleotide G-rich element (B2G) is responsible for the activity of the B2 element. We show that recombinant heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) F and H proteins bind to B2G, and mutating the G stretches abolishes binding. Moreover, the addition of hnRNP F to a HeLa extract improved the production of the Bcl-xS variant in a manner that was dependent on the integrity of the G stretches in B2G. Consistent with the in vitro results, small interfering RNA-mediated RNA interference targeting hnRNP F and H decreased the Bcl-xS/Bcl-xL ratio of plasmid-derived and endogenously produced Bcl-x transcripts. Our results document a positive role for the hnRNP F/H proteins in the production of the proapoptotic regulator Bcl-xS.
Pitfalls in understanding the functional significance of genital allometry

The male genitalia of arthropods consistently show negative static allometry (the genitalia of small males of a species are disproportionally large, and those of large males are disproportionally small). We discuss relations between the ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ hypothesis to explain this allometry and the regimes of selection that may be acting on genitalia. We focus on the contrasts between directional vs. stabilizing selection, and natural vs. sexual selection. In addition, we point out some common methodological problems in studies of genital allometry. One‐size‐fits‐all types of arguments for negative allometry imply net stabilizing selection, but the effects of stabilizing selection on allometry will be weaker when the correlation between body size and the trait size is weaker. One‐size‐fits‐all arguments can involve natural as well as sexual selection, and negative allometry can also result from directional selection. Several practical problems make direct tests of whether directional or stabilizing selection is acting difficult. One common methodological problem in previous studies has been concentration on absolute rather than relative values of the allometric slopes of genitalia; there are many reasons to doubt the usefulness of comparing absolute slopes with the usual reference value of 1.00. Another problem has been the failure to recognize that size and shape are independent traits of genitalia; rapid divergence in the shape of genitalia is thus not paradoxical with respect to the reduced variation in their sizes that is commonly associated with negative allometric scaling.
Soft Region Correspondence Estimation for Graph-Theoretic Image Retrieval Using Quadratic Programming Approach

This paper proposes employing a graph-theoretic approach to estimate the region correspondence between two images. We represent each image as an attributed undirected graph and transform the image matching problem into an inexact graph matching problem. We formulate the estimation of the soft matching matrix between two graphs as a quadratic programming problem, and apply KKT (Karush-Kuhn-Tucker) conditions and the modified simplex algorithm to solve the constrained optimization problem. With the soft matching matrix, we are capable to integrate both the region correspondence and low-level visual features into an effective matching measurement for image matching. Experiments have been conducted on image retrieval to show the effectiveness of the proposed estimation algorithm