Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capable and convivial design (CCD): a framework for designing information and communication technologies for human development

Scholarship and implementation in information and communication technologies for development (ICTD/ICT4D) have seen an exponential increase over the past decade. In spite of enormous headway in both research and application, ICTD lacks a clear unified framework that can guide contextually grounded user-focussed design of ICT. This shortcoming results largely from the field's unusual placement at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, each driven by different philosophical traditions and application intentions. We argue that this gap can be overcome by adopting design-based approaches in ICTD. Towards this end, we advance a design framework – capable and convivial design (CCD) – that appropriates Sen's idea of capabilities and Illich's notion of conviviality. We contend that these two sets of complementary theoretical traditions are markedly well suited to guide the design of contextually relevant and user empowering ICTs. We test the CCD framework against multiple input shared computing, a well-documented ICTD case, to illustrate its analytical usefulness and improve its analytical precision. Annika Andersson, Åke Grönlund and Gudrun Wicander are the accepting Guest Editors for this article.
Visual and proprioceptive recalibrations after exposure to a visuomotor rotation

Adaptation to a visuomotor rotation in a cursor‐control task is accompanied by proprioceptive recalibration, whereas the existence of visual recalibration is uncertain and has even been doubted. In the present study, we tested both visual and proprioceptive recalibration; proprioceptive recalibration was not only assessed by means of psychophysical judgments of the perceived position of the hand, but also by an indirect procedure based on movement characteristics. Participants adapted to a gradually introduced visuomotor rotation of 30° by making center‐out movements to remembered targets. In subsequent test trials, they made center‐out movements without visual feedback or observed center‐out motions of a cursor without moving the hand. In each test trial, they judged the endpoint of hand or cursor by matching the position of the hand or of a visual marker, respectively, moving along a semicircular path. This path ran through all possible endpoints of the center‐out movements. We observed proprioceptive recalibration of 7.3° (3.1° with the indirect procedure) and a smaller, but significant, visual recalibration of 1.3°. Total recalibration of 8.6° was about half as strong as motor adaptation, the adaptive shift of the movement direction. The evidence of both proprioceptive and visual recalibration was obtained with a judgment procedure that suggests that recalibration is restricted to the type of movement performed during exposure to a visuomotor rotation. Consequently, identical physical positions of the hand can be perceived differently depending on how they have been reached, and similarly identical positions of a cursor on a monitor can be perceived differently.
Association of Infant Feeding Patterns with Taste Preferences in European Children and Adolescents: A Retrospective Latent Profile Analysis

The aim was to investigate associations between the duration of infant feeding practices (FP) and taste preferences (TP) in European children and adolescents. A total of 5526 children (6–16 years old) of the I.Family study completed a Food and Beverage Preference Questionnaire to measure their preferences for sweet, fatty and bitter tastes. Mothers retrospectively reported the FPs duration in months: exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), exclusive formula milk feeding (EFMF), combined breastfeeding (BF&FMF) and the age at the introduction of complementary foods (CF). Using logistic regression analyses and latent class analysis (latent profiles of FP and CF were identified), we explored associations between profiles and TP, adjusting for various covariates, including the Healthy Diet Adherence Score (HDAS). A total of 48% of children had short durations of EBF (≤4 months) and BF&FMF (≤6 months) and were introduced to CF early (<6 months). No significant relationship was observed between the single FPs and TP, even when considering common profiles of FP. HDAS was inversely associated with sweet and fatty TP, but positively with bitter TP. Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not observe associations between FP and children’s TP later in life. Further studies with higher FP variation and longitudinal design are needed to investigate the causal associations between infant FP and taste preferences later in life.
A Novel Health Indicator Based on Cointegration for Rolling Bearings’ Run-To-Failure Process

The extraction of rolling bearings’ degradation features has been developed for decades. However, the degradation features always present different trends of different run-to-failure data. To find a consistent indicator of different data will be helpful to establish a general model and explore the nature of bearings’ degradation. In this study, we have found there is a trend of similarity between the energy and complexity features. By using the cointegration test, we found the two kinds of features exhibit a certain degree of cointegration relationship. Fused by the cointegration method, we have obtained a novel health indicator which can depict different run-to-failure data in a unified way. The difference between the energy features and complexity features can be explained by the novel health indicator. The indicator has “two-stage” characters. The first stage is the zero-line stage and the second stage is the quickly raise stage, which presents like an exponential function. It is easy to think about using an exponential degradation model to model this indicator. Next, we have compared the indicator to root mean square (RMS) by using the exponential degradation model. It shows that the indicator is more suitable for the exponential degradation model. In this paper, we used eleven run-to-failure data to verify the generality and “two-stage” characters of the proposed indicator. The result shows that the novel indicator is general and effective and that it will promote the development of bearings’ prognostics.
Content-based retrieval in large image databases

Retrieving hidden information in image databases is a difficult task because of their complex structure and the subjectivity related to their interpretation. In this situation the use of an index is primordial. We propose an effective method for locally updating neighborhood graphs which constitute our index. This method is based on an intelligent way for locating points in a multidimensional space. Promising results are obtained after experimentations on various databases.
The TMPRSS2:ERG Rearrangement, ERG Expression, and Prostate Cancer Outcomes: A Cohort Study and Meta-analysis

Background: Whether the genomic rearrangement transmembrane protease, serine 2 (TMPRSS2):v-ets erythroblastosis virus E26 oncogene homolog (ERG) has prognostic value in prostate cancer is unclear. Methods: Among men with prostate cancer in the prospective Physicians' Health and Health Professionals Follow-Up Studies, we identified rearrangement status by immunohistochemical assessment of ERG protein expression. We used Cox models to examine associations of ERG overexpression with biochemical recurrence and lethal disease (distant metastases or cancer-specific mortality). In a meta-analysis including 47 additional studies, we used random-effects models to estimate associations between rearrangement status and outcomes. Results: The cohort consisted of 1,180 men treated with radical prostatectomy between 1983 and 2005. During a median follow-up of 12.6 years, 266 men experienced recurrence and 85 men developed lethal disease. We found no significant association between ERG overexpression and biochemical recurrence [hazard ratio (HR), 0.99; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.78–1.26] or lethal disease (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.61–1.43). The meta-analysis of prostatectomy series included 5,074 men followed for biochemical recurrence (1,623 events), and 2,049 men followed for lethal disease (131 events). TMPRSS2:ERG was associated with stage at diagnosis [risk ratio (RR)≥T3 vs. T2, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.16–1.30) but not with biochemical recurrence (RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.86–1.17) or lethal disease (RR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.47–2.09). Conclusions: These results suggest that TMPRSS2:ERG, or ERG overexpression, is associated with tumor stage but does not strongly predict recurrence or mortality among men treated with radical prostatectomy. Impact: This is the largest prospective cohort study to examine associations of ERG overexpression and lethal prostate cancer among men treated with radical prostatectomy. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 21(9); 1497–509. ©2012 AACR.
Should we pay attention to surgeon or hospital volume in total knee arthroplasty? Evidence from a nationwide population-based study

Background Although prior research into the relationship between volume and outcome indicates that this relationship is not linear and that an optimal volume should be specified, consensus is lacking regarding the ideal value of this optimal volume. The purposes of this study were to use a visual method to identify surgeon- and hospital-volume thresholds and to examine the relationships of surgeon and hospital volume thresholds to 30-day readmission. Methods A retrospective nationwide population-based study design was adopted. Patients who received total knee replacement surgery between 2007 and 2008 in any hospital in Taiwan were included. After adjusting for patient, physician, and hospital characteristics, a restricted cubic spline regression model was used to identify optimal surgeon- and hospital-volume thresholds. Further, a patient-level mixed effect model was conducted to test the respective relationships between these thresholds and 30-day readmission. Results A total of 30,828 patients who had received their surgeries from 1,468 surgeons in 437 hospitals were included in this study. Thresholds of 50 cases a year for surgeons and 75 cases a year for hospitals were identified using a restricted cubic spline regression model. However, only the surgeon volume threshold was associated with 30-day readmission using a patient-level mixed effect model after adjusting for patient-, surgeon- and hospital-level covariates. Conclusions According to the results of the restricted cubic spline models, the optimal volume thresholds for surgeons and hospitals are 50 cases and 75 cases a year, respectively. However, only the surgeon volume threshold is associated with 30-day readmission.
Battering Keyloggers and Screen Recording Software by Fabricating Passwords

6 Abstract — The keyloggers are covert security threat to the privacy and identity of users. The attackers are exploring different techniques of keylogging using hardware keyloggers, software keyloggers and screen capturing software to steal the user sensitive data. The Incognizance of the user is imposing greater risk. To overcome this problem, we have proposed a model. In this model solution to Keylogger and Screen Recording Software has been proposed by using the concept of fabricated password on untrusted machine. It deceives the untrusted system's key logging and video capturing software. The concept used here is "WYSINT What You See Is Not True". The main feature of this model is that it has a hardware recognition to retrieve the key . This key is required by the Temporary Filter layer (TFL) as an intermediary to change into the trusted password after bypassing all the capturing techniques and returning the original password to the required website.
A Social Network Study of the Apple vs. Android Smartphone Battle

In this paper we measure and quantify how consumer's choice of smartphones are related to their peers' smartphone choices. Specifically, we study and compare this `social component' of product adoption for two competing classes of smartphones: iPhone and Android. This is done by constructing a proxy of a social network by using anonymous phone log data from Norwegian mobile phone users, and then coupling adoption data to this social network. We find that smartphone adoption is dependent on the underlying social network both for Android and for iPhone users. Comparing the two, we see that the effect is strongest for the latter. In addition, we measure that the core social network is larger for iPhone users than for Android - Measured by telecom communication, Apple users have more friends than android users. We also present results showing urban/rural differences in smartphone usage.
Comparison of Topologies in Peer-to-Peer Data Sharing Networks

Interactions within Multi-agent systems can be structured in different ways depending on the application scenario and its environmental restrictions. In previous work we have developed a multi-agent system within a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sharing data network scenario. Its design includes an organisation that structures agents' interactions and an abstract architecture (2-LAMA) that helps to improve its performance. The focus of this paper is to first characterise the environment of this scenario in terms of network topologies and, secondly, to study how it affects system's performance in relation to the proposed architecture. In order to do that, we have set up a series of experiments that consider different network topologies and evaluate their performance. Results show that our architecture effectively helps to improve system's performance in despite of physical network topology.
Blame it on the weather? The association between pain in fibromyalgia, relative humidity, temperature and barometric pressure

Self-reported pain levels in patients with fibromyalgia may change according to weather conditions. Previous studies suggest that low barometric pressure (BMP) is significantly related to increased pain, but that the contribution of changes in BMP has limited clinical relevance. The present study examined whether BMP influenced variability in perceived stress, and if stress levels moderated or mediated the relationship between BMP and pain. Forty-eight patients with fibromyalgia enrolled in a randomized controlled trail (RCT) reported pain and emotional state three times daily with mobile phone messages for a 30-consecutive day period prior to the start of the treatment in the RCT. The patients were unaware that weather data were collected simultaneously with pain and emotional reports. The results showed that lower BMP and increased humidity were significantly associated with increased pain intensity and pain unpleasantness, but only BMP was associated with stress levels. Stress levels moderated the impact of lower BMP on pain intensity significantly, where higher stress was associated with higher pain. Significant individual differences were present shown by a sub-group of patients (n = 8) who reacted opposite compared to the majority of patients (n = 40) with increased pain reports to an increase in BMP. In sum, lower BMP was associated with increased pain and stress levels in the majority of the patients, and stress moderated the relationship between BMP and pain at the group-level. Significant individual differences in response to changes in BMP were present, and the relation between weather and pain may be of clinical relevance at the individual level.
Histone H1.5 binds over splice sites in chromatin and regulates alternative splicing

Abstract Chromatin organization and epigenetic markers influence splicing, though the magnitudes of these effects and the mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that linker histone H1.5 influences mRNA splicing. We observed that linker histone H1.5 binds DNA over splice sites of short exons in human lung fibroblasts (IMR90 cells). We found that association of H1.5 with these splice sites correlated with the level of inclusion of alternatively spliced exons. Exons marked by H1.5 had more RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) stalling near the 3′ splice site than did exons not associated with H1.5. In cells depleted of H1.5, we showed that the inclusion of five exons evaluated decreased and that RNAP II levels over these exons were also reduced. Our findings indicate that H1.5 is involved in regulation of splice site selection and alternative splicing, a function not previously demonstrated for linker histones.
A novel transmembrane topology of presenilin based on reconciling experimental and computational evidence

The transmembrane topology of presenilins is still the subject of debate despite many experimental topology studies using antibodies or gene fusions. The results from these studies are partly contradictory and consequently several topology models have been proposed. Studies of presenilin‐interacting proteins have produced further contradiction, primarily regarding the location of the C‐terminus. It is thus impossible to produce a topology model that agrees with all published data on presenilin. We have analyzed the presenilin topology through computational sequence analysis of the presenilin family and the homologous presenilin‐like protein family. Members of these families are intramembrane‐cleaving aspartyl proteases. Although the overall sequence homology between the two families is low, they share the conserved putative active site residues and the conserved ‘PAL’ motif. Therefore, the topology model for the presenilin‐like proteins can give some clues about the presenilin topology. Here we propose a novel nine‐transmembrane topology with the C‐terminus in the extracytosolic space. This model has strong support from published data on γ‐secretase function and presenilin topology. Contrary to most presenilin topology models, we show that hydrophobic region X is probably a transmembrane segment. Consequently, the C‐terminus would be located in the extracytosolic space. However, the last C‐terminal amino acids are relatively hydrophobic and in conjunction with existing experimental data we cannot exclude the possibility that the extreme C‐terminus could be buried within the γ‐secretase complex. This might explain the difficulties in obtaining consistent experimental evidence regarding the location of the C‐terminal region of presenilin.
Temporal Dynamics of DNA Methylation Patterns in Response to Rearing Juvenile Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in a Hatchery versus Simulated Stream Environment

Genetic selection is often implicated as the underlying cause of heritable phenotypic differences between hatchery and wild populations of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) that also differ in lifetime fitness. Developmental plasticity, which can also affect fitness, may be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation. Our previous study identified significant differences in DNA methylation between adult hatchery- and natural-origin steelhead from the same population that could not be distinguished by DNA sequence variation. In the current study, we tested whether hatchery-rearing conditions can influence patterns of DNA methylation in steelhead with known genetic backgrounds, and assessed the stability of these changes over time. Eyed-embryos from 22 families of Methow River steelhead were split across traditional hatchery tanks or a simulated stream-rearing environment for 8 months, followed by a second year in a common hatchery tank environment. Family assignments were made using a genetic parentage analysis to account for relatedness among individuals. DNA methylation patterns were examined in the liver, a relatively homogeneous organ that regulates metabolic processes and somatic growth, of juveniles at two time points: after eight months of rearing in either a tank or stream environment and after a subsequent year of rearing in a common tank environment. Further, we analyzed DNA methylation in the sperm of mature 2-year-old males from the earlier described treatments to assess the potential of environmentally-induced changes to be passed to offspring. Hepatic DNA methylation changes in response to hatchery versus stream-rearing in yearling fish were substantial, but few persisted after a second year in the tank environment. However, the early rearing environment appeared to affect how fish responded to developmental and environmental signals during the second year since novel DNA methylation differences were identified in the livers of hatchery versus stream-reared fish after a year of common tank rearing. Furthermore, we found profound differences in DNA methylation due to age, irrespective of rearing treatment. This could be due to smoltification associated changes in liver physiology after the second year of rearing. Although few rearing-treatment effects were observed in the sperm methylome, strong family effects were observed. These data suggest limited potential for intergenerational changes, but highlight the importance of understanding the effects of kinship among studied individuals in order to properly analyze and interpret DNA methylation data in natural populations. Our work is the first to study family effects and temporal dynamics of DNA methylation patterns in response to hatchery-rearing.
Skip and scan: cleaning up telephone interface

The current generation of telephone interfaces is frustrating to use, in part because callers have to wait through the recitation of long prompts in order to find the options that interest them. In a visual medium, users would shift their gaze in order to skip uninteresting prompts and scan through large pieces of text. We present skip and scan, a new telephone interface style in which callers issue explicit commands to accomplish these same skipping and scanning activities. In a laboratory experiment, subjects made selections using skip and scan menus more quickly than using traditional, numbered menus, and preferred the skip and scan menus in subjective ratings. In a field test of a skip and scan interface, the general public successfully added and retrieved information without using any written instructions.
Muscle fiber structure in an aging long‐lived seabird, the black‐legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

Many long‐lived animals do not appear to show classic signs of aging, perhaps because they show negligible senescence until dying from “catastrophic” mortality. Muscle senescence is seldom examined in wild animals, yet decline in muscle function is one of the first signs of aging in many lab animals and humans. Seabirds are an excellent study system for physiological implications of aging because they are long‐lived animals that actively forage and reproduce in the wild. Here, we examined linkages between pectoralis muscle fiber structure and age in black‐legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla). Pectoralis muscle is the largest organ complex in birds, and responsible for flight and shivering. We obtained and fixed biopsies from wild black‐legged kittiwakes of known age. We then measured muscle fiber diameter, myonuclear domain and capillaries per fiber area among birds of differing ages. All muscle parameters were independent of age. Number of nuclei per mm of fiber showed a positive correlation with muscle fiber cross‐sectional area, and myonuclear domain increased with muscle fiber diameter. Thus, as muscle fibers increased in size, they may not have recruited satellite cells, increasing the protein turnover load per nuclei. We conclude that senescence in a long‐lived bird with an active lifestyle, does not entail mammalian‐like changes in muscle structure.