Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of feature selection algorithms for medical data

Data mining application areas widen day by day. Among those areas medical area has been receiving quite a big attention. However, working with very large data sets with many attributes is hard. Experts in this field use heavily advanced statistical analysis. The use of data mining techniques is fairly new. This paper compares three feature selection algorithms on medical data sets and comments on the importance of discretization of attributes.
Enhanced Predictive Current Control of Three-Phase Grid-Tied Reversible Converters with Improved Switching Patterns

A predictive current control strategy can realize flexible regulation of three-phase grid-tied converters based on system behaviour prediction and cost function minimization. However, when the predictive current control strategy with conventional switching patterns is adopted, the predicted duration time for voltage vectors turns out to be negative in some cases, especially under the conditions of bidirectional power flows and transient situations, leading to system performance deteriorations. This paper aims to clarify the real reason for this phenomenon under bidirectional power flows, i.e. , rectifier mode and inverter mode, and, furthermore, seeks to propose effective solutions. A detailed analysis of instantaneous current variations under different conditions was conducted. An enhanced predictive current control strategy with improved switching patterns was then proposed. An experimental platform was built based on a commercial converter produced by Danfoss, and moreover, relative experiments were carried out, confirming the superiority of the proposed scheme.
Hardware Comparison of Seven Random Number Generator Tests for Smart Cards

It is common for random number generators to be tested with empirical tests. Since most of these tests have been designed solely for software implementation, implementing them in hardware may not be practical. This paper will look at the hardware implemention of seven popular tests. The area, time delay, and power consumption characteristics of each test will be compared. These three criteria will be used to show the tests suitability for hardware implementation in smart cards.
Strengths and Limitations of the Education, Health and Care Plan Process from a Range of Professional and Family Perspectives.

The introduction of a new Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice in 2015 marked one of the most significant reforms to the SEND statutory assessment process in England since its introduction over 30 years ago. This article presents the findings of a small‐scale study that aimed to identify the extent to which the reforms have successfully addressed some of the shortcomings of the former Statementing process. Interviews, questionnaires and a focus group were used to gain the perspectives of parents, young people and professionals from education, health and social care services in two local authorities in the English Midlands. The research found that the new Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment and planning process has been effective in some areas, particularly in achieving greater parental involvement and a more person‐centred approach. However, important issues remain unresolved. The data suggest that greater consistency in interpreting and applying legislation, and in individual professional practices, are still needed to fully achieve the intentions of the new system. Some recommendations for practitioners are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Penguins Can Make Cake

This article is a reply to Matthew Ginsberg's article entitled "Universal Planning: An (Almost) Universally Bad Idea. " Ginsberg argues that uni-versal plans are infeasible for reasons of compu-tational complexity and concludes that classical planning -- or something like it -- is the appropri-ate basis for activity. He also argues that a number of other systems, including Pengi, are approximately universal plans and subject to the same criticisms. I think that this extension is incorrect. I illustrate my reasoning with a description of Blockhead, a Pengi-like system that efficiently solves the fruitcake problem which Ginsberg argues is infeasible for universal plans. The structure of Blockhead elucidates the relationship between planning, universal plans, and Pengi. I conclude that planning and universal plans are computationally intractable because of the representational assumptions they make.
A Bayesian Markov-switching Model for Sparse Dynamic Network Estimation

Inferring Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) from multivariate time series data is a key step towards the understanding of complex systems as it reveals important dependency relationship underlying such systems. Most of the traditional approaches assume a “static” DBN. Yet in many relevant applications, such as those arising in biology and social sciences, the dependency structures may vary over time. In this paper, we introduce a sparse Markov-switching vector autoregressive model to capture the structural changes in the dependency relationships over time. Our approach accounts for such structural changes via a set of latent state variables, which are modeled by a discrete-time discretestate Markov process. Assuming that the underlying structures are sparse, we estimate the networks at each state through the hierarchical Bayesian group Lasso, so as to efficiently capture dependencies with lags greater than one time unit. For computation, we develop an efficient algorithm based on the Expectation-Maximization method. We demonstrate the strength of our approach through simulation studies and a real data set concerning climate change.
Future mobile core network for efficient service operation

To implement cutting-edge services such as high-resolution movie streaming and smart metering on mobile networks cost-effectively, mobile operators must meet various conflicting requirements. For example, they must manage a massive number of devices in smart-meter-type machine-to-machine (M2M) applications for which quality-of-service (QoS) requirements are quite lenient. At the same time, they need to support stringent QoS requirements in the form of a few milliseconds of delay and a high bandwidth guarantee for a smaller number of devices in video and remote surgery applications. As building a dedicated per-service physical network is very costly, network slicing by means of resource virtualization was developed to accommodate such heterogeneous services in a single physical network infrastructure. In network slicing, network resources are isolated to form slices, which then can be used to provide different services. This slicing is helpful in accommodating conflicting, often incompatible services at the cost of losing the multiplexing gain achieved in monolithic composite service networks. The loss in multiplexing gain is not a big problem when the number of slices is relatively low. However, numerous services are provided in cellular networks, and the number is expected to be drastically higher in the 5G era. Creating per-service slices would lead to wastage of resources. In this regard, we aim at balancing the need for isolation to meet conflicting service requirements against resource usage efficiency. We investigated possible means of simultaneously achieving isolation and minimizing the loss of multiplexing gain. Our findings will aid in the development of network management architecture suitable for the 5G era and beyond.
Entry and Competition Effects in First-Price Auctions: Theory and Evidence from Procurement Auctions

Motivated by several interesting features of the highway mowing auction data from Texas Department of Transportation (TDoT), we propose a two-stage procurement auction model with endogenous entry and uncertain number of actual bidders. Our entry and bidding models pro vide several interesting implications. For the first time, we show that even within an independent private value paradigm, as the number of potential bidders increases, bidders equilibrium bidding behavior may become less aggressive because the entry effect is always positive and may dominate the negative competition effect. We also show that it is possible that the relationship between the expected winning bid and the number of potential bidders is non-monotone decreasing as well. We then develop an empirical model of entry and bidding controlling for unobserved auction heterogeneity to analyze the data. The structural estimates are used to quantify the entry effect and the competition effect with regard to the individual bids and the procurement cost, as well as the savings for the government with regard to the procurement cost when the entry cost is reduced.
Coconut Oil Extract Mitigates Testicular Injury Following Adjuvant Treatment with Antiretroviral Drugs

Increased access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has made the management of drug toxicities an increasingly crucial component of HIV. This study investigated the effects of adjuvant use of coconut oil and HAART on testicular morphology and seminal parameters in Sprague- Dawley rats. Twelve adult male Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing 153~169 g were distributed into four groups (A-D) and treated as follows: A served as control (distilled water); B (HAART cocktail- Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine); C (HAART + Virgin coconut oil 10 mL/kg) and D (Virgin coconut oil 10 mL/kg). After 56 days of treatment, animals were killed and laparotomy to exercise the epididymis for seminal fluid analyses done whilst testicular tissues were processed for histo-morphometric studies. Result showed a significant decline in sperm motility (P < 0.05) and count (P < 0.0001) in HAART-treated animals while there was insignificant changes in other parameters in groups C and D except count that was reduced (P < 0.0001) when compared with controls. Histomorphological studies showed HAART caused disorders in seminiferous tubular architecture with significant (P < 0.01) decline in epithelial height closely mirrored by extensive reticulin framework and positive PAS cells. Adjuvant Virgin coconut oil + HAART resulted in significant decrease in seminiferous tubular diameter (P < 0.05), but other morphometric and histological parameters were similar to control or Virgin coconut oil alone (which showed normal histoarchitecture levels). While derangements in testicular and seminal fluid parameters occurred following HAART, adjuvant treatment with Virgin coconut oil restored the distortions emanating thereof.
ADDICT: a prototype system for AutomateD test Data generation using the Integrated Classification-Tr

The classification-tree method (CTM) is a black box technique developed by Grochtmann and Grimm, which helps software testers construct test cases systematically from functional specifications. Later, some extension work has been done on CTM by Chen et al., with a view to improving the effectiveness of the method. This extension results in their integrated classification-tree methodology (ICTM). In this paper, we describe and discuss a prototype system ADDICT that is based on ICTM.
Modeling and utilizing dynamic influence strength for personalized promotion

As the social networking websites arise, the social network has become an important vehicle for sharing information and exerting influences. For the widespread utilization of social influences, a lot of works such as influence maximization and innovation promotion have been studied on various diffusion models. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the existing works has incorporated the interplay between the intensity of interest and influence strength, which has been widely observed in social sciences, into the diffusion model. To fulfill this gap, in this paper, we propose the ID model that is able to capture the dynamic influence strength owing to the interplay. Under this ID model, we address the novel utilization of dynamic influence strength for personalized promotion to grow the intensity of a target individual's interest in an issue. In particular, to have the cost of promotion minimized, we introduce a novel Algorithm ISES to search for the least number of individuals as seeds in the promotion strategy. The ISES algorithm is able to identify the cost-effective solution by adopting the backtracking search and employing pruning strategies. On the real dataset of DBLP, the experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of ISES.
Accuracy-energy optimized location estimation method for mobile smartphones by GPS/INS data fusion

Positioning in mobile smartphones is done by variety of available applications which often use GPS modules equipped in them. Most of these approaches have a high energy consumption because of those GPS modules and decreases battery life. As the period of GPS signal updating reduces, the precision of positioning decreases, but energy consumption decreases either. By fusing the GPS and INS data, positioning will be more precise. In this article, a novel method based on strong tracking extended Kalman filter will be presented which makes an acceptable precision in positioning along with a low energy consumption by fusing the data gathered from GPS and INS (which are found on all smartphones). The results show that this method performs better in term of precision in comparison with similar studies that consumes as much power as the proposed method.
Economical Duplication Based Task Scheduling for Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Computing Systems

Task duplication based scheduling algorithms generate shorter schedules without sacrificing efficiency but leave the computing resources over consumed due to the heavily duplications. In this paper, we try to optimize the duplications after generating a schedule without affecting the overall schedule length (makespan). Here, we suggested two workflow scheduling algorithms with economical duplication i.e. Reduced Duplication for homogeneous systems (RD) and Heterogeneous Economical Duplication (HED) for heterogeneous systems respectively. In these algorithms, a static task schedule is generated using an insertion-based task-duplication scheduling strategy and try to optimized by removing some duplicated tasks in the schedule whose removal does not affect the makespan adversely. Further, in some situations, the earlier schedule of a task becomes unproductive after it has been duplicated later on different processor(s). The algorithms investigate and remove such schedules in order to reduce processor consumption. Removing such useless tasks generate larger scheduling holes in the schedule, which can be better utilized for scheduling other parallel and distributed applications such as in grid environment. The simulation results show that RD and HED algorithms generate better schedule with lesser number of duplications and remarkably less processor consumption as compared with SD, CPFD for homogeneous systems and HLD, LDBS for heterogeneous systems.
A New Efficient Binarization Method for MRI of Brain Image

This paper proposes a new image binarization method that uses a simple standard deviation approach and gives us very good results for MRI of brain images. The problem of binarization of gray MRI images due to the black background and large intensity variation has been overcome by our proposed method. This method is very useful to extract the objects of interest from an image and, hence, to distinguish the foreground (brain) from the background (black background). The threshold of the image is determined by standard deviation multiplied by a heuristic value. The paper describes the details including the heuristic value used as well as the performance of this method along with some other well known image binarization method.
Maximum entropy, logistic regression, and species abundance

There is considerable debate about the utility of statistical mechanics in predicting diversity patterns in terms of life history traits. Here, I reflect on this debate and show that a community is controlled by the balance of two opposite forces: the entropic part (the natural tendency of the system to be in the configuration with the highest possible entropy) and environmental, ecological and evolutionary constraints maintaining order (reducing entropy). The Boltzmann distribution law that can be derived from the maximum entropy formalism provides a fundamental model for linking species abundance to life history traits and environmental constraining factors. This model predicts a global pattern of diversity evenness along a latitudinal gradient. Although the Boltzmann distribution and the logistic regression models represent two fundamentally different approaches, the two models have an identical mathematical form. Their identical formalisms facilitate the interpretation of logistic regression models with statistical mechanics, and reveal several limitations of the maximum entropy formalism. I argued that although maximum entropy formalism is a promising tool for modeling species abundances and for linking microscopic quantities of individual life history traits to macroscopic patterns of diversity, it is necessary to revise the Boltzmann distribution law for successful prediction of species abundance.
The Impact of Knowledge Sharing through Facebook on Students' Academic Performance in Palestine

This study examines the factors that affect knowledge sharing via an online social network (specifically, Facebook) and assesses its impact on students’ academic performance in the education environment. The study sample comprised 60 undergraduate students attending classes in the principles of accounting at Palestine Technical University. The structural equation model was applied to identify the factors that may motivate these students to share their knowledge via Facebook for education purposes. The results show that altruism and knowledge self-efficacy are the main factors that influence students to share their knowledge via Facebook and that trust and reputation are not motivators for students to do so. In addition, the results of this study also indicate that knowledge sharing via social network has a strong impact on students’ academic performance. The factors affecting students' knowledge sharing can differ between different people and contexts; therefore, future research could examine the differences in social network participation based on gender, age, education level, or subject. Based on the findings, recommendations are offered for using Facebook in education.
Correlation of VEGF expression by leukocytes with the growth and regression of blood vessels in the rat cornea.

PURPOSE To determine the temporal and spatial relationships between neovascularization and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA and protein expression in the rat cornea after cautery with silver nitrate. METHODS In female Sprague-Dawley rats, a silver nitrate applicator was placed on the central cornea to elicit circumferential angiogenesis, and blood vessel growth was quantified by digital image analysis of corneal flat-mounts. Total RNA or protein was extracted from whole corneas until 1 week after cautery, and bFGF and VEGF mRNA and protein levels were determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). To localize VEGF mRNA and protein, paraformaldehyde-fixed and paraffin-embedded histologic cross sections of corneas were examined by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Macrophages were identified by ED2 immunohistochemistry. To examine the regulation of VEGF, rats were treated with dexamethasone (0.5 mg/kg per day) and hyperoxia (70% O2). RESULTS The neovascular response progresses in three phases: (1) a nonproliferative phase preceding vessel growth (< or = 48 hours after cautery); (2) a proliferative phase with maximal growth rate between 3 and 4 days; and (3) a regressive phase (day 7) with a decrease in vessel density accompanying the completion of vessel elongation. In corneas after cautery, bFGF mRNA expression was unchanged, and bFGF protein concentration decreaseed by 97% after 24 hours and returned to control levels by day 7. In contrast, VEGF164 and VEGF188 mRNA splice variants and protein peaked 48 hours after cautery, remained elevated 4 days after cautery, and decreased to near baseline by day 7. The peak concentration of VEGF in the cornea at 48 hours was calculated to be 720 pM, which is sufficient to evoke a functional response. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry showed VEGF expressed initially in neutrophils (24 - 48 hours) and subsequently in macrophages (4 days) adjacent to the cautery site. Treatment with either dexamethasone or systemic hyperoxia inhibited both neovascularization and the increase in VEGF expression. Dexamethasone inhibited 27% of cautery-induced VEGF upregulation at 24 hours and 23% at 48 hours, hyperoxia inhibited 32% at 24 hours and 43% at 48 hours, and combined treatment with both dexamethasone and hyperoxia had an additive effect (56% inhibition at 24 hours). CONCLUSIONS VEGF production by leukocytes correlates temporally and spatially with cautery-induced angiogenesis in the rat cornea. Both inflammatory products and hypoxia appear to sufficiently increase VEGF expression near the cautery lesion to increase vascular permeability of limbal vessels and induce endothelial cell migration and proliferation.
Comparison of Junction Temperature Evaluations in a Power IGBT Module Using an IR Camera and Three Thermosensitive Electrical Parameters

The measurement of the junction temperature with thermosensitive electrical parameters (TSEPs) is largely used by electrical engineers or researchers, but the obtained temperature value is generally not verified by any referential information of the actual chip temperature distribution. In this paper, we propose to use infrared (IR) measurements in order to evaluate the relevance of three commonly used TSEPs with insulated gate bipolar transistor chips: the saturation voltage under a low current, the gate-emitter voltage, and the saturation current. TheIR measurements are presented in detail with an estimation of the emissivity of the black paint deposited on the power module. The temperatures obtained with IR measurements and with the different TSEPs are then compared in two cases: the use of only one chip and the use of two paralleled chips.
CXC Chemokines Function as a Rheostat for Hepatocyte Proliferation and Liver Regeneration

Background Our previous in vitro studies have demonstrated dose-dependent effects of CXCR2 ligands on hepatocyte cell death and proliferation. In the current study, we sought to determine if CXCR2 ligand concentration is responsible for the divergent effects of these mediators on liver regeneration after ischemia/reperfusion injury and partial hepatectomy. Methods Murine models of partial ischemia/reperfusion injury and hepatectomy were used to study the effect of CXCR2 ligands on liver regeneration. Results We found that hepatic expression of the CXCR2 ligands, macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and keratinocyte-derived chemokine (KC), was significantly increased after both I/R injury and partial hepatectomy. However, expression of these ligands after I/R injury was 30-100-fold greater than after hepatectomy. Interestingly, the same pattern of expression was found in ischemic versus non-ischemic liver lobes following I/R injury with expression significantly greater in the ischemic liver lobes. In both systems, lower ligand expression was associated with increased hepatocyte proliferation and liver regeneration in a CXCR2-dependent fashion. To confirm that these effects were related to ligand concentration, we administered exogenous MIP-2 and KC to mice undergoing partial hepatectomy. Mice received a “high” dose that replicated serum levels found after I/R injury and a “low” dose that was similar to that found after hepatectomy. Mice receiving the “high” dose had reduced levels of hepatocyte proliferation and regeneration whereas the “low” dose promoted hepatocyte proliferation and regeneration. Conclusions Together, these data demonstrate that concentrations of CXC chemokines regulate the hepatic proliferative response and subsequent liver regeneration.