Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening of COPD patients for abdominal aortic aneurysm

Purpose Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in “men aged over 65 years who have ever smoked” is a recommended policy. To reduce the number of screenings, it may be of value to define subgroups with a higher prevalence of AAA. Since chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and AAA are associated with several common risk factors, this study investigates the prevalence of AAA in COPD patients. Patients and methods Patients with COPD were identified via the hospital information system. Inclusion criteria were: COPD stage I–IV, ability to give full consent, and age >18 years; exclusion criteria were: patient too obese for an ultrasound check, previously diagnosed AAA, prior surgery for AAA, or ethical grounds such as concomitant advanced malignant or end-stage disease. The primary endpoint of the study was an aortic diameter measured by ultrasound of ≥30 mm. Defined secondary endpoints were evaluated on the basis of medical records and interviews. Results Of the 1,180 identified COPD patients, 589 were included in this prospective study. In 22 patients (3.70%), the aortic diameter was ≥30 mm, representing an AAA prevalence of 6.72% among males aged >65 years. The risk of AAA increased with the following comorbidities/risk factors: male sex (odds ratio [OR] 2.98), coronary heart disease (OR 2.81), peripheral arterial occlusive disease (OR 2.47), hyperlipoproteinemia (OR 2.77), AAA in the family history (OR 3.95), and COPD stage I/II versus IV (OR 1.81). Conclusion The overall AAA prevalence of 3.7% in our group of COPD patients is similar to that of the general population aged >65 years. However, the frequency of AAA in male COPD patients aged >65 years is considerably higher (6.72%) and increased further still in those individuals with additional comorbidities/risk factors. Defining subgroups with a higher risk of AAA may increase the efficiency of screening.
Design and Analysis of Dual-Mode Digital-Control Step-Up Switched-Capacitor Power Converter With Pulse-Skipping and Numerically Controlled Oscillator-Based Frequency Modulation

This paper presents a 3 V-to-5 V integrated dual-mode digital-control step-up switched-capacitor (SC) power converter. The feedback control circuit is equipped with a low-power analog-to-digital converter which monitors and feeds the output voltage to a digital controller. With light loading, the control loop operates in a pulse-skipping mode. With heavy loading, the control loop operates in a frequency modulation mode (FMM) based on a numerically controlled oscillator whose switching frequency varies from 31.25 kHz to 1 MHz. The design is fabricated in a 0.5- μm digital CMOS process. With multiplierless implementation, the controller requires a gate count of less than 300. The whole design occupies a total active area of 0.23 mm2. From silicon measurement, with a 330-nF external flying capacitor, the design delivers a regulated 5 V output with an output current up to 25 mA from a 3 V supply, delivering an output power greater than 100 mW. The load regulation is measured to be 0.14%. A remarkable efficiency of 80% or above on average under various loading conditions is achieved. Dynamic characteristic and stability analysis of the SC converter in the FMM are presented. Comparisons with existing designs demonstrate the excellence of the proposed design.
Functional polymorphism in the gelatinase B gene and asthma

Gelatinase B, a matrix metalloproteinase that has proteolytic activity against connective tissue proteins, has been suggested to be important in the chronic structural airway changes in asthma. This study tested the hypothesis that the functional polymorphism in the regulatory region of gelatinase B gene is associated with asthma bronchiale.
The Asynchronous PALM Algorithm for Nonsmooth Nonconvex Problems

We introduce the Asynchronous PALM algorithm, a new extension of the Proximal Alternating Linearized Minimization (PALM) algorithm for solving nonsmooth, nonconvex optimization problems. Like the PALM algorithm, each step of the Asynchronous PALM algorithm updates a single block of coordinates; but unlike the PALM algorithm, the Asynchronous PALM algorithm eliminates the need for sequential updates that occur one after the other. Instead, our new algorithm allows each of the coordinate blocks to be updated asynchronously and in any order, which means that any number of computing cores can compute updates in parallel without synchronizing their computations. In practice, this asynchronization strategy often leads to speedups that increase linearly with the number of computing cores. We introduce two variants of the Asynchronous PALM algorithm, one stochastic and one deterministic. In the stochastic \textit{and} deterministic cases, we show that cluster points of the algorithm are stationary points. In the deterministic case, we show that the algorithm converges globally whenever the Kurdyka-{\L}ojasiewicz property holds for a function closely related to the objective function, and we derive its convergence rate in a common special case. Finally, we provide a concrete case in which our assumptions hold.
Eating habits, physical activity, nutrition knowledge, and self-efficacy by obesity status in upper-grade elementary school students

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Childhood obesity has increased in recent decades in Korea. This study was designed to examine differences in the eating habits, physical activity (PA), nutrition knowledge, and self-efficacy of children by obesity status. SUBJECTS/METHODS Subjects were 5th-grade children from 70 elementary schools in 17 cities nationwide. Two-stage stratified cluster sampling was employed. Survey questionnaire included items related to general characteristics, eating habits, PA, nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy. Excluding incomplete responses, 3,531 data were analyzed using SPSS. Subjects were categorized into overweight·obesity (OW) and normal weight (NW) groups based on body mass index percentiles for age by sex. RESULTS A total of 21.5% of subjects was overweight or obese. There were significant differences in gender, perceived stress, perception of body shape, body satisfaction, and interest in weight control between the OW and NW groups (P < 0.001). With respect to eating habits, the OW group ate breakfast (P < 0.05) and snacks (P < 0.01) less frequently, ate bigger meals (P < 0.001), and demonstrated less desirable behaviors during meals (P <0.05 in boys) compared to the NW group. The OW group participated in less PA than the NW group, especially boys. OW boys spent less time walking during weekdays (P < 0.05) or the weekend (P < 0.001), spent more time being sedentary during weekdays or the weekend (P < 0.001), and exercised a fewer number of days (P < 0.01). For girls, the OW group spent more time being sedentary during the weekend (P < 0.01) and exercised a fewer number of days by walking or bicycle riding (P < 0.05) than the NW group. Nutrition knowledge was not significantly different between the OW and NW groups. Self-efficacy (P < 0.01 in boys), especially PA self-efficacy (P < 0.01), was significantly lower in the OW than NW group. CONCLUSIONS This study revealed differences in eating habits, PA, and self-efficacy between OW and NW children. Obesity management programs for children need to focus on increasing self-efficacy, modifying eating habits, and increasing PA.
Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks

Habitat loss causes population declines, but the mechanisms are rarely known. In the European Boreal Zone, loss of old forest due to intensive forestry is suspected to cause declines in forest-dwelling raptors by reducing their breeding performance. We studied the boreal breeding habitat and habitat-associated breeding performance of the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and European honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus). We combined long-term Finnish bird-of-prey data with multi-source national forest inventory data at various distances (100–4000 m) around the hawk nests. We found that breeding success of the goshawk was best explained by the habitat within a 2000-m radius around the nests; breeding was more successful with increasing proportions of old spruce forest and water, and decreasing proportions of young thinning forest. None of the habitat variables affected significantly the breeding success of the common buzzard or the honey buzzard, or the brood size of any of the species. The amount of old spruce forest decreased both around goshawk and common buzzard nests and throughout southern Finland in 1992–2010. In contrast, the area of young forest increased in southern Finland but not around hawk nests. We emphasize the importance of studying habitats at several spatial and temporal scales to determine the relevant species-specific scale and to detect environmental changes. Further effort is needed to reconcile the socioeconomic and ecological functions of forests and habitat requirements of old forest specialists.
Molecular and functional analyses of incompatibility genes at het-6 in a population of Neurospora crassa.

Two closely linked genes, un-24 and het-6, associated with the het-6 heterokaryon incompatibility functional haplotype were examined in 40 Neurospora crassa strains from a Louisiana sugarcane field. Partial diploid analyses were used to determine that half of the strains were functionally Oak Ridge (OR) and half were non-OR and indistinguishable from the standard Panama (PA) form. PCR-based markers were developed to identify polymorphisms within both un-24 and het-6. Two common forms of each gene occur based on these molecular markers. Rare forms of both un-24 and het-6 were identified as variants of the non-OR form by a DNA transformation assay. The heterokaryon incompatibility function of haplotypes, based on partial diploid analyses, was perfectly correlated with the PCR-based markers at both loci. This correlation indicates that the two loci are in severe linkage disequilibrium in this population sample and may act as an incompatibility gene complex. Southern hybridizations using OR- and PA-derived cloned probes from the region that spans un-24 and het-6 showed that the apparent absence of recombination in this approximately 25-kbp region is associated with low levels of overall sequence identity between the PA and OR forms.
1 Combining Geometrical and Statistical Models for Video-Based Face Recognition

A number of methods in tracking and recognition have successfully exploited lowdimensional representations of object appearance learned from a set of examples. In all these approaches, the construction of the underlying low-dimensional manifold relied upon obtaining different instances of the object’s appearance and then using statistical data analysis tools to approximate the appearance space. This requires collecting a very large number of examples and the accuracy of the method depends upon the examples that have been chosen. In this chapter, we show that it is possible to estimate low-dimensional manifolds that describe object appearance using a combination of analytically derived geometrical models and statistical data analysis. Specifically, we derive a quadrilinear space of object appearance that is able to represent the effects of illumination, motion, identity and shape. We then show how efficient tracking algorithms like inverse compositional estimation can be adapted to the geometry of this manifold. Our proposed method significantly reduces the amount of data that needs to be collected for learning the manifolds and makes the learned manifold less dependent upon the actual examples that were used. Based upon this novel manifold, we present a framework for face recognition from video sequences that is robust to large changes in facial pose and lighting conditions. The method can handle situations where the pose and lighting conditions in the training and testing data are completely disjoint. We show detailed performance analysis results and recognition scores on a large video dataset.
A Chronological Perspective on the Acheulian and Its Transition to the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa: The Question of the Fauresmith

An understanding of the age of the Acheulian and the transition to the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa has been hampered by a lack of reliable dates for key sequences in the region. A number of researchers have hypothesised that the Acheulian first occurred simultaneously in southern and eastern Africa at around 1.7-1.6 Ma. A chronological evaluation of the southern African sites suggests that there is currently little firm evidence for the Acheulian occurring before 1.4 Ma in southern Africa. Many researchers have also suggested the occurrence of a transitional industry, the Fauresmith, covering the transition from the Early to Middle Stone Age, but again, the Fauresmith has been poorly defined, documented, and dated. Despite the occurrence of large cutting tools in these Fauresmith assemblages, they appear to include all the technological components characteristic of the MSA. New data from stratified Fauresmith bearing sites in southern Africa suggest this transitional industry maybe as old as 511–435 ka and should represent the beginning of the MSA as a broad entity rather than the terminal phase of the Acheulian. The MSA in this form is a technology associated with archaic H. sapiens and early modern humans in Africa with a trend of greater complexity through time.
Balancing spoken content adaptation and unit length in the recognition of emotion and interest

Recognition and detection of non-lexical or paralinguistic cues from speech usually uses one general model per event (emotional state, level of interest). Commonly this model is trained independent of the phonetic structure. Given sufficient data, this approach seemingly works well enough. Yet, this paper addresses the question on which phonetic level there is the onset of emotions and level of interest. We therefore compare phoneme-, wordand sentence-level analysis for emotional sentence classification by use of a large prosodic, spectral, and voice quality feature space for SVM and MFCC for HMM/GMM. Experiments also take the necessity of ASR into account to select appropriate unit-models. In experiments on the well-known public EMO-DB database, and the SUSAS and AVIC spontaneous interest corpora, we found that the emotion recognition by sentence level analysis shows the best results. We discuss the implications of these types of analysis on the design of robust emotion and interest recognition of usable human-machine interfaces (HMI).
Support Vector Machine Combined with GARCH Models for Call Option Price Prediction

The traditional BS evaluation model for options assumes volatility as a constant, and is unable to explain phenomena such as leptokurtic distribution and volatility clusters. In order to supplement this shortcoming, scholars have begun to use linear and non-linear GARCH models to estimate volatility. However, a consistent result has not been achieved with empirical analysis of various different volatility model estimations. Therefore, this study seeks to use symmetrical and asymmetrical GARCH models, with the Taiwan Electronic Sector Index Options (TEO) call as research target to estimate the volatility of each options target, and compare the results obtained from each model. Empirical results show that on average, TBGARCH has the smallest volatility, with most even volatility trends. Then, seven different types of volatility are used as the input variables for the support vector machines (SVM) and back-propagating artificial neural network (BPN), to establish the options prices predictive model. Prediction results show that overall, estimation models such as EGARCH, GJR-GARCH, and TBGARCH have better predictive performance; the performance of the artificial intelligence tools SVM and BPN are clearly better than the traditional BS model, and SVM has better predictive results than BPN.
Physician recommendations regarding tamoxifen and patient utilization of tamoxifen after surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ

To date, the impact of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B‐24 trial reported in 1999 on the use of tamoxifen after surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is unknown. The current study was designed to evaluate the impact of NSABP B‐24 on current practices at a comprehensive cancer center.
Parent Expectations Linked to Parent Satisfaction in a Summer Enrichment Program Evaluation

The purpose of this study was to determine if parent expectations were a determining factor in the level of satisfaction of the parents of students who attended the Marshall University Graduate College Summer Enrichment Program of 2011. Data of parent satisfaction was collected using a revised survey based off of parent satisfaction surveys from previous years while parent expectation data was collected from applications completed by parents prior to the start of the program. Analysis using independent samples t-test determined parental expectations was not a predictor of parent satisfaction. Further exploration of the data indicated the most common expectations were reading and math expectations. A second analysis determined that parental expectations specifically in the areas of reading and math were also not a predictor of parental satisfaction.
Cognitive Change Predicts Symptom Reduction With Cognitive Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Objective: There is a growing body of evidence for the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few studies to date have investigated the mechanisms by which TF-CBT leads to therapeutic change. Models of PTSD suggest that a core treatment mechanism is the change in dysfunctional appraisals of the trauma and its aftermath. If this is the case, then changes in appraisals should predict a change in symptoms. The present study investigated whether cognitive change precedes symptom change in Cognitive Therapy for PTSD, a version of TF-CBT. Method: The study analyzed weekly cognitive and symptom measures from 268 PTSD patients who received a course of Cognitive Therapy for PTSD, using bivariate latent growth modeling. Results: Results showed that (a) dysfunctional trauma-related appraisals and PTSD symptoms both decreased significantly over the course of treatment, (b) changes in appraisals and symptoms were correlated, and (c) weekly change in appraisals significantly predicted subsequent reduction in symptom scores (both corrected for the general decrease over the course of therapy). Changes in PTSD symptom severity did not predict subsequent changes in appraisals. Conclusions: The study provided preliminary evidence for the temporal precedence of a reduction in negative trauma-related appraisals in symptom reduction during trauma-focused CBT for PTSD. This supports the role of change in appraisals as an active therapeutic mechanism.
Encouraging greater enrollments of women in science and technology: the Malawi Polytechnic experience

In this paper the author discusses the marginalisation of women and girls in Malawian society. Females are often regarded as inferior to their male counterparts in certain cultures. Malawian traditions such as initiation rituals for boys only reinforces femininity in girls. Roles in these societies are often gender-determined and studies have indicated that women are not expected to prosper academically. Findings by other researchers are mentioned and the author identifies one problem in pariticular, that of high illiteracy rates amongst Malawian women and girls. The discussion focusses on the Malawian Polytechnic college which opened its doors in 1965. Statistics show an increase in female participation in and utilization of Science and Technology. The affirmative action policy of the university has resulted in more women and girls enrolling for polytechnic courses. The paper includes a case study which explores the experiences of female students who have enrolled for Science and Technology. The author concludes that any attempt to increase the participation of women and girls in polytechnics begins with their socio-cultural framework. Cultural myths which have prevented women from academic programmes should be dispelled.
In situ measures of methanotroph activity in upland soils: A reaction‐diffusion model and field observation of water stress

Laboratory assays of methanotroph activity in upland (i.e., well‐drained, oxic) ecosystems alter soil physical structure and weaken inference about environmental controls of their natural behavior. To overcome these limitations, we developed a chamber‐based approach to quantify methanotroph activity in situ on the basis of measures of soil diffusivity (from additions of an inert tracer gas to the chamber headspace), methane concentration change, and analysis of results with a reaction‐diffusion model. The analytic solution to this model predicts that methane consumption rates are equally sensitive to changes in methanotroph activity and diffusivity, but that doubling either of these parameters leads to only a √2 increase in consumption. With a series of simulations, we generate guidelines for field deployments and show that the approach is robust to plausible departures from assumptions. We applied the approach on a dry grassland in north central Colorado. Our model closely fit measured changes in methane concentrations, indicating that we had accurately characterized the biophysical processes underlying methane uptake. Field patterns showed that, over a 7‐week period, soil moisture fell from 38% to 15% water‐filled pore spaces, and diffusivity doubled as the larger soil pores drained of water. However, methane uptake rates fell by ∼40%, following a 90% decrease in methanotroph activity, suggesting that the decline in methanotroph activity resulted from water stress to methanotrophs. We anticipate that future application of this approach over longer timescales and on more diverse field sites has potential to provide important insights into the ecology of methanotrophs in upland soils.
6-Fluoro-1,3,4-triphenyl-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinoline benzene hemisolvate

In the title compound, C28H18FN3·0.5C6H6, the 1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinoline core is almost planar (r.m.s = 0.0371 Å, maximum deviation = 0.0571 Å) and aromatic. The solvent benzene molecules are located around inversion centres. In the crystal, molecules related by centres of symmetry form dimers, with distances of 3.932 (3) Å between best planes through the fused core due to π⋯π stacking. The phenyl substituents at positions 1, 3 and 4, are twisted away from the core, making dihedral angles of 29.66 (7), 44.59 (7) and 67.94 (6)°, respectively.
Resolution limit in community detection

Detecting community structure is fundamental for uncovering the links between structure and function in complex networks and for practical applications in many disciplines such as biology and sociology. A popular method now widely used relies on the optimization of a quantity called modularity, which is a quality index for a partition of a network into communities. We find that modularity optimization may fail to identify modules smaller than a scale which depends on the total size of the network and on the degree of interconnectedness of the modules, even in cases where modules are unambiguously defined. This finding is confirmed through several examples, both in artificial and in real social, biological, and technological networks, where we show that modularity optimization indeed does not resolve a large number of modules. A check of the modules obtained through modularity optimization is thus necessary, and we provide here key elements for the assessment of the reliability of this community detection method.