Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prediction of TV ratings with dynamic models

This paper describes and compares diﬀerent time-series forecasting algorithms for the prediction of television ratings (i.e., the percentage of TV households tuned to a speciﬁc TV station). The prediction is based on historical viewing habits, schedule and attributes of TV shows, and other contextual information such as hour and day. The importance of predicting TV audience extends beyond mere curiosity. With the billions of dollars spent annually on TV programs and commercials, reliable TV audience information is required to evaluate and maximize the eﬀectiveness of this investment. The cost of an advertisement is strongly related to the audience size for the program in which it is embedded, with higher rating programs costing more. Projections of audience size are made before TV programs have been aired and a mismatch might exists between estimated and true audience. This mismatch leads to potentially lost of revenues for broadcasters (when the true audience is larger than the estimated one) or to dissatisfaction of advertisers (when the true audience is smaller than the estimated one). The accuracy of the algorithms is evaluated on a dataset containing 21 millions TV viewing events collected from 5,666 households over 217 channels during a period of 4 months.
Reliability and thermal assessment of stacked chip-on-metal panel based package (PBP™) with fan-out capability

In this paper, a chip-on-metal (COM) panel based package (PBPtrade) with stacking and fan-out capabilities is proposed. The basic structure of the proposed COM PBPTM contains a bare die back-sided attached to a metallic chip carrier and surrounded by polymer material. As such, the solder bumps could be located on both the surface of the filler polymer and on the chip by introducing redistribution lines. The I/O pads on the chip could also be fanned-out. In the stacked COM PBPtrade, two kinds of via through holes (VTH) are developed as the electrical interconnection between each stacked package. To assess the thermal performance and thermo-mechanical characteristic of the proposed PBPtrade, parametric analysis is performed to investigate the reliability characteristics and thermal performance by finite element analysis (FEA). Factorial design with the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also conducted to obtain the sensitivity information and interaction relationship of each parameters. The results show that the thickness of the dielectric plays the most important role in reliability performance. It was also observed that the thickness of the chip and adhesive influence the reliability significantly. In terms of thermal performance, the metallic chip carrier can rapidly dissipate the heat generated from the chip and factorial analysis has indicated that it has high sensitivity in the proposed packaging. Based on the reliability and thermal performance assessment, the design guidelines of the COM PBPtrade and stacked PBPtrade are established in this study.
International Conference : Spatial Thinking and Geographic Information Sciences 2011 Understanding and nurturing spatial literacy

This paper focuses on the character, nature, and development of spatial literacy. We explore a series of questions that frame the range of knowledges and skills that encompass this form of literacy, including how spatial literacy can be characterized across a continuum of expertise; how expertise in spatial thinking and reasoning develops; how spatial literacy may be measured and evaluated; and how spatial literacy can be nurtured in society, in our research, and through teaching. By focusing on the necessary educational foundations or anchors required for spatial literacy, specifically ways in which geography and other science educators at all education levels can explicitly teach spatial concepts, the use of spatial representations, and processes of spatial reasoning, we hope to help set an agenda for future work.
Evidence of a glocal marketing strategy: a case study in the Brazilian telecommunication market

This article is devoted to analyse and discuss the level of control and autonomy that multinational enterprises (MNEs) should grant to their subsidiaries. It analyse the impact of subsidiaries' capacity to innovate and develop new products and services to the Brazilian telecommunications market, based on the case-study of Telefonica business, a subsidiary of Telefonica, a Spanish multinational communication company. The Lasserre's global integration/local responsiveness framework was applied to the data obtained from face-to-face in-depth structured interviews with key actors in Telefonica business (TNB) to investigate the relationship between global integration strategy and local adaptation in the Brazilian telecommunications market. The results show that Telefonica uses a glocal approach since its subsidiary has the autonomy to create and adapt its products when the headquarters recognise that global decisions might not meet local demands. By showing that Telefonica has successfully used a glocal approach on the Brazilian market, as its subsidiary had the autonomy to create and adapt products when global company products might not meet local demands, this study is useful for other multinational companies when going to new markets.
Feline Lentivirus Evolution in Cross-Species Infection Reveals Extensive G-to-A Mutation and Selection on Key Residues in the Viral Polymerase

ABSTRACT Factors that restrict a virus from establishing productive infection in a new host species are important to understand because cross-species transmission events are often associated with emergent viral diseases. To determine the evolutionary pressures on viruses in new host species, we evaluated the molecular evolution of a feline immunodeficiency virus derived from a wild cougar, Puma concolor, during infection of domestic cats. Analyses were based on the coding portion of genome sequences recovered at intervals over 37 weeks of infection of six cats inoculated by either intravenous or oral-nasal routes. All cats inoculated intravenously, but only one inoculated orally-nasally, became persistently viremic. There were notable accumulations of lethal errors and predominance of G-to-A alterations throughout the genome, which were marked in the viral polymerase gene, pol. Viral structural (env and gag) and accessory (vif and orfA) genes evolved neutrally or were under purifying selection. However, sites under positive selection were identified in reverse transcriptase that involved residues in the nucleotide binding pocket or those contacting the RNA-DNA duplex. The findings of extensive G-to-A alterations in this cross-species infection are consistent with the recently described editing of host cytidine deaminase on lentivirus genomes. Additionally, we demonstrate that the primary site of hypermutation is the viral pol gene and the dominant selective force acting on this feline immunodeficiency virus as it replicates in a new host species is on key residues of the virus polymerase.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography implementation on FPGA using Montgomery multiplication for equal key and data size over GF(2m) for Wireless Sensor Networks

In public key cryptography, RSA algorithm has been used for a long time, but it does not meet the constraints of WSNs. Elliptic Curve Cryptography(ECC) has been employed recently because of its high security for same length bit. ECC point multiplication operation is time consuming which affects the speed of encryption and decryption of data. In this paper, we propose the point multiplication using Montgomery multiplication technique that achieves considerable speed and with reduced area utilization. The ECC is first simulated on different FPGA devices, with key length 112 and 163 bits and the area-speed tradeoff is compared. ECC algorithm is implemented with software and hardware choosing Artix 7 XC7a100t-3csg324 FPGA which supports key lengths of 112 and 163 bits. The proposed ECC algorithm is modeled using VHDL and synthesized on Spartan 3 and 6, Virtex 4, 5 and 6 and Artix 7 before the hardware implementation on Atrix 7. The design satisfies the needs of resource constrained WSNs devices with equal key length and data size, the device utilization is within 13 percentage.
Type B lactic acidosis following cardiopulmonary bypass.

OBJECTIVE To describe, characterize, and identify the associations of postcardiac surgical lactic acidosis occurring in the absence of clinical evidence of tissue hypoperfusion. DESIGN The preliminary study is a report of a series of observations in 12 patients. The prospective study is also observational, involving the structured collection of hemodynamic and metabolic variables in a prescribed series of patients. SETTING Cardiac surgical intensive care unit of a university teaching hospital. PATIENTS Twelve patients who developed an unexplained lactic acidosis after cardiac surgery are reported in the preliminary study. The prospective study involved observations in 112 consecutive patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery. INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Preliminary study: Cardiac index was increased before, during and after recovery from lactic acidosis. Recovery from lactic acidosis was associated with a decrease in oxygen transport index and significant increases in oxygen consumption index and oxygen extraction ratio. PROSPECTIVE STUDY Hemodynamic, oxygen transport, and oxygen consumption variables, together with arterial blood gas and lactate concentrations, were assessed every 6 hrs for 24 hrs after surgery. Sixteen patients developed lactic acidosis (peak lactate concentration > 5.0 mmol/L). Compared with the remainder of the patients, this subgroup had longer duration of cardiopulmonary bypass (116 +/- 31 vs. 76 +/- 31 mins, p < .01), greater intraoperative hypothermia (24.9 +/- 2.0 degrees vs. 26.6 +/- 2.3 degrees C, p < .01), more frequent requirement for vasopressor agents (14/16 vs. 35/96, p < .05) and a higher frequency of hyperglycemia (15/16 vs. 28/96, p < .01). Hemodynamic variables, including cardiac index, were remarkably similar in the acidotic and nonacidotic groups. All of the acidotic patients, in both parts of this study, recovered from their acidosis. Eleven of the patients in the preliminary study and all of the 16 acidotic patients in the prospective study were ultimately discharged from the hospital. CONCLUSIONS This report documents the occurrence of lactic acidosis in a subgroup of patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass. The pathogenesis of this disorder is uncertain, but it appears to not relate to inadequate oxygen delivery. Systemic vasodilation and reduced oxygen extraction appear to be features of this disorder, which has an excellent prognosis.
Political Parties Ideologies in Kosovo

The aim of this paper is to analyse the ideological profile of political parties and the party system in Kosovo. The political system in general and the political parties in particular are basic elements and very important for functioning of the state. Political parties, depending on ideological attitudes that they represent, hold certain attitudes to solve social problems. Political parties with left orientation are supporters of social equality; they support the social strata with economic problems, and they are in favour of stronger presence of the state. Political parties with right orientation have different attitudes from left parties. They support evolutionary changes in society, they are in favour of preservation and cultivation of traditions, there are supporters of the capitalization and are for minimal state intervention in society. Political parties in Kosovo have a new tradition of the formation and profile. They are at an early stage in terms of the ideological division. The party system in Kosovo after 1990 can be divided into two phases. The first phase is until 1999, where political parties have operated under the measures of occupation, and the second phase includes the period from 1999 onwards, initially under the international administration, and after the independence under supervision and co-governance in some areas with the mission of the European Union (EU). In order to be more inclusive, political parties in Kosovo offer ideologically unclear programs. Political parties in Kosovo in regards to some topics such as European integration, economic and social policies in general have same positions, with some exceptions. In this paper, the qualitative methodology was used.
Ontogeny of the collar cord: Neurulation in the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii

The chordate body plan is characterized by a central notochord, a pharynx perforated by gill pores, and a dorsal central nervous system. Despite progress in recent years, the evolutionary origin of each of theses characters remains controversial. In the case of the nervous system, two contradictory hypotheses exist. In the first, the chordate nervous system is derived directly from a diffuse nerve net; whereas, the second proposes that a centralized nervous system is found in hemichordates and, therefore, predates chordate evolution. Here, we document the ontogeny of the collar cord of the enteropneust Saccoglossus kowalevskii using transmission electron microscopy and 3D‐reconstruction based on completely serially sectioned stages. We demonstrate that the collar cord develops from a middorsal neural plate that is closed in a posterior to anterior direction. Transversely oriented ependymal cells possessing myofilaments mediate this morphogenetic process and surround the remnants of the neural canal in juveniles. A mid‐dorsal glandular complex is present in the collar. The collar cord in juveniles is clearly separated into a dorsal saddle‐like region of somata and a ventral neuropil. We characterize two cell types in the somata region, giant neurons and ependymal cells. Giant neurons connect via a peculiar cell junction that seems to function in intercellular communication. Synaptic junctions containing different vesicle types are present in the neuropil. These findings support the hypotheses that the collar cord constitutes a centralized element of the nervous system and that the morphogenetic process in the ontogeny of the collar cord is homologous to neurulation in chordates. Moreover, we suggest that these similarities are indicative of a close phylogenetic relationship between enteropneusts and chordates. J. Morphol. , 2010. ©2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Deep Reinforcement Learning with Prior Knowledge

Deep reinforcement learning has been applied to many domains from computer games, natural language processing, recommendation systems to robotics. While there are many scenarios where huge amounts of data is easily available such as games, the applications of deep reinforcement learning to robotics is often limited by the bottleneck of acquiring data. Hence, generalization becomes essential in making the learning algorithm practical in robotics. We found out that using prior knowledge of the tasks can significantly boost the learning performance and generalization capabilities. Deep reinforcement learning could be used to learn dexterous robotic policies but it is challenging to transfer them to new robots with vastly different hardware properties. It is also prohibitively expensive to learn a new policy from scratch for each robot hardware due to the high sample complexity of modern state-of-the-art algorithms. We propose a novel approach called Hardware Conditioned Policies where we train a universal policy conditioned on a vector representation of robot hardware. We considered robots in simulation with varied dynamics, kinematic structure, kinematic lengths and degrees-of-freedom and show better generalization with our method. In this thesis, we also explore the generalization problem in navigation. Even though numerous past works have tackled the problem of taskdriven navigation, how to effectively explore a new environment to enable a variety of down-stream tasks has received much less attention. We study how agents can autonomously explore realistic and complex 3D environments without the context of task-rewards. We propose a learningbased approach and investigate different policy architectures, reward functions, and training paradigms. We find that use of policies with spatial memory that are bootstrapped with imitation learning and finally fine-tuned with coverage rewards derived purely from on-board sensors can be effective at exploring novel environments. We also show how such task-agnostic exploration can be used for down-stream tasks.
A robust fusion rule using Piece-Wise Linear function in wireless sensor networks

The problem of decision fusion in wireless sensor networks is investigated in this paper. Based on the parallel fusion model under fading and the noise channels of the generalized Gaussian and the Cauchy models, we develop a robust fusion rule. By utilizing high and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) approximations, we obtain both high and low SNR alternatives respectively to the optimum likelihood ratio based fusion statistic for both noise models. To overcome the near-optimality of both alternatives for only limited ranges of SNR values, we propose the Piece-Wise Linear fusion statistic (PWL-FS) that combines both high and low SNR results by using a piece-wise linear function. Performance evaluation is performed through Mote Carlo simulations.
Electrotonic Transmission Within Pericyte‐Containing Retinal Microvessels

Objective: Little is known about the electrotonic architecture of the pericyte‐containing retinal microvasculature. Here, the authors focus on the cell‐to‐cell transmission of hyperpolarization, which can induce abluminal pericytes to relax and lumens to dilate.
Long-term Consequences of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction

Background:Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is common in elderly patients after noncardiac surgery, but the consequences are unknown. The authors' aim was to determine the effects of POCD on long-term prognosis. Methods:This was an observational study of Danish patients enrolled in two multicenter studies of POCD between November 1994 and October 2000. The cohort was followed up from the date of surgery until August 2007. Cognitive function was assessed by a neuropsychological test battery at three time points: before, at 1 week after, and at 3 months after noncardiac surgery. Data on survival, labor market attachment, and social transfer payments were obtained from administrative databases. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to compute relative risk estimates for mortality and disability, and the relative prevalence of time on social transfer payments was assessed by Poisson regression. Results:A total of 701 patients were followed up for a median of 8.5 yr (interquartile range, 5.3–11.4 yr). POCD at 3 months, but not at 1 week, was associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio, 1.63 [95% confidence interval, 1.11–2.38]; P = 0.01, adjusted for sex, age, and cancer). The risk of leaving the labor market prematurely because of disability or voluntary early retirement was higher among patients with 1-week POCD (hazard ratio, 2.26 [1.24–4.12]; P = 0.01). Patients with POCD at 1 week received social transfer payments for a longer proportion of observation time (prevalence ratio, 1.45 [1.03–2.04]; P = 0.03). Conclusions:Cognitive dysfunction after noncardiac surgery was associated with increased mortality, risk of leaving the labor market prematurely, and dependency on social transfer payments.
In Vivo Assessment of Calcium Alginate Gel for Endovascular Embolization of a Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation Model Using the Swine Rete Mirabile

OBJECTIVE We sought to assess the stability of calcium alginate as an embolic agent in an animal model of a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Swine cerebral AVM models were used to test the injectability, radiographic visualization, mechanical stability, and biocompatibility of calcium alginate as an occlusive agent. METHODS The swine cerebral AVM model included a carotid-to-jugular anastomosis to increase flow to the rete mirabile (RM), thereby simulating the pressure gradient and shunted blood flow of an AVM. Alginate and the reactive component, calcium chloride, were injected from double-lumen microcatheters to form a complete RM occlusion in the “acute swine” AVM model and a partial occlusion in a “survival swine” model. RESULTS Angiographic and histological results verified complete occlusion of the left RM in acute animals when alginate was injected in stages. Partial RM occlusion in the survival animals blocked blood flow to the inferior portion of the RM but left flow open to the superior portion of the RM and the circle of Willis. One-week survival results showed that the alginate remained a stable occlusive material. Histological results showed a minor bioactive response and encapsulation of the alginate polymer, thereby increasing the stability and effective occlusion of the embolization material. CONCLUSION Calcium alginate proved to be an effective endovascular occlusion material that blocked blood flow to the swine RM. The swine AVM models provided assessment of alginate injectability and effective occlusion and provided initial in vivo characteristics of alginate stability and biocompatibility.
Fimbriation, capsulation, and iron-scavenging systems of Klebsiella strains associated with human urinary tract infection

Thirty-two strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae and seven strains of Klebsiella oxytoca isolated from urinary tract infections in elderly adults were analyzed for capsular antigens, iron-scavenging systems, and fimbriation. All strains were capsulated. Twenty-seven different K antigens were identified among the strains, with no particular antigen dominating. All strains produced the iron-scavenging system enterochelin as analyzed by bioassay and DNA hybridization. In contrast, the aerobactin iron-sequestering system was not detected in any of the strains. All strains caused hemagglutination of tannin-treated human erythrocytes and reacted with an anti-type 3 fimbriae antiserum as well as in DNA hybridization with a type 3 fimbria-specific probe, indicating that the Klebsiella strains possessed this fimbrial type. Possession of type 1 fimbriae was analyzed by agglutination tests and by hybridization with DNA probes from two distinct Klebsiella type 1 fimbria gene clusters. Phenotypic expression of the type 1 fimbriae was found in 29 of 32 K. pneumoniae strains, whereas 30 strains reacted with either of the two type 1 fimbrial cluster DNA probes. In K. oxytoca, however, only three of seven strains expressed type 1 fimbriae and reacted with the DNA probes. The type 3 fimbriae were found to bind to a fraction of epithelial cells exfoliated in normal human urine, whereas the type 1 fimbriae bound strongly to urinary slime. No inhibitors of type 3 fimbrial binding were detected in human urine.