Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Twitter Archiving Using Twapper Keeper: Technical And Policy Challenges

Twitter is widely used in a range of different contexts, ranging from informal social communications and marketing purposes through to supporting various professional activities in teaching and learning and research. The growth in Twitter use has led to a recognition of the need to ensure that Twitter posts ('tweets') can be accessed and reused by a variety of third party applications. This paper describes development work to the Twapper Keeper Twitter archiving service to support use of Twitter in education and research. The reasons for funding developments to an existing commercial service are described and the approaches for addressing the sustainability of such developments are provided. The paper reviews the challenges this work has addressed including the technical challenges in processing large volumes of traffic and the policy issues related, in particular, to ownership and copyright. The paper concludes by describing the experiences gained in using the service to archive tweets posted during the WWW 2010 conference and summarising plans for further use of the service.
Pipelined minutiae extraction from fingerprint images

Fingerprint identification is an important biometric technique for personal identification. Most of the automatic systems of fingerprint recognition are based on matching of fingerprint minutiae. In this paper, we described a method that reduces the complexity of computations and extract the minutiae from binary image with appropriate speed. In this paper a new hardware scheme is presented which is based on pipelined architecture in order to real-time minutiae extraction. Simulations and implementation result shows the operation and accuracy of suggested method.
Fractional model based Kaiman filters for angular rate estimation in vestibular systems

The work presents the development and application of Bayesian recursive estimators such as Kaiman filters for fractional models. Both linear and nonlinear fractional models, describing the relationship between the applied angular rate and the measured neuron firing rate in a vestibular system are used as benchmark problems for testing the proposed filtering schemes. The performance of the estimators is assessed both with respect to the approximation parameters and the filtering methods.
Hepatitis B virus down-regulates expressions of MHC class I molecules on hepatoplastoma cell line.

Chronic HBV infection is associated with a 100-fold high risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. Tumor recognition is of the most importance during the immune surveillance process that prevents cancer development in humans. In the present study, the expressions of MHC class I molecules on hepatoplastoma cell line HepG2.2. 15 were investigated to indicate the possible effects of HBV on the immune recognition during HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma. It was found that the expressions of MHC class I molecules HLA-ABC, HLA-E and MICA were much lower in HepG2.2. 15 cells compared with HepG2 cells. The expressing HBV in human hepatoplastoma cell line significantly down-regulated the expressions of MHC class I molecules. Additionally, it was observed that in murine chronic HBsAg carriers the expression of classical MHC-I molecule on hepatocytes was down-regulated. These results demonstrated that HBV might affect the immune recognition during HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma such as the recognition of CD8+ T, NK-CTL and NK cells and prevent the immune surveillance against tumors. However, the effects of HBV down-regulation of MHC class I molecules on the target cells in vivo should be further studied.
Heat Waves and Health Outcomes in Alabama (USA): The Importance of Heat Wave Definition

Background: A deeper understanding of how heat wave definition affects the relationship between heat exposure and health, especially as a function of rurality, will be useful in developing effective heat wave warning systems. Objective: We compared the relationships between different heat wave index (HI) definitions and preterm birth (PTB) and nonaccidental death (NAD) across urban and rural areas. Methods: We used a time-stratified case-crossover design to estimate associations of PTB and NAD with heat wave days (defined using 15 HIs) relative to non–heat wave control days in Alabama, USA (1990–2010). ZIP code–level HIs were derived using data from the North American Land Data Assimilation System. Associations with heat wave days defined using different HIs were compared by bootstrapping. We also examined interactions with rurality. Results: Associations varied depending on the HI used to define heat wave days. Heat waves defined as having at least 2 consecutive days with mean daily temperatures above the 98th percentile were associated with 32.4% (95% CI: 3.7, 69.1%) higher PTB, and heat waves defined as at least 2 consecutive days with mean daily temperatures above the 90th percentile were associated with 3.7% (95% CI: 1.1, 6.3%) higher NAD. Results suggest that significant positive associations were more common when relative—compared with absolute—HIs were used to define exposure. Both positive and negative associations were found in each rurality stratum. However, all stratum-specific significant associations were positive, and NAD associations with heat waves were consistently positive in urban strata but not in middle or rural strata. Conclusions: Based on our findings, we conclude that a relative mean-temperature-only heat wave definition may be the most effective metric for heat wave warning systems in Alabama. Citation: Kent ST, McClure LA, Zaitchik BF, Smith TT, Gohlke JM. 2014. Heat waves and health outcomes in Alabama (USA): the importance of heat wave definition. Environ Health Perspect 122:151–158; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1307262
Rendements boursiers et inflation : les pays en émergence

L’evidence americaine (Fama et Schwert, 1977) et celle d’autres pays industrialises (Solnik, 1983) identifie une pietre performance des marches boursiers en periode d’inflation. Dans ces etudes, les rendements boursiers sont negativement correles avec l’inflation anticipee et non anticipee. Cet article evalue si la meme relation existe dans certains pays en emergence. La presence d’un lien entre l’inflation (anticipee et non anticipee) et les rendements boursiers est testee en corrigeant pour l’heteroscedasticite et en tenant compte d’evenements importants affectant le prix des titres boursiers. L’evidence empirique indique que le regime fiscal d’un pays est important pour l’obtention d’une relation positive entre l’inflation et les rendements boursiers.
A Secure, Intelligent Electric Vehicle Ecosystem for Safe Integration With the Smart Grid

Availability of the charging infrastructure is critical for a smooth rollout of wide-scale electric vehicle (EV) adoption. Safe integration of the charging infrastructure with the power grid heavily relies on an intelligent platform to support demand-side management and a secure information and communication system to coordinate events. However, security has been identified as an area falling short of the desired expectation in the smart grid, possibly introducing considerable risk to the reliability and stability of the power grid. In addition, a concrete demand-side management system that is compatible with state-of-the-art EVs is also lacking. This paper fills the gap by proposing a scalable defence-in-depth cybersecurity architecture for the charging infrastructure and a demand response scheme for smart EV charging. The feasibility of the system is demonstrated by implementation and testing on a real vehicle.
Arcade+: A Platform for Public Deployment and Evaluation of Multi-Modal Games

We describe the design and implementation of Arcade+, a custom-built arcade machine augmented with modern input devices to deploy and evaluate novel multi-modal interaction techniques for gaming. Arcade+ has gaze, feet, mid-air gestures, and multi touch sensing capabilities, as well as traditional arcade controls. Our modular design also allows for extending current capabilities or replacing them with others. To demonstrate the system's capabilities, we describe and discuss three games that explore how multi-modal input can inspire new play concepts and mechanics.
Congestion Control Technique Using Intelligent Traffic and Vanet

Road traffic jams is a most important problem in nearly all cities around the world, especially in developing regions resulting in enormous delays, increased fuel wastage and monetary losses. In this paper, we have obtained an in-sight idea of simulating real world scenario of a critical region where traffic congestion is very high. As it is not easy to set up and implement such a complicated system in real world before knowing the impact of all parameters used in Vehicle Ad hoc Network (VANET), a small real world area i.e. Jamshedpur Regal area was taken into consideration, for studying the impact of mobility in the VANET. Traffic movement has been deployed across the area under consideration using one of the realistic vehicular mobility models. The behavior of this network was simulated using SUMO and NS2 to study the impact of traffic and traffic lights at the intersection on packet transmission over Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication using Ad hoc On Demand Vector (AODV) routing protocol and IEEE 802.11 standard. From the traffic simulation results, it is proved that congestion problem for the given sample map with traffic lights and predefined flow can be solved. There was negligible congestion at lanes when traffic logic was changed in accordance with allowing flow with high traffic overload to have high priority than those with low load.
Structural and Photometric Classification of Galaxies. I. Calibration Based on a Nearby Galaxy Sample

In this paper we define an observationally robust, multiparameter space for the classification of nearby and distant galaxies. The parameters include luminosity, color, and the image-structure parameters: size, image concentration, asymmetry, and surface brightness. Based on an initial calibration of this parameter space using the "normal" Hubble types surveyed in 1996 by Frei et al., we find that only a subset of the parameters provide useful classification boundaries for this sample. Interestingly, this subset does not include distance-dependent scale parameters such as size or luminosity. The essential ingredient is the combination of a spectral index (e.g., color) with parameters of image structure and scale: concentration, asymmetry, and surface brightness. We refer to the image structure parameters (concentration and asymmetry) as indices of "form. " We define a preliminary classification based on spectral index, form, and surface brightness (a scale) that successfully separates normal galaxies into three classes. We intentionally identify these classes with the familiar labels of early, intermediate, and late. This classification, or others based on the above four parameters, can be used reliably to define comparable samples over a broad range in redshift. The size and luminosity distribution of such samples will not be biased by this selection process except through astrophysical correlations between spectral index, form, and surface brightness.
Induction of Hepatic Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 3 by Ethynylestradiol Is Independent of Cholestasis and Mediated by Estrogen Receptor

Multidrug resistance–associated protein 3 (Mrp3; Abcc3) expression and activity are up-regulated in rat liver after in vivo repeated administration of ethynylestradiol (EE), a cholestatic synthetic estrogen, whereas multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (Mrp2) is down-regulated. This study was undertaken to determine whether Mrp3 induction results from a direct effect of EE, independent of accumulation of any endogenous common Mrp2/Mrp3 substrates resulting from cholestasis and the potential mediation of estrogen receptor (ER). In in vivo studies, male rats were given a single, noncholestatic dose of EE (5 mg/kg s.c.), and basal bile flow and the biliary excretion rate of bile salts and glutathione were measured 5 hours later. This treatment increased Mrp3 mRNA by 4-fold, detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction, despite the absence of cholestasis. Primary culture of rat hepatocytes incubated with EE (1–10 µM) for 5 hours exhibited a 3-fold increase in Mrp3 mRNA (10 µM), consistent with in vivo findings. The increase in Mrp3 mRNA by EE was prevented by actinomycin D, indicating transcriptional regulation. When hepatocytes were incubated with an ER antagonist [7α,17β-[9-[(4,4,5,5,5-Pentafluoropentyl)sulfinyl]nonyl]estra-1,3,5(10)-triene-3,17-diol (ICI182/780), 1 µM], in addition to EE, induction of Mrp3 mRNA was abolished, implicating ER as a key mediator. EE induced an increase in ER-α phosphorylation at 30 minutes and expression of c-Jun, a well-known ER target gene, at 60 minutes, as detected by Western blotting of nuclear extracts. These increases were prevented by ICI182/780. In summary, EE increased the expression of hepatic Mrp3 transcriptionally and independently of any cholestatic manifestation and required participation of an ER, most likely ER-α, through its phosphorylation.
NegCut: Automatic Image Segmentation based on MRF-MAP

Solving the Maximum a Posteriori on Markov Random Field, MRF-MAP, is a prevailing method in recent interactive image segmentation tools. Although mathematically explicit in its computational targets, and impressive for the segmentation quality, MRF-MAP is hard to accomplish without the interactive information from users. So it is rarely adopted in the automatic style up to today. In this paper, we present an automatic image segmentation algorithm, NegCut, based on the approximation to MRF-MAP. First we prove MRF-MAP is NP-hard when the probabilistic models are unknown, and then present an approximation function in the form of minimum cuts on graphs with negative weights. Finally, the binary segmentation is taken from the largest eigenvector of the target matrix, with a tuned version of the Lanczos eigensolver. It is shown competitive at the segmentation quality in our experiments.
Can family history be used as a tool for public health and preventive medicine?

Most common chronic diseases are the result of complex interactions between multiple genetic variants and environmental factors. Despite significant advances in the last decade in the understanding of our genome, there are substantial limitations in epidemiological and analytic approaches to studying the effects of genetic determinants of common chronic diseases. Knowledge of genetic variation underlying disease susceptibility should improve our ability to diagnose, manage, and prevent these disorders. To date, however, DNA-based testing is limited for the most part to analysis of highly penetrant single gene disorders that account for approximately 5% of the total disease burden in the population.1, 2 It may be years before DNAbased tests are routinely applied to predict the onset of common diseases, their natural history, and response to therapy.
SANDHILL CRANES OF COASTAL BRITISH COLUMBIA: RESULTS OF HELICOPTERSURVEYS AND PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS OF HABITAT USE

A pilot study on sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) was conducted on the central coast of British Columbia in May 2006, followed by 2 summers of inventory and observation in 2007 and 2008. Fieldwork consisted of gathering local knowledge of crane locales, helicopter and boat surveys, and observations from blinds. We located 29 nest sites on 14 different islands and 1 mainland peninsula, as well as several beach foraging areas and bog roost sites. Observed average crane and nest density in areas of suitable habitat was 0.21/km and 0.044/km, respectively, for 2007 and 2008. Nest and roost sites were found within 1.25 km of the shoreline, on the inner and outer islands between 51°38' N and 54°00' N where blanket mire complex occurs. Territory of breeding pairs we observed in the Bella Bella area consisted of beach or estuary, forest and upland bog, and nearby marshes and lakes. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CRANE WORKSHOP 11:1-8
Networking logistic neurons can yield chaotic and pattern recognition properties

Over the last few years, the field of Chaotic Neural Networks (CNNs) has been extensively studied because of their potential applications in the understanding/recognition of patterns and images, their associative memory properties, their relationship to complex dynamic system control, and their capabilities in the modeling and analysis of other measurement systems. However, the results concerning CNNs which can demonstrate chaos, quasi-chaos, Associative Memory (AM), and Pattern Recognition (PR) are scanty. In this paper, we consider the consequences of networking a set of Logistic Neurons (LNs). By appropriately defining the input/output characteristics of a fully connected network of LNs, and by defining their set of weights and output functions, we have succeeded in designing a Logistic Neural Network (LNN) possessing some of these properties. The chaotic properties of a single-neuron have been formally proven, and those of the entire network have also been alluded to. Indeed, by appropriately setting the parameters of the LNN, we show that the LNN can yield AM, chaotic and PR properties for different settings. As far as we know, the results presented here are novel, and the chaotic PR properties of such a network are unreported.
High incidence of hospitalisation due to infectious gastroenteritis in older people associated with poor self-rated health

Objectives To estimate the incidence and risk factors for gastroenteritis-related hospitalisations in older adults. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Participants The 45 and Up Study is a large-scale Australian prospective study of adults aged ≥45 years (mean 62.7 years) at recruitment in 2006–2009. Self-reported demographic, health and dietary information at recruitment from 265 440 participants were linked to infectious gastroenteritis hospitalisation data. Outcome measures We estimated the incidence of hospitalisation for infectious gastroenteritis, and calculated HRs using Cox regression, adjusting for sociodemographic, health and behavioural variables, with age as the underlying time variable. Results There were 6077 incident infectious gastroenteritis admissions over 1 111 000 person-years. Incidence increased exponentially with increasing age; from 2.4 per 1000 (95% CI 2.2 to 2.5) in individuals aged 45–54 years to 9.5 per 1000 (95% CI 9.2 to 9.8) in those aged 65+ years. After adjustment, hospitalisation due to infectious gastroenteritis was significantly more common in those reporting use of proton pump inhibitors (HR 1.6, 95% CI 1.5 to 1.7), and those with poorer self-rated health (HR 4.2, 95% CI 3.6 to 4.9). Conclusions Infectious gastroenteritis results in hospitalisation of approximately 1% of people ≥65 years old each year. Early recognition and supportive treatment of diarrhoea in older patients with poorer self-rated health may prevent subsequent hospitalisation.
A unified model for design and VLSI implementation of robotic perceptive controller

In this paper, a formal hybrid model is used for both the controller design and hardware description. The model can describe the control functions and the high level behavior of the robotic system. The high level structural description of the controller model guarantees the synthesizability of the control system. A hybrid simulation system is proposed to test the hybrid controller design and implementation. The hybrid simulation results have verified that the hybrid system model can be used for VLSI implementation, and the integrated system is synthesizable
Beyond Compliance: Sustainable Development, Business, and Proactive Law

Scholarly work shows that the existing legal framework for sustainable development is insufficient, cautious, incremental, and incomplete. Despite public and private efforts to address sustainable development, environmental and social problems and conditions continue to worsen. This Article posits that the status quo is a direct result of the systemic failure to recognize the potential for a synergistic relationship between the private and public sectors to create a comprehensive, yet effective, regulatory framework. Based on an analysis of the current national and international legal framework and alternative regulatory approaches in the “New Governance” literature, this Article aims to engage law, science and sustainable business to determine the best way to develop a governance regime for sustainable development based on “Proactive Law”.
Knowledge-based Systens Development Tools Evaluation: Educational Point of View

Languages, tools and environments play a signiicant role in a knowledge-based system development life cycle. This paper presents an approach to training knowledge engineers together with evaluation of languages used for knowledge-based system development from the educational point of view. An experiment aimed to this evaluation is described. We claim that general programming languages can also be used in training. We provide experimental evaluation of their varying degree of suitability with respect to diierences of languages.
Lymphocytes degranulation in liver in hepatitis C virus carriers is associated with IFNL4 polymorphisms and ALT levels.

BACKGROUND The polymorphisms of IFNL4 are strongly associated with both spontaneous hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance and response to peg-IFN-α/ribavirin treatment. To further establish the biological effects of the IFNL4 and rs1297860 variations, we studied the activity of liver immune cells. METHODS Fresh liver samples were collected from HCV-infected patients before any treatment and from NASH patients as controls. Degranulation activity of each lymphocyte type was assessed by the surface expression of CD107a. IFNL4 polymorphisms and HCV genotypes were determined. RESULTS In the liver, frequency of CD107a(+) immune cells was significantly higher in HCV patients compared to NASH patients. Higher degranulation activity was observed in lymphocytes of HCV patients with favorable IFNL4 genotypes compared to patients with unfavorable genotypes. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that serum ALT levels were dependent on both Metavir activity score and frequency of CD107a positive NKT cells. The high level of degranulation activity observed before treatment was associated with a high HCV RNA decline at the early stage of peg-IFN-α/ribavirin treatment in patients with favorable genotypes. CONCLUSIONS These data underline that intrahepatic lymphocyte degranulation activity in HCV-infected patients is associated with IFNL4 polymorphisms and contributes to the clearance of HCV in patients with favorable genotypes under antiviral therapy.
QR Code detection using parallel lines

Several basic techniques are known for QR Code detection in digital images. This paper presents an approach that utilizes a special line parameterization, along with a variant of the Hough-transform, called PClines. The premised parameterization uses a parallel coordinate system, which allows faster accumulation than the slope-intercept method used by the basic Hough-transform, due to simpler computation. The presented technique can be easily adapted to any kind of matrix code. Mathematical and algorithmic foundations of this approach are presented, along with an implementation on Microsoft's . NET framework. Test results are also presented, emphasizing the effect of different parameters on the overall detection rate. These results are then compared to other implementations using the same PClines technique.