Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ο ρόλος διαλυτών μορίων προσκόλλησης σε φλεγμονώδεις καταστάσεις της καρδιάς

Важное место в системе гражданского общества занимает социальный институт семьи, который можно рассматривать как качественное состояние общественного организма, производимое социальными действиями индивидов в рамках особой культуры. В этой связи хотелось бы отметить точку зрения известного ученого Ж. Т. Тощенко, который рассматривает гражданское общество в аспекте "социологии жизни". По мнению ученого, гражданское общество надо определять как "совокупность определенным образом организованных исторически сложившихся форм совместной жизнедеятельности, а также общечеловеческих ценностей, которыми люди руководствуются во всех сферах общественной жизни. Именно поэтому гражданское общество следует рассматривать через призму "феномена человека"".
Pipelined Filter Combination in Product Personalization

In many cases, standard of-the-shelf products—i.e., products without individual customization— do not meet all customer requirements. Therefore, for instance, the automotive industry produces vehicles with personalized characteristics. Can this customization be further improved w.r. t. production time, especially in B2P relations? Today, on-line ordering systems already store user profiles that can help to match customer requirements. Another approach is mass customization where users can select a product with discrete options (e.g., different front panel color of a stereo). In this paper, we want to go further and allow more than just discrete choices. However, users are not willing to spend hours in front of computers in order to tailor a product—even when it will then fully comply with their wishes. Obviously, we need a mechanism for a computer-supported production of user recommendations. The idea is to let the computer do most of the work in personalizing the product (Koch and Schubert, 2002), based on a sophisticated profile and filtering techniques.
Research Designs for Program Evaluation

Over the past two decades, the program evaluation literature has made great advances on improving methodological approaches for establishing causal inference. The two most significant developments include establishing the primacy of design over statistical adjustment procedures for making causal inferences, and using potential outcomes to specify the exact causal estimands produced by the research designs. This chapter presents four research designs for assessing program effects-the randomized experiment, the regression-discontinuity, the interrupted time series, and the nonequivalent comparison group designs. For each design, we examine basic features of the approach, use potential outcomes to define causal estimands produced by the design, and highlight common issues to consider when using the design in the field. Whenever possible, we use examples to illustrate how these designs have been used to assess program effects. We conclude by suggesting broader issues in program evaluation that the next generation of evaluators should consider. Keywords: program evaluation; experiments; regression-discontinuity; interrupted time series; propensity score matching
FlexMaps: computational design of flat flexible shells for shaping 3D objects

We propose FlexMaps, a novel framework for fabricating smooth shapes out of flat, flexible panels with tailored mechanical properties. We start by mapping the 3D surface onto a 2D domain as in traditional UV mapping to design a set of deformable flat panels called FlexMaps. For these panels, we design and obtain specific mechanical properties such that, once they are assembled, the static equilibrium configuration matches the desired 3D shape. FlexMaps can be fabricated from an almost rigid material, such as wood or plastic, and are made flexible in a controlled way by using computationally designed spiraling microstructures.
Gene therapy reduces Parkinson’s disease symptoms by reorganizing functional brain connectivity

A polysynaptic brain circuit in patients with Parkinson’s disease treated with AAV2-GAD gene therapy correlates with improvement in motor symptoms. The metabolic signature of gene therapy Gene therapy delivering glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) is known to have therapeutic effects in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the precise mechanisms mediating the improvements remain unclear. Now, Niethammer et al. used brain metabolic network analysis in patients with PD and showed that after gene therapy, patients developed a treatment-specific brain metabolic network involving motor-cortical regions. The network correlated with clinical outcome and was not affected by placebo effect. The results indicate that the therapeutic effects of GAD gene therapy are likely mediated by modulation of brain metabolism and suggest that metabolic network analysis might be useful for evaluating therapeutic efficacy in neurological disorders. Gene therapy is emerging as a promising approach for treating neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease (PD). A phase 2 clinical trial showed that delivering glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) into the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of patients with PD had therapeutic effects. To determine the mechanism underlying this response, we analyzed metabolic imaging data from patients who received gene therapy and those randomized to sham surgery, all of whom had been scanned preoperatively and at 6 and 12 months after surgery. Those who received GAD gene therapy developed a unique treatment-dependent polysynaptic brain circuit that we termed as the GAD–related pattern (GADRP), which reflected the formation of new polysynaptic functional pathways linking the STN to motor cortical regions. Patients in both the treatment group and the sham group expressed the previously reported placebo network (the sham surgery–related pattern or SSRP) when blinded to the treatment received. However, only the appearance of the GADRP correlated with clinical improvement in the gene therapy–treated subjects. Treatment-induced brain circuits can thus be useful in clinical trials for isolating true treatment responses and providing insight into their underlying biological mechanisms.
The tasks and roles of social workers: a focused overview of research evidence

Options for Excellence is a joint DfES and DH-funded review of the social care workforce. Four task groups have been set up, each dealing with different aspects of social care. Task Group 3 is considering the roles and tasks of social workers. In order to inform the work of this group, the Thomas Coram Research Unit was asked to provide an overview of relevant research and data in three main areas: the effective deployment of social worker time and tasks, improving cross-professional working, and attitudes to take-up of post-qualifying qualifications.
Brain Tumor Extraction using Marker Controlled Watershed Segmentation

Imaging plays a central role in the diagnosis & treatment of brain tumor. Automated brain tumor detection from MRI Images is one of the most challenging tasks in today’s Medical Imaging research. Magnetic Resonance Images are used to produce images of soft tissues of human body. Various segmentation techniques are proposed to find out tumored region in brain MRI images. In this paper marker based watershed transform, is used for segmentation before that some preprocessing techniques are used for noise removal and then with some simple morphological operations are found the tumor
Mass Collaboration - An Emerging Field for CSCL Research

: Mass collaboration is a present-day Internet practice with far-reaching implications for education. The goal of this symposium is to establish the concept of mass collaboration as a relevant topic in CSCL by presenting related research done at different labs and with different focuses. Several presentations will provide insight into the current approaches to the complex and large-scale phenomenon. They will address a range of theories and methodologies, grounding the analysis of mass collaboration processes and outcomes, in order to identify examples of effective Web 2.0 settings and technological environments.
Discrete scene rotation during blinks and its effect on redirected walking algorithms

Moving through a virtual environment (VE) by real walking is beneficial to user immersion, feeling of presence and way finding. However, the available physical spaces are of limited size and usually much smaller than the VE. One solution to this problem is using redirection techniques (RDTs). While the focus of existing research has been mostly on continuous RDTs, work on discrete RDTs is still limited. In this paper, we present our research results on the discrete rotation of a virtual scene during walking. A study with 14 subjects was conducted to identify the detection threshold of the scene rotation in two conditions: during blinking and when eyes are open. Results showed that on average, users failed to detect a scene rotation of 9.1 degrees during blinking, as compared to 2.4 degrees when eyes are open. Simulations were then performed to investigate the effects of incorporating discrete scene orientation during blinks into existing algorithms such as steer-to-center and steer-to-orbit when different predefined paths are followed. Results showed that on average the number of resets is reduced by 13%, and the minimum space required for encountering no reset is reduced by 20%. A reset technique was also proposed and shown to give better performance than the existing two-one turn reset technique.
In vitro antisickling activities of two indigenous plant recipes in Ibadan, Nigeria

In view of the prevalence of Sickle Cell Diseases (SDC) in Nigeria and the expensive mode of orthodox management of SCD, two indigenous recipes consisting of six ethnobotanicals used in the management of sickle cell anaemia in Nigeria were screened for antisickling activity. Recipe 1 constituents were Detarium microcarpum (Guill. and Perr.) , Harungana madagascariensis (Lam. ex Poir) , Sorghum bicolor (Linn.), Tetracera potatoria (Afzel. ex G. Don) and Theobroma cacao (Linn.). Recipe 2 was a monorecipe of Phyllanthus amarus (Schum.). Clinical blood samples of confirmed non-crisis sickle cell patients (male and female) were collected from the Department of Haematology, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria. Extracts of the recipes were prepared in 80% ethanol using cold extraction method. Sickling of HbSS red blood cells was induced using sodium metabisulphite. In-vitro antisickling activities of the crude extracts of the recipes were evaluated using p-hydroxybenzoic acid and normal saline as positive and negative control respectively. Readings were taken at different incubation time (0 – 180 min). The two recipes showed varied antisickling activities. At 90min incubation period, recipe 1 showed maximum percentage inhibition of 71.60 ± 1.21 while recipe 2 showed 60.0 ± 1.03 percentage inhibition. The inhibitory activity of recipe 1 at 90 min incubation period was higher than that of the positive control (61.8 ± 2.28) and there was no significant difference (P < 0.5) in the inhibitory activity of recipe 2 and the positive control. All plant constituents of the two recipes contained saponins and tannins (except Detarium microcarpum ). The two indigenous recipes significantly demonstrated antisickling activity. The results of this study validate the use of the two recipes by indigenous people for the treatment of sickle cell disease. The isolation and identification of active phytochemicals responsible for the antisickling activity of recipe 2 could lead to the discovery of novel drugs.
Multi-view wire art

Wire art is the creation of three-dimensional sculptural art using wire strands. As the 2D projection of a 3D wire sculpture forms line drawing patterns, it is possible to craft multi-view wire sculpture art --- a static sculpture with multiple (potentially very different) interpretations when perceived at different viewpoints. Artists can effectively leverage this characteristic and produce compelling artistic effects. However, the creation of such multi-view wire sculpture is extremely time-consuming even by highly skilled artists. In this paper, we present a computational framework for automatic creation of multi-view 3D wire sculpture. Our system takes two or three user-specified line drawings and the associated viewpoints as inputs. We start with producing a sparse set of voxels via greedy selection approach such that their projections on the virtual cameras cover all the contour pixels of the input line drawings. The sparse set of voxels, however, do not necessary form one single connected component. We introduce a constrained 3D pathfinding algorithm to link isolated groups of voxels into a connected component while maintaining the similarity between the projected voxels and the line drawings. Using the reconstructed visual hull, we extract a curve skeleton and produce a collection of smooth 3D curves by fitting cubic splines and optimizing the curve deformation to best approximate the provided line drawings. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system for creating compelling multi-view wire sculptures in both simulation and 3D physical printouts.
RNA Sequencing-Based Bulked Segregant Analysis Facilitates Efficient D-genome Marker Development for a Specific Chromosomal Region of Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat

Common wheat originated from interspecific hybridization between cultivated tetraploid wheat and its wild diploid relative Aegilops tauschii followed by amphidiploidization. This evolutionary process can be reproduced artificially, resulting in synthetic hexaploid wheat lines. Here we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based bulked segregant analysis (BSA) using a bi-parental mapping population of two synthetic hexaploid wheat lines that shared identical A and B genomes but included with D-genomes of distinct origins. This analysis permitted identification of D-genome-specific polymorphisms around the Net2 gene, a causative locus to hybrid necrosis. The resulting single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were classified into homoeologous polymorphisms and D-genome allelic variations, based on the RNA-seq results of a parental tetraploid and two Ae. tauschii accessions. The difference in allele frequency at the D-genome-specific SNP sites between the contrasting bulks (ΔSNP-index) was higher on the target chromosome than on the other chromosomes. Several SNPs with the highest ΔSNP-indices were converted into molecular markers and assigned to the Net2 chromosomal region. These results indicated that RNA-seq-based BSA can be applied efficiently to a synthetic hexaploid wheat population to permit molecular marker development in a specific chromosomal region of the D genome.
Learning styles and web-based learning: The 4MAT methodology

The Internet is growing at a rapid pace, and with it, the number of learning programs delivered via the World Wide Web. There is a concern, however, that many of these programs are simply the delivery of traditional learning materials, with inadequate consideration given to the principles of instructional design. This research took one example of such design, the use of learning styles methodology, and specifically 4MAT, and evaluated 14 on-line learning programs. One further course was undertaken by one of the researchers as a case study. It was found that, of the eight possible theoretical approaches to learning identified within the 4MAT system model, only one was present to any significant degree in any of the on-line courses. As this is the style most present in traditional didactic teaching, this lends weight to the suspicion that, in many cases, Web-based learning programs are, currently, little more than teaching notes and study guides, put on-line. It is essential that sound principles of instructional design, including learning style methodology, are incorporated into Web-based learning programs if the medium is to gain the credibility its potential deserves.
Inter-Personal Browsing: Supporting Cooperative Web Searching by Face-to- Face Sharing of Browser Pages

: We are studying a framework that facilitates the gathering and sharing of information in group work situations where several people are working on multifaceted problem-solving or emergent tasks by cooperating and sharing the workload. In particular, we are developing a framework for the smooth sharing of public information to stimulate debate while maintaining the focus of the group’s web searching activities and confining private information on the PC screens of individual users. In this paper, we report on the implementation of Inter-Personal Browsing - a framework where each user has a small shared display in addition to the PC display, and can use this to share web browser screens with other users. Having introduced this system into a mechanism for practical learning of group work methodology, we introduce the results of studying its effectiveness from the viewpoint of information sharing and communication.
Evaluation and Optimization of Frequent Association Rule Based Classification

Deriving useful and interesting rules from a data mining system is an essential and important task. Problems such as the discovery of random and coincidental patterns or patterns with no significant values, and the generation of a large volume of rules from a database commonly occur. Works on sustaining the interestingness of rules generated by data mining algorithms are actively and constantly being examined and developed. In this paper, a systematic way to evaluate the association rules discovered from frequent itemset mining algorithms, combining common data mining and statistical interestingness measures, and outline an appropriated sequence of usage is presented. The experiments are performed using a number of real-world datasets that represent diverse characteristics of data/items, and detailed evaluation of rule sets is provided. Empirical results show that with a proper combination of data mining and statistical analysis, the framework is capable of eliminating a large number of non-significant, redundant and contradictive rules while preserving relatively valuable high accuracy and coverage rules when used in the classification problem. Moreover, the results reveal the important characteristics of mining frequent itemsets, and the impact of confidence measure for the classification task
Deep blending for free-viewpoint image-based rendering

Free-viewpoint image-based rendering (IBR) is a standing challenge. IBR methods combine warped versions of input photos to synthesize a novel view. The image quality of this combination is directly affected by geometric inaccuracies of multi-view stereo (MVS) reconstruction and by view- and image-dependent effects that produce artifacts when contributions from different input views are blended. We present a new deep learning approach to blending for IBR, in which we use held-out real image data to learn blending weights to combine input photo contributions. Our Deep Blending method requires us to address several challenges to achieve our goal of interactive free-viewpoint IBR navigation. We first need to provide sufficiently accurate geometry so the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) can succeed in finding correct blending weights. We do this by combining two different MVS reconstructions with complementary accuracy vs. completeness tradeoffs. To tightly integrate learning in an interactive IBR system, we need to adapt our rendering algorithm to produce a fixed number of input layers that can then be blended by the CNN. We generate training data with a variety of captured scenes, using each input photo as ground truth in a held-out approach. We also design the network architecture and the training loss to provide high quality novel view synthesis, while reducing temporal flickering artifacts. Our results demonstrate free-viewpoint IBR in a wide variety of scenes, clearly surpassing previous methods in visual quality, especially when moving far from the input cameras.
Computer assisted analysis of multiprocessor memory systems

In a shared memory multiprocessor architecture, a memory model describes the behavior of the memory system as observed at the user-level. A cache coherence protocol aims to conform to a memory model by maintaining consistency among the multiple copies of cached data and the data in main memory. Memory models and cache coherence protocols can be quite complex and subtle, creating a real possibility of misunderstandings and actual design errors. In this thesis, we will present solutions to these problems. Though weaker memory models for multiprocessor systems allow higher-performance implementation techniques, they are also very subtle. Hence, it is vital to specify memory models precisely and to verify that the programs running under a memory model satisfies desired properties. Our approach to these problems is to write an executable specification of the memory model using a high-level description language for concurrent systems. This executable description provides a precise specification of the machine architecture for implementors and programmers. Moreover, the availability of formal verification tools allows users to experiment with the effects of the memory model on small assembly-language routines. Running the verifier can be very effective at clarifying the subtle details of the models and synchronization routines. Cache coherence protocols, like other protocols for distributed systems, simulate atomic transactions in environments where atomic implementations are impossible. Based on this observation, we propose a verification method which compares an implementation with a specification representing the desired abstract behavior. The comparison is done through an aggregation function, which maps the sequence of implementation steps for each transaction to the corresponding transaction step in the specification. The aggregation approach is applied to verification of the cache coherence protocol in the FLASH multiprocessor system. The protocol, consisting of more than a hundred implementation steps, is proven to conform to a reduced description with six kinds of atomic transactions. From the reduced behavior, it is very easy to prove crucial properties of the protocol including data consistency of cached copies. The aggregation method is also used to prove that the reduced protocol satisfies a desired memory consistency model.
A new species of karst-dwelling freshwater crab of the genus Chinapotamon Dai & Naiyanetr, 1994 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae), from Guizhou, southwest China

Chinapotamon maolanense sp. n. from Maolan National Nature Reserve, Guizhou, southwest China, is described. C. maolanense sp. n. has diagnostic features of Chinapotamon, such as a slender and sinuous male first gonopod, prominently convex carapace, and one-third ratio of frons to carapace width. This new species can be distinguished from congeners by the combination of the following characters: relatively slender subterminal segment of the first gonopods, nearly oval-shaped carapace, anterolateral margin cristate of carapace and an oval-shaped gap between the fingers of the male major chela. In addition, we used a 16S rRNA gene fragment to explore the relationship between C. maolanense sp. n. and C. glabrum, C. depressum and other freshwater crabs distributed in Guizhou; the results support the new species being assigned to Chinapotamon and clearly different from other species used in the analysis.