Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Politicization of Science and Support for Scientific Innovations (WP-13-11)

Does the politicization of science influence support for scientific innovations? Can it render appeals to evidence inconsequential? The authors use an experiment embedded within a large survey to study these questions, focusing on how exposure to information that highlights the politicization of science affects support for using nuclear power. They find that politicizing science renders arguments about the environmental benefits of nuclear energy invalid, with or without a reference to consensus scientific evidence, and, in fact, reduces support for using it. The authors’ goal is to set an agenda of research that focuses on how the politicization of science shapes public opinion. The findings have implications for the future of scientific innovations in today’s politicized scientific
A culture of persistence: untold stories of degree attainment from GED earners in the community college

The purpose of this dissertation was to better understand under what conditions degree attainment takes place for GED recipients enrolled in the community college, and to research this question from the perspectives of the participants. To achieve this goal, I interviewed 13 participants who met the criteria to participate in this study, which was to have earned a GED or other alternative high school credential and to have graduated with an associate degree. Another objective of this study was to develop a grounded theory to explain how the participants were able to persist in attaining a postsecondary degree. A theoretical model was developed that is grounded in the participants’ experiences and depicts a culture of persistence as the central phenomenon. The four main categories or causal conditions found in the data were (a) interacting in the classroom, (b) participating in a multiplicity of support, (c) learning in a connected environment, and (d) experiencing freedom. Persistence is a process, and, as such, needs to be considered in its interconnectedness. These findings highlight the complex and interwoven ways in which the experiences in the classroom shape persistence. The participants felt the type of environment described by a culture of persistence aided them in completing their programs. The intent of this study is to provide community college educators and administrators with a lens that is contradictory to the dominant narratives and assumptions concerning GED earners. Findings from this study have practical implications for those who wish to foster the success of GED earners enrolled in the community college system. I suggest a number of imperatives for both administrators and educators that are based on the theoretical model.
Foundation-based mobile platform software engineering: implications to convergence to open source software

Open source is impacting software industry in a significant manner. It is critical for any software vendor to take an appropriate position in the open-source-involved software engineering. It is also true in the platform software for mobile handsets. The author analyzes the platform software landscapes in the mobile industry with a perspective of utilizing open source software. The author performs competitive analysis for many stake holders in this landscape.
Proteomic Differences between Listeria monocytogenes Isolates from Food and Clinical Environments

Listeria monocytogenes is an organism associated with a wide range of foods. It causes listeriosis, a severe illness that mainly affects people with weakened immune systems. Proteomic profiles of three different L. monocytogenes isolates were studied using 1D SDS PAGE, 2DE and mass spectrometry. The protein banding patterns generated by 1D SDS PAGE of three strains of L. monocytogenes were found to be similar. Visual observations from 2DE gel maps revealed that certain spots appeared to have intensity differences. Key differences in proteins synthesis of three strains of L. monocytogenes were found using the PDQest TM 2DE Analysis software. Comparison showed that the clinical isolate (strain SB92/844) had 53.4% and 53.9% protein profile similarity with dairy isolate (strain V7) and seafood isolate (SB92/870), respectively. The identity of selected protein spots was achieved using MALDI-TOF and ion trap mass spectrometry. It was found that certain identified proteins (i.e., a major cold shock protein and superoxide dismutase) were expressed differently between two local strains of L. monocytogenes (SB92/844, SB92/870) and one strain from overseas (V7).
Assessing the Risk of Ships Striking Large Whales in Marine Spatial Planning

Marine spatial planning provides a comprehensive framework for managing multiple uses of the marine environment and has the potential to minimize environmental impacts and reduce conflicts among users. Spatially explicit assessments of the risks to key marine species from human activities are a requirement of marine spatial planning. We assessed the risk of ships striking humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), blue (Balaenoptera musculus), and fin (Balaenoptera physalus) whales in alternative shipping routes derived from patterns of shipping traffic off Southern California (U.S.A.). Specifically, we developed whale‐habitat models and assumed ship‐strike risk for the alternative shipping routes was proportional to the number of whales predicted by the models to occur within each route. This definition of risk assumes all ships travel within a single route. We also calculated risk assuming ships travel via multiple routes. We estimated the potential for conflict between shipping and other uses (military training and fishing) due to overlap with the routes. We also estimated the overlap between shipping routes and protected areas. The route with the lowest risk for humpback whales had the highest risk for fin whales and vice versa. Risk to both species may be ameliorated by creating a new route south of the northern Channel Islands and spreading traffic between this new route and the existing route in the Santa Barbara Channel. Creating a longer route may reduce the overlap between shipping and other uses by concentrating shipping traffic. Blue whales are distributed more evenly across our study area than humpback and fin whales; thus, risk could not be ameliorated by concentrating shipping traffic in any of the routes we considered. Reducing ship‐strike risk for blue whales may be necessary because our estimate of the potential number of strikes suggests that they are likely to exceed allowable levels of anthropogenic impacts established under U.S. laws.
PARTICLE MODEL FOR FRACTURE AND STATISTICAL MICRO-MACRO CORRELATION OF MATERIAL CONSTANTS

The paper presents a brief overview of several recent studies at Northwestern University. An efficient type of random particle model, representing a special case of the discrete element method, is pre­ sented, used to determine the correlation between micro and macro fracture characteristics, and applied to the simulation of quasibrittle fracture. The particle locations are generated randomly and the me­ chanical behavior is characterized by a triangular softening force­ displacement diagram for the interparticle links. An efficient solu­ tion algorithm based on replacement of stiffness changes by inelastic applied forces is formulated. The size effect method is used to deter­ mine the dependence of the mean values of the macroscopic fracture energy and macroscopic effective fracture process zone length on the dominant particle spacing, micro ductility, and the mean value and standard deviation of microstrength. In closing, an application of the dynamic version of the model to the breakup of a plate caused by in-plane impact is described.
Leveraging a Generalized Tutoring Framework in Exploratory Simulations Of Ill-Defined Domains

Generalized frameworks for constructing intelligent tutors, such as GIFT promise many benefits. These benefits should be extended to systems that work in ill-defined domains, especially in simulation environments. This paper presents ideas for understanding how ill-defined domains change the tutoring dynamic in simulated environments and proposes some initial extensions to GIFT that accommodate these challenges.
A 240 GHz direct conversion IQ receiver in 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology

A 240 GHz direct conversion IQ receiver manufactured in 0.13 SiGe BiCMOS technology with fT/fmax of 300/500 GHz is presented. The receiver consists of a four stage LNA, an active power divider, an LO IQ generation network, and direct down-conversion fundamental mixers. The integrated IQ receiver yields a conversion gain of 18 dB, an 18 dB simulated DSB NF, and a 3 dB bandwidth of 25 GHz. The required 245 GHz LO power is in the order of -10 dBm. The receiver exhibits an IQ amplitude and phase imbalance of 1 dB and 3° respectively. It draws 135 mA from the 3.5 V supply and 20 mA from 2 V.
Multidimensional text classification for drug information

This paper proposes a multidimensional model for classifying drug information text documents. The concept of multidimensional category model is introduced for representing classes. In contrast with traditional flat and hierarchical category models, the multidimensional category model classifies each document using multiple predefined sets of categories, where each set corresponds to a dimension. Since a multidimensional model can be converted to flat and hierarchical models, three classification approaches are possible, i.e., classifying directly based on the multidimensional model and classifying with the equivalent flat or hierarchical models. The efficiency of these three approaches is investigated using drug information collection with two different dimensions: 1) drug topics and 2) primary therapeutic classes. In the experiments, k-nearest neighbor, na/spl inodot//spl uml/ve Bayes, and two centroid-based methods are selected as classifiers. The comparisons among three approaches of classification are done using two-way analysis of variance, followed by the Scheffe/spl acute/'s test for post hoc comparison. The experimental results show that multidimensional-based classification performs better than the others, especially in the presence of a relatively small training set. As one application, a category-based search engine using the multidimensional category concept was developed to help users retrieve drug information.
Cell competition: Winning out by losing notch

Cell competition where ‘loser’ cells are eliminated by neighbors with higher fitness is a widespread phenomenon in development. However, a growing body of evidence argues cells with somatic mutations compete with their wild type counterparts in the earliest stages of cancer development. Recent studies have begun to shed light on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that alter the competitiveness of cells carrying somatic mutations in adult tissues. Cells with a ‘winner’ phenotype create clones which may expand into extensive fields of mutant cells within normal appearing epithelium, favoring the accumulation of further genetic alterations and the evolution of cancer. Here we focus on how mutations which disrupt the Notch signaling pathway confer a ‘super competitor’ status on cells in squamous epithelia and consider the broader implications for cancer evolution.
Teaching machine learning from examples

We used the datasets of the NIPS 2003 challenge on feature selection as part of the practical work of an undergraduate course on feature extraction. The students were provided with a toolkit implemented in Matlab. Part of the course requirements was that they should outperform given baseline methods. The results were beyond expectations: the student matched or exceeded the performance of the best challenge entries and achieved very effective feature selection with simple methods. We make available to the community the results of this experiment and the corresponding teaching material [16].
Competencias matemáticas tempranas y actitud hacia las tareas matemáticas variables predictoras del rendimiento académico en educación primaria: resultados preliminares

The research presents the role of Early Mathematical Competencies (CMT from now on) regarding school performance, both in the general field, as well as specific in Mathematics and Language of Chilean students. In this way, it is expected to provide information about the predictive value of the evaluation of the CMT regarding the success or failure of school that the child will have later during their school itinerary. Based on the analyzes carried out, it was found that CMTs are significantly related to performance in Mathematics and Language, as well as in general performance, during all school years after the evaluation, in all schools where the study was conducted. In the same way, other psychological variables were evaluated and integrated into a linear regression interaction model. It was found that the attitude towards mathematical tasks has a crucial role in the explanation of the variability of school performance, analyzed in the different learning areas. It highlights the role that logical intelligence has to have a close relationship with performance. Similarly, the role of factors associated with school coexistence is observed, noting that the aspects of victimization, aggression, indiscipline and teacher neglect, were significantly related to the performance of students. The initial hypothesis was confirmed that as long as there is a higher level of development of the CMT, the academic performance of the participants tends to be better, tending also to achieve better scores in tasks of logical-inductive reasoning. According to the results obtained through the correlation analysis between the CMT (evaluated with the Utrech Test, TEMT-U) and the attitude towards the mathematical tasks, it is found that in almost all the dimensions there is a statistically significant relationship and character inversely proportional. In general, students who achieved higher levels of CMT tend to have lower scores on the Attitude Questionnaire for Mathematical Tasks. This can be interpreted as the fact that the boys and girls who performed well in the TEMT-U were the ones who, in general, presented a favorable attitude towards the Mathematical Tasks and vice versa.
Blue-Violet Light Irradiation Dose Dependently Decreases Carotenoids in Human Skin, Which Indicates the Generation of Free Radicals

In contrast to ultraviolet and infrared irradiation, which are known to facilitate cutaneous photoaging, immunosuppression, or tumour emergence due to formation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species, potentially similar effects of visible light on the human skin are still poorly characterized. Using a blue-violet light irradiation source and aiming to characterize its potential influence on the antioxidant status of the human skin, the cutaneous carotenoid concentration was measured noninvasively in nine healthy volunteers using resonance Raman spectroscopy following irradiation. The dose-dependent significant degradation of carotenoids was measured to be 13.5% and 21.2% directly after irradiation at 50 J/cm² and 100 J/cm² (P < 0.05). The irradiation intensity was 100 mW/cm². This is above natural conditions; the achieved doses, though, are acquirable under natural conditions. The corresponding restoration lasted 2 and 24 hours, respectively. The degradation of cutaneous carotenoids indirectly shows the amount of generated free radicals and especially reactive oxygen species in human skin. In all volunteers the cutaneous carotenoid concentration dropped down in a manner similar to that caused by the infrared or ultraviolet irradiations, leading to the conclusion that also blue-violet light at high doses could represent a comparably adverse factor for human skin.
Single-qubit optical quantum fingerprinting

We show that single qubit quantum fingerprinting without shared randomness is feasible with linear optics and is demonstrably superior to its classical counterpart. Furthermore a shared source of entanglement, provided for example by a parametric down converter, permits 100% reliable quantum fingerprinting, which outperforms classical fingerprinting even with arbitrary amounts of shared randomness.
The IRAM-30 m line survey of the Horsehead PDR - IV. Comparative chemistry of H2CO and CH3OH

Context. Theoretical models and laboratory experiments show that CH3OH is efficiently formed on cold grain surfaces through the successive hydrogenation of CO, forming HCO and H2CO as intermediate species. In cold cores and low UV-field illumination photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) the ices can be released into the gas-phase through nonthermal processes such as photodesorption, which considerably increases their gas-phase abundances. Aims: We investigate the dominant formation mechanism of H2CO and CH3OH in the Horsehead PDR and its associated dense core. Methods: We performed deep integrations of several H2CO and CH3OH lines at two positions in the Horsehead, namely the PDR and dense core, with the IRAM-30 m telescope. In addition, we observed one H2CO higher-frequency line with the CSO telescope at both positions. We determined the H2CO and CH3OH column densities and abundances from the single-dish observations complemented with IRAM-PdBI high-angular resolution maps (6'') of both species. We compared the observed abundances with PDR models including either pure gas-phase chemistry or both gas-phase and grain surface chemistry. Results: We derived CH3OH abundances relative to total number of hydrogen atoms of ~1.2 × 10-10 and ~2.3 × 10-10 in the PDR and dense-core positions, respectively. These abundances are similar to the inferred H2CO abundance in both positions (~2 × 10-10). We find an abundance ratio H2CO/CH3OH of ~2 in the PDR and ~1 in the dense core. Pure gas-phase models cannot reproduce the observed abundances of either H2CO or CH3OH at the PDR position. The two species are therefore formed on the surface of dust grains and are subsequently photodesorbed into the gas-phase at this position. At the dense core, on the other hand, photodesorption of ices is needed to explain the observed abundance of CH3OH, while a pure gas-phase model can reproduce the observed H2CO abundance. The high-resolution observations show that CH3OH is depleted onto grains at the dense core. CH3OH is thus present in an envelope around this position, while H2CO is present in both the envelope and the dense core itself. Conclusions: Photodesorption is an efficient mechanism to release complex molecules in low-FUV-illuminated PDRs, where thermal desorption of ice mantles is ineffective. Based on observations obtained with the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer and 30 m telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany), and IGN (Spain). The reduced datacubes (FITS files) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat? J/A+A/560/A73
Together and alone a study of interactions between toddlers and childcare providers during mealtime in Norwegian childcare centres

ABSTRACT The study investigated the quality of interactions between childcare providers and toddlers during a lunch in childcare centres. Meals in childcare centres are semi-structured adult-led situations where the children not only eat, but are also provided with opportunities for implicit learning and interactions. Participants were 13 toddlers aged about 18 months in 11 different childcare centres in a Norwegian municipality. Video recordings were analysed for organization and structure, relational climate and childcare provider–child interactions, weighting provider sensitivity, language support and facilitated exploration. Findings indicated good quality regarding the organization of meals and relational climate in about half of the centres. Sensitivity, language support and facilitated exploration showed low quality across the different centres and are a cause for concern. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Evaluating 802.11ac features in indoor WLAN: an empirical study of performance and fairness

We present a thorough and extensive experimental performance characterization of the achievable data throughput, jitter, and fairness of the IEEE 802.11ac standard for indoor Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using real testbed deployments and statistical analysis. 802.11ac achieves higher throughput by incorporating wider channels, more spatial streams, and denser modulation compared to the 802.11n standard. Through diverse testbed experiments we use multiple linear regression to gain insights on the influence of individual 802.11ac features and of their combinations on network performance and fairness for various link and interference scenarios. We further show that 802.11ac WLANs with wider channels can be fairer compared to 802.11a/n in dense environments with high interference.
Fishing down and fishing hard: ecological change in the Nile perch of Lake Nabugabo, Uganda

Fishing is a potent ecological force. In Lake Victoria, East Africa, Nile perch, Lates niloticus contributes to a multi-million dollar fishing industry but is threatened by over-exploitation. We quantified spatial and temporal trends in the distribution, diet and size of Nile perch in Lake Nabugabo, Uganda, a satellite of Lake Victoria. From 1995 to 2007, we detected a decline in catch per unit effort of Nile perch, a shift in their distribution and diet, and a decrease in their body size. A greater proportion of Nile perch were found near wetland ecotones than in the 1990s. This may reflect intensive size-selective fishing in open waters, and encroachment of Vossia cuspidata, an emergent macrophyte that has expanded across the lakeshore. Results highlight the strength of fishing in inducing phenotypic changes in target stocks as well as large-scale changes to the aquatic community and are of value in understanding changes in
Data analyzer based on data mining for Honeypot Router

Honeypot is an effective security tool, which is intended to be attacked and compromised to gain more information about the attacker and his attack techniques. To study these attacks, the honeypot must capture and log large amounts of data which are very difficult to process manually. So, the analysis of these logs has become a very difficult and time consuming task. To resolve this problem, several researchers have proposed the use of data mining techniques in order to classify logged traffic and extract useful information. In this paper, we present a data analysis tool for our Honeypot Router. This tool is based on data mining clustering. The main idea is to extract useful features from data captured by the Honeypot Router. These data will be then clustered by using the DBSCAN clustering algorithm in order to classify the captured packets and extract those that are suspicious. Suspicious packets will be then verified by a human expert. This solution is very useful to detect novel routing attacks.
The Teleological Behavior of Rigid Regge Rods

Field theories based on non–commutative spacetimes exhibit very distinctive nonlo-cal effects which mix the ultraviolet with the infrared in bizzare ways. In particular if the time coordinate is involved in the non–commutativity the theory seems to be seriously acausal and inconsistent with conventional Hamiltonian evolution. To illustrate these effects we study the scattering of wave packets in a field theory with space/time non–commutativity. In this theory we find effects which seem to precede their causes and rigid rods which grow instead of Lorentz contract as they are boosted. Despite their pathological appearance, we find that these features are found in ordinary open string theory. An analysis of open string scattering amplitudes shows that they have all the properties expected from space/time non–commutativity. We find close connections between these amplitudes, the stringy uncertainty principle and the teleological behavior of black hole horizons.