Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: how much, and who's paying?

We use a regression framework and nationally representative data to compute aggregate overweight- and obesity-attributable medical spending for the United States and for select payers. Combined, such expenditures accounted for 9.1 percent of total annual U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have been as high as dollar 78.5 billion (dollar 92.6 billion in 2002 dollars). Medicare and Medicaid finance approximately half of these costs.
A user study of different gameplay visualizations

With the rising interest in multiplayer gaming, gameplay statistics have become an increasingly important aspect of the overall game experience for many players. As a part of this trend, visualizations have gained great popularity among players, in particular heatmaps since they allow them to reenact the course of a game and to develop new strategies. In this paper we report results of a user study conducted with 29 players (i) to investigate how players use heatmaps and two further graphical representations that use clustering algorithms to interpret gameplay and (ii) to assess the three representations in regard to time efficiency, correctness, suitability, and player preference. Our results show that heatmaps were mainly used to detect hot spots while the cluster representations proved useful to compare variables, allowing the players to uncover relationships between them and in turn allowing a deeper insight into the gameplay data.
On the Domain-Specificity of Mindsets: The Relationship Between Aptitude Beliefs and Programming Practice

Deliberate practice is important in many areas of learning, including that of learning to program computers. However, beliefs about the nature of personal traits, known as mindsets, can have a profound impact on such practice. Previous research has shown that those with a fixed mindset believe their traits cannot change; they tend to reduce their level of practice when they encounter difficulty. In contrast, those with the growth mindset believe their traits are flexible; they tend to maintain regular practice despite the level of difficulty. However, focusing on mindset as a single construct focused on intelligence may not be appropriate in the field of computer programming. Exploring this notion, a self-belief survey was distributed to undergraduate software engineering students. It revealed that beliefs about intelligence and programming aptitude formed two distinct constructs. Furthermore, the mindset for programming aptitude had greater utility in predicting software development practice, and a follow-up survey showed that it became more fixed throughout instruction. Thus, educators should consider the role of programming-specific beliefs in the design and evaluation of introductory courses in software engineering. In particular, they need to situate and contextualize the growth messages that motivate students who experience early setbacks.
Imitating human motion using humanoid upper body models

This paper presents a self collision detection scheme for humanoid robots using elliptical and circular capsules as bounding volumes. A capsule is defined as an elliptical or circular cylinder capped with ellipsoids or spheres respectively. The humanoid body is modeled using elliptical capsules, while the moving segments, i.e. arms and legs, of the humanoid are modeled using circular capsules. This collision detection model provides a good fit to the humanoid body shape while being simple to implement. A case study of the self collision free workspace of the humanoid arm is then presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the collision detection scheme.
Specific learning disabilities and difficulties in children and adolescents: Psychological assessment and evaluation

Preface Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman Part I. History and Tradition: 1. History lessons Margaret Jo Shepherd 2. The Wechsler intelligence scales Gary Groth-Marnat Part II. Alternative Cognitive Approaches to Learning Disabilities Assessment and Remediation: 3. Applications of the Woodcock-Johnson tests of cognitive ability - revised (WJ-R) to the diagnosis of learning disabilities Nancy Mather and Richard W. Woodcock 4. The Kaufman tests - K-ABC and KAIT Elizabeth O. Lichtenberger 5. Using the cognitive assessment system with learning disabled children Jack A. Naglieri 6. Application of the British Ability Scales (BAS II) and Differential Ability Scales (DAS) for the assessment of specific learning disabilities Colin D. Elliott 7. Is dynamic assessment compatible with the psychometric model? Reuven Feuerstein and Raphael S. Feuerstein 8. Multi-perspective, clinical-educational assessments of language disorders Elisabeth H. Wiig Part III. Neuropsychological Approaches to Learning Disabilities Assessment and Remediation: 9. Learning disabilities and their neurological foundations, theories, and subtypes Otfried Spreen 10. The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery: research findings and clinical application Ralph M. Reitan and Deborah Wolfson 11. Developmental assessment of neurological function with the aid of the NEPSY Marit Korkman, Sarah L. Kemp and Ursula Kirk 12. Clinical neuropsychological assessment of child and adolescent memory with the WRAML, TOMAL, and CVLT-C Erin D. Bigler and Wayne V. Adams Part IV. Integration and Summation: 13. Assessment of specific learning disabilities in the new millennium: issues, conflicts, and controversies Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman Index.
Efficient Privacy-Preserving Chatting Scheme with Degree of Interest Verification for Vehicular Social Networks

Wireless communication capabilities of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have been utilized in various cutting-edge applications such as Vehicular Social Networks (VSNs). One of the benefits of VSNs is sharing of common-interest information among vehicle drivers. Drivers may benefit from identifying neighbors that have interest common with them along with the extent of their interest. However, there are some privacy issues that should be addressed. Revealing the nature and degree of interests (DOI) of drivers can be in violation of their privacy. In this paper, we propose an efficient chatting scheme among drivers that preserves such privacy. We use attribute based encryption (ABE) technique for anonymous common interest verification and homomorphic encryption technique for anonymous DOI verification. Moreover, we propose an efficient search mechanism to enable vehicles to check if they have common interests with low computation and communication overhead. To secure conversation, a key agreement protocol is used to enable the drivers that have the same interest and the desired DOI to establish a shared secret key. Our extensive evaluations demonstrate that our scheme can successfully preserve drivers' privacy with low communication and computation overhead
The Role of Computed Tomography in the Evaluation of Bullous Lung Disease

Three cases illustrate the value of computed tomography in bullous lung disease. Computed tomography offers additional information over standard radiography regarding the number, size, and origin of the bullae. Differential diagnosis between bullae and loculated pneumothorax is also possible. Computed tomography is indicated in postoperative follow-up to evaluate pulmonary re-expansion and to identify small residual peripheral bullae or pneumothorax.
Preprint ISSN 0946 8633 In nite harmonic chain with heavy mass

Modelling a crystal with impurities we study an atomic chain of point masses with linear nearest neighbour interactions. We assume that the masses of the particles are normalised to 1, except for one heavy particle which has mass M . We investigate the macroscopic behaviour of such a system when M is large, and time and space are scaled accordingly. As main result we derive a PDE for the light particles that is coupled with an ODE for the heavy particle.
Truncated Nuclear Norm Minimization for Image Restoration Based On Iterative Support Detection

Recovering a large matrix from limited measurements is a challenging task arising in many real applications, such as image inpainting, compressive sensing and medical imaging, and this kind of problems are mostly formulated as low-rank matrix approximation problems. Due to the rank operator being non-convex and discontinuous, most of the recent theoretical studies use the nuclear norm as a convex relaxation and the low-rank matrix recovery problem is solved through minimization of the nuclear norm regularized problem. However, a major limitation of nuclear norm minimization is that all the singular values are simultaneously minimized and the rank may not be well approximated \cite{hu2012fast}. Correspondingly, in this paper, we propose a new multi-stage algorithm, which makes use of the concept of Truncated Nuclear Norm Regularization (TNNR) proposed in \citep{hu2012fast} and Iterative Support Detection (ISD) proposed in \citep{wang2010sparse} to overcome the above limitation. Besides matrix completion problems considered in \citep{hu2012fast}, the proposed method can be also extended to the general low-rank matrix recovery problems. Extensive experiments well validate the superiority of our new algorithms over other state-of-the-art methods.
Detecting emotion in music

Music is not only for entertainment and for pleasure, but has been used for a wide range of purposes due to its social and physiological effects. Traditionally musical information has been retrieved and/or classified based on standard reference information, such as the name of the composer and the title of the work etc. These basic pieces information will remain essential, but information retrieval based on these are far from satisfactory. Huron points out that since the preeminent functions of music are social and psychological, the most useful characterization would be based on four types of information: the style, emotion, genre, and similarity [Huron,2000].
Affecting Taiwanese College Students' Digital Music Download Behavioral Intention: An Empirical Study

This study aims to utilize the technology acceptance model as a theoretical basis and students' knowledge on copyright to construct the behavior intention model in order to explore the use intention of Taiwanese college students toward digital music download. Out of 480 questionnaires sent to six Taiwanese universities, 441 valid questionnaires were obtained with valid response rate of 91.9%. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling methodology to investigate the impact of behavior intention model on Taiwanese college students' digital music download. The results show that (1) copyright knowledge has no significant influence on perceived usefulness while exerting a significantly positive impact on use intention of digital music, (2) perceived ease of use has significantly positive effects on both perceived usefulness and use intention of digital music and (3) perceived usefulness has significantly positive influence on use intention of digital music. Finally, the study also raises a number of useful recommendations to the digital music industry.
Particle swarm optimization for integer programming

The investigation of the performance of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method in integer programming problems, is the main theme of the present paper. Three variants of PSO are compared with the widely used branch and bound technique, on several integer programming test problems. Results indicate that PSO handles efficiently such problems, and in most cases it outperforms the branch and bound technique.
Comparative Myocardial Deformation in 3 Myocardial Layers in Mice by Speckle Tracking Echocardiography

Background. Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) using dedicated high-resolution ultrasound is a relatively new technique that is useful in assessing myocardial deformation in 3 myocardial layers in small animals. However, comparative studies of STE parameters acquired from murine are limited. Methods. A high-resolution rodent ultrasound machine (VSI Vevo 2100) and a clinically validated ultrasound machine (GE Vivid 7) were used to consecutively acquire echocardiography images from standardized parasternal long axis and short axis at midpapillary muscle level from 13 BALB/c mice. Speckle tracking strain (longitudinal, circumferential, and radial) from endocardial, myocardial, and epicardial layers was analyzed using vendor-specific offline analysis software. Results. Intersystem differences were not statistically significant in the global peak longitudinal strain (−16.8 ± 1.7% versus −18.7 ± 3.1%) and radial strain (46.8 ± 14.2% versus 41.0 ± 9.5%), except in the global peak circumferential strain (−16.9 ± 3.1% versus 27.0 ± 5.2%, P < 0.05). This was corroborated by Bland Altman analysis that revealed a weak agreement in circumferential strain (mean bias ± 1.96 SD of −10.12 ± 6.06%) between endocardium and midmyocardium. However, a good agreement was observed in longitudinal strain between midmyocardium/endocardium (mean bias ± 1.96 SD of −1.88 ± 3.93%) and between midmyocardium/epicardium (mean bias ± 1.96 SD of 3.63 ± 3.91%). Radial strain (mean bias ± 1.96 SD of −5.84 ± 17.70%) had wide limits of agreement between the two systems that indicated an increased variability. Conclusions. Our study shows that there is good reproducibility and agreement in longitudinal deformation of the 3 myocardial layers between the two ultrasound systems. Directional deformation gradients at endocardium, myocardium, and epicardium observed in mice were consistent to those reported in human subjects, thus attesting the clinical relevance of STE findings in murine cardiovascular disease models.
Object Segmentation in Images using EEG Signals

This paper explores the potential of brain-computer interfaces in segmenting objects from images. Our approach is centered around designing an effective method for displaying the image parts to the users such that they generate measurable brain reactions. When an image region, specifically a block of pixels, is displayed we estimate the probability of the block containing the object of interest using a score based on EEG activity. After several such blocks are displayed, the resulting probability map is binarized and combined with the GrabCut algorithm to segment the image into object and background regions. This study shows that BCI and simple EEG analysis are useful in locating object boundaries in images.
Quantum Inspired Automatic Clustering for Multi-level Image Thresholding

Clustering is a simple technique to make partition of given data set into number of clusters. This paper presents an quantum inspired algorithm using GA to automatically find the number of clusters for image data set. The advantage lies in this technique is that no previous information about the data set used for classification is required before hand. The method decides the optimum cluster number on run. The popular evolutionary method called genetic algorithm has been used for generation wise improvement of clustering. CS measure is used as a fitness function in clustering. Effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed technique are demonstrated in terms of standard error found in computation. Finally, desired number of threshold values are heuristically taken from the input image to produce the image after thresholding.
LDL-receptor-related protein 4 is crucial for formation of the neuromuscular junction

Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 4 (Lrp4) is a member of a family of structurally related, single-pass transmembrane proteins that carry out a variety of functions in development and physiology, including signal transduction and receptor-mediated endocytosis. Lrp4 is expressed in multiple tissues in the mouse, and is important for the proper development and morphogenesis of limbs, ectodermal organs, lungs and kidneys. We show that Lrp4 is also expressed in the post-synaptic endplate region of muscles and is required to form neuromuscular synapses. Lrp4-mutant mice die at birth with defects in both presynaptic and postsynaptic differentiation, including aberrant motor axon growth and branching, a lack of acetylcholine receptor and postsynaptic protein clustering, and a failure to express postsynaptic genes selectively by myofiber synaptic nuclei. Our data show that Lrp4 is required during the earliest events in postsynaptic neuromuscular junction (NMJ) formation and suggest that it acts in the early, nerveindependent steps of NMJ assembly. The identification of Lrp4 as a crucial factor for NMJ formation may have implications for human neuromuscular diseases such as myasthenia syndromes.
The Algorithmic Aspects of Network Slicing

Network slicing is a technique for flexible resource provisioning in future wireless networks. With the powerful SDN and NFV technologies available, network slices can be quickly deployed and centrally managed, leading to simplified management, better resource utilization, and cost efficiency by commoditization of resources. Departing from the one-type-fits-all design philosophy, future wireless networks will employ the network slicing methodology in order to accommodate applications with widely diverse requirements over the same physical network. On the other hand, deciding how to efficiently allocate, manage, and control the slice resources in real time is very challenging. This article focuses on the algorithmic challenges that emerge in efficient network slicing, necessitating novel techniques from the communities of operation research, networking, and computer science.
Drivers of Knowledge Contribution in Open Fora: Findings from Wikipedians

Today’s social computing platforms include many open content fora where users voluntarily create and edit content online. This has opened up a new mechanism for knowledge acquisition raising related research questions, including identification of the reasons why people contribute to open fora. While altruism is mentioned most frequently, it has been suggested that there may be additional drivers in play. To explore this possibility, we examine contribution behavior in the Wikipedia context using qualitative data from two focus groups of Wikipedians. Content analysis of the data reveals a number of different drivers of contributor behavior which we then map into the Motivation-Ability-Opportunity (MAO) theoretical framework developed in the organizational behavior literature on work performance. The mapping can provide a theoretical basis for quantitative examination of contributor behavior and lead to more effective methods of managing collective knowledge in other open forum settings, such as corporate wikis.
Low-Complexity Beam Allocation for Switched-Beam Based Multiuser Massive MIMO Systems

This paper addresses the beam allocation problem in a switched-beam based massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system working at the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band, with the target of maximizing the sum data rate. This beam allocation problem can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem under two constraints that each user uses at most one beam for its data transmission and each beam serves at most one user. The brute-force search is a straightforward method to solve this optimization problem. However, for a massive MIMO system with a large number of beams N , the brute-force search results in intractable complexity O(N), where K is the number of users. In this paper, in order to solve the beam allocation problem with affordable complexity, a suboptimal low-complexity beam allocation (LBA) algorithm is developed based on submodular optimization theory, which has been shown to be a powerful tool for solving combinatorial optimization problems. Simulation results show that our proposed LBA algorithm achieves nearly optimal sum data rate with complexity O(K logN). Furthermore, the average service ratio, i.e., the ratio of the number of users being served to the total number of users, is theoretically analyzed and derived as an explicit function of the ratio N/K.
Characterization of endogenous and recombinant proviral elements of a highly tumorigenic AKR cell line

As an approach to evaluating the contribution of classes of endogenous viral sequences to leukemogenesis, a genomic library was prepared from the highly tumorigenic AKR SL12.3 cell line and screened for env-containing proviruses. An extensive battery of virus-derived probes and specific oligonucleotide probes were used to segregate 83 positive clones into related groups. The nonecotropic endogenous retroviruses were identified as members of the polytropic, modified polytropic, or xenotropic groups. At least three unique xenotropic proviruses were detected that differed from the published xenotropic sequence within a variable region of the 5' portion of env. Changes among the xenotropic proviruses included relative insertions and/or deletions that maintain an open reading frame and hence the potential to encode viable envelope gene products. Several recombinant viruses were also detected. Recombination was not random and primarily involved the formation of mink cell focus-inducing class I retroviruses via recombination between polytropic elements and ecotropic virus. One other recombinant was detected which contained ecotropic virus sequences in the 5' region encoding p15 of an otherwise xenotropic provirus. An interesting observation was the finding that certain clones contained more than one provirus within the average 20-kb cloned insert. This would not be expected if integration were totally random. The de novo recombinant proviruses identified here provide a series of potential candidates to be evaluated for their contribution to the tumorigencity of the SL12.3 cell line.
The feasibility and need for dimensional psychiatric diagnoses

Background. It is our contention that both categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosis are important for clinical work and research alike, and that each approach has its drawbacks and advantages. As the processes toward developing DSM-V and ICD-11 progress, we suggest that another exclusively categorical revision of psychiatric taxonomies will no longer be sufficient and that adding a dimensional component is a necessary step if these taxonomies are to continue serving the future clinical and research needs of psychiatry as they have so effectively done in the past. Method. We begin the paper with a review of terminology related to categories and dimensions and briefly review literature on advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. Results. A review of relevant literature supports both the need for and feasibility of augmenting traditional categorical diagnoses with dimensional information. Conclusion. We conclude with a proposal for preserving traditional categorical diagnostic definitions, but adding a dimensional component that would be reflective of and directly referable back to the categorical definitions. We also offer a specific proposal for adding a dimensional component to official taxonomies such as the DSM and the ICD in a way that fully preserves the traditional categorical approach.