Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term impact of neonatal breast-feeding on body weight and glucose tolerance in children of diabetic mothers.

OBJECTIVE Offspring born to women with pregnancies complicated by diabetes are at increased childhood risk of developing obesity and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). In population-based studies, breast-feeding has been shown to be protective against obesity and diabetes later in life. To date, the role of breast-feeding on offspring of diabetic mothers (ODM) has not been investigated in this context. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 112 ODM (type 1 diabetes, n = 83; gestational diabetes, n = 29) were evaluated prospectively for impact of ingestion of either diabetic breast milk (DBM) or nondiabetic banked donor breast milk (BBM) during the early neonatal period (day 1-7 of life) on relative body weight and glucose tolerance at a mean age of 2 years. RESULTS There was a positive correlation between the volume of DBM ingested and risk of overweight at 2 years of age (odds ratio [OR] 2.47, 95% CI 1.25-4.87). In contrast, the volume of BBM ingested was inversely correlated to body weight at follow-up (P = 0.001). Risk of childhood IGT decreased by increasing amounts of BBM ingested neonatally (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.05-0.70). Stepwise regression analysis showed volume of DBM to be the only significant predictor of relative body weight at 2 years of age (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Early neonatal ingestion of breast milk from diabetic mothers may increase risk of becoming overweight and, consequently, developing IGT during childhood. Additional studies are needed to assess long-term consequences that might result from the type of neonatal nutrition in ODM.
Indexing and analyzing wikipedia's current events portal, the daily news summaries by the crowd

Wikipedia's Current Events Portal (WCEP) is a special part of Wikipedia that focuses on daily summaries of news events. The WikiTimes project provides structured access to WCEP by extracting and indexing all its daily news events. In this paper we study this part of Wikipedia and take a closer look into its content and the community behind it. First, we provide descriptive analysis of the collected news events. Second, we compare between the news summaries created by the WCEP crowd and the ones created by professional journalists on the same topics. Finally, we analyze the revision logs of news events over the past 7 years in order to characterize the WCEP crowd and their activities. The results show that WCEP has reached a stable state in terms of the volume of contributions as well as the size of its crowd, which makes it an important source of news summaries for the public and the research community.
Big social data analytics for public health: Facebook engagement and performance

In recent years, social media has offered new opportunities for interaction and distribution of public health information within and across organisations. In this paper, we analysed data from Facebook walls of 153 public organisations using unsupervised machine learning techniques to understand the characteristics of user engagement and post performance. Our analysis indicates an increasing trend of user engagement on public health posts during recent years. Based on the clustering results, our analysis shows that Photo and Link type posts are most favourable for high and medium user engagement respectively.
Escala de Bienestar Psicológico para Adolescentes

espanolEl proposito de este trabajo fue disenar y validar una escala para evaluar la percepcion de Bienestar Psicologico (BP) en adolescentes mexicanos. La fase I fue exploratoria, se realizaron dos estudios, uno para identificar el significado que los adolescentes le dieron al BP, y otro para disenar y validar la escala. La fase II permitio confirmar las caracteristicas psicometricas. En el primero participaron 30 adolescentes de 15 a 20 anos; y en el segundo 665, de 14 a 20 anos (M=16.7; DE=1.36). En la fase II participaron 1064 estudiantes de 15 a 20 anos (M=16.10; DE=.941). Los resultados agruparon 29 reactivos en siete factores (α=.76), que explicaron el 60.51% de la varianza total: crecimiento personal (α=.79), relaciones positivas con otros (α=.81), proposito de vida (α=.80), auto-aceptacion (α=.74), planes a futuro (α=.77), rechazo personal (α=.77) y control personal (α=.83). EnglishThe purpose was to design and validate a scale to assess the perception of Psychological Well -Being (PWB) in Mexican adolescents. Phase I was exploratory and was composed of two studies, one to identify the meaning given by adolescents to PWB, and the other to design and validate it. Psychometric characteristics were confirmed in Phase II. The first study involved 30 teenagers, the second 665, from 14 to 20 years (M=16.7; SD=1.36). In Phase II 1064 students between 15 and 20 years participated (M=16.10; SD=. 941). Results grouped 29 items in seven factors (α=.76), which explained the 60.51% of total variance: personal growth (α=.79), positive relationships with others (α=.81), purpose of life (α=.80), self-acceptance (α=.74), plans for the future (α=.77), personal rejection (α =.77) and personal control (α=.83).
The Roles of Crossover and Mutation in Real-Coded Genetic Algorithms

Recently many studies on evolutionary algorithms using real encoding have been done. They include ant colony optimization (Socha & Dorigo, 2008), artificial bee colony algorithm (Akay & Karaboga, 2010; Kang et al., 2011), evolution strategies (ES) (Beyer, 2001), differential evolution (Das & Suganthan, 2011; Dasgupta et al., 2009; Kukkonen & Lampinen, 2004; 2005; Mezura-Montes et al., 2010; Noman & Iba, 2005; Ronkkonen et al., 2005; Storn & Price, 1997; Zhang et al., 2008), particle swarm optimization (Chen et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2010; Juang et al., 2011; Krohling & Coelho, 2006; l. Sun et al., 2011), and so on. In particular, in the field of ES, we can find many studies based on self-adaptive techniques (Beyer & Deb, 2001; Hansen & Ostermeier, 2001; Igel et al., 2007; 2006; Jagerskupper, 2007; Kita, 2001; Kramer, 2008a;b; Kramer et al., 2007; Meyer-Nieberg & Beyer, 2007; Wei et al., 2011).
Systemic Inflammation in Cachexia – Is Tumor Cytokine Expression Profile the Culprit?

Cachexia affects about 80% of gastrointestinal cancer patients. This multifactorial syndrome resulting in involuntary and continuous weight loss is accompanied by systemic inflammation and immune cell infiltration in various tissues. Understanding the interactions among tumor, immune cells, and peripheral tissues could help attenuating systemic inflammation. Therefore, we investigated inflammation in the subcutaneous adipose tissue and in the tumor, in weight stable and cachectic cancer patients with same diagnosis, in order to establish correlations between tumor microenvironment and secretory pattern with adipose tissue and systemic inflammation. Infiltrating monocyte phenotypes of subcutaneous and tumor vascular-stromal fraction were identified by flow cytometry. Gene and protein expression of inflammatory and chemotactic factors was measured with qRT-PCR and Multiplex Magpix® system, respectively. Subcutaneous vascular-stromal fraction exhibited no differences in regard to macrophage subtypes, while in the tumor, the percentage of M2 macrophages was decreased in the cachectic patients, in comparison to weight-stable counterparts. CCL3, CCL4, and IL-1β expression was higher in the adipose tissue and tumor tissue in the cachectic group. In both tissues, chemotactic factors were positively correlated with IL-1β. Furthermore, positive correlations were found for the content of chemoattractants and cytokines in the tumor and adipose tissue. The results strongly suggest that the crosstalk between the tumor and peripheral tissues is more pronounced in cachectic patients, compared to weight-stable patients with the same tumor diagnosis.
Managing Ethnic Conflict: The Merits and Perils of Territorial Accommodation

Territorial accommodation in the management of ethnic conflict, while widely practised, has also been the subject of much academic debate which has failed to reach a conclusive verdict on its utility to contribute to sustainable conflict settlements. Reviewing three recent volumes on the role of institutions in conflict management processes, I focus on their central argument in relation to the question of whether territorial accommodation is a viable strategy for conflict management. While none of the volumes offers a conclusion to the debate over the merits of territorial approaches, they all provide sophisticated answers to some of the key questions continuously raised in this debate and all have significant potential to inform its policy dimension and to shape future research.
Quality Adjustment of European Price Statistics and the Role for Hedonics

In this paper, we review the well-known problem of how to measure price developments when the quality of the underlying goods and services is changing over time. The importance of appropriate methods to take account of quality change is highlighted from the perspective of monetary policy. In particular, we highlight the need for credible and transparent price indicators. In this context, we review the hedonic approach to calculating quality-adjusted price indices and assess the available information on their effects as well as their potential for improving credibility and comparability. Current practices as regards quality adjustment in the European Union (EU) are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). Overall, we give a qualified endorsement of hedonics for specific product categories and make some suggestions about how the work on quality adjustment in the EU can be further developed, focusing in particular on the role of hedonics.
Super-Wideband Bandwidth Extension for Wideband Audio Codecs Using Switched Spectral Replication and Pitch Synthesis

This paper describes a new bandwidth extension algorithm which is targeted at high quality audio communication over IP networks. The algorithm is part of the Huawei/ETRI candidate for the ITU-T super-wideband (SWB) extensions of Rec. G.729. 1 and G.718. In the SWB candidate codec, the 7-14 kHz frequency band of speech and audio signals is represented in terms of temporal and spectral envelopes. This description is encoded and transmitted to the decoder. In addition, the fine structure of the input signal is analyzed and compactly encoded. From this compact information, the decoder can regenerate the 7-14 kHz fine structure either by spectral replication or by pitch synthesis. Then, an adaptive envelope restoration procedure is employed. The algorithm operates in the MDCT domain to allow subsequent refinement coding by vector quantization of spectral coefficients. In the paper, relevant listening test results for the G.729. 1SWB candidate codec that have been obtained during the ITU-T standardization process are summarized. Good audio quality could be shown for both speech and music signals.
Design of Wireless Sensor Networks for Building Management Systems

We provide a detailed study of the application of wireless sensor networks to a real-world building management system. A set of design requirements was discussed for the development of a sensor network architecture for an HVAC control system. We propose a system architecture that can be easily integrated into any existing building control system. We implemented a testbed to evaluate control strategies using ad hoc wireless sensors. The testbed was designed within the controlled environment chamber in the College of Environmental Design and UC Berkeley. Preliminary results from control strategies have allowed us to determine the effectiveness of the sensor network. The design of the system was suited for the kind of control applications that are indicative of the field. We discussed the lessons learned from our tests and propose future experiments with multiple ad hoc sensors to fully investigate the value added benefit of integrating this technology into the legacy architecture. iv Acknowledgements
Automatic ordinal prediction of children ’ s participation in social play settings using nonverbal vocal features

In social play, young children can exhibit different types of participation. Some children are engaged with other children in the play activity while others are just looking. In this study, we investigated methods to automatically predict the children’s levels of participation in play settings using nonverbal vocal features (which have been shown to correlate with related phenomena such as engagement and dominance). Rather than labelling the level of participation in an absolute manner, as has frequently been done in previous related studies, we designed an annotation scheme that takes the order of children’s participation levels into account. Taking full advantage of the ordered annotations, we explored the use of SVM-based ordinal learning, i.e., ordinal regression and ranking, and compared these to a rule-based ranking and a classification method. We found promising performances for the ordinal methods. Particularly, the ranking method demonstrated the most robust performance against the large variation of children and their interactions.
Effects of wildfire and permafrost on soil organic matter and soil climate in interior Alaska

The influence of discontinuous permafrost on ground-fuel storage, combustion losses, and postfire soil climates was examined after a wildfire near Delta Junction, AK in July 1999. At this site, we sampled soils from a four-way site comparison of burning (burned and unburned) and permafrost (permafrost and nonpermafrost). Soil organic layers (which comprise ground-fuel storage) were thicker in permafrost than nonpermafrost soils both in burned and unburned sites. While we expected fire severity to be greater in the drier site (without permafrost), combustion losses were not significantly different between the two burned sites. Overall, permafrost and burning had significant effects on physical soil variables. Most notably, unburned permafrost sites with the thickest organic mats consistently had the coldest temperatures and wettest mineral soil, while soils in the burned nonpermafrost sites were warmer and drier than the other soils. For every centimeter of organic mat thickness, temperature at 5 cm depth was about 0.5 1C cooler during summer months. We propose that organic soil layers determine to a large extent the physical and thermal setting for variations in vegetation, decomposition, and carbon balance across these landscapes. In particular, the deep organic layers maintain the legacies of thermal and nutrient cycling governed by fire and revegetation. We further propose that the thermal influence of deep organic soil layers may be an underlying mechanism responsible for large regional patterns of burning and regrowth, detected in fractal analyses of burn frequency and area. Thus, fractal geometry can potentially be used to analyze changes in state of these fire prone systems.
Theoretical Model for Cellular Shapes Driven by Protrusive and Adhesive Forces

The forces that arise from the actin cytoskeleton play a crucial role in determining the cell shape. These include protrusive forces due to actin polymerization and adhesion to the external matrix. We present here a theoretical model for the cellular shapes resulting from the feedback between the membrane shape and the forces acting on the membrane, mediated by curvature-sensitive membrane complexes of a convex shape. In previous theoretical studies we have investigated the regimes of linear instability where spontaneous formation of cellular protrusions is initiated. Here we calculate the evolution of a two dimensional cell contour beyond the linear regime and determine the final steady-state shapes arising within the model. We find that shapes driven by adhesion or by actin polymerization (lamellipodia) have very different morphologies, as observed in cells. Furthermore, we find that as the strength of the protrusive forces diminish, the system approaches a stabilization of a periodic pattern of protrusions. This result can provide an explanation for a number of puzzling experimental observations regarding cellular shape dependence on the properties of the extra-cellular matrix.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences and Technology Security Analysis of Graphical Passwords over the Alphanumeric Passwords

Security in the computer is largely supported by the passwords for authentication process. The most common approach for authentication is alphanumeric passwords and alphanumeric passwords which has significant drawbacks. To overcome these drawbacks graphical passwords have been designed. That aim of generating these passwords to make passwords more memorable and easier for people to use and, therefore, more secure. In this paper we are presenting the comparison between the alphanumeric passwords and graphical password.
Wind power system using Doubly-Fed Induction Generator and matrix converter with simple modulation scheme

This paper proposes a new DFIG system using matrix converter with simple modulation scheme, which can effectively interconnect the wind power system with the power grid. Matrix converter is very difficult for the DFIG application because of sensitive commutation process. In this paper a simple and easy modulation scheme for matrix converter called direct duty ratio pulse width modulation was developed to confirm its reliable application for the DFIG. The operation of proposed DFIG system was verified through computer and the feasibility of hardware implementation was confirmed through experimental works with a hardware simulator of wind power system. The hardware simulator was built using a motor-generator set with vector drive, and a matrix converter with DSP controller. The simulation and experimental results confirm that matrix converter with proposed modulation scheme can be applied for the DFIG wind power system.
Physical Questions Posed by DNA Condensation

When multivalent salts are added to dilute DNA solution, the DNA chains condense into bundles of a well-defined size. We explore two physical problems motivated by this phenomenon: the origin of the attractive interactions between the highly-negatively charged DNA chains that cause them to concentrate into bundles, and the mechanism that provents the bundles from growing indefinitely large.
RAQ–A Random Forest Approach for Predicting Air Quality in Urban Sensing Systems

Air quality information such as the concentration of PM2.5 is of great significance for human health and city management. It affects the way of traveling, urban planning, government policies and so on. However, in major cities there is typically only a limited number of air quality monitoring stations. In the meantime, air quality varies in the urban areas and there can be large differences, even between closely neighboring regions. In this paper, a random forest approach for predicting air quality (RAQ) is proposed for urban sensing systems. The data generated by urban sensing includes meteorology data, road information, real-time traffic status and point of interest (POI) distribution. The random forest algorithm is exploited for data training and prediction. The performance of RAQ is evaluated with real city data. Compared with three other algorithms, this approach achieves better prediction precision. Exciting results are observed from the experiments that the air quality can be inferred with amazingly high accuracy from the data which are obtained from urban sensing.
Large-scale specific absorption rate computation in various people on GPUs

The adverse health effects of human exposure to RF-EMFs have become of increasing concern. The safety is evaluated on the basis of the SAR. Variability in the SAR caused by differences in the physical features of real people is one of the several important issues. In this study, we developed the computational human models with different body-types by our proposed volume deformation technique to generate the model from magnetic resonance imaging data of target persons using existing human models. We also demonstrated SAR characteristics in human models with different body-types exposed to vertically and horizontally polarized EM waves ranging from 30 MHz to 6 GHz using the multi-GPU accelerated three-dimensional FDTD solver.
Melanoma detection using fuzzy C-means clustering coupled with mathematical morphology

This paper proposes a Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) based approach designed for melanoma diagnosis. The methodology comprises the traditional data processing architecture, including pre-processing (contrast stretching), main processing (FCM) and post-processing (morphological erosion). The contrast stretching phase has the purpose of stretching the range of pixel intensities of the input image to occupy a larger dynamic range in the output image. This is followed by the FCM algorithm, which automatically divides the data provided by the contrast stretching phase into two clusters: lesion and skin. This process ends with the morphological erosion of the segmented image, where the structuring element is translated over each pixel of the object, so as to overcome typical irregularities between lesion and skin (e.g., irregular boundaries, dark hair covering the lesions, specular reflections, among others). The proposed approach is evaluated in dermatoscopic images of skin cancer, and results show that it is able to produce accurate identification of lesions.
On the digital filter associated with Daubechies' wavelets

The magnitude of the filters associated with Daubechies' wavelets /sub n//spl psi/ is shown to monotonically converge to an ideal highpass filter when n/spl rarr//spl infin/. The rate of the convergence is also given. The magnitude of each filter is shown to be monotonically increasing from [0,/spl pi/]. The convergence does not have Gibbs' phenomenon. >
Non-Uniform Microstrip Antenna Array for DSRC in Single-Lane Structures

Vehicular communications have been subject to a great development in recent years, with multiple applications, such as electronic payments, improving the convenience and comfort of drivers. Its communication network is supported by dedicated short range communications (DSRC), a system composed of onboard units (OBU) and roadside units (RSU). A recently conceived different set-up for the tolling infrastructures consists of placing them in highway access roads, allowing a number of benefits over common gateway infrastructures, divided into several lanes and using complex systems. This paper presents an antenna array whose characteristics are according to the DSRC standards. Additionally, the array holds an innovative radiation pattern adjusted to the new approach requirements, with an almost uniform wide beamwidth along the road width, negligible side lobes, and operating in a significant bandwidth.
Silver nanoparticle toxicity is related to coating materials and disruption of sodium concentration regulation

Abstract Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been increasingly commercialized and their release into the environment is imminent. Toxicity of AgNP has been studied with a wide spectrum of organisms, yet the mechanism of toxicity remains largely unknown. This study systematically compared toxicity of 10 AgNPs of different particle diameters and coatings to Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) larvae to understand how characteristics of AgNP relate to toxicity. Dissolution of AgNPs was largely dependent on particle size, but their aggregation behavior and toxicity were more dependent on coating materials. 96 h lethal concentration 50% (LC50) values correlated with AgNP aggregate size rather than size of individual nanoparticles. Of the AgNPs studied, the dissolved Ag concentration in the test suspensions did not account for all of the observed toxicity, indicating the role of NP-specific characteristics in resultant toxicity. Exposure to AgNP led to decrease of sodium concentration in the tissue and increased expression of Na+/K+ ATPase. Gene expression patterns also suggested that toxicity was related to disruption of sodium regulation and not to oxidative stress.