Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Educational Program-Based Protection Motivation Theory on Preventive Behaviors of Skin Cancer Among Farmers in Kashan

Background: Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers and excessive Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the most important en-vironmental risk factor for this cancer. Protective behaviors against sunlight are the most important measures in preventing the disease. Objectives: Thepresentstudyaimedtodeterminetheeﬀectof educationalprogrambasedontheprotectionmotivationtheoryon preventive behaviors of skin cancer among the farmers in Kashan city. Methods: This interventional study was conducted on 120 rural farmers in Kashan in 2018. The participants were selected via sim-ple random sampling and divided into 2 groups such as intervention (n = 60) and control (n = 60). Both of 2 groups completed a questionnaire,whichwasconsistedof itemsdevelopedbasedontheprotectionmotivationtheory,inbeforeand2monthsafterthe intervention. Participantsintheinterventiongroupweretrainedthroughlectures,questionsandanswers,posters,pamphlets,and booklets. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 20 using independent t -test, chi-square test, and covariance analysis. Results: There was no signiﬁcant diﬀerence between the intervention and control groups in terms of the mean scores of all the variables (P > 0.05) before the training intervention and after implementing the educational program, a signiﬁcant diﬀerence was observed in all the constructs of the protection motivation theory in the intervention group, as compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study conﬁrmed the eﬀectiveness of intervention based on the protection motivation theory in changing perceptions and behaviors related to skin cancer prevention; thus, this theory can be considered as a basis for the educational program.
Attachment security and parenting quality predict children's problem-solving, attributions, and loneliness with peers

The influence of early relational experience on later social understanding has evoked rich theoretical discussion but relatively little empirical inquiry. Enlisting data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, measures of the security of attachment in infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, together with measures of parenting quality (maternal sensitivity and depressive symptoms) gathered longitudinally throughout infancy and early childhood, were used to predict differences in children's thoughts and feelings about peers (i.e., social problem solving, negative attributional biases, aggressive solutions to ambiguous social situations, and self-reported loneliness) when children were 54 months and in first grade. Relational experiences, especially before 36 months, were significantly predictive of later peer-related representations. Attachment security at 24 and 36 months was associated with enhanced social problem-solving skills and less loneliness, but security of attachment at 15 months was nonpredictive. Early maternal sensitivity was positively associated with later social problem-solving and negatively with aggressive responses, and early maternal depressive symptoms were positively associated with children's negative attributions. Concurrent parenting quality was also associated with children's thoughts and feelings about peers, but less consistently. These findings shed new light on how early relational experiences may contribute to social information processing with peers at the end of the preschool years, and that the timing of relational influences may be crucial.
Analysis of the dc-link stability for the stacked polyphase bridges converter

This paper presents an analysis of the capacitor voltage stability for a stacked polyphase bridges (SPB) type converter. The SPB converter comprises of several submodules which are connected in series. Therefore, stability of the dc-link voltage is very important to investigate. From the analysis, a corresponding controller and an analytical expression for stability are derived. The proposed controller and the associated stability condition are verified in a simulation environment and on a small experimental setup.
A Utility-Based Recommendation Approach for E-Commerce Websites Based on Bayesian Networks

Although utility-based recommendation in E-Commerce can provide much better recommendation accuracy, there are still no effective approaches to build the utility function of each user. In order to overcome this problem, an approach based on Bayesian networks is proposed. Firstly, based on the common user utility function of a specific commodity which has already been constructed by domain experts, a prior Bayesian network can be established. Secondly, the prior Bayesian network is modified based on the current user’s implicit feedback, so that his utility function can be represented by means of Bayesian networks. Finally, according to his utility function, objects the current user may like are recommended to him. Compared with other approaches, this approach may acquire utility functions more approximately and automatically. Furthermore, it could extend the range of applications for which utility-based recommendation would be more useful.
Warranty pricing with product failures and forward looking consumers: an empirical approach

This paper considers warranty pricing for durable goods, taking possible product failures into account. Consumers are forward looking and solve a dynamic program to make purchase decisions. Due to the large number of products and remaining warranty lengths, the consumers’ problem and the corresponding estimation problem are high dimensional. Therefore, we introduce the so-called inclusive value processes to capture the consumers’ “value-to-go”, which reduces the dimension of the estimation problem. We estimate consumers’ preferences using the resulting structural model and individual level transaction data on product and warranty purchases from an electronics retail chain. By conducting counterfactual experiments, we find that extended warranties are generally underpriced in our data set; and the optimal price differs by brand. Specifically, extended warranties are overpriced for high-end brand Sony and underpriced for low-end brand RCA. Lastly, we explore the impact of product reliability on the retailer’s profit.
Identifying functional thermodynamics in autonomous Maxwellian ratchets

We introduce a family of Maxwellian Demons for which correlations among information bearing degrees of freedom can be calculated exactly and in compact analytical form. This allows one to precisely determine Demon functional thermodynamic operating regimes, when previous methods either misclassify or simply fail due to approximations they invoke. This reveals that these Demons are more functional than previous candidates. They too behave either as engines, lifting a mass against gravity by extracting energy from a single heat reservoir, or as Landauer erasers, consuming external work to remove information from a sequence of binary symbols by decreasing their individual uncertainty. Going beyond these, our Demon exhibits a new functionality that erases bits not by simply decreasing individual-symbol uncertainty, but by increasing inter-bit correlations (that is, by adding temporal order) while increasing single-symbol uncertainty. In all cases, but especially in the new erasure regime, exactly accounting for informational correlations leads to tight bounds on Demon performance, expressed as a refined Second Law of thermodynamics that relies on the Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy for dynamical processes and not on changes purely in system configurational entropy, as previously employed. We rigorously derive the refined Second Law under minimal assumptions and so it applies quite broadly—for Demons with and without memory and input sequences that are correlated or not. We note that general Maxwellian Demons readily violate previously proposed, alternative such bounds, while the current bound still holds. As such, it broadly describes the minimal energetic cost of any computation by a thermodynamic system.
Anticancer Properties and Mechanisms of Fucoidan on Mouse Breast Cancer In Vitro and In Vivo

Background Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide derived from brown algae that has been reported to perform multiple biological activities, including antitumor activity. In this study, we examined the influence of crude fucoidan on mouse breast cancer in vitro and in vivo. Materials and Methods In vitro, fluorescent staining, flow cytometry and Western blot were performed to analyze apoptosis and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression of mouse breast cancer 4T1 cells. In vivo, therapy experiments were conducted on Babl/c mice bearing breast cancer. The tumor volume and weight were measured. The number of apoptotic cells and microvascular density (MVD) in tumor tissues were assessed by TUNEL and CD34 immunostaining. Immunohistochemical assays and ELISA assay were used to detect the expression of VEGF in tissues. Results In vitro studies showed that crude fucoidan significantly decreased the viable number of 4T1 cells, induced apoptosis and down-regulated the expression of VEGF. The expression of Bcl-2 was decreased, and the ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax was significantly decreased. The expression of Survivin and phosphorylated extracellular signal regulated protein kinases (ERKs) was decreased. Cytochrome C was released from mitochondria into cytosol, and the cleaved Caspase-3 protein rose after fucoidan treatment. Intraperitoneal injection of fucoidan in breast cancer models reduced the tumor volume and weight. The enhanced antitumor efficacy was associated with decreased angiogenesis and increased induction of apoptosis. Conclusion These findings indicated that crude fucoidan inhibited mouse breast cancer growth in vitro and in vivo. These data suggest that fucoidan may serve as a potential therapeutic agent for breast cancer.
The Development of a Dashboard Tool for Visualising Online Teamwork Discussions

Many software development organisations today adopt global software engineering (GSE) and agile models, requiring software engineers to collaborate and develop software in flexible, distributed, online teams. However, many employers have expressed concern that graduates lack teamwork skills and one of the most commonly occurring problems with GSE models are issues with project management. Team managers and educators often oversee a number of teams and the large corpus of data, in combination with agile models, make it difficult to efficiently assess factors such as team role distribution and emotional climate. Current methods and tools for monitoring software engineering (SE) teamwork in both industry and education settings typically focus on member contributions, reflection, or product outcomes, which are limited in terms of real-time feedback and accurate behavioural analysis. We have created a dashboard that extracts and communicates team role distribution and team emotion information in real-time. Our proof of concept provides a real-time analysis of teamwork discussions and visualises team member emotions, the roles they have adopted and overall team sentiment during the course of a collaborative problem-solving project. We demonstrate and discuss how such a tool could be useful for SE team management and training and the development of teamwork skills in SE university courses.
Object representation in the human auditory system

One important principle of object processing is exclusive allocation. Any part of the sensory input, including the border between two objects, can only belong to one object at a time. We tested whether tones forming a spectro‐temporal border between two sound patterns can belong to both patterns at the same time. Sequences were composed of low‐, intermediate‐ and high‐pitched tones. Tones were delivered with short onset‐to‐onset intervals causing the high and low tones to automatically form separate low and high sound streams. The intermediate‐pitch tones could be perceived as part of either one or the other stream, but not both streams at the same time. Thus these tones formed a pitch ’border’ between the two streams. The tones were presented in a fixed, cyclically repeating order. Linking the intermediate‐pitch tones with the high or the low tones resulted in the perception of two different repeating tonal patterns. Participants were instructed to maintain perception of one of the two tone patterns throughout the stimulus sequences. Occasional changes violated either the selected or the alternative tone pattern, but not both at the same time. We found that only violations of the selected pattern elicited the mismatch negativity event‐related potential, indicating that only this pattern was represented in the auditory system. This result suggests that individual sounds are processed as part of only one auditory pattern at a time. Thus tones forming a spectro‐temporal border are exclusively assigned to one sound object at any given time, as are spatio‐temporal borders in vision.
STEREO-VISION SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

Since one of the main requirements for PRASSI Project is the robust detection of obstacles on the path of a moving robot, a deep analysis of the performance of Obstacle Detection is imperative. This paper presents a critical analysis of the obstacle detection functionality developed by the research unit of the University of Parma, whose main characteristics are its low cost and the use of visual information only. This paper surveys the sets of results obtained so far, highlights its characteristics, and discusses the main advantages and problems of such a solution.
A mechanism to defend SYN flooding attack based on network measurement system

SYN flooding attack is a common method employed in denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS). It's hard to maintain the effective defense merely by passive defense measures such as monitoring and filtering. To avoid influencing the legitimate service requests and stop attacks at the source, the attack-detection and service-protection must be combined with the trace of the attack source. Having studied and concluded the features of such attacks, we propose a few key metrics to judge if an attack is undergoing. In this paper, the based platform, network measurement system (NMS) is outlined first. Then the detection method is discussed in detail, focusing on the features of service-protection, attack-elimination, and how to trace back the attack source. Finally, we present the experiments of the defending mechanism and analyze their results.
African American Culture and Heritage in Higher Education Research and Practice

Leading African American scholars examine the often neglected cultural context in research and policy development in African American higher education in this collection of essays. Past research has most often been conducted by individuals unfamiliar with the historical and cultural considerations of specific ethnic groups. Therefore, the outcomes of research and the development of programs have been based on deficit models, that is, what is wrong with African Americans, or what they cannot achieve. The book examines the questions; what is the relationship between African Americans' culture and experiences, and how should their culture be integrated into research and practice? How do African Americans' intra- and interrelations differ in higher education? How does understanding African American culture as it relates to higher education research enhance policy-making and practice? What role do HBUCs play in African Americans' participation in higher education? What are the policy and practice implications of past and current research? Scholars and practitioners of education, culture, and race relations will find this collection informative and interesting.
Repression of major histocompatibility complex I-A beta gene expression by dbpA and dbpB (mYB-1) proteins

The induction of major histocompatibility complex class II gene expression is mediated by three DNA elements in the promoters of these genes (W, X, and Y boxes). The Y box contains an inverted CCAAT box sequence, and the binding activity to the CAAT box is mediated by factor NF-Y, which is composed of subunits NF-YA and NF-YB. We have found that transfection of either dbpA or dbpB (mYB-1) or both inhibits I-A beta gene expression. Although the genes for some members of the Y-box family of binding proteins have been isolated by screening an expression library using the Y-box sequence, under our conditions no binding of dbpA or dbpB to the Y box of the I-A beta or I-E alpha promoter was detected. This suggested that repression of I-A beta gene expression by dbpA and dbpB was not due to competition for binding to the Y-box sequence. The results suggest two other mechanisms by which dbpA and dbpB can inhibit transcription from the I-A beta promoter. When dbpA was added, the binding of NF-YA to DNA increased, which could be explained by interaction between these two proteins whose purpose is to increase the binding affinity of NF-YA for DNA. However, this complex was unable to stimulate transcription from the I-A beta promoter. Thus, dbpA competed for the interaction between NF-YA and NF-YB by binding to NF-YA. When dbpB factor was added together with NF-YA and NF-YB, the binding of the NF-YA--NF-YB complex was reduced. This suggested that dbpB may complete with NF-YB for interaction with NF-YA. These results provide an example of how dbpA and dbpB may regulate transcription of promoters that utilize NF-Y as a transcription factor.
Parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions for time varying polytopic systems

This paper provides global asymptotic stability conditions for continuous-time varying polytopic systems, using a parameter dependent Lyapunov function. The time varying parameter uncertainty as well as its time derivative are modelled as belonging to polytopic convex sets and their dependence is made explicit to get less conservative results. A particular case, characterized by the parameter uncertainty satisfying a linear differential equation is analyzed and a simpler version of the aforementioned stability conditions is presented. The results are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities being thus numerically solvable with no big difficulty. The theory is illustrated by the determination of the asymptotic stability region of a Mathieu's type equation with an uncertain time varying parameter.
Automatic multimedia session migration by means of a context-aware mobility framework

The availability of a large number of personal, wireless multimedia devices enables the users to benefit multimedia content while moving. A further enhancement is given by the availability of context information (in terms of users' location, environment, etc.) that enables the adaptation of the multimedia content to the context and to the availability of alternative renderers. In this paper, we propose a context-aware mobility framework that supports context-dependent, multimedia interactive applications. This framework manages mobility of multimedia sessions by introducing the concept of Personal Address, that is a network identifier assigned to users and their sessions. The mobility framework also leverages on the concept of context server to interact with heterogeneous context sources on a wide area network. We describe the implementation of this framework for Voice-over-IP sessions and we report the performance results.
Artificial Intelligence techniques used in First-Person Shooter and Real-Time Strategy games

This paper discusses artificial intelligence as used in specific real-time strategy (RTS) and first-person shooter (FPS) game titles. Most of the time the artificial intelligence in games is scripted and pre-defined, making it predictable and less replayable. Common techniques that are used include (hierarchical) finite state machines, scripts describing a list of sequential actions, A* search algorithms or rule-based expert systems. But there also are new developments aimed at improving the adaptation of the computer player to their human opponent and decreasing predictability.
A study on the quality of study skills of newly-admitted students of Fasa University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Some students attribute their academic failure to such factors as low aptitude, unavailability of resources, and bad luck. However, we can dare to say that the most important factor playing a role in academic success is students' little acquaintance with learning and study skills. This study aimed at examining the quality of study skills in newly-admitted students of Fasa Medical University so that the results can be used in holding teaching courses in study skills. Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The sampling was done of all the newly-admitted students in the first semester of 2012 academic year including 94 students of Medicine, Nursing and Laboratory Technology. The data were collected through a questionnaire, consisting of two parts. The first part included items on demographic information of the subjects (such as sex, field of study, number of hours dedicated to studying, student's rank in Konkour, and the National University entrance exam. The second part was composed of 19 special items on such domains as 'Time management', 'Concentration', 'Class note-taking', 'Studying' and 'Taking exams' with 4, 5, 4, 3, 3 items, respectively. The checklists were filled in using Likert Scale. The collected data was then analyzed using an SPSS 14, through which descriptive statistics as mean, standard deviation and multiple regressions were obtained. Moreover, the data were analyzed using Independent Sample t and ANOVA tests. Results: The results showed that the range of the students' study skills was 2.35, being rather below the normal level; the highest mean belonged to 'concentration' (2.56), but the lowest mean was that of 'time management' (2.05). Through ANOVA test, it was also shown that there was no significant difference between the students of Medicine, Nursing and Laboratory Sciences regarding their scores on ‘study skills’ as (p=0.646). In addition, through independent sample t-test, it was shown that there was no significant difference between the subjects’ ‘sex’ and ‘study skills’ as the p-value was 0.584. On the other hand, through multiple regressions, the results indicated that there was a significant difference between 'taking exams’ and ‘studying’ (p=0.003), between ‘class note-taking’ and ‘'taking exams’ (p=0.004), between ‘concentration' and ‘'taking exams’ (p=0.002), and between ‘time management’ and 'taking exams’ (p=0.001). Conclusion: Regarding the very important role of study skills in learning, it is recommended that 'study skills' and 'study habits' courses be included in the students' curriculum formally or implemented as workshops for students.
Coevolution of Cooperation, Response to Adverse Social Ties and Network Structure

Human social networks reshape continuously, as individuals forge new contacts while abandoning existing ones. Simultaneously, individuals adapt their behavior, leading to an intricate interplay been network evolution and behavior evolution. Here, we review a framework, called Active Linking, which allows an analytical treatment of such a co-evolutionary dynamics. Using this framework we showed that an increase in the number of ways of responding to adverse interactions leads an overall increase of cooperation, which is here extended to all two-player social dilemmas. In addition, we discuss the role of the selection pressure in these results.