Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the zero-crossing technique in relation to measurements of phase velocities of the Lamb waves

The delay time estimation using zero-crossing technique is widely used in ultrasonic measurements. The measurements of the phase velocity of guided waves are more complicated due to the dispersion. Application of zero-crossing technique for the measurements of the phase velocities is more complicated due to changes of the waveform of the signals and limited ranges of the measurements base. The objective of the work presented was to investigate in more details the influence of different parameters of the zero – crossing technique on measurement of the phase velocity of A 0 mode of the Lamb waves. Using the signals obtained from the finite element modelling of Lamb waves in a 2 mm thickness aluminium plate it was demonstrated that an insufficient sampling frequency can lead to the errors in the phase velocity and corresponding frequency estimations. On the other hand it was shown also, that in order to obtain a higher equivalent sampling frequency it is reasonable to exploit interpolation. The optimal parameters of the zero-crossing technique and necessary steps for phase velocity measurement are presented also.
Recommender systems: missing data and statistical model estimation

The goal of rating-based recommender systems is to make personalized predictions and recommendations for individual users by leveraging the preferences of a community of users with respect to a collection of items like songs or movies. Recommender systems are often based on intricate statistical models that are estimated from data sets containing a very high proportion of missing ratings. This work describes evidence of a basic incompatibility between the properties of recommender system data sets and the assumptions required for valid estimation and evaluation of statistical models in the presence of missing data. We discuss the implications of this problem and describe extended modelling and evaluation frameworks that attempt to circumvent it. We present prediction and ranking results showing that models developed and tested under these extended frameworks can significantly outperform standard models.
Hand posture analysis for visual-based human-machine interface

This paper presents a new scheme for hand posture selection and recognition based on statistical classification. It has applications in telemedicine, virtual reality, computer games, and sign language studies. The focus is placed on (1) how to select an appropriate set of postures having a satisfactory level of discrimination power, and (2) comparison of geometric and moment invariant properties to recognize hand postures. We have introduced cluster-property and cluster-features matrices to ease posture selection and to evaluate different posture characteristics. Simple and fast decision functions are derived for classification, which expedite on-line decision making process. Experimental results confirm the efficacy of the proposed scheme where a compact set of geometric features yields a recognition rate of 98.8%.
A Stakeholder‐Based Approach to Leadership Development Training: The Case of Medical Education in Canada

This paper reports the use of a stakeholder&#8208;based, bottom&#8208;up approach to determining leadership training needs and designing leadership training programs which contrasts with the top&#8208;down policy that is often applied. The context is a Canadian medical school. Leadership training in medicine is in its infancy. Discussed and outlined in this study are stakeholder opinions on the pillars and priorities upholding leadership development. Seventy&#8208;seven semi&#8208;structured interviews were conducted with stakeholder groups including Trainees, Mid&#8208;Level University Leaders, Senior Medical Clinician Leaders, Senior University Leaders, Medical Scientists and Senior Executives and Directors external to the University. Conventional content analysis was used to group the text into common themes and then group the themes into more general categories. Five general categories emerged: formal programming, organizational support, program evaluation, skill development and participant selection. A successful training program starts with identifying the individuals most likely to benefit from such a program. It emphasizes early training, mentorship and experiential learning. Programs should focus on developing: self&#8208;awareness, communication skills and team&#8208;building capability. Formal training programs would be most successful if they were regularly evaluated and strongly supported by their parent organizations.
Quantitative and Qualitative β Diversity Measures Lead to Different Insights into Factors That Structure Microbial Communities

ABSTRACT The assessment of microbial diversity and distribution is a major concern in environmental microbiology. There are two general approaches for measuring community diversity: quantitative measures, which use the abundance of each taxon, and qualitative measures, which use only the presence/absence of data. Quantitative measures are ideally suited to revealing community differences that are due to changes in relative taxon abundance (e.g., when a particular set of taxa flourish because a limiting nutrient source becomes abundant). Qualitative measures are most informative when communities differ primarily by what can live in them (e.g., at high temperatures), in part because abundance information can obscure significant patterns of variation in which taxa are present. We illustrate these principles using two 16S rRNA-based surveys of microbial populations and two phylogenetic measures of community β diversity: unweighted UniFrac, a qualitative measure, and weighted UniFrac, a new quantitative measure, which we have added to the UniFrac website (http://bmf.colorado.edu/unifrac ). These studies considered the relative influences of mineral chemistry, temperature, and geography on microbial community composition in acidic thermal springs in Yellowstone National Park and the influences of obesity and kinship on microbial community composition in the mouse gut. We show that applying qualitative and quantitative measures to the same data set can lead to dramatically different conclusions about the main factors that structure microbial diversity and can provide insight into the nature of community differences. We also demonstrate that both weighted and unweighted UniFrac measurements are robust to the methods used to build the underlying phylogeny.
Periodic unique beta-expansions: the Sharkovskiĭ ordering

Abstract Let β∈(1,2). Each x∈[0,1/(β−1)] can be represented in the form \[ x=\sum _{k=1}^\infty \varepsilon _k\beta ^{-k}, \] where εk∈{0,1} for all k (a β-expansion of x). If $\beta >{(1+\sqrt 5)}/{2}$, then, as is well known, there always exist x∈(0,1/(β−1)) which have a unique β-expansion. We study (purely) periodic unique β-expansions and show that for each n≥2 there exists $\beta _n\in [{(1+\sqrt 5)}/{2},2)$ such that there are no unique periodic β-expansions of smallest period n for β≤βn and at least one such expansion for β>βn. Furthermore, we prove that βk<βm if and only if k is less than m in the sense of the Sharkovskiĭ ordering. We give two proofs of this result, one of which is independent, and the other one links it to the dynamics of a family of trapezoidal maps.
What Frustrates Screen Reader Users on the Web: A Study of 100 Blind Users

Abstract In previous research, the computer frustrations of student and workplace users have been documented. However, the challenges faced by blind users on the Web have not been previously examined. In this study, 100 blind users, using time diaries, recorded their frustrations using the Web. The top causes of frustration reported were (a) page layout causing confusing screen reader feedback; (b) conflict between screen reader and application; (c) poorly designed/unlabeled forms; (d) no alt text for pictures; and (e) 3-way tie between misleading links, inaccessible PDF, and a screen reader crash. Most of the causes of frustration, such as inappropriate form and graphic labels and confusing page layout, are relatively simple to solve if Webmasters and Web designers focus on this effort. In addition, the more technically challenging frustrations, such as screen reader crashes and conflicts, need to be addressed by the screen reader developers. Blind users in this study were likely to repeatedly attempt to solve a frustration, not give up, and not reboot the computer. In this study, the blind users reported losing, on average, 30.4% of time due to these frustrating situations. Implications for Web developers, screen reader developers, and screen reader users are discussed in this article.
Comparisons between Crystallography Data and Theoretical Parameters and the Formation of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonds: Benznidazole

The conformational preferences of benznidazole were examined through the application of DFT, PCM and QTAIM calculations, whose results were compared with crystallography data. The geometries were fully optimized with minimum potential energy surface by means of the Relaxed Potential Energy Surface Scan (RPESS) at AM1, followed by the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) theoretical level. As a result, the s-cis conformation (1C) was shown to be more stable (4.78 kcal∙mol−1) than s-trans (1T). The Quantum Theory Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) was applied in order to characterize the (N–H∙∙∙O=N) and (C–H∙∙∙=N) intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The simulation of solvent effect performed by means of the implicit Polarized Continuum Model (PCM) revealed great results, such as, for instance, that the conformation 1W is more stable (23.17 kcal∙mol−1) in comparison to 1C. Our main goal was stressed in the topological description of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in light of the QTAIM approach, as well as in the solvent simulation to accurately obtain an important conformation of benznidazole.
A Widely Distributed Spectral Signature of Task-Negative Electrocorticography Responses Revealed during a Visuomotor Task in the Human Cortex

While research of human cortical function has typically focused on task-related increases in neuronal activity, there is a growing interest in the complementary phenomenon—namely, task-induced reductions. Recent human BOLD fMRI studies have associated such reductions with a specific network termed the default mode network (DMN). However, detailed understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns of task-negative responses and particularly how they compare across different cortical networks is lacking. Here we examined this issue in a large-scale electrocorticography study in patients performing a demanding backward masking task. Our results uncovered rapid (<1 s) task-induced reductions in gamma power, often concomitant with power increase in alpha/beta bands. Importantly, these responses were found both in the DMN and sensory–motor networks. Comparing the task-negative responses across these different networks revealed similar spectral signatures and dynamics. We hypothesize that the task-negative responses may reflect a cortical switching mechanism whose role is to steer activity away from cortical networks, which are inappropriate for the task at hand.
Acquiring commonsense knowledge for sentiment analysis using human computation

Many Artificial Intelligence tasks need commonsense knowledge. Extracting this knowledge with statistical methods would require huge amounts of data, so human computation offers a better alternative. We acquire contextual knowledge for sentiment analysis by asking workers to indicate the contexts that influence the polarities of sentiment words. The increased complexity of the task causes some workers to give superficial answers. To increase motivation, we make the task more engaging by packaging it as a game. With the knowledge compiled from only a small set of answers, we already halve the gap between machine and human performance. This proves the strong potential of human computation for acquiring commonsense knowledge.
Direct In Vivo Evidence for Tumor Propagation by Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells

High-grade gliomas (World Health Organization grade III anaplastic astrocytoma and grade IV glioblastoma multiforme), the most prevalent primary malignant brain tumors, display a cellular hierarchy with self-renewing, tumorigenic cancer stem cells (CSCs) at the apex. While the CSC hypothesis has been an attractive model to describe many aspects of tumor behavior, it remains controversial due to unresolved issues including the use of ex vivo analyses with differential growth conditions. A CSC population has been confirmed in malignant gliomas by preferential tumor formation from cells directly isolated from patient biopsy specimens. However, direct comparison of multiple tumor cell populations with analysis of the resulting phenotypes of each population within a representative tumor environment has not been clearly described. To directly test the relative tumorigenic potential of CSCs and non-stem tumor cells in the same microenvironment, we interrogated matched tumor populations purified from a primary human tumor transplanted into a xenograft mouse model and monitored competitive in vivo tumor growth studies using serial in vivo intravital microscopy. While CSCs were a small minority of the initial transplanted cancer cell population, the CSCs, not the non-stem tumor cells, drove tumor formation and yielded tumors displaying a cellular hierarchy. In the resulting tumors, a fraction of the initial transplanted CSCs maintained expression of stem cell and proliferation markers, which were significantly higher compared to the non-stem tumor cell population and demonstrated that CSCs generated cellular heterogeneity within the tumor. These head-to-head comparisons between matched CSCs and non-stem tumor cells provide the first functional evidence using live imaging that in the same microenvironment, CSCs more than non-stem tumor cells are responsible for tumor propagation, confirming the functional definition of a CSC.
Deep correlation for matching images and text

This paper addresses the problem of matching images and captions in a joint latent space learnt with deep canonical correlation analysis (DCCA). The image and caption data are represented by the outputs of the vision and text based deep neural networks. The high dimensionality of the features presents a great challenge in terms of memory and speed complexity when used in DCCA framework. We address these problems by a GPU implementation and propose methods to deal with overfitting. This makes it possible to evaluate DCCA approach on popular caption-image matching benchmarks. We compare our approach to other recently proposed techniques and present state of the art results on three datasets.
Analog of Somatostatin Vapreotide Exhibits Biological Effects in vitro via Interaction with Neurokinin-1 Receptor

Objectives: Vapreotide, a synthetic analog of somatostatin, has analgesic activity most likely mediated through the blockade of neurokinin-1 receptor (NK1R), the substance P (SP)-preferring receptor. The ability of vapreotide to interfere with other biological effects of SP has yet to be investigated. Methods: We studied the ability of vapreotide to antagonize NK1R in three different cell types: immortalized U373MG human astrocytoma cells, human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) and a human embryonic kidney cell line, HEK293. Both U373MG and MDM express endogenous NK1R while HEK293 cells, which normally do not express NK1R, are stably transformed to express human NK1R (HEK293-NK1R). Results: Vapreotide attenuates SP-triggered intracellular calcium increases and nuclear factor-κB activation in a dose-dependent manner. Vapreotide also inhibits SP-induced interleukin-8 and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 production in HEK293-NK1R and U373MG cell lines. Vapreotide inhibits HIV-1 infection of human MDM in vitro, an effect that is reversible by SP pretreatment. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that vapreotide has NK1R antagonist activity and may have a potential application as a therapeutic intervention in HIV-1 infection.
Four-Terminal FinFET Device Technology

One of the biggest challenges for the VLSI circuits with 32-nm-technology nodes and beyond is to overcome the issue of catastrophic increases in power consumption due to short-channel effects (SCEs). Fortunately, "independent" double-gate (DG) FinFETs (named "4-terminal-FinFET" because of its four terminals; source, drain, gate 1 and gate 2) have a promising potential to overcome this issue thanks to a post-fabrication flexible Vth controllability in addition to their superior SCE immunity. This paper presents novel 4T-FinFET device technology based on experimental demonstrations. Newly-developed DG separation processes for the 4T-FinFETs, successful fabrication of the optimum 4T-FinFET with asymmetric gate oxides, and dynamic power management demonstration using 4T-FinFET are presented.
Chirality and domain growth in the gyroid mesophase

We describe the first dynamical simulations of domain growth during the self-assembly of the gyroid mesophase from a ternary amphiphilic mixture, using the lattice Boltzmann method. The gyroid is a chiral structure; we demonstrate that, for a symmetric amphiphile with no innate preference for left- or right-handed morphologies, the self-assembly process may give rise to a racemic mixture of domains. We use measurements of the averaged mean curvature to analyse the behaviour of domain walls, and suggest that diffusive domain growth may be present in this system.
Baseline Micronuclei Frequency in Children: Estimates from Meta- and Pooled Analyses

The number of studies evaluating the effect of environmental exposure to genotoxic agents in children has rapidly increased in the last few years. The frequency of micronuclei (MN) in peripheral blood lymphocytes determined with the cytokinesis block assay is among the most popular biomarkers used for this purpose, although large inter- and intralaboratory variability of this end point has been observed in population studies. The availability of reference measures is therefore necessary for laboratories to validate protocols and analytical procedures, and for molecular epidemiologists, as well, to estimate the statistical power of studies and to assess the quality of data. In this article, we provide estimates of the baseline frequency of MN in children, conducting a meta-analysis of MN frequency reported by field studies in children and a pooled analysis of individual data [available from published studies and from the Human Micronucleus International Collaborative Study (HUMN) database]. Thirteen articles were selected for meta-analysis, and individual data included in the pooled analysis were retrieved from the databases of 12 laboratories. Overall means of 4.48 [95% confidence interval (CI), 3.35–5.98] and 5.70 (95% CI, 4.29–7.56) MN per 1,000 binucleated cells were estimated by the meta- and pooled analysis, respectively. A clear effect of age was detected, even within the restricted range of pediatric age considered, with significantly lower frequency values in newborns. No influence of sex was found. The study showed the advantage of using data from large collaborative studies and suggested a synergistic use of meta- and pooled analysis.
Family History in Young Patients With Stroke

Background and Purpose— Family history of stroke is an established risk factor for stroke. We evaluated whether family history of stroke predisposed to certain stroke subtypes and whether it differed by sex in young patients with stroke. Methods— We used data from the Stroke in Fabry Patients study, a large prospective, hospital-based, screening study for Fabry disease in young patients (aged <55 years) with stroke in whom cardiovascular risk factors and family history of stroke were obtained and detailed stroke subtyping was performed. Results— A family history of stroke was present in 1578 of 4232 transient ischemic attack and ischemic stroke patients (37.3%). Female patients more often had a history of stroke in the maternal lineage (P=0.027) than in the paternal lineage. There was no association with stroke subtype according to Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment nor with the presence of white matter disease on brain imaging. Patients with dissection less frequently reported a family history of stroke (30.4% versus 36.3%; P=0.018). Patients with a parental history of stroke more commonly had siblings with stroke (3.6% versus 2.6%; P=0.047). Conclusions— Although present in about a third of patients, a family history of stroke is not specifically related to stroke pathogenic subtypes in patients with young stroke. Young women with stroke more often report stroke in the maternal lineage. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00414583.
The chemical content of nearby galaxies from planetary nebulae: NGC 147

We report the results of spectroscopic observations, obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, of eight planetary nebulae (PNe) in the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy NGC 147, a companion of M31. The physico-chemical properties of the six brightest PNe were derived using both the empirical ICF method and photoionization modelling with CLOUDY. Different aspects of the evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars in a low-metallicity environment are analysed using relationships between chemical abundances. In addition, certain features of the chemical evolution of NGC 147 were examined. In particular, the mean metallicity of PNe, O/H = 8.06 +0.09 −0.12 (corresponding to [Fe/H]PNe ∼− 0.97), is close to the metallicity of the old stellar population, [Fe/H] =− 1.0, suggesting a negligible chemical enrichment during a substantial amount of time. Finally, the luminosity‐metallicity relationship for the dwarf galaxies of the Local Group is discussed. The location in the luminosity‐metallicity diagram of dSphs does not exclude their formation from old dwarf irregular (dIr) galaxies, but it does exclude their formation from the present time dIrs, since the differences between their metallicities are already present in their older populations. The offset in the luminosity‐ metallicity relationship indicates a faster enrichment of dSphs and, together with the different average abundance ratio [O/Fe ]demonstrates the different star formation histories for these two types of galaxies.
Factors Influencing Government Employee Performance via Information Systems Use: an Empirical Study

Based on the task-to-performance chain, this study seeks to investigate the implications and consequences of government employee performance via information systems. Data was collected from 847 employees of the Taipei City government through the stratified proportion sampling method. In addition, the multiple regression method is used to investigate factors that influence employee performance. The results indicate that three factors affect performance: task-technology fit, computer self-efficacy, and utilization. Utilization was found to have the greatest positive effect on performance. In addition to verifying prior empirical findings, this study presents factors that influence employee performance and information systems development work in the context of e-government.