Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
D2HT: directory federation using DHT to support open scalability in ubiquitous network

The traditional server-centric design for P2P service discovery is not suitable for ad-hoc environments. In this paper, in order to facilitate the inter operation of ad-hoc environments with other platforms, we introduce D/sup 2/HT, an algorithm which enables directory federation using DHT, in order to support open scalability. We also introduce the lightweight service discovery (LSD) protocol based on the FIPA compatible agent framework. Our approach overcomes the reconfiguration problems associated with other DHT variants (e.g. Chord (Stoica et al., 2001), CAN (Ratnasamy, 2001) and Pastry (Rowstron and Druschel, 2001), which arise when peers join/leave the network, as well as taking into consideration device limitations. We also present an initial implementation of LSD using iPAQs and the D/sup 2/HT-enabled FIPA agent platform.
Psychometric Examination of Treatment Change Among Mentally Disordered Offenders: A Risk–Needs Analysis

The present study examined the association of psychiatric symptomatology, criminal attitudes, and treatment changes within these domains to violent and general recidivism in a sample of 614 mentally disordered offenders. Significant pre–post changes were found on multiple measures of criminal attitudes, symptomatology, and readiness for change. Antisocial Intentions and Attitudes Toward Associates (from the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates [MCAA]) predicted general recidivism and covaried with the Big Four criminogenic need domains on the Level of Service Inventory–Ontario Revision; none of the remaining psychometric measures significantly predicted violent or general recidivism. Although pre–post changes were seldom linked to changes in recidivism, positive changes in Antisocial Intentions (MCAA) significantly predicted reductions in general recidivism via Cox regression survival analysis, controlling for baseline risk and pretreatment attitudes score. Risk and need implications of psychometric assessments of treatment change in mentally disordered offender populations are discussed.
Co-use of Alcohol and Tobacco Among Ninth-Graders in Louisiana

Introduction The co-use of alcohol and tobacco by adolescents is a public health problem that continues well into adulthood and results in negative behavioral, social, and health consequences. The purpose of this study was to examine the co-use of alcohol and tobacco among ninth-graders in south-central Louisiana. Methods We created a health habits survey to collect data from 4,750 ninth-grade students, mean age 15.4 years. Cross-sectional analysis used χ 2, 1-way analysis of variance, and logistic regression methods. Results Almost 20% of students were co-users. Students who were white, performed poorly in school, did not expect to graduate high school, and had more discretionary money to spend were more likely to be co-users. Co-users had friends who got drunk weekly and were more likely to approve of alcohol use among friends than among adults. Significant differences in attitudes toward drinking and smoking were observed between co-users and nonusers. For adolescent drinkers, including girls, hard liquor was the preferred beverage. Conclusion These data for high school students are applicable for prevention strategies at a critical age when harmful health behaviors can mark the start of lifelong habits. Intervention efforts will be successful only if they account for multiple levels of influence.
Current trends in the etiology and diagnosis of HPV-related head and neck cancers

Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection is a major risk factor for a distinct subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The current review summarizes the epidemiology of HNSCC and the disease burden, the infectious cycle of HPV, the roles of viral oncoproteins, E6 and E7, and the downstream cellular events that lead to malignant transformation. Current techniques for the clinical diagnosis of HPV‐associated HNSCC will also be discussed, that is, the detection of HPV DNA, RNA, and the HPV surrogate marker, p16 in tumor tissues, as well as HPV‐specific antibodies in serum. Such methods do not allow for the early detection of HPV‐associated HNSCC and most cases are at an advanced stage upon diagnosis. Novel noninvasive approaches using oral fluid, a clinically relevant biological fluid, allow for the detection of HPV and cellular alterations in infected cells, which may aid in the early detection and HPV‐typing of HNSCC tumors. Noninvasive diagnostic methods will enable early detection and intervention, leading to a significant reduction in mortality and morbidity associated with HNSCC.
Faculty Members' Views towards Blended Learning, the Case of a Najah National University Master Program Teachers in the College of Education and Teacher Preparation

This study investigates faculty members’ views towards the blended learning approach they practice in their MA courses. In order to get a clear picture of the issue, 5 experienced faculty members using Moodle in their courses were selected as a sample for the study which used interview as the data collection tool. The researcher composed 5 questions informed by related literature and colleagues’ advice to get proper responses from participants in order achieve the study objectives. After analyzing participants’ responses, the study found that using blended learning is beneficial and assisted teachers in their performance. Participants’ practices were different using this approach, compared to face to face teaching. It also showed that it was worth spending time and effort implementing blended learning as this approach affected learning outcomes positively.
Design of AC-coupled circuit for high-speed interconnects

The scaling of semiconductor technology together with 3D IC stacking integration make it possible for many portable electronics to process large amount of multimedia data. AC-coupling enables chip placed face-to-face for signal transmission using close-field capacitive coupling. A high performance system design using AC coupled interconnect (ACCI) technology not only achieves shorter and faster interconnection between dies but also increases packaging density. This paper describes a chip-to-chip circuit design suitable for high-speed 3DIC interconnected applications. The AC-Coupled face-to-face (F2F) chip was simulated using HSPICE with TSMC 0.18-μm 1P6M CMOS technology process file under a 1.8 V supply voltage. The simulation results indicated the proposed circuit with the self-test characteristics can achieve differential signal transmission up to 2.5 Gbps.
Boosted Dynamic Mixture Active Shape Model For MultiView Face Alignment

A novel optimization scheme in the popular Active Shape Model (ASM) framework is presented, which increases the accuracy and robustness of segmentation on multi-view face images. The shape model is trained on a Gaussian Mixture Model and then combined with a visibility model of each point for searching faces. The determininistic fitting scheme in traditional ASM is substituted by a probabilistic estimation approach. A set of weighted particles is used to represent each salient feature point. Integration of the dynamic model with a mixture model not only improves performance toward the local minima problem, but also addresses the improper initialisation problem. Furthermore, combination of the boosted observation model and visibility model potentially solve the problem of occlusion. The proposed algorithm is much more robust in multi-view face alignment and not affected by initialization conditions, as are current ASM optimization algorithms. Experiments show that the developed approach provides higher accuracy and increases the convergence rate in face segmentation on the high resolution PUT [1] public test data set.
Application of microbial α-amylase in industry – A review

Amylases are one of the main enzymes used in industry. Such enzymes hydrolyze the starch molecules into polymers composed of glucose units. Amylases have potential application in a wide number of industrial processes such as food, fermentation and pharmaceutical industries. α-Amylases can be obtained from plants, animals and microorganisms. However, enzymes from fungal and bacterial sources have dominated applications in industrial sectors. The production of α-amylase is essential for conversion of starches into oligosaccharides. Starch is an important constituent of the human diet and is a major storage product of many economically important crops such as wheat, rice, maize, tapioca, and potato. Starch-converting enzymes are used in the production of maltodextrin, modified starches, or glucose and fructose syrups. A large number of microbial α-amylases has applications in different industrial sectors such as food, textile, paper and detergent industries. The production of α-amylases has generally been carried out using submerged fermentation, but solid state fermentation systems appear as a promising technology. The properties of each α-amylase such as thermostability, pH profile, pH stability, and Ca-independency are important in the development of fermentation process. This review focuses on the production of bacterial and fungal α-amylases, their distribution, structural-functional aspects, physical and chemical parameters, and the use of these enzymes in industrial applications.
Directional Routing via Generalized st-Numberings

We present a mathematical model for network routing based on generating paths in a consistent direction. Our development is based on an algebraic and geometric framework for defining a directional coordinate system for real vector spaces. Our model, which generalizes graph st-numberings, is based on mapping the nodes of a network to points in multidimensional space and ensures that the paths generated in different directions from the same source are node-disjoint. Such directional embeddings encode the global disjoint path structure with very simple local information. We prove that all 3-connected graphs have 3-directional embeddings in the plane so that each node outside a set of extreme nodes has a neighbor in each of the three directional regions defined in the plane. We conjecture that the result generalizes to k-connected graphs. We also show that a directed acyclic graph (dag) that is k-connected to a set of sinks has a k-directional embedding in (k-1)-space with the sink set as the extreme nodes.
Predictors of sexual desire disorders in women.

INTRODUCTION A historic belief was that testosterone was the "hormone of desire. " However, recent data, which show either minimal or no significant correlation between testosterone levels and women's sexual desire, suggest that nonhormonal variables may play a key role. AIM To compare women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) and those with the recently proposed more symptomatic desire disorder, Sexual Desire/Interest Disorder (SDID), on the relative contribution of hormonal vs. nonhormonal variables. METHODS Women with HSDD (N = 58, mean age 52.5) or SDID (N = 52, mean age 50.9) participated in a biopsychosocial assessment in which six nonhormonal domains were evaluated for the degree of involvement in the current low desire complaints. Participants provided a serum sample of hormones analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Logistic regression was used to assess the ability of variables (nonhormonal: history of sexual abuse, developmental history, psychosexual history, psychiatric status, medical history, and sexual/relationship-related factors; hormonal: dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], 5-diol, 4-dione, testosterone, 5-α-dihydrotestosterone, androsterone glucuronide, 3α-diol-3G, 3α-diol-17G, and DHEA-S; and demographic: age, relationship length) to predict group membership. RESULTS Women with SDID had significantly lower sexual desire and arousal scores, but the groups did not differ on relationship satisfaction or mood. Addition of the hormonal variables to the two demographic variables (age, relationship length) did not significantly increase predictive capability. However, the addition of the six nonhormonal variables to these two sets of predictors significantly increased ability to predict group status. Developmental history, psychiatric history, and psychosexual history added significantly to the predictive capability provided by the basic model when examined individually. CONCLUSIONS Nonhormonal variables added significant predictive capability to the basic model, highlighting the importance of their assessment clinically where women commonly have SDID in addition to HSDD, and emphasizing the importance of addressing psychological factors in treatment.
WISE: Hierarchical Soft Clustering of Web Page Search Results Based on Web Content Mining Techniques

Typically, search engines are low precision in response to a query, retrieving lots of useless Web pages, and missing some other important ones. In this paper, we study the problem of the hierarchical clustering of Web pages search results. In particular, we propose an architecture called WISE, a meta-search engine that automatically builds clusters of related Web pages embodying one meaning of the query. These clusters are then hierarchically organized and labeled with a phrase representing the key concept of the cluster and the corresponding Web documents. The system which is a Web-based interface (soon available at wise.di.ubi.pt), introduces some interesting new ideas, such as the preselection of the retrieved Web pages, the capacity to statistically detect phrases within documents and the representation of documents based on their most relevant key concepts by using Web content mining techniques. The final step of the system is supported by a graph-based overlapping clustering algorithm which groups the selected documents into a hierarchy of clusters
Secrecy Degrees of Freedom of MIMO Broadcast Channels With Delayed CSIT

The degrees of freedom (DoF) of the two-user Gaussian multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channel with confidential messages is studied under the assumption that delayed channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter. We characterize the optimal secrecy DoF (SDoF) region and show that it can be achieved by a simple artificial noise alignment scheme. The proposed scheme sends the confidential messages superposed with the artificial noise over several time slots. Exploiting delayed CSI, the transmitter aligns the transmit signal in such a way that the useful message can be extracted at the intended receiver but is completely drowned by the artificial noise at the unintended receiver. The proposed scheme can be regarded as a nontrivial extension of Maddah-Ali Tse scheme and enables us to quantify the resource overhead, or equivalently the DoF loss, to be paid for the secure communications.
Relationship between victimization and substance use treatment motivation in a jail-based sample: the role of adult attachment and peer support

ABSTRACT The current study investigated the impact of victimization on substance use treatment motivation and the potential role of adult attachment and peer support, with a sample of 149 justice-involved individuals participating in a jail-based substance treatment program. Results of mediation analyses indicated that attachment anxiety mediated the relationship between victimization and problem recognition and desire for help; more victimization was associated with higher levels of attachment anxiety, which in turn predicted greater problem recognition and desire for help. Attachment avoidance mediated the association between victimization and desire for help, wherein more victimization was associated with more attachment avoidance, which in turn predicted a greater desire for help. Moderation analyses indicated that peer support moderated the relationship of attachment anxiety with desire for help, but not with problem recognition. For those perceiving high peer support, individuals with high attachment anxiety tended to report a greater desire for help; for those with low peer support, attachment anxiety did not predict desire for help. Clinicians might consider the role of attachment in treatment planning, particularly for those with a history of victimization. Treatment programs might benefit from cultivating an atmosphere of peer support while enabling and subsequently increasing the willingness for treatment.
Electrophysiological Modulation of Cardiomyocytic Tissue by Transfected Fibroblasts Expressing Potassium Channels: A Novel Strategy to Manipulate Excitability

Background—Traditional pharmacological therapies aiming to modify the abnormal electrophysiological substrate underlying cardiac arrhythmias may be limited by their relatively low efficacy, global cardiac activity, and significant proarrhythmic effects. We suggest a new approach, in which transfected cellular grafts expressing various ionic channels may be used to manipulate the local electrophysiological properties of cardiac tissue. To examine the feasibility of this concept, we tested the hypothesis that transfected fibroblasts expressing the voltage-sensitive potassium channel Kv1.3 can modify the electrophysiological properties of cardiomyocytic cultures. Methods and Results—A high-resolution multielectrode mapping technique was used to assess the electrophysiological and structural properties of primary cultures of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. The transfected fibroblasts, added to the cardiomyocytic cultures, caused a significant effect on the conduction properties of the hybrid cultures. These changes were manifested by significant reduction in extracellular signal amplitude and by the appearance of multiple local conduction blocks. The location of all conduction blocks correlated with the spatial distribution of the transfected fibroblasts assessed by vital staining. All electrophysiological changes were reversed after the application of Charybdotoxin, a specific Kv1.3 blocker. In contrast, conduction remained uniform in the control hybrid cultures when nontransfected fibroblasts were used. Conclusions—Transfected fibroblasts are able to electrically couple with cardiac myocytes, causing a significant local and reversible modification of the tissue’s electrophysiological properties. More broadly, this study suggests that transfected cellular grafts expressing various ionic channels may be used to modify cardiac excitability, providing a possible future novel cell therapy strategy.
Serum biomarkers reflecting specific tumor tissue remodeling processes are valuable diagnostic tools for lung cancer

Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, such as collagen type I and elastin, and intermediate filament (IMF) proteins, such as vimentin are modified and dysregulated as part of the malignant changes leading to disruption of tissue homeostasis. Noninvasive biomarkers that reflect such changes may have a great potential for cancer. Levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) generated fragments of type I collagen (C1M), of elastin (ELM), and of citrullinated vimentin (VICM) were measured in serum from patients with lung cancer (n = 40), gastrointestinal cancer (n = 25), prostate cancer (n = 14), malignant melanoma (n = 7), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (n = 13), and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) (n = 10), as well as in age‐matched controls (n = 33). The area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) was calculated and a diagnostic decision tree generated from specific cutoff values. C1M and VICM were significantly elevated in lung cancer patients as compared with healthy controls (AUROC = 0.98, P < 0.0001) and other cancers (AUROC = 0.83 P < 0.0001). A trend was detected when comparing lung cancer with COPD+IPF. No difference could be seen for ELM. Interestingly, C1M and VICM were able to identify patients with lung cancer with a positive predictive value of 0.9 and an odds ratio of 40 (95% CI = 8.7–186, P < 0.0001). Biomarkers specifically reflecting degradation of collagen type I and citrullinated vimentin are applicable for lung cancer patients. Our data indicate that biomarkers reflecting ECM and IMF protein dysregulation are highly applicable in the lung cancer setting. We speculate that these markers may aid in diagnosing and characterizing patients with lung cancer.
Multi-Agents Scheduling and Routing Problem with Time Windows and Visiting Activities

In our previous research, we compared the actual route recorded by a GPS device "PhotoTrackr" and the optimal vehicle route derived by using ArcGIS Network Analyst tool. VRP is the fundamental problem in the research fields of transportation, we focus on variations of CVRPTW (Capacitated VRP with Time Windows). Various types of VRP are studied to determine the optimal route under various constraints of locations, distance, time window and activities. Therefore it is difficult to straightly apply one case result to other cases, because the different constraints cause various difficulties. In this paper, based on previous results in our researches, we consider the problem of "Multi-Agents Scheduling and Routing Problem with Time Windows and Visiting Activities". Firstly, we introduce the result of "Vehicle scheduling and routing problems in day-care center". Secondly, based on other research result of "Scheduling of teachers for visiting high schools", we generalize the problems to VRP with time windows and visiting activities. Based on these case studies, we propose five parameters, such as"activities at the visiting points", "time windows", "numbers of visiting spots within a route", "total visiting time", "time-lag between different routes". We evaluate the quality of optimization based on three performance measures. Thirdly, we present our algorithm of k-means clustering under the constraints of visiting sequence. Finally, we use ArcGIS Network Analyst tool for computing cost of routes, and we evaluate the optimal visiting route with time windows and visiting activities.
Thinking together with material representations: Joint epistemic actions in creative problem solving

Abstract How do material representations such as models, diagrams, and drawings come to shape and aid collective, epistemic processes? This study investigated how groups of participants spontaneously recruited material objects (in this case, LEGO blocks) to support collective creative processes in the context of an experiment. Qualitative microanalyses of the group interactions motivate a taxonomy of different roles that the material representations play in the joint epistemic processes: illustration, elaboration, and exploration. Firstly, the LEGO blocks were used to illustrate already well-formed ideas in support of communication and epistemic alignment. Furthermore, the material concretization of otherwise abstract ideas in LEGO blocks gave rise to elaboration: discussions, requests for clarification, and discovery of unnoticed conceptual disagreements. Lastly, the LEGO blocks were used for exploration. That is, the material representations were experimented on and physical attributes were explored resulting in discoveries of new meaning potentials and creative solutions. We discuss these different ways in which material representations do their work in collective reasoning processes in relation to ideas about top-down and bottom-up cognitive processes and division of cognitive labor.