Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mixture Model of the Exponential, Gamma and Weibull Distributions to Analyse Heterogeneous Survival Data

Aims: In this study a survival mixture model of three components is considered to analyse survival data of heterogeneous nature.The survival mixture model is of the Exponential, Gamma and Weibull distributions.Methodology: The proposed model was investigated and the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimators of the parameters of the model were evaluated by the application of the Expectation Maximization Algorithm (EM). Graphs, log likelihood (LL) and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) were used to compare the proposed model with the pure classical parametric survival models corresponding to each component using real survival data.The model was compared with the survival mixture models corresponding to each component.Results: The graphs, LL and AIC values showed that the proposed model fits the real data better than the pure classical survival models corresponding to each component.Also the proposed model fits the real data better than the survival mixture models corresponding to each component. Conclusion: The proposed model showed that survival mixture models are flexible and maintain the features of the pure classical survival model and are better option for modelling heterogeneous survival data.
SciPipe: A workflow library for agile development of complex and dynamic bioinformatics pipelines

Background The complex nature of biological data has driven the development of specialized software tools. Scientific workflow management systems simplify the assembly of such tools into pipelines, assist with job automation and aid reproducibility of analyses. Many contemporary workflow tools are specialized and not designed for highly complex workflows, such as with nested loops, dynamic scheduling and parametriza-tion, which is common in e.g. machine learning. Findings SciPipe is a workflow programming library implemented in the programming language Go, for managing complex and dynamic pipelines in bioinformatics, cheminformatics and other fields. SciPipe helps in particular with workflow constructs common in machine learning, such as extensive branching, parameter sweeps and dynamic scheduling and parametrization of downstream tasks. SciPipe builds on Flow-based programming principles to support agile development of workflows based on a library of self-contained, reusable components. It supports running subsets of workflows for improved iterative development, and provides a data-centric audit logging feature that saves a full audit trace for every output file of a workflow, which can be converted to other formats such as HTML, TeX and PDF on-demand. The utility of SciPipe is demonstrated with a machine learning pipeline, a genomics, and a transcriptomics pipeline. Conclusions SciPipe provides a solution for agile development of complex and dynamic pipelines, espe-cially in machine leaning, through a flexible programming API suitable for scientists used to programming or scripting.
Inclusion complex of amiodarone hydrochloride with cyclodextrins: preparation, characterization and dissolution rate evaluation

This study aimed to improve the water solubility of amiodarone hydrochloride (AMH) via inclusion complexes with β-cyclodextrin, methyl-β-cyclodextrin and 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. Inclusion complexes were developed by physical mixture, coevaporation, spray-drying and freeze-drying. Solid state analysis was performed using X-ray powder diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electronic microscopy. Thermodynamic studies demonstrate that the inclusion complexes of drug into different cyclodextrins were an exothermic process that occurred spontaneously. Water solubility and drug dissolution rates were significantly increased after the formation of inclusion complexes with the cyclodextrins evaluated in relation to the physical mixture and pure drug. The present study provides useful information for the potential application of complexation with amiodarone HCl. This may be a good strategy for the development of solid pharmaceutical dosage forms.
A Study of Recent Contribution on Simulation Tools for Network-on-Chip

The growth in the number of Intellectual Properties (IPs) or the number of cores on the same chip becomes a critical issue in System-on-Chip (SoC) due to the intra-communication problem between the chip elements. As a result, Network-on-Chip (NoC) has emerged as a new system architecture to overcome intra-communication issues. New approaches and methodologies have been developed by many researchers to improve NoC. Also, many NoC simulation tools have been proposed and adopted by both academia and industry. This paper presents a study of recent contributions on simulation tools for NoC. Furthermore, an overview of NoC is covered as well as a comparison between some NoC simulators to help facilitate research in on-chip communication.
On Characterizing Information Dissemination During City-Wide Cascading Failures in Smart Grid

Although the smart gird is expected to eliminate cascading failures with the help of real-time system monitoring and control, it is yet unknown whether its underlying communication network is fast and reliable enough to achieve this goal. In this paper, we take an in-depth study on this issue by addressing three specific questions: 1) what is the evolution process of information dissemination and fault propagation in the smart grid? ; 2) how to quantify the impact of cascading failures? ; and 3) what are the conditions that information dissemination becomes either a booster or an adversary in mitigating cascading failures? To answer these questions, we build an innovative framework, the cascading failure with communications framework, to consolidate both communication networks and power grids, and provide quantitative evaluation on the impact of cascading failures. By studying and observing the progress of cascading failures in two city-wide power grids, we find that information dissemination is not always the winner in the race against fault propagation. Particularly, while fast and reliable communications can help in mitigating the consequences of cascading failures, anomalies such as massage delays may weaken its capability. Moreover, severely under-achieved communications, counter-intuitively, can even exacerbate the consequence of cascading failures.
Estimating the E ¤ ects of Deregulation in the Ontario Wine Retail Market

This paper studies the impact of competition in the Ontario wine market and evaluates the e¤ects of alternative deregulation policies. The wine retail market of Ontario, Canada, is characterized by the coexistence of the government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and two private companies. These private rms can sell only a limited subset of Ontario wines, and they are restricted on the number of stores they can operate. The three rms must charge the same retail prices for the same products, and these prices are set by the government-owned LCBO. Our empirical results build on the estimation of a spatial demand model for di¤erentiated products using a unique dataset from LCBO with information on store sales, prices, and product characteristics for every store and product in this retail chain over a two year period. We take into account that LCBO pricing is designed to maximize its pro ts subject to four main constraints: (a) all prices are uniform throughout the province; (b) the same markup is applied to all Ontario (Non-Ontario) wines; (c) there is a concern to limit the level of alcohol consumption per capita; and (d) there is a concern to providing incentives to purchase Ontario wines. Given the estimated demand model and LCBO pricing decisions, we identify an implicit tax associated to limiting alcohol consumption, and an implicit subsidy to Ontario wines. We maintain this tax and subsidy in our counterfactual experiments to represent governments concerns other than pro t maximization. We obtain estimates of the e¤ects of four counterfactual policies: (i) shutting down retail competition from the two privately-owned retail chains; (ii) changing LCBO pricing policy to allow for markups that reect the di¤erences in demand elasticities across products; (iii) removing the current restriction on selling non-Ontario wines by the two private wine retailers; and (iv) allowing for price competition between the three retail companies.
Analysis of P systems simulation on CUDA

GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) have been consolidated as a massively data-parallel coprocessor to develop many general purpose computations, and enable developers to utilize several levels of parallelism to obtain better performance of their applications. The massively parallel nature of certain computations leads to use GPUs as an underlying architecture, becoming a good alternative to other parallel approaches. P systems or membrane systems are theoretical devices inspired in the way that living cells work, providing computational models and a high level computational modeling framework for biological systems. They are massively parallel distributed, and non-deterministic systems. In this paper, we evaluate the GPU as the underlying architecture to simulate the class of recognizer P systems with active membranes. We analyze the performance of three simulators implemented on CPU, CPU-GPU and GPU respectively. We compare them using a presented P system as a benchmark, showing that the GPU is better suited than the CPU to simulate those P systems due to its massively parallel nature. Key words—CUDA, P System, Membrane Computing.
Production of Fish Chips from Sand Smelt (Atherina boyeri, RISSO 1810) and Determination of Some Quality Changes

Population structure, growth, length-weight relationship and reproduction characteristics of leaping grey mullet (Liza saliens (Risso, 1810) were investigated in Beymelek Lagoon from February 2006 to January 2007. During the study, a total of 1248 leaping grey mullet were captured by gill- and trammel nets of various mesh sizes. Male to female ratio for leaping grey mullet population in Beymelek Lagoon was 1:2.71. The ages ranged from 1 to 4 years for males and from 0 to 5 years for females. The growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy equation were: L∞ = 35.2 cm, K = 0.276 year -1 and t0 = -2.893 year for males, L∞ = 35.9 cm, K = 0.386 year -1 and t0 = -1.760 year for females and L∞ = 39.9 cm, K = 0.271 year -1 and t0 = 2.233 year for all individuals. The calculated length-weight equations were W = 0.0061*L 3.124 for males, W = 0.0060*L 3.124 for females and W = 0.0099* L 2.954 for all individuals. The slope (b) values of the length-weight relationship showed that weight of leaping grey mullet in Beymelek Lagoon increased with length in isometric. The mean condition factor for males, females and all specimens were determined as 0.908, 0.900 and 0.897, respectively. According to sex groups, the mean condition factor of males was slightly higher than that of females. The total length at 50% maturity for female leaping grey mullet was determined as 23.3 cm. It was assumed that spawning period for this species was from May to July.
A presentation of PGL(2,p) with three defining relations

Let p be an odd prime and let GL(2, p) denote the general linear group of invertible 2x2 matrices with entries in the field of p elements. The groupPGL(2, p) is the factor of GL(2,p) by its centre and has derived group PSL(2,p) with derived factor C2, the cyclic group of order 2.
Research on asynchronous motor vector control system based on rotor parameters time-varying

On the basis of the asynchronous motor equations in the M-T reference frame rotating at synchronous speed, the paper, in detail, analyses the affect of the rotor parameters, including reluctance and inductance, to the performance of the Flux-Observation based Vector Control. Considering the time-varying of rotor parameters along with the running state in the real experimental systems and the AC motor model included in the SimPowerSystems of Matlab can not change its own rotor parameters with time, an AC model is built, which can simulate real-time changes of its rotor parameters, making use of S-Function in MATLAB. Based on the model, a whole Vector Control simulation system is established, and for the first time, respectively it is implemented that the simulation and analysis of the system on the condition of both neglecting and considering the time-varying of rotor parameters. It is indicated that, from the simulation results, the variations of the rotor parameters resulting from the Skin Effect make the dynamic performance of AC Vector Control get worse. At the same time, A control system based on the TMS320F2812 digital signal processor produced by Texas Instruments is designed,the design of control circuit and control soft is accomplished.The paper adopts VC++ soft to compile the observation interface of Pc.The experimentation indicates the control system can implement the scheme and the control performance is fine.
Towards a Component Model for Web-based Service Composition

The web-based service composition is becoming a popular composition style in Service Oriented Computing. Many existing work proposed encapsulating service business logic and User Interface (UI) into a single web-based service component and assembling these components in web-based environment. However, these component models are yet limited in terms of reusability, especially for component qualification, adaptation and composite structure support. This paper proposes a component model for web-based service composition. Firstly, we present a well-structured component model that decouples the UI and service business logic for better adaptation. Secondly, developers are able to assemble components not only at business logic level but also at UI level. The component model supports on-the-fly composition, which provides a quick and effective feedback way for qualification, and also supports the composition result to be published as a new component for further reuse.
Individual Growth Analysis of Children's Reading Performance During the First Years of School

Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K)), the study utilized an individual growth model (Bryk & Raudenbush, 2002), the purpose of which was to assess the nature of progress in children’s reading performance between kindergarten and 3 grade; and second, to determine the extent to which parental involvement predicts both the initial reading ability as well as the rate of progress. Children’s cognitive development in reading was used as the dependent variable and parental involvement as the primary independent variable with gender and race/ethnicity as control variables. The study used four points in time (waves of data): fall kindergarten (1998), spring kindergarten (1999), spring first grade (2000), and spring third grade (2002). The data analysis was performed on 9,032 participants (White, Black and Hispanic); 87% of them had 4 waves of data, and 13% had 3 waves of data collected during a period of 7 semesters. The measurement of early literacy and reading skills was based on an adaptive item response theory (IRT)-scaled reading assessment, which included questions designed to measure basic skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. Results indicated: (1) parental involvement was higher when children had a low initial reading performance; (2) parental involvement was statistically not significant in predicting the rate of growth
Irisin response to exercise training in adults and its effect on the regulation of C 2 C 12 cell proliferation and differentiation

Qiu S, Cai X, Sun Z, Schumann U, Velders M, Steinacker JM: Chronic exercise training and circulating irisin: a meta-analysis. DGSP, 2014 (poster presentation) Velders Z, Qiu S, Schumann U, Bosnyák E, Gloss M, Steinacker JM: Sex based differences in the irisin response to acute exercise. ACSM, 2014 (poster presentation) Cai X, Qiu S, Ju C, Sun Z: Pedometer-based walking interventions and resting blood pressure in type 2 diabetes a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. EASD, 2014 (poster presentation)
Does multiparty competition increase ethnic security fears? Evidence from North India

This article explores the political foundations of ethnic security fears and examines the relationship between the structure of party competition at the constituency level and security fears at the individual level in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. The analysis shows that security fears are higher in constituencies characterised by multiparty competition. The central implication of this finding is that rather than leading to ethnic moderation, multiparty competition in ethnic party systems tends to be more ethnically divisive than in two party systems, increasing collective fears of the future.
COURSE 2 Neuroinformatics in the Age of Big Data : Working with the Right Data and Tools

s the complexities of implementing and configuring software. By leveraging the Boutiques descriptive framework (Glatard et al., 2015), which enables tool users or developers to specify instructions for how command-line arguments can be formulated, we are able to programmatically create views, validate inputs, and launch tasks on HPC resources. Container environments such as Docker and Singularity enable these descriptors to be packaged and shipped to resources without manually configuring tools. In this way, they can increase the portability and scalability of analysis as well as ensure that the exact same environment has been reused (albeit to the limit of the underlying platform’s lowest layer). The CBRAIN platform (Sherif et al., 2014) enables users to upload and manage their data from a web browser and submit tasks to HPC nodes. Although CBRAIN is an open-source project that can be launched by any institute, the main Canadian installation operating on Compute Canada and Calcul Québec resources has more than 500 users from more than 145 sites across 22 countries, has registered over 1 million user files, and run jobs totaling over 24 million CPU core hours to date. Popular workflows and tools such as CIVET, FreeSurfer Software Suite, FMRIB Software Library (FSL), NITRC’s Neuroimaging Analysis Kit (NIAK), NeuroData’s MR Graphs package (ndmg), and others have been integrated with CBRAIN, enabling users to analyze their data using a variety of tools with ease. BigBrain: brain imaging at an
Accurate Real-Time Multi-Camera Stereo-Matching on the GPU for 3D Reconstruction

Using multi-camera matching techniques for 3d reconstruction there is usually the trade-off between the quality of the computed depth map and the speed of the computations.Whereas high quality matching methods take several seconds to several minutes to compute a depth map for one set of images,real-time methods achieve only low quality results.In this paper we present a multi-camera matching method that runs in real-time and yields high resolution depth maps.Our method is based on a novel multi-level combination of normalized cross correlation,deformed matching windows based on the multilevel depth map information,and sub-pixel precise disparity maps.The whole process is implemented completely on the GPU.With this approach we can process four 0.7 megapixel images in 129 milliseconds to a full resolution 3d depth map. Our technique is tailored for the recognition of non-technical shapes,because our target application is face recognition.
Effects of 6-week pre-season plyometric training to performance characteristics in female handball players

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 6-week pre-season plyometric training on the performance characteristics in female handball players. Nineteen female handball players voluntarily participated in the study. They were divided into 2 groups [experimental group (ETG; N = 10), and control group (NTG; N = 9)]. Both groups continued regular pre-season training for 6-weeks. The ETG also did plyometric training. Sprints (10 m, 20 m, and 30 m), squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), anaerobic power and capacity (AP and AC), and aerobic variables at fixed blood lactate levels (FBLLs) [running velocity (RV), heart rate (HR), and oxygen consumption (VO2)] were compared before and after the training. The results have shown that there are significant differences in SJ and CMJ (p<0.05), all sprints (p<0.01), AP and AC (p<0.05), VO2max (p<0.01), RV, HR, and VO2 at each of FBLLs (p<0.01) between pre- and post-training results of ETG. Pre- and post training results also showed significant differences in SJ and CMJ (p<0.05), all sprints (p<0.01), and AP (p<0.05) in NTG. In conclusion, was found that a 6-week plyometric training is an important parameter in addition to physical fitness, technical, and tactical training for the female handball players who get prepared for the woman handball super league which affects pre-season performance characteristics.
POSTER : PT-DBG : Bypass Anti-debugging with Intel Processor Tracing

Debugging is one of most useful techniques used in reverse engineering and diagnosing. However, some softwares, especially commercial and malicious ones, have embedded antidebugging techniques to protect themselves from being analyzed. Due to the diversity of anti-debugging techniques, evading antidebugging is challenging work, which relies heavily on expertise. In this poster, we propose a novel approach to bypass antidebugging with Intel Processor Tracing (PT). It identifies the location of anti-debugging code with the help of PT, and automatically patches the code to bypass it, enabling developers to debug anti-debugging software.
On the Relation between Self-enhancement and Life Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Passion

The dualistic model of passion proposes two distinct types of passion, obsessive and harmonious, that predict less and more adaptive outcomes, respectively. Two studies tested the hypothesis that individuals with an obsessive passion for an activity (being associated with an insecure sense of self) benefit more from self-enhancement in terms of life satisfaction. Study 1 (N = 119) showed that the more participants endorsed an obsessive passion, the stronger the association was between self-enhancement within the activity and life satisfaction. Harmonious passion was unrelated to this association. Study 2 (N = 318) replicated these findings with an experimental design. The results establish passion as a moderator of the association between self-enhancement and life satisfaction.
Emission of nitric oxide (NO) from tropical forest soils and exchange of NO between the forest canopy and atmospheric boundary layers

and 41-m altitude. Fluxes of NO averaged 8.9 (+1.5) x 109 molecules crn -2 s -1 from the dominant (yellow clay) soils of the region, with larger fluxes (33.7 (_+6.5) x 109 molecules cm -2 s -1) observed from adjacent white sand softs. Fluxes from clay softs were lower by more than a factor of 5 than fluxes observed during the dry season at a nearby site. Low soil emission rates were reflected in lower concentrations of NO at the top of the forest canopy in the wet season, only 30-50 pptv (parts per trillion by volme) during the daytime. The measured fluxes are consistent with chemical mass balances for NO within the forest canopy, calculated from the NO and 03 profiles taken at night, and with observations of NO between 150 and 5000 m altitude (A. L. Torres and K. R. Hooks, unpublished manuscript, 1989). Measurements of NO emission rates from soil plots fertilized using NaNO3, NH4C1 or sucrose indicated that a reducfive pathway (alenitrification) may have been primarily responsible for production of the NO released by both clay and sand softs.