Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identifying adopters and non-adopters of Broadband amongst silver surfers: using BHPS

The aim of this paper is to identify the adopters and non-adopters of Broadband within the silver surfer group. This was achieved using the British Household Panel Survey, a large scale survey used to collect data from UK households. The data was analysed using statistical tools, such as, SPSS v. 15. The conclusions drawn are that Broadband will be adopted in nuclear households (no presence of elderly) with silver surfers who have children aged between 12 and 18, without ignoring the role played by a relatively level of education. This research offers contributions for academics by providing an objective viewpoint of the factors leading to Broadband adoption within silver surfers, a group of immense, current interest. For industry, this research offers an intensive identification of socio-economic factors that are considered important when marketing a product or service within the market.
Protein Synthesis Attenuation by Phosphorylation of eIF2α Is Required for the Differentiation of Trypanosoma cruzi into Infective Forms

Chagas' disease is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the unicellular protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It is transmitted to humans by triatomine bugs where T. cruzi multiplies and differentiates in the digestive tract. The differentiation of proliferative and non-infective epimastigotes into infective metacyclic trypomastigotes (metacyclogenesis) can be correlated to nutrient exhaustion in the gut of the insect vector. In vitro, metacyclic-trypomastigotes can be obtained when epimastigotes are submitted to nutritional stress suggesting that metacyclogenesis is triggered by nutrient starvation. The molecular mechanism underlying such event is not understood. Here, we investigated the role of one of the key signaling responses elicited by nutritional stress in all other eukaryotes, the inhibition of translation initiation by the phosphorylation of the eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α), during the in vitro differentiation of T. cruzi. Monospecific antibodies that recognize the phosphorylated Tc-eIF2α form were generated and used to demonstrate that parasites subjected to nutritional stress show increased levels of Tc-eIF2α phosphorylation. This was accompanied by a drastic inhibition of global translation initiation, as determined by polysomal profiles. A strain of T. cruzi overexpressing a mutant Tc-eIF2α, incapable of being phosphorylated, showed a block on translation initiation, indicating that such a nutritional stress in trypanosomatids induces the conserved translation inhibition response. In addition, Tc-eIF2α phosphorylation is critical for parasite differentiation since the overexpression of the mutant eIF2α in epimastigotes abolished metacyclogenesis. This work defines the role of eIF2α phosphorylation as a key step in T. cruzi differentiation.
OOV Detection and Recovery Using Hybrid Models with Different Fragments

In this paper, we address the out-of-vocabulary (OOV) detection and recovery problem by developing three different fragmentword hybrid systems. A fragment language model (LM) and a word LM were trained separately and then combined into a single hybrid LM. Using this hybrid model, the recognizer can recognize any OOVs as fragment sequences. Different types of fragments, such as phones, subwords, and graphones were tested and compared on the WSJ 5k and 20k evaluation sets. The experiment results show that the subword and graphone hybrid systems perform better than the phone hybrid system in both 5k and 20k tasks. Furthermore, given less training data, the subword hybrid system is more preferable than the graphone hybrid system.
SURVIVING OPINIONS IN SZNAJD MODELS ON COMPLEX NETWORKS

The Sznajd model has been largely applied to simulate many sociophysical phenomena. In this paper, we applied the Sznajd model with more than two opinions on three different network topologies and observed the evolution of surviving opinions after many interactions among the nodes. As result, we obtained a scaling law which depends of the network size and the number of possible opinions. We also observed that this scaling law is not the same for all network topologies, being quite similar between scale-free networks and Sznajd networks but different for random networks.
Enhancing Availability and Reliability of Cloud Data through Syncopy

The Internet of Things (IoT) has shown its promising future recently. Cloud computing can provide the infrastructure for storing and handling the potentially enormous volume of data generated therein. Consequently, the availability and reliability of cloud data will largely affect the success of IoT. Hadoop is a very popular platform adopted in the community of cloud computing. The Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) is the default file system in Hadoop. HDFS keeps multiple copies of data files within a Hadoop cluster to avoid losing data. However, this approach still cannot guarantee the availability and reliability of data when fatal disasters, such as fire or earthquakes, destroy the entire Hadoop cluster. As a result, maintaining data backup among different Hadoop clusters is a must to achieve high availability and reliability of cloud data. Currently, distcp is the only tool HDFS provides to duplicate data files among Hadoop clusters installed at different locations. Unfortunately, users need to manually execute distcp, which cannot promise the timely synchronization of duplicated data files among Hadoop clusters. Besides, distcp always transfers the entire contents of data files between Hadoop clusters regardless how small the amount of new data is updated. Obviously, this could waste considerable time and network bandwidth in practice. We designed and implemented an efficient scheme, namely syncopy (synchronous copy), in HDFS to automatically conduct real time synchronization for data files duplicated among different Hadoop clusters. Compared with distcp, our experimental results show that syncopy can reduce the required time by up to 99.20%.
Complement Factor H Expressed by Retinal Pigment Epithelium Cells Can Suppress Neovascularization of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells: An in vitro Study

Complement factor H (CFH) is one of the most important soluble complement regulatory proteins and is closely associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible central vision loss in the elderly population in developed countries. Our study searches to investigate whether CFH expression is changed in oxidative damaged retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and the role of CFH in the in vitro neovascularization. First, it was confirmed by immunofluorescence staining that CFH was expressed by ARPE-19 cells. CFH mRNA and protein in oxidative (H2O2) damaged ARPE-19 cells were both reduced, as determined by Real-time PCR and Western blotting analysis. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) also showed that ARPE-19 cells treated with H2O2 caused an increase in C3a content, which indicates complement activation. Then, wound assays were performed to show that CFH expression suppression promoted human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVECs) migration. Thereafter, ARPE-19 cells were transfected with CFH-specific siRNA and CFH knockdown was confirmed with the aid of Real-time PCR, immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting. The ELISA results showed that specific CFH knockdown in ARPE-19 cells activated the complement system. Finally, in vitro matrigel tube formation assay was performed to determine whether change of CFH expression in RPE would affect tube formation by HUVECs. More tubes were formed by HUVECs co-cultured with ARPE-19 cells transfected with CFH specific-siRNA when compared with controls. Our results suggested that RPE cells might be the local CFH source, and RPE cell injuries (such as oxidative stress) may cause CFH expression suppression, which in turn may lead to complement activation and promotion of tube formation by HUVECs. This finding is of importance in elucidating the role of complement in the pathogenesis of ocular neovascularization including choroidal neovascularization.
Diary-Like Long-Term Activity Recognition: Touch or Voice Interaction?

The experience sampling methodology is a well known tool in psychology to asses a subject's condition. Regularly or whenever an important event happens the subject stops whatever he is currently involved in and jots down his current perceptions, experience, and activities, which in turn form the basis of these diary studies. Such methods are also widely in use for gathering labelled data for wearable long-term activity recognition, where subjects are asked to note conducted activities. We present the design of a personal electronic diary for daily activities, including user interfaces on a PC, Smartphone, and Google Glass. A 23-participant structured in-field study covering seven different activities highlights the difference of mobile touch interaction and ubiquitous voice recognition for tracking activities.
Testing for Granger causality in a system of more than two variables

This paper provides useful guidelines to practitioners who investigate Granger causality within a system of more than two variables by means of the two-step procedure proposed by Cheung and Ng (Journal of Econometrics, 1996) and modified by Hong (Journal of Econometrics, 2001). First, a theoretical example highlights cases that can mislead the researcher into reporting false causal relations between the variables under scrutiny. Then, the size of the problem is revealed by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, an empirical application that investigates causality-in-mean among six major European stock markets, illustrates the proper procedure to follow for correct inference.
A 150mV-1.2V fully-integrated DC-DC converter for Thermal Energy Harvesting

A fully-integrated DC/DC converter for energy harvesting applications is presented. The startup-voltage of the converter is about 140mV, the output voltage exceeds 1.5V, with a power efficiency at least 20%. The architecture for boosting such extremely low voltages is based on an ultra-low-voltage oscillator cross connected to two phase charge pump. The overall circuit does not require any external components and can be fully integrated in a standard CMOS low voltage technology. A test-chip has been designed in UMC 0. 18μm process.
Reactive astrocytes secrete lcn2 to promote neuron death

Glial reaction is a common feature of neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies have suggested that reactive astrocytes gain neurotoxic properties, but exactly how reactive astrocytes contribute to neurotoxicity remains to be determined. Here, we identify lipocalin 2 (lcn2) as an inducible factor that is secreted by reactive astrocytes and that is selectively toxic to neurons. We show that lcn2 is induced in reactive astrocytes in transgenic rats with neuronal expression of mutant human TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) or RNA-binding protein fused in sarcoma (FUS). Therefore, lcn2 is induced in activated astrocytes in response to neurodegeneration, but its induction is independent of TDP-43 or FUS expression in astrocytes. We found that synthetic lcn2 is cytotoxic to primary neurons in a dose-dependent manner, but is innocuous to astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes. Lcn2 toxicity is increased in neurons that express a disease gene, such as mutant FUS or TDP-43. Conditioned medium from rat brain slice cultures with neuronal expression of mutant TDP-43 contains abundant lcn2 and is toxic to primary neurons as well as neurons in cultured brain slice from WT rats. Partial depletion of lcn2 by immunoprecipitation reduced conditioned medium-mediated neurotoxicity. Our data indicate that reactive astrocytes secrete lcn2, which is a potent neurotoxic mediator.
Experiences Using Scenarios to Enhance Traceability

It is a well known fact that requirements are constantly evolving, posing great challenges to software developers. Traceability is defined as the ability to record both the origins and changes of requirements throughout the software development process [Gotel93]. In this paper we present some of the strategies we have been using to help assure traceability during software construction. They rely on the use of scenarios, an intuitive representation that facilitates communication among stakeholders. We observed that a decisive factor in getting stakeholders committed to keeping traceable information was providing a recording medium that they could be easy to manipulate and easy to understand.
Developing Marketing Strategies for TV Shopping Stores: A Second-order Structural Equation Modeling Application

This research examines the effects of marketing strategies, which are adopted by firms, from a consumer-based viewpoint, and provides a practical brand management discussion as reference for TV shopping retailers. A questionnaire survey is conducted to verify the determinant effects of firms’ marketing strategy (low pricing/relational ads/emotional ads/sales of international brands) and channel brand impression (perceived quality/brand image) on consumers’ loyalty intention (brand loyalty/purchase intention) toward TV shopping stores using a second-order structural equation modeling (SEM) method. Findings of the study indicate TV shopping stores could sell international brand products in the context of a brand selective strategy, enhance low pricing, emotional ads, and develop TV shopping store brand impression helpful to the channel loyalty intention of consumers.
Down-Regulation of NDUFB9 Promotes Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation, Metastasis by Mediating Mitochondrial Metabolism

Despite advances in basic and clinical research, metastasis remains the leading cause of death in breast cancer patients. Genetic abnormalities in mitochondria, including mutations affecting complex I and oxidative phosphorylation, are found in breast cancers and might facilitate metastasis. Genes encoding complex I components have significant breast cancer prognostic value. In this study, we used quantitative proteomic analyses to compare a highly metastatic cancer cell line and a parental breast cancer cell line; and observed that NDUFB9, an accessory subunit of the mitochondrial membrane respiratory chain NADH dehydrogenase (complex I), was down-regulated in highly metastatic breast cancer cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that loss of NDUFB9 promotes MDA-MB-231 cells proliferation, migration, and invasion because of elevated levels of mtROS, disturbance of the NAD+/NADH balance, and depletion of mtDNA. We also showed that, the Akt/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway and EMT might be involved in this mechanism. Thus, our findings contribute novel data to support the hypothesis that misregulation of mitochondrial complex I NADH dehydrogenase activity can profoundly enhance the aggressiveness of human breast cancer cells, suggesting that complex I deficiency is a potential and important biomarker for further basic research or clinical application.
Parallel distributed breadth first search on GPU

In this paper we propose a highly optimized parallel and distributed BFS on GPU for Graph500 benchmark. We evaluate the performance of our implementation using TSUBAME2.0 supercomputer. We achieve 317 GTEPS (billion traversed edges per second) with scale 35 (a large graph with 34.4 billion vertices and 550 billion edges) using 1366 nodes and 4096 GPUs. With this score, TSUBAME2.0 supercomputer is ranked fourth in the ranking list announced in June 2012. We analyze the performance of our implementation and the result shows that inter-node communication limits the performance of our GPU implementation. We also propose SIMD Variable-Length Quantity (VLQ) encoding for compression of communication data with GPU.
A WebGIS-based Monitor System for the ChinaFLUX's Devices

The China FLUX is an observation and research network that provides long-term and continuous measurements of the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between terrestrial ecosystem and atmosphere in China. The meteorological and ecological data was collected by the sensor devices of the China FLUX in the field stations, and was transmitted to the CERN server through internet. To ensure the data integrity of collection and transmission, we deployed a Web GIS-based monitor system to check and visualize the status of the devices and the network. It is a simple distributed application. Currently, the application was installed at seven field stations. Users and administrators can view the status information of the network and the devices of these field stations in the web browser.
Technologies in Literacy Learning: A Case Study

This article draws on outcomes of a study which explored changes in teachers' literacy pedagogies as a result of their participation in a collaborative teacher professional learning project. The educational usability of schemas drawn from multiliteracies and Learning by Design theory is illustrated through a case study of a teacher's work on website exploration and design with 8- to 11-year-olds. The teacher sought to develop pedagogical responses which were cognisant of multimodal shifts resulting from an increasingly digitised, networked communications environment. Engagement with the schemas influenced the teacher's print-based literacy pedagogies to incorporate multimodal literacy practices.
How Partisan Media Polarize America

Forty years ago, viewers who wanted to watch the news could only choose from among the major broadcast networks, all of which presented the same news without any particular point of view. Today we have a much broader array of choices, including cable channels offering a partisan take. With partisan programs gaining in popularity, some argue that they are polarizing American politics, while others counter that only a tiny portion of the population watches such programs and that their viewers tend to already hold similar beliefs. In How Partisan Media Polarize America, Matthew Levendusky confirms - but also qualifies - both of these claims. Drawing on experiments and survey data, he shows that Americans who watch partisan programming do become more certain of their beliefs and less willing to weigh the merits of opposing views or to compromise. And while only a small segment of the American population watches partisan media programs, those who do tend to be more politically engaged, and their effects on national politics are therefore far-reaching. In a time when politics seem doomed to partisan discord, How Partisan Media Polarize America offers a much-needed clarification of the role partisan media might play.
Efficient training protocol for rapid learning of the two‐alternative forced‐choice visual stimulus detection task

The potential of genetically engineered rodent models has accelerated demand for training procedures of behavioral tasks. Such training is generally time consuming and often shows large variability in learning speed between animals. To overcome these problems, we developed an efficient and stable training system for the two‐alternative forced‐choice (2AFC) visual stimulus detection task for freely behaving rodents. To facilitate the task learning, we introduced a spout‐lever as the operandum and a three‐step training program with four ingenuities: (1) a salient stimulus to draw passive attention, (2) a reward‐guaranteed trial to keep motivation, (3) a behavior‐corrective trial, and (4) switching from a reward‐guaranteed trial to a nonguaranteed one to correct behavioral patterns. Our new training system realizes 1‐week completion of the whole learning process, during which all rats were able to learn effortlessly the association between (1) lever‐manipulation and reward and (2) visual stimulus and reward in a step‐by‐step manner. Thus, our new system provides an effective and stable training method for the 2AFC visual stimulus detection task. This method should help accelerate the move toward research bridging the visual functions measured in behavioral tasks and the contributing specific neurons/networks that are genetically manipulated or optically controlled.
Distributed Trust: Supporting Fault-tolerance and Attack-tolerance

Fault-tolerance and attack-tolerance are crucial for implementing a trustworthy service. An emerging thread of research investigates interactions between fault-tolerance and attack-tolerance—specifically, the coupling of replication with threshold cryptography for use in environments satisfying weak assumptions. This coupling yields a new paradigm known as distributed trust, which is the subject of this paper.
CHAPTER 1 Applied Problems and Methods of Analysis A Road Map

Researchers in the organizational sciences and in the social and behavioral sciences in general encounter a host of problems as they seek to describe, predict, and understand behavior. The procedures we use to measure and analyze behavior are constantly improving as a result of the efforts of psychometricians and applied statisticians, among others. Many of the techniques discussed in this book were not available to researchers even a decade or two ago. Moreover, the sheer number of methods has grown tremendously in the past few decades. Maintaining currency in these areas is a constant challenge for substantive researchers in all areas. Our goal in assembling the chapters in this book was to provide readable and up-to-date discussions of some of the most important advances in measurement, applied statistics, research methods, and data analysis. Each chapter describes a particular research method or data analysis technique, sets out an illustration of its use, and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the method. Many of the methods are quite complex, and the authors have made concerted efforts to present key ideas in ways that are as accessible as possible. In this chapter, we discuss the various types of problems applied researchers face in describing and understanding the data
Beamforming Algorithms for Information Relaying in Wireless Sensor Networks

We develop beamforming algorithms for information relaying over shared slowly nonselective fading channels in wireless sensor networks. We assume that, prior to beamforming their received data to a destination, the relays preprocess them by either data amplifying or decoding. The beamforming weights are broadcasted by the destination to the relays and are formed based on the individual relay-destination channel coefficients and an m-bit description of the quality of each source-relay channel. For both relay data-preprocessing models, we present methods for optimizing the m-bit quantizer employed at each relay for encoding its source-relay channel quality level, and for choosing the beamforming weights at the destination, so as optimize the destination uncoded bit error rates. As our simulations and analysis reveal, a coarse single-bit description of each source-relay channel coefficient at the destination may suffice, as it results in only a small increase in uncoded bit error rates with respect to the case where full knowledge of the source-relay channel coefficients are exploited at the destination.
Structured Lower Rank ApproximationMoody

This paper discusses two general procedures for constructing the nearest approximation of a given matrix by one with any lower rank and any linear structure. Nearness can be measured in any matrix norm. Structured low rank matrices arise in various applications , including image enhancement and model reduction. In practice, the empirical data collected in the matrix often either do not maintain the speciied structure or do not induce the desirable rank. It is therefore an important task to search for the nearest structured lower rank approximation of a given matrix. The techniques developed in this paper can easily be implemented for numerical computation. In particular, it is shown that the computations can be approached using eecient optimization packages. The special case of Toeplitz structure using the Frobenius matrix norm is discussed in detail to illustrate the ideas, and numerical tests are reported. The procedures developed herein can be generalized to consider a much broader range of problems.