Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Research Agent Architecture for Real Time Data Collection and Analysis

Collecting and analyzing real-time data from multiple sources requires processes to continuously monitor and respond to a wide variety of events. Such processes are well suited to execution by intelligent agents. Architectures for such agents need to be general enough to support experimentation with various analysis techniques but must also implement enough functionality to provide a solid back end for data collection, storage, and reuse. In this paper, we present the architecture of Calvin, an research grade agent sys-tem for supporting and analyzing users’ document access. Calvin provides speciﬁc applications for collecting, storing, and retrieving data to be used for information retrieval, but its extensible object oriented implementation of resource types makes the architecture sufﬁciently ﬂexible to be useful in multiple task domains. In addition, the architecture provides the ability to capture and “replay” data streams during processing, enabling the automatic creation of data testbeds for use in experiments comparing alternative analysis algorithms.
Food intakes of US children and adolescents compared with recommendations.

OBJECTIVES To determine the proportion of youth meeting national recommendations for food group intake and to identify food intake patterns. DESIGN The US Department of Agriculture's 1989-1991 Continuing Surveys of Food Intakes by Individuals were used to estimate food intake. Intake was determined from 3 days of diet by disaggregating foods into their component ingredients and using weights that correspond to servings. PARTICIPANTS The sample included 3307 youth, 2 to 19 years of age, living in the 48 conterminous United States. Main Outcome Measures. Mean number of servings and percentage of individuals meeting national recommendations for food group intake according to demographic characteristics, patterns of intake, and nutrient profiles associated with each pattern. RESULTS Mean numbers of servings per day were below minimum recommendations for all food groups except the dairy group (ages 2 to 11). Percentages of youth meeting recommendations ranged from approximately 30% for fruit, grain, meat, and dairy to 36% for vegetables. Sixteen percent of youth did not meet any recommendations, and 1% met all recommendations. The pattern of meeting all recommendations resulted in nutrient intakes above the recommended dietary allowances and was high in fat. Conversely, meeting none of the recommendations resulted in intakes well below the recommended dietary allowances for some nutrients. Total fat and added sugars averaged 35% and 15% of energy, respectively, and levels were similar among most demographic groups. CONCLUSION Children and teens in the United States follow eating patterns that do not meet national recommendations. Nutrition education and intervention are needed among US children.
Escalonamento de tarefas no ambiente do Peer-to-peer do BIOFOCO III

The use of computer resources (work stations and servers) installed in research and teaching institutions located in Brasilia allowed us to construct in 2006 a network Peer-to-Peer, called p2pBIOFOCO that linked that institutions. This network is intended for processing Bioinformatics applications. In this system, two problems have been impacted enough the efficiency of the system: the location of hosts and the scheduling of tasks. To solve the first problem, we changed the system including a new mechanism for searching peers. Thereby, it was implemented a network which uses the algorithm of a structure of distributed storage, DHT (Distributed Hash Table) [102], adopting the protocol Kademlia. This work seeks to solve the problem of scheduling of tasks in p2pBIOFOCO, implementing a strategy to incorporate the p2pBIOFOCO the flexible use of schedulers. More specifically, we used the method WQR as scheduler. In addition, we have included a efficient data transfer mechanism using the method DP-RR, very useful for Bioinformatics applications. The experiments showed that the p2pBIOFOCO had a better performance with the incorporation of the two methods, showing that it can be used to increase processing capacity both notation as comparative analyzes in sequencing projects of high performance.
Connectionism, Confusion and Cognitive Science

CONTENTS Page Synopsis 216 Introduction 216 PDP Networks and the Tri-Level Hypothesis 218 Computational Descriptions of PDP Networks 221 PDP Networks Are Powerful Information Processing Systems 221 How Are Claims About PDP Competence Related to Cognitive Science? 225 Computational Connectionism and Cognitive Science 228 Algorithmic Descriptions of PDP Networks 229 PDP Networks Are Themselves Algorithms 229 Problems With PDP Algorithms 230 Algorithmic Connectionism and Cognitive Science 235 Implementational Descriptions of PDP Networks 238 PDP Networks, Biological Plausibility, and Computational Relevance 238 Problems Arise Because of Biologically Undefended Design Decisions 241 Implementational Connectionism and Cognitive Science 249 From Connectionism to Cognitive Science 250 Acknowledgements 252 References 253
Social similarity as a driver for selfish, cooperative and altruistic behavior

This paper explores how the degree of similarity within a social group can be exploited in order to dictate the behavior of the individual nodes, so as to best accommodate the typically non-coinciding individual and social benefit maximization. More specifically, this paper investigates the impact of social similarity on the effectiveness of content dissemination, as implemented through three classes representing well the spectrum of behavior-shaped content storage strategies: the selfish, the self-aware cooperative and the optimally altruistic ones. This study shows that when the social group is tight (high degree of similarity), the optimally altruistic behavior yields the best performance for both the entire group (by definition) and the individual nodes (contrary to typical expectations). When the group is made up of foreigners with almost no similarity, altruism or cooperation cannot bring much benefits to either the group or the individuals and thus, a selfish behavior would make sense due to its simplicity. Finally, the self-aware cooperative behavior could be adopted as an easy to implement distributed scheme — compared to the optimally altruistic one — that has close to the optimal performance for tight social groups, and has the additional advantage of not allowing mistreatment to any node (i.e., the content retrieval cost become larger compared to the cost of the selfish strategy).
An investigation on the relationship between control self-assessment, cloud security, and cloud-related business performance - using partial least squares

In the light of the rapidly changing and benefits brought by cloud computing, the study is to find the critical factors that may hinder the benefits of cloud adoption, with respective measures proposed. It was found that control self-assessment (CSA) can enhance the IS security and improve business value delivery. A research model between CSA, cloud security (CS) and cloud-related business performance (CBP) are proposed, tested by distributing surveys to collect raw data, and afterward analyzed by Partial Least Square (PLS). The results can contribute to cloud adoption with practical measures suggestions.
Die Eurobarometermacher auf der Zauberinsel: Konstruktion einer europäischen öffentlichen Meinung durch Umfrageforschung

Eurobarometer ist das Umfrageinstrument der Europäischen Kommission. Zweimal jährlich werden in allen Mitgliedstaaten Face-to-Face-Befragungen mit jeweils ca. 1.000 Personen durchgeführt. Dabei werden verschiedene Fragen zu unterschiedlichen, die EU betreffenden Themen gestellt – von der Zufriedenheit mit der Demokratie bis hin zu den Zukunftsvorstellungen der EuropäerInnen. Dieser Artikel wirft einen kritischen Blick auf die Eurobarometermacher und deren Umfragen, denn sowohl demokratiepolitisch als auch methodologisch sind Zweifel an der Wissenschaftlichkeit und Objektivität angebracht.
IPSem: A Service Approach for IP-Enabled Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are gaining great popularity in application areas. LR-WPANs are new personal area network architecture that promotes wireless sensor networks tailored towards in personal life. 6LoWPAN protocol proposed by IETF enables IP function for tiny embedded sensor devices in LR-WPANs. With the 6LoWPAN adaptation layer which bridges the gap between the LR-WPANs and IP networks, these tiny devices become end nodes in IP networks, However, Integrating LR-WPANs into IP network poses significant challenges for resource discovery and management and security. In this paper we propose a service solution based on 6LoWPAN to meet these incoming challenges in IP-Enabled WSNs. In our scheme a lightweight middleware is used to support web services in WSNs to build scalable management architectures for LR- WPANs. With the lightweight service middleware, each tiny sensor device in sensor networks works as service provider and this makes data-centric WSNs become service-oriented architectures. For security, a multi-layer authentication mechanism is used to verify the user validity and provide secure connection between users and services. The feasibility and effectiveness of our service approach is evaluated.
Neural Correlates of Reactivation and Retrieval-Induced Distortion

Reactivation of recently acquired information can strengthen memory storage and likely contributes to memory consolidation. Retrieval (generating information about prior events) may improve memory storage because it entails reactivation. Alternatively, retrieval may promote storage of retrieved information, and, if retrieval is inaccurate, subsequent recall could be distorted by the retrieved information. If retrieval modifies memory storage, as hypothesized, neural signals associated with accurate retrieval at that time may be distinct from neural signals associated with the degree of repeated retrieval error evident at some later time. We tested this prediction using a 3-session protocol. During session 1, people learned object-location associations to criterion and completed a cued-recall test in which locations were recalled upon viewing objects. During session 2, an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded during cued recall for a subset of the associations. During session 3, cued recall was tested for all associations. Retrieval improved storage, in that recall at session 3 was superior for objects tested in session 2 compared with those not tested. Retrieval-induced distortion was revealed in session 3 for those objects tested in session 2, in that those objects were generally placed closer to locations retrieved at session 2 relative to original study locations. EEG analyses revealed positive potentials (400–700 ms) associated with relatively accurate recall at session 2. Memory updating was reflected in positive potentials after 700 ms that differentially predicted the degree to which recall promoted storage of the session-2-retrieved location. These findings demonstrate unique neurocognitive processing whereby memories are updated with information produced during retrieval.
Effects of Input Device and Motion Type on a Cursor-Positioning Task

Many studies have investigated the performance of using nonkey-board input devices under static situations, but few have considered the effects of motion type on manipulating these input devices. In this study comparison of 12 mens' performance using four input devices (three trackballs: currently used, trackman wheel, and erectly held trackballs, as well as a touch screen) under five motion types of static, heave, roll, pitch, and random movements was conducted. The input device and motion type significantly affected movement speed and accuracy, and their interaction significantly affected the movement speed. The touch screen was the fastest but the least accurate input device. The erectly held trackball was the slowest, whereas the error rate of the currently used trackball was the lowest. Impairments of the random motion on movement time and error rate were larger than those of other motion types. Considering objective and subjective evaluations, the trackman wheel and currently used trackball were more efficient in operation than the erectly held trackball and touch screen under the motion environments.
MEASURING RETINAL SENSITIVITY WITH THE MICROPERIMETER IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETES

Purpose: To evaluate the retinal sensitivity and fixation characteristics in participants with diabetes mellitus, using the microperimeter (MP-1) and to correlate the MP-1 values with the severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods: We performed complete ophthalmic examinations, including best-corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp examination, indirect ophthalmoscopy, and microperimetry (central 20° of macula) on 210 eyes of 160 participants. Participants included healthy individuals, individuals with diabetes but no retinopathy, and individuals with different stages of DR. Results: The mean age of participants was (mean ± SD) 49.83 ± 7.43 years for healthy individuals, 53.20 ± 5.7 years for participants with diabetes but no retinopathy, and 55.39 ± 7.81 years for participants with DR. Retinal sensitivity was significantly (P = 0.001) decreased with severity of DR. The mean foveal sensitivity (retinal sensitivity in the central 2°) was 16.68 ± 2.13 dB in healthy individuals, 14.73 ± 3.64 dB in participants with diabetes but no DR, and 11.60 ± 5.76 dB in participants with DR. There was significant loss of retinal sensitivity in participants with diabetes but no retinopathy when compared with healthy individuals. Participants with severe nonproliferative DR showed more significant loss of retinal sensitivity in the central 20° than those with other stages of DR. Conclusion: The MP-1 is a useful tool to quantify retinal sensitivity in DR. Using the MP-1, we can detect early loss of retinal sensitivity in patients with diabetes but no retinopathy. Patients with severe nonproliferative DR will have less retinal sensitivity than those with other stages of DR. Scotoma mapping using the MP-1 provides details of functional vision in patients with DR.
Comparison of the effects of sevoflurane and propofol on core body temperature during laparoscopic abdominal surgery

Background A decrease in core body temperature caused by heat distribution depends on the anesthetic agent used. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of sevoflurane and propofol on core temperature during laparoscopic major abdominal surgery requiring pneumoperitoneum of more than 90 min. Methods Fifty adult patients undergoing laparoscopic major abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to either a sevoflurane group (n = 25) or a propofol group (n = 25). In the sevoflurane group, anesthesia was induced with propofol 2 mg/kg, remifentanil 1.0 µg/kg, and maintained with 0.8-2.0 vol% sevoflurane and 0.1-0.2 µg/kg/min remifentanil. In the propofol group, anesthesia was induced with the effect-site concentration of propofol of 5.0 µg/ml and remifentanil 4 ng/ml, and maintained with the effect-site concentration of propofol of 2-3.5 µg/ml and remifentanil 3-5 ng/ml. Core body temperature was measured with an esophageal stethoscope with a temperature sensor after the start of the pneumoperitoneum (baseline) and at 15-min intervals until completion of surgery. Results During the study period, core temperature was comparable between the two groups. When compared with baseline values, core temperatures in both groups were significantly decreased 45 min after pneumoperitoneum. Conclusions This study demonstrated that in patients undergoing prolonged laparoscopic surgery, a decrease in core body temperature during sevoflurane-remifentanil anesthesia was not different than propofol-remifentanil anesthesia, and the incidence of hypothermia of the two groups did not differ.
Linear Recursive Networks and Their Applications in Distributed Systems

We present a new class of interconnection topologies called the Linear Recursive Networks (LRNs) and examine their possible applications in distributed systems. Each LRN is characterized by a recursive pattern of interconnection which can be specified by simple parameters. Basic properties such as node degree, diameter, and the performance of routing algorithms for all LRNs are then collectively analyzed in terms of these parameters. By choosing appropriate values for the parameters, our results can assist a network designer in selecting a topology with required routing performance and cost of interconnection. A subclass of LRNs, called Congruent LRNs (CLRNs), is also identified here and shown to possess desirable properties for more tightly coupled systems. It is shown that the CLRNs include existing networks such as hypercube and generalized Fibonacci cubes. These results suggest that the linear recursive networks potentially have applications in interconnecting distributed systems.
Radiative and Porous Effects on Free Convection Flow near a Vertical Plate that Applies Shear Stress to the Fluid

General solutions for the unsteady free convection flow of an incompressible viscous fluid due to an infinite vertical plate that applies a shear stress f (t) to the fluid are established when thermal radiation and porous effects are taken into consideration. They satisfy all imposed initial and boundary conditions and can generate a large class of exact solutions corresponding to different motions with technical relevance. The velocity is presented as a sum of thermal and mechanical components. Finally, some special cases are brought to light, and effects of pertinent parameters on the fluid motion are graphically underlined.
Antimicrobial Activity of Seven Essential Oils From Iranian Aromatic Plants Against Common Causes of Oral Infections

Background: Over the past two decades, there has been a growing trend in using oral hygienic products originating from natural resources such as essential oils (EOs) and plant extracts. Seven aromatic plants used in this study are among popular traditional Iranian medicinal plants with potential application in modern medicine as anti-oral infectious diseases. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the chemical composition and antimicrobial activities of essential oils from seven medicinal plants against pathogens causing oral infections. Materials and Methods: The chemical compositions of EOs distilled from seven plants were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). These plants included Satureja khuzestanica, S. bachtiarica, Ocimum sanctum, Artemisia sieberi, Zataria multiflora, Carum copticum and Oliveria decumbens. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was evaluated by broth micro-dilution in 96 well plates as recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) methods. Results: The tested EOs inhibited the growth of examined oral pathogens at concentrations of 0.015-16 µL/mL. Among the examined oral pathogens, Enterococcus faecalis had the highest Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) and Minimum Microbicidal Concentrations (MMCs). Of the examined EOs, S. khuzestanica, Z. multiflora and S. bachtiarica, showed the highest antimicrobial activities, respectively, while Artemisia sieberi exhibited the lowest antimicrobial activity. Conclusions: The excellent antimicrobial activities of the tested EOs might be due to their major phenolic or alcoholic monoterpenes with known antimicrobial activities. Hence, these EOs can be possibly used as an antimicrobial agent in treatment and control of oral pathogens.
Activities of Daily Living, Cerebral Glucose Metabolism, and Cognitive Reserve in Lewy Body and Parkinson’s Disease

Aims: (1) To investigate the neural substrate of impaired activities of daily living (ADL) in Lewy body-associated disorders, such as dementia with Lewy bodies, classical Parkinson’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease dementia, and (2) to explore the effect of education on the relationship between cerebral metabolic changes and ADL performance. Methods: Fifty-four patients with Lewy body-associated disorders underwent an extensive clinical evaluation including cerebral positron emission tomography with 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose scanning. First, those brain areas were identified where ADL performance and glucose metabolism were significantly correlated. Second, brain regions were detected where the association between metabolic changes and ADL performance differed significantly between patients with a low and a high educational background. Results: There was a significant association between glucose hypometabolism and impaired ADL performance in the prefrontal, temporoparietal, and occipital association cortices and the precuneus. However, there was a significantly stronger association between hypometabolism and impaired ADL in the low education group compared with the high education group in the right middle occipital gyrus. Conclusions: The study suggests (1) that brain metabolic alterations are significantly associated with the loss of everyday functioning in Lewy body-associated disorders and (2) that education modifies this association.
Repeated sequences similar to insertion elements clustered around the nif region of the Rhizobium japonicum genome

Two different repeated sequences (RSs) were discovered in the Rhizobium japonicum genome: RSRj alpha is 1126 base pairs long and is repeated 12 times; RSRj beta is approximately 950 base pairs long and is repeated at least 6 times. Their arrangement in root nodule bacteroid DNA is the same as in DNA from bacteria grown in culture. Deletion analysis showed that many copies of alpha and beta are clustered around the nitrogenase genes nifDK and nifH, or, in general, they are found within a genomic region harboring genes that are nonessential for growth. One copy each of alpha and beta are located upstream of nifDK and are adjacent to each other. Neither of them, however, is involved in the expression of nifDK. Nucleotide sequence analysis of three copies of RS alpha revealed many characteristics of procaryotic insertion sequence elements: potential inverted repeats at their ends, potential target site duplication, and large open reading frames. Despite this, their genomic positions appear to be stable. One possible function of these RSs is in deletion formation probably via recombination between them.
Simulation of electromagnetic wave propagation in the medium using FDTD method

The second-order of approximation numerical method for solution of Maxwell Equations in nondispersive medium, called FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain), also known as Yee algorithm, was used to create the software package for modelling of electromagnetic waves propagation in medium (with the Courant stability condition). The Total Field/Scattered Field (TFSF) source is considered in detail. Inhomogeneous medium is also included into the model and there are some examples, which show, how the program works with it. The different boundary conditions (periodic, reflecting and absorbing) were looked into. Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) absorbing boundary conditions are used in the program and the corresponding results are discussed. Different types of sources are realized in program, the results of the waves propagation are shown.