Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive Kriging Filters for Multidimensional Signal Processing 1

The Wiener filter is the well-known solution for linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) signal estimation. This filter assumes the mean to be known and usually constant. On the other hand, the Kriging filter is an incremental theory, developed within the Geostatistical community, with respect to that of Wiener filters. The extension relies on adopting a parametric model for the mean (usually a polynomial). The goal of this paper is twofold. First it is intended as a comprehensive treatment of the Kriging approach from a Signal Processing perspective, with previous uses of Kriging in Signal Processing being extended. Second, we are deriving a general methodology for FIR filter design, including any situation where an optimal FIR estimator from possibly incomplete and/or noisy data is needed. Selected examples illustrate the performance of the method on some common Image Processing problems (interpolation, approximation and filtering).
UAV degradation identification for pilot notification using machine learning techniques

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are currently investigated as an important sub-domain of robotics, a fast growing and truly multidisciplinary research field. UAVs are increasingly deployed in real-world settings for missions in dangerous environments or in environments which are challenging to access. Combined with autonomous flying capabilities, many new possibilities, but also challenges, open up. To overcome the challenge of early identification of degradation, machine learning based on flight features is a promising direction. Existing approaches build classifiers that consider their features to be correlated. This prevents a fine-grained detection of degradation for the different hardware components. This work presents an approach where the data is considered uncorrelated and, using machine learning techniques, allows the precise identification of UAV's damages.
PROTOCOLIZED GROUP PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE: ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY OF LIFE

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic illness that greatly affects patients’ quality of life. The main objective of the present study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of a protocolized psychological treatment programme in group format for improving the quality of life of these patients. The sample was made up of 57 inflammatory bowel disease patients (33 treatment group and 24 waiting list control group). The dependent variables were: digestive symptoms, systemic symptoms, functional effects, emotional function and social effects (Inflammatory Bowel Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire [SIBDQ], Lopez-Vivancos and cols., 1999). The results showed that the psychological treatment programme for IBD was effective in producing a significant improvement in all the quality of life variables, by comparison with the waiting list control group. Although the differences were maintained in 4 of the 5 variables assessed at the 3-month follow-up, after 12
An Up-Scaled Vegetation Temperature Condition Index Retrieved From Landsat Data with Trend Surface Analysis

Drought causes great losses in regional agricultural production and decreases socioeconomic growth. The vegetation temperature condition index (VTCI) has a distinct advantage in monitoring the onset, duration, and intensity of droughts. With the development of modern remote sensing technologies, remotely sensed data with variable spatial and temporal resolution are used to generate multiscale maps of droughts. Therefore, understanding the scale effect and developing appropriate up-scaling methods to retrieve spatiotemporal drought variables across different scales is valuable. As an alternative to the commonly used window averaging (WA) method, we develop the trend surface analysis (TSA) method based on multiple regression analysis to up-scale Landsat-derived VTCI (Landsat-VTCI) images from a finer to a coarser resolution. The two methods are systematically evaluated in a case study according to various statistical indicators, including the spatial and frequency distributions of features, and the correlation coefficients and root mean square errors between up-scaled Landsat-VTCI images and moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived VTCI (MODIS-VTCI) images. The results show that TSA is reliable and more suitable than WA for non-normally distributed Landsat-derived VTCIs, whereas the WA results are similar to the TSA results for normal distributions. The TSA method is flexible for any type of distribution of Landsat-VTCIs within a study area and can be programmed to up-scale spatial drought variables from a finer to a coarser spatial resolution because of its efficiency and flexibility compared to the WA method.
The many faces of SRPK1†

Serine–arginine protein kinase 1 (SRPK1) phosphorylates proteins involved in the regulation of several mRNA‐processing pathways, including alternative splicing. SRPK1 has been recently reported to be overexpressed in multiple cancers, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and glioma. Several studies have shown that inhibition of SRPK1 has anti‐tumoural effects, and SRPK1 has therefore become a new candidate for targeted therapies. Interestingly, in terms of molecular mechanism, SRPK1 seems to act heterogeneously, and has been reported to affect several processes in different cancers, e.g. angiogenesis in prostate and colon cancer, apoptosis in breast and colon cancer, and migration in breast cancer. A recent report adds to this puzzle, showing that the main effect of SRPK1 overexpression in non‐small‐cell lung carcinoma is to stimulate a stem cell‐like phenotype. This pleiotropy might be related to preferential activation of different downstream signalling pathways by SRPK1 in various cancers. © 2016 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Casp Solutions for Planning in Hybrid Domains

CASP is an extension of ASP that allows for numerical constraints to be added in the rules. PDDL+ is an extension of the PDDL standard language of automated planning for modeling mixed discrete-continuous dynamics. In this paper, we present CASP solutions for dealing with PDDL+ problems, i.e., encoding from PDDL+ to CASP, and extensions to the algorithm of the ezcsp CASP solver in order to solve CASP programs arising from PDDL+ domains. An experimental analysis, performed on well-known linear and non-linear variants of PDDL+ domains, involving various configurations of the ezcsp solver, other CASP solvers, and PDDL+ planners, shows the viability of our solution.
A Symposium on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

At the heart of the unfolding story of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are three questions: are these children ill? ; if not, why do children behave so? and why do they present now? In this paper, I suggest that ethical considerations are paramount when distinguishing between children’s ‘illness’ behaviour and behaviour that communicates emotional states such as anxiety, panic, sadness, grief, frustration and resentment. Examples of ethical problems that lead to biased diagnosis and non-rational prescribing highlight the challenge the doctor faces to avoid turning ‘moral judgement into . medical truth’. Many researchers and clinicians accept ADHD as a valid diagnostic category unaware it is the focus of a USA National Institute of Health (NIH) [2] consensus statement: this states that ADHD remains of ‘unproven’ status and ‘should give pause to both researchers and clinicians who may have reified ADHD as a “thing” or a “true entity” (rather than a working hypothesis that serves scientific, communication, and clinical decision making purposes)’. The statement is ‘independent, expert and credible’, in spite of the controversy surrounding ADHD. Thirty-one experts provided scientific ‘testimonies’ to a consensus panel, the scientific ‘jury’. The draft was subjected to rigorous revision attesting to the authoritative nature of the final statement [3]. The NIH reminds developmentally minded child psychiatrists to assess and diagnose symptoms in childhood on the understanding that ‘chaotic’, ‘acting out’, ‘out of control’ behaviours, as found in ADHD, can be ascribed to biopsychosocial factors. For example, Rutter [4] notes that the ‘process of development constitutes the crucial link between genetic determinants and environmental variables, between sociology and individual psychology, and between physiogenic and psychogenic causes. ’ (p.1) Psychiatrists face special concerns with families, educators and non-developmentally minded colleagues, since the nature of ADHD raises for each of these groups inherently ambiguous perspectives. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2002; 36:472–487
Interpreting Young Women’s Accounts of Drink Spiking: The Need for a Gendered Understanding of the Fear and Reality of Sexual Violence

In recent years the public discourse around drink spiking has evolved from that of an ‘epidemic’ to an ‘urban myth’. This article examines the narratives of 35 young women interviewed in relation to the contested issue of drink spiking. The suggestion that young women invoke the drink spiking discourse to provide a feminine framework for the masculine practice of binge drinking is challenged. It is argued that, on the contrary, young women’s accounts of drink spiking are characterised by uncertainty, minimisation, self-blame and a reluctance to disclose their experiences. Further, young women’s fear of drink spiking represents a contemporary extension of the conventional gendered fear of sexual violence. Hence a gendered lens, sensitive to the fear and reality of sexual violence, is a prerequisite to a nuanced interpretation of young women’s accounts of drink spiking within the sexualised environment of the night-time economy.
An Exploration of Students' Belongingness Beliefs in One Middle School

In this study, the author explored students' conceptions of belongingness on the basis of past and current school contexts and analyzed how conceptions did or did not change over time and from one school context to another. The participants included 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students (N = 45) who attended a newly formed charter school in a large metropolitan city in the Southwestern United States. The author used interview methods to obtain both closed- and open-ended student responses. Results suggested that students varied in their belongingness conceptions, with some students emphasizing the importance of interpersonal relationships and others emphasizing academic achievement or opportunity. The author used the results to generate a model of belonging that combines students' perceptions of the school climate for others with their perceived level of fit within it. The author also describes implications for future research on student belongingness.
The changing experiences of bisexual male adolescents

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 15 openly bisexual male youth from sixth forms across the UK, this article documents positive experiences of bisexual male youth in school: participants had positive coming out experiences and did not encounter significant discrimination or harassment because of their sexual identity. Participants attribute this to the inclusive environments of their schools and local cultures. Examining the narratives of two participants who had negative experiences, this article also highlights continued issues for bisexual youth in schools. It thus advances our understanding of contemporary bisexual lives in educational institutions, and contributes to debates about whether sixth forms are more inclusive spaces than secondary schools for bisexuals.
Cloning, Expression, and Purification of Histidine-Tagged Escherichia coli Dihydrodipicolinate Reductase

The enzyme dihydrodipicolinate reductase (DHDPR) is a component of the lysine biosynthetic pathway in bacteria and higher plants. DHDPR catalyzes the NAD(P)H dependent reduction of 2,3-dihydrodipicolinate to the cyclic imine L-2,3,4,5,-tetrahydropicolinic acid. The dapB gene that encodes dihydrodipicolinate reductase has previously been cloned, but the expression of the enzyme is low and the purification is time consuming. Therefore the E. coli dapB gene was cloned into the pET16b vector to improve the protein expression and simplify the purification. The dapB gene sequence was utilized to design forward and reverse oligonucleotide primers that were used to PCR the gene from Escherichia coli genomic DNA. The primers were designed with NdeI or BamHI restriction sites on the 5’and 3’ terminus respectively. The PCR product was sequenced to confirm the identity of dapB. The gene was cloned into the expression vector pET16b through NdeI and BamHI restriction endonuclease sites. The resulting plasmid containing dapB was transformed into the bacterial strain BL21 (DE3). The transformed cells were utilized to grow and express the histidine-tagged reductase and the protein was purified using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. SDS/PAGE gel analysis has shown that the protein was 95% pure and has approximate subunit molecular weight of 28 kDa. The protein purification is completed in one day and 3 liters of culture produced approximately 40–50 mgs of protein, an improvement on the previous protein expression and multistep purification.
Neocortical Long-Term Depression and Depotentiation in the Adult, Freely Moving Rat

Information is believed to be stored in the brain by constructing new neural circuits, and these circuits are shaped by changes in the strength of the synaptic connections between the neurons making up the circuit. According to most theories of memory, new circuits can be formed by either increasing or decreasing the strength of synaptic connections. Bidirectional modifications in synaptic efficacy are also central components in recent computer simulations of learning and memory. While long-term potentiation (L TP) has been the focus of extensive research into the mechanisms underlying information storage in the mammalian brain, long-term depression (LTD) and depotentiation, its depressive counterparts, have not. Furthermore, most of the LTD research has involved the use of anaesthetized animals and in vitro slice preparations, making it more difficult to determine the role of this synaptic phenomenon in learning and memory in the intact behaving animal. This thesis provides the first detailed examination of: 1) the induction and decay of both LTD and depotentiation in the neocortex of the awake, freely moving animal; 2) the effects ofN-methyl D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR) blockade on the induction of LTD, LTP, and depotentiation (NMDA receptor activation is known to play a major role in most forms ofLTP); and 3) the interactions between these synaptic phenomena. LTD was expressed as a significant reduction in the amplitude of both short­ and long-latency field potential components. Depotentiation was expressed as a long
Model-Based Recognition and Extraction of Information from Chart Images

Charts are widely used in technical and business documents as a graphical representation of numerical and qualitative data. We present a model-based method to automatically extract data carried by charts and convert them to XML format, thus making these data available for indexing, querying and analysis by common methods of textual data management. The proposed method includes several steps: 1) chart detection, 2) model-based classification by chart type and extraction of graphical components, 3) detection and recognition of textual components, 4) extraction of semantic relations between graphics and text. For testing purpose, a benchmark set was created with the XML/SWF Chart tool. By comparing the recovered data and the original data used for chart generation, we are able to evaluate our information extraction algorithm and confirm its validity. We also extensively tested each step of the proposed algorithm against existing approaches. Model- based classification showed high accuracy, comparable to those of the best supervised learning methods. The proposed text detection algorithm leads to significant improvement in text recognition rate (up to 20 times better).
DNA methylation analysis of the tumor suppressor gene CDKN2B in Brazilian leukemia patients

The aim of this work was to evaluate the methylation profile of the p15 (CDKN2B) gene in Brazilian patients with leukemia and to correlate the CDKN2B gene expression with the percentage of methylated CpG dinucleotides in its promoter region. Thirty-one samples from six patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), four with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and 21 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were evaluated by MSP (Methylation-Specific PCR). The CDKN2B gene was found to be methylated in four (67%) of the six ALL samples and in 16 (76%) of the 21 AML samples, but in none of the four CML samples analyzed. We observed a correlation between the CDKN2B mRNA expression (RT-PCR) and the percentage of methylated CpG dinucleotides. Therefore, this study in Brazilian patients confirms that the CDKN2B gene is methylated in the majority of leukemia patients.
A Survey of Sexual States of Married, Healthy, Reproductive Age Women

The sexual states of 1,800 married, healthy, reproductive- age women were surveyed. Sexual dissatisfaction occurred in 10.1% of women but in 5.3% of their husbands (P < 0.01). Statistically, stepwise logistic regression analysis was used Factors that substantially influenced the wives' sexual feelings were associated with precoital caressing, the occurrence and time of orgasm, husband's sexual satisfaction, who initiated coitus, and the wife's agreement to sexual activity if the husband was the initiator. Factors that substantially influenced the husbands' sexual feelings were frequency of coitus, successful ejaculation, wife's sexual satisfaction, and the husband's attitude toward the contraceptive method the wife had adopted
Cognate facilitation effect in balanced and non-balanced Spanish–English bilinguals using the Boston Naming Test

The “cognate facilitation effect” refers to the advantage cognate words have over non-cognates in speed of recognition and production of words during the performance of multiple oral and written language tasks. It has been demonstrated that bilinguals produce and recognize cognates faster than non-cognates. Questions remain about the variables affecting the cognate facilitation effect. The present study investigated whether naming ability in a relatively large sample of balanced and non-balanced Spanish–English bilinguals is affected by the cognate status of the target words and whether the magnitude of this effect is influenced by bilinguals’ relative levels of proficiency in their two languages. One hundred and three (53 balanced, 50 non-balanced) participants (mean age= 42.52; SD =19.09) from South Florida were administered the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in Spanish and English. Half of the sample received the English version first and the other half the Spanish version first. Results showed that whereas the cognate effect in the balanced bilinguals is similar in both languages, the non-balanced group showed a more prominent cognate effect in the non-preferred language. Current results may contribute to the understanding of language representation in bilinguals. Results demonstrated that the retrieval of words in the BNT is influenced by the knowledge of another language and that this effect seems to be mediated by how balanced the bilingual is.
Effects of adiposity on physical activity in childhood: Iowa Bone Development Study.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to examine whether adiposity level is associated with subsequent physical activity (PA) level in childhood. METHODS Study participants were 326 children participating in the Iowa Bone Development Study. PA and fat mass were measured using accelerometers and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at approximately 5, 8, and 11 yr. Data for relevant variables such as parents' education and PA levels and family income were also collected. Gender-specific generalized linear models were fit to examine the association between percentage body fat (%BF) at age 8 and intensity-weighted moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA (IW-MVPA) at age 11. RESULTS After adjusting for IW-MVPA at age 8, the interval between the age 8 and 11 examinations, residualized change scores of %BF and IW-MVPA from age 5 to 8, and mother's education level, %BF at age 8 was negatively associated with IW-MVPA at age 11 among boys (P < 0.05). After adjusting for IW-MVPA at age 8, physical maturity, and family income, %BF at age 8 was negatively associated with IW-MVPA at age 11 among girls (P < 0.05). Categorical data analysis also showed that the odds ratio (OR) of being in the lowest quartile relative to the highest quartile of IW-MVPA at age 11 for boys and girls with high %BF at age 8 were approximately four times higher than the OR for those with low %BF at age 8 (OR = 4.38, 95% CI = 1.05-18.24 for boys; OR = 4.48, 95% CI = 1.35-14.85 for girls). CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that adiposity level may be a determinant of PA behavior. Specific intervention strategies for overweight children may be needed to promote PA.
Optimization for Multiple Patterning Lithography with cutting process and beyond

Multiple Patterning Lithography (MPL) is indispensable for producing sub-22nm devices. Recently, multiple patterning with cutting (MPC) was proposed. For example, in triple patterning with cutting (LELECUT), the first two masks are used to do double patterning, whereas the third mask is used to cut off the unwanted parts. In this paper, we will systematically study the problem of cut candidate generation, and propose a flow to optimally minimize the manufacturing cost for standard cell based design with MPC. We will further extend the optimization flow to handle multiple patterning with e-beam cuts. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
Identifying ADHD Subtypes using the Parent and Teacher Rating Scales of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic utility of the Parent and Teacher Rating Scales of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC) as a tool for identifying ADHD in children. It was hypothesized that the ADHD children will have elevated scores on those scales and composites that define ADHD (Hyperactivity, Attention Problems, Adaptability, Atypicality, Leadership, and Social Skills scales, and the Behavioral Symptoms Index and Adaptability composites), and these scores will be significantly higher than the control group. In this sample, the ADHD population did have higher t-scores on all predicted scales although not all of those scores fell within the at-risk or clinically significant range. In addition, the ADHD groups had significantly higher scores on all other scales and composites except the Somatization scale. Despite the significant differences between the ADHD and controls on almost all scales and composites, the scores for the ADHD group fell within the average range.
Understanding Collaboration Among Nonprofit Organizations: Combining Resource Dependency, Institutional, and Network Perspectives

Existing research stops short of explaining why nonprofit organizations develop certain forms of collaborations instead of others. In this article, the authors combine resource dependency, institutional, and network theories to examine the factors that influence the likelihood that nonprofit organizations develop formal types of collaborative activities vis-à-vis informal types. Based on the survey data of 95 urban charitable organizations, the study has found that an organization is more likely to increase the degree of formality of its collaborative activities when it is older, has a larger budget size, receives government funding but relies on fewer government funding streams, has more board linkages with other nonprofit organizations, and is not operating in the education and research or social service industry.