Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Considerations of circadian impact for defining ‘shift work’ in cancer studies: IARC Working Group Report

Based on the idea that electric light at night might account for a portion of the high and rising risk of breast cancer worldwide, it was predicted long ago that women working a non-day shift would be at higher risk compared with day-working women. This hypothesis has been extended more recently to prostate cancer. On the basis of limited human evidence and sufficient evidence in experimental animals, in 2007 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified ‘shift work that involves circadian disruption’ as a probable human carcinogen, group 2A. A limitation of the epidemiological studies carried out to date is in the definition of ‘shift work. ’ IARC convened a workshop in April 2009 to consider how ‘shift work’ should be assessed and what domains of occupational history need to be quantified for more valid studies of shift work and cancer in the future. The working group identified several major domains of non-day shifts and shift schedules that should be captured in future studies: (1) shift system (start time of shift, number of hours per day, rotating or permanent, speed and direction of a rotating system, regular or irregular); (2) years on a particular non-day shift schedule (and cumulative exposure to the shift system over the subject's working life); and (3) shift intensity (time off between successive work days on the shift schedule). The group also recognised that for further domains to be identified, more research needs to be conducted on the impact of various shift schedules and routines on physiological and circadian rhythms of workers in real-world environments.
Generalized Restless Bandits and the Knapsack Problem for Perishable Inventories

In this paper we introduce the knapsack problem for perishable inventories concerning the optimal dynamic allocation of a collection of products to a limited knapsack. The motivation for designing such a problem comes from retail revenue management, where different products often have an associated lifetime during which they can only be sold, and the managers can regularly select some products to be allocated to a limited promotion space that is expected to attract more customers than the standard shelves. Another motivation comes from scheduling of requests in modern multiserver data centers so that quality-of-service requirements given by completion deadlines are satisfied. Using the Lagrangian approach we derive an optimal index policy for the Whittle relaxation of the problem in which the knapsack capacity is used only on average. Assuming a certain structure of the optimal policy for the single-inventory control, we prove indexability and derive an efficient, linear-time algorithm for computing the index values. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first to provide indexability analysis of a restless bandit with bi-dimensional state lifetime and inventory level. We illustrate that these index values are numerically close to the true index values when such a structure is not present. We test two index-based heuristics for the original, nonrelaxed problem: 1 a conventional index rule, which prescribes to order the products according to their current index values and promotes as many products as fit in the knapsack, and 2 a recently proposed index-knapsack heuristic, which employs the index values as a proxy for the price of promotion and proposes to solve a deterministic knapsack problem to select the products. By a systematic computational study we show that the performance of both heuristics is nearly optimal, and that the index-knapsack heuristic outperforms the conventional index rule.
Outlier detection using centrality and center-proximity

An outlier is an object that is considerably dissimilar with the remainder of the dataset. In this paper, we first propose the notion of centrality and center-proximity as novel outlierness measures which can be considered to represent the characteristics of all of the objects in the dataset. We then propose a graph-based outlier detection method which can solve the problems of local density, micro-cluster, and fringe objects. Finally, through extensive experiments, we show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Perceptual effects of volumetric shading models in stereoscopic desktop-based environments

Throughout the years, many shading techniques have been developed to improve the conveying of information in Volume Visualization. Some of these methods, usually referred to as realistic, are supposed to provide better cues for the understanding of volume data sets. While shading approaches are heavily exploited in traditional monoscopic setups, no previous study has analyzed the effect of these techniques in Virtual Reality. To further explore the influence of shading on the understanding of volume data in such environments, we carried out a user study in a desktop-based stereoscopic setup. The goals of the study were to investigate the impact of well-known shading approaches and the influence of real illumination on depth perception. Participants had to perform three different perceptual tasks when exposed to static visual stimuli. 45 participants took part in the study, giving us 1152 trials for each task. Results show that advanced shading techniques improve depth perception in stereoscopic volume visualization. As well, external lighting does not affect depth perception when these shading methods are applied. As a result, we derive some guidelines that may help the researchers when selecting illumination models for stereoscopic rendering.
Intelligent agent based hotel search & booking system

M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless handheld devices such as cellular telephone and personal digital assistants PDA. M-commerce provides lot of services like Mobile ticketing, Mobile banking, Mobile location based services, Mobile auctions, Mobile purchasing and so on. This represents an incredible opportunity to enable mobile devices, as a universal device for mobile commerce applications. For such applications, we normally want to choose the best hotel in prime locations, with modern facilities, clean environment and affordable rates. This can be time consuming and sometimes costly when doing this on our own or using human agents. So based on this we here propose "Intelligent Agent Based Hotel Search and Booking System". This system here would use an intelligent agent (instead of the human agent) to perform similar search and booking activities that can improve the speed of the search and reduce cost significantly. So in summary we propose developing a an agent that will move from hotel to hotel from the mobile devices like Smart phones by collecting details on the list of available facilities, price, customer experience, transportation etc and forward-feeding them back to the user's mobile phone. The implementation will be carried using JADE-LEAP agent development kit
Performance evaluation of five classification algorithms in low-dimensional feature vectors extracted from EEG signals

There are lots of classification and feature extraction algorithms in the field of brain computer interface. It is significant to use optimal classification algorithm and fewer features to implement a fast and accurate brain computer interface system. In this paper, we evaluate the performances of five classical classifiers in different aspects including classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, Kappa and computational time in low-dimensional feature vectors extracted from EEG signals. The experiments show that naive Bayes is the most appropriate classifier for low dimensional feature vectors compared to k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, linear discriminant analysis and decision tree classifiers.
Large-Scale, Decelerating, Relativistic X-ray Jets from the Microquasar XTE J1550-564

We have detected, at x-ray and radio wavelengths, large-scale moving jets from the microquasar XTE J1550–564. Plasma ejected from near the black hole traveled at relativistic velocities for at least 4 years. We present direct evidence for gradual deceleration in a relativistic jet. The broadband spectrum of the jets is consistent with synchrotron emission from high-energy (up to 10 tera–electron volts) particles that were accelerated in the shock waves formed within the relativistic ejecta or by the interaction of the jets with the interstellar medium. XTE J1550–564 offers a rare opportunity to study the dynamical evolution of relativistic jets on time scales inaccessible for active galactic nuclei jets, with implications for our understanding of relativistic jets from Galactic x-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei.
The long-term use of benzodiazepines: patients' views, accounts and experiences.

BACKGROUND Although a decrease in new prescribing has occurred for anxiolytic benzodiazepines, concerns have been raised that a 'core' of long-term users has been left behind. Typically, elderly people represent this 'core', using the benzodiazepines as hypnotics. OBJECTIVE The present study focuses on the reasons why hypnotic benzodiazepines are used for protracted lengths of time. By examining patient experiences and cognitions, a deeper understanding may be gained of why patients continue to use benzodiazepines. METHODS Elderly, long-term users of benzodiazepine hypnotics were interviewed using a semi-structured interview procedure. A comparison group of non-users of the drugs were given a brief interview to collect comparative data. Interview data were analysed from transcripts using qualitative methodology; statistical comparisons between the groups were made using non-parametric statistics. RESULTS The long-term users had significantly fewer hours of sleep per night than the non-users. There was some evidence of tolerance and a suggestion that symptoms of withdrawal were maintaining continual use. None of the long-term users had clean knowledge of what their doctors thought of their use of benzodiazepines. CONCLUSIONS The data suggest that the power of the doctor may not be utilized to its full potential in the prevention of long-term use, that at least 50% of elderly benzodiazepine users would like to discontinue use, and that patients need information and advice on how to discontinue these drugs.
Multilevel determinants of children's health outcomes

Background: Children’s health, particularly in the early years, forms the basis of future health and development and plays a significant role in predicting individual life and opportunities. Thus, studies which enhance the understanding of the determinants of children’s health status are needed. Previous research on children’s health had focused on the family’s and infant’s characteristics and ignored the potential impact of macro-level influences. The objectives of this thesis were (i) to examine the independent effects of neighbourhood factors on childhood health outcomes, (ii) to explore neighbourhood moderating effects on the associations between some individual risk factors and childhood health outcomes, and (iii) to quantify the contribution of neighbourhood factors to childhood health outcomes. Method: The study population included 9,888 children born to women residing in Saskatoon during three years, 1992-1994. The data used in this study were extracted from three sources. The information related to birth outcomes and the mother’s characteristics was extracted from the birth registration files maintained by Saskatchewan’s Vital Statistics Branch. The health services utilization information was generated from Saskatchewan Health’s computerized administrative databases. The information related to the neighbourhood characteristics was obtained from Statistics Canada’s 1991 Census, from local sources such as the Planning Department of the City, and two specialized neighbourhood surveys. Six domains of neighbourhood were examined in this study: socio-economic disadvantage, social interaction, physical condition, population density, local programs and services, and unhealthy lifestyle norm. This study was divided into two focused topics
S-Canopy:A feature-based clustering algorithm for supplier categorization

Supplier categorization is considered as a business approach to reduce the logistic costs and improve business performance. In this work we propose a data clustering algorithm for supplier categorization namely S-Canopy clustering. It is simply making use of canopy clustering to reduce the number of distance comparisons. Comparison analysis shows a feasibility to obtain better results for categorization of suppliers in a supplier base.
Design space exploration in Multi- Processor System-on-Chip platforms

This paper gives an insight into heterogeneous multi-processor embedded systems design process and key issues related to achieving time and cost efficient improvements. After giving an overview of existing design methodologies linked to various levels of abstraction at which design process can be viewed, system modelling process is discussed in a more detailed manner. Special accent is put on modelling a system level specification – key input for design space exploration process. The process of software partitioning and mapping form provided specifications of both the application and the platform is discussed in a separate chapter with special emphasis on modelling the problem and consideration of applicable optimization strategies. Finally, existing commercial and academic system level design tools are presented with final word addressing issues remaining to be solved in future
Biotrophy and rust haustoria

Haustoria produced by biotrophic fungi and Oomycetes are extensions into living host cells. However, they are not truly intracellular. They breach the cell wall only and a newly formed host plasma membrane (the extrahaustorial membrane) surrounds them, resulting in a close association of fungal and plant membranes only separated by a thin fungal wall and an extrahaustorial matrix. The extrahaustorial matrix is mainly of host origin. Heath and Skalamera [23] suggest that this interface is the site for translocation of nutrients and exchange of information. Two more aspects seem to be of utmost importance. First, the fungal haustorium must not be recognized as foreign by the host in order to avoid defence reactions. Second, the fungus should modify the host's metabolite ow to mal access to these resources.
Three-dimensional analytical magnetohydrostatic equilibria of rigidly rotating magnetospheres in cylindrical geometry

We present three-dimensional (3D) solutions of the magnetohydrostatic equations in the co-rotating frame of reference outside a magnetized rigidly rotating cylinder. We make no symmetry assumption for the magnetic field, but to be able to make analytical progress we neglect outflows and specify a particular form for the current density. The magnetohydrostatic equations can then be reduced to a single linear partial differential equation for a pseudo-potential U, from which the magnetic field can be calculated by differentiation. The equation for U can be solved by standard methods. The solutions can also be used to determine the plasma pressure, density and temperature as functions of all three spatial coordinates. Despite the obvious limitations of this approach, it can, for example, be used as a simple tool to create 3D models for the closed field line regions of rotating magnetospheres without rotational symmetry.
Integrated CMOS wireless power transfer for neural implants

Wireless power transfer is commonly realized by means of near-field inductive coupling and is critical to many existing and emerging applications in biomedical engineering. We present simulation results that support the possibility of an integrated receiver coil on a CMOS substrate useful for neural implants. It is shown that by following simple guidelines such structures can deliver power in the 10–20 miliwatt range while the transmitter with 100mW transmit power and the receiver are separated by 10mm of biological tissue. The results indicate that the optimum coil geometries only require a few turns and the optimum frequency for an on-chip power receiver is approximately 100MHz. We conclude by way of a case study that uses an integrated CMOS receiver buried under 10mm of skin, fat, skull and dura that achieves 18% power transfer efficiency.
Adiabatic invariance and geometric angle for two-dimensional fluid in deforming domains

The response of a two-dimensional, incompressible and inviscid fluid to a prescribed deformation of its boundary is investigated under the assumption that the boundary deformation is slow compared to the fluid motion. The evolution of the Eulerian flow is considered first. The flow is found to remain approximately steady throughout the evolution; at leading order, it depends instantaneously on the shape of the fluid boundary and is determined by a steadiness condition and by vorticity conservation. The evolution of the (Lagrangian) position of fluid particles is then examined. Because of vorticity conservation, this position can be specified by an angle-like coordinate along vorticity contour. An evolution equation for this angle is derived, and the net change in angle resulting from a cyclic deformation of the fluid boundary is calculated. This change is shown to consist of two contributions: a dynamical angle, given by the time-integral of the instantaneous angular frequency found for the leading-order flow, and a geometric angle which combines the effects of the slow change in the leading-order flow and of the first-order correction to the flow. The geometric angle is expressed as the integral of a certain curvature over the interior of the circuit that is traced by the parameters defining the fluid boundary as this is deforming. Emphasis is placed on the analogy between the fluid system examined here and finitedimensional near-integrable Hamiltonian systems with slowly varying parameters: the leading-order vorticity which determines the Eulerian flow for the fluid is analogous to the (adiabatically invariant) action of a degree of freedom for finite-dimensional systems; and the geometric angle which determines the fluid-particle position is analogous to the celebrated Hannay–Berry angle. A perturbation approach using Lie series is developed for the computation of both the Eulerian flow and geometric angle for small deformations of the fluid boundary. Explicit results are presented for the evolution of nearly axisymmetric flows in slightly deformed discs.
PRIVATE SAVING IN MALAYSIA: LONG-RUN DETERMINANTS AND SHORT-RUN DYNAMICS

The paper attempts to explain the long run and cyclical behaviour of private saving in Malaysia during the period 1974-91 within an error-correction framework. Steady-state saving is found to be determined mainly by real income, wealth and real interest rate. While the dependency ratio and the external terms-of-trade do not impact significantly on sa ving, the year-to-year fluctuations in private saving is adequately modelled as an error correction adjustment of consumption towards the steady-state level.
Monitoring service level workload and adapting highly available applications

Elasticity is a key feature in the cloud while High-Availability (HA) is one of the challenges. Recently, an architecture has been proposed for managing HA in the cloud using the SA Forum middleware and an Elasticity Engine for triggering resource provisioning and de-provisioning at the application level while preserving HA. This Elasticity Engine requires the monitoring of the application service level workload in contrast to the monitoring of VM workload as done usually. In this paper we propose an approach for the monitoring of HA applications at the service level and its integration with the Elasticity Engine. The approach allows for the monitoring of application processes in the traditional manner and for the mapping of this workload to their combined service level workload. Resource usages are aggregated and mapped to the service level workload using a distributed client-server architecture. The approach allows for distinguishing between the different HA states, active and standby, a component can be assigned at runtime and it adapts to the situations where switchovers happen under the control of the SA Forum middleware due to failures for example.
Searchius: A Collaborative Search Engine

Searchius is a collaborative search engine that produces search results based solely on user provided web-related data. We discuss the architecture of this system and how it compares to current state-of-the-art search engines. We show that the global users' preference over pages can be efficiently used as a metric of page quality, and that the inherent organization of the collected data can be used to discover related URLs. We also conduct an extensive experimental study, based on the web related data of 36483 users, to analyze the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of user collected URL collections, to investigate how well the users URL collections cover the web and discover the characteristics that affect the quality of the search results under the proposed setting.
Epigenetic Variations in Plant Hybrids and Their Potential Roles in Heterosis Jgg

Heterosis, one of the most important biological phenomena, refers to the phenotypic superiority of a hybrid over its genetically diverse parents with respect to many traits such as biomass, growth rate and yield. Despite its successful application in breeding and agronomic production of many crop and animal varieties, the molecular basis of heterosis remains elusive. The classic genetic explanations for heterosis centered However, these hypotheses are largely conceptual and not connected to molecular principles, and are therefore insufficient to explain the molecular basis of heterosis (Birchler et al., 2003). Recently, many studies have explored the molecular mechanism of heterosis in plants at a genome-wide level. These studies suggest that global differential gene expression between hybrids and parental lines potentially contributes to heterosis in plants Research suggests that genetic components, including cis-acting elements and transacting factors, are critical regulators of differential gene expression in indicates that epigenetic components, the regulators of chro-matin states and genome activity, also have the potential to impact heterosis (e. Epigenetic components in eukaryotes mainly include DNA cytosine methylation, histone modifications, and certain aspects of RNA interference (RNAi) (Henderson and Jacobsen, 2007; Zhang, 2008). It is possible to propagate naturally occurring variation in these epigenetic components across generations, which can cause significant heritable variation in phenotypic traits (Richards, 2006; Richards et al., 2010). Heritable epigenetic variations usually co-exist with sequence-based genetic variations at the same genomic loci, making it difficult to discern between the effects of them on the determination of phenotype. According to Richards, the range of epigenetic variation in relation to genotypic context could be classified into three categories: obligatory, facilitated and pure. Whereas obligate epigenetic variation is completely dependent on genetic variation, facilitated epigenetic variation is semi-independent of genetic variation, and pure epigenetic variation is completely independent of genetic variation (Richards, 2006). Recently, many studies have surveyed the global epigenetic variations (i.e., epigenomic variation) and their relationships with genetic variations and phenotypic diversity in different plant species (reviewed in He et al., 2011). Of particular interest, some studies have explored simultaneously the epigenomic and transcriptomic variation among hybrids and their parental lines (e.g., He et al., 2010; Shen et al., 2012). These pilot studies provide us an opportunity to understand the molecular mechanisms of heterosis in plants from the view of epigenetics. In this review, we will briefly summarize recent studies on epigenetic variations in hybrids and their potential associations with heterosis in plants.