Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modification of the Conventional Influenza Epidemic Models Using Environmental Parameters in Iran

Objectives The association between the spread of infectious diseases and climate parameters has been widely studied in recent decades. In this paper, we formulate, exploit, and compare three variations of the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model incorporating climate data. The SIR model is a well-studied model to investigate the dynamics of influenza viruses; however, the improved versions of the classic model have been developed by introducing external factors into the model. Methods The modification models are derived by multiplying a linear combination of three complementary factors, namely, temperature (T), precipitation (P), and humidity (H) by the transmission rate. The performance of these proposed models is evaluated against the standard model for two outbreak seasons. Results The values of the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and the Akaike information criterion (AIC) improved as they declined from 8.76 to 7.05 and from 98.12 to 93.01 for season 2013/14, respectively. Similarly, for season 2014/15, the RMSE and AIC decreased from 8.10 to 6.45 and from 117.73 to 107.91, respectively. The estimated values of R(t) in the framework of the standard and modified SIR models are also compared. Conclusions Through simulations, we determined that among the studied environmental factors, precipitation showed the strongest correlation with the transmission dynamics of influenza. Moreover, the SIR+P+T model is the most efficient for simulating the behavioral dynamics of influenza in the area of interest.
Does emotion influence the use of auto-suggest during smartphone typing?

Typing based interfaces are common across many mobile applications, especially messaging apps. To reduce the difficulty of typing using keyboard applications on smartphones, smartwatches with restricted space, several techniques, such as auto-complete, auto-suggest, are implemented. Although helpful, these techniques do add more cognitive load on the user. Hence beyond the importance to improve the word recommendations, it is useful to understand the pattern of use of auto-suggestions during typing. Among several factors that may influence use of auto-suggest, the role of emotion has been mostly overlooked, often due to the difficulty of unobtrusively inferring emotion. With advances in affective computing, and ability to infer user's emotional states accurately, it is imperative to investigate how auto-suggest can be guided by emotion aware decisions. In this work, we investigate correlations between user emotion and usage of auto-suggest i.e. whether users prefer to use auto-suggest in specific emotion states. We developed an Android keyboard application, which records auto-suggest usage and collects emotion self-reports from users in a 3-week in-the-wild study. Analysis of the dataset reveals relationship between user reported emotion state and use of auto-suggest. We used the data to train personalized models for predicting use of auto-suggest in specific emotion state. The model can predict use of auto-suggest with an average accuracy (AUCROC) of 82% showing the feasibility of emotion-aware auto-suggestion.
Efficient Certificateless Conditional Privacy-Preserving Authentication Scheme in VANETs

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are an increasing important paradigm for greatly enhancing roadway system efficiency and traffic safety. To widely deploy VANETs in real life, it is critical to deal with the security and privacy issues in VANETs. In this paper, we propose a certificateless conditional privacy preserving authentication (CCPPA) scheme based on certificateless cryptography and elliptic curve cryptography for secure vehicle-to-infrastructure communication in VANETs. In the proposed scheme, a roadside unit (RSU) can simultaneously verify plenty of received messages such that the total verification time may be sharply decreased. Furthermore, the security analysis indicates that the proposed scheme is provably secure in the random oracle model and fulfills all the requirements on security and privacy. To further improve efficiency, both map-to-point hash operation and bilinear pairing operation are not employed. Compared with previous CCPPA schemes, the proposed scheme prominently cuts down computation delay of message signing and verification by 66.9%–85.5% and 91.8%–93.4%, respectively, and reduces communication cost by 44.4%. Extensive simulations show that the proposed scheme is practicable and achieves prominent performances of very little average message delay and average message loss ratio and thus is appropriate for realistic applications.
Congenital Hypogonadotrophic Hypogonadism: Minipuberty and the Case for Neonatal Diagnosis

Congenital hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (CHH) is a rare but important etiology of pubertal failure and infertility, resulting from impaired gonadotrophin-releasing hormone secretion or action. Despite the availability of effective hormonal therapies, the majority of men with CHH experience unsatisfactory outcomes, including chronic psychosocial and reproductive sequelae. Early detection and timely interventions are crucial to address the gaps in medical care and improve the outlook for these patients. In this paper, we review the clinical implications of missing minipuberty in CHH and therapeutic strategies that can modify the course of disease, as well as explore a targeted approach to identifying affected male infants by integrating clinical and biochemical data in the early postnatal months.
Methods to Investigate the Global Atmospheric Microbiome

The interplay between microbes and atmospheric physical and chemical conditions is an open field of research that can only be fully addressed using multidisciplinary approaches. The lack of coordinated efforts to gather data at representative temporal and spatial scales limits aerobiology to help understand large scale patterns of global microbial biodiversity and its causal relationships with the environmental context. This paper presents the sampling strategy and analytical protocols developed in order to integrate different fields of research such as microbiology, –omics biology, atmospheric chemistry, physics and meteorology to characterize atmospheric microbial life. These include control of chemical and microbial contaminations from sampling to analysis and identification of experimental procedures for characterizing airborne microbial biodiversity and its functioning from the atmospheric samples collected at remote sites from low cell density environments. We used high-volume sampling strategy to address both chemical and microbial composition of the atmosphere, because it can help overcome low aerosol and microbial cell concentrations. To account for contaminations, exposed and unexposed control filters were processed along with the samples. We present a method that allows for the extraction of chemical and biological data from the same quartz filters. We tested different sampling times, extraction kits and methods to optimize DNA yield from filters. Based on our results, we recommend supplementary sterilization steps to reduce filter contamination induced by handling and transport. These include manipulation under laminar flow hoods and UV sterilization. In terms of DNA extraction, we recommend a vortex step and a heating step to reduce binding to the quartz fibers of the filters. These steps have led to a 10-fold increase in DNA yield, allowing for downstream omics analysis of air samples. Based on our results, our method can be integrated into pre-existing long-term monitoring field protocols for the atmosphere both in terms of atmospheric chemistry and biology. We recommend using standardized air volumes and to develop standard operating protocols for field users to better control the operational quality.
A modified symbiotic organisms search algorithm for unmanned combat aerial vehicle route planning problem

Abstract Route planning is the core component of unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) systems and the premise for implementation of airborne reconnaissance, surveillance, combat, and other tasks. The purpose is to find the optimal flight route under certain constraints, and its essence is a multi-constrained global optimisation problem. This paper presents a modified symbiotic organisms search algorithm based on the simplex method (SMSOS) to solve the UCAV path planning problem. In addition to the flight environment for the fixed threat area, this paper tested the flight environment of the randomly generated threat area because of the complexity of the actual battlefield threat area. After many simulation tests, it was concluded that SMSOS can find the shortest flight path while avoiding the threat areas. The experimental results show that SMSOS has faster convergence speed, higher precision, and stronger robustness than the other main swarm intelligence algorithms for solving the UCAV flight planning problem.
Stress, strain, and pregnancy outcome in postpartum cows

Abstract Stress affects the productivity and fertility of cattle. Stress causes strain and individual animals experience different amounts of strain in response to the same amount of stress. The amount of strain determines the impact of stress on fertility. Typical stresses experienced by cattle include environmental, disease, production, nutritional, and psychological. The effect of stress on the reproductive system is mediated by body temperature (heat stress), energy metabolites and metabolic hormones (production and nutritional stresses), the functionality of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and (or) the activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The strain that occurs in response to stress affects uterine health, oocyte quality, ovarian function, and the developmental capacity of the conceptus. Cows that have less strain in response to a given stress will be more fertile. The goal for future management and genetic selection in farm animals is to reduce production stress, manage the remaining strain, and genetically select cattle with minimal strain in response to stress.
Robust Design for Local Concave CNN

This paper proposes a robust design theorem for a kind of cellular neural/nonlinear networks (CNNs) to detect images with local concave properties and then gives a general method for determining template of such a kind of CNN. One theorem provides parameter inequalities for determining parameter intervals for implementing prescribed image processing function. Moreover, the numerical simulation is carried out, proved its practical applications. Introduction The Cellular neutral network (CNN) was firstly introduced by Chua & Yang [1,2] in 1988. Nowadays, the CNN becomes a powerful tool for image and video signal processing, robotic and biological visions, and higher brain functions[3,4,5,6,7,11,12]. The original motivation of CNN's production is to find out a more practical structure of neural network to replace the theoretically existent Hopfield neural networks[3]. During the past 20years, the stability of standard CNNs and their generalizations has been widely studied and attracted many researchers’ attention[1,3,8]. Practically, the parameter levers in an analog CNN usually have 5-10% of perturbation. [9] The robustness design is an important issue for the study in CNNs. Chua and Dogaru[3,6] have studied the robustness of plenty of uncoupled Boolean CNN, which has provided optimal design scheme for CNN with prescribed tasks. Afterwards, uncoupled and coupled CNNs’ robust designs have been studied. This paper proves that the image of local concave detecting global task of CNN and local rules, and the robust design theorem provides parameter inequalities for determining parameter intervals for implementing prescribed image processing function. Numerical simulation is carried out, and proved its practical application. Robust Design for Local Concave CNN The standard CNN is composed of a two-dimensional M by N array of cells. Each cell is denoted by ( , ) C i j where 1, 2 ; 1, 2 i M j N     . The dynamics of each cell is given by the equation , , , , , , , , , , ( ) , ( ) , 1, 2 ; 1, 2 i j i j i j i j k l i k j l k l i k j l i j k l S r k l S r x x a y b u z i M j N                   (1) Where i, j i, j i, j u , x and y are the input state and output variable of the cell; i, j i, j a , b and z are the A-template, B-template and threshold, respectively. This is shown in Fig1 and Fig2. The output is the piece-wise linear function given by         , , , 1 | 1| | 1| , , 1, 1, 2 i k j l i k j l i k j l y x x if i k j l M N               (2) Figure 1. CNN Template of M*M. Figure 2. (Left) A-Template (Right) B-Template. Robust Design for Local Concave Template of CNN Standard Local Concave Template of CNN In Ref[10], Karacs K. , Roska, Cserey G. , et al, introduced the Local Concave CNN. Its template has the following form
Cost-Based Goal Recognition in Navigational Domains

Goal recognition is the problem of determining an agent's intent by observing her behaviour. Contemporary solutions for general task-planning relate the probability of a goal to the cost of reaching it. We adapt this approach to goal recognition in the strict context of path-planning. We show (1) that a simpler formula provides an identical result to current state-of-the-art in less than half the time under all but one set of conditions. Further, we prove (2) that the probability distribution based on this technique is independent of an agent's past behaviour and present a revised formula that achieves goal recognition by reference to the agent's starting point and current location only. Building on this, we demonstrate (3) that a Radius of Maximum Probability (i.e., the distance from a goal within which that goal is guaranteed to be the most probable) can be calculated from relative cost-distances between the candidate goals and a start location, without needing to calculate any actual probabilities. In this extended version of earlier work, we generalise our framework to the continuous domain and discuss our results, including the conditions under which our findings can be generalised back to goal recognition in general task-planning.
Measurement of Socioeconomic Position in Research on Cardiovascular Health Disparities in Korea: A Systematic Review

Objectives The validity of instruments measuring socioeconomic position (SEP) has been a major area of concern in research on cardiovascular health disparities. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify the current status of the methods used to measure SEP in research on cardiovascular health disparities in Korea and to provide directions for future research. Methods Relevant articles were obtained through electronic database searches with manual searches of reference lists and no restriction on the date of publication. SEP indicators were categorized into compositional, contextual, composite, and life-course measures. Results Forty-eight studies published from 2003 to 2018 satisfied the review criteria. Studies utilizing compositional measures mainly relied on a limited number of SEP parameters. In addition, these measures hardly addressed the time-varying and subjective features of SEP. Finding valid contextual measures at the organizational, community, and societal levels that are appropriate to Korea’s context remains a challenge, and these are rarely modeled simultaneously. Studies have rarely focused on composite and life-course measures. Conclusions Future studies should develop and utilize valid compositional and contextual measures and appraise social patterns that vary across time, place, and culture using such measures. Studies should also consider multilevel influences, adding a focus on the interactions between different levels of intertwined SEP factors to advance the design of research. More attention should be given to composite and life-course measures.
Misbinding Attacks on Secure Device Pairing and Bootstrapping

In identity misbinding attacks against authenticated key-exchange protocols, a legitimate but compromised participant manipulates the honest parties so that the victim becomes unknowingly associated with a third party. These attacks are well known, and resistance to misbinding is considered a critical requirement for security protocols on the Internet. In the context of device pairing, on the other hand, the attack has received little attention outside the trusted-computing community. This paper points out that most device pairing protocols are vulnerable to misbinding. Device pairing protocols are characterized by lack of a-priory information, such as identifiers and cryptographic roots of trust, about the other endpoint. Therefore, the devices in pairing protocols need to be identified by the user's physical access to them. As case studies for demonstrating the misbinding vulnerability, we use Bluetooth and a protocol that registers new IoT devices to authentication servers on wireless networks. We have implemented the attacks. We also show how the attacks can be found in formal models of the protocols with carefully formulated correspondence assertions. The formal analysis yields a new type of double misbinding attack. While pairing protocols have been extensively modelled and analyzed, misbinding seems to be an aspect that has not previously received sufficient attention. Finally, we discuss potential ways to mitigate the threat and its significance to security of pairing protocols.
Collaborative Immersive Virtual Environments for Education in Geography

Immersive virtual reality (iVR) devices are rapidly becoming an important part of our lives and forming a new way for people to interact with computers and each other. The impact and consequences of this innovative technology have not yet been satisfactory explored. This empirical study investigated the cognitive and social aspects of collaboration in a shared, immersive virtual reality. A unique application for implementing a collaborative immersive virtual environment (CIVE) was developed by our interdisciplinary team as a software solution for educational purposes, with two scenarios for learning about hypsography, i.e., explanations of contour line principles. Both scenarios allow switching between a usual 2D contour map and a 3D model of the corresponding terrain to increase the intelligibility and clarity of the educational content. Gamification principles were also applied to both scenarios to augment user engagement during the completion of tasks. A qualitative research approach was adopted to obtain a deep insight into the lived experience of users in a CIVE. It was thus possible to form a deep understanding of very new subject matter. Twelve pairs of participants were observed during their CIVE experience and then interviewed either in a semistructured interview or a focus group. Data from these three research techniques were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which is research method for studying individual experience. Four superordinate themes—with detailed descriptions of experiences shared by numerous participants—emerged as results from the analysis; we called these (1) Appreciation for having a collaborator, (2) The Surprising “Fun with Maps”, (3) Communication as a challenge, and (4) Cognition in two realities. The findings of the study indicate the importance of the social dimension during education in a virtual environment and the effectiveness of dynamic and interactive 3D visualization.
Tourist Motivation and Information Search Behaviour Case: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

Hei! Tyon koko otsikko on siis: Tourist Motivation and Information Search Behaviour. Case: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Ilmoitin otsikon ja alaotsikon erikseen, joten tama selvennykseksi. En ollut varma tulevatko ne samaan sarakkeeseen vai erikseen.
ODL students and the use of social media networking systems as an educational tool: can lecturers stay connected

The use of technology in education is not a fad anymoreit is real and happening at a fast pace. Students are expecting lecturers to become more and more adept at using technology and to make use of the media available to transfer knowledge. Therefore, lecturers in all tertiary institutions have to become more and more adapted in the use of technology. In many instances there is a disconnection between the expectations of these two groups and the main aim of this study was to investigate lecturers’ perceptions on the use of social media networking systems in the transfer of knowledge, at an open distance learning (ODL) tertiary institution. The study also investigated whether lecturers feel at ease when using social media networking systems, whether they will be able to find information on these social media networking systems and whether they believe it will be an effective and easy way to present course content. These aspects were tested by making use of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) constructs namely; ‘Perceived ease of use’, ‘Perceived usefulness’, ‘Attitude towards using’, and ‘System accessibility’. A survey was distributed to lecturers, and it was found that lecturers regarded ‘Perceived ease of use’ as being the most important factor to consider when they are using social media
A reanalysis of the Chilean ocean circulation: preliminary results for the region between 20ºS to 40ºS

The development and initial results from a reanalysis, or best estimate, of the historical state of central Chile's coastal ocean are presented. The Chilean Ocean State Estimate (COSE) covers the western coast of South America southwards of 20oS and for the period 1993 to 2012. The reanalysis is being performed using the 4DVAR driver of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). The ROMS solution is constrained to reconcile satellite sea surface temperature and altimetry data with prior estimates of the initial state and boundary conditions derived from the HYCOM (Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model) global reanalysis. Here we present preliminary results from COSE for central Chile and the year 2008. The regional reanalysis reduces the modelobservations mismatch of the global HYCOM solution by 38 and 27%, for sea surface temperature and height respectively, and corrects a spurious on-shore surface current present in the HYCOM reanalysis. Inspection of the assimilation increments suggests that ROMS simulations forced by satellite winds overestimate coastal upwelling.
Arterial hypertension: sociodemographic profile and comorbidities of patients from northwest Paraná State, Southern Brazil - doi 10.4025/actascihealthsci.v34i2.10152

The systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) currently a major public health problem, presents high medical and socioeconomic costs, and occurs concurrently with other diseases, of infectious origin or not. This study aimed to describe the sociodemographic profile of hypertensive patients with or without co-morbidities assisted in a health reference centre in a municipality of the northwest of the Parana State, Southern Brazil. We gathered data from 250 medical records, concerning age, gender, race, marital status, educational level, professional duties, place of origin, reasons for seeking the services, occurrences of co- morbidities, and duration of systemic arterial hypertension. SAH occurred more often in the age group of 60-69 years old. The female gender was significantly different from the male. We observed the predominance of married (60.0%), Caucasian (76.0%), with fundamental level of education (54.4%), housewife (39.6%), living in neighborhood towns (58.0%), born in other regions than the Southern Brazil and have seek the service mainly for reasons not related to hypertension (p < 0.05). Cardiopathy of diverse etiology, Diabetes mellitus, Chagas disease and acute myocardial heart attack were identified in 98 patients (39.2%). Long-standing SAH was observed on 65.2% of the patients. The knowledge of the profile of the hypertensives, and principal associated diseases allows directing health actions in order to optimize resources, and make effective control of blood pressure and co-morbidities, including alternative intervention approaches to increase life expectation of patients.