Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex Differences and Response Styles: Subtypes of Rumination and Associations with Depressive Symptoms

In view of recent findings regarding the multifaceted nature of rumination in adults and older adolescents, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the construct of rumination as a 2-factor model (brooding and reflection) in a child and early adolescent sample as well as examine sex differences and associations between depressive symptoms and these ruminative subtypes. Participants were children in 2nd through 7th grades (N = 303). Results of a confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesis that subtypes of rumination (2-factor model) are present in children and provided a better fit than a unitary construct of rumination (1-factor model). As predicted, girls endorsed higher levels of brooding than boys, and brooding (not reflection) was uniquely related to depressive symptoms. Results revealed that a distinction between brooding and reflection subtypes is warranted as it can help lead to better assessment and identification of risk factors of depression.
Analysis of low density codes and improved designs using irregular graphs

We introduce a new set of probabilistic analysis tools based on the analysis of And-Or trees with random inputs. These tools provide a unifying, intuitive, and powerful framework for carrying out the analysis of several previously studied random processes of interest, includingrandom loss-resilient codes, solving random k-SAT formula using the pure literal rule, and thegreedy algorithm for matchings in random graphs. In addition, these tools allow generalizations of these problems not previously analyzed to be analyzed in a straightforward manner. We illustrate our methodology on the three problems listed above
Quick and participatory: adopting users' designs to improve a mobile app

When improving small area or minor functions in mobile app, user research is often skipped or dismissed. In our approach, we suggest a method which combines cafe study and participatory design to capture users' needs quickly and clearly. We have conducted a 3-day user research with 44 participants in local cafes and asked them to make prototype UI of their ideal design. As a result of the research, we have found 3 patterns in users' designs and developed prototyping with those concepts. We expect that this method would be useful when improving specific features with limited time and resources.
New Constructions of General QAM Golay Complementary Sequences

There have been five constructions (Cases I to V) of 64-QAM Golay complementary sequences (GCSs), of which the Cases IV and V constructions were identified by Chang in 2010. The Generalized Cases I-III constructions for 4q-QAM (q ≥ 1) GCSs were additionally proposed by Li. In this paper, the Generalized Case IV and Generalized Case V constructions for 4q-QAM (q > =3) GCSs are proposed using selected Gaussian integer pairs, each of which contains two distinct Gaussian integers with identical magnitude and which are not conjugate with each other.
A 1+1 protection architecture for optical burst switched networks

High-capacity optical backbone networks protect their premium customers' information flows by routing two copies of the customer's data over disjoint paths. This scheme, known as 1+1 protection, provides extremely rapid recovery from network failures. We propose an architecture by which 1+1 protection can be extended to optical burst switched (OBS) networks. This architecture is designed by modifying the diversity routing architecture that was originally proposed for nonoptical packet networks and recently applied to networks employing the generalized multiprotocol label switched (GMPLS) architecture. We extend the architecture developed for just-in-time OBS signaling to support 1+1 protection. We also examine design issues that are raised by a difference in the propagation delays of the two disjoint paths across the OBS network. We show that a sufficiently large difference in the propagation delays can cause performance degradations that may result in an unsatisfactory quality-of-service on the protected connection. We examine the impact of this delay mismatch on restoration performance, probability of burst loss, and jitter. Through analysis and simulations, it is discussed how these negative effects can be eliminated.
Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing Series

High-dimensional and large-scale data are everywhere. Nowadays, the wide deployment of low-cost sensors has made it possible to continuously collect measurements for different purposes. Several real-world scenarios are: In Entertainment, the consumer devices such as Kinect could capture and process visual information and motion data in real time; In Social Network, people refine, upload, and comment on images or videos that are captured by mobile devices with high-definition (HD) cameras; In Visual Surveillance, the cameras deployed in public spaces are capturing the pedestrians and objects, in order to identify abnormal behaviors; In Digital Marketing, the online responses from customers could be collected from different channels, and integrated together to provide better recommendations; In Healthcare, the medical sensors for patient monitoring would provide a comprehensive understanding of patients. Learning representations from high-dimensional data collected in these scenarios drives intelligent applications. In this chapter, we introduce some critical issues in representation learning, describe the robust data representations, and present the organization of this book. Extracting informative features and inferring knowledge from big data is considered as an essential objective of data analytics. Particularly, learning feature representations plays a major role, as it mitigates the gap between low-level observed data and high-level semantic knowledge. To deal with the high-dimensional and large-scale data, intelligent and efficient representation learning models are highly desired. In the past decades, data mining and machine learning researchers have made significant progress toward modeling data for different analytics tasks. Two critical issues should be carefully addressed when designing the models. The first one is scalability. Data collected in real-world applications are keep growing in terms of data size and dimensionality. For instance, according to some statistics on social networks, every minute, over 400 h of videos are uploaded to YouTube, and more than 50,000 photos are presented to Instagram. A successful data mining model would be able to deal with a large amount of high-dimensional data efficiently. The second issue is model robustness. Many traditional models, especially the statistical learning based ones, pose strong assumptions on the underlying distribution of data. However, the data captured in real-world might be corrupted or contaminated with severe noise, which violates the underlying assumptions. Therefore, it is of © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 S. Li, Y. Fu, Robust Representation for Data Analytics, Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-60176-2_1 1
The system epilepsies: A pathophysiological hypothesis

We postulate that “system epilepsies” (SystE) are due to an enduring propensity to generate seizures of functionally characterized brain systems. Data supporting this hypothesis—that some types of epilepsy depend on the dysfunction of specific neural systems—are reviewed. The SystE hypothesis may drive pathophysiologic and clinical studies that can advance our understanding of epilepsies and can open up new therapeutic perspectives.
Social Engineering : Phishing for a Solution

Phishing-based social engineering attacks exploit human vulnerabilities as opposed to software vulnerabilities and as a result, these attacks pose a threat to unsuspecting end users. Our research measured users’ awareness of phishing attacks. A combination of legitimate and illegitimate email and website scenarios were presented to 153 participants through an online survey. The participants were required to determine which of the email and website scenarios were legitimate or illegitimate. In addition, the certificate of a website was presented in the study and the participants were required to indicate if they have ever checked for the certificate of a website. The participants who answered in the affirmative were required to indicate how to locate the certificate of a website. Furthermore, the participants of the survey were asked if they know the significance of the certificate of a website. The results of the study revealed a distinct lack of awareness amongst the majority of respondents due to the significant proportion of misclassification of emails and websites. In addition, the results revealed that identifying security indicators such as the certificate of a website is ineffective against phishing as the majority of respondents indicated that they have neither checked for the certificate of a website nor know its significance. The findings however revealed that the Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer (EV SSL) as a security indicator is quite effective against phishing.
Persistence of Chlamydia trachomatis Infection Detected by Polymerase Chain Reaction in Untreated Patients

Background Prior studies have used Chlamydia trachomatis culture methods to demonstrate both persistence and spontaneous clearance of genital C trachomatis infection. Objective To further assess the issue of persistence and spontaneous clearance of C trachomatis infection, untreated men and women were evaluated with repeated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Methods Ninety four untreated patients with a prior positive C trachomatis PCR test returning to the Denver Metro Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic were retested by PCR. Results The median and range intervals from initial to follow-up testing were 9.0 (2–112) days for men and 10.0 (2–231) days for women. Repeated PCR tests were positive for 29 of 36 men (80.6%) and 45 of 58 women (77.6%). Persistent PCR positivity did not decrease with a longer testing interval. By multivariate analysis, independent predictors of a persistently positive PCR test included nonwhite ethnicity, an interval of more than 3 days since last sexual encounter before the initial test, and an initial PCR optical density value of greater than or equal to 3.0. Conclusions In the absence of treatment, a large majority of patients testing positive for C trachomatis by PCR are likely to remain positive for variable periods of time, increasing the risk of transmission and immune-mediated damage. A low initial optical density value and recent sexual contact may be markers for exposure that does not establish infection.
Learning and Reality: Reflections on Trends in Adult Learning. Information Series No. 336.

The focus of thc, adult education field is shifting to adult learning. Current trends are the continued development of the concept: of andragogy and self-directed learning, increased emphasis on learning how to learn, and real-life learning. Cognitive psycholo,j is influencing work in adult learning. The concept of intelligence as it relates to adults is moving avay from the notion of IQ toward a recogn-it4.on that intelligence has multiple aspects. Application of the concept of learning style has been Hindered by confusion over terminology and lack of appropriate measurement instruments fc.1 adults. The teaching of learning strategies to adults tends to emphasize metacognition, memory, and ixtivation. Critical thinking is becoming more important in an environment complicated by an in_ormation explosion and rapid social and technological change. The influence of the social environment and culture upon learning is also being examined. The goal of learning in the social environment is action, often intended to cause social change. One method increasingly being used is participatory researcJ, the ultimate goal of which is empowerment. Current trends in adult learning research point to a new image of the ;Adult learner as an empowered learner--one who understands the learning process and the social environment and who can respond to ,. he challenges of improving that setting. Adult educators must take a more active stance to meet learner needs for individual development and social reconstruction. The shift of research focus to the adult learner holds potential for mending the fragmented nature of the field of adult education. (145
RNA Sequencing of the Exercise Transcriptome in Equine Athletes

The horse is an optimal model organism for studying the genomic response to exercise-induced stress, due to its natural aptitude for athletic performance and the relative homogeneity of its genetic and environmental backgrounds. Here, we applied RNA-sequencing analysis through the use of SOLiD technology in an experimental framework centered on exercise-induced stress during endurance races in equine athletes. We monitored the transcriptional landscape by comparing gene expression levels between animals at rest and after competition. Overall, we observed a shift from coding to non-coding regions, suggesting that the stress response involves the differential expression of not annotated regions. Notably, we observed significant post-race increases of reads that correspond to repeats, especially the intergenic and intronic L1 and L2 transposable elements. We also observed increased expression of the antisense strands compared to the sense strands in intronic and regulatory regions (1 kb up- and downstream) of the genes, suggesting that antisense transcription could be one of the main mechanisms for transposon regulation in the horse under stress conditions. We identified a large number of transcripts corresponding to intergenic and intronic regions putatively associated with new transcriptional elements. Gene expression and pathway analysis allowed us to identify several biological processes and molecular functions that may be involved with exercise-induced stress. Ontology clustering reflected mechanisms that are already known to be stress activated (e.g., chemokine-type cytokines, Toll-like receptors, and kinases), as well as “nucleic acid binding” and “signal transduction activity” functions. There was also a general and transient decrease in the global rates of protein synthesis, which would be expected after strenuous global stress. In sum, our network analysis points toward the involvement of specific gene clusters in equine exercise-induced stress, including those involved in inflammation, cell signaling, and immune interactions.
Prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Its Risk Factors in Chinese Pregnant Women: A Prospective Population-Based Study in Tianjin, China

Objective We compared the increases in the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) based on the 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria and its risk factors in Tianjin, China, over a 12-year period. We also examined the changes in the prevalence using the criteria of International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group (IADPSG). Methods In 2010-2012, 18589 women who registered within 12 weeks of gestation underwent a glucose challenge test (GCT) at 24-28 gestational weeks. Amongst them, 2953 women with 1-hour plasma glucose ≥7.8 mmol/L underwent a 75-gram 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and 781 women had a positive GCT but absented from the standard OGTT. An adjusted prevalence of GDM was calculated for the whole cohort of women by including an estimate of the proportion of women with positive GCTs who did not have OGTTs but would have been expected to have GDM. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals using the IADPSG criteria. The prevalence of GDM risk factors was compared to the 1999 survey. Results The adjusted prevalence of GDM by the 1999 WHO criteria was 8.1%, a 3.5-fold increase as in 1999. Using the IADPSG criteria increased the adjusted prevalence further to 9.3%. Advanced age, higher pre-pregnancy body mass index, Han-nationality, higher systolic blood pressure (BP), a family history of diabetes, weight gain during pregnancy and habitual smoking were risk factors for GDM. Compared to the 1999 survey, the prevalence of overweight plus obesity had increased by 1.8 folds, age≥30 years by 2.3 folds, systolic BP by 2.3 mmHg over the 12-year period. Conclusions Increasing prevalence of overweight/obesity and older age at pregnancy were accompanied by increasing prevalence of GDM, further increased by change in diagnostic criteria.
Designing the ideal selective estrogen receptor modulator-an achievable goal?

Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), which lack the estrogen steroid moiety yet retain the ability to bind the estrogen receptor (ER), are known to confer mixed ER agonist or antagonist effects depending on the target tissue. The tissue-selective effects of SERMs have led to considerations in the clinical profile of an ideal SERM, which would have ER agonist activity in tissues where mimicking the action of estrogens is desirable, and ER neutral or antagonist activity in tissues estrogens have been shown to adversely stimulate. A number of newer SERMs, including bazedoxifene, lasofoxifene, ospemifene, and arzoxifene, are currently in clinical development for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis and for other indications. Although the possibility of developing a single agent that has all of the desired characteristics of an ideal SERM seems to be unlikely, progress in the clinical development of SERMs targeted to the ER suggests that these newer compounds may have attributes that represent an improvement relative to existing SERMs. Further clinical investigation will help to clarify the relative benefits and risks of novel SERMs in development within specific indications.
A Parallelization of ECDSA Resistant to Simple Power Analysis Attacks

The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm admits a natural parallelization wherein the point multiplication step can be split in two parts and executed in parallel. Further parallelism is achieved by executing a portion of the multiprecision arithmetic operations in parallel with point multiplication. This results in a saving in timing as well as gate count when the two paths are implemented in hardware and software. This article attempts to exploit this parallelism in a typical system context in which a microprocessor is always present though a hardware accelerator is being designed for performance. We discuss some implementation aspects of this design with reference to power analysis attacks. We show how the Montgomery point multiplication and the binary extended gcd algorithms can be adapted to prevent simple power analysis attacks. We implemented our design using a hardware/software parallel architecture. We present the results when the software component is coded on an 8051 architecture and an ARM7TDMI processor. Our enhancements find applications in security environments such as servers, smart cards etc.
A hybrid stochastic-deterministic input design method for active fault diagnosis

The problem of designing an input to improve the detectability of faults has been addressed previously using both stochastic and deterministic formulations. This article presents a hybrid approach that provides a worst-case guarantee of diagnosis within a time interval [0,N], while maximizing the probability of diagnosis at some earlier time M <; N. Compared to purely deterministic methods, this strategy reduces the average time required for diagnosis. Moreover, a high probability of diagnosis at M enables N to be chosen large, thus reducing the conservatism of the required input.
A newly high-speed equalizer for QAM signals

A new algorithm SGD-CMA for QAM signals in high-speed equalizer is presented in this paper. SGD-CMA integrates conventional CMA and DD-LMS under stop-and-go principle. The SGD-CMA equalizer performs six times faster, with 3~5 dB better in rudimental MSE, more rapidly on capturing the channel variety than conventional CMA and almost the same error rate characteristic, while decreasing 82% of operation complexity and increasing 5% of hardware consumption. MATLAB simulations support SGD-CMA on all performance and characteristics, validating its feasibility and advantages. Finally using CMOS 0.18 mum library to synthesis, the new equalizer is embedded into DVB-C demodulation chip, and chip test result shows that the performance of the new equalizer is better.
Implications for public health demands alternatives to inorganic and synthetic flocculants: bioflocculants as important candidates

Chemical flocculants are generally used in drinking water and wastewater treatment due to their efficacy and cost effectiveness. However, the question of their toxicity to human health and environmental pollution has been a major concern. In this article, we review the application of some chemical flocculants utilized in water treatment, and bioflocculants as a potential alternative to these chemical flocculants. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report in the literature that provides an up‐to‐date review of the relevant literature on both chemical flocculants and bioflocculants in one paper. As a result, this review paper comprehensively discussed the various chemical flocculants used in water treatment, including their advantages and disadvantages. It also gave insights into bioflocculants production, challenges, various factors influencing their flocculating efficiency and their industrial applications, as well as future research directions including improvement of bioflocculants yields and flocculating activity, and production of cation‐independent bioflocculants. The molecular biology and synthesis of bioflocculants are also discussed.
Gamete Recognition in Mice Depends on the Cleavage Status of an Egg’s Zona Pellucida Protein

Getting Gametes Together Despite decades of research, the molecular basis of sperm-egg recognition in mammals remains unresolved. Models in which a glycan ligand in the zona pellucida (ZP) surrounding ovulated eggs binds to a sperm surface receptor have been widely embraced. A more recent model proposes that the cleavage status of a ZP protein, ZP2, renders the structure of the zona matrix either permissive or nonpermissive for sperm binding. Gahlay et al. (p. 216) tested predictions of each model by replacing endogenous zona proteins with either a mutant form of ZP2 that could not be cleaved or of ZP3 that lacked O glycan attachment sites. Sperm-egg recognition depended on the cleavage status of ZP2 rather than on glycan ligands released following fertilization. The cleavage status of the egg protein ZP2 regulates the recognition of sperm and prevents adherence of sperm to the two-cell embryo. At fertilization, mouse sperm bind to the zona pellucida (which consists of glycoproteins ZP1, ZP2, and ZP3) that surrounds eggs. A ZP2 cleavage model of gamete recognition requires intact ZP2, and a glycan release model postulates that zona glycans are ligands for sperm. These two models were tested by replacing endogenous protein with ZP2 that cannot be cleaved (Zp2Mut) or with ZP3 lacking implicated O glycans (Zp3Mut). Sperm bound to two-cell Zp2Mut embryos despite fertilization and cortical granule exocytosis. Contrary to prediction, sperm fertilized Zp3Mut eggs. Sperm at the surface of the zona pellucida remained acrosome-intact for more than 2 hours and were displaced by additional sperm. These data indicate that sperm-egg recognition depends on the cleavage status of ZP2 and that binding at the surface of the zona is not sufficient to induce sperm acrosome exocytosis.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids, hyperlipidemia, and thrombosis.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Families and Interrelationships Omega-6 Fatty Acids and Plasma Lipids Plasma Cholesterol Plasma Triglycerlde Plasma LJpoprotelns and Apolipoproteins Hypolipldemic Mechanisms of Linoleic Acid Decrease in Cholesterol Absorption Increase in Fecal Steroid Excretion Reduced Cholesterol Synthesis and the Transfer of Cholesterol to the Tissues Decrease in Cholesterol Content of LJpoproteins Changes in the Rates of Synthesis and Catabolism of LJpoproteins Membrane Fatty Acid Composition and Upoprotein Metabolism