Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cluster-based Smoothing of Sparse Ranking Signals in Mobile Local Search

Users increasingly rely on their mobile devices to search for local entities, typically businesses, while on the go. Recent work has recognized unique ranking signals in mobile local search (e.g., distance, customer rating, and number of reviews), and has proposed various ways of leveraging these signals for ranking. However, these techniques have overlooked a major challenge that is amplified in the case of mobile local search: data sparseness. In this work, we exploit domain knowledge about businesses to cluster them based on either the category of the business or the parent chain store that the business belongs to. We then smooth individual business’ sparse ranking signals based on the hypothesis that businesses in the same cluster share similar ranking signals. Our experimental evaluation using 14 months of real mobile local search logs, shows that the proposed cluster-based smoothing of these ranking signals can improve mean average precision by 5%.
Improving Strategic Scanning Information Analysis: An Alternative Measure for Information Proximity Evaluation

Strategic Scanning activities become less effective when faced with managing information overload. This paper introduces "nearness measure" (NM), a measure for information proximity evaluation. We also present and analyze the principles and properties of a graphical representation of the measure. We compare the measure to the usual Cosine similarity (CS). Even when the algorithm that calculates NM between texts is larger than CS in terms of complexity, NM with a minimization phase expresses an analysis of the documents from the general to the specific that is the opposite to what CS does. Thus, the manager using NM would require less time to explore collected information.
Lessons from social network analyses for behavioral medicine

Purpose of review This study presents an overview of the rapidly expanding field of social network analysis, with an emphasis placed on work relevant to behavioral health clinicians and researchers. I outline how social network analysis is a distinct empirical methodology within the social sciences that has the potential to deepen our understanding of how mental health and addiction are influenced by social environmental factors. Recent findings Whereas there have been a number of recent studies in the mental health literature that discuss social influences on mental illness and addiction, and a number of studies looking at how social networks influence health and behaviors, there are still relatively few studies that combine the two. Those that have suggest that mood symptoms as well as alcohol consumption are clustered within, and may travel along, social networks. Summary Social networks appear to have an important influence on a variety of mental health conditions. This avenue of research has the potential to influence both clinical practice and public policy.
Driver torque and road reaction force estimation of an Electric Power Assisted Steering using sliding mode observer with unknown inputs

Driver torque and steering reaction force are important information in the designing of EPAS (Electric Power Assisted Steering) system. The driver torque determines the amount of assisted torque and the reaction force can be used to improve the steering feeling and the vehicle stability or introduce a new assist torque control. Since, in practice, they are not usually measureable; a sliding mode observer with unknown inputs is introduced to estimate the driver torque and the road reaction force of an EPAS system by using other measured signals which are normally available. A state space formulation for EPAS system with brushed motor is used for the synthesis of observer with unknown inputs. The proposed observer is applied to state and unknown input estimation of EPAS. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed observer which improves the EPAS system performance and also reduces system cost and complexity.
Radiotherapy in the Multidisciplinary Management of Adenomyoepithelioma of the Breast with an Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

We describe a case of aggressive adenomyoepithelioma (AME) of the breast with a lymph node metastasis. A 63-year-old female presented with a fluctuating breast mass and clinically palpable lymph nodes. The patient underwent excisional biopsy followed by mastectomy with lymph node dissection and adjuvant radiotherapy (RT). Clinical behavior of both benign and malignant AME is described with the review of the literature and treatment recommendations.
MIPA: Mutual Information Based Paraphrase Acquisition via Bilingual Pivoting

We present a pointwise mutual information (PMI)-based approach to formalize paraphrasability and propose a variant of PMI, called MIPA, for the paraphrase acquisition. Our paraphrase acquisition method first acquires lexical paraphrase pairs by bilingual pivoting and then reranks them by PMI and distributional similarity. The complementary nature of information from bilingual corpora and from monolingual corpora makes the proposed method robust. Experimental results show that the proposed method substantially outperforms bilingual pivoting and distributional similarity themselves in terms of metrics such as MRR, MAP, coverage, and Spearman’s correlation.
Reference S‐Wave Velocity Profile and Attenuation Models for Ground‐Motion Prediction Equations: Application to Japan

Defining the reference rock or soil condition related to ground‐motion prediction is an important aspect of seismic‐hazard analysis. In a previous study by the authors, a method was proposed to establish a reference rock profile for Switzerland through the comparison of empirical amplification functions with shear‐wave velocity profiles at 27 selected sites of the Swiss National Seismic Network. The retrieved velocity profile served as reference for a regional ground‐motion prediction equation. However, a lacking piece of information remained: the anelastic attenuation for such a reference profile. Reference attenuation is essential to correctly model and interpret amplification at high frequencies. In the present study we extended our approach to simultaneously model both the reference shear‐wave velocity profile and the corresponding attenuation for Japan. We compared site‐specific attenuation measurements with quarter‐wavelength average velocities at 36 soil and rock sites from the Japanese KiK‐net strong‐motion network. The selected sites are characterized by a lack of observed resonance phenomena in order to avoid trade‐off between amplification and attenuation effects. We establish a parametric model through regression analysis. The resulting model gives us the possibility to estimate anelastic attenuation of a rock site with a given velocity profile and provides the base for host‐to‐target adjustments of real or modeled ground motion.
Patients' and nurses' perceptions of individualised care: an international comparative study.

AIM The aim of this study was to compare patients' and nurses' perceptions of individualised care in five European countries, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, Greece and Hungary. BACKGROUND Individualised nursing care has been studied from both patients' and nurses' perspectives, but to date, there are no studies comparing these perspectives internationally. METHODS A cross-sectional comparative survey design was used. Data were collected from nurses (n = 960; response rate, 79%) and patients (n = 1315; response rate, 78%) in 71 surgical units from 26 acute hospitals in 2009. Data were collected using two Individualised Care Scales (ICS-Nurse and ICS-Patient) and analysed statistically using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS Differences in patients' and nurses' assessments of individualised nursing care were found between each country. Nurses, compared with patients, assessed that they supported patient individuality more often. The Mean(nurses) ranged from 3·61 (SD 0·90, Greece)-4·31 (SD 0·53, Hungary), and the Mean(patients) ranged from 3·05 (SD 1·09, Greece)-3·79 (SD 1·00, Cyprus). To a large extent, the care provided was individualised as defined by the Mean(nurses) 3·75 (SD 0·92, Greece)-4·36 (SD 0·49, Hungary) and the Mean(patients) 3·41 (SD 0·95, Greece)-4·18 (SD 0·79, Cyprus). In Cyprus and Finland, patients' assessments of the individuality in their care corresponded well with nurses' assessments. Clear between-country differences in both patients' and nurses' assessments were found in both subscales of the ICS. CONCLUSIONS An in-depth analysis of the European between-country differences is required to define the causes of differences that may be due to the differing content of education, the organisation of nursing work, ideology and values assigned to individualised care and health care systems and processes in each country. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Obtaining both patients' and nurses' assessments of individualised care may facilitate the further development of individualised nursing care and be used to help to harmonise European health care processes and nursing care.
Does particle filter really outperform low pass filter in indoor target tracking?

This paper compares the indoor tracking performance for a moving target between an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) low pass filter and a particle filter. It reveals that, in the computer simulations where the motion of a target exactly follows the state transition model in the particle filter, the particle filter-based tracking system outperforms the IIR low pass filter-based tracking system. On the other hand, in the experiments where the motion of a target is really unpredictable and does not always follow the state transition model, the IIR low pass filter outperforms the particle filter. It concludes that the IIR low pass filter-based tracking system is advantageous in reality, because it requires far less computational cost and shows better tracking performance.
Shape Reconstruction from Single Relief Image

Reconstructing geometric models of relief carvings are of great importance in preserving cultural heritages digitally. In case of reliefs, using laser scanners and structured lighting techniques is not always feasible or are very expensive given the uncontrolled environment. Single image shape from shading is an under-constrained problem that tries to solve for the surface normals given the intensity image. Various constraints are used to make the problem tractable. To avoid the uncontrolled lighting, we use a pair of images with and without the flash and compute an image under a known illumination. This image is used as an input to the shape reconstruction algorithms. We present techniques that try to reconstruct the shape from relief images using the prior information learned from examples. We learn the variations in geometric shape corresponding to image appearances under different lighting conditions using sparse representations. Given a new image, we estimate the most appropriate shape that will result in the given appearance under the specified lighting conditions. We integrate the prior with the normals computed from reflectance equation in a MAP framework. We test our approach on relief images and compare them with the state-of-the-art shape from shading algorithms.
Tracing the proteomic fingerprint of the diabetic aorta?

Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide epidemic, and the percentage of the US population diagnosed with diabetes mellitus between 1980 and 2010 increased from 2.5% to 6.9%. 1 Nearly 27% of people >65 years of age have diabetes mellitus. If current trends continue, 1 in 3 US adults will experience diabetes mellitus by 2050. This can be attributed to lifestyle choices contributing to obesity.2 One of the main causes of death and disability in patients with diabetes mellitus are vascular complications, affecting both the macro- and the microvasculature.3 Macrovascular manifestations include atherosclerosis leading to coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, and stroke. Microvascular changes, on the other hand, encompass diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy. Article see p 161 Although there is compelling evidence for the association of diabetes mellitus and vascular disease, the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Advanced glycation end products, as well as reactive oxygen species, are suggested to be 2 of the major culprits leading to vascular damage.4,5 Extracellular matrix proteins can become glycated by nonenzymatic reactions of sugar moieties, which alter protein function in target tissues.6 Major histological changes are apparent in diabetic vessels, including increased intima–media thickness and excessive extracellular matrix deposition.5 Yet, despite many patients with diabetes mellitus following a tight glycemic control regime, they are still experiencing vascular complications. Notably, …
A study of the motion and deformation of the heart due to respiration

This paper describes a quantitative assessment of respiratory motion of the heart and the construction of a model of respiratory motion. Three-dimensional magnetic resonance scans were acquired on eight normal volunteers and ten patients. The volunteers were imaged at multiple positions in the breathing cycle between full exhalation and full inhalation while holding their breath. The exhalation volume was segmented and used as a template to which the other volumes were registered using an intensity-based rigid registration algorithm followed by nonrigid registration. The patients were imaged at inhale and exhale only. The registration results were validated by visual assessment and consistency measurements indicating subvoxel registration accuracy. For all subjects, we assessed the nonrigid motion of the heart at the right coronary artery, right atrium, and left ventricle. We show that the rigid-body motion of the heart is primarily in the craniocaudal direction with smaller displacements in the right-left and anterior-posterior directions; this is in agreement with previous studies. Deformation was greatest for the free wall of the right atrium and the left ventricle; typical deformations were 3-4 mm with deformations of up to 7 mm observed in some subjects. Using the registration results, landmarks on the template surface were mapped to their correct positions through the breathing cycle. Principal component analysis produced a statistical model of the motion and deformation of the heart. We discuss how this model could be used to assist motion correction.
Method for the determination of 15NH3 enrichment in biological samples by gas chromatography/electron impact ionization mass spectrometry.

An alternative method for the determination of [15N]ammonia enrichment in biological fluids was developed. It is based on the use of glutamate dehydrogenase of bovine liver (EC 1.4.1.2.) with 2-oxopentanoic acid as substrate, to convert the ammonia present in the sample into norvaline, the enrichment of which can be measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry as its tertiary butyldimethylsilyl (TBDMS) derivative under electron impact selective ion recording (SIR) conditions. The principal advantage of the present approach is that it is simpler and quicker than the previously described methods, because the synthetic product, norvaline, is not present in biological fluids and pre-processing of the sample is unnecessary. The procedure includes a pre-incubation stage which allows removal of contaminant ammonia present in the reagents used for the enzyme reaction. The contributions of other sources of nitrogen to norvaline production have been checked and quantified: these may provide limitations of the technique when samples for analysis are low in ammonia (e.g. arterial or hepatic venous blood). To reduce these contributions, short times of incubation are proposed. The results from two experiments in vivo in which two sheep were infused with [15N]ammonium chloride in the mesenteric vein are presented and the biological implications which arise from the results are discussed. The validity of the procedures was demonstrated by the quantitative recovery from the mesenteric and portal veins of [15N]ammonia infused.
Multiple autophosphorylation sites are dispensable for murine ATM activation in vivo

Cellular responses to both physiological and pathological DNA double-strand breaks are initiated through activation of the evolutionarily conserved ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase. Upon DNA damage, an activation mechanism involving autophosphorylation has been reported to allow ATM to phosphorylate downstream targets important for cell cycle checkpoints and DNA repair. In humans, serine residues 367, 1893, and 1981 have been shown to be autophosphorylation sites that are individually required for ATM activation. To test the physiological importance of these sites, we generated a transgenic mouse model in which all three conserved ATM serine autophosphorylation sites (S367/1899/1987) have been replaced with alanine. In this study, we show that ATM-dependent responses at both cellular and organismal levels are functional in mice that express a triple serine mutant form of ATM as their sole ATM species. These results lend further support to the notion that ATM autophosphorylation correlates with the DNA damage–induced activation of the kinase but is not required for ATM function in vivo.
Theories of Intimate Partner Violence: From Blaming the Victim to Acting Against Injustice Intersectionality as an Analytic Framework

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has garnered increasing public and academic attention in the past several decades. Theories about the causes, prevention, and intervention for IPV have developed in complexity. This article provides an overview of the historical roots of IPV, as well as a description and critique of historical and contemporary theories of IPV causes and women's responses to IPV. This is followed by a discussion of the most current theoretical developments and application of critical theories to the problem of IPV. The article concludes with theoretically based implications for nursing practice and research with women who are experiencing IPV.
A survey on Mesh Segmentation Techniques

We present a review of the state of the art of segmentation and partitioning techniques of boundary meshes. Recently, these have become a part of many mesh and object manipulation algorithms in computer graphics, geometric modelling and computer aided design. We formulate the segmentation problem as an optimization problem and identify two primarily distinct types of mesh segmentation, namely part segmentation and surface‐patch segmentation. We classify previous segmentation solutions according to the different segmentation goals, the optimization criteria and features used, and the various algorithmic techniques employed. We also present some generic algorithms for the major segmentation techniques.
Predictors of customer perceived software quality

Predicting software quality as perceived by a customer may allow an organization to adjust deployment to meet the quality expectations of its customers, to allocate the appropriate amount of maintenance resources, and to direct quality improvement efforts to maximize the return on investment. However, customer perceived quality may be affected not simply by the software content and the development process, but also by a number of other factors including deployment issues, amount of usage, software platform, and hardware configurations. We predict customer perceived quality as measured by various service interactions, including software defect reports, requests for assistance, and field technician dispatches using the afore mentioned and other factors for a large telecommunications software system. We employ the non-intrusive data gathering technique of using existing data captured in automated project monitoring and tracking systems as well as customer support and tracking systems. We find that the effects of deployment schedule, hardware configurations, and software platform can increase the probability of observing a software failure by more than 20 times. Furthermore, we find that the factors affect all quality measures in a similar fashion. Our approach can be applied at other organizations, and we suggest methods to independently validate and replicate our results.
Molecular variability and evolution of a natural population of tomato yellow leaf curl virus in Shanghai, China

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), belonging to the genus Begomovirus of the family Geminiviridae, is emerging as the most destructive pathogen of tomato plants. Since the first report of TYLCV in Shanghai, China in 2006, TYLCV has spread rapidly to 13 provinces or autonomous regions of China. In this study, the molecular variability and evolution of TYLCV were monitored in Shanghai from its first upsurge in 2006 until 2010. Full-length genomic sequences of 26 isolates were obtained by rolling circle amplification. Sequence analysis showed that the intergenic region was the most variable, with a mean mutation rate of 4.81×10−3 nucleotide substitutions per site per year. Genetic differentiation was found within isolates obtained from 2006, 2009, and 2010, though a linear increase in genetic diversity over time was not evident. Whilst significant parts of TYLCV genes were under negative selection, the C4 gene embedded entirely within the C1 gene had a tendency to undergo positive selection. Our results indicate that a mechanism of independent evolution of overlapping regions could apply to the natural population of TYLCV in Shanghai, China.
Yield Optimisation of Power-On Reset Cells and Functional Verification

Simulation based yield optimisation is becoming an important solution for increasing robustness of analog IP blocks. This paper describes the yield optimisation of a power-on reset cell as part of an analog IP library. Yield analysis of the initial design is performed and sensitivities with respect to process parameters are determined by Monte Carlo simulation. The input parameters used for the Monte Carlo simulation describe global and local variations of the semiconductor devices. The results of the yield analysis are used to determine a shift of the PMOS threshold implant dose enabling a yield enhancement of the initial design. A re-design using simulation-based design centering is performed resulting in a significant yield increase in consideration of the operating conditions. The optimisation is based on an algorithm maximizing the worst-case-distance. The simulation results on improved production yield are verified by electrical test at wafer level for varying process conditions.
A stretchable EMI measurement sheet with 8×8 coil array, 2V organic CMOS decoder, and −70dBm EMI detection circuits in 0.18¼m CMOS

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a serious issue degrading the dependability of electronic devices. The issue is complicated by the following technology trends: 1) RF signals and clock pulses of digital ICs are in the same frequency range. 2) The increase of LSI power consumption causes an increase of noise emission. 3) Electronic devices have 3D-structures and packaging is dense. These trends also make the root cause analysis of EMI difficult. For example, it is difficult to find the EMI generation points in electronic devices such as cell-phones and PDAs.
MDS codes on the erasure-erasure wiretap channel

This paper considers the problem of perfectly secure communication on a modified version of Wyner's wiretap channel II where both the main and wiretapper's channels have some erasures. A secret message is to be encoded into $n$ channel symbols and transmitted. The main channel is such that the legitimate receiver receives the transmitted codeword with exactly $n - \nu$ erasures, where the positions of the erasures are random. Additionally, an eavesdropper (wire-tapper) is able to observe the transmitted codeword with $n - \mu$ erasures in a similar fashion. This paper studies the maximum achievable information rate with perfect secrecy on this channel and gives a coding scheme using nested codes that achieves the secrecy capacity.