Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining Summer Laboratory Research Apprenticeships for High School Students as a Factor in Entry to MD/PhD Programs at Matriculation

Do summer laboratory research apprenticeships during high school have an impact on entry to MD/PhD programs? This quantitative study (n= 236,432) examines the connection between laboratory research apprenticeship experience at the high school level and matriculation into one of the more rigorous educational programs for scientific research training.
Performance of reliable transport protocol over IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN: analysis and enhancement

IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) is proposed to support asynchronous and time bounded delivery of radio data packets in infrastructure and ad hoc networks. The basis of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN MAC protocol is a distributed coordination function (DCF), which is a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) with a binary slotted exponential back-off scheme. Since IEEE 802.11 MAC has its own characteristics that are different from other wireless MAC protocols, the performance of reliable transport protocol over 802.11 needs further study. This paper proposes a scheme named DCF+, which is compatible with DCF, to enhance the performance of reliable transport protocol over WLAN. To analyze the performance of DCF and DCF+, this paper also introduces an analytical model to compute the saturated throughput of WLAN. Compared with other models, this model is shown to be able to predict the behavior of 802.11 more accurately. Moreover, DCF+ is able to improve the performance of TCP over WLAN, which is verified by modeling and elaborate simulation results.
Knockdown of the Chromatin Remodeling Gene Brahma by RNA Interference Reduces Reproductive Fitness and Lifespan in Common Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae)

Abstract The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius L. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) is a nuisance household pest causing significant medical and economic impacts. RNA interference (RNAi) of genes that are involved in vital physiological processes can serve as potential RNAi targets for insect control. Brahma is an ATPase subunit of a chromatin-remodeling complex involved in transcription of several genes for cellular processes, most importantly the homeotic genes. In this study, we used a microinjection technique to deliver double stranded RNA into female bed bugs. Delivery of 0.05 and 0.5 μg/insect of brahma dsRNA directly into hemocele resulted substantial reduction in oviposition. Eggs laid by bed bugs receiving both doses of brahma dsRNA exhibited significantly lower hatching percentage as compared to controls. In addition, brahma RNAi in female bed bugs caused significant mortality. Our results disclosed the potential of brahma RNAi to suppress bed bug population through injection of specific dsRNA, suggesting a critical function of this gene in bed bugs' reproduction and survival. Based on our data, brahma can be a promising RNAi target for suppression of bed bug population.
UMass at TREC 2017 Common Core Track

This is an overview of University of Massachusetts efforts in providing document retrieval run submissions for the TREC Common Core Track with the goal of using newly developed techniques in retrieval and ranking to provide many new documents for relevance judgments. It is hoped these new techniques will reveal new documents not seen via traditional techniques, that will increase the numbers of relevant judged documents for the research collection.
Clinical Significance of Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery Vascular Hyperintensities in Borderzone Infarcts

Background and Purpose— Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery vascular hyperintensities (FVHs) are seen in some cases with cerebral hemodynamic impairment and collateral flow. Because the worst outcomes of patients with borderzone infarcts were mainly correlated with impaired hemodynamics, the presence of FVH might provide another clue for predicting the prognosis of patients with borderzone infarcts. Methods— We reviewed 1377 consecutive patients with ischemic stroke. Cortical borderzone (CBZ) and internal borderzone infarcts were selected based on diffusion-weighted imaging. FVHs were defined as tubular- or serpentine-shaped hyperintensities in the subarachnoid space. We investigated the clinical significance of FVHs in borderzone-infarcted patients. Results— Among 87 patients with borderzone infarcts, the presence of FVH was observed in 30 (34.5%). We identified 62 patients with CBZ infarcts and 25 patients with internal borderzone infarcts. In the cases with CBZ infarcts, the initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores and the portions of nonfavorable outcome at 3 months in the FVH(+) group were significantly higher than in the FVH(−) group (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively). Unlike the cases with CBZ infarcts, there were no significant differences of these clinical features between the FVH(+) group and the FVH(−) group in the patients with internal borderzone infarcts. Conclusions— The findings of FVH are associated with relatively severe clinical presentation and nonfavorable prognosis in patients with CBZ infarcts, but not in patients with internal borderzone infarcts. The presence of FVH may help to identify CBZ-infarcted patients who require close observation and hemodynamic control.
EMG analysis of the scapular muscles during a shoulder rehabilitation program

The purpose of this study was to determine which exercises most effectively use the scapular muscles. Eight muscles in 9 healthy subjects were studied with indwelling electromyographic electrodes and cinema tography while performing 16 exercises. The 8 muscles studied were the upper, middle, and lower trapezius; levator scapula; rhomboids; pectoralis minor; and the middle and lower serratus anterior. Each exercise was divided into arcs of motion and the electromyographic activity was quantified as a percentage of the maximal manual muscle test. The optimal exercises for each muscle were identified based on intensity (greater than 50% maximal manual muscle test) and duration (over at least 3 consecutive arcs of motion) of the muscle activity. Twelve of the exercises qualified as top exer cises for all of the muscles. On further analysis, a group of 4 exercises was shown to make up the core of a scapular muscle strengthening program. Those 4 ex ercises include scaption (scapular plane elevation), row ing, push-up with a plus, and press-up.
Distributed State Estimation Using a Modified Partitioned Moving Horizon Strategy for Power Systems

In this paper, a distributed state estimation method based on moving horizon estimation (MHE) is proposed for the large-scale power system state estimation. The proposed method partitions the power systems into several local areas with non-overlapping states. Unlike the centralized approach where all measurements are sent to a processing center, the proposed method distributes the state estimation task to the local processing centers where local measurements are collected. Inspired by the partitioned moving horizon estimation (PMHE) algorithm, each local area solves a smaller optimization problem to estimate its own local states by using local measurements and estimated results from its neighboring areas. In contrast with PMHE, the error from the process model is ignored in our method. The proposed modified PMHE (mPMHE) approach can also take constraints on states into account during the optimization process such that the influence of the outliers can be further mitigated. Simulation results on the IEEE 14-bus and 118-bus systems verify that our method achieves comparable state estimation accuracy but with a significant reduction in the overall computation load.
Fine scale phytoplankton community structure across the Kuroshio Front

Concurrent physical, chemical and biological observations across the Kuroshio Front collected in October 2009 provide a detailed view of the relationship between the physical environment and the phytoplankton community. Depth profiles were taken at stations 9 km apart along five 70 km transects. With a combination of flow cytometry, microscopy and high-pressure liquid chromatography pigment analysis, we characterized the phytoplankton community structure across the front. The observed phytoplankton community fell into two distinct assemblages, largely separated by the front, but which also reflected patterns in the distribution of Kuroshio and Oyashio water masses shaped by mesoscale lateral mixing. Phytoplankton biomass was elevated where there was a positive vertical flux of nitrate towards the surface, and the frontal circulation drove a lateral transport of nutrients southwards into the subtropical gyre. The observations showed that the phytoplankton respond to forcing on several scales: the phytoplankton community across the front was shaped by a combination of the large scale biogeography of the region, mesoscale mixing of populations and finer scale modification of the light and nutrient environment.
Egocentric Video Multi-viewer for Analyzing Skilled Behaviors based on Gaze Object

In many intellectual tasks, efficient succession of human physical and sensory skills is a long-standing issue. In order to analyze skilled behaviors, a useful approach is to compare same task scenes among workers or days and to understand these differences. In this paper, we propose an egocentric scene classification method based on objects which the worker turned the gaze to and a multi-viewer for egocentric videos comparison. We have experimented on proposed classification method with videos of painting watercolor.
Overuse of Troponin? A Comprehensive Evaluation of Testing in a Large Hospital System

&NA; Troponin assays are integral to the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but there is concern that testing is over utilized and may not conform to published guidelines. We reviewed all testing performed at 14 hospitals over 12 months and associated troponin values with the primary and secondary diagnoses for each visit. Troponin was determined to be negative, indeterminate or elevated based on reference ranges. The majority of troponin measurements were single, not serial (64%). The rate of AMI was low, with only 3.5% of tested patients having a primary or secondary diagnosis of AMI. Sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value were excellent, exceeding 90%. However, positive predictive value was low, suggesting testing of populations with diseases known to be associated with elevated troponin levels in the absence of AMI. The majority (79%) of elevated troponin values were associated with primary diagnoses other than AMI. Only 28% of elevated troponins were associated with a primary or secondary diagnosis of AMI. These data suggest possible overuse of troponin testing in our healthcare system.
Risk perceptions and their relation to risk behavior

Background: Because risk perceptions can affect protective behavior and protective behavior can affect risk perceptions, the relations between these 2 constructs are complex and incorrect tests often lead to invalid conclusions.Purpose: To discuss and carry out appropriate tests of 3 easily confused hypotheses: (a) the behavior motivation hypothesis (perceptions of personal risk cause people to take protective action), (b) the risk reappraisal hypothesis (when people take actions thought to be effective, they lower their risk perceptions), and (c) the accuracy hypothesis (risk perceptions accurately reflect risk behavior). Methods: Longitudinal study with an initial interview just after the Lyme disease vaccine was made publicly available and a follow-up interview 18 months later. Random sample of adult homeowners (N = 745) in 3 northeastern U.S. counties with high Lyme disease incidence. Lyme disease vaccination behavior and risk perception were assessed.Results: All 3 hypotheses were supported. Participants with higher initial risk perceptions were much more likely than those with lower risk perceptions to get vaccinated against Lyme disease (OR = 5.81, 95% CI 2.63-12.82, p < .001). Being vaccinated led to a reduction in risk perceptions, χ2(1, N = 745) = 30.90, p < . 001, and people vaccinated correctly believed that their risk of future infection was lower than that of people not vaccinated (OR = .44, 95% CI .21-.91, p < .05). Conclusions: The behavior motivation hypothesis was supported in this longitudinal study, but the opposite conclusion (i.e., that higher risk led to less protective behavior) would have been drawn from an incorrect test based only on cross-sectional data. Health researchers should take care in formulating and testing risk-perception-behavior hypotheses.
Tuple lattice sieving

Lattice sieving is asymptotically the fastest approach for solving the shortest vector problem (SVP) on Euclidean lattices. All known sieving algorithms for solving the SVP require space which (heuristically) grows as $2^{0.2075n+o(n)}$ , where $n$ is the lattice dimension. In high dimensions, the memory requirement becomes a limiting factor for running these algorithms, making them uncompetitive with enumeration algorithms, despite their superior asymptotic time complexity. We generalize sieving algorithms to solve SVP with less memory. We consider reductions of tuples of vectors rather than pairs of vectors as existing sieve algorithms do. For triples, we estimate that the space requirement scales as $2^{0.1887n+o(n)}$ . The naive algorithm for this triple sieve runs in time $2^{0.5661n+o(n)}$ . With appropriate filtering of pairs, we reduce the time complexity to $2^{0.4812n+o(n)}$ while keeping the same space complexity. We further analyze the effects of using larger tuples for reduction, and conjecture how this provides a continuous trade-off between the memory-intensive sieving and the asymptotically slower enumeration.
Screening for SH3TC2 gene mutations in a series of demyelinating recessive Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease (CMT4)

Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease type 4C (CMT4C) is an autosomal recessive (AR) demyelinating neuropathy associated to SH3TC2 mutations, characterized by early onset, spine deformities, and cranial nerve involvement. We screened 43 CMT4 patients (36 index cases) with AR inheritance, demyelinating nerve conductions, and negative testing for PMP22 duplication, GJB1 and MPZ mutations, for SH3TC2 mutations. Twelve patients (11 index cases) had CMT4C as they carried homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in SH3TC2. We found six mutations: three nonsense (p.R1109*, p.R954*, p.Q892*), one splice site (c.805+2T>C), one synonymous variant (p.K93K) predicting altered splicing, and one frameshift (p.F491Lfs*32) mutation. The splice site and the frameshift mutations are novel. Mean onset age was 7 years (range: 1–14). Neuropathy was moderate‐to‐severe. Scoliosis was present in 11 patients (severe in 4), and cranial nerve deficits in 9 (hearing loss in 7). Scoliosis and cranial nerve involvement are frequent features of this CMT4 subtype, and their presence should prompt the clinician to look for SH3TC2 gene mutations. In our series of undiagnosed CMT4 patients, SH3TC2 mutation frequency is 30%, confirming that CMT4C may be the most common AR‐CMT type.
First Line Sorafenib Treatment for Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer: Efficacy and Safety Analysis.

BACKGROUND Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare disease, the prognosis of advanced and metastatic disease is poor and few therapeutic options are available in this setting. Based on the results of phase II and III studies with sorafenib in differentiated thyroid cancer and the lack of availability of registered tyrosine kinase inhibitors, vandetabin and cabozantinib in Hungary, we designed a uncontrolled, prospective efficacy and safety study of patients with metastatic MTC treated with first-line sorafenib in five Hungarian oncology centers. METHODS Ten consecutive patients with progressive or symptomatic metastatic MTC were included and started sorafenib 400 mg twice a day between June 2012 and March 2016. The primary end point was median progression-free survival (mPFS). Secondary endpoints included disease control rate, biochemical response, symptomatic response and toxicity. RESULTS Four patients achieved partial remission (40%) according to RECIST 1.1 evaluation. Five patients had stable disease beyond 12 months (50%) and one patient had progressive disease (10%). Median PFS was 19.1 months. The disease control rate was 90%. Association between radiologic response and biochemical or symptomatic response was inconsistent. Most common side effects were Grade 1-2 fatigue (60%), palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia, rash/dermatitis 50-50%, alopecia 40%. CONCLUSIONS In our prospective case series in patients with MTC first-line sorafenib showed at least similar efficacy as in other small phase II trials and case reports. Based on comparable efficacy with registered tyrosine kinase inhibitors and it's manageable toxicity profile, we believe that sorafenib has role in the sequential treatment of MTC.
Helmet operated smart E-bike

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports, India is prone for road accidents and most of the cases are of two wheeler accidents. Hence to provide safety and security system for bike riders we came up with a solution which is a Helmet Operated Smart E-Bike. It is having two operating modes which are Security Lock System (SLS) and Safety Engine System (SES), the first operating mode (SLS) having one RFID reader and two RFID tags. When a particular unique identity tag matches to the RFID reader value the handle lock mechanism will be operates like ON & OFF key. The second operating mode (SES) uses Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) which is fixed inside to the helmet and when some pressure applied on the sensor by helmet wearing on the user head, the motor (Engine) will be starts otherwise motor will be in off state. Hence the proposed solution provides accidents free society and high security locker system, this multiple featured smart E Bike vehicles leads user towards pollution free and accidents free society.
Modeling anomalous attention over an online social network through read/post analytics

Online social platforms revolutionarize the way in which people communicate, shattering physical boundaries and bringing people together in the virtual environment. While users are able to access information and share knowledge with unprecedented ease and openness, danger also lurks in the dark. Social networks have the potential to draw unwanted and anomalous attention to their users. Through online social networks, the daily routines of an individual may be under constant surveillance of others. Such risks are closely associated with information leakage, and have posed serious privacy and safety concerns. This paper investigates such risks, which are typically captured by excessive, unprecedented and persistent gathering of personal information through the cyberspace. We focus on ways to mitigate such risks through formalizing the concepts of anomalous attention. This is a challenging question, as such behaviors are usually victim-defined and often occurs without visible trace. Viewing a network as interconnected nodes who exchange information through posting and reading messages, we provide an abstract model of attention, and quantify the level of attention a user pays towards another. Analyzing the sequence of attention between pairs of users in the network allow one to capture anomalous activities.
From TomoSAR Point Clouds to Objects: Façade Reconstruction

Very high resolution SAR tomography (TomoSAR) using multiple data stacks from different viewing angles enables us to generate 4D point clouds of the illuminated area from space with a point density comparable to LiDAR. They can be potentially used for façade reconstruction and deformation monitoring in urban environment. In this paper, we propose an approach for façade detection and reconstruction from such point clouds. Firstly, the façade region is extracted from the point density projected onto the ground plane. The extracted façade points are then clustered into segments corresponding to individual façades by means of orientation analysis. Surface (flat or curved) model parameters of the segmented building façades are further estimated. Finally, the elevation estimate of each raw TomoSAR point is refined by using its more accurate azimuth and range coordinates, and the corresponding reconstructed surface model of the façade. The proposed approach is illustrated and validated by examples using TomoSAR point clouds generated from a stack of 25 TerraSAR-X high spotlight images from ascending orbit. Results using point clouds from multiple viewing angles, i.e. both ascending and descending orbits, are also presented.
Retrieving Self-Executable and Functionally Correct Code to Improve Source Code Search

Developers need to put lots of time and effort to reuse the code snippets retrieved by the existing code search engines. The reason is that these engines do not provide self-executable, functionally correct and easily understandable code snippets as search results. Developers manually resolve all the dependencies to make the code snippets executable in their development contexts. They have to write and execute the same test cases many times to check the correctness of the code fragments. In this paper, a technique has been proposed that converts each method in a code base into self-executable method (i.e., program slice) by resolving method calls, data and library dependencies. To ensure that the methods are functionally correct, automatic test scripts are generated and executed for each self-executable method based on the branch, statement, and path coverage. The understandability of the code fragments is increased by replacing irrelevant textual keywords with relevant words. All the self-executable code fragments are indexed using traditional Information Retrieval approach. So, when a user query is submitted, the technique will retrieve self-executable and functionally correct code snippets.
Impact of Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor on Voltage Profile of Transmission Lines using PSAT

In power system voltage stability is very important in order to maintain the voltage within the defined limits. The demand of electrical power increases in the last decade due to the lack of expansion in the generation and transmission network. The available transmission network is heavily loaded. This loading of transmission network cause the voltage instability. This instability on heavy loaded system creates voltage collapse which causes the power loss. Due to this phenomenon it is necessary to keep monitoring the voltage instability and to reduce voltage collapse. Voltage collapse mostly occurs due to the minimum availability of the reactive power. A power electronic device i.e. Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) is used to add the reactive power to the system which improve the voltage profile and minimizes the chances due to which the voltage collapse occur. In this paper FACTS series compensator, i.e. Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitors (TCSC) is injected between the two nodes of the IEEE 6 bus bar test system to check the voltage profile. PSAT (Power System Analysis Tool) tool, which is a new tool in MATLAB for study in power system analysis is used. IEEE-6 bus system is used as a test system for the effectiveness of the proposed method. The voltage profile with and without TCSC device is then compared to conclude the result.