Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combining Information from Diverse Sources

Research synthesis plays a central role in the process of scientific discovery, providing a formal methodology for the systematic accumulation and evaluation of scientific evidence. There are many situations in which research synthesis is required because obtaining the required information from an individual trial is not possible or practical. This thesis proposes a general method to synthesize information from multiple sources. The study of the relationship between suicide and antidepressant use in children and adolescents is one such case. To shed light on this issue, the FDA combined data from 24 randomized controlled trials using standard frequentist fixed and random effects models. However, the diversity of the trials suggested the presence of systematic effect variation that was not incorporated into these models. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to the data to include more appropriate variance structure and answer scientific questions regarding subsets of the data. While this technique was successful in solving the variance and subsetting issues, the collection of clinical trials share qualities that limit the generalizability of the meta-analysis. Several available administrative databases do not suffer from these same limitations of generalizability. Combining administrative databases and clinical trials in one analysis would improve the reliability and generalizability of the analysis. Several methods have been proposed to accomplish this goal, but to our knowledge, only one has been implemented and so many practical problems related to these methods (including exchangeability, bias, prior specification and model selection) have not been addressed. This thesis proposes a general method to synthesize information from diverse sources that has two of the already proposed methods as special cases and is also consistent with the third proposed method.
ADAPTIVE GAIN FOR PROPORTIONAL MYOELECTRIC CONTROL OF A ROBOTIC ANKLE EXOSKELETON DURING HUMAN WALKING

There exists a large disconnect between the natural fluid motion of unconstrained human walking and the unnatural, rigid motion of human walking with a robotic exoskeleton. This unnatural movement of walking in a robotic exoskeleton is largely due to poor controller design and can make the motion energetically inefficient for the user [1]. Our research group has been developing techniques to use neural signals from the wearer to directly control exoskeleton actuation timing and amplitude. By using neural signals to control the device we are attempting to alleviate the issues that come with relying on intrinsic mechanical measurements for exoskeleton control.
TRANSITION BASED INPUT TEST VECTOR PARTITIONING FOR LOW POWER SWITCHING ACTIVITY

Present complexity of System on Chip (SOC) has brought new challenges in low power design and testing. This shows that huge test pattern and its corresponding switching activity are one of the major problems. Due to this large number of test patterns the data transition time is also increased. More switching is also proportional to more number of transitions. This paper considers the problem of switching activity in scan based test pattern. This proposed approach is based on reducing the huge switching activity by partitioning the test vectors into groups. The number of transition is identified in each partition group. The groups having zero transition have lesser switching activities, so they are not considered equally with transition group for testing. Thus the test run time and number of switching is minimized. This in turn reduces the power consumption for testing. The proposed technique tested on ISCAS89 shows the significant reduction in overall switching activity of the test pattern.
Involving children in content control: a collaborative and education-oriented content filtering approach

We present an approach to content control where parents and children collaboratively configure restrictions and filters, an approach that focuses on education rather than simple rule setting. We conducted an initial exploratory qualitative study with results highlighting the importance that parents place on avoiding inappropriate content. Building on these findings, we designed an initial prototype which allows parents and children to work together to select appropriate applications, providing an opportunity for parents to educate their children on what is appropriate. A second qualitative study with parents and children in the six to eight year-old age group revealed a favorable response to this approach. Our results suggest that parents felt that this approach helped facilitate discussions with their children and made the education more enjoyable and approachable, and that children may have also learned from the interaction. In addition, the approach provided some parents with insights into their children's interests and understanding of their notions of appropriate and inappropriate content.
Usability analysis of compression algorithms for position data streams

With the increasing use of sensor technology, the compression of sensor data streams is getting more and more important to reduce both the costs of further processing as well as the data volume for persistent storage. A popular method for sensor data compression is to smooth the original measurement curve by an approximated curve, which is bounded by a given maximum error value. Measurement values from positioning systems like GPS are an interesting special case, because they consist of two spatial and one temporal dimension. Therefore various standard techniques for approximation calculations like regression or line simplification algorithms cannot be directly applied. In this paper, we portray our stream data management system NexusDS and an operator for compressing sensor data. For the operator, we implemented various compression algorithms for position data streams. We present the required adaptations and the different characteristics of the compression algorithms as well as the results of our evaluation experiments, and compare them with a map matching approach, specifically developed for position data.
PartSpan: Parallel Sequence Mining of Trajectory Patterns

The trajectory pattern mining problem has recently attracted increasing attention. This paper precisely addresses the parallel mining problem of trajectory patterns as well as the newly proposed concepts with regard to trajectory pattern mining. An efficient parallel trajectory sequential pattern mining (PartSpan) is proposed by incorporating three key techniques: prefix-projection, parallel formulation, and candidate pruning. The prefix-projection technique is used to decompose the search space as well as greatly reducing candidate trajectory sequences. The parallel formulation integrates the data parallel formulation and the task parallel formulation to partition the computations and to assign them to multiple processors in an efficient and effective manner that helps reduce the communication cost across processors. Representative experiments are used to evaluate the performance of PartSpan. The results show that PartSpan outperforms GSP-based and SPADE-based parallel algorithms in mining very large trajectory databases.
Evaluation of information sharing capability of supply chain partners

With the emergence of networked organization, the information sharing capability of potential supply chain partners obtains more attention form academicians and industry personnel. However the evaluation of information sharing capability of supply chain partners is not easy task. It involves an evaluation of multiple attributes, and moreover qualitative attributes are often accompanied by certain ambiguities and vagueness. Fuzzy logic, together with analytical network process is used to model this process and rank potential suppliers. It is an appropriate methodology to use for this application since it explicitly handles vague, ambiguous, and imprecise data.
Security enhancement over ad-hoc AODV routing protocol

For most existing routing protocols of mobile ad hoc network (MANET), more efficient security mechanisms against the attacks from malicious, compromised and selfish nodes are highly demanded. This paper proposes a series of security mechanisms for the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) Routing protocol. Three techniques, including digital signature, one-way hash function and double one-way hash verification are introduced to ensure the authentication, nonrepudiation and integrity of the important routing information in AODV protocol. The comparison with some existing secure AODV protocols demonstrates that our solution expands the security scope and guards against several attacks out of their range.
Does Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Facilitate Knowledge Management Activities in the 21st Century?

Recent developments in the domain of information and communication technology (ICT), and its impact on the facilitation of knowledge management (KM), are critical in today’s digital economy. This research study, through extensive literature reviews, identified constructs for the implementation of KM systems in order to study the effect of ICT on the implementation of KM in a business environment. The mixed-mode methodology was adopted to explore the effects of ICT on KM implementations, via a survey instrument developed through interviews. Through 80 organisations, 400 usable surveys were collected and used. The findings of this this study suggest that constructs such as “collaboration”, "mutual trust”, “leadership”, “learning”, incentive and rewards”, and “T-shape skills” have the potential to support KM in the business environment. However, constructs such as “formalization” and “non-centralization” are not critical. This is the first study of its kind and the findings are associated only with four cities in India. Further research is required before generalizing the findings of this study.
Parallelization of the P-1 Radiation Model

ABSTRACT The P-1 radiation model is spatially decomposed to solve the radiative transport equation on parallel computers. Mathematical libraries developed by third parties are employed to solve the linear systems that result during the solution procedure. Multigrid preconditioning accelerated the convergence of iterative methods. The parallel performance did not depend strongly on the radiative properties of the medium or the boundary conditions. Predictions from coupling the weighted-sum-of-gray-gases model with the P-1 approximation are compared against benchmarks for model problems. The P-1 approximation resulted in only a moderate loss in accuracy while being significantly faster than the discrete ordinates method.
Associations between Anticholinergic Burden and Adverse Health Outcomes in Parkinson Disease

Background Elderly adults should avoid medications with anticholinergic effects since they may increase the risk of adverse events, including falls, delirium, and cognitive impairment. However, data on anticholinergic burden are limited in subpopulations, such as individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). The objective of this study was to determine whether anticholinergic burden was associated with adverse outcomes in a PD inpatient population. Methods Using the Cerner Health Facts® database, we retrospectively examined anticholinergic medication use, diagnoses, and hospital revisits within a cohort of 16,302 PD inpatients admitted to a Cerner hospital between 2000 and 2011. Anticholinergic burden was computed using the Anticholinergic Risk Scale (ARS). Primary outcomes were associations between ARS score and diagnosis of fracture and delirium. Secondary outcomes included associations between ARS score and 30-day hospital revisits. Results Many individuals (57.8%) were prescribed non-PD medications with moderate to very strong anticholinergic potential. Individuals with the greatest ARS score (≥4) were more likely to be diagnosed with fractures (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.56, 95% CI: 1.29–1.88) and delirium (AOR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.08–2.40) relative to those with no anticholinergic burden. Similarly, inpatients with the greatest ARS score were more likely to visit the emergency department (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR): 1.32, 95% CI: 1.10–1.58) and be readmitted (AHR: 1.16, 95% CI: 1.01–1.33) within 30-days of discharge. Conclusions We found a positive association between increased anticholinergic burden and adverse outcomes among individuals with PD. Additional pharmacovigilance studies are needed to better understand risks associated with anticholinergic medication use in PD.
A Lightweight Message-Based Inter-Component Communication Infrastructure

This article introduces a lightweight message-based inter-component communication infrastructure called Signaling and Communication Link (SCL). Specifically targeted for inter-process communication in embedded systems, SCL is characterized by three independent building blocks: topology definition, message transport and data serialization. Due to its broker-free, multi-platform, and multi-language messaging approach, SCL speeds up the design process of complex software systems and enables a wide range of applications. We discuss the related work in comparison to our approach, providing a qualitative analysis and specify requirements which are important for designing such a system. The design as well as the implementation and evaluation of SCL are discussed in detail. To illustrate the applicability of our approach in different projects, we discuss two research platforms from the area of mobile communications which already employ SCL as their primary inter-component communication infrastructure.
Recognition of Intensive Valence and Arousal Affective States via Facial Electromyographic Activity in Young and Senior Adults

Background Research suggests that interaction between humans and digital environments characterizes a form of companionship in addition to technical convenience. To this effect, humans have attempted to design computer systems able to demonstrably empathize with the human affective experience. Facial electromyography (EMG) is one such technique enabling machines to access to human affective states. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of valence emotions on facial EMG activity captured over the corrugator supercilii (frowning muscle) and zygomaticus major (smiling muscle). The arousal emotion, specifically, has not received much research attention, however. In the present study, we sought to identify intensive valence and arousal affective states via facial EMG activity. Methods Ten blocks of affective pictures were separated into five categories: neutral valence/low arousal (0VLA), positive valence/high arousal (PVHA), negative valence/high arousal (NVHA), positive valence/low arousal (PVLA), and negative valence/low arousal (NVLA), and the ability of each to elicit corresponding valence and arousal affective states was investigated at length. One hundred and thirteen participants were subjected to these stimuli and provided facial EMG. A set of 16 features based on the amplitude, frequency, predictability, and variability of signals was defined and classified using a support vector machine (SVM). Results We observed highly accurate classification rates based on the combined corrugator and zygomaticus EMG, ranging from 75.69% to 100.00% for the baseline and five affective states (0VLA, PVHA, PVLA, NVHA, and NVLA) in all individuals. There were significant differences in classification rate accuracy between senior and young adults, but there was no significant difference between female and male participants. Conclusion Our research provides robust evidences for recognition of intensive valence and arousal affective states in young and senior adults. These findings contribute to the successful future application of facial EMG for identifying user affective states in human machine interaction (HMI) or companion robotic systems (CRS).
HOW WELL DO WE KNOW THE ORBITS OF THE OUTER PLANETS?

This paper deals with the problem of astrometric determination of the orbital elements of the outer planets, in particular by assessing the ability of astrometric observations to detect perturbations of the sort expected from the Pioneer effect or other small perturbations to gravity. We also show that while using simplified models of the dynamics can lead to some insights, one must be careful to not oversimplify the issues involved lest one be misled by the analysis onto false paths. Specifically, we show that the current ephemeris of Pluto does not preclude the existence of the Pioneer effect. We show that the orbit of Pluto is simply not well enough characterized at present to make such an assertion. A number of misunderstandings related to these topics have now propagated through the literature and have been used as a basis for drawing conclusions about the dynamics of the solar system. Thus, the objective of this paper is to address these issues. Finally, we offer some comments dealing with the complex topic of model selection and comparison.
An Adaptive Fast Multipole Boundary Element Method for Poisson−Boltzmann Electrostatics

The numerical solution of the Poisson−Boltzmann (PB) equation is a useful but a computationally demanding tool for studying electrostatic solvation effects in chemical and biomolecular systems. Recently, we have described a boundary integral equation-based PB solver accelerated by a new version of the fast multipole method (FMM). The overall algorithm shows an order N complexity in both the computational cost and memory usage. Here, we present an updated version of the solver by using an adaptive FMM for accelerating the convolution type matrix-vector multiplications. The adaptive algorithm, when compared to our previous nonadaptive one, not only significantly improves the performance of the overall memory usage but also remarkably speeds the calculation because of an improved load balancing between the local- and far-field calculations. We have also implemented a node-patch discretization scheme that leads to a reduction of unknowns by a factor of 2 relative to the constant element method without sacrificing accuracy. As a result of these improvements, the new solver makes the PB calculation truly feasible for large-scale biomolecular systems such as a 30S ribosome molecule even on a typical 2008 desktop computer.
Procedures for mapping vocabularies from non-professional discourse a case study: "Consumer medical vocabulary"

Non-professionals are often unable to access or comprehend information in specialized domains because of technical terminology. Understanding domain-specific vocabulary commonly used by laypersons will help bridge this gap. This paper describes in detail a methodology for collecting and extracting linguistic forms from documents authored by healthcare consumers. The forms were mapped to concepts and the resulting terms were analyzed. Although the case study uses examples from a “consumer medical vocabulary,” the procedures are applicable to investigating non-professional vocabularies in other domains.
Interdisciplinary collaboration experiences in creating an everyday rehabilitation model: a pilot study

Background When functional impairment occurs, assistance to achieve self-help can lead to qualitatively more active everyday life for recipients and better use of community resources. Home-based everyday rehabilitation is a new interdisciplinary service for people living at home. Rehabilitation involves meeting the need for interprofessional services, interdisciplinary collaboration, and coordination of services. Everyday rehabilitation is a service that requires close interdisciplinary cooperation. The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about employees’ experiences with establishing a new multidisciplinary team and developing a team-based work model. Method The study had a qualitative design using two focus group interviews with a newly established rehabilitation team. The sample consisted of an occupational therapist, two care workers with further education in rehabilitation, a nurse, a physiotherapist, and a project leader. Data were analyzed by thematic content analysis. Results The data highlight three phases: a planning phase (ten meetings over half a year), a startup phase of trials of interdisciplinary everyday rehabilitation in practice (2 months), and a third period specifying and implementing an everyday rehabilitation model (6 months). During these phases, three themes emerged: 1) team creation and design of the service, 2) targeted practical trials, and 3) equality of team members and combining interdisciplinary methods. Conclusion The team provided information about three processes: developing work routines and a revised team-based flow chart, developing team cooperation with integrated Trans- and interdisciplinary collaboration, and working with external exchange. There is more need for secure network solutions.
Severe impairment of complex I-driven adenosine triphosphate synthesis in leber hereditary optic neuropathy cybrids.

BACKGROUND Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a maternally inherited form of central vision loss associated with mitochondrial DNA point mutations that affect the ND subunits of complex I. OBJECTIVE To elucidate the bioenergetic consequences of complex I dysfunction in LHON. DESIGN The biochemical phenotypes of LHON mutations have been investigated using the transmitochondrial cytoplasmic hybrid (cybrid) cell model derived from the osteocarcoma parental cell line 143B.TK-. SETTING Research laboratories at neuroscience and biochemistry departments at the University of Bologna, Scientific Institute "E. Medea," and University of College Medical School. PARTICIPANTS Fibroblast cell lines were obtained from patients affected with LHON, as defined by the presence of 1 pathogenic mutation, and from healthy volunteers as controls to construct cybrid cell lines. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Complex I (glutamate-malate)- and complex II (succinate)-dependent adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis, their respective respiratory rates, and total cellular ATP content were investigated using digitonin permeabilized cybrid cells. Multiple cybrid cell lines were constructed, introducing into osteosarcoma-derived rho(0) cells either wild-type or LHON mutant mitochondria carrying each of the 3 common mutations at positions 11778/ND4, 3460/ND1, and 14484/ND6. RESULTS All 3 LHON mutations impaired ATP synthesis and the respiratory control ratio driven by complex I substrates. In contrast, succinate-driven ATP synthesis, respiration rates, and respiratory control ratios were not affected. However, the defective ATP synthesis with complex I substrates did not result in reduced ATP cellular content, indicating a compensatory mechanism. CONCLUSIONS The LHON pathogenic mutations profoundly impair complex I-dependent synthesis of ATP, providing a common biochemical feature that may play a major role in LHON pathogenesis. Stratification of the results by mutation suggests that the 11778/ND4 mutation may induce an uncoupling of cybrid respiration, whereas the other 2 mutations impair the oxygen consumption rate.