Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VOC Based Key Quality Indicators for High-Speed Internet Service

This paper describes the development of VOC (voice of the customer) based KQIs (key quality indicators) for high-speed Internet service. Traditional internet service provider initiatives to measure service performance have been focused on monitoring the underlying bearer network performance and defining technology-based network measurements. This can lead to a misrepresentation of the customerpsilas perception of the end-to-end service. Therefore, we need to measure and analyze the levels of customer dissatisfaction with using the service. In this paper, we show an analysis of VOC for High-Speed Internet Service and develop the KQIs to present representative VOC items and the combined KQIs presenting the levels of customer dissatisfaction by ascertaining the relationship and mapping between the KQIs and KPIs (key performance indicators) from the QoS (quality of service) and NP (network performance) parameters measured in the internet network. Through the developed KQIs, we can monitor the levels of customer dissatisfaction from the measured QoS parameters, and undertake proactive activities by easily ascertaining the reasons for customer dissatisfaction.
Chatbots: can they serve as natural language interfaces to QA corpus?

A chatbot is a program which can chat in natural language, on a topic built into the chatbot’s internal knowledge model. Many chatbots exist, with different knowledge-bases programmed by the chatbot builders. We have built a system to convert a website text (corpus) to a chatbot knowledge-base format. In this paper the chatbot is used as a question answer interface, where TRE09 QA track is used to automatically retrain the chatbot knowledge-base. Evaluation shows promising results, 2/3 of generated answers were correct. We aim to see how to improve the algorithm for building the knowledge base before comparing this tool with other natural language interfaces.
Do we need eye trackers to tell where people look?

We investigated the validity of two low-cost alternatives to state-of-the-art eye tracking technology: 1) prompting users to report from memory on their own eye movements, and 2) asking experienced web designers to predict the eye movements of a typical user. Users could reliably remember 70 % of the web elements they had actually seen. Web designers could only predict 46 % of the elements typically seen. Users were not particularly good at remembering the order of their fixations. We discuss how to further improve the validity of self-reported gaze patterns and suggest new areas that it may be used in.
Degenerate Immunogenicity of an HLA-A2-Restricted Hepatitis B Virus Nucleocapsid Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Epitope That Is Also Presented by HLA-B51

ABSTRACT The recent identification of hepatitis B virus (HBV) epitopes restricted by multiple HLA alleles has greatly expanded the epitope repertoire available for T-cell-mediated therapeutic vaccine development. The HLA-B51-restricted peptide HBc19-27 is particularly interesting because it is located entirely within the HLA-A2-restricted HBc18-27 epitope. Here we show that HLA-B51-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes specific for HBc19-27 from a patient with acute HBV infection were also able to lyse HLA-B51-positive target cells pulsed with HBc18-27 and to produce gamma interferon when stimulated by that peptide, implying that HBc18-27 can be presented by HLA-B51 as well as by HLA-A2. These results demonstrate the concept of degenerate immunogenicity across HLA class supertype boundaries in a human viral disease setting. In addition, they could facilitate the development of an epitope-based therapeutic vaccine to terminate chronic HBV infection that could provide a broad and diverse population coverage with a single peptide.
Panoramic optical mapping shows wavebreak at a consistent anatomical site at the onset of ventricular fibrillation.

AIMS The first seconds of ventricular fibrillation (VF) are well organized and can consist of just one to two rotating waves (rotors). New rotors are spawned when local propagation block causes wave fragmentation. We hypothesized that this process, which leads to fully developed VF, begins at a consistent anatomic site. METHODS AND RESULTS We initiated VF with a stimulus timed to the local T-wave in 10 isolated pig hearts. Hearts were stained with a voltage-sensitive dye and four video cameras recorded electrical propagation panoramically across the epicardium. In each VF episode, we identified the position of the first wavebreak event that produced new rotor(s) that persisted for at least one cycle. The first such wavebreak occurred along the anterior right ventricular insertion (ARVI) in 26 of 32 VF episodes. In these episodes, wavebreak sites were 6 ± 4 mm from the midline of the ARVI. In the remaining 6 episodes, wavebreak sites were 24 ± 5 mm from the midline on either the LV or RV. During rapid pacing, conduction speed was locally depressed at the ARVI when waves crossed parallel to the midline. Action potential duration (APD) was slightly longer (2.2 ± 2.1 ms) at the ARVI compared with other sites (P< 0.01). Temporal APD alternans were small and not unique to the break site, suggesting that dynamic APD properties were not the cause of wavebreak. CONCLUSION The ARVI is the dominant site for wavebreak at the onset of VF in normal myocardium. This may be due to the anatomic complexity of the region.
Direct Comparison of Linear and Macrocyclic Compound Libraries as a Source of Protein Ligands

There has been much discussion of the potential desirability of macrocyclic molecules for the development of tool compounds and drug leads. But there is little experimental data comparing otherwise equivalent macrocyclic and linear compound libraries as a source of protein ligands. In this Letter, we probe this point in the context of peptoid libraries. Bead-displayed libraries of macrocyclic and linear peptoids containing four variable positions and 0–2 fixed residues, to vary the ring size, were screened against streptavidin and the affinity of every hit for the target was measured. The data show that macrocyclization is advantageous, but only when the ring contains 17 atoms, not 20 or 23 atoms. This technology will be useful for conducting direct comparisons between many different types of chemical libraries to determine their relative utility as a source of protein ligands.
Assessing whether the Euro zone is an optimal currency Area

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the Euro zone is an optimal currency area. The analysis takes into consideration the existing literature and the empirical data for several criteria of the optimum currency area theory. Since the introduction of the euro there have been significant advancements in fulfilling some of the criteria, but there is still a need of further progress in terms of wage flexibility, fiscal and political integration. The final conclusion is that Euro zone is not an optimum currency area.
Secular variability of the longitudinal magnetic field of the Ap star γ Equ

We present an analysis of the secular variability of the longitudinal magnetic field Be in the roAp star y Equ (HD 201601). Measurements of the stellar magnetic field Be were mostly compiled from the literature, and we appended also our 33 new Be measurements which were obtained with the 1-m optical telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (Russia). All the available data cover the time period of 58 yr, and include both phases of the maximum and minimum Be. We determined that the period of the long-term magnetic Be variations equals 91.1 ± 3.6 yr, with B e (max) = +577 ± 31 G and B e (min) = -1101 ± 31 G.
Operational Implementation of LED Fluorescence Microscopy in Screening Tuberculosis Suspects in an Urban HIV Clinic in Uganda

Background Light emitting diode (LED) fluorescence microscopy (FM) is an affordable, technology targeted for use in resource-limited settings and recommended for widespread roll-out by the World Health Organization (WHO). We sought to compare the operational performance of three LED FM methods compared to light microscopy in a cohort of HIV-positive tuberculosis (TB) suspects at an urban clinic in a high TB burden country. Methods Two spot specimens collected from TB suspects were included in the study. Smears were stained using auramine O method and read after blinding by three LED-based FM methods by trained laboratory technicians in the Infectious Diseases Institutelaboratory. Leftover portions of the refrigerated sputum specimens were transported to the FIND Tuberculosis Research Laboratory for Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) smear preparation and reading by experienced technologist as well as liquid and solid culture. Results 174 of 627 (27.8%) specimens collected yielded one or more positive mycobacterial cultures. 94.3% (164/174) were M. tuberculosis complex. LED FM was between 7.3–11.0% more sensitive compared to ZN microscopy. Of the 592 specimens examined by all microscopy methods, there was no significant difference in sensitivity between the three LED FM methods. The specificity of the LED FM methods was between 6.1% and 7.7% lower than ZN microscopy (P<0.001), although exclusion of the single poor reader resulted in over 98% specificity for all FM methods. Conclusions Laboratory technicians in routine settings can be trained to use FM which is more sensitive than ZN microscopy. Despite rigorous proficiency testing, there were operator-dependent accuracy issues which highlight the critical need for intensive quality assurance procedures during LED FM implementation. The low sensitivity of FM for HIV-positive individuals particularly those with low CD4 T cell counts, will limit the number of additional patients found by LED FM in countries with high rates of HIV co-infection.
Genetic determinants and potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States, carrying a 5-year survival rate of approximately 5%, which is the poorest prognosis of any solid tumor type. Given the dismal prognosis associated with PDAC, a more thorough understanding of risk factors and genetic predisposition has important implications not only for cancer prevention, but also for screening techniques and the development of personalized therapies. While screening of the general population is not recommended or practicable with current diagnostic methods, studies are ongoing to evaluate its usefulness in people with at least 5- to 10-fold increased risk of PDAC. In order to help identify high-risk populations who would be most likely to benefit from early detection screening tests for pancreatic cancer, discovery of additional pancreatic cancer susceptibility genes is crucial. Thus, specific gene-based, gene-product, and marker-based testing for the early detection of pancreatic cancer are currently being developed, with the potential for these to be useful as potential therapeutic targets as well. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of the genetic basis for PDAC with a focus on germline and familial determinants. A discussion of potential therapeutic targets and future directions in screening and treatment is also provided.
Exploiting interaction between sensory morphology and learning

This paper proposes a system that automatically designs the sensory morphology of an autonomous robot. This system uses two kinds of adaptation, ontogenetic adaptation and phylogenetic adaptation, to optimize the sensory morphology of the robot, in ontogenetic adaptation, individuals with many different sensory morphologies use reinforcement learning to adapt to a task. In phylogenetic adaptation, a genetic algorithm is used to select morphologies with which the robot can learn the task fasten We made the system design a line-following robot, and carried out experiments to compare the design solution with a hand-coded design. The results have shown that the designed robot outperforms the hand-coded design in terms of line-following accuracy and learning speed, although it has fewer sensors than hand-coded robots. The paper also shows the effective use of sensory morphology obtained by our system.
A Probabilistic Analysis of EM for Mixtures of Separated, Spherical Gaussians

We show that, given data from a mixture of k well-separated spherical Gaussians in ℜd, a simple two-round variant of EM will, with high probability, learn the parameters of the Gaussians to near-optimal precision, if the dimension is high (d >> ln k). We relate this to previous theoretical and empirical work on the EM algorithm.
A Distributed Feeder Automation Algorithm and its Model Checking

This paper presents a distributed feeder automation algorithm based on local topology, considering switch action failure, communication failures and other confounding factors. This makes higher efficiency of data processing and communication and better maintainability of distribution automation system. The algorithm is described by using PROMELA. And the correctness and security of algorithm are expressed and examined with model checking methods. The results show that the algorithm is correct under conditions of certainty and safe under conditions of uncertainty. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
InfraNotes: Inconspicuous Handwritten Trajectory Tracking for Lecture Note Recording with Infrared Sensors

Lecture notes are important for students to review and understand the key points in the class. Unfortunately, the students often miss or lose part of the lecture notes. In this paper, we design and implement an infrared sensor based system, InfraNotes, to automatically record the notes on the board by sensing and analyzing hand gestures of the lecturer. Compared with existing techniques, our system does not require special accessories with lecturers such as sensor-facilitated pens, writing surfaces or the video-taping infrastructure. Instead, it only has an infrared-sensor module on the eraser holder of black/white board to capture handwritten trajectories. With a lightweight framework for handwritten trajectory processing, clear lecture notes can be generated automatically. We evaluate the quality of lecture notes by three standard character recognition techniques. The results indicate that InfraNotes is a promising solution to create clear and complete lectures to promote the education.
OBJECT-BASED CHANGE DETECTION ANALYSIS FOR THE MONITORING OF HABITATS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE NATURA 2000 DIRECTIVE WITH MULTI-TEMPORAL SATELLITE DATA

Multi-temporal and multi-sensor satellite information can supply valuable information about vegetation species, especially in the context of biodiversity. Main focus of the presented project CARE-X is the development of a remote sensing technology for the European monitoring of NATURA 2000 areas. For this type of monitoring, information about the structure and composition of the existing vegetation within a growth period are required. With temporal very high resolution (TVHR) satellite data, such as RapidEye and TerraSAR-X, the optimal dates for a highly effective utilization of acquired images for the monitoring of different vegetation types and habitats can be identified. The study area "Döberitzer Heide" is situated in the Federal State of Brandenburg (north-east Germany). The main habitats are heathland, dry grassland, and wetland, forming a heterogeneous small scale mosaic of vegetation types. In a first step the land-use and specific habitats within this site and the surrounding area were segmented and classified with five RapidEye images from the vegetation period of 2009. Simultaneously, intensive field spectral measurements took place. First results show that the main land-use classes related to the NATURA 2000 monitoring can be detected with an accuracy of above 0.85. The classification results improve when scenes of August and September are included. The terrestrial spectral measurements show a good accordance with the reflectance of the RapidEye images. Moreover, different vegetation types relevant to the NATURA 2000 monitoring can be separated temporally. In further research the field measurements will be transferred to the multi-temporal RapidEye images using the phenological profile of different vegetation types. * Corresponding author
QSO 2359–1241: A Bright, Highly Polarized, Radio-moderate, Reddened, Low-Ionization Broad Absorption Line Quasar

We report the discovery of a bright quasar (E = 15.8, z = 0.868) associated with the flat-spectrum radio source NVSS J235953-124148. This quasar, which we designate QSO 2359-1241, possesses a rare combination of extreme properties that make it of special interest. These properties include intrinsic high-velocity outflow seen in absorption for both high- and low-ionization species, high optical polarization (~5%), significant radio emission, and dust reddening. The dereddened absolute magnitude of QSO 2359-1241 places it among the three most optically luminous quasars known at z < 1. High-resolution spectroscopy and a detailed analysis of the optical/ultraviolet absorption features will be given in a companion paper.
Loss of tight junction proteins (Claudin 1, 4, and 7) correlates with aggressive behavior in colorectal carcinoma

Background Tight junction proteins in the cell organize paracellular permeability and they play a critical role in apical cell-to-cell adhesion and epithelial polarity. Claudins are major integral membrane proteins of tight junctions, especially Claudin 1, 4, and 7, which are known as the impermeability Claudins. In this study, we investigated the importance of loss of Claudin 1, 4, and 7 expression, and their relation to tumor progression in colorectal cancer patients. Material/Methods Loss of Claudin 1, 4, and 7 expression was examined by immunohistochemical method in 70 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Cases with loss of Claudin expression in <1/3 of tumor cells were classified as mild loss, whereas cases with loss of Claudin expression ≥1/3 of tumor cells were classified as moderate-to-marked loss in order to evaluate the relation between loss of Claudin 1, 4, and 7 expression and clinicopathologic data. Results The severe suppression of Claudin 1, 4, and 7 expression was found to be significantly related to the depth of tumor invasion, positive regional lymph nodes, histological grade, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, and lymphocytic response. Additionally, severity of loss in Claudin 4 expression was found to have a relation with distant metastasis. Conclusions Claudin 1, 4, and 7 are important building blocks of paracellular adhesion molecules. Their decreased expression in colorectal cancer seems to have critical effects on cell proliferation, motility, invasion, and immune response against the tumor.
Concerns about the Fed's New Balance Sheet

THE TRADITIONAL TOOL of monetary policy is an open market operation, in which the Federal Reserve purchases short-term Treasury securities from the public. The Fed pays for these purchases by crediting the deposits that the selling bank holds in an account with the Fed. These deposits can be thought of as electronic credits for cash, which banks could withdraw in the form of green currency whenever banks wished. The primary goal of open market operations was understood to be to control the available supply of reserve deposits and the money supply in order to achieve policy targets for the short-term interest rate and inflation. If the Fed wanted to increase the supply of reserve deposits on a strictly temporary basis, it would traditionally do so with a repurchase agreement (repo), acquiring an asset from the counterparty and crediting the counterparty's Fed balance with newly created deposits, with an explicit agreement to return the asset and receive the deposits plus interest back at a
Social Inequities and School Rankings: A Critical Analysis of the ARIZONA LEARNS Achievement Profiles.

Recognizing the vast disparities in academic achievement throughout Arizona’s public schools, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has recently started pushing for tougher standards and demanding for more school accountability. This study analyzes the ranking system implemented by the ADE that categorizes all public schools according to ridged educational characteristics. While standardized test scores and dropout statistics are touted by many as solid examples of aspects by which schools should be judged, this work presents multiple alternative social trends that are overlooked in the ranking process. Publicly accessible data is used to demonstrate commonalities between all Arizona high schools that reported test scores for language-minority students during the 2003-2004 school year. Instead of ranking schools according to a single monolithic system, environmental factors such as school size, teacher turn over ratio, and the socioeconomic level of the surrounding community need to be seen as significantly contributing to the overall level of student achievement. This paper contains various tables based on data taken from the ADE website. Furthermore, the bibliography includes eleven academic sources.
SVM application of financial time series forecasting using empirical technical indicators

Support vector machines (SVMs) are promising methods of pattern recognition in financial time series because they use a risk function consisting of the empirical error and a regularized term which is derived from the structural risk minimization principle. This study applies SVM to pattern recognition in the financial engineering domain. Compared with present machine learning methods in financial forecasting, this study does not simply work on the original time data series, but some interesting and empirical technical indicators. The experimental results show that transforming the input data space of SVM can bring good performance in finance engineering.
Developing requirements for a mobile app to support citizens in dealing with ticks and tick bites via end-user profiling

Tick bites and tick-borne infections are an increasingly large problem. There is a wide range of precautions that citizens can take, but compliance is low. Mobile technology can offer a solution here, as they allow citizens to access health information in context. In this article, we discuss the development of requirements for a mobile app to support citizens in dealing with ticks and tick bites. First, we identified organizational stakeholders based on relevant protocols, and primary end-users via a systematic risk determination procedure. Then, we profiled end-users based on 25 in-depth interviews. We consulted organizational stakeholders via a focus group. The mobile app should primarily motivate citizens to check themselves for tick bites after visiting a risk area. The app should also include a tick radar, alerts to remind people to check for tick bites, and the possibility to document tick bites. Our experiences underline the necessity of thoroughly investigating the designated end-users and their context of use in order to tailor preventive health advice, and we demonstrate how this can be done. Finally, this case shows the need to create persuasive health technology in order to maximize citizen compliance.