Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring Perceptions of Colorectal Cancer and Fecal Immunochemical Testing Among African Americans in a North Carolina Community

Introduction African Americans have a lower colorectal cancer screening rate than whites and higher disease incidence and mortality. Despite wide acceptance of colonoscopy for accurate screening, increasing promotion of high-sensitivity stool test screening, such as the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), may narrow racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in screening. This study provides formative research data to develop an intervention to increase colorectal cancer screening among underinsured and uninsured African Americans in central North Carolina. Methods We held 4 focus groups to explore knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes about colorectal cancer screening, particularly FIT. Participants (n = 28) were African American adults recruited from neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and unemployment. Constructs from the diffusion of innovation theory were used to develop the discussion guide. Results In all groups, participants noted that lack of knowledge about colorectal cancer contributes to low screening use. Attitudes about FIT sorted into 4 categories of "innovation characteristics": relative advantage of FIT compared with no screening and with other screening tests; compatibility with personal beliefs and values; test complexity; and test trialability. A perceived barrier to FIT and other stool tests was risk of incurring costs for diagnostic follow-up. Conclusion Community-based FIT screening interventions should include provider recommendation, patient education to correctly perform FIT, modified FIT design to address negative attitudes about stool tests, and assurance of affordable follow-up for positive FIT results.
Deterministic propagation modeling for joint radar and communication systems

In this paper investigations on the performances of joint radar and communication systems in realistic traffic scenarios are presented. This is achieved by combining dedicated MatLab models for transmitter and receiver with a deterministic propagation simulator based on ray-tracing. Two different approaches towards a joint implementation of radar and communications with one common transmit signal are regarded. In the simulations in particular the direction of arrival estimation with the reflected signal has been investigated for different waveforms and beam-forming algorithms.
Wavelet Based Image Compression and Transmission Over Error-Prone Channels

This paper provides an in depth discussion and analysis into the wavelet transform as well as two important wavelet-based coding schemes, the Embedded Zerotree Wavelet (EZW) coding scheme and the Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) coding scheme. The two algorithms are outlined and their performances are evaluated and compared with current compression standards like JPEG. Investigation into the resilience of these two wavelet coding schemes with regards to image transmission over error prone channels is also attained. An error coding scheme involving arithmetic coding with forbidden symbol and maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoding is proposed in order to improve the error resilience of the EZW and SPIHT schemes.
The Positive and Negative Consequences of Multiple-choice Testing

Multiple-choice tests are commonly used in educational settings but with unknown effects on students' knowledge. The authors examined the consequences of taking a multiple-choice test on a later general knowledge test in which students were warned not to guess. A large positive testing effect was obtained: Prior testing of facts aided final cued-recall performance. However, prior testing also had negative consequences. Prior reading of a greater number of multiple-choice lures decreased the positive testing effect and increased production of multiple-choice lures as incorrect answers on the final test. Multiple-choice testing may inadvertently lead to the creation of false knowledge. Multiple-choice testing is pervasive in university education. Many large introductory courses in natural and social sciences rely on multiple-choice tests (and to a lesser extent, true–false testing) as the primary means of student assessment. Furthermore, because good multiple-choice tests are so difficult to construct, the same questions are often used across semesters. The result is that the test bank needs to be protected, meaning that many professors neither review the test in class nor return the tests to students. Rather, professors let students review the tests in their offices, although in reality few students do so. Thus, in many classes, students take multiple-choice tests and receive no feedback except for their overall score; many students never review their wrong answers and correct their misconceptions. The experiment we report examines the effects that this practice may have on students' knowledge as displayed on later tests (such as a cumulative final exam) and the knowledge that students may carry away from the course. There are many advantages to multiple-choice testing. Although difficult to create, they are easy to score and therefore are the evaluation method of choice in large classes. The added benefit is that taking a test generally improves students' performance on a later test; this is referred to as the testing effect However, there can be negative consequences of relying exclusively on multiple-choice tests. Students expecting a multiple-choice test (relative to an essay test) spend less time studying for the test (Kulhavey, Dyer, & Silver, 1975), and they take notes on different material than do students expecting an essay exam (Rick-ards & Friedman, 1978). Work in other traditions within cognitive psychology suggests that there may be negative effects of testing. For example, a multiple-choice test is structurally similar to the misinformation paradigm begun by Loftus and Palmer (1974), a naturalistic variation …
Enabling Context-awareness by Predicate Detection in Asynchronous Pervasive Computing Environments

Pervasive applications are involving more and more autonomous computing and communicating devices, augmented with the abilities of sensing and controlling the logical / physical environment. To enable context-awareness for such applications, we are challenged by the intrinsic asynchrony among the context collecting devices. To this end, we introduce the predicate detection theory and propose the Predicate-Detection-based Context-Awareness (PD-CA) framework, in which: a) logical time is used to explicitly cope with the asynchrony; b) specification of predicates enables the applications to express contextual properties of their concerns; c) online and incremental predicate detection algorithms effectively enable context-awareness at runtime. Under the guidance of the PD-CA framework, we present the design and implementation of the MIPA middleware, which shields the applications from the burden of processing the asynchronous contexts. We also demonstrate how PD-CA simplifies the development of context-aware applications. Experimental evaluations show the performance of MIPA in supporting context-aware applications despite of the asynchrony.
Relationships between biological soil crusts, bacterial diversity and abundance, and ecosystem functioning: Insights from a semi‐arid Mediterranean environment

Questions: To what degree do biological soil crusts (BSCs), which are regulators of the soil surface boundary, influence associated microbial communities? Are these associations important to ecosystem functioning in a Mediterranean semi-arid environment? Location: Gypsum outcrops near Belmonte del Tajo, Central Spain. Methods: We sampled a total of 45 (50cm � 50cm) plots, where we estimated the cover of every lichen and BSC-forming lichen species. We also collected soil samples to estimate bacterial species richness and abundance, and to assess different surrogates of ecosystem functioning. We used path analysis to evaluate the relationships between the richness/abundance of above- and below-ground species and ecosystem functioning. Results: We found that the greatest direct effect upon the ecosystem function matrix was that of the biological soil crust (BSC) richness matrix. A few bacterial species were sensitive to the lichen community, with a disproportionate effect of Collema crispum and Toninia sedifolia compared to their low abundance and frequency. The lichens Fulgensia subbracteata and Toninia spp. also had negative effects on bacteria, while Diploschistes diacapsis consistently affected sensitive bacteria, sometimes positively. Despite these results, very few of the BSC effects on ecosystem function could be ascribed to changes within the bacterial community. Conclusion: Our results suggest the primary importance of the richness of BSC-forming lichens as drivers of small-scale changes in ecosystem functioning. This study provides valuable insights on semi-arid ecosystems where plant cover is spatially discontinuous and ecosystem function in plant interspaces is regulated largely by BSCs.
Intersecting Systems

Received An intersecting system of type (∃, ∀, k, n) is a collection IF = {F 1 ,. , Fm} of pairwise disjoint families of k-subsets of an n-element set satisfying the following condition. For every ordered pair F i and F j of distinct members of IF there exists an A ∈ F i that intersects every B ∈ F j. Let In(∃, ∀, k) denote the maximum possible cardinality of an intersecting system of type (∃, ∀, k, n). Ahlswede, Cai and Zhang conjectured that for every k ≥ 1, there exists an n 0 (k) so that In(∃, ∀, k) = n−1 k−1 for all n > n 0 (k). Here we show that this is true for k ≤ 3, but false for all k ≥ 8. We also prove some related results.
An executable analytical performance evaluation approach for early performance prediction

Percolation has recently been proposed as a key component of an advanced program execution model for future generation high-end machines featuring adaptive data/code transformation and movement for effective latency tolerance. An early evaluation of the performance effect of percolation is very important in the design space exploration of future generations of supercomputers. In this paper, we develop an executable analytical performance model of a high performance multithreaded architecture that supports percolation. A novel feature of our approach is modeling interactions between software (program) and hardware (architecture) components. We solve the analytical model using a queuing simulation tool enriched with synchronization. The proposed approach is effective and facilitates obtaining performance trends quickly. Our results indicate that percolation brings in significant performance gains (by a factor of 2.7 to 11). Further, our results reveal that percolation and multithreading can complement each other.
How Effective and Safe Is Bronchial Thermoplasty in “Real Life” Asthmatics Compared to Those Enrolled in Randomized Clinical Trials?

There is limited information on the efficacy and safety of bronchial thermoplasty (BT) in real life. We evaluated the outcomes of the randomized clinical trials for BT in severe asthmatics, in whom the exclusion criteria were not strictly controlled. A case series of seven asthmatics (M/F: 4/3; age: 54.6 ± 2.9 years) is reported. Subjects had a statistically significant improvement in AQLQ (from a mean of 3.96 ± 1.1 to 4.5 ± 1.2 and 5.5 ± 0.6 after 6 and 12 months of treatment; p = 0.0007) and in the ACQ score (from 2.77 ± 0.8 to 1.83 ± 1.2 and 1.5 ± 0.8 after 6 and 12 months; p < 0.001). In the year after BT, severe exacerbations, salbutamol use, and OCS use were significantly lower compared with the 1-yr pretreatment period (p < 0.001). No ED visits and hospitalization occurred in the year after BT. No changes in functional parameters were recorded. Our investigation confirms the safety and efficacy of BT in severe asthmatics in real life settings.
Sb: Capstone Abstract

Expressiveness Following the approach outlined by Meijer et. al. in [3], our language has basic built-in combinators (e.g. fold) that are sufficient for expressing a number of common programming tasks. For programs that lie outside the scope of these combinators we provide a cost monad that allows programmers to express runtime information about arbitrary Idris programs, and then lift those runtime costs into Sb.
Whose gaze will infants follow? The elicitation of gaze-following in 12-month-olds

Eighty-three 12-month-old infants faced a noisy, active, object for one minute, after which the object turned 45 degrees to the left or the right. Five conditions explored what object features elicited gaze-following behavior in the infants. In one condition, the object was an adult stranger. The other four conditions used a soft, brown, dog-sized, amorphously-shaped, asymmetrical novel object that varied along two dimensions theorized as central to the identification of intentional beings: facial features and contingently interactive behavior. Infants shifted their own attentional direction to match the orientation of the actor or object in every condition except the one in which the object lacked both a face and contingently interactive behavior. Infants’‘gaze’-following behavior in general, therefore, appears to have been driven selectively by a particular configuration of behavioral and morphological characteristics, specifically those theorized as underlying attributions of intentionality rather than attributions of person per se.
GRBs, SGRs by UHE leptons showering, blazing and re-brightening by precessing Gamma Jets in-off axis

A list of questions regarding Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) remain unanswered within the Fireball and Magnetar scenarios. We argue that a persistent, thin (less than few μsr) precessing and spinning gamma jet, with the same power (not just energy) of the progenitor supernova (SN) may explain these issues. The jets may have precessing time scales of a few hours but their lifetime, while decaying, could be as long as thousands of years. The orientation of the beam respect to the line of sight plays a key role in this scenario: the farthest GRB events correspond to a wider volume and mostly very narrow and on-axis beam, while for the nearest detectable ones has a the beam mostly off-axis. Relic neutron stars, anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXRPs), with their spinning and precessing jets are the candidate blazing sources of earlier GRBs (born at Supernova peak activity) and late SGRs respectively. A side view of such a precessing jet may correspond to SS 433 and micro-quasars jet traces. The `delayed' gamma jets (even weeks or months after the SN) blazing the observer might appear without the earliest SN bright optical transient (OT), contrary to those events where the SN and the GRB occur nearly at the same time; the OT is the result of a wider beamed Jet polluted by the SN lights and baryon halos. Delayed jets are observable in the local universe as X-Ray Flahes (XRFs) or short GRBs and at closer distances as SGRs and anomalous X-ray Pulsars AXRPs.
Decision-making in the council of the European Union. The role of committees.

Many legislative decisions of the Council of the European Union are de facto made in preparatory bodies by national officials and diplomats. Ministers rubber-stamp these committee decisions without discussion. Drawing on statistical as well as case study evidence, the study investigates the extent to which this actually occurs. Based on a formal-theoretical discussion of possible explanations, the study also examines the causes for why certain decisions are made by committee members and others by ministers. In general, the empirical findings alleviate concerns about the democratic legitimacy of Council decisions.
Vsak začetek je težak : avtomatsko učenje prevajanja slovenščine v angleščino

Povzetek Prispevek predstavlja poizkus avtomatskega prevajanja iz slovenskega jezika v angleški na osnovi statističnega strojnega prevajanja. Sistem temelji na zbirki orodij EGYPT, ki je namenjena obdelavi dvojezičnih vzporednih korpusov za strojno prevajanje. Osnova za učenje prevajanja je bil stavčno poravnani korpus IJS-ELAN, ki vsebuje milijon besed, prevodov iz slovenščine v angleščino in obratno; besede obeh jezikov so tudi oblikoslovno označene. V članku predstavimo statistične osnove sistema, zbirko orodij EGYPT in našo implementacijo prevajalnika. Sistem smo učili najprej neposredno na besedah (besednih oblikah) v korpusu, nato pa smo jih, za slovenski jezik, nadomestili z besednimi lemami, s čimer smo se želeli izogniti problemu redkih podatkov. Izvedeno je bilo osnovno vrednotenje sistema, tako za model z besednimi oblikami, kot za tistega z lemami. Vrednotenje smo je izvedli z dvema metodama: SA/TA, ki je različica urejevalne razdalje (edit distance), in omogoča avtomatsko vrednotenje; SSER (subjective sentence error rate), kjer prevode našega sistema ocenjujejo ljudje z razvrščanjem v kategorije. Prispevek zaključimo z načrti za nadaljnje delo.
Observing Behaviors of Information Diffusion Models for Diverse Topics of Posts on VK

The way information spreads through society has changed significantly over the past decade with the advent of online social networking. It is also observed that users have distinct behaviors, i.e., the topics of conversations shared among users, based on which social media platforms they use. However, many previous approaches for predicting information spreading in social networks do not consider this versatility. In this paper, we examine Independent Cascade (IC) information diffusion model which assumes that each node independently influences its neighboring nodes. We show the results of applying IC model to the biggest Russian social network Vkontakte (VK). We first apply the model to synthetic networks and compare the results with the real networks extracted for different topics. The results supports our hypothesis that the behavior of information diffusion in social media is different based on the topics shared. Our results also show that IC model does not properly describe the diffusion processes in VK.
Film Editing for Third Person Games and Machinima

Generating content for third person games and machinima requires knowledge in cinematography (camera placement, framing, lighting) and editing (cutting between cameras). In existing systems, such knowledge either comes from the final user (machinima) or from a database of precompiled solutions (third person games). In this paper, we present a system that can make decisions about editing and automatically generate a grammatically correct movie during game interaction. While previous work described techniques for choosing camera setups and generating virtual footage, most of them do not propose general computational frameworks to express variations in directorial styles. We introduce a framework for generating a well-edited movie from such footage, based on film grammar. Our system computes a sequence of shots by simultaneously choosing which camera to use, when to cut in and out of the shot, and which camera to cut to. We cast film editing as a cost minimization problem in the space of possible shot sequences and provide an efficient search algorithm for computing the edit with minimal latency. In contrast to previous work, our method precisely examines all possible edit points and relies on a well-founded model to account for shot duration.
Comparing methodologies for the transition between software requirements and architectures

The transition from software requirements to software architectures has consistently been one of the main challenges during software development. Various methodologies that aim at helping with this transition have been proposed. However, no systematic approach for assessing such methodologies exists. Also, there is little consensus on the technical and non-technical issues that a transition methodology should address. Hence, we present a method for assessing and comparing methodologies for the transition from requirements to architectures. This method also helps validate newly proposed transition methodologies. The objective of such validations is to assess whether or not a methodology has the potential to lead to better architectures. For that reason, this paper discusses a set of commonly known but previously only informally described criteria for transition methodologies and organizes them into a schema. In the paper we also use our method to characterize a set of 14 current transition methodologies. This is done to illustrate the usefulness of our approach for comparing transition methodologies as well as for validating newly proposed methodologies. Characterizing these 14 methodologies also gives an overview of current transition methodologies and research.
Development of a Lattice-based Cryptosystem

ABSTRACT This work proposes a lattice-based cryptosystem using embedded technique of the closest vector problem (CVP). It adopts the key-gen algorithms of [1], and improves on vector reduction method for encryption/decryption. With this we achieved great implementation speed and time for an acceptable security parameter. General Term Cryptography, Lattice Keywords Lattice-based Cryptography, Quantum, Cryptography, Closest Vector Problem, Lattices, Quantum. promi 1. INTRODUCTION Lattices we re first studied in the late 18th century by mathematicians Joseph Louis Lagrange, Carl Friedrich Gauss and later Minkowski. Lattice is applied in different fields but its application to cryptography was based on the work of [2]. The construction of cryptographic system constitutes mathematical problems which are hard to solve. Mathematical problems based on lattices include the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) and the Closest Vector Problem (CVP) which are used as an algorithmic tool to solve a wide variety of problems.
Design and modeling of an image stabilizing device for small unmanned ground vehicle

This paper addresses about an image stabilizing device for small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV). Most SUGV's have innate purpose of operating in harsh conditions where human can hardly visit, e.g., mountain area, crashed building and so on. In those environments, terrain is not normally flat and even. Therefore, various types of vibrations are incurred to SUGV which leads to fuzzy image output to operator, so the operator suffers from the remote control. Furthermore, the vibration is escalated as the SUGV moves faster. The primary purpose of this study is to reject those vibrations from the robot to the image capturing device. Throughout the sensor measurement during the SUGV operation, we found out that the vibration is significant in roll and pitch axis of the robot. From this point, we have made an effort to develop an image stabilizing device that is suitable for SUGV. This paper focuses about the design and modeling process as an early step of image stabilizer development. In this paper, the design approach and result is presented, and the dynamic model is derived for later controller design.
Bimodal Emotion Recognition by Man and MachineThomas

In this paper, we report preliminary results of recognizing emotions using both speech and video by machine. We applied automatic feature analysis and extraction algorithms to the same data used by De Silva et al. 5] in their human subjective studies. We compare machine recognition results to human performances in three tests:(1) video only, (2) audio only, (3) combined audio and video. In machine-assisted analyses, we found these two modalities to be complementary. Emotion categories that have similar features in one modality have very diierent features in the other modality. By using both, we show it is possible to achieve higher recognition rates than either modality alone.
Logic and game theory of Pit

Pit is a multi-player card game that simulates the commodities trading market, and where actions consist of bidding and of swapping cards. We deﬁne a simpliﬁcation of that game for which we present a detailed description of all dynamical game features. The description is in a standard language for dynamic epistemics. This formalization is then used to out-line the game theory for a simpliﬁcation of the Pit game. This uncovers some interesting equilibria.