Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Children of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study Go to School. Technical Report.

v Dedication [] We dedicate this work to the memory of Mary Culkin and Leslie Phillipsen. These two outstanding women were integral members of our research team from its inception. Through their brilliant and caring work, they helped improve the lives of children today and of future generations as well. We miss them greatly. /
Role of micro-RNAs in drug resistance of multiple myeloma

While novel therapeutic approaches have profoundly improved survival of multiple myeloma (MM) patients, drug resistance and treatment refractoriness still persists. This obstacle highly demands thorough investigation into the root and underlying molecular mechanisms to develop more effective strategies. The advent of micro-RNAs (miRNAs) in the study of cancer biology and pathogenesis in recent years has revolutionized therapy in this field and particularly opened new windows to further understanding of tumor drug resistance. However; in spite of the fact that miRNAs involvement in MM pathogenesis and progression has been substantially evidenced, miRNA investigation in MM drug resistance is still in its infancy. Our knowledge of the potential role of miRNAs in MM drug resistance comes from few recent reports confirming that some miRNAs including miR-137/197, miR-21 and miR-221/222 could negatively modulate drug sensitivity of MM cells. Further continuous researches are required to exploit miRNAs to elucidate the critical mechanisms controlling drug resistance in MM. In this review, we will highlight the most recent observations on the role of miRNAs in MM drug resistance. Moreover, approaches and insights into clinical application of miRNAs to overcome MM drug resistance will be discussed.
The Construction of a Multidimensional ADHD Self-Report Measure: A Pilot Study

Recent research on adult onset Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has led to an increase in evaluations of college students and adults suspected of the disorder, as well as increased concern that some may feign or malinger ADHD characteristics in order to obtain a diagnosis and associated incentives (e.g., stimulant medications and academic accommodations). Faking ADHD is especially easy when the diagnosis is based on self-report, symptoms-only rating scales. Diagnostic accuracy improves with the assessment of symptoms, impairment, and symptom validity, but this type of comprehensive self-report measure is currently not available. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a newly constructed Multidimensional ADHD Rating Scale (MARS) comprised of ADHD symptom, functional impairment, and symptom validity indexes. The MARS self-report items were completed by three groups of college-aged students. Participants with ADHD (n=39) and non-ADHD controls (n=62) completed the MARS honestly. A group of non-ADHD participants (n=56) were instructed to malinger ADHD. Results indicated that malingerers reported more symptoms and impairment than ADHD participants, and both groups reported more symptoms and impairment than controls. The symptom validity index was able to differentiate malingerers from ADHD participants with high sensitivity and specificity. These preliminary results suggest that measures that combine symptoms, impairment, and symptom validity could be useful additions to ADHD rating scales.
The Hidden Dangers of Historical Simulation

Many large financial institutions compute the Value-at-Risk (VaR) of their trading portfolios using historical simulation based methods, but the methods' properties are not well understood. This paper theoretically and empirically examines the historical simulation method, a variant of historical simulation introduced by Boudoukh, Richardson and Whitelaw (1998) (BRW), and the Filtered Historical Simulation method (FHS) of Barone-Adesi, Giannopoulos, and Vosper (1999). The Historical Simulation and BRW methods are both under-responsive to changes in conditional risk; and respond to changes in risk in an asymmetric fashion: measured risk increases when the portfolio experiences large losses, but not when it earns large gains. The FHS method appears promising, but requires additional refinement to account for time-varying correlations; and to choose the appropriate length of historical sample period. Preliminary analysis suggests that 2 years of daily data may not contain enough extreme outliers to accurately compute 1% VaR at a 10-day horizon using the FHS method.
Passive On-Line In-Band Interference Inference in Centralized WLANs

In this paper, we describe a passive on-line method for determining the conflict graph in a centralized wireless LAN. The key insight in our work is to exploit the relative timing between successfully received frames: if two successfu l frames sent on two different links overlap in time, then the corresponding links do not interfere; if they are consisten tly adjacent, then those links do interfere. Our scheme is inbandand does not require additional monitoring hardware, nor does it require any modifications to clients. In contrast to recent work that has focused on partial on-line estimation of conflict graphs (restricted to downlinks from APs to clients), our approach can detect the complete conflict grap h (both uplinks and downlinks). Using extensive experiments on an 802.11 a/b/g indoor testbed we demonstrate the accuracy of our scheme (even under external interference) and it s rapid convergence. Moreover, we demonstrate that our inter ference inference method can be used in an on-line fashion: the inferred conflict graph can be used to dynamically and explicitly allocate airtime to each link, a capability that can avoid TCP flow starvation, solve the rate anomaly problem, and help manage traffic in a centralized WLAN.
Double affine Hecke algebras and 2-dimensional local fields

The concept of an n-dimensional local field was introduced by A.N. Parshin [Pal] with the aim of generalizing the classical adelic formalism to (absolutely) ndimensional schemes. By definition, a 0-dimensional local field is just a finite field, and an n-dimensional local field, n > 0, is a complete discrete valued field whose residue field is (n 1)-dimensional local. Thus for n = 1 we get locally compact fields such as Qp, Fq((t)), and for n = 2 we get fields such as Qp((t)), Fq((tI))((t2)), etc. In representation theory, harmonic analysis on reductive groups over 0and 1dimensional local fields leads, in particular, to consideration of the finite and affine Hecke algebras Hq, Hq associated to aniy finite root system R and anly q E C*. These algebras can be defined in several ways, one being by generators and relations, another as the convolution algebra, with respect to the Haar measure, of functions on the group bi-invariant with respect to an appropriate subgroup (i.e., as the algebra of double cosets). Harmonic analysis on groups over 2-dimensional local fields has not been developed, the main difficulty being the infinite dimensionality (absense of local compactness) of such fields. However, the double affine Hecke
AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

A model of web annoyance coping was constructed based on the Cognitive-Motivational-Relational Theory of Emotion. The proposed model predicts that web users would cope with annoyances through both problem-and emotion-focused strategies. In two focus groups, participants identified nuisances encountered during use of the two websites (Facebook and MySlice), and their reactions to the nuisances as coping strategies. The findings include a web nuisance categorization and empirical evidence to support the proposed model of web annoyance coping. Besides filling a gap in the literature and providing theoretical contributions, the study has practical implications to website designers, marketers and other stakeholders
CRYSTAL GROWTH IN RAT ENAMEL

Observations have been made, using electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction, on the changes in crystal size and shape which occur in developing rodent enamel during mineralization. Small enamel pieces isolated from ground sections of rat molars and incisors were either embedded in methacrylate and sectioned with a diamond knife for electron microscopy, or they were mounted intact on glass fibers in a Debye-Sherrer type powder camera for x-ray diffraction. By either approach it was found that the apatite crystals were very long in the c axis direction from the beginning of enamel mineralization. Morphologically, the early crystals took the shape of extremely thin, long plates arranged in such a manner that there seemed to be little room for any further length-wise growth. It was demonstrated clearly, on the other hand, that the crystals increased in both thickness and width with advancing mineralization. As a result, the thin crystal plates gradually developed into hexagonal rods, which in the most mature enamel examined measured 500 to 600 A in width and 250 to 300 A in thickness.
Development of a Finite Element Model of a synchronous reluctance generator

This paper describes the development of a Finite Element (FE) Model of a commercial-off-the-shelf synchronous reluctance machine. The model is necessary to design and test a control strategy that maximizes the power conversion efficiency for the machine in a variable-speed renewable energy generation application. Since the machine under analysis is not a lab prototype, but a commercial nature, none of the design and construction parameters data are available, and the machine performance as a generator is not easy to estimate. The model is first accomplished by using the data obtained by disassembling the machine and then it is adjusted to match the inductances profile predicted by the FE model and those measured experimentally. This paper includes the information about materials, geometry, and windings arrangement necessary to build the model in the FEMM (Finite Element Method Magnetics) software. The results show good agreement with those indicated by the literature allowing to the model to become an excellent tool to get a deep insight of the synchronous reluctance machine performance.
On self-dual MDS codes

We consider the problem for which lengths a self-dual MDS code over F<sub>q</sub> exists.We show that for q = 2<sup>m</sup>, there are self-dual MDS codes for all even lengths up to 2<sup>m</sup>. Furthermore, self-dual MDS codes of length q + 1 over F<sub>q</sub> exist for all odd prime powers q. Additionally, we present some new self-dual MDS codes.
Quantifying Uncertainties in Determining SW Cloud Radiative Forcing and Cloud Absorption due to Variability in Atmospheric Conditions

The concept of cloud radiative forcing (CRF) has been widely employed in studying the effects of clouds on the earth’s radiation budget and climate. CRF denotes, in principle, the net influence of cloud alone on the radiation budget of a system. In practice, however, observational determination of CRF is fraught with uncertainties due to factors other than cloud that induce changes in atmospheric background conditions. The most notable variables include aerosol, water vapor, and the data sampling scheme. The impact of these factors on the derivation of CRF and cloud absorption is investigated here by means of modeling and analysis of multiple datasets. Improved estimation of CRF is attempted at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and at the surface from spatially and temporally collocated ground and satellite measurements for broadband shortwave fluxes. Satellite data employed include pixel measurements from ERBE (1988‐90), ScaRaB (1994‐95), and CERES (1998), as well as surface data acquired across the Canadian radiation network, the ARM Central Facility site in Oklahoma, the US/NOAA SURFRAD networks, and the world BSRN (WMO) networks. It is found that surface CRF is much more susceptible to the variability in background conditions than TOA CRF. Selection of overly clear sky conditions often leads to significant overestimation of surface CRF, but TOA CRF remains intact or only slightly affected. As a result, the ratio of CRF at the surface and TOA is prone to overestimation. With careful treatments of these effects, the CRF ratio turns out to vary mostly between 0.9 and 1.1, implying approximately the same magnitude of atmospheric absorption under clear-sky and cloudy-sky conditions.
Allosteric Voltage Gating of Potassium Channels II

Large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels can be activated by membrane voltage in the absence of Ca2+ binding, indicating that these channels contain an intrinsic voltage sensor. The properties of this voltage sensor and its relationship to channel activation were examined by studying gating charge movement from mSlo Ca2+-activated K+ channels in the virtual absence of Ca2+ (<1 nM). Charge movement was measured in response to voltage steps or sinusoidal voltage commands. The charge–voltage relationship (Q–V) is shallower and shifted to more negative voltages than the voltage-dependent open probability (G–V). Both ON and OFF gating currents evoked by brief (0.5-ms) voltage pulses appear to decay rapidly (τON = 60 μs at +200 mV, τOFF = 16 μs at −80 mV). However, Q OFF increases slowly with pulse duration, indicating that a large fraction of ON charge develops with a time course comparable to that of I K activation. The slow onset of this gating charge prevents its detection as a component of I gON, although it represents ∼40% of the total charge moved at +140 mV. The decay of I gOFF is slowed after depolarizations that open mSlo channels. Yet, the majority of open channel charge relaxation is too rapid to be limited by channel closing. These results can be understood in terms of the allosteric voltage-gating scheme developed in the preceding paper (Horrigan, F.T., J. Cui, and R.W. Aldrich. 1999. J. Gen. Physiol. 114:277–304). The model contains five open (O) and five closed (C) states arranged in parallel, and the kinetic and steady-state properties of mSlo gating currents exhibit multiple components associated with C–C, O–O, and C–O transitions.
Static gate control for charge-transfer switches in DC-DC conversion

A gate controller was designed to improve the operation of switches in the static charge-transfer switch (CTS) converters. In this study, the gate controller was called as voltage level controller (VC) which would eliminate the reverse charge sharing effect in the static CTS. The proposed VC circuit operates with the higher voltage at the later stage to enhance the pumped voltage in the Dickson circuit without losing charges in the auxiliary path. Since the VC needs little current to control the transistor gates, compact layout with minimal sizes for the VC circuit can be achieved without consuming too much area in the chip. The function of the VC was verified both by HSPICE and chip testing. In the simulation, a CTS converter of 4 pumping stages would generate an output near 8 V with the input of 1.5 V. The generated power was estimated as 5 mW for a load of 10 KΩ. Based on the 0.35-μm CMOS technology of TSMC, a chip of 125*160 μ2 was obtained for testing. Due to the voltage tolerance of the transistors, only 3 stages of pumping worked correctly for the 1.5-V input and the highest output in the measurement was 5.4 V.
An Interview with Oskar Negt (2004)

Oskar Negt is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Hannover and a prolific writer, best known in the Anglophone world for two books written with the film maker and novelist Alexander Kluge: Public Sphere and Experience: Toward an Analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Sphere, published in Germany in 1972 and in the United States in 1993 (then reissued by Verso Books in 2016), and History & Obstinacy, which appeared in Germany in 2008 and in an English translation from Zone Books in 2014. In addition to his sociological and theoretical reflections, however, Negt is also a well-known worker educator, whose first major publication in 1971 was Soziologische Phantasie und exemplarisches Lernen: Zur Theorie und Praxis der Arbeiterbildung [Sociological Imagination and Exemplary Learning: On the Theory and Practice of Workers’ Education], which has never been translated into English. Soziologische Phantasie und exemplarisches Lernen was an influential, widely read text that provoked considerable discussion in European workers’ education circles, some of which can be followed in the 1978 anthology edited by Adolf Brock, Hans Dieter Müller, and Oskar Negt entitled Arbeiterbildung: Soziolgische Phantasie und Exemplarisches Lernen in Theorie, Kritik und Praxis [Workers' Education: Sociological Imagination and Exemplary Learning in Theory, Critique and Practice].
A Systematic Review and Assessment of Aspect-oriented Methods Applied to Business Process Adaptation

Today's ever-changing business environments, comprised among other things of customer expectations, market demands, and legal obligations, require dynamic and adaptive business processes. Hence, enterprises need to monitor and improve their business processes against their business goals and constraints. Aspect-oriented development is known to have helped designers cope with changing con- cerns in software, even dynamically. In this paper, we per- form a systematic literature review of aspect-oriented approaches for business process adaptation. We observe that current methods focus on i) composing and swapping services based on Quality of Service (QoS), cost, rules, poli- cies, and constraints, as well as in the event of failure, ii) extracting roles and crosscutting concerns from composite services, iii) customizing process instances based on user profiles or Service Level Agreements, iv) adapting service composition and collaboration policies, and v) using moni- toring aspects to detect undesired situations. This review also suggests that our own aspect-oriented process modeling and adaptation framework is novel because none of the other approaches considers organization goals, performance and constraints as a whole when improving business proc- esses. In addition, given much prior research on aspect- oriented service composition is available, we are confident that our modeling framework is realizable.
The Synergistic Immunoregulatory Effects of Culture-Expanded Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and CD4+25+Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells on Skin Allograft Rejection

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are seen as an ideal source of cells to induce graft acceptance; however, some reports have shown that MSCs can be immunogenic rather than immunosuppressive. We speculate that the immunomodulatory effects of regulatory T cells (Tregs) can aid the maintenance of immunoregulatory functions of MSCs, and that a combinatorial approach to cell therapy can have synergistic immunomodulatory effects on allograft rejection. After preconditioning with Fludarabine, followed by total body irradiation and anti-asialo-GM-1(ASGM-1), tail skin grafts from C57BL/6 (H-2kb) mice were grafted onto the lateral thoracic wall of BALB/c (H-2kd) mice. Group A mice (control group, n = 9) did not receive any further treatment after preconditioning, whereas groups B and C (n = 9) received cell therapy with MSCs or Tregs, respectively, on days −1, +6 and +13 relative to the skin transplantation. Group D (n = 10) received cell therapy with MSCs and Tregs on days −1, +6 and +13. Cell suspensions were obtained from the spleens of five randomly chosen mice from each group on day +7, and the immunomodulatory effects of the cell therapy were evaluated by flow cytometry and real-time PCR. Our results show that allograft survival was significantly longer in group D compared to the control group (group A). Flow cytometric analysis and real-time PCR for splenocytes revealed that the Th2 subpopulation in group D increased significantly compared to the group B. Also, the expression of Foxp3 and STAT 5 increased significantly in group D compared to the conventional cell therapy groups (B and C). Taken together, these data suggest that a combined cell therapy approach with MSCs and Tregs has a synergistic effect on immunoregulatory function in vivo, and might provide a novel strategy for improving survival in allograft transplantation.
A Minimum-Jerk Speed-Planning Algorithm for Coordinated Planning and Control of Automated Assembly Manufacturing

We previously proposed a general algorithm for coordinating the motions among multiple machines in a shared assembly environment based on a constant-speed motion model. In this paper, we extend this work to a minimum-jerk polynomial motion model and describe a new speed-planning algorithm to plan automated assembly machines' motions. Machines are planned sequentially, based on their priorities, by mapping the motions of higher-priority machines into forbidden regions in two-dimensional space-time graphs. Collision-free minimum-jerk motions are then planned between the forbidden regions in the graphs. The new speed-planning algorithm is evaluated on a dual-robot surface-mount technology assembly machine in which both robots share a common workspace. Note to Practitioners-Automated assembly processes, especially surface-mount technology manufacturing, require a high degree of precision when placing certain components. This motivated us to find a way of maintaining good positional accuracy by planning smooth motions for the machines that perform these tasks. Since many of these machines have two or more robots, their motions must also be coordinated. We developed an algorithm that combines coordinated motion concepts with a minimum-jerk motion model that can solve these problems. The algorithm plans segmented paths for the robots and then sequentially plans their speeds to prevent collisions between them. The planned speeds ensure position, velocity, and acceleration continuity between path segments. The smooth motions resulting from this method enable high-accuracy component placement. The tradeoff for this improvement is increased cycle time compared to other speed-planning methods
Combined Partial Test Vector Reuse and FDR Coding for Two Dimensional SoC Test Compression

This paper proposes a novel approach to core based SoC test compression. Research works show that almost all the test vectors have the same part in common. Therefore there exists such a vector, from which parts of each test vector from the different test sets can be sought. Based on this, first we attempt to find a vector named overlapped vector which contains parts of each test vector and has shorter length than that of the sum of each test vector's length. Second the overlapped test vectors are further compressed utilizing frequency-directed run-length (FDR) coding. Due to the fact that the test application time is proportional to the length of test vector, our proposal achieves as short test time as possible. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method obtains reduced test application time and significant test data compression rate.