Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Task Linear Programming Discriminant Analysis for the Identification of Progressive MCI Individuals

Accurately identifying mild cognitive impairment (MCI) individuals who will progress to Alzheimer's disease (AD) is very important for making early interventions. Many classification methods focus on integrating multiple imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). However, the main challenge for MCI classification using multiple imaging modalities is the existence of a lot of missing data in many subjects. For example, in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study, almost half of the subjects do not have PET images. In this paper, we propose a new and flexible binary classification method, namely Multi-task Linear Programming Discriminant (MLPD) analysis, for the incomplete multi-source feature learning. Specifically, we decompose the classification problem into different classification tasks, i.e., one for each combination of available data sources. To solve all different classification tasks jointly, our proposed MLPD method links them together by constraining them to achieve the similar estimated mean difference between the two classes (under classification) for those shared features. Compared with the state-of-the-art incomplete Multi-Source Feature (iMSF) learning method, instead of constraining different classification tasks to choose a common feature subset for those shared features, MLPD can flexibly and adaptively choose different feature subsets for different classification tasks. Furthermore, our proposed MLPD method can be efficiently implemented by linear programming. To validate our MLPD method, we perform experiments on the ADNI baseline dataset with the incomplete MRI and PET images from 167 progressive MCI (pMCI) subjects and 226 stable MCI (sMCI) subjects. We further compared our method with the iMSF method (using incomplete MRI and PET images) and also the single-task classification method (using only MRI or only subjects with both MRI and PET images). Experimental results show very promising performance of our proposed MLPD method.
Eye blink as an input modality for a responsive adaptable video system

We propose a unique system that allows real-time adaption of video settings to a viewer's physical state. A custom made program toggles between videos according to the average eye blink frequency of each viewer. The physical data is harnessed with J! NS MEME smart glasses that utilize electrooculography (EOG). To the best of our belief, this is the first adaptable multimedia system that responds in real time to physical data and alters technical settings of video contents.
Active Learning for Building a Corpus of Questions for Parsing

This paper describes how we built a dependency Treebank for questions. The questions for the Treebank were drawn from questions from the TREC 10 QA task and from Yahoo! Answers. Among the uses for the corpus is to train a dependency parser achieving good accuracy on parsing questions without hurting its overall accuracy. We also explore active learning techniques to determine the suitable size for a corpus of questions in order to achieve adequate accuracy while minimizing the annotation efforts.
THE IMPACT OF INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE IN A PARTICIPATIVE BUDGET SETTING: A RESEARCH NOTE

Most of the studies that examine the variable for motivation only concentrate on either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. However, this study highlights the importance of both types of motivation in increasing job performance. Specifically, the objective of this paper is to examine the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on job performance in a participative budget setting. Based on the survey questionnaire of 108 managers, data are analysed using Partial Least Squares. The results show that budget participation increases intrinsic motivation, and that intrinsic motivation leads to the extrinsic motivation, which, in turn, increases job performance.
Inertial-Kinect Fusion for Outdoor 3D Navigation

The lightweight and low-cost 3D sensing device, such as Microsoft Kinect, has gained much attention in computer vision and robotics community. Although quite promising and successful for indoor applications, its outdoor usage has been signicantly hampered by its short detection range (around 4 meters) coupled with ambient infrared interference. This paper addresses the theoretical and practical development of an Inertial-Kinect fused SLAM framework that can handle the 3D to 2D degeneration in Kinect sensing, called a depth dropout problem. The vision node is designed to provide either full 6DOF or partial 5DOF vehicle pose measurements depending on the depth availability, whilst the low-cost inertial system designed in house (less than $40AUD) enables continuous metric mapping and navigation. Indoor and outdoor experiment results are provided, demonstrating the robustness of the proposed approach in a challenging environmental conditions.
Biasing the organism for novelty: A pervasive property of the attention system

Although the functional and anatomical independences between the orienting and the executive attention networks have been well established, surprisingly little is known about the potential neural interaction between them. Recent studies point out that spatial inhibition of return (IOR), a mechanism associated with the orienting network, and nonspatial inhibition of return, a mechanism associated with the executive network, might bias the organism for novel locations and objects, respectively. By orthogonally combining the spatial and the nonspatial IOR paradigms in this fMRI study, we demonstrate that the orienting and the executive networks interact and compensate each other in biasing the attention system for novelty. Behaviorally, participants responded slower to the target at the old location only when the color of the target was novel, and participants responded slower to the old color representation only when the target appeared at a novel spatial location. Neurally, the orienting network was involved in slowing down responses to the old location only when the nonspatial IOR mechanism in the executive network was not operative (i.e., when the color of the target was novel); the prefrontal executive network was involved in slowing down responses to the old color representation only when the spatial IOR mechanism in the orienting network was not functioning (i.e., when the target appeared at a novel location). Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Inhibitory effect of the reversal agents V-104, GF120918 and Pluronic L61 on MDR1 Pgp-, MRP1- and MRP2-mediated transport

The human multidrug transporter MDR1 P-glycoprotein and the multidrug resistance proteins MRP1 and MRP2 transport a range of cytotoxic drugs, resulting in multidrug resistance in tumour cells. To overcome this form of drug resistance in patients, several inhibitors (reversal agents) of these transporters have been isolated. Using polarized cell lines stably expressing human MDR1, MRP1 or MRP2 cDNA, and 2008 ovarian carcinoma cells stably expressing MRP1 cDNA, we have investigated in this study the specificity of the reversal agents V-104 (a pipecolinate derivative), GF120918 (an acridone carboxamide derivative also known as GG918), and Pluronic L61 (a (poly)oxypropethylene and (poly)oxypropylene block copolymer). Transport experiments with cytotoxic drugs with polarized cell lines indicate that all three compounds efficiently inhibit MDR1 Pgp. Furthermore, V-104 partially inhibits daunorubicin transport by MRP1 but not vinblastine transport by MRP2. V-104 reverses etoposide resistance of 2008/MRP1 cells, whereas GF120918 does not reverse resistance due to MRP1. V-104 partially inhibits the export of the organic anion dinitrophenyl S -glutathione by MDCKII-MRP1 but not by MDCKII-MRP2 cells. Unexpectedly, export of the organic anion calcein by MDCKII-MRP1 and MDCKII-MRP2 cells is stimulated by Pluronic L61, probably because it relieves the block on entry of calcein AM into the cell by endogenous MDR1 Pgp. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Dietary flavan-3-ols intake and metabolic syndrome risk in Korean adults

Flavan-3-ols are a subclass of flavonoids found in a variety of foods including teas. The effects of flavan-3-ols on the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) have been investigated, generally focusing on tea catechins or individual flavan-3-ol rich foods, but there is little information on dietary flavan-3-ols intake and risk of MetS in population-based studies. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the association between dietary flavan-3-ols intake and the risk of MetS in Korean adults. Subjects comprised 1,827 men and 2,918 women aged 20-69 years whose data was included in the 2008 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This survey was conducted between January 2008 and December 2008. Total flavan-3-ols intakes were calculated from 24-hour dietary recalls using a flavonoids database. Thirty percent of the male subjects and 24% of the female subjects were reported as having MetS. In the female subjects, flavan3-ols intake was inversely associated with the risk of MetS after adjusting for potential confounders (5th vs. 1st quintile, OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.45-0.91, P for trend = 0.384). The main food source of flavan-3-ols was green tea followed by apples and grapes. Among MetS components, flavan3-ols intake was inversely associated with the risk of high blood pressure after adjusting for potential confounders (5th vs. 1st quintile, OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.45-0.90, P for trend = 0.005). No significant association between flavan-3-ols intake and risk of MetS was found in the male subjects. After stratified analysis by obesity (BMI ≥ 25 or BMI < 25), however, flavan3-ols intake was inversely related to the risk of hypertension in non-obese men. These results suggest that dietary flavan-3-ols intake may have beneficial effects on MetS risk by reducing the risk of hypertension. The effects of flavan-3-ols intake dependent on obesity need further investigation.
A note on linear surface wave‐current interaction over slowly varying topography

A mild slope wave equation is derived which governs the propagation of linear surface waves in the presence of large ambient currents. The equation is shown to differ from two previously derived models, and arguments for the validity of the new version in comparison to previous versions are presented. A linearized evolution equation and parabolic equation approximation are constructed in order to show the correspondence between the present corrected version and a previously derived version of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.
Representação social do cuidado e do cuidador familiar do idoso

This article addresses the social representation of care recipients and of family care providers for the elderly. It is a qualitative study that evokes the terms care recipient and care provider in interviews in a residence for fifteen elderly people with functional health dependencies, along with their family care providers. The results indicate, as a central core of the social representations, feelings of love, care, patience and health. The social meaning of care recipient, in conflict with the experience of suffering of the care providers, assumes a function that creates a physical and emotional burden for these care providers. The gender inequality present among these care providers also implies a need to reflect on care providers as a public policy issue.
Unethical Behaviours Preservice Teachers Encounter on Social Networks.

The development of web 2.0 technology has resulted in an increase in internet sharing. The scope of this study is social networking, which is one of the web 2.0 tools most heavily used by internet users. In this paper, the unethical behaviours that preservice teachers encounter on social networks and the ways to deal with these problems are examined. A form consisting of open ended questions was given to preservice teachers. The form was developed by researchers who have studied the subject. By the end of the study, it was understood that 89% of the preservice teachers encountered inappropriate behaviours such as profanity, insults, sexually explicit photograph sharing, threats, unwanted video ads (advertisements) and verbal harassment. The results showed that teachers try to solve these issues by strengthening their privacy settings, reporting or blocking harassers, and that they also tend to share personal information only with friends and family. The preservice teachers stated that the most important unethical behaviours they came across on social networks were explicit content and personal information sharing. Teachers and preservice teachers ought to be informed about equality, respect to other opinions, human rights, personal privacy, media ethics and universal moralities with regard to online and social media content. Thus, it will be possible for them to inspire their students regarding the above mentioned values and contribute to the solution of the problems. Key words: Social networks, preservice teachers, unethical behaviour.
Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis after the dexamethasone/corticotrophin releasing factor test.

A defective hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis response to inflammatory cytokines may contribute to the pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The purpose of this study was to define further the mechanisms responsible for this dysregulation. Six normal individuals and seven patients with active RA were recruited and given an oral dose of dexamethasone at 2300 h the evening before the study. The next day, an i.v. catheter was fitted at 1300 h. Blood samples were collected between 1400 h and 1700 h before and after infusion (at 1500 h) of corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF). Plasma was separated and stored at-20 degrees C before radioimmunoassay for ACTH, cortisol and dihydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Before the CRF challenge, ACTH and cortisol were significantly increased and DHEA significantly decreased in the patients with RA compared with the controls. Neither ACTH nor DHEA was significantly altered after CRF infusion. Control individuals did not mount a cortisol response to infusion of CRF. Similarly, four of the patients with RA did not respond to CRF. However, in contrast to the controls, three of the patients mounted an immediate and sustained cortisol response after receiving CRF. These data reveal that three of the seven patients with RA were able to escape from dexamethasone suppression and mount a cortisol response to CRF challenge. This suggests that there may be a subpopulation of patients with RA who have impaired glucocorticoid feedback. The implications of this alteration for disease progression remain to be determined.
Implementation of IPv4/IPv6 BDMS Translation Mechanism

There is a strong need for a new Internet Protocol to be used in the future networks rather than the existing Internet protocol (IPv4). So, IPv6 is coming with new features and improvements for the devices that will be connected to the network. Therefore, some transition mechanisms are required during the time of migration from IPv4 to IPv6 networks. Furthermore, the BDMS has been proposed and designed as an IPv4/IPv6 translation mechanism. In this paper, we implement the BDMS in order to study its behavior when different buffer sizes are used. The OMNeT++ simulator is used to evaluate the performance of BDMS using different performance evaluation metrics such as RTT, EED, and Total Queuing Delay for each communication session between IPv4 and IPv6 hosts. Thus,the simulation results in this paper show that, when the translator buffer size increases, the RTT and EED for this communication session increase as well.
Full-Scale Measurements of Containership Sinkage, Trim and Roll

We report on a recent project to accurately measure full scale sinkage, trim and roll of 16 deep-draft containerships entering or leaving a major container port. Measurements were performed using high-accuracy GPS receivers and a fixed base station. Results were used to calculate the sinkage of the bow, stern and bilge corners, as compared to the static condition. Overall dynamic draft increase and the governing factors affecting underkeel clearance of containerships are discussed.
Compressive sensing based channel estimation for massive MIMO systems with planar arrays

In this paper, we consider the downlink training in a massive MIMO system, where the base station (BS) is equipped with a large-scale planar array and the user equipment (UE) has a single antenna. We propose a sparsity-aware channel estimation technique to estimate the 2D angular information of the dominant channel paths, which can be subsequently used for downlink beamforming in the data transmission mode. Capitalizing on compressive sensing (CS), the idea of the proposed method is to refine the measurement matrix (beam directions) during the CSI acquisition process by exploiting the knowledge of the visibility region of a planar array. The estimation process is performed by means of a modified orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm that takes such a refinement into account. Computer simulation results evaluate the performance of the proposed method for very short training sequences.
Proliferation of the Superficial Epithelium of Ovaries in Senile Female Rats Following Oral Administration of Conjugated Equine Estrogens

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of different concentrations of estrogen on the ovarian superficial epithelium in senile female rats. Design: Fifty female rats at 15 months of age and with irregular estrous cycles were selected and randomly divided into five experimental groups containing equal numbers of animals in each: GPROP, control group receiving vehicle only; GE0.05mg, group receiving conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) at a dose of 50 μg/kg; GE0.5mg, group receiving CEE at 500 μg/kg; GE1mg, group receiving CEE at 1 mg/kg; and GE2mg, receiving CEE at 2 mg/kg. The length of treatment was 21 days. After this period, the animals were anesthetized and the ovaries were fixed in 10% formaldehyde and processed for routine histology. Histomorphology was analyzed by light microscopy, and histomorphometrics were evaluated using the Imagelab program. RESULTS In the GPROP and GE0.05mg groups, the superficial epithelium of the ovary had a simple cuboidal shape, and as the estrogen dose increased, the epithelium thickened, with pseudo-stratified or stratified epithelium appearing in the GE2mg group. The animals in the group given the highest estrogen dose (GE2mg) showed the thickest ovarian epithelium and the largest perimeter and surface area of the surface ovarian epithelium (P < 0.01). However, the difference in epithelium thickness between the GE0.5mg and GE1mg groups was only slight. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that CEE at a dose of 2 mg/kg may induce marked proliferation of rat ovarian epithelium.
Paying for Others' Protection: Causal Evidence on Wages in a Two-Tier System

In a segmented labor market, theory predicts that employment protection has an asymmetric impact on entry and incumbent wages. We explore a reform that increased the protection of open-ended contracts for a well-defined subset of firms, while leaving it unchanged for other firms. The causal evidence points to a reduction in wages for new open-ended and fixed-term contracts and no impact for more tenured workers. The reductions estimated for entrants oscillate between -0.9 and -0.5 p.p., covering a significant part of the expected increase in firing costs. Firms with larger shares of fixed-term contracts shifted the burden to these workers.
Neurons derived from reprogrammed fibroblasts functionally integrate into the fetal brain and improve symptoms of rats with Parkinson's disease

The long-term goal of nuclear transfer or alternative reprogramming approaches is to create patient-specific donor cells for transplantation therapy, avoiding immunorejection, a major complication in current transplantation medicine. It was recently shown that the four transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc induce pluripotency in mouse fibroblasts. However, the therapeutic potential of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for neural cell replacement strategies remained unexplored. Here, we show that iPS cells can be efficiently differentiated into neural precursor cells, giving rise to neuronal and glial cell types in culture. Upon transplantation into the fetal mouse brain, the cells migrate into various brain regions and differentiate into glia and neurons, including glutamatergic, GABAergic, and catecholaminergic subtypes. Electrophysiological recordings and morphological analysis demonstrated that the grafted neurons had mature neuronal activity and were functionally integrated in the host brain. Furthermore, iPS cells were induced to differentiate into dopamine neurons of midbrain character and were able to improve behavior in a rat model of Parkinson's disease upon transplantation into the adult brain. We minimized the risk of tumor formation from the grafted cells by separating contaminating pluripotent cells and committed neural cells using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Our results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of directly reprogrammed fibroblasts for neuronal cell replacement in the animal model.
Acute Superoxide Radical Scavenging Reduces Blood Pressure but Does Not Influence Kidney Function in Hypertensive Rats with Postischemic Kidney Injury

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in hypertensive surroundings. We investigated superoxide radical molecules influence on systemic haemodynamic and kidney function in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) with induced postischemic AKI. Experiment was performed in anesthetized adult male SHR. The right kidney was removed, and left renal artery was subjected to ischemia by clamping for 40 minutes. The treated group received synthetic superoxide dismutase mimetic TEMPOL in the femoral vein 5 minutes before, during, and 175 minutes after the period of reperfusion, while the control AKI group received the vehicle via the same route. All parameters were measured 24 h after renal reperfusion. TEMPOL treatment significantly decreased mean arterial pressure and total peripheral resistance (P < 0.05) compared to AKI control. It also increased cardiac output and catalase activity (P < 0.05). Lipid peroxidation and renal vascular resistance were decreased in TEMPOL (P < 0.05). Plasma creatinine and kidney morphological parameters were unchanged among TEMPOL treated and control groups. Our study shows that superoxide radicals participate in haemodynamic control, but acute superoxide scavenging is ineffective in glomerular and tubular improvement, probably due to hypertension-induced strong endothelial dysfunction which neutralizes beneficial effects of O2 − scavenging.
Partitioning 3D Surface Meshes Using Watershed Segmentation

This paper describes a method for partitioning 3D surface meshes into useful segments. The proposed method generalizes morphological watersheds, an image segmentation technique, to 3D surfaces. This surface segmentation uses the total curvature of the surface as an indication of region boundaries. The surface is segmented into patches, where each patch has a relatively consistent curvature throughout, and is bounded by areas of higher, or drastically different, curvature. This algorithm has applications for a variety of important problems in visualization and geometrical modeling including 3D feature extraction, mesh reduction, texture mapping 3D surfaces, and computer aided design.