Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Truth Discovery via Exploiting Implications from Multi-Source Data

Data veracity is a grand challenge for various tasks on the Web. Since the web data sources are inherently unreliable and may provide conflicting information about the same real-world entities, truth discovery is emerging as a countermeasure of resolving the conflicts by discovering the truth, which conforms to the reality, from the multi-source data. A major challenge related to truth discovery is that different data items may have varying numbers of true values (or multi-truth), which counters the assumption of existing truth discovery methods that each data item should have exactly one true value. In this paper, we address this challenge by exploiting and leveraging the implications from multi-source data. In particular, we exploit three types of implications, namely the implicit negative claims, the distribution of positive/negative claims, and the co-occurrence of values in sources' claims, to facilitate multi-truth discovery. We propose a probabilistic approach with improvement measures that incorporate the three implications in all stages of truth discovery process. In particular, incorporating the negative claims enables multi-truth discovery, considering the distribution of positive/negative claims relieves truth discovery from the impact of sources' behavioral features in the specific datasets, and considering values' co-occurrence relationship compensates the information lost from evaluating each value in the same claims individually. Experimental results on three real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Learning Optimal Threshold on Resampling Data to Deal with Class Imbalance

Class imbalance is one of the challenging problems for machine learning algorithms. When learning from highly imbalanced data, most classifiers are overwhelmed by the majority class examples, thus, their performance usually degrades. Many papers have been introduced to tackle this problem including methods for pre-processing, internal classifier processing, and post-processing – which mainly relies on the posterior probabilities. Bayesian Network (BN) is known as a classifier which can produce good posterior probabilities. In this study, we propose methods to combine resampling techniques with learning optimal threshold in BN to deal with imbalanced data. Concretely, we first rebalance the datasets by using resampling methods. We then learn the optimal threshold on the posterior probabilities produced by some Bayesian classifiers such as general BN, TAN, BAN, and Markov Blanket structure on those data. We optimize the threshold for each classifier on the holdout-set to maximize the F1-Measure, then using this threshold for final classification. We also make these classifiers become cost-sensitive by injecting the unequal misclassification costs to the threshold. Our experimental results show that the proposed methods significantly outperform the baseline Naive Bayes. These methods also perform as good as the state-of-thearts and significantly better in certain cases.
Using English as a Pivot Language to Enhance Danish-Arabic Statistical Machine Translation

We inspect two pivot strategies for Danish-Arabic statistical machine translation (SMT) system; phrase translation pivot strategy and sentence translation pivot strategy respectively. English is used as a pivot language. We develop two SMT systems, DanishEnglish and English-Arabic. We use different English-Arabic and English-Danish data resources. Our final results show that SMT systems developed under sentence based pivot strategy outperforms system developed under phrase based pivot strategy, especially when common parallel corpora are not available.
Production-Based Term Structure of Equity Returns

We study the link between timing of cash flows and expected returns in general equilibrium production economies. Standard neoclassical RBC models produce an upward-sloping term structure of equity returns. Our economy incorporates heterogeneous exposure to aggregate productivity shocks across capital vintages, yielding a downward-sloping term structure over a ten-year horizon, consistent with the empirical findings of Binsbergen et al. (2012a, b). This result is preserved after the introduction of an endogenous stock of growth options that enables us to reproduce the empirical negative relationship between cash-flow duration and expected returns in the cross section of book-to-market sorted stocks.
Agency and Time Representation in English and Dutch Speakers

Research reveals that the ego- and time-moving representations, two divergent ways to talk and think about time, are psychologically meaningful: They are, for example, linked to agency. This research has, however, mainly been correlational in nature and only been conducted amongst English speakers, even though cross-linguistic differences are readily observed in research on time representation. The present research addresses these limitations. In the first study, we explore the causal relation amongst English speakers and show that feelings of personal agency lead to the adoption of the ego-moving representation. In the second and third study, we replicate the first study and conduct a correlational study amongst Dutch speakers. We find no proof for a similar relation between agency and time representation amongst Dutch speakers. In discussing the findings, the role language plays in shaping preferences is considered as well as the methodological issues that need to be addressed by future research.
Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in diets fed to swine

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is produced from the fuel ethanol industry and is available for inclusion in diets fed to swine. During recent years, several research projects have been completed to investigate the feeding value of DDGS. Crude nutrient concentrations, energy and nutrient digestibility values, and effects of including DDGS in diets fed to different categories of swine have been investigated.
Are we now living in the Anthropocene

The term Anthropocene, proposed and increasingly employed to denote the current interval of anthropogenic global environmental change, may be discussed on stratigraphic grounds. A case can be made for its consideration as a formal epoch in that, since the start of the Industrial Revolution, Earth has endured changes sufficient to leave a global stratigraphic signature distinct from that of the Holocene or of previous Pleistocene interglacial phases, encompassing novel biotic, sedimentary, and geochemical change. These changes, although likely only in their initial phases, are sufficiently distinct and robustly established for suggestions of a Holocene–Anthropocene boundary in the recent historical past to be geologically reasonable. The boundary may be defined either via Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (“golden spike”) locations or by adopting a numerical date. Formal adoption of this term in the near future will largely depend on its utility, particularly to earth scientists working on late Holocene successions. This datum, from the perspective of the far future, will most probably approximate a distinctive stratigraphic boundary.
Generic hypothesis generation for small and distant objects

Existing approaches to object detection address the generation of object hypotheses by extracting several cues in natural and automotive images, relying on objects with sufficiently high resolution. Very little to almost no approaches, however, address the generation of hypothesis of very small or distant objects in images such as on motorways. Here, we propose a simple yet effective approach to generating hypotheses of small and distant objects in images. Our key contribution is a novel voting scheme that makes efficient use of the different appearance of small candidate objects to their environment. We model the environment as being composed of very few regions with homogeneous appearance, extracted by evaluating the inner statistics of an image in an unsupervised fashion. Small regions that can not be assigned to the environment form potential candidate locations. Experimental results on motorway scenes with cars, traffic signs, and other automotive objects based on a variety of performance evaluation metrics show that our approach provides promising results, and outperforms one of the currently leading approaches in generating hypotheses for small and/or distant objects in images.
Clinical Effects of Standard and Individualized Dialysate Sodium in Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis

BACKGROUND: The degree to which the dialysate prescription and, in particular, the dialysate sodium concentration influences blood pressure and interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) via changes in sodium flux, plasma volume or the other parameters is not well understood. The aim of the study was to investigate whether dialysis patients will have some beneficial effects of dialysate sodium set up according to serum sodium or sodium modeling. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ninety-two nondiabetic subjects (52 men and 40 women) performed 12 consecutive hemodialysis (HD) sessions (4 weeks) with dialysate sodium concentration set up on 138 mmol/L (standard sodium – first phase), followed by 24 sessions (second phase) wherein dialysate sodium was set up according to individualized sodium. Variables of interest were: systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure, pulse, IDWG, thirst score – (Xerostomia Inventory (XI) and Dialysis Thirst Inventory (DTI)) and side effects (occurrence of hypotension and muscle cramps). After the first phase, the subjects were divided into 3 groups: normotensive (N=76), hypertensive (N= 11) and hypotensive (N=5) based on the average pre-HD systolic BP during the whole period of the first phase. RESULTS: Sodium individualization resulted in significantly lower blood pressure (133.61 ± 11.88 versus 153.60 ± 14.26 mmHg; p=0.000) and IDWG (2.21 ± 0.93 versus 1.87 ± 0.92 kg; p=0.018) in hypertensive patients, whereas normotensive patients showed only significant decrease in IDWG (2.21 ± 0.72 versus 2.06 ± 0.65, p=0,004). Sodium profiling in hypotensive patients significantly increased IDWG (2.45 vs. 2.74, p= 0,006), and had no impact on blood pressure. Thirst score was significantly lower in normotensive patients with individualized-sodium HD and showed no change in the other two groups. During the second phase, hypotension occurred in only 1 case and muscle cramps in 10 normotensive patients. CONCLUSION: Individualized sodium resulted in clinical benefits in normotensive and hypertensive patients.
Time-Dependent Expression Profiles of microRNAs and mRNAs in Rat Milk Whey

Functional RNAs, such as microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA, are present in milk, but their roles are unknown. To clarify the roles of milk RNAs, further studies using experimental animals such as rats are needed. However, it is unclear whether rat milk also contains functional RNAs and what their time dependent expression profiles are. Thus, we prepared total RNA from whey isolated from rat milk collected on days 2, 9, and 16 postpartum and analyzed using microarrays and quantitative PCR. The concentration of RNA in colostrum whey (day 2) was markedly higher than that in mature milk whey (days 9 and 16). Microarray analysis detected 161 miRNAs and 10,948 mRNA transcripts. Most of the miRNAs and mRNA transcripts were common to all tested milks. Finally, we selected some immune- and development-related miRNAs and mRNAs, and analysed them by quantitative PCR (in equal sample volumes) to determine their time-dependent changes in expression in detail. Some were significantly more highly expressed in colostrum whey than in mature milk whey, but some were expressed equally. And mRNA expression levels of some cytokines and hormones did not reflect the protein levels. It is still unknown whether RNAs in milk play biological roles in neonates. However, our data will help guide future in vivo studies using experimental animals such as rats.
Biodiesel: the use of vegetable oils and their derivatives as alternative diesel fuels.

Vegetable oils and their derivatives (especially methyl esters), commonly referred to as {open_quotes}biodiesel{close_quotes}, are prominent candidates as alternative diesel fuels. They have advanced from being purely experimental fuels to initial stages of commercialization. They are technically competitive with or offer technical advantages compared to conventional diesel fuel. Besides being a renewable resource, biodiesel reduces most emissions while engine performance and fuel economy are nearly identical compared to conventional fuels. Several problems, however, remain, which include economics, combustion, some emissions, lube oil contamination, and low-temperature properties. An overview on all the mentioned aspects of biodiesel will be presented.
Pyridoxine dependent epilepsy: a suggestive electroclinical pattern

AIMS To determine if there is an electroencephalographic pattern suggestive of pyridoxine dependent epilepsy that could be used to improve the chances of early diagnosis. METHODS A retrospective study was made of all the clinical records and electroencephalograms of neonates identified with pyridoxine dependent seizures between 1983 and 1994, at this hospital. Neonates whose seizures began after more than 28 days of life were excluded; in all, five patients from four families were studied. Follow up ranged from 2 to 10 years. RESULTS A history of miscarriage and neonatal death during an epileptic seizure had occurred in the siblings of two families. One mother reported rhythmic movements of her child during the last month of pregnancy. At birth, all babies were hypotonic; four had decreased visual alertness. All babies were agitated, irritable, jittery, hyperalert, and exhibited sleeplessness and a startle reaction to touch and sound. Age of onset of seizures varied from 30 minutes to 3 days. Seizures of various types were recorded in all cases on EEG tracings, including spasms, myoclonic seizures, partial clonic, and secondary generalised seizures. Burst–suppression patterns occurred in three cases, and a combination of continuous and discontinuous patterns in two others. Bilateral high voltage delta slow wave activity was observed in four patients. Psychomotor delay was severe in three patients, moderate in one, and mild in one. CONCLUSIONS There is an identifiable EEG pattern that is highly suggestive of pyridoxine dependent epilepsy. Pyridoxine dependent epilepsy is probably underdiagnosed.
Super Pixel Clustering via Kernel Density Estimation

Super pixels, which are a result of over-segmentation provide a reasonable compromise between working at pixel level versus with few optimally segmented regions. One fundamental challenge is that of defining the search space for merging. A naive approach of performing iterative clustering on the local neighborhood would be prone to under segmentation. In this paper, we develop a framework for generating non-compact super pixels by performing clustering on compact super pixels. We define the optimal search space by generating both over-segmented and under-segmented clustering of compact super pixels. Using this spatial information of the under-segmented scale, we look to improve the over-segmented scale. Our work is based on performing Kernel Density Estimation in 1D and further refining it using angular quantization. In all we propose three angular quantization formulations to generate the three scales of segmentation. Our results and comparison with the state-of-the-art super pixel algorithms show that merging a large number of super pixels with our algorithm is able to provide better results than using the underlying super pixel algorithm to obtain a smaller number of super pixels.
Improvement in household stoves and risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Xuanwei, China: retrospective cohort study

Abstract Objective To test whether improvement in household coal stoves affected the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Xuanwei County, China. Design Retrospective cohort study (follow-up 1976-92) comparing incidence of COPD between groups with and without chimneys. Participants 20 453 people born into homes with unvented coal stoves;16 606 (81.2%) subsequently changed to stoves with chimneys. Intervention Installation of a chimney in households in which unvented stoves had been used previously. Results Installation of a chimney was associated with distinct reduction in the incidence of COPD. Compared with people who did not have chimneys, the Cox-modelled risk ratio (relative risk) was 0.58 (95% confidence interval 0.49 to 0.70, P < 0.001) in men and 0.75 (0.62 to 0.92, P = 0.005) in women. Modelled risk ratios were robust to different Cox model specifications. Relative risks decreased with time since stove improvement. In both sexes, the reduction in risk became unequivocal about 10 years after stove improvement. Conclusions In Xuanwei, incidence of COPD decreased markedly after household coal stoves were improved.
First Administration of the Fc-Attenuated Anti-β Amyloid Antibody GSK933776 to Patients with Mild Alzheimer’s Disease: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study

Objective To assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of the Fc-inactivated anti-β amyloid (Aβ) monoclonal antibody (mAb) GSK933776 in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods This was a two-part, single blind, placebo-controlled, first-time-in-human (FTIH) study of single (n = 18) and repeat dose (n = 32) intravenous GSK933776 0.001–6 mg/kg (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00459550). Additional safety data from an open-label, uncontrolled, single dose study of intravenous GSK933776 1–6 mg/kg (n = 18) are included (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01424436). Results There were no cases of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities-edema (ARIA-E) or –hemorrhage (ARIA-H) after GSK933776 administration in both studies. Three patients across the two studies developed anti-GSK933776 antibodies. Plasma GSK933776 half-life (t1/2) was 10–15 days after repeat dosing. After each of three administrations of GSK933776, plasma levels of total Aβ42 and Aβ increased whereas plasma levels of free Aβ decreased dose dependently; no changes were observed for placebo. For total Aβ42 the peak:trough ratio was ≤2 at doses ≥3 mg/kg; for total Aβ the ratio was ≤2 at 6 mg/kg. CSF concentrations of Aβ showed increases from baseline to week 12 for Aβ X–38 (week 12:baseline ratio: 1.65; 95%CI: 1.38, 1.93) and Aβ X–42 (week 12:baseline ratio: 1.18; 95%CI: 1.06, 1.30) for values pooled across doses. Conclusion In this FTIH study the Fc-inactivated anti-Aβ mAb GSK933776 engaged its target in plasma and CSF without causing brain ARIA-E/H in patients with mild AD or MCI. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00459550
Tangential migration of ameboid microglia in the developing quail retina: Mechanism of migration and migratory behavior

Long distance migration of microglial precursors within the central nervous system is essential for microglial colonization of the nervous parenchyma. We studied morphological features of ameboid microglial cells migrating tangentially in the developing quail retina to shed light on the mechanism of migration and migratory behavior of microglial precursors. Many microglial precursors remained attached on retinal sheets containing the inner limiting membrane covered by a carpet of Müller cell endfeet. This demonstrates that most ameboid microglial cells migrate tangentially on Müller cell endfeet. Many of these cells showed a central‐to‐peripheral polarized morphology, with extensive lamellipodia spreading through grooves flanked by Müller cell radial processes, to which they were frequently anchored. Low protuberances from the vitreal face of microglial precursors were firmly attached to the subjacent basal lamina, which was accessible through gaps in the carpet of Müller cell endfeet. These results suggest a mechanism of migration involving polarized extension of lamellipodia at the leading edge of the cell, strong cell‐to‐substrate attachment, translocation of the cell body forward, and retraction of the rear of the cell. Other ameboid cells were multipolar, with lamellipodial projections radiating in all directions from the cell body, suggesting that microglial precursors explore the surrounding environment to orient their movement. Central‐to‐peripheral migration of microglial precursors in the retina does not follow a straight path; instead, these cells perform forward, backward, and sideways movements, as suggested by the occurrence of (a) V‐shaped bipolar ameboid cells with their vertex pointing toward either the center or the periphery of the retina, and (b) threadlike processes projecting from either the periphery‐facing edge or the center‐facing edge of ameboid microglial cells. GLIA 22:31–52, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Repair of Cranial Bone Defects Using rhBMP2 and Submicron Particle of Biphasic Calcium Phosphate Ceramics with Through-Hole

Recently a submicron particle of biphasic calcium phosphate ceramic (BCP) with through-hole (donut-shaped BCP (d-BCP)) was developed for improving the osteoconductivity. This study was performed to examine the usefulness of d-BCP for the delivery of osteoinductive rhBMP2 and the effectiveness on cranial bone regeneration. The d-BCP was soaked in rhBMP2 solution and then freeze-dried. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman spectroscopy analyses confirmed that rhBMP2 was well delivered onto the d-BCP surface and the through-hole. The bioactivity of the rhBMP2/d-BCP composite was validated in MC3T3-E1 cells as an in vitro model and in critical-sized cranial defects in C57BL/6 mice. When freeze-dried d-BCPs with rhBMP2 were placed in transwell inserts and suspended above MC3T3-E1, alkaline phosphatase activity and osteoblast-specific gene expression were increased compared to non-rhBMP2-containing d-BCPs. For evaluating in vivo effectiveness, freeze-dried d-BCPs with or without rhBMP2 were implanted into critical-sized cranial defects. Microcomputed tomography and histologic analysis showed that rhBMP2-containing d-BCPs significantly enhanced cranial bone regeneration compared to non-rhBMP2-containing control. These results suggest that a combination of d-BCP and rhBMP2 can accelerate bone regeneration, and this could be used to develop therapeutic strategies in hard tissue healing.