Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-dependent risk for colorectal cancer and its association with the presence of K-ras mutations in tumors.

NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) is a polymorphic enzyme involved in the detoxification of potentially mutagenic and carcinogenic quinones. The homozygous C609T NQO1 genotype resulting in loss of reductase activity is found in 2-20% of individuals. In the present study, the NQO1-dependent risk for sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) was studied in 247 incident CRC cases and 296 hospital-based controls recruited during 1996-1997. Four subgroups of cases were studied: (i) all CRCs; (ii) a molecular CRC subgroup (n = 117, cases with molecular tumor analyses); (iii) within the molecular subgroup those tumors with K-ras mutations in codon 12 (CRC K12); (iv) within the molecular subgroup those tumors with K-ras mutations in codon 13 (CRC K13). The C609T NQO1 genotype was found to be twice as prevalent in all CRC patients (6.8%) compared with controls (3%) and six times more common in the subset CRC K12 (20%). Multivariant analyses in the overall population of 247 cases and 296 controls showed a significant age and gender adjusted risk for CRC associated with the C609T NQO1 genotype (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.19-6.97; P = 0.01) or with any variant genotype (the low activity allele frequency, i.e. heterozygotes plus homozygotes) (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.02-1.92; P = 0.03). Within cases of the molecular subgroup (n = 117) the C609T NQO1 genotype was associated with the presence of K-ras codon 12 mutation (OR 6.5 95%, CI 1.39-34.9; P = 0.003). Logistic regression showed an age and gender adjusted risk for K-ras codon 12 mutant CRC associated with the C609T NQO1 genotype (OR 10.5, 95% CI 2.99-36.7; P: = 0.0002) or with any variant NQO1 genotype (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.23-4.00; P = 0.007) compared with the control group. Genetically determined variations in NQO1 may modify the risk for CRC and these risks may be greatest for tumors containing K-ras codon 12 mutations. CRC with K-ras codon 12 mutations may represent a distinct and etiologically more homogeneous subtype of the disease, which may be associated with toxicants that are metabolized via a NQO1-dependent pathway.
A novel approach towards electrical loss minimization in vector controlled induction machine drive for EV/HEV

The usage of niche copper-rotor induction motor (CRIM) in all the variants of the Tesla Roadster electric vehicle has bolstered the technology of using induction motor for electrified transportation. Understanding the merits, demerits and state of art technology of induction motor and its drive in electric and hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) application, this research manuscript proposes a novel approach towards electrical loss minimization in vector controlled induction machine drives for the aforementioned application. This paper serves as a good theoretical study of the developed loss minimization scheme which would be later incorporated into an overall vector controlled induction machine drive for enhancing the efficiency of the electrified vehicle. Firstly, an insight is provided on the state or art induction motor technology in EV/HEV and the significance of incorporating core loss in an induction machine. Secondly, the conventional two-axis model of an induction motor incorporating core loss has been used to propose a novel loss minimization algorithm. Rotor flux has been used as the control variable for this purpose.
Multidimensional image morphs: construc-tion and user interface

In this thesis, I design and implement a system that creates multidimensional image morphs. Multidimensional image morphs are images constructed by cross-fading an arbitrary number of input images after alignment. This alignment is specified by corresponding features. The feature correspondences used by my system are given as a collection of digital image morphs between pairs of images. These two-image morphs are converted to global feature alignment by chaining and merging morph pairs. The feature alignment in each image is converted into high-dimensional vectors, and I describe a process to produce novel images using combinations of these vectors. Specifications of the images produced by my system are given by increasing or decreasing user-intuitive traits. I apply my implementation of this system to three sample datasets and discuss the quality of the resultant output images. Thesis Supervisor: Leonard McMillan Title: Associate Professor
Characterization of Left-Handed Traveling-Wave Transistors

The characteristics of a left-handed traveling-wave transistor, which is formulated as two composite right- and left-handed (CRLH) transmission lines with both passive and active couplings, are discussed for generating unattenuated waves having left-handedness. The design criteria for convective instability are described, together with results of numerical calculations that solve the transmission equation for the device.
Culture and its perception in strategic alliances: does it affect the performance? : an exploratory study into Dutch-German ventures

This exploratory study researches the fit of 6 National Culture (NC) and 6 Corporate Culture (CC) parameters in 12 Dutch-German cooperations. 24 firms were asked to verify the nature of their cultural fit and relating this perception to the perceived alliance performance. There appeared to be a strong (not necessary causal) relationship between the perception of cultural fit and the corresponding alliance performance This finding may have important implications for alliance management. Instead of its general preoccupation with strategic and operational fit among alliance partners, more attention should be paid to cultural fit. The inclusion of cultural fit indicators in the overall partner selection process might well pay off in terms of increased alliance performance.
Lucas-Kanade without Iterative Warping

Many methods for motion computation and object tracking are based on the Lucas-Kanade (LK) framework. We present a method which substantially speeds up the LK approach while preserving its accuracy. This acceleration is obtained by avoiding the iterative image warping, inherent to the LK framework. A three-fold speedup is observed on standard image alignment tasks. Our second contribution focuses on adopting a multi-frame approach in order to increase alignment accuracy and robustness. By utilizing the acceleration procedure, the complexity of this multi-frame alignment becomes comparable to that of the two-frame approach.
Adaptive approach to fingerprint image enhancement

The purpose of fingerprint image enhancement is to improve the clarity and quality of its local features. The quality of fingerprint image determines the accuracy and reliability of minutia extraction which also determines the accuracy of an automatic fingerprint recognition system. In this paper, we propose an adaptive image pre-processing approach that can significantly improve poor quality images according to their noise level based on contrast stretching, power-law transformation and Gabor filter. The original image smoothing is performed initially by Gaussian filter, and then processed by the proposed adaptive algorithm, and finally the resultant image is filtered by Gabor filter to get the improved binarized image. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach improves the quality of image and reduces the noise significantly as compared to other fingerprint image preprocessing approaches. Furthermore, the result of Goodness Index (GI) shows that our proposed approach improves the performance by 9% as compared to conventional Gabor filter based approach and is also better than other reported results. Especially, the performance of GI is improved by more than 40% in some poor quality images.
Traveling on Screen: Tourism and the Greek Film Musical

The image of Greece as a fun-loving tourist resort and escapist paradise which was presented in Greek film musicals of the 1950s and 1960s coincided with the growth of the Greek tourist industry during this same period. These film musicals treated their viewers as virtual tourists, offering them a two-hour wish-fulfillment without any costly physical displacement. This paper explores the social and symbolic parallels between the respective utopian desires on which actual holiday-making and the film musical relied. The analysis of some extremely popular musical films, including Some Like it Cold (1963), Girls for Kisses (1965), and Mermaids and Lads (1969), reveals the development of a contradictory attitude toward the tourist industry in the musical film genre. This is understood as an indirect result of increasing competition from tourism and, ultimately, from a successful leisure industry in Greece.
Meandered-Slot Antennas for Sensor-RFID Tags

This letter introduces a planar antenna layout suited to sensor-RFID fabrication. The geometry is based on a meandered-slot profile on a suspended patch and permits to host sensors and electronics in a small space. The available geometrical parameters are optimized by means of a genetic algorithm (GA) procedure aimed to maximize the antenna realized gain. The antenna performances are discussed through examples and prototypes.
Network Embedding via a Bi-Mode and Deep Neural 2 Network Model 3

Network Embedding (NE) is an important method to learn the representations of network 8 via a low-dimensional space. Conventional NE models focus on capturing the structure information 9 and semantic information of vertices while neglecting such information for edges. In this work, we 10 propose a novel NE model named BimoNet to capture both the structure and semantic information 11 of edges. BimoNet is composed of two parts, i.e., the bi-mode embedding part and the deep neural 12 network part. For bi-mode embedding part, the first mode named add-mode is used to express the 13 entity-shared features of edges and the second mode named subtract-mode is employed to represent 14 the entity-specific features of edges. These features actually reflect the semantic information. For 15 deep neural network part, we firstly regard the edges in a network as nodes, and the vertices as links, 16 which will not change the overall structure of the whole network. Then we take the nodes’ adjacent 17 matrix as the input of the deep neural network as it can obtain similar representations for nodes 18 with similar structure. Afterwards, by jointly optimizing the objective function of these two parts, 19 BimoNet could preserve both the semantic and structure information of edges. In experiments, 20 we evaluate BimoNet on three real-world datasets and task of relation extraction, and BimoNet is 21 demonstrated to outperform state-of-the-art baseline models consistently and significantly. 22
Structured local exponential models for machine translation

Title of thesis: STRUCTURED LOCAL EXPONENTIAL MODELS FOR MACHINE TRANSLATION Michael Vladimir Subotin, Master of Arts, 2010 Thesis directed by: Professor Philip Resnik Department of Linguistics This thesis proposes a synthesis and generalization of local exponential translation models, the subclass of feature-rich translation models which associate probability distributions with individual rewrite rules used by the translation system, such as synchronous context-free rules, or with other individual aspects of translation hypotheses such as word pairs or reordering events. Unlike other authors we use these estimates to replace the traditional phrase models and lexical scores, rather than in addition to them, thereby demonstrating that the local exponential phrase models can be regarded as a generalization of standard methods not only in theoretical but also in practical terms. We further introduce a form of local translation models that combine features associated with surface forms of rules and features associated with less specific representation – including those based on lemmas, inflections, and reordering patterns – such that surface-form estimates are recovered as a special case of the model. Crucially, the proposed approach allows estimation of parameters for the latter type of features from training sets that include multiple source phrases, thereby overcoming an important training set fragmentation problem which hampers previously proposed local translation models. These proposals are experimentally validated. Conditioning all phrase-based probabilities in a hierarchical phrase-based system on source-side contextual information produces significant performance improvements. Extending the contextually-sensitive estimates with features modeling source-side morphology and reordering patterns yields consistent additional improvements, while further experiments show significant improvements obtained from modeling observed and unobserved inflections for a morphologically rich target language. STRUCTURED LOCAL EXPONENTIAL MODELS FOR MACHINE TRANSLATION by Michael Vladimir Subotin Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor Philip Resnik, Chair Professor Amy Weinberg Professor Hal Daumé III c © Copyright by Michael Vladimir Subotin 2010
Moral judgment, cognitive distortions and implicit theories in young sex offenders

This study focused on moral judgment, cognitive distortions and implicit theories in 77 young sex offenders of whom 56 were child abusers and 21 were peer abusers. The sociomoral reflection measure–short form (SRM-SF) was used to assess moral judgment, and was extended with questions about sexual situations and the offenders’ abuse victim(s). Lower stage moral judgment was only found in peer abusers responding to own victim situations. The Sex With Children (SWCH) scale was used to measure implicit theories, which are beliefs justifying sex with children. No significant differences were found between the child and peer abuser group. Neither significant relations were found between the implicit theories and the level of moral judgment. In addition, all SRM-SF responses were coded according to Barriga and Gibbs’ (1996. Measuring cognitive distortion in antisocial youth: Development and preliminary validation of the ‘How I think’ questionnaire. Psychology Department, 22, 333–343) four-category typology of self-serving cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions concerning the abuse victim were associated with lower stage moral judgment, but only in the peer abuser group.
Writing reflexively to illuminate the meanings in cultural safety

With the introduction of cultural safety into nursing curricula, educators are grappling with ways to take their own understanding of the concept to create culturally safe places in their educational environments. The purpose of this paper is to share a process of writing as inquiry to surface new meanings in what might ontologically be understood as culturally safe environments. The writing illuminates individual and collective meanings of cultural safety from the perspectives of eight Canadian nurse educators. Using aesthetic texts and hermeneutic approaches, the meaning of cultural safety is exposed. Fluid depictions of the self as other, along with politicized taken for granted practices and multiple fields of meaning, bring clarity to a view that knowledge is always partial. Since knowledge is co-constructed, situated and socially produced, the representations of our evolving stories and cycles of reflection hold to an element of partiality in epistemological privilege The various texts shared offer insight into thinking about culturally safe spaces as horizons of new meaning. The implications for nursing education are in recognizing locations for both the educators and the learners. These writing and interpretive processes can be integrated into curricula to strengthen reflexive and relational practice.
Robust Feature Vector Set Using Higher Order Autocorrelation Coefficients

In this paper, a feature extraction method that is robust to additive background noise is proposed for automatic speech recognition. Since the background noise corrupts the autocorrelation coefficients of the speech signal mostly at the lower orders, while the higher-order autocorrelation coefficients are least affected, this method discards the lower order autocorrelation coefficients and uses only the higher-order autocorrelation coefficients for spectral estimation. The magnitude spectrum of the windowed higher-order autocorrelation sequence is used here as an estimate of the power spectrum of the speech signal. This power spectral estimate is processed further by the Mel filter bank; a log operation and the discrete cosine transform to get the cepstral coefficients. These cepstral coefficients are referred to as the Differentiated Relative Higher Order Autocorrelation Coefficient Sequence Spectrum DRHOASS. The authors evaluate the speech recognition performance of the DRHOASS features and show that they perform as well as the MFCC features for clean speech and their recognition performance is better than the MFCC features for noisy speech.
Using 2D systems theory to design iterative learning control laws with multiple reference signals

In this paper a 2D systems setting is used to develop new results on iterative learning control for linear plants in the case when there are multiple reference signals. The algorithms for control law design are developed using a strong form of stability for discrete linear repetitive processes known as stability along the pass. The resulting design computations are in terms of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs).
Random anonymization of mobile sensor data: Modified Android framework

With the increasing ability to accurately classify activities of mobile users from what was once viewed as innocuous mobile sensor data, the risk of users compromising their privacy has risen exponentially. Currently, mobile owners cannot control how various applications handle the privacy of their sensor data, or even determine if a service provider is adversarial or trustworthy. To address these privacy concerns, third party applications have been designed to allow mobile users to have control over the data that is sent to service providers. However, these applications require users to set flags and parameters that place restrictions on the anonymized or real sensor data that is sent to the requestor. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a new framework, RANDSOM, that moves the decision-making from the application level to the operating system level.
From Student Markets to Credential Markets: The Creation of the Regents Examination System in New York State, 1864–1890

In 1864 the Regents of the University of the State of New York announced their intention to develop a system of competitive examinations for students at academies and high schools across the state. Aimed both at strengthening those institutions and at stimulating the ambitions of students, the exams would provide “positive evidence of actual merit” in learning and instruction. On the basis of the exams the Regents would then distribute state funds to institutions and award “promotions and honors” to students. Thus New York launched the first state-wide system of standardized examinations and performance-based credentials in the country.
How do respiratory patients perceive oxygen therapy? A critical interpretative synthesis of the literature

Oxygen therapy is a common intervention in health care worldwide; yet, despite universal use, it is evident through poor practice that oxygen is often prescribed and administered injudiciously. It is proposed that possibly an influencing culture presides, whereby oxygen is often poorly understood and uncertainty regarding its use exists. It is unclear where the origins of this culture lie but exploring perceptions may enlighten the problem. A review of the literature was undertaken to establish what is already known about this elusive phenomenon. The paucity of any direct evidence regarding perceptions of oxygen directed the review to utilize a critical interpretative synthesis (CIS). The aim of this study was to explore how respiratory patients perceive oxygen therapy. A systematic search in Medline, Cinahl, Embase, British Nursing Index and PsychInfo yielded 1514 studies of which 42 were selected to consider the review question. The CIS allowed evidence from across studies to synthesize existing and new interpretations of data related to patients’ perceptions of oxygen therapy. Synthetic constructs then informed the synthesizing arguments, namely positive – feeling safe, enabler and comforter; negative – fear, oxygen versus self, restriction and embarrassment; and impartiality – mixed blessings. The findings are divergent, and at times contradictory. There appears uncertainty among patients regarding the purpose and benefits of oxygen therapy, though an underlying faith in health-care professionals is apparent. This faith seems to foster acceptance of a life-changing therapy, despite the impact, burden and incomplete understanding. There is a clear need for further research regarding these elusive perceptions in order to improve clinical practice in respect of oxygen.
Pastoral techniques in the modern Danish educational system

In recent years, therapeutic techniques have played an increasingly significant role in Danish educational thinking. One way in which this therapeutic thinking discloses itself is in the ever‐growing use of educational‐therapeutic games as part of the educational practice. Inspired by Foucault, we argue that educational‐therapeutic games can be understood as a kind of confessional practice that introduces a pastoral power relationship between pupils and teachers. This paper offers an empirically based analysis of one of the frequently used therapeutic‐educational games in Denmark, called ‘The Good Chair’. In general, the technique of ‘The Good Chair’ establishes a type of interaction that is characterized by a sense of togetherness, intimacy, and an instrumentality‐problem orientation. The structure and regulation of the game cast the child as a psychological being by uncovering the child’s true inner nature.
Analytical redundancy and the design of robust failure detection systems

The failure detection and identification (FDI) process is viewed as consisting of two stages: residual generation and decision making. It is argued that a robust FDI system can be achieved by designing a robust residual generation process. Analytical redundancy, the basis for residual generation, is characterized in terms of a parity space. Using the concept of parity relations, residuals can be generated in a number of ways and the design of a robust residual generation process can be formulated as a minimax optimization problem. An example is included to illustrate this design methodology.
Non-photo realistic Volume Rendering in Watercolor by

In this project, is presented a watercolor inspired method for the rendering of surfaces. This approach mimics the watercolor process by building up an illuminated scene through the composting of several layers of semi-transparent paint. The key steps consist of creating textures for each layer using Perlin Noise, and then calculating the layer thickness distribution using an inverted subtractive lighting model. The resulting watercolor-style images have color coherence that results from the mixing of a limited palette of paints. The new lighting model helps to better convey large shape changes, while texture orientations give hints of less dominant features. The rendered images therefore possess perceptual clues to more effectively communicate shape and texture information. [1]