Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparative study of shilling attack detectors for recommender systems

Uncovering shilling attackers hidden in recommender systems is very crucial to enhance the robustness and trustworthiness of product recommendation. Many shilling attack detection algorithms have been proposed so far, and they exhibit complementary advantage and disadvantage towards various types of attacks. In this paper, we provide a thorough experimental comparison of several well-known detectors, including supervised and unsupervised methods. MovieLens 100K is the most widely-used dataset in the realm of shilling attack detection, and thus it is selected as the benchmark dataset. Meanwhile, seven types of shilling attacks generated by average-filling and random-filling model are tested in our experiments. As a result of our analysis, we show clearly causes and essential characteristics insider attackers that might determine the success or failure of different kinds of detectors.
Control and optimization of a cement rotary kiln: A model predictive control approach

In this paper, a Model Predictive Control strategy is used to stabilize a temperature profile along a cement rotary kiln minimizing fuel specific consumption. The adopted system architecture is composed of two different optimization layers that interact in order to improve control performances and to meet possibly variable economic goals. The developed cooperation logic between the two layers that takes into account priority ranking of controlled variables constraints has been proven to improve system performances. The developed MPC system has been implemented on a cement plant and its performances are compared to the performances of the previous system based on standard PID controllers. The results are very satisfactory in terms of economic benefits and of minimization of environmental noxious emissions.
Towards Spatio-temporal Face Alignment in Unconstrained Conditions

Face alignment is an essential task for many applications. Its objective is to locate feature points on the face, in order to identify its geometric structure. Under unconstrained conditions, the different variations that may occur in the visual context, together with the instability of face detection, make it a difficult problem to solve. While many methods have been proposed, their performances under these constraints are still not satisfactory. In this article, we claim that face alignment should be studied using image sequences rather than still images, as it has been done so far. We show the importance of taking into consideration the temporal information under unconstrained conditions.
Description of core excitations by time‐dependent density functional theory with local density approximation, generalized gradient approximation, meta‐generalized gradient approximation, and hybrid functionals

Time‐dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is employed to investigate exchange‐correlation‐functional dependence of the vertical core‐excitation energies of several molecules including H, C, N, O, and F atoms. For the local density approximation (LDA), generalized gradient approximation (GGA), and meta‐GGA, the calculated X1s→π* excitation energies (X = C, N, O, and F) are severely underestimated by more than 13 eV. On the other hand, time‐dependent Hartree‐Fock (TDHF) overestimates the excitation energies by more than 6 eV. The hybrid functionals perform better than pure TDDFT because HF exchange remedies the underestimation of pure TDDFT. Among these hybrid functionals, the Becke‐Half‐and‐Half‐Lee‐Yang‐Parr (BHHLYP) functional including 50% HF exchange provides the smallest error for core excitations. We have also discovered the systematic trend that the deviations of TDHF and TDDFT with the LDA, GGA, and meta‐GGA functionals show a strong atom‐dependence. Namely, their deviations become larger for heavier atoms, while the hybrid functionals are significantly less atom‐dependent. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2007
Anatomic landmarks facilitate predictable partial lower limb loading during aquatic weight bearing

Background:Progressive weight bearing after lower extremity fracture is routinely prescribed to improve fracture healing. This study aimed to determine if anatomic landmarks could be used in aquatic therapy to facilitate progressive lower limb loading. We hypothesized that there would be a clinically relevant difference in limb loading across landmarks, and loading at these landmarks would be fairly consistent regardless of sex or body type. Methods:We prospectively studied 61 patients with periarticular fractures who were prescribed aquatic therapy for rehabilitation. The weight in water was obtained with a submersible load cell. Force measurements were recorded at the level of the navel, nipple, and neck with full lung inhalation and exhalation. Results:Forty-four women and 17 men, mean age of 55 yr (SD=16 yr, range: 21.0–84.0) participated (n=61). The mean dry weight in women was 76.9 kg (SD=19.5) and in men, 87.1 kg (SD=13.3). The mean body fat for women was 40.3% (SD=8.7%) and 29.3% (SD=7.2%) for men. The percentage of dry body weights were similar for men and women for most immersion levels, with a mean of 7.9% (SD=3.3%) at the neck while exhaling and 6.0% (SD=2.7%) at the neck while inhaling, 23.9% (SD=5.9%) at the nipple, and 51.4% (SD=5.6%) at the navel. Conclusions:Load reduction was not heavily influenced by percent body fat or dry weight. Anatomic landmarks can facilitate a graduated progression in lower limb loading during periarticular fracture rehabilitation.
Software test data generation using the chaining approach

Software testing, specifically, test data generation is very labor-intensive and expensive. As a result, it accounts for a significant portion of software system development cost. In this paper we present a chaining approach for automated software test data generation. The chaining approach uses data dependence analysis to guide the test data generation process. The experiments have shown that the chaining approach may significantly improve the chances of finding test data as compared to the existing methods of automated test data generation.
Sequential vapour ablation of adjacent segments in canine lung

Abstract Introduction: Vapour ablation is used to create lung volume reduction for emphysema patients to improve lung function and quality of life. This study characterises effects of vapour ablation treatment in lung segments within a lobe that are adjacent to lung segments previously treated with vapour in a healthy canine model. Because emphysema is a progressive disease, subsequent treatments could offer continued benefit to the patient. Method: Six healthy canines were treated with vapour at 8.5 cal/g in one upper lobe segment. After a 4-week healing period, the adjacent segment was treated. After a second 4-week healing period, necropsy was performed and the tissue inspected. Clinical effects were monitored during each healing period. Results: Each treatment was well tolerated and no significant abnormalities were observed during the healing phases, including death, pneumothorax, or major decline in health status. Animal health, oxygenation changes, pathology, and airway changes were monitored during the study. Analysis of these end points showed no difference in changes after treatment 2 as compared to changes after treatment 1. Conclusion: In this model, there was no evidence of increased or different clinical observations after a second adjacent vapour ablation. It was not possible to differentiate between the clinical effects of treatment 1 and the clinical effects of treatment 2. These results support investigation of sequential adjacent segmental vapour treatments in humans.
Evaluation of a stroke family care worker: results of a randomised controlled trial

Abstract Objective: To examine the effect of contact with a stroke family care worker on the physical, social, and psychological status of stroke patients and their carers. Design: Randomised controlled trial with broad entry criteria and blinded outcome assessment six months after randomisation. Setting: A well organised stroke service in an Edinburgh teaching hospital Subjects: 417 patients with an acute stroke in the previous 30 days randomly allocated to be contacted by a stroke family care worker (210) or to receive standard care (207). The patients represented 67% of all stroke patients assessed at the hospital during the study period. Main outcome measures: Patient completed Barthel index, Frenchay activities index, general health questionnaire, hospital anxiety and depression scale, social adjustment scale, mental adjustment to stroke scale, and patient satisfaction questionnaire; carer completed Frenchay activities index, general health questionnaire, hospital anxiety and depression scale, social adjustment scale, caregiving hassles scale, and carer satisfaction questionnaire. Results: The groups were balanced for all important baseline variables. There were no significant differences in physical outcomes in patients or carers, though patients in the treatment group were possibly more helpless, less well adjusted socially, and more depressed, whereas carers in the treatment group were possibly less hassled and anxious. However, both patients and carers in the group contacted by the stroke family care worker expressed significantly greater satisfaction with certain aspects of their care, in particular those related to communication and support. Conclusions: The introduction of a stroke family care worker improved patients' and their carers' satisfaction with services and may have had some effect on psychological and social outcomes but did not improve measures of patients' physical wellbeing. Key messages A stroke family care worker in the context of a well organised hospital based stroke service has no definite beneficial effect on the physical, social, or psychological outcome of patients or their carers A stroke family care worker may reduce carers' hassles and anxiety but render patients more helpless, less well socially adjusted, and more depressed A stroke family care worker may improve patients' and their carers' satisfaction with those aspects of stroke services relating to communication and support Purchasers of health care need to decide the value they and their patients place on satisfaction with health care
Enhancing a eucalypt crown condition indicator driven by high spatial and spectral resolution remote sensing imagery

Abstract. Individual crown condition of Eucalyptus gomphocephala was assessed using two classification models to understand changes in forest health through space and time. Using high resolution (0.5 m) digital multispectral imagery, predictor variables were derived from textural and spectral variance of all pixels inside the crown area. The results estimate crown condition as a surrogate for tree health against the total crown health index. Crown condition is derived from combining ground-based crown assessment techniques of density, transparency, dieback, and the regrowth of foliage. This object-based approach summarizes the pixel data into mean crown indices assigned to crown objects which became the carrier of information. Models performed above expectations, with a significant weighted Cohen’s kappa ( κ > 0.60 and p < 0.001 ) using 70% of available data. Using in situ data for model development, crown condition was predicted forwards (2010) and backwards (2007) in time, capturing trends in crown condition and identifying decline in the healthiest between 2008 and 2010. The results confirm that combining spectral and textural information increased model sensitivity to small variations in crown condition. The methodology provides a cost-effective means for monitoring crown condition of this or other eucalypt species in native and plantation forests.
Two chiroptical modes of silver nanospirals

As an emerging three-dimensional chiral metamaterial, plasmonic nanospirals (NSs) possess inherent chiroptical activity that has attracted increasing attention for developing potential photonic applications. However, the study of chiroptical activity of plasmonic NSs is still in its infancy, especially for NSs made of silver, which is a typical plasmonic material with high plasmonic quality. Herein, we present a systematic study of circular dichroism (CD) of silver NSs (AgNSs) that are fabricated and engineered in helical lengths by glancing-angle deposition (GLAD) and dispersed in ethanol. The CD spectrum is composed of a bisignated mode of two peaks, one in the UV regime and the other in the visible. The UV mode has a resonance wavelength saturating at ∼375 nm and a linewidth decoupled from the helical elongation, while the visible mode tends to have a redshift and its linewidth broadens linearly with the elongation of AgNS. Helical elongation generally amplifies the chiroptical activity of both modes. Finite-element simulation shows good agreement with the experimental CD results, and accounts for the wavelength-related chiroptical distinction in terms of the resonance wavelength. This work contributes to understanding the bisignated chiroptical responses of plasmonic nanospirals, and introduces a simple method to tailor the visible chiroptical activity that is strongly desired to explore a wide range of chirality-related bio-applications.
Optimization Techniques for Resource Provisioning and Load Balancing in Cloud Environment: A Review

Cloud computing is an emerging technology which provides unlimited access of versatile resources to users. The multifaceted and dynamic aspects of cloud computing require efficient and optimized techniques for resource provisioning and load balancing. Cloud monitoring is required identifying overutilized and underutilized of physical machines which hosting Virtual Machines (VMs). Load balancing is necessary for efficient and effective utilization of resources. Most of the authors have taken the objective to reduce the makespan for executing requests on multiple VMs. In this paper, a thorough review on scheduling and load balancing techniques has been done and different techniques have been analyzed on the basis of SLA Violations, CPU utilization, energy consumption and cost
What is a CI?

When reading a research report, the range of the CI provides assurance (or confidence) regarding how precise the data are. CIs are calculated at a confidence level, for example 95%. This level is predetermined by the researcher. Confidence levels are usually calculated so that this percentage is 95% although others 90%, 99%, and 99.9% are sometimes applied. Researchers collect numerical data and then apply statistical tests. An example of a common statistical test applied by researchers is the mean which is then used to approximate the average for an entire population. CIs provide an indication of how reliably these results reflect the whole population. CIs are considered a more useful measure than p values, which only reflect a level of statistical significance.1(p values were discussed in a previous Research Made Simple paper.2) A CI is a numerical range used …
Generative Models for Authors ’ Influence in Document Networks

In a document network such as citation network of scientific d o uments, web-logs, etc., the content produced by authors exhibit their interestin certaintopicswhereas some authors tend to influenceother authors’ interests. In this work, we propose to model the influence of cited authors along with the interes ts of citing authors. Moreover, we hypothesize that apart from the citations pres ent in a documents, the context surrounding the citation mention provides extr a topical information about the cited authors. However, associating terms in the c ontext to the cited authors remain an open problem. We propose a novel document gen eration schemes that incorporates the context while modeling the interests of citing authors and influence of the cited authors simultaneously. We apply the p roposed models to two text corpora: CiteSeer and CiteULike dataset. The exper iments based upon log-likelihood fit on the test documents suggest significant improvements over the baseline models.
Insulinotropic Glucagon-Like Peptide I Receptor Expression in Glucagon-Producing α-Cells of the Rat Endocrine Pancreas

Glucagon-like peptide I (GLP-I), an intestine-derived incretin hormone, is a potent stimulator of insulin and somatostatin secretion. In some studies, GLP-I is an inhibitor of glucagon secretion. It remains uncertain, however, whether the effect of GLP-I on the inhibition of glucagon secretion is direct, owing to interactions with GLP-I receptors on ケ-cells, or indirect, via paracrine suppression by insulin or somatostatin. The localization of the GLP-I receptor on insulin and somatostatin-producing cells in the islets is well established. Whether the GLP-I receptor also resides on the glucagon-producing α-cells remains controversial and is reported to be absent on rat α-cells. To investigate the distribution of the GLP-I receptor on islet cells, we examined the expression of GLP-I receptor mRNA in phenotypically distinct islet cell lines and islets, and the presence of immunoreactive GLP-I receptor in dispersed rat islet cells using a specific antiserum. GLP-I receptor mRNA was readily detected by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in both rat islets and in established islet cell lines representing distinct α-, β, and δ-cell phenotypes. In addition, GLP I receptor expression was detected in single rat α-cells by single-cell RT-PCR. In dispersed rat islet cells analyzed by double immunofluorescent staining, 90% of the insulin, 76% of the somatostatin, and 20% of the glucagon positive cells colocalized with the GLP-I receptor immunoreactivity. Thus, a substantial population of glucagon immunoreactive α-cells express the GLP-I receptor. These findings imply that GLP-I may have a direct receptor-mediated action in the regulation of the physiological functions on a substantial subpopulation of α-cells. We suggest that a possible role for GLP-I receptors on α-cells may be to provide positive autocrine feedback control on glucagon secretion during fasting and/or to dampen the potent paracrine suppression of glucagon secretion by insulin during feeding.
Development and Validation of a Trustworthy Multisource Feedback Instrument to Support Nurse Appraisals

Introduction: Nurse appraisal is well established in the Western world because of its obvious educational advantages. Appraisal works best with many sources of information on performance. Multisource feedback (MSF) is widely used in business and in other clinical disciplines to provide such information. It has also been incorporated into nursing appraisals, but, so far, none of the instruments in use for nurses has been validated. We set out to develop an instrument aligned with the UK Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) and to evaluate its reliability and feasibility across a wide hospital‐based nursing population. Methods: The KSF framework provided a content template. Focus groups developed an instrument based on consensus. The instrument was administered to all the nursing staff in 2 large NHS hospitals forming a single trust in London, England. We used generalizability analysis to estimate reliability, response rates and unstructured interviews to evaluate feasibility, and factor structure and correlation studies to evaluate validity. Results: On a voluntary basis the response rate was moderate (60%). A failure to engage with information technology and employment‐related concerns were commonly cited as reasons for not responding. In this population, 11 responses provided a profile with sufficient reliability to inform appraisal (G = 0.7). Performance on the instrument was closely and significantly correlated with performance on a KSF questionnaire. Discussion: This is the first contemporary psychometric evaluation of an MSF instrument for nurses. MSF appears to be as valid and reliable as an assessment method to inform appraisal in nurses as it is in other health professional groups.
Medical image compression and DICOM-format image archive

In general, the image formats from radiological modalities are incompatible with the standard DICOM-format. Our system is developed to convert images into DICOM-format that are ready to implement in the medical teleradiological system. The system can process and record the image signal sent to the display unit in the single frame and multiframe image modes. The later mode keeps the set of images in windows bitmap file with . BMP file extension. The resulting images are then compressed with two different techniques - JPEG and JPEG2000. The significant advantage of JPEG2000 over normal JPEG is that the error from JPEG2000 compression is smaller than the error from JPEG. Nevertheless, both methods share a similar mishap; when the compression ratio increases, they both generate more error than the processes on lower compression ratio do. In addition, our system can also convert the image data in normal or automatic DICOM process into the standard DICOM 3.0 format without altering the image data. The final image data can then be used in any radiological modality.
Mindfulness in Motion for People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND Mindfulness in Motion is an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention that uses yoga movement, mindfulness meditation, and relaxing music. This study examined the feasibility of using Mindfulness in Motion in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and the effect of this program on stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and quality of life in people with MS. METHODS Twenty-two people with MS completed the 8-week mindfulness program as well as assessments 1 week before and after the intervention. RESULTS Pre/post comparison of four self-reported questionnaires-the Mental Health Inventory, 36-item Short Form Health Status Survey, Modified Fatigue Impact Scale, and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-showed significant improvement in physical functioning, vitality, and mental health. Specifically, improvements were seen in anxiety, depression, and positive affect; cognitive, psychosocial, and overall functioning regarding fatigue; and mindfulness in the areas of observing, acting with awareness, nonjudgment, and nonreactivity. CONCLUSIONS Due to the uncertainty in disease progression associated with MS, and the multiplicity of mental and physical symptoms associated with it, programming that addresses anxiety, depression, and fatigue is a key area of future research in MS disease management. Mindfulness in Motion proved to be a feasible program yielding positive results, supporting the need for research to determine the extent to which the program can improve quality-of-life outcomes for people with MS.