Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SNR estimation in generalized fading channels and its application to turbo decoding

We propose an online SNR estimation scheme for generalized fading channels. We derive the SNR estimate based on a statistical ratio of observables over a block of data, when the channel undergoes Nakagami fading. An online SNR estimator for AWGN channels has been derived by Summers and Wilson (see IEEE Trans. Commun., vol.46, no.4, p.421-23, 1998). Our SNR estimation scheme in this paper is for a general Nakagami fading channel, where the SNR estimates in Rayleigh fading and AWGN can be obtained as special cases corresponding to the Nakagami parameter m=1 and m=/spl infin/, respectively. As an example, we use our SNR estimate in the iterative decoding of turbo codes on both i.i. d and correlated Rayleigh fading channels. We show that the turbo decoder performance on Rayleigh fading channels using our SNR estimate is close to the performance using perfect knowledge of the fade amplitudes and the SNR.
The behavioural process underlying augmentative and alternative communication usage in direct support staff

ABSTRACT Background Research findings suggest that direct support staff use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) inconsistently. Various staff-related factors have been identified, and researchers agree that these factors somehow interrelate. Therefore, we approached AAC use as a behavioural process and examined the synergy between staff-related factors. Method Fifteen direct support staff and 10 speech-language/occupational therapists who work with adults who have an intellectual disability and use AAC were individually interviewed. Transcripts were studied using thematic analysis. Results Three main themes were discerned: consistent versus inconsistent AAC usage in direct support staff; time as a real and virtual barrier; friction in the peer–expert relationship. Conclusions Direct support staff primarily used AAC when there was an acute need for communication support. In contrast, both direct support staff and speech-language therapists felt that direct support staff should consistently provide augmented input. This discrepancy was driven by team dynamics as well as actual and perceived lack of time.
Associations between apolipoprotein CIII concentrations and microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetes

Microalbuminuria (MAU) is a strong predictor of diabetic nephropathy (DN), which is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Dyslipidemia exists in the majority of patients with DM and contributes to micro- and macrovascular complications associated with DM. Apolipoprotein CIII (apoCIII) is an inhibitor of the activity of lipoprotein lipase, which metabolizes triglyceride (TG) in very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and facilitates its clearance from plasma. The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between apoCIII and MAU and the effects of atorvastatin in type 2 diabetes. In total, 120 subjects were divided into type 2 diabetes and type 2 DN groups, while 60 healthy subjects were selected as controls. The patients with DN were administered 20 mg atorvastatin daily for 16 weeks. Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and levels of HbA1c, FBG, TG, VLDL-cholesterol (VLDL-C), apoCIII and MAU were markedly elevated in the type 2 diabetes and type 2 DN groups compared with those in the control group (P<0.01), while high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were decreased significantly (P<0.01). All patients with type 2 DN showed significantly elevated blood pressure, apoCIII levels, MAU, course of the disease and rate of stroke and retinopathy compared with the patients with type 2 diabetes (P<0.01). MAU was significantly positively correlated with the course of the disease, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, BMI and HbA1c, FBG, TG, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, VLDL-C and apoCIII levels (P<0.05), whereas negatively correlated with HDL-C levels (r=−0.194, P=0.020). Logistic regression analysis showed that apoCIII levels were independently associated with MAU (odds ratio, 1.100; 95% confidence interval, 1.037–1.153; P<0.001). Atorvastatin improved the lipid profile and MAU in patients with type 2 DN (P<0.01). Therefore, the present study demonstrated that an independent positive correlation exists between the levels of apoCIII and MAU in patients with type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, atorvastatin may be used to improve the lipid profile and MAU in type 2 DN.
Eye-tracking situated language comprehension: Immediate actor gaze versus recent action events

Previous visual world eye-tracking studies have shown that when a sentential verb can refer (via tense information on the verb and on a following time adverb) to either a recent and a future action event performed by an actor, people inspected the target of the recent event more often than the (different) target of the future event. This ’recent event preference’ replicated even when the frequency of future events within the experiment greatly exceeded the frequency of recent events (e.g., 75% vs 25%). The recent event preference may arise because the past action is situation-immediate and thus more relevant at the particular point in time when the sentence is processed (at that point participants have seen the past action performed and will not see the future action until after the sentence). If the situation-immediate relevance of a cue is responsible for the recent event preference, then we should be able to “overwrite” the effect of the recent action with another situation-immediate cue. Accordingly, two current eye-tracking experiments pitted the recent event preference against a situation-immediate cue, the shift in the actor’s gaze to the target object. Given that interlocutors’ gaze has been shown to be a powerful cue in guiding listeners’ attention to objects in the visual context, we hypothesized that the actor’s gaze to the future target should rapidly guide a listener’s attention to it. Analyses revealed indeed that listeners’ visual attention was rapidly guided to the target by the actor’s gaze; crucially the gaze cue was particularly helpful in guiding looks to the future target. Importantly, however, we still replicated the overall preference to look at the recent target regardless of tense and gaze; and even for future gaze conditions, the preference was not immediately reversed, suggesting it is surprisingly robust in competition with a situation-specific future-biasing cue.
Combined Liquid and Solid-Phase Extraction Improves Quantification of Brain Estrogen Content

Accuracy in quantifying brain-derived steroid hormones (“neurosteroids”) has become increasingly important for understanding the modulation of neuronal activity, development, and physiology. Relative to other neuroactive compounds and classical neurotransmitters, steroids pose particular challenges with regard to isolation and analysis, owing to their lipid solubility. Consequently, anatomical studies of the distribution of neurosteroids have relied primarily on the expression of neurosteroid synthesis enzymes. To evaluate the distribution of synthesis enzymes vis-à-vis the actual steroids themselves, traditional steroid quantification assays, including radioimmunoassays, have successfully employed liquid extraction methods (e.g., ether, dichloromethane, or methanol) to isolate steroids from microdissected brain tissue. Due to their sensitivity, safety, and reliability, the use of commercial enzyme-immunoassays (EIA) for laboratory quantification of steroids in plasma and brain has become increasingly widespread. However, EIAs rely on enzymatic reactions in vitro, making them sensitive to interfering substances in brain tissue and thus producing unreliable results. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of a protocol for combined, two-stage liquid/solid-phase extraction (SPE) as compared to conventional liquid extraction alone for the isolation of estradiol (E2) from brain tissue. We employ the songbird model system, in which brain steroid production is pronounced and linked to neural mechanisms of learning and plasticity. This study outlines a combined liquid–SPE protocol that improves the performance of a commercial EIA for the quantification of brain E2 content. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our optimized method for evaluating the region specificity of brain E2 content, compare these results to established anatomy of the estrogen synthesis enzyme and estrogen receptor, and discuss the nature of potential EIA interfering substances.
Electrocortical reactivity to emotional faces in young children and associations with maternal and paternal depression.

BACKGROUND The late positive potential (LPP) is an event-related potential component that indexes selective attention toward motivationally salient information and is sensitive to emotional stimuli. Few studies have examined the LPP in children. Depression has been associated with reduced reactivity to negative and positive emotional stimuli, including reduced LPPs in response to emotional faces. The current study sought to identify the time course and scalp distribution of the LPP in response to emotional faces in young children and to determine whether reduced reactivity is observed among children at risk for depression. METHODS Electrocortical reactivity to emotional faces was examined in a large sample of young children and as a function of maternal and paternal depression. RESULTS In the overall sample, emotional faces were associated with increased positivities compared to neutral faces at occipital sites 200-600 ms after stimulus onset and at parietal sites 600-1,000 ms after stimulus onset. Children of mothers with a history of depressive disorders exhibited reduced differentiation in the early occipital LPP for emotional compared to neutral faces. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that children as young as 6 years exhibit LPPs to emotional faces, and patterns of electrocortical reactivity to emotional stimuli may be associated with vulnerability to depressive disorders.
Optimal Index Assignment for Multiple Description Scalar Quantization With Translated Lattice Codebooks

We design a K-description scalar quantizer, whose construction is based on a structure of translated scalar lattices and a lattice in K - 1 dimensional space. The use of translated lattices provides a performance advantage by exploiting a so-called staggering gain. The use of the K -1 dimensional lattice facilitates analytic insight into the performance and significantly speeds up the computation of the index assignment compared to state-of-the-art methods. Using a common decoding method, the proposed index assignment is proven to be optimal for the K-description case. It is shown that the optimal index assignment is not unique. This is illustrated for the two-description case, where a periodic index assignment is selected from possible optimal assignments and described in detail. The performance of the proposed quantizer accurately matches theoretic analysis over the full range of operational redundancies. Moreover, the quantizer outperforms the state-of-the-art MD scheme as the redundancy among the description increases.
Nonlinear effects in subthreshold virtual electrode polarization.

Introduction of the virtual electrode polarization (VEP) theory suggested solutions to several century-old puzzles of heart electrophysiology including explanation of the mechanisms of stimulation and defibrillation. Bidomain theory predicts that VEPs should exist at any stimulus strength. Although the presence of VEPs for strong suprathreshold pulses has been well documented, their existence at subthreshold strengths during diastole remains controversial. We studied cardiac membrane polarization produced by subthreshold stimuli in 1) rabbit ventricular muscle using high-resolution fluorescent imaging with the voltage-sensitive dye pyridinium 4-[2-[6-(dibutylamino)-2-naphthalenyl]-ethenyl]-1-(3-sulfopropyl)hydroxide (di-4-ANEPPS) and 2) an active bidomain model with Luo-Rudy ion channel kinetics. Both in vitro and in numero models show that the common dog-bone-shaped VEP is present at any stimulus strength during both systole and diastole. Diastolic subthreshold VEPs exhibited nonlinear properties that were expressed in time-dependent asymmetric reversal of membrane polarization with respect to stimulus polarity. The bidomain model reveals that this asymmetry is due to nonlinear properties of the inward rectifier potassium current. Our results suggest that active ion channel kinetics modulate the transmembrane polarization pattern that is predicted by the linear bidomain model of cardiac syncytium.
Indirect Network Effects and Adoption Externalities

Can indirect network effects lead to adoption externalities? If so, when? We show that in markets where consumption benefits arise from hardware/software systems, adoption externalities will occur when there are (i) increasing returns to scale in the production of software, (ii) free entry in software, and (iii) consumers have a preference for software variety. The private benefit of the marginal hardware purchaser is less than the social benefit since the marginal hardware purchaser does not internalize the welfare improving response of the software industry, particularly the increase in software variety, on inframarginal purchasers when the market for hardware expands.
The Effects of Lender-Borrower Communication on P2P Lending Outcomes

Lenders face great uncertainty because of the information asymmetry problem in peerto-peer (P2P) marketplaces. This paper studies an online feature on a P2P platform, which allows lenders to seek information directly from the borrower of a loan, and examines the impact of the direct lender-borrower communication on the funding outcomes and the loan performance. Our analysis results show that the number of lender comments is negatively associated with funding success. This implies that as a listing receives more comments from lenders, the chance of getting funded is lower. On the other hand, the number of borrower responses and response length are positively associated with funding success, although they cannot help reduce the final interest rate. The role of borrower response is even stronger for listings with poor credit grades. The loan performance (i.e., default ratio), however, cannot be predicted based on the amount of lender-borrower communication.
Empathy and Biased Testimonies in Cases Assimilation of of Alleged Rape

This article examines the relationship between rape empathy and evaluations of attacker culpability. Empathy was defined as a score on the Rape Empathy Scale (RES) and whether or not subjects had previous experience with a rape victim. Summaries of the testimonies from a rape trial were presented to subjects recruited through media advertisement in a midwestern community. Ratings of responsibility were made prior to and following each summary. Although RES score was not related to participants' attributions, personal knowledge of rape victims was predictive. All participants increased their attributions of responsibility after reviewing the complainant's testimony, the first direct examination in the case for the prosecution. The ratings of participants who were acquainted with a victim remained elevated across all judgments while the subjects unacquainted with a victim lowered their attributions. At the conclusion of the transcripts the victim-acquainted subjects were more likely to find the defendant guilty of forcible rape. These findings provide evidence for two types of empathic
How does the timing of implant placement to extraction affect outcome?

PURPOSE To systematically review the current literature on the clinical outcomes and incidence of complications associated with immediate implants (implants placed into extraction sockets at the same surgery that the tooth is removed) and early implants (implants placed following soft tissue healing). MATERIALS AND METHODS A MEDLINE search was conducted for English papers on immediate/early placement of implants based on a series of search terms. Prospective as well as retrospective studies (randomized/nonrandomized clinical trials, cohort studies, case control studies, and case reports) were considered, as long as the follow-up period was at least 1 year of loading and at least 8 patients and/or at least 10 implants had been examined. Screening and data abstraction were performed independently by 3 reviewers. The types of complications assessed were implant loss; marginal bone loss; soft tissue complications, including peri-implantitis; and esthetics. RESULTS The initial search provided 351 abstracts, of which 146 were selected for full-text analysis. Finally, 17 prospective and 17 retrospective studies were identified, with observation times generally between 1 and 2 years for the prospective studies and around 5 years for the retrospective studies. The heterogeneity of the studies (including postextraction defect characteristics, surgical technique with or without membrane and/or bone substitute, implant location in socket, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and prosthetic rehabilitation), however, rendered a meta-analysis impossible. Most papers contained only data on implant loss and did not provide useful information on failing implants or on hard and soft tissue changes. In general, the implant loss remained below 5% for both immediate and early placed implants (range, 0% to 40% for immediate implants and 0% to 9% for early placed implants), with a tendency toward higher losses when implants were also immediately loaded. CONCLUSION Because of the lack of long-term data, questions regarding whether peri-implant health, prosthesis stability, degree of bone loss, and esthetic outcome of immediate or early placed implants are comparable with implants placed in healed sites remain unanswered.
Comorbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Related to disease severity?

Background and objective Several diseases commonly co-exist with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), especially in elderly patients. This study aimed to investigate whether there is an association between COPD severity and the frequency of comorbidities in stable COPD patients. Patients and methods In this multicenter, cross-sectional study, patients with spirometric diagnosis of COPD attended to by internal medicine departments throughout Spain were consecutively recruited by 225 internal medicine specialists. The severity of airflow obstruction was graded using the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and data on demographics, smoking history, comorbidities, and dyspnea were collected. The Charlson comorbidity score was calculated. Results Eight hundred and sixty-six patients were analyzed: male 93%, mean age 69.8 (standard deviation [SD] 9.7) years and forced vital capacity in 1 second 42.1 (SD 17.7)%. Even, the mean (SD) Charlson score was 2.2 (2.2) for stage I, 2.3 (1.5) for stage II, 2.5 (1.6) for stage III, and 2.7 (1.8) for stage IV (P=0.013 between stage I and IV groups), independent predictors of Charlson score in the multivariate analysis were age, smoking history (pack-years), the hemoglobin level, and dyspnea, but not GOLD stage. Conclusion COPD patients attended to in internal medicine departments show high scores of comorbidity. However, GOLD stage was not an independent predictor of comorbidity.
MU-Sync: a time synchronization protocol for underwater mobile networks

Although there are numerous time synchronization algorithms recently proposed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks, none of these could be directly applied to underwater acoustic sensor networks. This is because they typically assume that the propagation delay is negligible, which is not the case in underwater. Furthermore, the sensor nodes in underwater tend to have some degree of mobility due to wind or ocean current, which complicates the problem even more by introducing time-varying delay. In this paper, we propose a cluster-based synchronization algorithm for underwater acoustic mobile networks, called "MU-Sync". Our design avoids frequent re-synchronization by estimating both the clock skew and offset. As underwater mobile networks experience both time-varying and long propagation delay, previous works that estimate the clock skew using a single least square error linear regression tend to be inaccurate. In the MU-Sync, the clock skew is estimated by performing the linear regression twice over a set of local time information gathered through message exchanges. The first linear regression enables the cluster head to offset the effect of long and varying propagation delay; the second regression in turn obtains the estimated skew and offset. With the help of MAC-level time stamping, we can further reduce the nondeterministic errors that are commonly encountered by those synchronization algorithms that rely on message exchanges.
Greater Genetic Diversity in Spatially Restricted Coral Reef Fishes Suggests Secondary Contact among Differentiated Lineages

The maintenance of genetic diversity is a central goal of conservation. It is the raw material for evolutionary change and if lost, can accelerate extinction of species. According to theory, total genetic diversity should be less in species with restricted ranges and in populations on the margins of distributional ranges, making such species or populations more vulnerable to environmental perturbations. Using mtDNA and nuclear Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) data we investigated how the genetic diversity and structure of three con-generic species pairs of coral reef fishes (Pomacentridae) was related to species' range size and position of populations within these ranges. Estimates of genetic structure did not differ significantly among species, but mtDNA and nucDNA genetic diversities were up to 10 times greater in spatially restricted species compared to their widespread congeners. In two of the three species pairs, the distribution of genetic variation indicated secondary contact among differentiated lineages in the spatially restricted species. In contrast, the widespread species displayed a typical signature of population expansion suggesting recent genetic bottlenecks, possibly associated with the (re) colonization of the Great Barrier Reef. These results indicate that historical processes, involving hybridization and founder effects, possibly associated with Pleistocene sea level fluctuations, have differentially influenced the widespread and spatially restricted coral reef damselfish species studied here.
Dyadic empathy and romantic attachment: Explaining psychological and physical intimate partner violence in heterosexual couples

The present paper included three studies aimed at adapting the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980), a measure of general cognitive and emotional empathy, in order to assess empathy expressed within a romantic relationship. The factorial structure of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Couples was examined. Results supported the use of the two-factor measure (dyadic perspective taking and dyadic empathic concern) in three independent samples (individuals in heterosexual relationships, individuals in same-sex relationships, and partners of heterosexual couples). The IRIC also demonstrated good convergent, discriminant, concurrent, predictive, and incremental validity, as well as adequate internal consistency and stability over 18 months.