Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Adaptive Volterra Filtering by Automatic Attenuation of Memory Regions and Its Application to Acoustic Echo Cancellation

This paper presents a novel scheme for nonlinear acoustic echo cancellation based on adaptive Volterra Filters with linear and quadratic kernels, which automatically prefers those diagonals contributing most to the output of the quadratic kernel with the goal of minimizing the overall mean-square error. In typical echo cancellation scenarios, not all coefficients will be equally relevant for the modeling of the nonlinear echo, but coefficients close to the main diagonal of the second-order kernel will describe most of the nonlinear echo distortions, such that not all diagonals need to be implemented. However, it is difficult to decide the most appropriate number of diagonals a priori, since there are many factors that influence this decision, such as the energy of the nonlinear echo, the shape of the room impulse response, or the step size used for the adaptation of kernel coefficients. Our proposed scheme incorporates adaptive scaling factors that control the influence of each group of adjacent diagonals contributing to the quadratic kernel output. An appropriate selection of these factors serves to emphasize or neglect diagonals of the model as required by the present situation. We provide adaptation rules for these factors based on previous works on combination of adaptive filters, and comprehensive simulations showing the reduced gradient noise reached by the new echo canceller.
Phenotype of asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome

Many patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have overlapping characteristics of both diseases. By spirometric definition, patients with both fixed airflow obstruction (AO) and bronchodilator reversibility or fixed AO and bronchial hyperresponsiveness can be considered to have asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). However, patients regarded to have ACOS by spirometric criteria alone are heterogeneous and can be classified by phenotype. Eosinophilic inflammation, a history of allergic disease, and smoke exposure are important components in the classification of ACOS. Each phenotype has a different underlying pathophysiology, set of characteristics, and prognosis. Medical treatment for ACOS should be tailored according to phenotype. A narrower definition of ACOS that includes both spirometric and clinical criteria is needed.
Electrophysiology of inhibition and auditory prediction mechanisms in human cortex

Author(s): Fonken, Yvonne Maria | Advisor(s): Knight, Robert T | Abstract: One of the core problems the brain has to solve is how to navigate and interact with the external world. This requires a complex analysis of sensory input, the translation of perceptual input to goal-directed behavior, followed by motor planning and execution. In this thesis we investigated two crucial aspects of this perception-action cycle. First, we examined the underlying neural mechanisms that support response inhibition. Here, novel sensory information is integrated on very short time-scales to cancel an already planned action. The frontal cortex is believed to play a crucial role in the temporal organization of goal-directed behavior and cognitive control and is implicated in stopping a motor response. Using the high spatiotemporal resolution of electrocorticography (ECoG), we found evidence for two distinct processes localized to the middle frontal gyrus (MFG). High-frequency band (HFB) power increased in stop-trials before the stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), showing no difference between successful and unsuccessful stops. We interpret this activation as contributing to the stopping process, either by signaling the stop-signal itself, or by implementing attentional control. A second HFB activation was observed after the go and stop processes have finished, and was larger for unsuccessful stops, and is likely related to behavioral monitoring. Our results support the notion that frontal cortex implements different functions related to stopping. Implementing the perception-action cycle not only involves re-acting to novel information from the senses in a bottom-up manner. It is believed that the brain also implements a strategy anticipating future events based on prior knowledge. Here we investigated how anticipation of sounds influences auditory processing. Using both EEG and ECoG, we employed a task with omissions of expected sounds, thereby isolating endogenous responses to expectations in auditory cortex. We found that a subset of auditory active electrodes in lateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) and superior temporal sulcus (STS) showing HFB power increases to omissions. We were able to successfully decode whether the subject heard the syllable ‘Ba’ or ‘Ga’. However, which sound was omitted could not be decoded from auditory active sites, nor from the omission HFB increase specifically. We also observed a negative ERP in posterior STG in the intracranial data, which may be related to an auditory cortical generator of the N2 component. In a separate EEG studies we also observed both an N2 negativity, as well as a negativity occurring before the intracranial negativity, the source of which may be in A1, a region which we could not access intracranially. Finally, a P3a ERP was observed in EEG, which points to both the HFB and ERP effects in posterior STG to be signatures of auditory-specific salience or mismatch detection.
Requirements for survivin in terminal differentiation of erythroid cells and maintenance of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

Survivin, which is the smallest member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family, is a chromosomal passenger protein that mediates the spindle assembly checkpoint and cytokinesis, and also functions as an inhibitor of apoptosis. Frequently overexpressed in human cancers and not expressed in most adult tissues, survivin has been proposed as an attractive target for anticancer therapies and, in some cases, has even been touted as a cancer-specific gene. Survivin is, however, expressed in proliferating adult cells, including human hematopoietic stem cells, T-lymphocytes, and erythroid cells throughout their maturation. Therefore, it is unclear how survivin-targeted anticancer therapies would impact steady-state blood development. To address this question, we used a conditional gene-targeting strategy and abolished survivin expression from the hematopoietic compartment of mice. We show that inducible deletion of survivin leads to ablation of the bone marrow, with widespread loss of hematopoietic progenitors and rapid mortality. Surprisingly, heterozygous deletion of survivin causes defects in erythropoiesis in a subset of the animals, with a dramatic reduction in enucleated erythrocytes and the presence of immature megaloblastic erythroblasts. Our studies demonstrate that survivin is essential for steady-state hematopoiesis and survival of the adult, and further, that a high level of survivin expression is critical for proper erythroid differentiation.
Population Recovery of Nicobar Long-Tailed Macaque Macaca fascicularis umbrosus following a Tsunami in the Nicobar Islands, India

Natural disasters pose a threat to isolated populations of species with restricted distributions, especially those inhabiting islands. The Nicobar long tailed macaque.Macaca fascicularis umbrosus, is one such species found in the three southernmost islands (viz. Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal) of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, India. These islands were hit by a massive tsunami (Indian Ocean tsunami, 26 December 2004) after a 9.2 magnitude earthquake. Earlier studies [Umapathy et al. 2003; Sivakumar, 2004] reported a sharp decline in the population of M. f. umbrosus after thetsunami. We studied the distribution and population status of M. f. umbrosus on thethree Nicobar Islands and compared our results with those of the previous studies. We carried out trail surveys on existing paths and trails on three islands to get encounter rate as measure of abundance. We also checked the degree of inundation due to tsunami by using Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) on landsat imageries of the study area before and after tsunami. Theencounter rate of groups per kilometre of M. f. umbrosus in Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal was 0.30, 0.35 and 0.48 respectively with the mean group size of 39 in Great Nicobar and 43 in Katchal following the tsunami. This was higher than that reported in the two earlier studies conducted before and after the tsunami. Post tsunami, there was a significant change in the proportion of adult males, adult females and immatures, but mean group size did not differ as compared to pre tsunami. The results show that population has recovered from a drastic decline caused by tsunami, but it cannot be ascertained whether it has reached stability because of the altered group structure. This study demonstrates the effect of natural disasters on island occurring species.
Infrastructure Condition Prediction Models for Sustainable Sewer Pipelines

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities reported that approximately 55% of sewer infrastructure in Canada did not meet current standards. Therefore, the burden on Canadian municipalities to maintain and prioritize sewers is increasing. One of the major challenges is to develop a framework to standardize the condition assessment procedures for sewer pipelines. Lack of detailed knowledge on the condition of sewer networks escalates vulnerability to catastrophic failures. This research presents a proactive methodology of assessing the existing condition of sewers by considering various physical, environmental, and operational influence factors. Based on historic data collected from two municipalities in Canada, structural and operational condition assessment models for sewers are developed using the multiple regression technique. The developed regression models show 82 to 86% accuracy when they are applied to the validation data set. These models are utilized to generate deterioration curves for concrete, asbestos cement, and polyvinyl chloride sewers in relation to traffic loads, bedding materials, and other pipe characteristics. The developed models are expected to assist municipal engineers in identifying critical sewers, prioritizing sewer inspections, and rehabilitation requirements.
Financial Institutions Center Do Bankers Sacrifice Value to Build Empires ? Managerial Incentives , Industry Consolidation and Financial Performance

Bank consolidation is a global phenomenon that may enhance stakeholders’ value if managers do not sacrifice value to build empires. We find strong evidence of managerial entrenchment at U.S. bank holding companies that have higher levels of managerial ownership, better growth opportunities, poorer financial performance, and smaller asset size. At banks without entrenched management, both asset acquisitions and sales are associated with improved performance. At banks with entrenched management, sales are related to smaller improvements while acquisitions are associated with worse performance. Consistent with scale economies, an increase in assets by internal growth is associated with better performance at most banks. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or the Department of the Treasury.
The Relationship between Emotion Regulation and Intuitive Eating in Young Women

This study was designed to clarify the relationship between emotion regulation and intuitive eating in 60 obese women (BMI<30) and 60 normal-weight women. There is some significant correlation between the two groups. There is association between unconditional permission to eating subscale and nonacceptance subscale (r= 0.26), strategies subscale and unconditional permission for eating subscale (r= 0.31), Physical emotional eating subscale and strategies subscale (r= 0.30), and also two negative connections between permission for unconditional eating subscale and awareness subscale (r= -0.31), and awareness subscale and Suitable foods election subscale (r= -0.39) in obese women. Other associations are between physical emotional eating subscale and goals subscale(r= 0.29), awareness subscale and Trust in hunger and thirst cues subscale (r= -0.39), and clarity subscale and Trust in hunger and thirst cues subscale (r= -0.35) in normal-weight women. Findings show when obese women have some emotional problems, they cannot accept the situation and do something additional to regulate emotions in the form of unconditional eating.
Spatial and Temporal Biogeography of Soil Microbial Communities in Arid and Semiarid Regions

Microbial communities in soils may change in accordance with distance, season, climate, soil texture and other environmental parameters. Microbial diversity patterns have been extensively surveyed in temperate regions, but few such studies attempted to address them with respect to spatial and temporal scales and their correlations to environmental factors, especially in arid ecosystems. In order to fill this gap on a regional scale, the molecular fingerprints and abundance of three taxonomic groups – Bacteria, α-Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria – were sampled from soils 0.5–100 km apart in arid, semi-arid, dry Mediterranean and shoreline Mediterranean regions in Israel. Additionally, on a local scale, the molecular fingerprints of three taxonomic groups – Bacteria, Archaea and Fungi – were sampled from soils 1 cm–500 m apart in the semi-arid region, in both summer and winter. Fingerprints of the Bacteria differentiated between all regions (P<0.02), while those of the α-Proteobacteria differentiated between some of the regions (0.010.05). Locally, fingerprints of archaea and fungi did not display distance-decay relationships (P>0.13), that is, the dissimilarity between communities did not increase with geographic distance. Neither was this phenomenon evident in bacterial samples in summer (P>0.24); in winter, however, differences between bacterial communities significantly increased as the geographic distances between them grew (P<0.01). Microbial community structures, as well as microbial abundance, were both significantly correlated to precipitation and soil characteristics: texture, organic matter and water content (R2>0.60, P<0.01). We conclude that on the whole, microbial biogeography in arid and semi-arid soils in Israel is determined more by specific environmental factors than geographic distances and spatial distribution patterns.
Corporate governance, firm characteristics and internet financial reporting: Evidence from Egyptian listed companies

This study investigates the effect of corporate governance and firm characteristics on the Internet financial reporting (IFR) of the Egyptian listed companies. We develop a disclosure index to measure the three components of the IFR for the Egyptian listed corporations by using an un-weighted checklist. The results find a significant relationship between the three components of IFR (TOTAL, CONTENT and PRESENTATION) and firm size, ownership diffusion, type of business, profitability, audit type, institutional ownership and board size. The results indicate that large non-financial companies that are audited by the big four auditing companies with high diffusion in their ownership and lower presentation of institutions in the ownership structure are more likely to be related to TOTAL and CONTENT. In addition, large profitable companies with high diffusion in their ownership are more likely to be related to TOTAL and PRESENTATION. Finally, companies with a large board size are associated only with PRESENTATION.
Common misdiagnosis of a common neurological disorder: how are we misdiagnosing essential tremor?

BACKGROUND As a common neurological disorder, the diagnosis of essential tremor (ET) is considered routine. Despite this, previous work suggests that misdiagnoses may be common. Among other things, these misdiagnoses can lead to treatment errors. OBJECTIVES To estimate how often other tremor disorders are misdiagnosed as ET and to identify factors that increase the odds of misdiagnosing ET and to precisely quantify the extent to which they do so. DESIGN Seventy-one consecutive patients underwent an evaluation at the Neurological Institute of New York, New York, between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2005; these patients had a pre-evaluation diagnosis of ET. The criteria for ET were adapted from the consensus statement of the Movement Disorder Society. RESULTS Twenty-six patients (37%) were misdiagnosed as having ET ("false ET"). Their true diagnoses were Parkinson disease (11 patients [15%]), dystonia (6 patients [8%]), Parkinson disease with ET (5 patients [7%]), and other disorders (4 patients [6%]). Factors associated with misdiagnosed ET included unilateral arm tremor (odds ratio, 10.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-95.4; P=.02), spooning of the hands and other dystonic postures (odds ratio, 16.3; 95% confidence interval, 4.0-66.4; P<.001), and other unusual features (isolated thumb tremor, isolated leg tremor, and non-rhythmic tremor) (odds ratio, 49.4; 95% confidence interval, 2.7-895.0; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS About 1 in 3 patients with tremor was misdiagnosed as having ET, with the most frequent false diagnoses being Parkinson disease and dystonia. Several factors that increased the odds of misdiagnosing ET were identified. These factors could be incorporated into improved diagnostic algorithms.
Impact of the mechanical interface on BCG signals obtained from electronic weighing scales

This work analyzes the reproducibility of the BCG obtained from different weighing scales. First, the natural frequency of three commercial bathroom scales has been characterized by an impulse excitation test. Second, the BCG and the ECG from 5 healthy subjects (27 ± 4 years) have been recorded for 60 s by sequentially standing on these weighing scales connected to the same analog front-end and signal acquisition system. An ensemble average representative of each subject and weighing scale has been obtained by applying Woody's method with the ECG as a timing reference. Consecutive BCG signals obtained from the three scales show consistent systematic intra-subject differences in the timing of the J peak that can reach up to 30 ms. This timing error is relevant because it is about 50 % of the changes induced by typical respiratory maneuvers, such as Valsalva's, used to modulate hemodynamic parameters in correlation studies between changes in J timing with respect to different cardiac fiducial points. Due to its ubiquity, weighing scales are promising devices for monitoring cardiovascular function at home but their frequency response must be accounted for and minimal performance standards should be defined for them.
Full computation of massive AGB evolution. I. The large impact of convection on nucleosynthesis

It is well appreciated that the description of overadiabatic convection affects the structure of the envelopes of luminous asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the phase of “hot bottom burning” (HBB). We stress that this important uncertainty in the modeling plays a role which is much more dramatic than the role which can be ascribed, e.g., to the uncertainty in the nuclear cross-sections. Due to the role tentatively attributed today to the HBB nucleosynthesis as the site of self-enrichment of Globular Clusters stars, it is necessary to explore the difference in nucleosynthesis obtained by different prescriptions for convection. We present results of detailed evolutionary calculations of the evolution of stars of intermediate mass during the AGB phase for the metallicity typical of the Globular Clusters that show the largest spread in CNO abundances ($Z\sim 10^{-3}$). We follow carefully the nucleosynthesis at the base of the external convective region, showing that very different results can be obtained according to the presciption adopted to find out the temperature gradient within the instability regions. We discuss the uncertainties in the yields of the various chemical species and the role which these sources can play as polluters of the interstellar medium.
The microRNA-200 family: small molecules with novel roles in cancer development, progression and therapy

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a large family of small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate protein-coding gene expression post-transcriptionally via base pairing between the 5′ seed region of a miRNA and the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of a messenger RNA (mRNA). Recent evidence has supported the critical role that miRNAs play in many diseases including cancer. The miR-200 family consisting of 5 members (miR-200a, -200b, -200c, -141, -429) is an emerging miRNA family that has been shown to play crucial roles in cancer initiation and metastasis, and potentially be important for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. While miR-200s were found to be critically involved in the metastatic colonization to the lungs in mouse mammary xenograft tumor models, a large number of studies demonstrated their strong suppressive effects on cell transformation, cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, tumor growth and metastasis. This review aims to discuss research findings about the role of the miR-200 family in cancer initiation, each step of cancer metastatic cascade, cancer diagnosis and treatment. A comprehensive summary of currently validated miR-200 targets is also presented. It is concluded that miR-200 family may serve as novel targets for the therapy of multiple types of cancer.
Acute flaccid paralysis in infants and young children with enterovirus 71 infection: MR imaging findings and clinical correlates.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection is now considered an important cause of childhood acute flaccid paralysis. The purpose of our study was to determine whether EV71-infection-related acute flaccid paralysis in infants and young children has characteristic MR imaging patterns. METHODS Seven infants and young children with acute paralysis of the upper or lower extremities and positive EV71 cultures underwent spinal MR studies during an outbreak of hand-foot-and-mouth disease in Taiwan in 1998. RESULTS Acute paralysis was observed in one upper extremity in two patients, in one lower extremity in three patients, and in both lower extremities in two patients. None of the patients had sensory impairment or bulbar palsy. MR studies showed unilateral or bilateral hyperintense lesions in the anterior horn regions of the cord on T2-weighted images in six patients. No abnormal signal was present in one patient. Two of three patients who received intravenous injections of contrast material had ventral root enhancement on T1-weighted images. One of them also had enhancement of the unilateral anterior horn cells. At clinical follow-up, both patients with bilateral anterior horn abnormalities had residual motor weakness, whereas only one of the five patients with unilateral involvement had residual weakness. CONCLUSION EV71 radiculomyelitis tends to be unilateral and to specifically involve both the anterior horn cells of the cord and the ventral roots. MR imaging allows early detection of spinal cord and root lesions.