Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seeding expert system technology: a practical approach

Introducing a new technology into an established environment is often slow and painful. This paper discusses how one conventional programming laboratory got started with expert systems through a cultivation approach. This approach resulted in three prototype expert systems, which are now used as learning tools for the lab. The knowledge engineering techniques used to capture the expertise were unique: the first system's source was a human consultant; the second system's source was a book; and the third system's source was a combination of human and book knowledge. This paper describes the development of the three systems, the rationale for the subject matter and practical techniques that were used to seed expert system technology in business. The expert systems described in this paper were developed solely as classroom material to be used in providing instruction in expert system technology. They are not intended for, nor are they supported for, any other use.
Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion

The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory. People with above-average income are relatively satisfied with their lives but are barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience, tend to be more tense, and do not spend more time in particularly enjoyable activities. Moreover, the effect of income on life satisfaction seems to be transient. We argue that people exaggerate the contribution of income to happiness because they focus, in part, on conventional achievements when evaluating their life or the lives of others.
"What attracts knowledge workers? The role of space, social connections, institutions, jobs and amenities"

The aim of the present paper is to identify the determinants of the geographical mobility of skilled individuals, such as inventors, across European regions. Their mobility contributes to the geographical diffusion of knowledge and reshapes the geography of talent. We test whether geography, amenities, job opportunities and social proximity between inventors’ communities, and the so-called National System of Innovation, drive in- and out-flows of inventors between pairs of regions. We use a control function approach to address the endogenous nature of social proximity, and zero-inflated negative binomial models to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of the dependent variable and the high number of zeros it contains. Our results highlight the importance of physical proximity in driving the mobility patterns of inventors. However, job opportunities, social and institutional relations, and technological and cultural proximity also play key roles in mediating this phenomenon.
Mutations in New Cell Cycle Genes That Fail to Complement a Multiply Mutant Third Chromosome of Drosophila

We have simultaneously screened for new alleles and second site mutations that fail to complement five cell cycle mutations of Drosophila carried on a single third chromosome (gnu, polo, mgr, asp, stg). Females that are either transheterozygous for scott of the antartic (scant) and polo, or homozygous for scant produce embryos that show mitotic defects. A maternal effect upon embryonic mitoses is also seen in embryos derived from females transheterozygous with helter skelter (hsk) and either mgr or asp. deopatra (cleo), fails to complement asp but is not uncovered by a deficiency for asp. The mitotic phenotype of larvae heterozygous for cleo and the multiple mutant chromosome is similar to weak alleles of asp, but there are no defects in male meiosis. Mutations that failed to complement stgfell into two complementation groups corresponding to stg and a new gene noose. Three of the new stg alleles are early zygotic lethals, whereas the fourth is a pharate adult lethal allele that affects both mitosis and meiosis. Mutations in noose fully complement a small deficiency that removes stg, but when placed in trans to certain stg alleles, result in late lethality and mitotic abnormalities in larval brains.
Imaging depth and multiple scattering in laser speckle contrast imaging

Abstract. Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is a powerful and simple method for full field imaging of blood flow. However, the depth dependence and the degree of multiple scattering have not been thoroughly investigated. We employ three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations of photon propagation combined with high resolution vascular anatomy to investigate these two issues. We found that 95% of the detected signal comes from the top 700 μm of tissue. Additionally, we observed that single-intravascular scattering is an accurate description of photon sampling dynamics, but that regions of interest (ROIs) in areas free of obvious surface vessels had fewer intravascular scattering events than ROI over resolved surface vessels. Furthermore, we observed that the local vascular anatomy can strongly affect the depth dependence of LSCI. We performed simulations over a wide range of intravascular and extravascular scattering properties to confirm the applicability of these results to LSCI imaging over a wide range of visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
Empirical Uses of Subjective Measures of Well-Being

We describe a simple method to estimate household cost functions and family equivalence scales. It is an alternative to standard methods as it does not assume strong postulates about utility maximization nor any functionally specified model equations. The data requirements are extremely modest. We assume interVan Praag is a professor of economics at the Econometric Institute, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and a member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy of the Netherlands. Van der Sar is an assistant professor of business finance at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. When the authors began preparing the paper, Van Praag was affiliated with the Center for Research in Public Economics of Leyden University and a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for the Advancement of the Sciences at Wassenaar. He created this paper's European data set jointly with Aldi Hagenaars and Hans Van Weeren, with financial support from the European Community, Brussels. The American data set was made available by Steven Dubnoff of the Survey Research Center, University of Massachusetts, Boston. It was created with support from a grant by the National Science Foundations. The authors want to express their gratitude to all institutes and individuals mentioned and also to Reuben Gronau, Aldi Hagenaars, Joop Hartog, and Paul M. C. de Boer, who gave valuable advice during various stages of preparation. They are also grateful to three anonymous referees for valuable suggestions and encouraging advice. They take
Swim velocity profile identification through a Dynamic Self-adaptive Multiobjective Harmonic Search and RBF neural networks

Technology has been successfully applied in sports, where biomechanical analysis is one of the most important areas used to raise the performance of athletes. In this context, this paper focuses on swim velocity profile identification using Radial Basis Functions Neural Networks (RBF-NN) trained by the Gustafson-Kessel clustering combined with a novel Dynamic Self-adaptive Multiobjective Harmony Search (DS-MOHS). One study case is analyzed, from real data acquired of an elite female athlete, swimming breaststroke style. Better results are obtained by DS-MOHS when compared with standard multiobjective harmony search in terms of accuracy and generalization of the model.
Experimental infection of chickens, ducks and quails with the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) of the H5N1 subtype have spread since 2003 in poultry and wild birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. In Korea, the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks took place in 2003/2004, 2006/2007 and 2008. As the 2006/2007 isolates differ phylogenetically from the 2003/2004 isolates, we assessed the clinical responses of chickens, ducks and quails to intranasal inoculation of the 2006/2007 index case virus, A/chicken/Korea/IS/06. All the chickens and quails died on 3 days and 3-6 days post-inoculation (DPI), respectively, whilst the ducks only showed signs of mild depression. The uninoculated chickens and quails placed soon after with the inoculated flock died on 5.3 and 7.5 DPI, respectively. Both oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs were taken for all three species during various time intervals after inoculation. It was found that oropharyngeal swabs showed higher viral titers than in cloacal swabs applicable to all three avian species. The chickens and quails shed the virus until they died (up to 3 to 6 days after inoculation, respectively) whilst the ducks shed the virus on 2-4 DPI. The postmortem tissues collected from the chickens and quails on day 3 and days 4-5 and from clinically normal ducks that were euthanized on day 4 contained the virus. However, the ducks had significantly lower viral titers than the chickens or quails. Thus, the three avian species varied significantly in their clinical signs, mortality, tissue virus titers, and duration of virus shedding. Our observations suggest that duck and quail farms should be monitored particularly closely for the presence of HPAIV so that further virus transmission to other avian or mammalian hosts can be prevented.
The role of artificial noise in multi-antenna fading wiretap channels: Useful or harmful?

New insights into the role of artificial noise in securing communication in a Gaussian multi-antenna fading wiretap channel are presented. An appropriate secrecy-outage-based optimization framework is developed for the Multiple-Input Single-Output Single-Eavesdropper (MISOSE) case to measure the performance of artificial noise. It is assumed that only the legitimate receiver's instantaneous channel state information and the average statistics of the eavesdropper's channel are available at the transmitter. The optimization is based on maximizing the effective secret-message rate constrained by a given maximum secrecy outage criterion. Under this framework, a fundamental investigation is conducted into whether it is worthwhile for the transmitter to allocate any of its available power for artificial noise. By numerically solving the optimization problem, it is demonstrated that there are: (i) scenarios where artificial noise does indeed give significant gains in the secret-message rate, and (ii) scenarios where any amount of power allocation to artificial noise is wasteful in view of the overall performance.
Retinal temporal resolution and contrast sensitivity in the parasitic lamprey Mordacia mordax and its non-parasitic derivative Mordacia praecox

ABSTRACT Lampreys and hagfishes are the sole extant representatives of the early agnathan (jawless) vertebrates. We compared retinal function of fully metamorphosed, immature Mordacia mordax (which are about to commence parasitic feeding) with those of sexually mature individuals of its non-parasitic derivative M. praecox. We focused on elucidating the retinal adaptations to dim-light environments in these nocturnally active lampreys, using electroretinography to determine the temporal resolution (flicker fusion frequency, FFF) and temporal contrast sensitivity of enucleated eyecups at different temperatures and light intensities. FFF was significantly affected by temperature and light intensity. Critical flicker fusion frequency (cFFF, the highest FFF recorded) of M. praecox and M. mordax increased from 15.1 and 21.8 Hz at 9°C to 31.1 and 36.9 Hz at 24°C, respectively. Contrast sensitivity of both species increased by an order of magnitude between 9 and 24°C, but remained comparatively constant across all light intensities. Although FFF values for Mordacia spp. are relatively low, retinal responses showed a particularly high contrast sensitivity of 625 in M. praecox and 710 in M. mordax at 24°C. This suggests selective pressures favour low temporal resolution and high contrast sensitivity in both species, thereby enhancing the capture of photons and increasing sensitivity in their light-limited environments. FFF indicated all retinal photoreceptors exhibit the same temporal response. Although the slow response kinetics (i.e. low FFF) and saturation of the response at bright light intensities characterise the photoreceptors of both species as rod-like, it is unusual for such a photoreceptor to be functional under scotopic and photopic conditions. Summary: Selective pressures favour low temporal resolution and high contrast sensitivity in the visual systems of Mordacia mordax and Mordacia praecox to enhance visual function in their light-limited environments.
What do obstetricians think about media influences on their patients?

Background: Patients are playing an increasingly active role in decision‐making about their care and are becoming increasingly informed about their health. Traditionally, sources of information about pregnancy and birth were family and friends and, in more recent times, antenatal classes. Evidence suggests that the media, particularly the Internet, is an increasingly influential source of information about illness and health.
Role for Phospholipase D in Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis

ABSTRACT In response to epidermal growth factor (EGF), the EGF receptor is endocytosed and degraded. A substantial lag period exists between endocytosis and degradation, suggesting that endocytosis is more than a simple negative feedback. Phospholipase D (PLD), which has been implicated in vesicle formation in the Golgi, is activated in response to EGF and other growth factors. We report here that EGF receptor endocytosis is dependent upon PLD and the PLD1 regulators, protein kinase C α and RalA. EGF-induced receptor degradation is accelerated by overexpression of either wild-type PLD1 or PLD2 and retarded by overexpression of catalytically inactive mutants of either PLD1 or PLD2. EGF-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase, which is dependent upon receptor endocytosis, is also dependent upon PLD. These data suggest a role for PLD in signaling that facilitates receptor endocytosis.
Planar Separators and Parallel Polygon Triangulation

Abstract We show how to construct an O(√n)-separator decomposition of a planar graph G in O(n) time. Such a decomposition defines a binary tree, where each node corresponds to a subgraph of G and stores an O(√n)-separator of that subgraph. We also show how to construct an O(nϵ)-way decomposition tree in parallel in O(log n) time so that each node corresponds to a subgraph of G and stores an O(n12+ϵ)-separator of that subgraph. We demonstrate the utility of such a separator decomposition by showing how it can be used in the design of a parallel algorithm for triangulating a simple polygon deterministically in O(log n) time using O(n/log n) processors on a CRCW PRAM.
Formalizing a Spectrum of Plan Generalizations Based on Modal Truth Criteria

Plan generalizations are of considerable importance in improving planning performance through reuse. In this paper, we provide a unified framework for analytic (non-inductive) plan generalization based on explanation of plan correctness with respect to modal truth criteria. Within this framework, we explore a large spectrum of generalizations based on the type of constraints on the plan that are being relaxed (ordering, binding, initial state specification), the strength and type of truth criteria used for explaining correctness and the number of explanations used as a basis for generalization. Apart from the straightforward precondition and order generalizations, the spectrum also includes such novel ones as possible correctness generalizations and disjunctive generalizations. In each case, we characterize the cost of producing the generalization, and the storage and usage advantages provided by it during plan reuse. Although there has been previous work on plan generalizations, this is the first time that a complete spectrum of generalizations are characterized within a single unified framework, facilitating a comparative analysis of their costs and benefits. Submitted to AIPS-94 (2nd Intl. Planning Conference) Content Areas: Learning, Explanation-based Generalization Submitted also to Canadian AI Conference, 1994 This research is supported in part by National Science Foundation under grant IRI-9210997, and ARPA/Rome Laboratory planning initiative under grant F30602-93-C-0039.
Activity‐induced plasticity in brain stem pain modulatory circuitry after inflammation

Brain stem descending pathways modulate spinal nociceptive transmission. In a lightly anesthetized rat preparation, we present evidence that such descending modulation undergoes time-dependent changes following persistent hindpaw inflammation. There was an initial decrease and a subsequent increase in the excitability of neurons in the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) involving facilitation and inhibition. These changes were most robust after stimulation of the inflamed paw although similar findings were seen on the non-inflamed paw and tail. The enhanced descending modulation appeared to be mediated by changes in the activation of the NMDA excitatory amino acid receptor. These findings demonstrate the dynamic plasticity of the pain modulating pathways in response to persistent tissue injury.
From Smoking to Cancers: Novel Targets to Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors

Cigarette smoking bears a strong etiological association with many neovascularization-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and age-related macular degeneration. Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of many compounds, including nicotine, which is the major active and addictive component of tobacco. Nicotine and its specific metabolized carcinogens directly bind to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) on cell membranes and trigger the nAChR signal cascade. The nAChRs were originally thought to be ligand-gated ion channels that modulate physiological processes ranging from neurotransmission to cancer signaling. For several decades, the nAChRs served as a prototypic molecule for neurotransmitter receptors; however, they are now important therapeutic targets for various diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, schizophrenia, and even cancer. This paper describes recent advances in our understanding of the assembly, activity, and biological functions of nicotinic receptors, as well as developments in the therapeutic application of nicotinic receptor ligands.
Health Beliefs of University Students With Regard To Sportive Recreational Activities

The aim of this study is based on investigating the link between health beliefs and health decision-making using the application of Health Belief Scale on Sportive Recreational Activities. The data have been collected from 190 volunteer students which study Sports and Theology at University of Batman and Gumushane. The data have been examined using by Independent Samples t-test and One way Anova. Student perceptions regarding “Perceived Severity have been high. Regarding “Psychosocial Benefits” and “Self-Efficacy” sub-factors, there is a significant difference (p<0,05) between perception levels of theology students and perception levels of sports students. Keywords: Health beliefs, sportive recreation, university students, tourism, marketing.
Effects of valganciclovir as an add‐on therapy in patients with cytomegalovirus‐positive glioblastoma: A randomized, double‐blind, hypothesis‐generating study

Cytomegalovirus is highly prevalent in glioblastomas. In 2006, we initiated a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, hypothesis‐generating study to examine the safety and potential efficacy of Valganciclovir as an add‐on therapy for glioblastoma. Forty‐two glioblastoma patients were randomized in double‐blind fashion to receive Valganciclovir or placebo in addition to standard therapy for 6 months. Magnetic resonance images were obtained before and immediately and 3 and 6 months after surgery to evaluate treatment efficacy by measuring contrast enhancing tumor volume (primary end point). Survival data were analyzed for patients and controls in explorative analyses to aid the design of future randomized trials. Trends but no significant differences were observed in tumor volumes in Valganciclovir and placebo patients at 3 (3.58 vs. 7.44 cm3, respectively, p = 0.2881) and 6 (3.31 vs. 13.75 cm3, p = 0.2120) months. Median overall survival (OS) was similar in both groups (17.9 vs. 17.4 months, p = 0.430). Patients could take Valganciclovir for compassionate use after the study phase. Explorative analyses showed an OS of 24.1 months (95% CI, 17.4–40.3) in patients receiving >6 months of Valganciclovir (Val > 6M) versus 13.1 months (95% CI, 7.9–17.7, p < 0.0001) in patients receiving Valganciclovir for 0 or <6 months, and 13.7 months (95% CI, 6.9–17.3, p = 0.0031) in contemporary controls. OS at 4 years was 27.3% in Val>6M patients versus 5.9% in controls (p = 0.0466). Prolonged OS in Val>6M patients suggest that future randomized trials are warranted and should evaluate whether continuous antiviral treatment can improve outcome in glioblastoma patients.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome Associated with Zika Virus Infection in Colombia.

BACKGROUND Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has been linked to the Guillain-Barré syndrome. From November 2015 through March 2016, clusters of cases of the Guillain-Barré syndrome were observed during the outbreak of ZIKV infection in Colombia. We characterized the clinical features of cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome in the context of this ZIKV infection outbreak and investigated their relationship with ZIKV infection. METHODS A total of 68 patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome at six Colombian hospitals were evaluated clinically, and virologic studies were completed for 42 of the patients. We performed reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assays for ZIKV in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and urine, as well as antiflavivirus antibody assays. RESULTS A total of 66 patients (97%) had symptoms compatible with ZIKV infection before the onset of the Guillain-Barré syndrome. The median period between the onset of symptoms of ZIKV infection and symptoms of the Guillain-Barré syndrome was 7 days (interquartile range, 3 to 10). Among the 68 patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome, 50% were found to have bilateral facial paralysis on examination. Among 46 patients in whom nerve-conduction studies and electromyography were performed, the results in 36 patients (78%) were consistent with the acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy subtype of the Guillain-Barré syndrome. Among the 42 patients who had samples tested for ZIKV by RT-PCR, the results were positive in 17 patients (40%). Most of the positive RT-PCR results were in urine samples (in 16 of the 17 patients with positive RT-PCR results), although 3 samples of cerebrospinal fluid were also positive. In 18 of 42 patients (43%) with the Guillain-Barré syndrome who underwent laboratory testing, the presence of ZIKV infection was supported by clinical and immunologic findings. In 20 of these 42 patients (48%), the Guillain-Barré syndrome had a parainfectious onset. All patients tested were negative for dengue virus infection as assessed by RT-PCR. CONCLUSIONS The evidence of ZIKV infection documented by RT-PCR among patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome during the outbreak of ZIKV infection in Colombia lends support to the role of the infection in the development of the Guillain-Barré syndrome. (Funded by the Bart McLean Fund for Neuroimmunology Research and others.).