Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does it help to have some programming experience before beginning a computing degree program?

There is an intuitive perception that students with prior programming experience have an initial advantage in an introductory programming course, but that this advantage may decrease over the duration of the course if the style of programming is different from what the student has learnt previously. This paper reports on a study that indicates that students who have experience in at least one programming language at the beginning of an introductory programming course perform significantly better in the assessment than those with none, and that the more languages with which a student has experience, the better the performance tends to be.
The postmodern turn : new perspectives on social theory

1. The postmodern condition Jean-Francois Lyotard 2. Genealogy and social criticism Michel Foucault 3. Method, social science, and social hope Richard Rorty 4. The new cultural politics of difference Cornel West 5. A manifesto for Cyborgs: science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s Donna Haraway 6. The end of sociological theory Steven Seidman 7. The theoretical subject(s) of This Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-American feminism Norma Alarcon 8. Contingent foundations: feminism and the question of postmodernism Judith Butler 9. Subjectivity and social analysis Renato Rosaldo 10. Is there a postmodern sociology? Zygmunt Bauman 11. On ethnographic allegory James Clifford 12. Rhetoric, textuality, and the postmodern turn in sociological theory Richard Brown 13. Social criticism without philosophy: an encounter between feminism and postmodernism Nancy Fraser and Linda Nicholson 14. Post-structuralism and sociology Charles Lemert 15. Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism Joan Scott 16. The plague of discourse: politics, literary theory, and AIDS Lee Edelman.
An unsupervised conditional random fields approach for clustering gene expression time series

MOTIVATION There is a growing interest in extracting statistical patterns from gene expression time-series data, in which a key challenge is the development of stable and accurate probabilistic models. Currently popular models, however, would be computationally prohibitive unless some independence assumptions are made to describe large-scale data. We propose an unsupervised conditional random fields (CRF) model to overcome this problem by progressively infusing information into the labelling process through a small variable voting pool. RESULTS An unsupervised CRF model is proposed for efficient analysis of gene expression time series and is successfully applied to gene class discovery and class prediction. The proposed model treats each time series as a random field and assigns an optimal cluster label to each time series, so as to partition the time series into clusters without a priori knowledge about the number of clusters and the initial centroids. Another advantage of the proposed method is the relaxation of independence assumptions.
Data races vs. data race bugs: telling the difference with portend

Even though most data races are harmless, the harmful ones are at the heart of some of the worst concurrency bugs. Alas, spotting just the harmful data races in programs is like finding a needle in a haystack: 76%-90% of the true data races reported by state-of-the-art race detectors turn out to be harmless [45]. We present Portend, a tool that not only detects races but also automatically classifies them based on their potential consequences: Could they lead to crashes or hangs? Could their effects be visible outside the program? Are they harmless? Our proposed technique achieves high accuracy by efficiently analyzing multiple paths and multiple thread schedules in combination, and by performing symbolic comparison between program outputs. We ran Portend on 7 real-world applications: it detected 93 true data races and correctly classified 92 of them, with no human effort. 6 of them are harmful races. Portend's classification accuracy is up to 88% higher than that of existing tools, and it produces easy-to-understand evidence of the consequences of harmful races, thus both proving their harmfulness and making debugging easier. We envision Portend being used for testing and debugging, as well as for automatically triaging bug reports.
Joint Segmentation and Classification of Dialog Acts in Multiparty Meetings

This paper investigates a scheme for joint segmentation and classification of dialog acts (DAs) of the ICSI Meeting Corpus based on hidden-event language models and a maximum entropy classifier for the modeling of word boundary types. Specifically, the modeling of the boundary types takes into account dependencies between the duration of a pause and its surrounding words. Results for the proposed method compare favorably with our previous work on the same task
Simplified staging for hepatocellular carcinoma.

PURPOSE The current American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) fails to stratify patients adequately with respect to prognosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS The ability of the currently proposed tumor (T) categories to effectively stratify the survival of 557 patients who underwent complete resection for HCC at four centers was examined. Independent predictors of survival were combined into a new staging system. RESULTS Using the current AJCC T classification, patients with T1 and T2 tumors had similar 5-year survivals (P =.6). In addition, the survival of patients with multiple bilobar tumors (T4) matched that of T3 patients (P =.5). Independent predictors of death were major vascular invasion (P <.001), microvascular invasion (P =.001), severe fibrosis/cirrhosis of the host liver (P =.001), multiple tumors (P =.007), and tumor size greater than 5 cm (P =.01). Based on our results, a simplified stratification is proposed: (a) patients with a single tumor and no microvascular invasion, (b) patients with a single tumor and microvascular invasion or multiple tumors, none more than 5 cm, and (c) patients with either multiple tumors, any more than 5 cm, or tumor with major vascular invasion (P <.001). Severe fibrosis/cirrhosis had a negative impact on survival within all categories. The survival of patients with lymph node involvement matched that of patients with major vascular invasion (P =.3). CONCLUSION The current AJCC staging system for HCC is unnecessarily complex. We propose a simplified model of stratification that is based on vascular invasion, tumor number, and tumor size and incorporates the effect of fibrosis on survival.
Achieving Shared Protection for Dynamic Multicast Sessions in Survivable Mesh WDM Networks

The advances in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology are expected to facilitate bandwidth-intensive multicast applications. A single fiber failure in such a network, however, can disrupt the information dissemination to several destination nodes in a "Iight-tree"-based multicast session. Thus it is imperative to protect the multicast sessions. In this paper, we propose a novel protection scheme, called multicast protection through spanning paths (MPSP), for resource efficient multicast protection with spare capacity sharing. Here, a spanning path is a path from a leaf node to any other leaf node of a multicast tree. The key idea of MPSP is first to identify a backup path for each spanning path and then to appropriately select parts of these backup paths to protect the primary multicast tree, so that the total bandwidth allocated to the primary multicast tree and its protection paths (or trees, etc.) is minimized. While previous studies only consider self-sharing and intra-request sharing, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to take inter-request sharing of spare capacity into consideration when protecting dynamic multicast sessions. We use simulations to demonstrate the performance of the MPSP scheme. It is shown that significant performance improvements are achieved in terms of average cost per multicast session and blocking probability. Compared with existing schemes, the average cost is reduced by about 22% and the blocking probability can be reduced by about 27% in average.
Indirect Redox Transformations of Iron, Copper, and Chromium Catalyzed by Extremely Acidophilic Bacteria

Experiments were carried out to examine redox transformations of copper and chromium by acidophilic bacteria (Acidithiobacillus, Leptospirillum, and Acidiphilium), and also of iron (III) reduction by Acidithiobacillus spp. under aerobic conditions. Reduction of iron (III) was found with all five species of Acidithiobacillus tested, grown aerobically on elemental sulfur. Cultures maintained at pH 1.0 for protracted periods displayed increasing propensity for aerobic iron (III) reduction, which was observed with cell-free culture liquors as well as those containing bacteria. At. caldus grown on hydrogen also reduced iron (III) under aerobic conditions, confirming that the unknown metabolite(s) responsible for iron (III) reduction were not (exclusively) sulfur intermediates. Reduction of copper (II) by aerobic cultures of sulfur-grown Acidithiobacillus spp. showed similar trends to iron (III) reduction in being more pronounced as culture pH declined, and occurring in both the presence and absence of cells. Cultures of Acidithiobacillus grown anaerobically on hydrogen only reduced copper (II) when iron (III) (which was also reduced) was also included; identical results were found with Acidiphilium cryptum grown micro-aerobically on glucose. Harvested biomass of hydrogen-grown At. ferridurans oxidized iron (II) but not copper (I), and copper (I) was only oxidized by growing cultures of Acidithiobacillus spp. when iron (II) was also included. The data confirmed that oxidation and reduction of copper were both mediated by acidophilic bacteria indirectly, via iron (II) and iron (III). No oxidation of chromium (III) by acidophilic bacteria was observed even when, in the case of Leptospirillum spp. , the redox potential of oxidized cultures exceeded +900 mV. Cultures of At. ferridurans and A. cryptum reduced chromium (VI), though only when iron (III) was also present, confirming an indirect mechanism and contradicting an earlier report of direct chromium reduction by A. cryptum. Measurements of redox potentials of iron, copper and chromium couples in acidic, sulfate-containing liquors showed that these differed from situations where metals are not complexed by inorganic ligands, and supported the current observations of indirect copper oxido-reduction and chromium reduction mediated by acidophilic bacteria. The implications of these results for both industrial applications of acidophiles and for exobiology are discussed.
Persistent High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Infections and Other End-Point Markers of Progressive Cervical Disease Among Women Prospectively Followed up in the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union and the Latin American Screening Study Cohorts

Background: New end points are needed in future human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine efficacy studies that accurately predict disease progression. Objectives: Potential intermediate end points were analyzed in the combined New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (NIS) and the Latin American Screening (LAMS) study cohorts. Study Design and Methods: Data files of 2 international screening trials, the NIS (n = 3187) and the LAMS (n = 12,114) study cohorts, were combined, and a subcohort of 1865 (n = 854 and n = 1011 for the NIS and the LAMS, respectively) women prospectively followed up for 19.7 (median, 22.2) months was analyzed for different intermediate end-point markers of disease progression to squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 and higher (CIN1+), and CIN grade 2 and higher (CIN2+) as terminal events. Results: Altogether, 131 (7.0%), 90 (4.8%), and 39 (2.1%) cases progressed to SIL, CIN1+, and CIN2+, respectively, progression times being equal in the NIS (11.9, 16.8, and 19.6 months) and LAMS (13.6, 14.1, and 15.4 months) cohorts (P = 0.931, P = 0.335, and P = 0.535). The 2 most powerful end-point markers of disease progression to CIN2+ were high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions based on Papanicolaou test results at 6-month (odds ratio [OR] = 47.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 17.3-128.7) and 12-month (OR = 21.5; 95% CI, 5.1-90.8) follow-up visits, with longitudinal positive and negative predictive values of 42.1% and 98.0% (6 months) and 33.3% and 97.7% (12 months). Of the virological end points, more than 6 months of persistent high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) was the most powerful predictor of progression to CIN1+ (OR = 18.6; 95% CI, 2.5-136.5), with longitudinal positive and negative predictive values of 10.3% and 99.4%, respectively. No additional benefit was obtained using more than 12 months of persistent HR-HPV end point. Conclusions: High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion based on a Papanicolaou test results at 6- or 12-month follow-up visits was the most powerful end point, either considering cytological end points alone or in comparison to any of the virological end points. Of the virological end points, more than 6-month HR-HPV persistence criteria give the most powerful estimate of a progressive disease.
Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body

In this study of the history and contemporary significance of the cultural assumptions that govern our conception of people with disabilities, Lennard J. Davis argues that thinking the subject remains trapped inside the discourse of "ableist" ideology. Davis at once shows how our current notions about the physically disabled came into being, and argues for a whole new way of thinking about disability. The book surveys the emergence of a cluster of concepts of "normalcy" as these matured in Western Europe and the United States over the past 250 years. Linking such notions to the concurrent emergence of discourses about the nation, Davis shows how the modern nation-state constructed its identity on the backs, not only of colonized subjects, but of its physically disabled minority. In a chapter on contemporary cultural theory, the book explores the pitfalls of privileging the figure of sight in conceptualizing the nature of textuality. And in a treament of nudes and fragmented bodies in Western art, it shows how the ideal of physical wholeness is both demanded and denied in the classical aesthetics of representation. The book re-configures the boundaries of the conceptual universe, inserting disability into the familiar triad of race, class and gender, with results that can only be welcomed by progressives. Lennard J. Davis is the author of "Factual Fictions" and "Resisting Novels".
Oral Contraceptive Use and Reproductive Characteristics Affect Survival in Patients With Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: A Cohort Study

Objectives Prognostic risk factors influencing survival in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) include tumor stage, grade, histologic subtype, debulking, and platinum status. Little is known about the impact of hormonal milieu and reproductive factors before cancer diagnosis on clinical outcome. We sought to evaluate whether oral contraceptive (OC) use carries any prognostic significance on overall survival (OS) in patients with EOC. Methods Newly diagnosed patients with EOC, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancers between 1982 and 1998 were prospectively evaluated with a comprehensive epidemiologic questionnaire. A retrospective chart review was performed to abstract clinicopathologic data, including OS. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to compare survival across various exposures. A Cox regression model was used to compute adjusted hazards ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results We identified 387 newly diagnosed cancers with evaluable information in this cohort. Decreased risk of death was observed in women who reported prior use of OC (aHR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.58–1.09), previous pregnancy (aHR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.57–1.04), or a live birth (aHR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.60–1.08) after adjusting for age at diagnosis, stage, and histologic subtype. Oral contraceptive use was associated with a crude reduced risk of death (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.42–0.72), with reported median OS of 81 months in OC users versus 46 months in nonusers. Patients who reported a single live birth experienced the largest potential survival advantage (aHR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.39–0.94). Oral contraceptive use and prior pregnancy were associated with improved survival across all strata. Conclusions Oral contraceptive use may have lasting effects on epithelial ovarian tumor characteristics conferring favorable prognosis. Putative mechanisms that affect tumor biology include complex interactions between ovarian cells, host immune cells, and hormonal microenvironment during carcinogenesis. Future efforts should be directed to determine the role of reproductive factors in antitumor immunity.
Tissue microarrays are reliable tools for the clinicopathological characterization of lung cancer tissue.

BACKGROUND The advantage of tissue microarray (TMA) is its ability to efficiently analyze large numbers of tissue specimens in a methodologically uniform way. The reliability of TMAs, especially with regard to clinicopathological characterizations, when compared to conventional immunohistochemistry (IHC) was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy-two embedded tissue sections from lung cancer specimens were stained with monoclonal antibodies against the tumor-associated markers TA-MUC1 and Lewis Y. Three representative cores of every tumor were embedded in a paraffin array multiblock. The IHC was evaluated by the immunoreactive score (IRS). RESULTS The data for the TMA IHC and the conventional IHC were concordant (kappa > or = 80%) for both markers. Likewise, discordance (McNemar's test) was low, and sensitivity and specificity were above 80% for both markers. In the samples with high positive expression, the concordance increased (kappa > or = 90%), discordance disappeared (McNemar p = 1.0), and sensitivity and specificity increased above 90% for both markers. Using Cox regression models, all the clinicopathological dependencies were equivalent for both techniques and both markers. CONCLUSION Immunohistochemistry with tissue microarrays is valid and provides results equivalent to conventional immunohistochemistry with respect to expression patterns and clinicopathological characterizations.
Neural Dynamics of Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization : From Grouping to Shape and Meaning 1

Baingio Pinna’s article “New Gestalt principles of perceptual organization: An extension from grouping to shape and meaning” won the 2009 Metzger Award of the Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications. In this article, Pinna presented a variety of novel images that probe the way in which local and global factors interact to generate the percepts that we consciously see. As Pinna noted at the beginning of his article:
Photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs – I. Hydrodynamic models

In this paper we consider the effect of the direct ionizing stellar radiation field on the evol ution of protoplanetary discs subject to photoevaporative winds. We suggest that models which combine viscous evolution with photoevaporation of the disc (e.g. Clarke, Gendrin & Sotomayor 2001) incorrectly neglect the direct field after the inner disc has drained, at late times in the evolution. We construct models of the photoevaporative wind produced by the direct field, first using simple analytic arguments and later using d etailed numerical hydrodynamics. We find that the wind produced by the direct field at late times i s much larger than has previously been assumed, and we show that the mass-loss rate scales as R 1/2 in (where Rin is the radius of the instantaneous inner disc edge). We suggest that this result has important consequences for theories of disc evolution, and go on to consider the effects of this result on disc evolution in detail in a companion paper (Alexander, Clarke & Pringle 2006).
The von Hippel-Lindau protein, vascular endothelial growth factor, and kidney cancer.

Early in the 20th century, it was hypothesized that solid tumors secrete factors, now referred to as angiogenic factors, that induce angiogenesis — the formation of new blood vessels — thereby ensuring the delivery of enough blood to support the growth of the tumor. The idea that inhibiting angiogenesis would have an antitumor effect has been borne out by the startling anticancer activity of some antiangiogenic agents in tumor-bearing mice. For these reasons, perhaps no area of cancer research has attracted as much attention, both on Main Street and on Wall Street, as angiogenesis. Unfortunately, the dramatic effects of antiangiogenic .
Les recensements canadiens et l'étude de l'agriculture québécoise 1852-1901

L'auteur s'efforce de preciser la validite des recensements canadiens comme source pour l'histoire de l'agriculture, en se penchant plus particulierement sur les districts de recensement de Bagot, Rouville, Saint-Hyacinthe et Yamaska. Il etudie d'abord les rapports entre les paysans et recenseurs. Le domicile de ces derniers (ils habitent generalement le sous-district qu'ils denombrent) et leurs professions (48,2% sont notaires et 8,4% sont marchands) suggerent des contacts etroits avec les paysans, ce qui devrait assurer une certaine fiabilite des donnees. L'auteur cherche aussi a preciser le contenu des categories « superficie occupee » et « nombre d'occupants ». Une definition assez precise se degage pour les recensements de 1871 a 1901, mais en 1852 et 1861, la pauvrete des sources et la diversite des procedures utilisees d'un sous-district a l'autre laissent de nombreuses questions sans reponse. The author attempts to determine the validity of Canadian census returns as a source for agricultural history, with particular reference to the census districts of Bagot, Rouville, Saint-Hyacinthe and Yamaska. He begins by analysis of the relationship between peasants and census takers. In general, the latter resided in the sub-districts which they enumerated. Their professions — 48.2 percent were notaries and 8.4 percent were merchants — suggest close contact with the peasants. This should ensure a certain reliability in the data. The author also clarifies the meaning of the terms "occupied surface" and "number of occupants". The definition of these terms is reasonably precise in the censuses from 1871 to 1901; but in 1852 and 1861, the pitfalls in the data and the variety of procedures followed by census-takers from one district to another leave a number of questions unanswered.