Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Connectors , Mavens , Salesmen and More : An Actor-Based Online Social Network ( OSN ) Analysis Method Using Tensed Predicate Logic

In his bestselling book “The Tipping Point”, Malcolm Gladwell explored the “rules of epidemics” including how previously unpopular or unknown ideas can spread like viruses to reach a critical mass of people, and popularized three fundamental actor types that he argued are essential to the spread of ideas: connectors, mavens, and salesmen. In this paper, we supply some additional rigor to these popular definitions, allowing us to identify these actor types in online social networking data and study their impact. Specifically, we formally describe actor types using tensed predicate logic and apply these models to over 30 TB of data captured from the popular social networking service, Twitter. We also model additional actor types such as liaisons, bridges and stars as described by business organizational sociologists such as Allen T. Harrell, Arun Phadke, and James Thorp. We present our logical models both as logical predicates and as blocks of code written in RDF (Resource Description Framework) queries. These RDF queries can be applied directly to huge datasets such as the Twitter data stream and we present the initial results of doing so.
Augmentation of Antioxidant Status in the Liver of Swiss Albino Mice treated with Jamun (Syzygium Cumini, Skeels) Extract before Whole Body Exposure to Different Doses of γ-Radiation

The increasing power need of the world can be met by installing nuclear power generators. However, nuclear power generation comes with a price of undesired human exposure to ionizing radiations due to increase in the back ground radiation in the vicinity of these generators. This may be compounded during nuclear accidents and or leakage of radioactivity in the environment. The Chernobyl accident has not only exposed the biota including humans in its vicinity but also irradiated the far flung areas due to massive release of radioactivity during this catastrophe leading to several physiological and genetic effects [1]. Further exposure of flora and fauna during this disaster has led to the contamination of consumable products therefore covering large human population [2]. The recent accident at Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011 had also led to similar effects in the form of physiological, genetic, developmental and fitness effect in non-human population [3]. The exposure to low level radiation has become common due medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, frequent space or air travel, cosmic radiation and use of certain electronic gadgets. Other sources of radiation exposure include radon in houses, contamination from weapon testing sites, and unexpected terrorist attacks [4-7].
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND TREATMENT OF COCAINE DEPENDENCE

Pharmacotherapy can help to initiate abstinence and prevent relapse among the estimated 2 million stimulant-dependent users (1). These 2 million dependent users include some of the residual of long-term users from the peak of this epidemic 15 years ago, but a steady stream of new users and casualties is also accumulating. Between 1991 and 1998 the 30-day prevalence of cocaine abuse among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders had increased more than twofold (1). Casualties from stimulant use also continue to accumulate, cocaine involvement in emergency room accident and violence cases remains prominent, and recent National Institute of Justice figures show that male and female arrestees in major cities display 40% to 80% cocaine-positive urines (2). These emergency room episodes have remained stable after a 78% increase from 1991 to 1994. Now localized epidemics of amphetamine abuse are developing, particularly in the western United States. The dangers associated with stimulant use are enormous and include increased risk of HIV infection, possible detrimental effects on the unborn and newborn, increased crime and violence, as well as medical, financial, and psychological problems. Because of these consequences, the task of identifying, characterizing, and developing treatments is more important than ever.
Efficacy and safety of vilanterol and fluticasone furoate / vilanterol in the treatment of asthma : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: This is a meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of vilanterol and fluticasone furoate/vilanterol in the treatment of asthma. Methods: Randomized controlled trials were identified from CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CNKI, and Wanfang, ClinicalTrials.gov, GSK databases, and manual searches. Pulmonary function indices (trough FEV1, wmFEV1 and PEF), exacerbation rates, symptom-free and rescue-free 24-hour periods, quality of life scores and adverse effects were evaluated by meta-analysis. Results: The bronchodilation effect of vilanterol was rapid and sustained. Once-daily vilanterol (VI) or fluticasone furoate/vilanterol (FF/VI) significantly improved trough FEV1 (140 ml, P<0.001 and 170 ml respectively), wmFEV1 (160 ml, P<0.001 and 240 ml, P<0.001 respectively), and PEF values relative to placebo. Fluticasone furoate/vilanterol treatment significantly improved the pulmonary function indices (trough FEV1 90 ml, P<0.001, wmFEV1 120 ml, P<0.001, PEF 28.03 L/m, P<0.001) and reduced the asthma exacerbation and rescue drug use relative to fluticasone furoate alone. Combined treatment was also superior to fluticasone propionate in improving of trough FEV1 (210 ml, P<0.001), wmFEV1 (210 ml, P=0.002) and PEF (32.62 L/m, P<0.001). Once-daily dual regimen administration was as effective as twice-daily fluticasone propionate/salmeterol in improving pulmonary function indices and quality of life. Trough FEV1, symptom-free and rescue-free 24-hour periods were similar between FF/VI and fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium (FF/UMEC). Treatment-related adverse events were tolerable in most of the asthma patients. Conclusion: Vilanterol and fluticasone furoate/vilanterol are effective and generally well tolerated for patients with asthma.
Using Value Tables to Explicitly Value Student Growth

Many states are working to include a measure of school progress in their accountability systems. Some are planning to have this accountability system operate independently of, and in addition to, their accountability design in response to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Others would like to include this element in their NCLB accountability designs, and are wondering what options the U.S. Department of Education (USED) will allow.
Combined adaptive filter with LMS-based algorithms

Abstract A combined adaptive filter is proposed. It consists of parallel LMS-based adaptive FIR filters and an algorithm for choosing the better among them. As a criterion for comparison of the considered algorithms in the proposed filter, we take the ratio between bias and variance of the weighting coefficients. Simulations results confirm the advantages of the proposed adaptive filter.
Separation of galactoglucomannans, lignin and lignin-carbohydrate complexes from hot-water-extracted Norway spruce by cross-flow filtration and adsorption chromatography

A simple method to simultaneously recover polymeric carbohydrates, mainly galactoglucomannans (GGM), lignin, and lignin-carbohydrate complex (LCC) from hot-water-extracted Norway spruce wood is presented. The isolation method consists of cross-flow filtration, where high and low molecular mass species are removed, followed by fixed-bed adsorption on a hydrophobic polymeric resin (XAD-16) to remove lignins and lignans. In the second step of fixed-bed adsorption, a phenylic reversed-phase analytical chromatography column, where mass transport resistance is minimized and a very high selectivity towards aromatic compounds have been observed, was used to separate LCC from GGM. The isolated LCC fraction contained about 10% aromatics, whereas the upgraded GGM fraction contained about 1.5% aromatics and the lignin fraction contained about 56% aromatics. Polymeric xylan was accumulated in the GGM fraction, while mannose was the dominant sugar found in the LCC fraction. As products, approximately 7% was recovered in the lignin fraction in the first adsorptive step, 5% was recovered as LCC, and 88% as upgraded hemicelluloses.
The classification of birth and death processes

In the applications one is given the matrix A and it is required to construct P(t) and to study the properties of the corresponding stochastic process. The existence, uniqueness, and the analytic properties of P(t) have been discussed in detail in [I]. The objective of this paper is to use the results of [1] to establish equivalences between properties of the stochastic process and properties of the sequences { Xn }, { n,u } and to evaluate, in terms of these sequences, some of the interesting probabilistic quantities associated with the process.
RelationLines

The increased accessibility of urban sensor data and the popularity of social network applications is enabling the discovery of crowd mobility and personal communication patterns. However, studying the egocentric relationships of an individual can be very challenging because available data may refer to direct contacts, such as phone calls between individuals, or indirect contacts, such as paired location presence. In this article, we develop methods to integrate three facets extracted from heterogeneous urban data (timelines, calls, and locations) through a progressive visual reasoning and inspection scheme. Our approach uses a detect-and-filter scheme such that, prior to visual refinement and analysis, a coarse detection is performed to extract the target individual and construct the timeline of the target. It then detects spatio-temporal co-occurrences or call-based contacts to develop the egocentric network of the individual. The filtering stage is enhanced with a line-based visual reasoning interface that facilitates a flexible and comprehensive investigation of egocentric relationships and connections in terms of time, space, and social networks. The integrated system, RelationLines, is demonstrated using a dataset that contains taxi GPS data, cell-base mobility data, mobile calling data, microblog data, and point-of-interest (POI) data from a city with millions of citizens. We examine the effectiveness and efficiency of our system with three case studies and user review.
Malware Detection and Mitigation Using Probabilistic Threat Propagation

Security is important for many network applications. Gradually, new malwares become a great challenge for malware detectors. Malicious nodes are modelled as faulty nodes behaving intelligently to lead to an incorrect decision or energy depletion without being easily detected. This paper proposes PTP methodology to propagate trust across network. PTP method is used to detect malicious and infected nodes in both monitors and external internet. Given an initial set of known malicious node, prior detection for community is leveraged by propagating threat probabilities across network nodes. This work provides a way out to identify and mitigate malicious nodes in wireless and ad-hoc networks through message transmission between nodes/users in a network.
Moving Personality Development Research Forward: Applications Using Structural Equation Models

As evidenced by this special issue, research in the field of personality development is moving beyond merely describing patterns of development to more complex questions, such as the mechanisms by which personality develops or remains stable. In this article, we briefly describe three useful longitudinal structural equation models: latent growth curve models, latent change models and growth mixture models. Various underexamined and novel questions in the field of personality development are then described, each in the context of the longitudinal models. In doing so, we describe shortcomings of standard models and highlight questions and designs that could continue to move personality development research forward. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology
Computational Stability Analysis of Lotka-Volterra Systems

Abstract This paper concerns the computational stability analysis of locally stable Lotka-Volterra (LV) systems by searching for appropriate Lyapunov functions in a general quadratic form composed of higher order monomial terms. The Lyapunov conditions are ensured through the solution of linear matrix inequalities. The stability region is estimated by determining the level set of the Lyapunov function within a suitable convex domain. The paper includes interesting computational results and discussion on the stability regions of higher (3,4) dimensional LV models as well as on the monomial selection for constructing the Lyapunov functions. Finally, the stability region is estimated of an uncertain 2D LV system with an uncertain interior locally stable equilibrium point.
Anomaly Detection by Bagging Tomáš

Many contemporary domains, e.g. network intrusion detection, fraud detection, etc., call for an anomaly detector processing a continuous stream of data. This need is driven by the high rate of their acquisition, limited resources for storing them, or privacy issues. The data can be also non-stationary requiring the detector to continuously adapt to their changes. A good detector for these domains should therefore have a low training and classification complexity, on-line training algorithm, and, of course, a good detection accuracy. This paper proposes a detector trying to meet all these criteria. The detector consists of multiple weak detectors, each implemented as a onedimensional histogram. The one-dimensional histogram was chosen because it can be efficiently created on-line, and probability estimates can be efficiently retrieved from it. This construction gives the detector linear complexity of training with respect to the input dimension, number of samples, and number of weak detectors. Similarly, the classification complexity is linear with respect to number of weak detectors and the input dimension. The accuracy of the detector is compared to seven anomaly detectors from the prior art on the range of 36 classification problems from UCI database. Results show that despite detector’s simplicity, its accuracy is competitive to that of more complex detectors with a substantially higher computational complexity.
Review of under Frequency Load Shedding Program of Kosovo Power System based on ENTSO-E Requirements

Under-frequency load shedding (UFLS) is designed to protect the power system when the frequency drops below given thresholds by switching off certain amounts of the load aiming thus to balance generation and load. This paper presents a review of the existing UFLS (Under Frequency Load Shedding) program in compliance with recently revised Police-5 of Operational Handbook of ENTSO-e. The proposed review of the current UFLS program for Kosovo Power System has considered the main standards requirements and guidelines for UFLS set by ENTSO-E. This work examine system performance by conducting dynamic simulations of UFLS schemes subject to different imbalances between load and generation, and includes three power system island mode scenarios with different equivalent inertia of the system, respectively different size of the systems. With aim to define the best program of UFLS, which fits to the Kosovo Power System frequency behavior, two different UFLS programs are analyzed and results are compared. The proposed program is tested using a large scale PSS/E model which represents interconnected power system area of Southeast Europe.
The Effect of Dispersed Oil on the Calcification Rate of the Reef-Building Coral Diploria Strigosa

Hermatypic corals represent environmentally and economically important components of the reef ecosystem. Oil spills and clean-up operations in reef areas are potential sources of pollution impact. This paper presents an evaluation of the calcification rate of specimens of the reef-building coral Diploria strigosa in response to 24 hour treatments of chemically dispersed oil at concentrations of 20 ppm. The concentrations and durations were chosen to represent a scenario of a short-tenn oil spill treated with dispersant passing over a coral reef. Calcification rates were determined by the buoyant weight technique at several day intervals for up to 29 days following treatment. Resul ts from laboratory experiments (Winter and Summer) conducted in a flow-through seawater system indicate that treated corals, both in comparison to untreated controls as well as to their pretreatment rates, experienced no depression in calcification. In contrast, a possible short-term enhancement of calcification for the treated corals was
Multiobjective Infill Criterion Driven Gaussian Process-Assisted Particle Swarm Optimization of High-Dimensional Expensive Problems

Model management plays an essential role in surrogate-assisted evolutionary optimization of expensive problems, since the strategy for selecting individuals for fitness evaluation using the real objective function has substantial influences on the final performance. Among many others, infill criterion driven Gaussian process (GP)-assisted evolutionary algorithms have been demonstrated competitive for optimization of problems with up to 50 decision variables. In this paper, a multiobjective infill criterion (MIC) that considers the approximated fitness and the approximation uncertainty as two objectives is proposed for a GP-assisted social learning particle swarm optimization algorithm. The MIC uses nondominated sorting for model management, thereby avoiding combining the approximated fitness and the approximation uncertainty into a scalar function, which is shown to be particularly important for high-dimensional problems, where the estimated uncertainty becomes less reliable. Empirical studies on 50-D and 100-D benchmark problems and a synthetic problem constructed from four real-world optimization problems demonstrate that the proposed MIC is more effective than existing scalar infill criteria for GP-assisted optimization given a limited computational budget.
Surgical risk factors for recurrence in inguinal hernia repair – a review of the literature

Abstract Despite all the progress made in inguinal hernia surgery driven by the development of meshes and laparoendoscopic operative techniques, the proportion of recurrent inguinal hernias is still from 12% to 13%. Recurrences can present very soon after primary inguinal hernia repair generally because of technical failure. However, they can also develop much later after the primary operation probably due to patient-specific factors. Supported by evidence-based data, this review presents the surgical risk factors for recurrent inguinal hernia after the primary operation. The following factors are implicated here: choice of operative technique and mesh, mesh fixation technique, mesh size, management of medial and lateral hernia sac, sliding hernia, lipoma in the inguinal canal, operating time, type of anesthesia, participation in a register database, femoral hernia, postoperative complications, as well as the center and surgeon volume. If these surgical risk factors are taken into account when performing primary inguinal hernia repair, a good outcome can be expected for the patient. Therefore, they should definitely be observed.
Early Detection of At-Risk Undergraduate Students through Academic Performance Predictors

Undergraduate student dropout is gradually becoming a global problem and the 39 Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) are no exception to this trend. The purpose of this research was to develop a method that can be used for early detection of students who are at-risk of performing poorly in their undergraduate studies. A sample of 279 students participated in the study conducted in a Mauritian private tertiary academic institution. Results of regression analyses identified the variables having a significant influence on academic performance. These variables were used in a linear discriminant analysis where 74 percent of the students could be correctly classified into three categories: at-risk, pass or fail. In conclusion, this study has proposed a new technique that can be used by institutions to determine significant academic performance predictors and then identify at-risk students upon whom interventions can be implemented prior to exams to address the problem of dropouts.
Trophic impact and prey selection by crustacean zooplankton on the microbial communities of an oligotrophic coastal area (NW Mediterranean Sea)

Selection for ciliates in the presence of phytoplankton has been previously shown for some species of copepods. However, the factors determining preference for this heterotrophic prey and how crustacean zooplankton predation can affect the ciliate community are not yet fully under- stood. In this study, we investigated predation rates on phytoplankton and ciliates by the most abun- dant copepod and cladoceran species in a coastal area of the oligotrophic NW Mediterranean Sea monthly over an annual cycle. Three major results were apparent. Firstly, ciliates were important contributors to zooplankton diet, representing a median of 37 and 17% of the carbon intake, and 51 and 34% of the nitrogen intake for copepods and cladocerans, respectively. Secondly, ciliates were positively selected in most cases, this selection was species specific and apparently independent of phytoplankton concentration. And finally, in spite of the high clearance rates on ciliates, the impact of the crustacean community on the ciliate standing stock was low (median 2%), suggesting a bottom-up control of the ciliate community.
A SYNCHRONOUS PRIMARY-SIDE DIMMING CONTROLLER FOR COLD-CATHODE FLUORESCENT LAMP BALLAST

In this paper, a rectified quasi-sinusoidal pulse width modulation (RQSPWM) controller is first proposed for the cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) ballast to achieve a synchronous primary-side dimming control. It is seen that, with the novel controller, not only the lamp flickering problem and the thermometer effect can be eliminated but also the useful photo-coupler in secondary side can be avoided to reduce cost. Then, small signal models of the CCFL ballast and the proposed RQSPWM dimming controller are derived to analyze the performance of the ballast system and help corroborate hardware loop measurements. Finally, a prototype is constructed for verifying the effectiveness of the proposed closed-loop dimming control strategy.
Comparison of Silica-sol and Low Cement Bonded Tabular Alumina and Spinel Castables

Silica-sol bonded castables have been in the market for many years. It is known that silica sol bonded castables are easier to dry when compared to low cement castables. For this reason silica sol bonded castables experienced a stronger focus especially in the recent years. Time is an important factor in refractory installations. Therefore, a fast heat up of monolithic linings is often desired by the refractory users. This paper discusses the comparison between silicasol bonded and low cement castables based on laboratory investigations. Three different kinds of silica-sol were tested in combination with three different matrix aluminas in a tabular alumina based test castable, and also in a spinel containing castable. The results show clear differences between sol and cement bonded castables, but also differences in castable behaviour for different sols. Also the matrix aluminas have a pronounced influence on the castable flow and strength properties, where especially the flow of sol bonded castables does not take advantage from reactive aluminas when compared to calcined alumina. The opposite applies for cement bonded castables.