Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combating the code warrior: a different sort of programming instruction

Many CS101 courses purport to teach object-oriented programming, but many seem to be directly translated from traditional structured programming courses. Lynn Andrea Stein's "Rethinking CS101" program at MIT offers a radically different approach to teaching OO programming by concentrating on the interactive aspects of object-oriented systems. This approach has the added advantage that students who have previously learned "programming" must also relearn how to approach the problems involved in programming interactive systems. This paper reports on the author's use of this concept outside of MIT, with encouraging results.
Antiretroviral Drug Use and HIV Drug Resistance Among HIV-Infected Black Men Who Have Sex With Men: HIV Prevention Trials Network 061

Background:HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 061 enrolled black men who have sex with men in the United States. Some men with low/undetectable HIV RNA had unusual patterns of antiretroviral (ARV) drug use or had drugs detected in the absence of viral suppression. This report includes a comprehensive analysis of ARV drug use and drug resistance among men in HPTN 061 who were not virally suppressed. Methods:The analysis included 169 men who had viral loads >400 copies per milliliter at enrollment, including 3 with acute infection and 13 with recent infection. By self-report, 88 were previously diagnosed, including 31 in care; 137 men reported no ARV drug use. Samples from these 169 men and 23 seroconverters were analyzed with HIV genotyping and ARV drug assays. Results:Forty-eight (28%) of the 169 men had ≥1 drug resistance mutation (DRM); 19 (11%) had multiclass resistance. Sixty men (36%) had ≥1 ARV drug detected, 42 (70%) of whom reported no ARV drug use. Nine (23%) of 39 newly infected men had ≥1 DRM; 10 had ≥1 ARV drug detected. Unusual patterns of ARV drugs were detected more frequently in newly diagnosed men than previously diagnosed men. The rate of transmitted drug resistance was 23% based on HIV genotyping and self-reported ARV drug use but was 12% after adjusting for ARV drug detection. Conclusions:Many men in HPTN 061 had drug-resistant HIV, and many were at risk of acquiring additional DRMs. ARV drug testing revealed unusual patterns of ARV drug use and provided a more accurate estimate of transmitted drug resistance.
Phytochemical and Antiulcerogenic Properties of Rhizomes from Simaba ferruginea St. Hill. (Simaroubaceae)

Abstract Simaba ferruginea (Simaroubaceae) is a Brazilian medicinal plant used in traditional medicine to treat several ailments, including gastric ulcers, fever, diarrhea, and dolorous and inflammatory processes. This study examines the chemical composition and antiulcerogenic effects of rhizomes from this plant. Bioassay-guided fractionation led to the isolation of two bioactive indole alkaloids called canthin-6-one (1) and 4-methoxycanthin-6-one (2). The alkaloid fraction and both alkaloids demonstrated potent antiulcerogenic effects when evaluated in gastric lesion-induced animals, as well as significant antinociceptive activity in mice. These results confirm and justify the popular use of S. ferruginea against gastric ulcers and dolorous processes.
Vulnerability Detection in Mobile Applications Using State Machine Modeling

Mobile applications play a critical role in modern society. Although mobile apps are widely adopted, everyday news shows that the applications often contain severe security vulnerabilities. Recent work indicates that state machine learning has proven to be an effective method for vulnerability detection in software implementations. The state machine that can be learned about a software implementation provides additional insight into the internal software structure. The insight can then be used as input for security assessment which most of the times is performed by manual evaluation of the learned model. In this thesis, we aim to extend state machine learning to improve the security of mobile applications in an automated way, solving two problem. The first problem is the lack of a methodology to learn state machines for mobile apps. The second problem is the need for an approach that detects vulnerabilities from the inferred models. To the best of our knowledge, there exists no framework that automatically infers behavioral state machine models on mobile Android applications, nor does there exist a methodology for automatic vulnerability detection on the inferred models. We propose two solutions to the aforementioned problems. For the former, a framework for inferring a state machine model on general mobile Android applications is presented, which uses active state machine learning algorithms to ensure time optimization and model correctness on the learning process. For the latter, we designed algorithms that use the inferred models and determine the presence of vulnerabilities. We combine both solutions and propose a novel testing methodology that gains new insights into the behavior of an app and achieves the goal of vulnerability detection. The methodology identified relevant security weaknesses in numerous Android apps. Moreover, the solution can detect rogue applications such as a malicious WhatsApp version in the Android Play Store, which affected over a million devices in three days on November 2017.
A methodology for designing hierarchical scheduling systems

When executing different real-time applications on a single processor system, one problem is how to compose these applications and guarantee at the same time that their timing requirements are not violated. A possible way of composing applications is through the resource reservation approach. Each application is handled by a dedicated server that is assigned a fraction of the processor. Using this approach, the system can be seen as a two-level hierarchical scheduler. A considerable amount of work has been recently addressed to the analysis of this kind of hierarchical systems. However, a question is still unanswered: given a set of real-time tasks to be handled by a server, how to assign the server parameters so that the task set is feasible? In this paper, we answer to the previous question for the case of fixed priority local scheduler by presenting a methodology for computing the class of server parameters that make the task set feasible.
O uso das redes sociais virtuais nos processos de recrutamento e seleção

Este artigo tem por objetivo estudar o comportamento dos usuarios das redes sociais virtuais com base na visao das agencias de emprego, analisando suas atitudes, comportamentos e atributos pessoais, para depois poder tracar um perfil de comportamento adequado para estes ao usarem as redes sociais virtuais. Por ser um assunto atual esta pesquisa representa um apoio inovador a sociedade em geral que buscar promover sua imagem pessoal e profissional de maneira positiva e idonea, lhes fornecendo dados relevantes, embasados numa pesquisa cientifica sobre como alcancar esta exposicao de modo saudavel, agregando valor a sua postura profissional. A principal metodologia utilizada foi a pesquisa descritiva de opiniao, feita atraves de um questionario enviado para as agencias de emprego onde o foco era buscar as caracteristicas de comportamento e atitudes observadas pelos profissionais da area nas paginas das redes sociais virtuais dos candidatos em potencial. Como resultado deste trabalho pode-se concluir que a utilizacao da internet nos processos de recrutamento e selecao e muito expressiva e a consulta das redes sociais virtuais de candidatos foi uma pratica adotada por 100% das agencias de emprego entrevistadas, por ser um trabalho pratico, sem maiores custos e capaz de reduzir o tempo no processo de recrutamento e selecao, alem de fornecer informacoes reais sobre o perfil do candidato. A principal contribuicao desta pesquisa foi que, embasado no resultado geral do questionario aplicado, foi possivel estabelecer um perfil padrao de comportamento ao usuario das redes sociais virtuais que quando seguido pode contribuir de maneira efetiva para a divulgacao positiva da imagem profissional e pessoal deste em um processo de recrutamento e selecao.
Progression and Clinical Recurrence of Symptomatic Middle Cerebral Artery Stenosis: A Long-Term Follow-Up Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Study

Background and Purpose— Patients with symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis have a high rate of recurrence. We conducted a prospective study to determine which factors are associated with the progression of symptomatic middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis and to evaluate the relationship between progression and clinical recurrence. Methods— Between January 1996 and February 2000, of a total of 2564 consecutive first-ever transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke patients admitted to our cerebrovascular unit, 145 showed an MCA stenosis signal on transcranial Doppler (TCD) on admission, and 40 fulfilled all criteria to enter this study, including angiographic confirmation. Patients were prescribed antiplatelet or anticoagulant agents following the criteria of the neurologist in charge. TCD recordings and clinical interviews were performed regularly during follow-up. Progression of MCA stenosis was defined as an increase >30 cm/s in TCD-recorded maximum mean flow velocity. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify predictors of progression and clinical recurrence. Results— With a median follow-up of 26.55 months, 13 (32.5%) MCA stenoses progressed, 3 (7.5%) regressed, and 24 (60%) remained stable. Absence of significant extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis (P =0.049) and the use of oral anticoagulants (P =0.045) were significantly associated with a lower progression rate in univariate analysis, and anticoagulation remained an independent predictor when a logistic regression model was applied (OR 7.25, CI 1.1 to 48.1, P =0.019). A new ischemic event during follow-up in the territory supplied by the stenosed MCA occurred in 8 cases (20%), and 13 patients had a major vascular event. Progression of the MCA stenosis detected by TCD was independently associated with a new ipsilateral ischemic event (OR 2.89, CI 1.09 to 7.71, P =0.031) and with the occurrence of any major vascular event (OR 7.03, CI 1.6 to 30.9, P =0.0071). Conclusions— Progression of symptomatic MCA stenosis detected by means of TCD predicts clinical recurrence. Anticoagulation is independently associated with a lower progression rate of symptomatic MCA stenosis.
Longer therapy, iatrogenic amenorrhea, and survival in early breast cancer.

BACKGROUND Chemotherapy regimens that combine anthracyclines and taxanes result in improved disease-free and overall survival among women with operable lymph-node-positive breast cancer. The effectiveness of concurrent versus sequential regimens is not known. METHODS We randomly assigned 5351 patients with operable, node-positive, early-stage breast cancer to receive four cycles of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by four cycles of docetaxel (sequential ACT); four cycles of doxorubicin and docetaxel (doxorubicin-docetaxel); or four cycles of doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and docetaxel (concurrent ACT). The primary aims were to examine whether concurrent ACT was more effective than sequential ACT and whether the doxorubicin-docetaxel regimen would be as effective as the concurrent-ACT regimen. The secondary aims were to assess toxic effects and to correlate amenorrhea with outcomes in premenopausal women. RESULTS At a median follow-up of 73 months, overall survival was improved in the sequential-ACT group (8-year overall survival, 83%) as compared with the doxorubicin-docetaxel group (overall survival, 79%; hazard ratio for death, 0.83; P=0.03) and the concurrent-ACT group (overall survival, 79%; hazard ratio, 0.86; P=0.09). Disease-free survival was improved in the sequential-ACT group (8-year disease-free survival, 74%) as compared with the doxorubicin-docetaxel group (disease-free survival, 69%; hazard ratio for recurrence, a second malignant condition, or death, 0.80; P=0.001) and the concurrent-ACT group (disease-free survival, 69%; hazard ratio, 0.83; P=0.01). The doxorubicin-docetaxel regimen showed noninferiority to the concurrent-ACT regimen for overall survival (hazard ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.82 to 1.14). Overall survival was improved in patients with amenorrhea for 6 months or more across all treatment groups, independently of estrogen-receptor status. CONCLUSIONS Sequential ACT improved disease-free survival as compared with doxorubicin-docetaxel or concurrent ACT, and it improved overall survival as compared with doxorubicin-docetaxel. Amenorrhea was associated with improved survival regardless of the treatment and estrogen-receptor status. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00003782.)
Participation in High School Competitive Sports: A Subversion of School Mission or Contribution to Academic Goals?

Longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 10th graders (National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 First Follow-Up) were used to assess the net effect of athletic participation on student outcomes after controlling for student background and 8th-grade measures of the dependent variables. The analyses show positive effects of sport participation on grades, self-concept, locus of control, and educational aspirations, and a negative effect on discipline problems. Analysis also shows that athletic participation is unequally distributed across gender and socioeconomic groups: Males, students from higher socioeconomic levels, students attending private and smaller schools, and those with previous experience in school and private sport teams are more engaged in high school competitive sport.
Automatic reconstruction of 3D neuron structures using a graph-augmented deformable model

Motivation: Digital reconstruction of 3D neuron structures is an important step toward reverse engineering the wiring and functions of a brain. However, despite a number of existing studies, this task is still challenging, especially when a 3D microscopic image has low single-to-noise ratio and discontinued segments of neurite patterns. Results: We developed a graph-augmented deformable model (GD) to reconstruct (trace) the 3D structure of a neuron when it has a broken structure and/or fuzzy boundary. We formulated a variational problem using the geodesic shortest path, which is defined as a combination of Euclidean distance, exponent of inverse intensity of pixels along the path and closeness to local centers of image intensity distribution. We solved it in two steps. We first used a shortest path graph algorithm to guarantee that we find the global optimal solution of this step. Then we optimized a discrete deformable curve model to achieve visually more satisfactory reconstructions. Within our framework, it is also easy to define an optional prior curve that reflects the domain knowledge of a user. We investigated the performance of our method using a number of challenging 3D neuronal image datasets of different model organisms including fruit fly, Caenorhabditis elegans, and mouse. In our experiments, the GD method outperformed several comparison methods in reconstruction accuracy, consistency, robustness and speed. We further used GD in two real applications, namely cataloging neurite morphology of fruit fly to build a 3D ‘standard’ digital neurite atlas, and estimating the synaptic bouton density along the axons for a mouse brain. Availability: The software is provided as part of the V3D-Neuron 1.0 package freely available at http://penglab.janelia. org/proj/v3d Contact: pengh@janelia.hhmi. org
On the Temporal Effects of Mobile Blockers in Urban Millimeter-Wave Cellular Scenarios

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) propagation is known to be severely affected by the blockage of the line-of-sight (LoS) path. In contrast to microwave systems, at shorter mmWave wavelengths such blockage can be caused by human bodies, where their mobility within environment makes wireless channel alternate between the blocked and non-blocked LoS states. Following the recent 3GPP requirements on modeling the <italic>dynamic blockage</italic> as well as the <italic>temporal consistency</italic> of the channel at mmWave frequencies, in this paper, a new model for predicting the state of a user in the presence of mobile blockers for representative 3GPP scenarios is developed: Urban micro cell street canyon and park/stadium/square. It is demonstrated that the blockage effects produce an <italic> alternating renewal process</italic> with exponentially distributed non-blocked intervals, and blocked durations that follow the general distribution. The following metrics are derived 1) the mean and the fraction of time spent in blocked/non-blocked state, 2) the residual blocked/non-blocked time, and 3) the time-dependent conditional probability of having blockage/no blockage at time <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t_{1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> given that there was blockage/no blockage at time <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t_{0}$</tex-math> </inline-formula>. The latter is a function of the arrival rate (intensity), width, and height of moving blockers, distance to the mmWave access point (AP), as well as the heights of the AP and the user device. The proposed model can be used for system-level characterization of mmWave cellular communication systems. For example, the optimal height and the maximum coverage radius of the mmWave APs are derived, while satisfying the required mean data rate constraint. The system-level simulations corroborate that the use of the proposed method considerably reduces the <italic>modeling complexity</italic>.
TIC et jeu concurrentiel

Les places de marche, en tant que systeme d’information interorganisationnel, ne se limitent pas a une simple dimension transactionnelle. En effet, celles ayant survecu a la phase de consolidation ont progressivement elargi leurs fonctions et contribuent a une nouvelle dynamique concurrentielle. Cette derniere est a l’origine de la reconfiguration des relations interentreprises qui reposent sur la formation d’organisations reticulaires plus souples et mieux adaptees aux evolutions du jeu concurrentiel de plus en plus complexe.
Preferred speed and cost of transport: the effect of incline.

Preferred speed is the behavioral tendency of animals to utilize a relatively narrow set of speeds near the middle of a much broader range that they are capable of using within a particular gait. Possible explanations for this behavior include minimizing musculoskeletal stresses and maximizing energetic economy. If preferred speed is determined by energetic economy (cost of transport, C(T)), then shifts in preferred speed should produce shifts in C(T). To test this hypothesis, preferred speeds were measured in trotting horses on the level and on an incline. The preferred trotting speed decreased from 3.29+/-0.24 m s(-)(1) on the level to 3.05+/-0.30 m s(-)(1) (means +/- s.d., N=6) on an 11.8 % incline. The rate of oxygen consumption was measured as a function of trotting speed on a treadmill and was a curvilinear function of speed in all horses under both conditions (level and 10 % incline). This curvilinear relationship resulted in a C(T) that was a U-shaped function of speed. The speed at which C(T) was minimal (i.e. at which trotting was most energetically economical) was very near the preferred speed on the level and decreased on the incline, again to a speed near the preferred speed on the incline.
The Rett Syndrome Behaviour Questionnaire (RSBQ): refining the behavioural phenotype of Rett syndrome.

BACKGROUND Although physical features, including loss of hand skills, deceleration of head growth, spasticity and scoliosis, are cardinal features of Rett syndrome (RS), a number of behavioural features are also associated with the disorder, including hand stereotypies, hyperventilation and breath holding. No study has tested the specificity of these behavioural features to individuals with RS, compared to individuals with severe to profound mental retardation (SMR). METHOD A novel checklist of characteristic RS behavioural and emotional features, the Rett Syndrome Behaviour Questionnaire (RSBQ), was developed to test the type and specificity of behavioural features of RS against those found in girls with SMR. RESULTS After controlling for the effects of RS-related physical disabilities, the RSBQ discriminated between the groups. Some aspects of the behaviours found to be specific to RS are included in the necessary or supportive RS diagnostic criteria, notably hand behaviours and breathing problems. Additional behavioural features were also more frequently reported in the RS than the SMR group, including mood fluctuations and signs of fear/anxiety, inconsolable crying and screaming at night, and repetitive mouth and tongue movements and grimacing. CONCLUSIONS Full validation of the scale requires confirmation of its discriminatory power and reliability with independent samples of individuals with RS and SMR. Further delineation of the specific profile of behaviours seen in RS may help in identification of the function of the MECP2 gene and in improved differential diagnosis and management of individuals with RS.
Improving communication performance in dense linear algebra via topology aware collectives

Recent results have shown that topology aware mapping reduces network contention in communication-intensive kernels on massively parallel machines. We demonstrate that on mesh interconnects, topology aware mapping also allows for the utilization of highly-efficient topology aware collectives. We map novel 2.5D dense linear algebra algorithms to exploit rectangular collectives on cuboid partitions allocated by a Blue Gene/P supercomputer. Our mappings allow the algorithms to exploit optimized line multicasts and reductions. Commonly used 2D algorithms cannot be mapped in this fashion. On 16,384 nodes (65,536 cores) of Blue Gene/P, 2.5D algorithms that exploit rectangular collectives are sig- nificantly faster than 2D matrix multiplication (MM) and LU factorization, up to 8.7x and 2.1x, respectively. These speed-ups are due to communication reduction (up to 95.6% for 2.5D MM with respect to 2D MM). We also derive LogP- based novel performance models for rectangular broadcasts and reductions. Using those, we model the performance of matrix multiplication and LU factorization on a hypothetical exascale architecture.
A new method for estimating frequency-dependent core shifts in active galactic nucleus jets

We discuss the opacity in the core regions of active galactic nuclei observed with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), and describe a new method for deriving the frequency-dependent shifts of the VLBI core from the frequency-dependent time lags of flares observed with single-dish observations. Application of the method to the core shifts of the quasar 3C 345 shows a very good agreement between the core shifts directly measured from VLBI observations and derived from flares in the total flux density using the proposed method. The frequency-dependent time lags of flares can be used to derive physical parameters of the jets, such as distance from the VLBI core to the base of the jet and the magnetic fields in the core region. Our estimates for 3C 345 indicate core magnetic fields ≃0.1 G and magnetic field at 1 pc ≃ 0.4 G.