Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlation-Based Context-aware Matrix Factorization

In contrast to traditional recommender systems, context-aware recommender systems (CARS) additionally take context into consideration and try to adapt their recommendations to users’ different contextual situations. Several contextual recommendation algorithms have been developed by incorporating context into recommenders in different ways. Most of those recommendation algorithms consider modeling contextual rating deviations but ignore the correlations among contexts. In this paper, we highlight the importance of contextual correlations, and build a correlation-based context-aware matrix factorization algorithm which demonstrates and further confirms the effectiveness of contextual correlations.
BIAZA statistics guidelines: toward a common application of statistical tests for zoo research.

Zoo research presents many statistical challenges, mostly arising from the need to work with small sample sizes. Efforts to overcome these often lead to the misuse of statistics including pseudoreplication, inappropriate pooling, assumption violation or excessive Type II errors because of using tests with low power to avoid assumption violation. To tackle these issues and make some general statistical recommendations for zoo researchers, the Research Group of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) conducted a workshop. Participants included zoo-based researchers, university academics with zoo interests and three statistical experts. The result was a BIAZA publication Zoo Research Guidelines: Statistics for Typical Zoo Datasets (Plowman [2006] Zoo research guidelines: statistics for zoo datasets. London: BIAZA), which provides advice for zoo researchers on study design and analysis to ensure appropriate and rigorous use of statistics. The main recommendations are: (1) that many typical zoo investigations should be conducted as single case/small N randomized designs, analyzed with randomization tests, (2) that when comparing complete time budgets across conditions in behavioral studies, G tests and their derivatives are the most appropriate statistical tests and (3) that in studies involving multiple dependent and independent variables there are usually no satisfactory alternatives to traditional parametric tests and, despite some assumption violations, it is better to use these tests with careful interpretation, than to lose information through not testing at all. The BIAZA guidelines were recommended by American Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) researchers at the AZA Annual Conference in Tampa, FL, September 2006, and are free to download from www.biaza. org.uk.
The development of emotional distress in 158 patients with recently diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective 5‐year follow‐up study

Objectives: To describe the development of emotional distress among patients with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to explore for early predictors of elevated distress over time. Methods: The study group consisted of 158 early RA patients (64% females) with mean age of 51.4 (SD = 12.7) years at disease onset. The patients were evaluated once a year for up to at least 4 years after baseline. Emotional distress was measured with the Symptom Checklist (SCL‐90), disability with the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), pain with a visual analogue scale (VAS), and disease activity by an active joint count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Questions concerning social support were also included. Results: Emotional distress decreased slowly for a majority of the patients. The change reached statistical significance in the third year from study start. A minority (12%) showed continuously high and increasing levels of distress. Measures of disease activity were poor predictors of distress. The best predictor of distress over time was distress at baseline. Other predictors were gender, age, civil status, and social support. Conclusions: Emotional distress tended to decrease for most patients in this cohort, but a minority showed continuously high levels. Patients at higher risk of developing emotional distress over time had higher levels of distress at baseline, were younger, more often female, and cohabiting, and experienced less social support.
Rural Malawian Women’s Resistance to Systematic Oppression, Violence, and Abuse by Their Husbands

In Malawi, 41% of women aged 15 to 49 report ever experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). Although there is evidence of the pervasiveness of IPV in Malawian society, the context in which it occurs and how women respond is not well described. The purpose of this study was to describe experiences of IPV of rural Malawian women. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 rural Malawian women aged 21 to 75 years (M = 39) as part of a larger, mixed-methods study. This qualitative thematic analysis highlights husbands’ IPV against wives and women’s actions to protect themselves and their children, and to thrive despite the violence. Our use of a postcolonial feminist perspective led us to acknowledge Malawian women’s acts of resistance in the midst of the harsh realities of IPV and gender inequality. We contend women’s resilience and resistance against oppression within intimate relationships are critical tools in the process of reducing IPV. Structural interventions that (a) address the multiple distal and proximal factors affecting IPV, (b) are tailored to and owned by local populations, and (c) involve both men and women as architects and active participants, we believe, hold the greatest promise for reducing IPV in Malawi.
On Performance of Parallel iSCSI Protocol for Networked Storage Systems

A newly emerging protocol for storage networking, iSCSI, was recently ratified by the Internet Engineering Task Force. The iSCSI protocol is perceived as a low cost alternative to the FC protocol for networked storages. It allows block level storage data to be transported over the popular TCP/IP network that is widely understood. This paper presents a new storage architecture allowing parallel processing of iSCSI packets. By leveraging inexpensive Ethernet ports, we are able to greatly improve the throughput of iSCSI storages through parallel processing. We have carried out a performance analysis to evaluate the performance of the new architecture as compared to the existing iSCSI storages. Our numerical results show that the new architecture has good performance potential
Recherche - SPPoC: manipulation automatique de polyèdres pour la compilation

The polyhedral model is quite popular in the field of parallelizing compilers. So, research prototypes tend to use tools like PIP (parametric integer programming solver), the PolyLib (library for polyhedra manipulation) or Omega (library and calculator for Presburger formulas). The two main drawbacks of these tools are a poor human-computer interface and a lack of aggressive simplification. This last deficiency leads to sequences of computations which give too complex results or even that cannot be completed due to memory exhaustion or time constraints. The SPPoC (Symbolic Parameterized Polyhedral Calculator) library brings a solution to these problems due to its completely symbolic interface and to its advanced simpli- fication modules. It also allows the unification of different tools. We present two applications which use SPPoC : a code generator and a communication volume estimator. MOTS-CLES : Polyedres, Calcul symbolique, Generation de code, Transformations de boucles, Data-parallelisme, Volume de communications, PIP, PolyLib, Omega Library
Identification of FHOD1‐binding proteins and mechanisms of FHOD1‐regulated actin dynamics

Formin homology‐2‐domain containing protein 1 (FHOD1) regulates gene transcription, actin‐cytoskeleton structure, and cell migration. To gain insight into the mechanisms by which FHOD1 mediates these diverse activities, a yeast‐two‐hybrid screen was performed to identify FHOD1‐binding proteins. Three proteins specifically interacted with the carboxy‐terminal two‐thirds of FHOD1, which includes the FH1, FH2, and diaphanous activating domains (DAD). The newly identified FHOD1‐binding proteins are protein kinase C binding protein 1 (PRKCBP1), cyclophilin B, and an isoform of WASP‐interacting SH3‐domain protein/diaphanous‐interacting protein 1 (WISH/DIP1), named WISH‐B. The proline‐rich FH1 domain of FHOD1 was sufficient to interact with the central portion of PRKCP1 and full‐length cyclophilin B. The FH1 domain also interacted with full‐length WISH‐B, but the extreme amino‐terminus was sufficient to associate with WISH‐B as well. WISH‐B altered the solubility of FHOD1 in vitro and a truncation mutant containing the amino‐terminal 227 residues of WISH‐B disrupted FHOD1‐induced stress fibers. WISH‐B did not affect FHOD1‐induced gene transcription through the serum response factor (SRF) recognition site on the skeletal α actin promoter (SkA). However, stabilization of F‐actin prevented FHOD1 dependent activation of this promoter in presence of high, but not low serum concentrations. Thus, the identification of a new FHOD1‐binding protein provides insight into the mechanisms by which FHOD1 regulates actin polymerization and transcription. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The MRC‐5 human embryonal lung fibroblast two‐dimensional gel cellular protein database: Quantitative identification of polypeptides whose relative abundance differs between quiescent, proliferating and SV 40 transformed cells

A new version of the MRC‐5 two‐dimensional gel cellular protein database (Celis et al., Electrophoresis 1989, 10, 76–115) is presented. Gels were scanned with a Molecular Dynamics laser scanner and processed by the PDQUEST IITM software. A total of 1895 [35S]methionine‐labeled cellular polypeptides (1323 with isoelectric focusing and 572 with nonequilibrium pH gradient electrophoresis) are recorded in this database, containing quantitative and qualitative data on the relative abundance of cellular proteins synthesized by quiescent, proliferating and SV40 transformed MRC‐5 fibroblasts. Of the 592 proteins quantitated so far, the levels of 138 were up‐or down‐ regulated (51 and 87, respectively) by two times or more in the transformed cells as compared to their normal proliferating counterparts, while only 14 behaved similarly in quiescent cells. Seven MRC‐5 SV40 proteins, including plastin and two interferon‐induced proteins, were not detected in the master MRC‐5 images. The identity of 36 of the transformation‐sensitive proteins whose levels are up or down regulated by two times or more was determined and additional information can be transferred from the master transformed human epithelial amnion cells (AMA) database (Celis et al., Electrophoresis 1990, 11, 989–1071) for those polypeptides of known and unknown identity that have been matched to AMA polypeptides. As more information is gathered in this and other laboratories, including data on oncogene proteins and transcription factors, this comprehensive database will outline an integrated picture of the expression levels and properties of the thousands of protein components of organelles, pathways and cytoskeletal systems that may be directly or indirectly involved in properties associated with the transformed state.
Heterogeneity of bronchitis in airway diseases in tertiary care clinical practice.

BACKGROUND Sputum cell counts have identified inflammatory subtypes of bronchitis in relatively small numbers of subjects with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic cough in research studies. The prevalence of different subtypes of bronchitis in routine clinical practice, however, has not been reported. OBJECTIVE To examine the heterogeneity of bronchitis and its relationship to the severity of airflow obstruction. METHODS A retrospective cross-sectional survey based on a computerized database of spontaneous or induced sputum cell counts examined in a large university tertiary respiratory outpatient clinic. RESULTS The database contained 4232 consecutive sputum records from 2443 patients with chronic cough (39%), asthma (37%), asthma with COPD (9%), COPD (13%) and bronchiectasis (3%). Total and differential cell counts were obtained from 86% of successful sputum samples. Induced sputum provided more viable samples than spontaneous expectorate. Approximately one-third of patients with asthma and one-fifth of patients with COPD experience eosinophilic bronchitis. Asthmatic patients with moderate to severe airflow obstruction had a greater number of sputum eosinophils. There was a significantly higher number of total cell counts and percentage of neutrophils in the sputum of COPD patients with moderate and severe airflow obstruction than in those with mild airflow obstruction. CONCLUSION There is heterogeneity in the cellularity of sputum in various airway diseases. Patients with clinically stable airway diseases may have high sputum cell counts. During exacerbations, more patients may experience neutrophilic bronchitis. Severity of airflow obstruction is associated with eosinophilic bronchitis in patients with asthma, and neutrophilic bronchitis in patients with nonasthmatic COPD.
GENETIC DIVERSITY AND CLONAL VS . SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN FALLOPIA SPP . ( POLYGONACEAE ) 1

Although fundamental to the study of invasion mechanisms, the relationship between mode of reproduction and plant invasion is not well understood. Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed), a highly aggressive invasive plant in both Europe and North America, serves as a model species for examining this relationship. In Britain, F. japonica var. japonica is a single female clone reproducing solely through vegetative growth or obligate hybridization with other Fallopia spp. In the U.S., however, there is more evidence for sexual reproduction. Here, simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed, and three Massachusetts populations were sampled at regular intervals. The amount of sexual and clonal reproduction in each population was determined based on within-population genetic diversity. Clonal growth was apparent, but the populations together contained 26 genotypes and had evidence of sexual reproduction. One genotype that was present in all populations matched the single aggressive British clone of F. japonica var. japonica. Also, a potentially diagnostic marker for the F. sachalinensis genome provided evidence of interand intraspecific sexual reproduction and introgression. These differences observed in U.S. populations compared to European populations have significant implications for management of Fallopia spp. in the U.S. and underscore the importance of regional studies of invasive species.
Filtering-Based Fault Detection for Stochastic Markovian Jump System with Distributed Time-Varying Delays and Mixed Modes

The problem of fault detection for stochastic Markovian jump system is considered. The system under consideration involves discrete and distributed time-varying delays, Ito-type stochastic disturbance, and different system and delay modes. The aim of this paper is to design a fault detection filter such that the fault detection system is stochastically stable and satisfies a prescribed disturbance attenuation level. By using a novel Lyapunov functional, a mix-mode-dependent sufficient condition is formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed main results.
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical Targeted Delivery of microRNA-29 b by Transferrin-Conjugated Anionic Lipopolyplex Nanoparticles : A Novel Therapeutic Strategy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Purpose: miR-29b directly or indirectly targets genes involved in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), namely, DNMTs, CDK6, SP1, KIT, and FLT3. Higher miR-29b pretreatment expression is associated with improved response to decitabine and better outcome in AML. Thus, designing a strategy to increase miR-29b levels in AML blasts may be of therapeutic value. However, free synthetic miRs are easily degraded in bio-fluids and have limited cellular uptake. To overcome these limitations, we developed a novel transferrin-conjugated nanoparticle delivery system for synthetic miR-29b (Tf-NP-
Theoretical estimates of cruciate ligament forces: Effects of tibial surface geometry and ligament orientations

Abstract A mathematical model of the knee in the sagittal plane was used to analyse the effect of tibial surface geometry and ligament orientations on the estimates of cruciate ligament forces. An elementary mechanical analysis was used to calculate the ligament forces L during a simulated antero-posterior (A-P) laxity test (passive test), and during isometric quadriceps contraction (IQE). Three sets of anatomical parameters (sites of bony attachments and lengths of the ligaments) were used from the literature. Flat, concave and convex shapes were considered for the tibial plateau articulating with a compatible convex femoral condyle. Also, the effects of position and posterior tilt of the tibial plateau were analysed for the concave and flat surfaces. The analysis showed that the ligament forces rose steeply as they approached collinearity with the contact force, C. For a flat tibia, the direction of C remained independent of flexion angle or position of the tibial plateau. For the concave tibia, the direction of C varied with flexion as well as with position of the centre of curvature, O, of the tibial plateau. C had an anterior component synergistic with the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) when the point of contact, F, was anterior to O. On the other hand, C had a posterior component synergistic with the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) when F was posterior to O. Also, posterior tilt of the flat or concave surfaces resulted in an increase in the anterior component of C. The effects of the convex tibial surface were opposite to those of the concave surface. During the A-P laxity test, the ligament forces arising from the concave tibia were very sensitive to the A-P position of O and to the posterior tilt of the plateau which allowed C and L to approach collinearity. Proximo-distal movement of O had a relatively insignificant effect on the ligament force. Similarly, compared to the concave surface, the posterior tilt of the flat tibia had a lesser effect on the ligament forces. Compared to the passive test, use of the muscle forces during IQE resulted in larger ligament forces, though the trends in force behaviour over the flexion range remained the same. The analysis emphasizes the importance of correct graft placement during ligament reconstruction, and the need to avoid steep inclination (more than 70° to tibial plateau). Increasing the inclination from 70 to 80° doubles the ligament force. Further, the analysis suggests that, in bicompartmental knee replacement, the efficacy of concave surfaces in replacing cruciate ligament function depends critically on the horizontal placement of the tibial component and its orientation about the mediolateral axis.
Fast merging algorithm for image segmentation based on date structure

For the complexity of the algorithm for the merger of the regional boundary. A new algorithm — the Full λ Edge List Segmentation Algorithm(FELSA) is presented. Firstly, A new list — edge list in date structure of segmentation region is introduced to improve the boundaries of multi-partition approach, and the updates value of merger list in FLSA algorithm is re-defined. Thus, segmentation algorithm may select the best boundary for the merger according to the edge list. Furthermore, the adjacent part of the region is defined by edge list, so that a new edge can be retrieved more efficiently. The results show that this improved algorithm become more efficient and effective to the merger of image segmentation.
On measuring the impact of hyperlinks on reading

We increasingly spend a vast amount of time on the Web and much of that time is spent reading. One of the main differences between reading non-Web based text and reading on the Web is the presence of hyperlinks within the text, linking various related Web content and Web pages together. Some researchers and commentators have claimed that hyperlinks hinder reading because they are a distraction that may have a negative effect on the reader's ability to process the text. However, very few controlled experiments have been conducted to verify these claims. In the experiments documented here we utilise eye tracking as a new methodology for examining how we read hyperlinked text. An eye tracker was used to observe participant's behaviour while reading. The results showed that hyperlinked text did not generally have a negative impact upon reading behaviour. However, participants did show a tendency to re-read sentences that contained hyperlinked uncommon (low frequency) words. This suggests that hyperlinks highlight important information to the reader and the hyperlinks add additional content which for more difficult concepts, invites rereading of the preceding text.
A fuzzy based power quality enhancement strategy for ac-ac converters

This paper attempts to design a fuzzy controller, with a view to enhance the overall power quality of an ac-ac converter and regulate the load voltage. Besides it envisages investigating the performance of three firing strategies for the power switches in an AC-AC Converter. The algorithm is articulated in order that the input current vector is allowed to closely follow the source voltage wave such that there is an enhancement in the fundamental component, while the other harmonic components are significantly reduced. It presents Matlab based simulation results to demonstrate the comparative merits of the triggering schemes and highlight the suitability of the fuzzy logic controller over a wide range of load variations.
Percutaneous fixation of displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures

Introduction: The calcaneus is the most frequently injured tarsal bone. Many calcaneal fractures are work-related as they result from a fall from height, especially in males' age 35–45 years. These fractures frequently result in long-term disability with potentially severe economic impact on the patient. Operative treatment of displaced calcaneal fractures has been a controversial due to tissue condition and wound infection. In this study, our objective is to investigate the outcome of percutaneous fixation of displaced calcaneal fractures with cannulated cancellous screws. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of 14 patients with 16 calcaneal fractures who had percutaneous reduction and screw fixation for displaced fracture of calcaneus was done. The patients were assessed with plain radiography. In developing countries like India, cost of medical treatment is often a concern, so computed tomography scan was not done as most of the patients were poor and did not afford the treatment. The fractures were classified according to Essex-Lopresti classification system. Functional assessment involved the use of calcaneal fracture scoring system of Kerr et al. and the Maryland foot scoring. Results: The age of the patients ranged from 23 to 62 years (mean: 34 years). Time to union averaged 13 weeks (range 11–16). The treatment outcome as measured by calcaneal fracture scoring system ranged from 63 to 94 (mean 79). The mean calcaneal fracture score was 87 (72–91/100) for the tongue-shaped group and 73 (52–83/100) for the joint depression group (P = 0.0034). The mean Maryland foot score was 73/100, with 86% of patients achieving fair to excellent results. The mean functional score was 83 (42–91/100) for the tongue-shaped group and 61 (52–73/100) for the joint depression group (P = 0.002). Conclusion: Percutaneous fixation of fracture calcaneum, offers the prospect of fewer complications and better outcome, especially in Essex-Lopresti tongue-type fracture.