Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Bayesian Learning of Sparse Classifiers

Figueiredo (2001) and Figueiredo and Jain (2001) described a particular sparsenessinducing Bayesian model for probit regression. For several standard datasets, they reported predictive performance for their model that was as a good as, or better than, previously reported results. This paper explores several aspects of the Figueiredo and Jain model in an attempt to better understand its performance. We modify the Figueiredo and Jain approach in three ways. First, we introduce an alternative prior distribution. Second, we propose a fully Bayesian MCMC learning algorithm. Third, we replace their kernel based classi ̄er with a linear class ̄er. We measure the impact of these modi ̄cations on three publicly available test data sets. Preliminary results indicate that while each change can produce a noticeable impact on test error rates, no one approach dominates the others in all cases.
A Two-Stage Contrast Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Images

Studies of contrast sensitivity of the human eyes show that logarithmic curves obey the Weber-Fechner law of just noticeable difference response in human perception. In this paper, we propose a local contrast enhancement algorithm with logarithm-based curves for both high dynamic and low dynamic images and this algorithm can adaptively change the curvature with local information. We also define two parameters to decide the level of contrast enhancement in the tone mapping procedure. For halo artifact which is suffered from local operator, a two-stage procedure is designed to solve the problem. We present experimental results to show performance of our algorithm compared with other existing methods.
Holographic control of droplet microfluidics

Droplet microfluidics is an emerging area in miniaturisation of chemical and biological assays, or "lab-on-a-chip" devices. Normally consisting of droplets flowing in rigid microfluidic channels they offer many advantages over conventional microfluidic design but lack any form of active control over the droplets. We present work, using holographic beam shaping, that allows the real time reconfigurability of microfluidic channels allowing us to redirect, slow, stop, and merge droplets with diameters of approximately 200 microns. A single beam is be sufficient to perform simple tasks on the droplets but by using holographic beam shaping we can produce multiple foci or continuous patterns of light that enable a far more versatile tool.
Knowledge, attitude, and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among pharmacy and nursing students in Oman

Problems: This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and self-use of CAM among the pharmacy and nursing students at a university in Oman. Experimental approach: A cross-sectional survey of 183 students was conducted among all pharmacy and nursing students. A pre-validated questionnaire was used to collect data and descriptive analysis was performed to present the results. Findings: The study observed that most CAM modality used was prayer/spiritual healing for both groups, while most herbal medicine used by students was ginger and honey for relief from flu symptoms. The major source of information for pharmacy students was family/relatives and nursing students. More than half pharmacy students had good knowledge about CAM use. Lack of knowledge about CAM was the biggest barrier for nursing students. Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that the answers of students were not scientific and not evidence-based. Although sample had a positive attitude towards importance of CAM knowledge and its utility in their profession, better education about CAM should be implemented in their curriculum to sharpen their critical thinking.
Les Cahiers du GERAD ISSN : 0711 – 2440 Upper and Lower Bounds for Convex Value Functions of Derivative Contracts

The aim of this paper is to compute upper and lower bounds for convex value functions of derivative contracts. Laprise et al. (2006) compute bounds for American-style vanilla options by selected portfolios of call options. We provide an alternative interpretation of their numerical procedure as a stochastic dynamic program for which the Bellman value function is approximated by selected piecewise linear interpolations at each decision date. The stochastic dynamic program does not (directly) depend on portfolios of call options, but rather on a key ingredient: some transition parameters of the underlying asset. More in line with the literature on dynamic programming, our procedure is contract free and is well designed to accomodate all one-dimensional convex value functions of derivative contracts. In support of this, we revisit the numerical investigation of Laprise et al. (2006) and enlarge their findings to include options embedded in bonds under affine term-structure models of interest rates.
Waiting time to (and duration of) parapatric speciation

Using a weak migration and weak mutation approximation, I study the average waiting time to and the average duration of parapatric speciation. The description of reproductive isolation used is based on the classical Dobzhansky model and its recently proposed multilocus generalizations. The dynamics of parapatric speciation is modeled as a biased random walk with absorption performed by the average genetic distance between the residents and immigrants. If a small number of genetic changes is sufficient for complete reproductive isolation, mutation and random genetic drift alone can cause speciation on the time scale of 10-1000 times the inverse of the mutation rate. Even relatively weak selection for local adaptation can dramatically decrease the waiting time to speciation. The duration of parapatric speciation is shorter by orders of magnitude than the waiting time to speciation. For a wide range of parameter values, the duration of speciation is order one over the mutation rate. In general, parapatric speciation is expected to be triggered by changes in the environment.
A Revised Australian Dietary Guideline Index and Its Association with Key Sociodemographic Factors, Health Behaviors and Body Mass Index in Peri-Retirement Aged Adults

The Dietary Guideline Index, a measure of diet quality, was updated to reflect the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines. This paper describes the revision of the index (DGI-2013) and examines its use in older adults. The DGI-2013 consists of 13 components reflecting food-based daily intake recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines. In this cross-sectional study, the DGI-2013 score was calculated using dietary data collected via an 111-item food frequency questionnaire and additional food-related behaviour questions. The DGI-2013 score was examined in Australian adults (aged 55–65 years; n = 1667 men; 1801 women) according to sociodemographics, health-related behaviours and BMI. Women scored higher than men on the total DGI-2013 and all components except for dairy. Those who were from a rural area (men only), working full-time (men only), with lower education, smoked, did not meet physical activity guidelines, and who had a higher BMI, scored lower on the DGI-2013, highlighting a group of older adults at risk of poor health. The DGI-2013 is a tool for assessing compliance with the Australian Dietary Guidelines. We demonstrated associations between diet quality and a range of participant characteristics, consistent with previous literature. This suggests that the DGI-2013 continues to demonstrate convergent validity, consistent with the original Dietary Guideline Index.
Los Angeles Mentors: Local Guides or Educational Companions?.

Created by the same piece of legislation, the Teacher Trainee program and the Mentor Teacher program in California have developed within the broader national debate about improving the quality of teaching. The Teacher Trainee program addresses a chronic teacher shortage problem by allowing districts to hire college graduates who lack a teaching certificate. Supporters argue that the program helps upgrade the quality of teaching by attracting persons who would not likely enter the field through conventional teacher education. If the Teacher Trainee program is designed to help recruit talented people into teaching, the Mentor Teacher program is designed to help retain capable teachers by expanding their rewards and opportunities. Without giving up classroom teaching, experienced teachers can take on enlarged responsibilities such as working with beginning teachers or providing leadership in curriculum development. In the rationale for the Mentor Teacher program, the legislature declared its intent to "provide incentives to teachers of demonstrated ability to remain in the public school. " And a study of the program by the Far West Laboratory linked the goal of retention with the goal of improvement by describing the Mentor Teacher Program as "an effort to retain skillful teachers and to improve teaching by promoting direct, rigorous, and consequential activities and relations between mentors and other teachers" (Shulman, Hansen, & King, 1985). In Los Angeles, the requirements of the Teacher Trainee program intersect with the inducements of the Mentor Teacher program to form a structure of support for beginning teachers. The state legislation requires school districts implementing a Teacher Trainee program to assign a mentor teacher to each trainee. The legislation allocates funds to districts participating in the Mentor Teacher program—$4000 stipends for district-designated mentors and an additional $2000 per mentor to cover the costs of implementing the program (e.g., for substitutes, release time, travel between schools). In Los Angeles, the primary responsibility of mentor teachers is to guide and assist new teachers, including those in the Teacher Trainee program.
Using Emotions to Improve Role Taking in Storytelling Complex Learning Objects

The field of educational technology considers the research of new models as well as the experimentation of new methods as one of the greatest challenges for educational designers. How can educators reach the Millennial students and provide a productive and engaging learning environment? Guided learning activities, like digital storytelling, help learners bridge the gap between the real context and the learning theories. The aforementioned activities prepare students to learn in situations they may encounter at work and in their personal life. The construction of interactive narratives represents an educational challenge gaining in a considerable importance when they take into account the emotions felt by the users and exploit them to improve themselves. In this work, we propose to include the Emotion Management into a pedagogy-driven template, based on storytelling, and to extend the Storytelling Design Model through an Emotion Tracking Engine used to keep track of users' emotional states. Furthermore, a Story Logic Engine will be used to rebalance altered emotions and maximize the acquisition of knowledge, by assigning a different role to the student. Roles are selected by means of a mapping function that associates narrative archetypes with detected emotions.
A Limit Law for the Root Value of Minimax Trees

We consider minimax trees with independent, identically distributed leaf values that have a continuous distribution function $F_V$ being strictly increasing on the range where $0 < F_V < 1$. It was shown by Pearl that the root value of such trees converges to a deterministic limit in probability without any scaling. We show that after normalization we have convergence in distribution to a nondegenerate limit random variable.
Bubble dynamics in DNA

The formation of local denaturation zones (bubbles) in double-stranded DNA is an important example of conformational changes of biological macromolecules. We study the dynamics of bubble formation in terms of a Fokker–Planck equation for the probability density to find a bubble of size n base pairs at time t, on the basis of the free energy in the Poland–Scheraga model. Characteristic bubble closing and opening times can be determined from the corresponding first passage time problem, and are sensitive to the specific parameters entering the model. A multistate unzipping model with constant rates recently applied to DNA breathing dynamics (Altan-Bonnet et al 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 138101) emerges as a limiting case.
Randomized Controlled Ferret Study to Assess the Direct Impact of 2008–09 Trivalent Inactivated Influenza Vaccine on A(H1N1)pdm09 Disease Risk

During spring-summer 2009, several observational studies from Canada showed increased risk of medically-attended, laboratory-confirmed A(H1N1)pdm09 illness among prior recipients of 2008–09 trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV). Explanatory hypotheses included direct and indirect vaccine effects. In a randomized placebo-controlled ferret study, we tested whether prior receipt of 2008–09 TIV may have directly influenced A(H1N1)pdm09 illness. Thirty-two ferrets (16/group) received 0.5 mL intra-muscular injections of the Canadian-manufactured, commercially-available, non-adjuvanted, split 2008–09 Fluviral or PBS placebo on days 0 and 28. On day 49 all animals were challenged (Ch0) with A(H1N1)pdm09. Four ferrets per group were randomly selected for sacrifice at day 5 post-challenge (Ch+5) and the rest followed until Ch+14. Sera were tested for antibody to vaccine antigens and A(H1N1)pdm09 by hemagglutination inhibition (HI), microneutralization (MN), nucleoprotein-based ELISA and HA1-based microarray assays. Clinical characteristics and nasal virus titers were recorded pre-challenge then post-challenge until sacrifice when lung virus titers, cytokines and inflammatory scores were determined. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups of influenza-naïve animals. Antibody rise to vaccine antigens was evident by ELISA and HA1-based microarray but not by HI or MN assays; virus challenge raised antibody to A(H1N1)pdm09 by all assays in both groups. Beginning at Ch+2, vaccinated animals experienced greater loss of appetite and weight than placebo animals, reaching the greatest between-group difference in weight loss relative to baseline at Ch+5 (7.4% vs. 5.2%; p = 0.01). At Ch+5 vaccinated animals had higher lung virus titers (log-mean 4.96 vs. 4.23pfu/mL, respectively; p = 0.01), lung inflammatory scores (5.8 vs. 2.1, respectively; p = 0.051) and cytokine levels (p>0.05). At Ch+14, both groups had recovered. Findings in influenza-naïve, systematically-infected ferrets may not replicate the human experience. While they cannot be considered conclusive to explain human observations, these ferret findings are consistent with direct, adverse effect of prior 2008–09 TIV receipt on A(H1N1)pdm09 illness. As such, they warrant further in-depth investigation and search for possible mechanistic explanations.
Efficacy of etidronic acid, BioPure MTAD and SmearClear in removing calcium ions from the root canal: An in vitro study

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify the amount of calcium ions removed from the root canal by etidronic acid (HEBP), BioPure MTAD, and SmearClear using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Materials and Methods: Fifty (n = 50) freshly extracted human mandibular premolar teeth were collected and decoronated at the cementoenamel junction. The canals were prepared in a crown down fashion using the rotary system and copiously irrigated with 1.0% sodium hypochlorite. All specimens were rinsed with the deionized water. Based on the type of chelating agent used, the samples (n = 10) were randomly divided into five (four test and one negative control) groups. Accordingly, Group I - 9% HEBP, Group II - 18% HEBP, Group III - SmearClear, Group IV - BioPure MTAD, and Group V - normal Saline. Subsequent to irrigation, the solution was collected in a test tube and subjected to atomic absorption spectrophotometer for the quantification of calcium ions removed from the root canal. Results: The mean concentration of calcium ions removed from the root canal (mean ± standard deviation) in all groups (I–V) were 13.32 ± 0.54 μg/ml, 16.36 ± 0.27 μg/ml, 20.04 ± 0.24 μg/ml, 18.15 ± 0.39 μg/ml, and 8.74 ± 0.49 μg/ml, respectively. Conclusions: SmearClear was the most effective agent for the removal of calcium ions from the root canal. Hence, its combined use with an organic solvent can be recommended for efficient smear layer removal.
Risk factors for injuries and other health problems sustained in a marathon.

OBJECTIVES: To identify risk factors for injuries and other health problems occurring during or immediately after participation in a marathon. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was undertaken of participants in the 1993 Auckland Citibank marathon. Demographic data, information on running experience, training and injuries, and information on other lifestyle factors were obtained from participants before the race using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Information on injuries and other health problems sustained during or immediately after the marathon were obtained by a self administered questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were undertaken to identify significant risk factors for health problems. RESULTS: This study, one of only a few controlled epidemiological studies that have been undertaken of running injuries, has identified a number of risk factors for injuries and other health problems sustained in a marathon. Men were at increased risk of hamstring and calf problems, whereas women were at increased risk of hip problems. Participation in a marathon for the first time, participation in other sports, illness in the two weeks before the marathon, current use of medication, and drinking alcohol once a month or more, were associated with increased self reported risks of problems. While increased training seemed to increase the risk of front thigh and hamstring problems, it may decrease the risk of knee problems. There are significant but complex relations between age and risk of injury or health problem. CONCLUSIONS: This study has identified certain high risk subjects and risk factors for injuries and other health problems sustained in a marathon. In particular, subjects who have recently been unwell or are taking medication should weigh up carefully the pros and cons of participating.
Research on systematic metrics of network survivability

As networks develop into large-scale systems, survivability of network systems is imperative. The systematic metrics of network survivability are used to measure or evaluate network survivability. This Paper summarizes the systematic metrics and their lack for measuring or computing network survivability while providing an easy way to reference baseline of the current state. It also provides some principles of network survivability metrics, and divides the current network survivability metrics into three types: target-based network survivability metrics, method-based network survivability metrics, and description-based network survivability metrics. At last, the trend of network survivability metrics is given: A set of quantitative, user-orientation, hierarchical and systematic survivability metrics, which can reflect full aspects and characters during the whole process of survivable networks, are required.
Identification of moving limb using near infrared spectroscopic signals for brain activation

A method is described for classifying near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) signals measured for motor imagery and/or execution using the left or right hand. The measurement time intervals and the signal channels are used as features. The signals are discriminated using a support vector machine. Experiments demonstrated that this method has a higher generalization capability than a previous method for classifying NIRS signals. Testing of its ability to classify the signals according to whether they are for right- or left-hand motor imagery and/or movement demonstrated that its classification of NIRS signals satisfies the two-category classification problem. A promising application is to brain-computer interfaces, a potential communication tool for paralyzed individuals.
Mesh Deformation Based on Preserving Distances and Angles

A novel method for the interactive detail preserving deformation of 3D meshes is proposed in this paper. It is based on preserving the distances between each vertex and its adjacent vertices and the angles between edges formed by each vertex and its adjacent vertices. The distances and the angles are invariant over the rigid transformations. If preserving the distances and the angles it can preserve the local details and volumetric details of the mesh, which is important requirement of mesh deformation. The mesh is deformed by specifying constraints of vertices positions. These constraints are incorporated in the distances and the angles reconstruction equations, and their solution produces a deformed surface geometry that preserves the local detail in the least-squares sense. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method with several detail-preserving deformation operators.
Analysis of a biped powered walking model based on potential energy compensation

The most important factor in powered walking based on Passive Dynamic Walking is to counter-balance the energy which is lost at heel-strike. In this paper, we discuss a model with only one mass at the hip, which compensates the lost energy with the potential energy through extending and shortening the stance leg instantaneously over one walking cycle. The results show that there exists periodical gait when the model has appropriate length shorten ratio ß, inter-leg angle φ0, extension angle θΈ, and shortening angle θw, and it has asymptotic stability within a wide range. The energy efficiency can be modulated by adjusting these parameters, and the highest energy efficiency can be 0.0569. Besides, it can realize varying-speed walking under the parameters tunning.
Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Disease

Ethanol and its non-oxidative metabolites profoundly inhibit CFTR function in pancreatic epithelial cells which is prevented by ATP supplementation Abstract Excessive alcohol consumption is a major cause of acute pancreatitis, but the mechanism involved is not well understood. Recent investigations suggest that pancreatic ductal epithelial cells (PDECs) help defend the pancreas from noxious agents such as alcohol. Because the cystic fibrosis transmem-brane conductance regulator (CFTR) Cl − channel plays a major role in PDEC physiology and mutated CFTR is often associated with pancreatitis, we tested the hypothesis that ethanol affects CFTR to impair ductal function. Electrophysiological studies on native PDECs showed that ethanol (10 and 100 mM) increased basal, but reversibly blocked, forskolin-stimulated CFTR currents. The inhibitory effect of ethanol was mimicked by its non-oxidative metabolites, palmitoleic acid ethyl ester (POAEE) and palmitoleic acid (POA), but not by the oxidative metabolite, acetaldehyde. Ethanol, POAEE and POA markedly reduced intracellular ATP (ATP i) which was linked to CFTR inhibition since the inhibitory effects were almost completely abolished if ATP i depletion was prevented. We propose that ethanol causes functional damage of CFTR through an ATP i-dependent mechanism, which compromises ductal fluid secretion and likely contributes to the pathogenesis of acute pancre-atitis. We suggest that the maintenance of ATP i may represent a therapeutic option in the treatment of the disease. Abbreviations Ac Acetaldehyde AP Acute pancreatitis ATP i Intracellular ATP BNPP bis-(4-Nitrophenyl) phosphate CCCP Carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone CFTR Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator DMSO Dimethyl sulphoxide DOG 2-Deoxyglucose IAA Iodoacetamide EGTA Ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid FA Fatty acid FAEE Fatty acid ethyl ester MgGreen-AM Magnesium Green-AM PDECs Pancreatic ductal epithelial cells POA Palmitoleic acid POAEE Palmitoleic acid ethyl ester