Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analyzing Citation Frequencies of Leading Software Engineering Scholars

It is understandable that sponsors of research activities are interested in assessing the work of scholars they (plan to) support although this is not a simple undertaking. Until today, there is no obvious approach for objectively measuring and comparing the quality of research results from different disciplines. Hence, counting publications has been used for long time as a substitute to deal with this challenge and only recent technological advances have fostered the usage of so-called citation indices (such as the h-index) for this purpose. Although this approach is as disputed as all previous ideas in this context, we feel it is about time to investigate the expressiveness of modern citation analysis approaches in computer science more closely. In order to do that, we have chosen the area of software engineering and created a first comprehensive ranking, illustrating citation values of world class scholars by analyzing the work of almost 700 researchers in this field. We have found that top h-index scores in software engineering are around 60 while top-notch g-indices start at around 130 when Google Scholar and Publish or Perish, the quasi standard tools for this purpose are used. Clearly, the results of our study are influenced by the coverage of these tools so that we have also analyzed Google Scholar and found it having a very high coverage of software engineering publications. Hence we are convinced to have collected good quality results that will allow our community to better judge and use citation numbers in the future.
Validation of an LC–MS Method for the Detection and Quantification of BZP and TFMPP and their Hydroxylated Metabolites in Human Plasma and its Application to the Pharmacokinetic Study of TFMPP in Humans *

Abstract: An LC–MS method was developed for benzylpiperazine (BZP) and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP), constituents of “party pills” or “legal herbal highs,” and their metabolites in human blood plasma. Compounds were resolved using a mixture of ammonium formate (pH 4.5, 0.01 M) and acetonitrile (flow rate of 1.0 mL/min) with a C18 column. Calibration curves were linear from 1 to 50 ng/mL (R2 > 0.99); the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 5 ng/mL; the accuracy was >90%; the intra‐ and interday relative standard deviations (R.S.D) were <5% and <10%, respectively. Human plasma concentrations of TFMPP were measured in blood samples taken from healthy adults (n = 6) over 24 h following a 60‐mg oral dose of TFMPP: these peaked at 24.10 ng/mL (±1.8 ng/mL) (Cmax) after 90 min (Tmax). Plasma concentrations of 1‐(3‐trifluoromethyl‐4‐hydroxyphenyl) piperazine peaked at 20.2 ng/mL (±4.6 ng/mL) after 90 min. TFMPP had two disposition phases (t½ = 2.04 h (±0.19 h) and 5.95 h (±1.63 h). Apparent clearance (Cl/F) was 384 L/h (±45 L/h).
Multi-Informant Perception of Quality of Life and Adaptation in Chronic Schizophrenia

Abstract The Quality of Life (QoL) in psychiatric patients is currently of great relevance. This study aims to examine, through a multi-informant approach, the QoL perception in schizophrenic patients, analyzing differences between the informants, as well as the relationship between negative symptoms and QoL. Participants were 32 schizophrenic patients, their caregivers (relatives or psychosocial educators; 25 and 3, respectively), and a team of four professionals of Outpatient Centers of Mental Health in Guipuzcoa, Spain. The assessment of patients’ QoL was obtained with application of Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale and Karnofsky Performance Status Scale. Self-informant QoL was assessed with Seville Quality of Life Questionnaire and Social Adjustment Scale Self-reported. The negative symptoms were measured with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms. Patients showed an average high life satisfaction. There were significant discrepancies among informants’ reports, with the lowest evaluation given by the professional team and the highest by the patients. Evaluations made by caregivers and patients yielded similar results. These findings suggest that patients and their caregivers present a more optimistic perception of their QoL.
Episodic Memory: New Directions in Research

The term 'episodic memory' refers to our memory for unique, personal experiences, that we can date at some point in our past - our first day at school, the day we got married. It has again become a topic of great importance and interest to psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers. How are such memories stored in the brain, why do certain memories disappear (especially those from early in childhood), what causes false memories (memories of events we erroneously believe have really taken place)? Since Endel Tulving's classic book 'Episodic memory' (OUP, 1983) very few books have been published on this topic. In recent years however, many of the assumptions made about episodic memory have had to be reconsidered as a result of new techniques, which have allowed us a far deeper understanding of episodic memory. In 'Episodic memory: new directions in research' three of the worlds leading researchers in the topic of memory have brought together a stellar team of contributors from the fields of cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience, to present an account of what we now know about about this fundamentally important topic. The list of contributors includes, amongst others, Daniel Schacter, Richard Morris, Fareneh Vargha-Khadem, and Endel Tulving. The work presented within this book will have a profound effect on the direction that future research in this topic will take.
Mining itemsets in the presence of missing values

Missing values make up an important and unavoidable problem in data management and analysis. In the context of association rule and frequent itemset mining, however, this issue never received much attention. Nevertheless, the well known measures of support and confidence are misleading when missing values occur in the data, and more suitable definitions typically don't have the crucial monotonicity property of support. In this paper, we overcome this problem and provide an efficient algorithm, XMiner, for mining association rules and frequent itemsets in databases with missing values. XMiner is empirically evaluated, showing a clear gain over a straightforward baseline-algorithm.
Recent advances in the therapeutic applications of pyrazolines

Introduction: Pyrazolines are well-known and important nitrogen-containing five-membered ring heterocyclic compounds. Various methods have been worked out for their synthesis. Several pyrazoline derivatives have been found to possess diverse biological properties, which has stimulated research activity in this field. Areas covered: The present review sheds light on the recent therapeutic patent literature (2000 – 2011) describing the applications of pyrazolines and their derivatives on selected activities. Many of the therapeutic applications of pyrazoline derivatives have been discussed, either in the patent or in the general literature areas in this review. In addition to selected biological data, a wide range of pharmaceutical applications and pharmaceutical compositions are also summarized. Expert opinion: Pyrazoline derivatives have numerous prominent pharmacological effects, such as antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal, antiamoebic, antimycobacterial), anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant and anticancer. Further pharmacological effects include cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists, antiepileptic, antitrypanosomal, antiviral activity, MAO-inhibitory, antinociceptive activity, insecticidal, hypotensive, nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, antioxidant, steroidal and antidiabetic. Lastly, they also effect ACAT inhibition, urotensin II and somatostatin-5 receptors, TGF-β signal transduction inhibitors and neurocytotoxicity inhibitors activities. Many new pyrazoline derivatives have been synthesized and patented, but there are still new aspects to explore and work on.
Comprehensive modulation representation for automatic speech recognition

We present a new feature representation for speech recognition based on both amplitude modulation spectra (AMS) and frequency modulation spectra (FMS). A comprehensive modulation spectral (CMS) approach is defined and analyzed based on a modulation model of the band-pass signal. The speech signal is processed first by a bank of specially designed auditory band-pass filters. CMS are extracted from the output of the filters as the features for automatic speech recognition (ASR). A significant improvement is demonstrated in performance on noisy speech. On the Aurora 2 task the new features result in an improvement of 23.43% relative to traditional mel-cepstrum front-end features using a 3 GMM HMM back-end. Although the improvements are relatively modest, the novelty of the method and its potential for performance enhancement warrants serious attention for future-generation ASR applications.
Explorer Quantifying Adaptive Evolution in the Drosophila Immune System

It is estimated that a large proportion of amino acid substitutions in Drosophila have been fixed by natural selection, and as organisms are faced with an ever-changing array of pathogens and parasites to which they must adapt, we have investigated the role of parasite-mediated selection as a likely cause. To quantify the effect, and to identify which genes and pathways are most likely to be involved in the host–parasite arms race, we have re-sequenced population samples of 136 immunity and 287 position-matched non-immunity genes in two species of Drosophila. Using these data, and a new extension of the McDonald-Kreitman approach, we estimate that natural selection fixes advantageous amino acid changes in immunity genes at nearly double the rate of other genes. We find the rate of adaptive evolution in immunity genes is also more variable than other genes, with a small subset of immune genes evolving under intense selection. These genes, which are likely to represent hotspots of host–parasite coevolution, tend to share similar functions or belong to the same pathways, such as the antiviral RNAi pathway and the IMD signalling pathway. These patterns appear to be general features of immune system evolution in both species, as rates of adaptive evolution are correlated between the D. melanogaster and D. simulans lineages. In summary, our data provide quantitative estimates of the elevated rate of adaptive evolution in immune system genes relative to the rest of the genome, and they suggest that adaptation to parasites is an important force driving molecular evolution. Citation: Obbard DJ, Welch JJ, Kim K-W, Jiggins FM (2009) Quantifying Adaptive Evolution in the Drosophila Immune System. PLoS Genet 5(10): e1000698. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen. 1000698 Editor: David J. Begun, University of California Davis, United States of America Received May 26, 2009; Accepted September 23, 2009; Published October 23, 2009 Copyright: 2009 Obbard et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: DJO is supported by Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship 085064/Z/08/Z (www.wellcome.ac.uk), FMJ by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (royalsociety.org), and JJW by BBSRC grant DO17750 awarded to Andrew Rambaut (www.bbsrc.ac.uk). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: darren.obbard@ed.ac.uk
A Survey on Analysis and Design of Model-Based Fuzzy Control Systems

Fuzzy logic control was originally introduced and developed as a model free control design approach. However, it unfortunately suffers from criticism of lacking of systematic stability analysis and controller design though it has a great success in industry applications. In the past ten years or so, prevailing research efforts on fuzzy logic control have been devoted to model-based fuzzy control systems that guarantee not only stability but also performance of closed-loop fuzzy control systems. This paper presents a survey on recent developments (or state of the art) of analysis and design of model based fuzzy control systems. Attention will be focused on stability analysis and controller design based on the so-called Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models or fuzzy dynamic models. Perspectives of model based fuzzy control in future are also discussed
Is Increased Access Enough? Advanced Placement Courses, Quality, and Success in Low-Income Urban Schools

This article combines descriptive statistics and interviews with college-bound high school students to explore the connection between increased access and academic quality of Advanced Placement (AP) courses in low-income urban high schools. Results suggest that although moderately more opportunities to take AP courses exist than in previous years, students' sense of their own preparation and their resultant performance on AP exams do not indicate quality or appropriate preparation for college. The article is guided by a “funds of knowledge” framework, which emphasizes the value of instrumental and content aptitudes in preparation for college success.
The sustainability of sports heritage attractions: lessons from the Australian football league hall of fame

Abstract The proliferation of sports heritage attractions, particularly halls of fame, raises questions about their financial sustainability. Should these attractions be managed as profit-making operations or should they be viewed as museums to be subsidized by sporting bodies? How may commercial and heritage considerations be balanced within these ventures? Should they be adjuncts to stadia or located in separate tourist precincts? This article examines these questions through a study of the Australian Football League Hall of Fame. Opened in 2004 in Melbourne, it was placed in voluntary administration within three months. Its failure, it is argued, was due to a combination of difficulties with concept, location and price.
Telomerase: cellular immortalization and neoplastic transformation. Multiple functions of a multifaceted complex

The telomerase complex allows telomere length maintenance, which is required for an unlimited cellular proliferation. Telomerase is virtually absent in normal human somatic cells, which are characterized by a definite proliferation potential, while it is present in the vast majority of tumors (around 90%). Restoring telomerase activity in normal somatic cells can indefinitely prolong cellular life span. However, evidence has been reported that this event can be associated with the acquisition of characteristics typical of cellular transformation. Moreover, analysis of telomerase immortalized cells, as well as of tumor cells in which telomerase is inactivated, has highlighted multiple functions of telomerase in tumorigenesis, besides telomere lengthening. In this paper, we will review telomerase immortalization of somatic cells, together with its possible consequences, and we will examine the complex role of telomerase in tumorigenesis.
Personality traits in parents of people with autism

Abstract Objectives: This study set out to explore if there were measurable personality characteristics specific to parents of people with autism. Method: Parents of 12 people with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of autism presented for the study. Each of the people with autism were matched where possible with a counterpart without autism but with a lifelong disability on parameters of age, sex and IQ level. Parents of the ‘autism’ and ‘non-autism’ groups were then interviewed in detail using four personality assessment instruments. Scores were tabulated for both mothers and fathers in each group and intergroup comparisons were made. Results: No significant personality profile difference was identifiable between the two parental groups. Conclusions: Personality traits specific to parents of people with autism are not identifiable in this study thus casting doubt on the validity of personality phenotypes as measurable heritability factors in autism.
Heterogeneity-Aware Design for Automatic Detection of Problematic Road Conditions

Improving driving safety is one major objective of forming vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Existing VANETs usually assume drivers detect and report safety-related road conditions. However, drivers may not be willing to perform these duties; even they are, these duties may distract them from driving and thus make driving unsafe. To address the problem, this paper proposes an automatic detection system. By taking advantage of the communication capability of roadside sensors, the proposed system can automatically detect and locate problematic road conditions without any human intervention under varying traffic densities. Extensive simulations have been conducted to verify the efficiency of the proposed system.
Inteligencia emocional, calidad de las relaciones interpersonales y empatía en estudiantes universitarios

El objetivo de este estudio fue examinar las conexiones entre inteligencia emocional evaluada con medidas de auto-informe y de habilidad, la calidad de las relaciones interpersonales y la empatia en estudiantes universitarios. Ademas, se examino la contribucion de la inteligencia emocional como predictor de estas dimensiones. Ciento ochenta y cuatro estudiantes universitarios espanoles completaron una bateria de cuestionarios que incluia la version espanola del Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (una escala auto-informada de inteligencia emocional), la rama de manejo emocional del MSCEIT (una subescala de una medida de habilidad de inteligencia emocional), el inventario de redes sociales (un inventario de la calidad de las relaciones interpersonales) y el indice de reactividad interpersonal (un cuestionario de empatia). Para comprobar las hipotesis, se llevaron a cabo una serie de analisis de correlacion y de regresion multiple. Los resultados mostraron asociaciones significativas entre diferentes aspectos de la inteligencia emocional y las dimensiones de relaciones interpersonales y empatia. Por otra parte, los analisis de regresion multiple mostraron que la rama de manejo emocional del MSCEIT mostraba mayores asociaciones con diferentes dimensiones de las relaciones interpersonales (intimidad, afecto y antagonismo), pero solo con una dimension de empatia (implicacion empatica). En cambio, las subescalas del TMMS mostraron mayor asociacion con diferentes subescalas de empatia (toma de perspectiva, implicacion empatica y malestar personal), pero solo con una de las dimensiones de relaciones interpersonales (antagonismo). Los hallazgos son discutidos a partir de la existencia de diferentes conceptualizaciones teoricas y medidas de la inteligencia emocional dentro de este reciente campo de investigacion
Psychological effects of risk glorification in the media: Towards an integrative view

Media contents that glorify risk-taking (e.g., video games that simulate illegal street racing, TV depictions of dangerous extreme sports or stunts) are becoming increasingly popular. Theory and research suggest that risk glorification is associated with risk-taking among the audience. Until recently the evidence was limited in three ways: First, most studies, being correlational, did not permit clear causal inferences. Second, we did not know the strength of the effect of different types of media and different types of risk-taking outcomes. Third, early research did little to isolate the underlying psychological processes that mediate the pernicious effects of risk glorifying media formats. In order to address these open questions we review the results of an experimental programme of research and the findings of a comprehensive meta-analysis. The main findings are that (a) the risky media contents do indeed have causal force; (b) according to our meta-analysis active participation in risk glorifying media interfaces has a larger effect than passive consumption; (c) psychological processes include the priming of risk-related constructs, effects of risk-positive situational heuristic cues, perceived social norms, personal risk habituation, and changes in the recipient's self-concept. To integrate these findings we propose a theoretical framework derived from broad-range socio-cognitive models. We conclude with a discussion of possible directions for future research.
Generating Contrastive Referring Expressions

The referring expressions (REs) produced by a natural language generation (NLG) system can be misunderstood by the hearer, even when they are semantically correct. In an interactive setting, the NLG system can try to recognize such misunderstandings and correct them. We present an algorithm for generating corrective REs that use contrastive focus (“no, the BLUE button”) to emphasize the information the hearer most likely misunderstood. We show empirically that these contrastive REs are preferred over REs without contrast marking.
Quantitative estimation of the lipid productivity of single algae cells in alginate hydrogel microbeads

This paper presents the first demonstration of the droplet-based microfluidics to fabricate an alginate hydrogel microbead with a diameter of ~30 μm that encapsulates single microalga from three species of green microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris, Chlamydomonas sp., and Botryococcus braunii) for application to the real-time screening of single cells. We performed the quantitative estimation of the lipid content of individual microalgal cells by non-destructive fluorescence staining using BODIPY. This feature leads to easy combination of a high-throughput screening system which could be applicable to the economically feasible production of microalgae for biofuels.
A fast 3D face reconstruction method from a single image using adjustable model

In this paper, we propose a fast and robust method which uses only a single frontal face image as input to reconstruct a plausible 3D face. Our method mainly consists of three stages: feature point detection, model adaptation in X-Y plane and model adjustment on Z-axis direction. At first stage, we detect some face regions such as face contour and facial components automatically. In these regions, we extract several feature points which can generally describe the structure of face. Subsequently, we apply several deformation processes and optimization procedures on an adjustable 3D face model in the X-Y plane based on these feature points. Finally, we present a method of insertion to obtain a dense and smooth model. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method as well as the robust adaptation to the complex imaging condition.
Identifying Chinese Hospitality Firm Failures and Differences from Results on Developed Countries: Significant Variables and Predictive Models

This research made an early investigation on firm failure prediction (FFP) in hospitality industry of China using support vector machine (SVM) and classical statistical models, and an early comparison on difference of identified significant variables in FFPs for developed and developing countries. The findings indicate that: (a) working capital turnover, equity turnover, ratio of owners' equity, equity to fixed-assets, interest coverage ratio, fixed-assets turnover, and total assets turnover are significant ratios in distinguishing failed hospitality firms from non-failed ones in China; (b) SVM is the most preferred model in FFP of Chinese hospitality firms from a integrated view of k-times in-sample assessment and k-times out-of-sample assessment on various variable sets; and (c) Both MDA and logit can produce the most accurate in-sample or out-of-sample performance with the optimal variable sets. This study also finds that two chief differences exist between hospitality FFPs in developed countries and developing countries, which refers to: the number of significant financial ratios and the type of significant financial ratios.