Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Game Theoretic Approach for Sensitive Information Sharing in Supply Chain

With the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, information sharing among participants in a supply chain is greatly facilitated, raising privacy concerns on sharing sensitive information. Balancing the conflicts between the improvement of visibility and the decrease of sensitive information shared is paramount. In this paper, the authors propose a leader-follower game model called LFM to model the strategic game between buyer and supplier. A Stackelberg equilibrium state is then computed as the solution to this game model. The proposed approach exhibits better performance when compared with conventional optimization approaches via derivation in terms of the total information sharing level and the total gain acquired verified by the experiments. In the future, the authors will extend this approach to a more complex situation with more participants in a dynamic environment.
Statin Therapy and Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE Although statin therapy reduces cardiovascular risk, its relationship with the development of diabetes is controversial. The first study (West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study [WOSCOPS]) that evaluated this association reported a small protective effect but used nonstandardized criteria for diabetes diagnosis. However, results from subsequent hypothesis-testing trials have been inconsistent. The aim of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the possible effect of statin therapy on incident diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A systematic literature search for randomized statin trials that reported data on diabetes through February 2009 was conducted using specific search terms. In addition to the hypothesis-generating data from WOSCOPS, hypothesis-testing data were available from the Heart Protection Study (HPS), the Long-Term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischemic Disease (LIPID) Study, the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT), the Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), and the Controlled Rosuvastatin Multinational Study in Heart Failure (CORONA), together including 57,593 patients with mean follow-up of 3.9 years during which 2,082 incident diabetes cases accrued. Weighted averages were reported as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs using a random-effects model. Statistical heterogeneity scores were assessed with the Q and I2 statistic. RESULTS In the meta-analysis of the hypothesis-testing trials, we observed a small increase in diabetes risk (RR 1.13 [95% CI 1.03–1.23]) with no evidence of heterogeneity across trials. However, this estimate was attenuated and no longer significant when the hypothesis-generating trial WOSCOPS was included (1.06 [0.93–1.25]) and also resulted in significant heterogeneity (Q 11.8 [5 d.f.], P = 0.03, I2 = 57.7%). CONCLUSIONS Although statin therapy greatly lowers vascular risk, including among those with and at risk for diabetes, the relationship of statin therapy to incident diabetes remains uncertain. Future statin trials should be designed to formally address this issue.
Polyglot and Speech Corpus Tools: A System for Representing, Integrating, and Querying Speech Corpora

Speech datasets from many languages, styles, and sources exist in the world, representing significant potential for scientific studies of speech—particularly given structural similarities among all speech datasets. However, studies using multiple speech corpora remain difficult in practice, due to corpus size, complexity, and differing formats. We introduce open-source software for unified corpus analysis: integrating speech corpora and querying across them. Corpora are stored in a custom ‘polyglot persistence’ scheme that combines three sub-databases mirroring different data types: a Neo4j graph database to represent temporal annotation graph structure, and SQL and InfluxDB databases to represent metaand acoustic data. This scheme abstracts away from the idiosyncratic formats of different speech corpora, while mirroring the structure of different data types improves speed and scalability. A Python API and a GUI both allow for: enriching the database with positional, hierarchical, temporal, and signal measures (e.g. utterance boundaries, f0) that are useful for linguistic analysis; querying the database using a simple query language; and exporting query results to standard formats for further analysis. We describe the software, summarize two case studies using it to examine effects on pitch and duration across languages, and outline planned future development.
CONTRASTING PATTERNS OF PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY IN REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS IN TWO GREAT TIT (PARUS MAJOR) POPULATIONS

Phenotypic plasticity is an important mechanism via which populations can respond to changing environmental conditions, but we know very little about how natural populations vary with respect to plasticity. Here we use random‐regression animal models to understand the multivariate phenotypic and genetic patterns of plasticity variation in two key life‐history traits, laying date and clutch size, using data from long‐term studies of great tits in The Netherlands (Hoge Veluwe [HV]) and UK (Wytham Woods [WW]). We show that, while population‐level responses of laying date and clutch size to temperature were similar in the two populations, between‐individual variation in plasticity differed markedly. Both populations showed significant variation in phenotypic plasticity (IxE) for laying date, but IxE was significantly higher in HV than in WW. There were no significant genotype‐by‐environment interactions (GxE) for laying date, yet differences in GxE were marginally nonsignificant between HV and WW. For clutch size, we only found significant IxE and GxE in WW but no significant difference between populations. From a multivariate perspective, plasticity in laying date was not correlated with plasticity in clutch size in either population. Our results suggest that generalizations about the form and cause of any response to changing environmental conditions across populations may be difficult.
Material Politics: Disputes Along the Pipeline

Series Editors Preface viii List of Figures and Tables ix Acknowledgements x Abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Georgian Route: Between Political and Physical Geography 31 3 Transparency s Witness 57 4 Ethical Performances 75 5 The Affected Public 95 6 Visible Impacts 116 7 Material Politics 137 8 Economy and the Archive 154 9 Conclusions 177 Notes 187 References 202 Index
On the computational content of the Bolzano‐Weierstraß Principle

We will apply the methods developed in the field of ‘proof mining’ to the Bolzano‐Weierstraß theorem BW and calibrate the computational contribution of using this theorem in proofs of combinatorial statements. We provide an explicit solution of the Gödel functional interpretation (combined with negative translation) as well as the monotone functional interpretation of BW for the product space Πi ∈ℕ[–ki, ki] (with the standard product metric). This results in optimal program and bound extraction theorems for proofs based on fixed instances of BW, i.e. for BW applied to fixed sequences in Πi ∈ℕ[–ki, ki] (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Early High Calcium and Phosphorus Intake by Parenteral Nutrition Prevents Short-term Bone Strength Decline in Preterm Infants

Background and Aim: Very premature newborns have an increased risk of low bone mass and metabolic bone disease. Most longitudinal studies report a significant decline in bone strength in the first weeks after birth. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether higher early calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) intake delivered by parenteral nutrition (PN) can prevent bone strength decline in preterm infants, within the first weeks after birth. Patients and Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial of consecutively admitted neonates born with ≤33 weeks of gestational age, assigned to receive either Ca 45 mg · kg−1 · day−1 (low dose [LD]) or Ca 75 mg · kg−1 · day−1 (high dose [HD]) by PN. P was added to the PN solutions at a fixed Ca:P ratio (mg) of 1.7:1. Bone strength was assessed by the speed of sound (SOS) using the quantitative ultrasound method. Measurements were performed weekly from birth until discharge. Low bone strength (SOS <10th centile of reference values) was the main outcome. Results: Eighty-six infants were enrolled, 40 assigned to LD group and 46 to HD group. Mean (standard error) gestational age was 29.6 weeks (2.1) and birth weight was 1262 g (0.356). In the HD group, the SOS values never fell below those recorded at birth and, up to the sixth week of life, low bone strength was significantly less frequent as compared with that in the LD group, in spite of progressive reduction in parenteral mineral intake and/or establishment of full enteral feeding. Conclusions: Early assigned parenteral intake of Ca 75 mg · kg−1 · day−1 and P 44 mg · kg−1 · day−1 significantly contributed to preventing short-term bone strength decline in preterm infants.
Does Function Follow Organizational Form? Evidence from the Lending Practices of Large and Small Banks

Theories based on incomplete contracting suggest that small organizations may do better than large organizations in activities that require the processing of soft information. We explore this idea in the context of bank lending to small firms, an activity that is typically thought of as relying heavily on soft information. We find that large banks are less willing than small banks to lend to informationally 'difficult' credits, such as firms that do not keep formal financial records. Moreover, controlling for the endogeneity of bank-firm matching, large banks lend at a greater distance, interact more impersonally with their borrowers, have shorter and less exclusive relationships, and do not alleviate credit constraints as effectively. All of this is consistent with small banks being better able to collect and act on soft information than large banks.
Mucosal repair in the gastrointestinal tract

ObjectiveThe epithelial response to injury in the intestinal mucosa will be described. DesignA comprehensive evaluation of the literature was performed to provide a thorough review of mucosal injury and repair. ResultsThe intestinal mucosa is a rapidly proliferating sheet of epithelial cells that sustains injury in response to stresses ranging from physiologic daily digestive trauma to severe insults associated with ischemia, chemicals, and infection. Breaks in epithelial continuity impair mucosal barrier function, perturb normal absorptive and secretory transport properties, and render the host susceptible to local infection and distant organ pathology. Minor breaches are rapidly repaired by epithelial restitution, a process independent of cell proliferation. Restitution is regulated by a variety of cytokines and growth factors and is modulated by integrin-dependent interactions with the extracellular matrix. The intracellular mechanisms that control restitution are complex and involve signaling pathways that control dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton. Emerging understanding of reparative processes suggest several possible therapeutic strategies to enhance gastrointestinal wound healing. ConclusionMinor epithelial injuries are repaired with the complex process of epithelial restitution independent of cell proliferation.
A web-based aggregated platform for user-contributed interactive media broadcasting

In this paper, we present a web-based aggregated platform, DJ DreamFactory, which enables average users to effortlessly participate in and contribute to interactive media broadcasting over the Internet. The platform overcomes several shortcomings of existing Internet-based broadcasting systems, such as inconvenience in channel surfing and content browsing due to the scattering and isolating of broadcasting stations, difficulties in setting up a broadcasting station, lack of communications between broadcasters and audience, and little support for personalized experience. The proposed platform facilitates users' media access by seamlessly aggregating sporadic broadcasting stations run by individual hosts, and enables a virtual community where grassroots users can contribute to media broadcasting, sharing, organizing and annotating through social networking. In addition, it supports real-time multimodal interaction between audience and hosts, provides customized services for both broadcasters and audience, supports personalized media experiences by mining and managing audience's preferences, and facilitates the organization of unstructured media data collections as well as collective human intelligence on the Web.
Weighted-Average Based AOA Parameter Estimations for LR-UWB Wireless Positioning System

A signal model and weighted-average based estimation techniques are proposed to estimate the angle-of-arrival (AOA) parameters of multiple clusters for a low data rate ultrawide band (LR-UWB) based wireless positioning system. The optimal AOA estimation techniques for the LR-UWB wireless positioning system according to the cluster condition are introduced and it is shown that the proposed techniques are superior to the conventional technique from the standpoint of performance.
Classification of Eating Disorder Patterns of Female Middle School Students and their Association with Self-body Image, Weight Control Behavior, and Eating Behavior

This study was performed to provide sources of nutrition education for female adolescents by identifying eating disorder patterns and their relationships with self-body image, weight control, and eating behavior. A total of 329 female middle school students were recruited and completed a general characteristics survey, the Eating Attitudes Test(EAT-26), a perception of self-body image survey, a concern for weight control survey, an eating behavior survey, and the Mini Dietary Assessment Index(MDA). Eating disorder patterns were identified to be obesity stress and weight control(OW), risk of binge eating(RB), and dietary restraint(DR) by factor analysis. OW pattern was related with stout body shape, body dissatisfaction, experience of weight control, skipping of dinner, and low MDA score. RB pattern was associated with lean body shape, body satisfaction, indiscreet snack behavior, and the eating time of snacks. The DR pattern was associated with normal body shape, regular meal times, desirable snack behavior, and high MDA scores. The results indicated that the eating patterns of adolescent were not identical to existing diagnostic categories. Furthermore, each eating pattern displayed different characteristics of perception on self-body image, concern for weight control, and eating behavior. In conclusion, nutrition education for female middle school students could reflect the different characteristics of each eating disorder pattern.
Isokinetic Eccentric Exercise of Quadriceps Femoris Does Not Affect Running Economy

Vassilis, P, Vassilios, B, Vassilis, M, Athanasios, JZ, Vassilis, T, Christina, K, and Yiannis, K. Isokinetic eccentric exercise of quadriceps femoris does not affect running economy. J Strength Cond Res 22: 1222-1227, 2008-The purpose of this study was to investigate whether running economy is affected by isokinetic eccentric exercise designed to cause muscle damage. Twenty-four young healthy men performed 120 maximal voluntary eccentric actions at each thigh's quadriceps muscle at an angular velocity of 60°·s−1. The participants were then randomly divided into 2 equal groups, 1 of which exercised 24 hours later, while the other group rested. Muscle damage indicators (i.e., serum creatine kinase, delayed onset muscle soreness, and eccentric, concentric, and isometric peak torque) and running economy indicators (i.e., oxygen consumption, pulmonary ventilation, respiratory exchange ratio, respiratory rate, and heart rate during treadmill running at 2.2 and 3.3 m·s−1) were assessed prior to and 48 hours following the eccentric exercise. All muscle damage indicators changed significantly in both groups (p < 0.05) in a way suggestive of considerable muscle damage. Running economy indicators of the exercise group demonstrated only an elevation of respiratory rate at 48 hours (p < 0.05) and a tendency to lower economy compared to the resting group. It can be concluded that isokinetic eccentric exercise applied to the quadriceps femoris muscles did not affect running economy 48 hours later and that resting during this period tended to result in more economical running compared to exercising at 24 hours.
Acoustic monitoring on a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding ground shows continual singing into late spring

Singing by males is a major feature of the mating system of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski). Although a few songs have been opportunistically recorded on the whales' high–latitude feeding grounds, singing in these regions was thought to be only sporadic. We report results from the first continuous acoustic monitoring of a humpback whale feeding ground (off Cape Cod, MA, USA) in spring. Using autonomous sea–floor recording systems, we found singing on a daily basis over the entire 25 day monitoring period, from 14 May to 7 June 2000. For much of the period, song was recorded 24 h per day. These results, combined with evidence for aseasonal conceptions in whaling catch data, suggest that the humpback whale breeding season should no longer be considered as confined to lower–latitude regions in winter. Rather, we suggest breeding extends geographically and temporally onto feeding grounds into at least spring and early summer. Singing at these times represents either low–cost opportunistic advertising by (perhaps relatively few) males to court females that failed to conceive during the winter, and/or possibly an intrasexual display.
Cooperation Strategies for Two Co-located receivers, with no CSI at the transmitter

We study the case of a single transmitter, which communicates to two co-located users, through an independent block Rayleigh fading channel. The co-location nature of the users allows cooperation, which increases the overall achievable rate, from the transmitter to both users. The transmitter is ignorant of the fading coefficients, while receivers have access to perfect channel state information (CSI). This gives rise to the broadcast approach used by the transmitter. The broadcast approach facilitates reliable transmission rates adapted to the actual channel conditions, designed to maximize average throughput. With the broadcast approach, users can decode partly the total message, with almost any fading realization. The better the channel quality, the more layers that can be decoded. Such an approach is useful when considering average rates, rather than outage vs. rate (outage never occurs). The cooperation between the users is performed over the co-location channel, modeled as separated additive white Gaussian channels (AWGN), with an average power constraint, and limited or unlimited bandwidth. New achievable rates when combining cooperation with the broadcasting approach are presented, where through simple change of power allocation, substantial gains are demonstrated. We consider both amplify-and-forward (AF) and Wyner-Ziv compress-and-forward (CF), as cooperation approaches, and also compare to decode-and-forward (DF). We extend these methods using the broadcast approach, and also to include separated processing of the layers, realized through multi-session cooperation. Further, novel closed form expressions for infinitely many multi-session AF and recursive expressions for the more complex multi-session CF are given. Numerical results for the various cooperation strategies demonstrate the efficiency of multi-session cooperation. Our results can be extended straightforwardly to a setting of a single transmitter sending common information for two users.
RNA-Sensing Pattern Recognition Receptors and Their Effects on T-Cell Immune Responses: A Dissertation

Virus infection is sensed by the innate immune system through germline encoded pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Toll-like receptors (TLRs), retinoic acid-inducible gene-I-like receptors (RLRs) and nucleotidebinding oligomerization domain-like receptors (NLRs) serve as PRRs that recognize different viral components. Microbial nucleic acids such as Ribonucleic acid (RNA) are important virus-derived pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) to be recognized by PRRs. Virus recognition may occur at multiple stages of the viral life cycle. Replication intermediates such as single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) are detected by the RNA-sensing PRRs that initiate innate and adaptive immune responses. Triggering of the innate immune system is a critical event that can shape the adaptive immune response to virus infection. Better vaccination strategies that lead to improved T-cell and antibody responses are needed for protection against pathogens. We sought to delineate the RNA-sensing PRR pathways that are activated during infection with an RNA virus, the signaling mediators involved and the influence on subsequent virus-specific adaptive immune responses. To analyze the role of RNA-sensing PRRs in T-cell immune responses in vitro, we performed direct co-stimulation experiments on CD4+ T-cells of high purity. We utilized synthetic RNA-like immune response modifiers (IRMs) R-848 (MyD88-dependent) and poly I:C (MyD88-independent) as RNA PAMPs to
Exploring Mothers' Influence on Preschoolers' Physical Activity Levels and Sedentary Time

ii Acknowledgments iii List of Tables vi List of Appendices vii Chapter 1: Introduction and Literature Review 1 The Benefits of Physical Activity in the Early Years 2 Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for the Early Years 4 Physical Activity Levels Among Preschoolers 5 Prevalence of Sedentary Behaviours Among Preschoolers 8 Maternal Influence on Preschoolers’ Active and Sedentary Behaviours 8 Study Rationale 21 Study Purpose 22 Chapter 2: Methods 23 Study Design 23 Participants 24 Instruments and Tools 24 Data Analysis 27 Chapter 3: Results 30 Participant Demographics 30 Preschoolers’ and Mothers’ Physical Activity and Sedentary Levels 30 Maternal Influence and Preschoolers’ Minutes of Sedentary Time 35 Maternal Influence and Preschoolers’ Minutes of LPA 35 v Maternal Influence and Preschoolers’ Minutes of MVPA 38 Maternal Influence and Preschoolers’ Minutes of TPA 38 Chapter 4: Discussion 41 Limitations and Future Directions 46 Conclusion 49 References 50 Curriculum Vitae 91
Effectiveness of beta blockers in primary prophylaxis of variceal bleeding in children with portal hypertension.

AIM The primary aim of our study was to assess the effectiveness of beta blockers in non bleeding portal hypertensive children. The secondary objective was to evaluate whether the newer generation beta blockers were superior compared to conventional ones. METHODS Conventional propranolol and newer generation carvedilol were administered to 31 subjects each, after stratifying them into nearly equal subgroups according to etiology (sinusoidal or presinusoidal). RESULTS At the end of 2 years study period, 3 children (4.83%) had breakthrough bleeding. A decrease, increase and no alteration in grade of oesophageal varices was seen in 40, 9 and 13 cases respectively. Of the 9 children with associated gastroeosophageal varices (GOV), the severity of lesions was reduced in 8 of them. Both the drugs had efficacious outcome in sinusoidal as well as presinusoidal cases, having a significant coefficient of correlation (r > 0.5) with time. Carvedilol was more effective than propranolol statistically (p = 0.035 and p = 0.034 respectively), only at 4 and 5 month follow-up period. CONCLUSION Beta blockers are effective in preventing variceal bleed in children with portal hypertension. Long-term efficacy of carvedilol and propranolol was similar.