Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why comparative effort prediction studies may be invalid

Background: Many cost estimation papers are based on finding a "new" estimation method, trying out the method on one or two past datasets and "proving" that the new method is better than linear regression. Aim: This paper aims to explain why this approach to model comparison is often invalid and to suggest that the PROMISE repository may be making things worse. Method: We identify some of the theoretical problems with studies that compare different estimation models. We review some of the commonly used datasets from the viewpoint of the reliability of the data and the validity of the proposed linear regression models. Discussion points: It is invalid to select one or two datasets to "prove" the validity of a new technique because we cannot be sure that, of the many published datasets, those chosen are the only ones that favour the new technique. When new models are compared with regression models, researchers need to understand how to use regression analysis appropriately. The use of linear regression presupposes: a linear relationship between dependent and independent variables, no significant outliers, no significant skewness, no relationship between the variance of the dependent variable and the magnitude of the variable. If all these conditions are not true, standard statistical practice is to use a robust regression or transform the data. The logarithmic transformation is appropriate in many cases, and for the Desharnais dataset gives better results than the regression model presented in the PROMISE repository. Conclusions: Simplistic studies comparing data intensive methods with linear regression will be scientifically valueless, if the regression techniques are applied incorrectly. They are also suspect if only a small number of datasets are used and the selection of those datasets is not scientifically justified.
Software evolution with CVS : an experiment and some general implications

Systematic evolution of a successful system requires knowledge of similarities and differences among the released systems. The more detailed and accurate the knowledge, the easier the development of new releases via reuse of functionality already implemented in the past releases. Software Configuration Management (SCM) tools such as CVS are commonly used in industry to support evolution. CVS stores component versions and their configurations that appeared in past releases. Changes among any two component versions can be easily obtained. In this paper, we analyze problems with effective support for evolution with CVS. The paper is built around an experiment in which we emulate evolutionary changes, and analyze program modifications involved in accomplishing those changes. The main problems that we observed are: (1) the difficulty to control explosion of component versions in view of many new features and feature dependencies arising in evolution, (2) the difficulty to reuse functionality implemented in past releases in building new releases, (3) the difficulty to effectively propagate new features to selected releases, (4) the lack of a mechanism to accumulate and explicate the knowledge of similarities and differences among released systems, and (5) uncontrolled growth of the overall complexity of evolution knowledge caused by that. We argue that many of those problems are difficult to solve with SCMs, as long as we manage evolution in terms of concrete component versions. As a possible treatment of the above problems, we outline an alternative approach to software evolution, in which rather than storing versions of concrete components, we store the knowledge of how to obtain required component versions and their configurations from generic meta-components.
Towards an Archival Approach to Digital Identity Management

Identity, in the context of our communal online space, is a fungible concept. Who we are, how we represent ourselves, how we’re identified, how we’re verified, and how we’re investigated all are critical components of the larger notion of online identity. To that extent, the field is truly multi-faceted; cryptographers and computer scientists debate procedures of verification and authentication, sociologists and those in the cultural studies fields examine our “senses” of identity, and information scientists and systems developers attempt to develop tools that will help us collect, manage, store and retrieve elements of our personal identity at a later date. Viewing all these parts holistically, one can clearly see that the results of our lifetime identity production compose a set of documents (or, a document representation of our life). If we are to create a constant digital record of our identity production, how are we to manage it? The challenges are both traditional and
Mechanisms of oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction

The endothelium regulates vascular homoeostasis through local elaboration of mediators that modulate vascular tone, platelet adhesion, inflammation, fibrinolysis, and vascular growth. Impaired vascular function contributes to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and acute coronary syndromes. There is growing pathophysiological evidence that increased generation of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress participates in proatherogenic mechanisms of vascular dysfunction and atherothrombosis. In this review, the role of oxidative stress in mechanisms of vascular dysfunction is discussed, and potential antioxidant strategies are reviewed.
Intraspecific variability of the pulse-type discharges of the African electric fishes, Pollimyrus isidori and Petrocephalus bovei (Mormyridae, Teleostei), and their dependence on water conductivity.

The electric organ discharge (EOD) of the mormyrid Pollimyrus isidori is a short pulse with three phases: (1) weak head positive (P1); (2) strong head negative (N); (3) weak head positive (P2). 1. At a stable water conductivity (100 microS/cm), which is near the upper end of the natural range in tropical Africa, there was a statistically significant difference between the sexes only in one of five EOD parameters, the P-ratio. The P1-amplitude was lower than the P2-amplitude (i.e. P1/P2 less than 1) in males (N = 10), while, on average, the opposite (P1/P2 greater than 1) was true for females (N = 14). Because of wide overlapping we do not consider this sex difference to be a sexual dimorphism. The difference between males and females could be due to well-known biophysical and physiological reasons (discussed later) and need not be the result of intraspecific selection (such as female choice). 2. Water conductivity seriously affected the EOD waveform. The P-ratio decreased in 2/3 of our fish (16 out of 24), as conductivity increased from 5 to 200 microS/cm, causing 6 out of 14 females to change from a P-ratio of greater than 1 to a P-ratio of less than 1, becoming more "male-like". P1 amplitude increased with decreasing conductivity in the EODs of 5 out of 10 males to a more "female-like" shape (P-ratio greater than 1). The P-ratio changed only slightly when above a conductivity of 200 microS/cm. The N-wave duration increased with decreasing conductivity, while the peak amplitude frequency of an EOD amplitude spectrum decreased. 3. Long-term stability was found to be poor in the EOD of 1 female (better in 2 other fish), which changed from a "female-like" waveform (P-ratio greater than 1) to a "male-like" waveform (P-ratio less than 1 over the whole conductivity range) without apparent reason within 120 days. 4. The EOD waveform of Petrocephalus bovei did not show a sex difference. Decreasing conductivity affected the EOD of P. bovei in a similar way to most P. isidori: the P1-wave increased and the P2-wave decreased, while the N-wave broadened strongly. 5. The occurrence of multiple discharges per primary neural command signal at very low conductivities, indicates that P. isidori is adapted to conductivities above 17 microS/cm, and P. bovei to those above 5 microS/cm. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Role of nuclear receptor Nur 77 during inflammation

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Sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children: quality of life.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children on their quality of life (QoL). DESIGN Prospective cohort-control study. SETTING Tertiary academic referral center. PATIENTS Thirty children with prelingual deafness underwent sequential bilateral cochlear implantation (mean age at first implant, 1.8 years; mean age at second implant, 5.3 years). Nine children with a unilateral cochlear implant were also included in the study. All children had prelingual deafness, had good implant performance, and had no benefit from a contralateral conventional hearing aid. The groups were matched on duration of unilateral implant use, chronological age, and degree of bilateral hearing loss. INTERVENTION Sequential bilateral cochlear implantation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Quality of life was assessed before surgery of the second implant and after 12 and 24 months of bilateral implant use. In the children with a unilateral cochlear implant, QoL was assessed over time and was compared with the study group after 12 and 24 months. Six questionnaires were used to measure QoL: overall health status using a visual analog scale; the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3); the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL); the Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory (GCBI); the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ); and the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ). RESULTS Results showed no significant gain in generic QoL measures associated with sequential bilateral cochlear implantation (P > .05). The nonsignificant effect yielded on the HUI3 could be attributed to the ceiling effect and the lack of resolution in the hearing domain obtained in cochlear implant recipients. The gain in QoL of +0.04 may, therefore, be underestimated. In contrast, the 3 disease-specific questionnaires showed a significant improvement in QoL (P < .05). Results also showed that, unlike the children with a unilateral implant, QoL measures continued to improve with longer durations of bilateral implant use. Within the study group, the age at second implantation had no influence on the gain in QoL (P > .05). CONCLUSION Sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children is associated with an improvement in QoL, although this is predominantly reflected in the disease-related aspects of QoL and not necessarily in generic QoL.
Pro-tumorigenic Effects of miR-31 Loss in Mesothelioma*

The human genome encodes several hundred microRNA (miRNA) genes that produce small (21–23n) single strand regulatory RNA molecules. Although abnormal expression of miRNAs has been linked to cancer progression, the mechanisms of this dysregulation are poorly understood. Malignant mesothelioma (MM) of pleura is an aggressive and highly lethal cancer resistant to conventional therapies. We and others previously linked loss of the 9p21.3 chromosome in MM with short time to tumor recurrence. In this study, we report that MM cell lines derived from patients with more aggressive disease fail to express miR-31, a microRNA recently linked with suppression of breast cancer metastases. We further demonstrate that this loss is due to homozygous deletion of the miR-31-encoding gene that resides in 9p21.3. Functional assessment of miR-31 activity revealed its ability to inhibit proliferation, migration, invasion, and clonogenicity of MM cells. Re-introduction of miR-31 suppressed the cell cycle and inhibited expression of multiple factors involved in cooperative maintenance of DNA replication and cell cycle progression, including pro-survival phosphatase PPP6C, which was previously associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy resistance, and maintenance of chromosomal stability. PPP6C, whose mRNA is distinguished with three miR-31-binding sites in its 3′-untranslated region, was consistently down-regulated by miR-31 introduction and up-regulated in clinical MM specimens as compared with matched normal tissues. Taken together, our data suggest that tumor-suppressive propensity of miR-31 can be used for development of new therapies against mesothelioma and other cancers that show loss of the 9p21.3 chromosome.
Emergency EEG and Continuous EEG Monitoring in Acute Ischemic Stroke

There is physiologic coupling of EEG morphology, frequencies, and amplitudes with cerebral blood flow. Intraoperative continuous electroencephalographic monitoring (CEEG) is an established modality that has been used for 30 years to detect cerebral ischemia during carotid surgery. These facts have generated interest in applying EEG/CEEG in the intensive care unit to monitor cerebral ischemia. However, its use in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) has been limited, and its value has been questioned in comparison with modern MRI imaging techniques and the clinical neurologic examination. This review presents evidence that EEG/CEEG adds value to early diagnosis, outcome prediction, patient selection for treatment, clinical management, and seizure detection in AIS. Research studies correlating EEG/CEEG and advanced imaging techniques in AIS are encouraged. Improvements in real-time ischemia detection systems are needed for EEG/CEEG to have wider application in AIS.
GRE3D7: A Corpus of Distinguishing Descriptions for Objects in Visual Scenes

Recent years have seen a trend towards empirically motivated and more data-driven approaches in the field of referring expression generation (REG). Much of this work has focussed on initial reference to objects in visual scenes. While this scenario of use is one of the strongest contenders for real-world applications of referring expression generation, existing data sets still only embody very simple stimulus scenes. To move this research forward, we require data sets built around increasingly complex scenes, and we need much larger data sets to accommodate their higher dimensionality. To control the complexity, we also need to adopt a hypothesis-driven approach to scene design. In this paper, we describe GRE3D7, the largest corpus of human-produced distinguishing descriptions available to date, discuss the hypotheses that underlie its design, and offer a number of analyses of the 4480 descriptions it contains.
Plasma markers of oxidative stress are uncorrelated in a wild mammal

Abstract Oxidative stress, which results from an imbalance between the production of potentially damaging reactive oxygen species versus antioxidant defenses and repair mechanisms, has been proposed as an important mediator of life‐history trade‐offs. A plethora of biomarkers associated with oxidative stress exist, but few ecological studies have examined the relationships among different markers in organisms experiencing natural conditions or tested whether those relationships are stable across different environments and demographic groups. It is therefore not clear to what extent studies of different markers can be compared, or whether studies that focus on a single marker can draw general conclusions regarding oxidative stress. We measured widely used markers of oxidative damage (protein carbonyls and malondialdehyde) and antioxidant defense (superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity) from 706 plasma samples collected over a 4‐year period in a wild population of Soay sheep on St Kilda. We quantified the correlation structure among these four markers across the entire sample set and also within separate years, age groups (lambs and adults), and sexes. We found some moderately strong correlations between some pairs of markers when data from all 4 years were pooled. However, these correlations were caused by considerable among‐year variation in mean marker values; correlation coefficients were small and not significantly different from zero after accounting for among‐year variation. Furthermore, within each year, age, and sex subgroup, the pairwise correlation coefficients among the four markers were weak, nonsignificant, and distributed around zero. In addition, principal component analysis confirmed that the four markers represented four independent axes of variation. Our results suggest that plasma markers of oxidative stress may vary dramatically among years, presumably due to environmental conditions, and that this variation can induce population‐level correlations among markers even in the absence of any correlations within contemporaneous subgroups. The absence of any consistent correlations within years or demographic subgroups implies that care must be taken when generalizing from observed relationships with oxidative stress markers, as each marker may reflect different and potentially uncoupled biochemical processes.
Understanding women's attitudes towards wife beating in Zimbabwe.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the factors associated with attitudes towards wife beating among women in partnerships in Zimbabwe in order to assist public health practitioners in preventing intimate partner violence (IPV). METHODS A nationally representative survey of 5907 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) was conducted in Zimbabwe. Women were asked about their attitudes towards wife beating in five situations. The survey included sociodemographic characteristics, partnership characteristics, and household decision-making. FINDINGS Over half of all women in Zimbabwe (53%) believed that wife beating was justified in at least one of the five situations. Respondents were most likely to find wife beating justified if a wife argued with her spouse (36%), neglected her children (33%), or went out without telling her spouse (30%). Among women in partnerships (n=3077), younger age, living in rural areas, lower household wealth, schooling at a lower level than secondary, and lower occupational status were associated with women reporting that wife beating is justified. Women who reported that they make household decisions jointly with their partners were less likely to say that wife beating is justified. CONCLUSIONS Zimbabwe has a long way to go in preventing IPV, particularly because the younger generation of women is significantly more likely to believe that wife beating is justified compared with older women. Given the current social and political climate in Zimbabwe, finding means to negotiate rather than settle conflict through violence is essential from the household level to the national level.
On Minimizing Base Station Power Consumption

We consider resource allocation over a wireless downlink where Base Station (BS) power consumption is minimized while upholding a set of required link rates. A Power and Resource Allocation Including Sleep (PRAIS) method is proposed that combines resource sharing, Power Control (PC), and Discontinuous Transmission (DTX), such that downlink power consumption is minimized, which can be formed into a convex optimization problem. Unlike conventional approaches that aim at minimizing transmit power, in this work the BS mains supply power is chosen as the relevant metric. Based on a linear power model, which maps a certain transmit power to the necessary mains supply power, we quantify the fundamental limits of PRAIS in terms of achievable BS power savings. The fundamental limits are numerically evaluated on link level for four sets of BS power model parameters representative of envisaged future hardware developments. We establish an expected lower limit for PRAIS of 27W to 68W depending on load per link for BSs installed in 2014, which provides a 61% to 34% gain over conventional resource allocation schemes.
Endogenous Aeromonas Hydrophila Endophthalmitis in an Immunocompromised Patient

Purpose To report a case of endogenous endophthalmitis due to Aeromonas hydrophila in a patient with distal common bile duct carcinoma and biliary sepsis. Methods A 72-year-old woman with distal common bile duct carcinoma, obstructive jaundice, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension had a 1-day history of blurred vision, redness, and eye discharges in the right eye. An ophthalmic examination showed no light perception vision, increased intraocular pressure, severe corneal edema, severe anterior chamber reaction, exudative membranes on the anterior lens surface, and severe vitreal reaction. There was no ocular history of trauma, infection, or surgery in either eye. Results Under the impression of endogenous bacterial endophthalmitis, immediate intraocular cultures and intravitreal antibiotic injections were performed, but the anterior chamber reaction, and the ultrasonogram findings were deteriorated. Evisceration was undertakened because of extrusion of the intraocular contents, and Aeromonas hydrophila was isolated by intraocular culture. Conclusions Endogenous endophthalmitis due to Aeromonas hydrophila is rare, but has a rapid clinical course and a poor prognosis, despite of prompt diagnosis and management.
DNA damage evaluated by the comet assay in lymphocytes of Ukrainian children with detectable 137Cs internal contamination

The comet assay is actually one of the most widespread tool to evaluate DNA damage. Its sensibility to low dose radiation has been tested in vitro, both there is a limited data showing its application and sensibility in chronic exposure situation, where the assay seem to be more useful. The influence of the internal contamination caused by the Chernobyl accident on the level of DNA damage was evaluated by the comet assay on lymphocytes of 56 Ukrainian children. The study was performed at the beginning of the 2003 year on children with demonstrable 137 Cs internal contamination caused by the food consumption. The children were selected for the study immediately after a 137 Cs whole body counter measurement of the internal contamination. The minimal detectable amount (MDA) of 137 Cs was 75 Becquerel. The control group included 29 children without a detectable internal contamination, while in the exposed group 27 children with the internal contamination over the MDA were included. Blood sample was taken by a finger prick, the alkaline version of the comet assay was used, in a combination with silver stained comets and arbitrary units for comet measurement. Factors like children disease, medical treatment, surface contamination of children living location, etc was considered in the study. Non significant differences (p>0.05) on DNA damage in control (10.15±7.27 Arbitrary Units) versus exposed (8.93±5.97 Arbitrary Units) group were found. These results suggest that low doses of Cs internal contamination are not able to produce detectable DNA damage under the conditions used for the comet assay in this study. Further studies considering highest exposition on chronically exposed people should be performed using this assay.
SharpSpider: spidering the Web through Web services

Web search engines have become an indispensable utility for Internet users. In the near future, however, Web search engines will not only be expected to provide quality search results, but also to enable applications to search and exploit their index repositories directly. We present here SharpSpider, a distributed, C# spider designed to address the issues of scalability, decentralisation and continuity of a Web crawl. Fundamental to the design of SharpSpider is the publication of an API for use by other services on the network. Such an API grants access to a constantly refreshed index buiU after successive crawls of the Web.