Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning Active Learning from Real and Synthetic Data

In this paper, we suggest a novel data-driven approach to active learning: Learning Active Learning (LAL). The key idea behind LAL is to train a regressor that predicts the expected error reduction for a potential sample in a particular learning state. By treating the query selection procedure as a regression problem we are not restricted to dealing with existing AL heuristics; instead, we learn strategies based on experience from previous active learning experiments. We show that LAL can be learnt from a simple artificial 2D dataset and yields strategies that work well on real data from a wide range of domains. Moreover, if some domain-specific samples are available to bootstrap active learning, the LAL strategy can be tailored for a particular problem.
Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for indoor visible light communications

Providing multiple access support to visible light communication (VLC) systems requires new networking architecture. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a proposed multiple access technique for future cellular systems. In this work, based on a realistic indoor channel conditions, we apply NOMA to indoor VLC channels and demonstrate its superior performance over orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA).
Intermittent Parathyroid Hormone Treatment Enhances Guided Bone Regeneration in Rat Calvarial Bone Defects

This study investigates the effects of intermittent parathyroid hormone (PTH(1-34)) treatment on bone regeneration and mechanical strength of critically sized rat calvarial bone defects covered with expanded membranes. A full-thickness bone defect (diameter 5 mm) was trephined in the central part of the parietal bones in 20-month-old female Wistar rats. The bone defects were covered with an exocranial and an endocranial expanded polytetrafluoroethylene membrane. The animals were killed 35 days after operation. 60 μg PTH(1-34)/kg was administered daily during the healing period, and control animals with calvarial bone defects were given vehicle. Mechanical testing was performed by a punch out testing procedure by placing a steel punch (diameter 3.5 mm) in the center of the healed defect. After mechanical testing, the newly formed tissue inside the defect was removed and the dry weight and ash weight were measured. PTH(1-34) increased dry weight by 48%, ash weight by 51%, and ash concentration by 26%. PTH(1-34) also augmented the mechanical strength of the new bone formed inside the defect by increasing ultimate stiffness by 87%. No differences in body weight were found between the vehicle-injected and the PTH-treated animals during the experiment. The experiment demonstrates that intermittent PTH(1-34) treatment increases bone deposition and enhances mechanical strength of healing rat calvarial defects covered with expanded polytetrafluoroethylene membranes.
Ovarian follicular characteristics, embryo recovery, and embryo viability in heifers fed high-fat diets and treated with follicle-stimulating hormone.

Postpubertal beef heifers (n = 55) were used to examine the effects of high-fat diets, independently of energy intake, on nonesterified fatty acid and lipoprotein metabolic patterns, ovarian follicular dynamics, and embryo recovery/viability after FSH superstimulation. High-lipid (HL) diets (5.4% added fat) increased (P < .01) serum concentrations of cholesterol, but not of nonesterified fatty acids, during the 35-d period before FSH treatment. Development of medium-sized (5 to 9.9 mm) follicles was enhanced (P < .05) during this period in heifers fed the HL diet. The HL diet increased total cholesterol (P < .05) and progesterone (P = .14) concentrations in follicular fluid obtained at ovariectomy (n = 10) 60 h after the onset of FSH treatment, but neither estradiol-17 beta nor androstenedione was affected. Granulosa cells recovered from FSH-induced, estrogen-active follicles in heifers fed the HL diet produced greater quantities of progesterone (P = .06) and less estradiol-17 beta (P < .05) in vitro than did granulosa cells from heifers fed the normal lipid diet. Dietary treatment did not influence FSH-stimulated recruitment of medium and large follicles, number of ovulations, embryo recovery, or embryo viability. Data suggest that increments in dietary fat intake can alter specific aspects of ovarian steroidogenic potential and can increase the population of medium-sized follicles theoretically available for maturation and harvest during the estrous cycle. However, conditions that limited the latter process in the current experiment are not understood and require further investigation.
The Significance of a Single Episode of Minimal Acute Rejection after Lung Transplantation

Background. Bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) remains the leading obstacle to better long-term outcomes after lung transplantation. Acute rejection has been identified as the primary risk factor for BOS, but the impact of minimal acute rejection, especially a solitary episode, has usually been discounted as clinically insignificant. Methods. We performed a retrospective cohort study of 259 adult lung transplant recipients to determine the risk of BOS associated with a single episode of A1 rejection, without recurrence or subsequent progression to a higher grade. The cohort was divided into 3 groups based on the severity of acute rejection (none, single episode of A1, and single episode of A2). We determined the risks of BOS stages 1, 2, 3, and death for each group using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results. A solitary episode of A1 rejection was a significant risk factor for BOS stages 1 and 2, but not stage 3 or death, in the univariate analysis. Multivariate Cox regression models confirmed that the risk of BOS attributable to a single episode of A1 rejection was independent of other potential risk factors, such as community acquired respiratory viral infections, number of HLA mismatches, and cytomegalovirus pneumonitis. Likewise, univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that a single episode of A2 rejection was a significant risk factor for all stages of BOS but not death. Conclusions. A single episode of minimal acute rejection without recurrence or subsequent progression to a higher grade is a significant predictor of BOS independent of other risk factors.
Mouse by Rofecoxib , a Specific Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitor 716 ∆ Apc Chemoprevention of Intestinal Polyposis in the Updated Version

Mutations in the human adenomatous polyposis (APC) gene are causative for familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), a rare condition in which numerous colonic polyps arise during puberty and, if left untreated, lead to colon cancer. TheAPCgene is a tumor suppressor that has been termed the “gatekeeper gene” for colon cancer. In addition to the 100% mutation rate in FAP patients, theAPC gene is mutated in>80% of sporadic colon and intestinal cancers. TheApc gene in mice has been mutated either by chemical carcinogenesis, resulting in the Min mouseApc, or by heterologous recombination, resulting in theApc or Apc mice (M. Oshima et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 92: 4482–4486, 1995). Although homozygoteApc mice are embryonically lethal, the heterozygotes are viable but develop numerous intestinal polyps with loss of Apc heterozygosity within the polyps (M. Oshimaet al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA,92: 4482–4486, 1995). The proinflammatory, prooncogenic protein cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 has been shown to be markedly induced in the Apc polyps at an early stage of polyp development (M. Oshimaet al., Cell,87: 803–809, 1996). We demonstrate here that treatment with the specific COX-2 inhibitor rofecoxib results in a dose-dependent reduction in the number and size of intestinal and colonic polyps in theApcmouse. The plasma concentration of rofecoxib that resulted in a 55% inhibition of polyp number and an 80% inhibition of polyps >1 mm in size is comparable with the human clinical steady-state concentration of 25 mg rofecoxib (Vioxx) taken once daily (A. Porraset al., Clin. Pharm. Ther., 67: 137, 2000). Polyps from both untreated and rofecoxibor sulindac-treated Apc mice expressed COX-1 and -2, whereas normal epithelium from all mice expressed COX-1 but minimal amounts of COX-2. Polyps from either rofecoxibor sulindac-treated mice had lower rates of DNA replication, expressed less proangiogenic vascular endothelial-derived growth factor and more membrane-bound b-catenin, but showed unchanged nuclear localization of this transcription factor. This study showing the inhibition of polyposis in the Apc mouse suggests that the specific COX-2 inhibitor rofecoxib (Vioxx) has potential as a chemopreventive agent in human intestinal and colon cancer.
The organization of actin filaments in the stereocilia of cochlear hair cells

Within each tapering stereocilium of the cochlea of the alligator lizard is a bundle of actin filaments with > 3,000 filaments near the tip and only 18-29 filaments at the base where the bundle enters into the cuticular plate; there the filaments splay out as if on the surface of a cone, forming the rootlet. Decoration of the hair cells with subfragment 1 of myosin reveals that all the filaments in the stereocilia, including those that extend into the cuticular plate forming the rootlet, have unidirectional polarity, with the arrowheads pointing towards the cell center. The rest of the cuticular plate is composed of actin filaments that show random polarity, and numerous fine, 30 A filaments that connect the rootlet filaments to each other, to the cuticular plate, and to the membrane. A careful examination of the packing of the actin filaments in the stereocilia by thin sectin and by optical diffraction reveals that the filaments are packed in a paracrystalline array with the crossover points of all the actin helices in hear-perfect register. In transverse sections, the actin filaments are not hexagonally packed but, rather, are arranged in scalloped rows that present a festooned profile. We demonstrated that this profile is a product of the crossbridges by examining serial sections, sections of different thicknesses, and the same stereocilium at two different cutting angles. The filament packing is not altered by fixation in different media, removal of the limiting membrane by detergent extraction, or incubation of extracted hair cells in EGTA, EDTA, and Ca++ and ATP. From our results, we conclude that the stereocilia of the ear, unlike the brush border of intestinal epithelial cells, are not designed to shorten, nor do the filaments appear to slide past one another. In fact, the stereocilium is like a large, rigid structure designed to move as a lever.
Modeling multi-valued circuits in SystemC*

The complexity of todays hardware systems steadily increases. Due to this fact new ways of efficiently describing systems are investigated. A very promising approach in this area is SystemC which is a C++-library. To take advantage of SystemC in the multi-valued domain, the concept of multi-valued logic has to be embedded in SystemC In this paper such a concept is introduced and details of the implementation are given. This creates a powerful development environment to model and efficiently simulate complex multi-valued circuits and systems. Due to C++-concepts, like operator overloading and templates, the task of modeling circuits becomes very convenient and handling of multi-valued signals is elegant. This gives the opportunity to design large circuits that can be mapped onto physically multi-valued gates. A scalable arithmetic logic unit is studied and experimental results are given.
Capturing Global Semantic Relationships for Facial Action Unit Recognition

In this paper we tackle the problem of facial action unit (AU) recognition by exploiting the complex semantic relationships among AUs, which carry crucial top-down information yet have not been thoroughly exploited. Towards this goal, we build a hierarchical model that combines the bottom-level image features and the top-level AU relationships to jointly recognize AUs in a principled manner. The proposed model has two major advantages over existing methods. 1) Unlike methods that can only capture local pair-wise AU dependencies, our model is developed upon the restricted Boltzmann machine and therefore can exploit the global relationships among AUs. 2) Although AU relationships are influenced by many related factors such as facial expressions, these factors are generally ignored by the current methods. Our model, however, can successfully capture them to more accurately characterize the AU relationships. Efficient learning and inference algorithms of the proposed model are also developed. Experimental results on benchmark databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in modelling complex AU relationships as well as its superior AU recognition performance over existing approaches.
Measuring and Predicting Graded Reader Difficulty.

This study used many-faceted Rasch measurement to investigate the difficulty of graded readers using a 3-item survey. Book difficulty was compared with Kyoto Level, Yomiyasusa Level, Lexile Level, book length, mean sentence length, and mean word frequency. Word frequency and Kyoto Level were found to be ineffective in predicting students’ perceptions of book difficulty. Book length was found to be highly predictive of perceived book difficulty, with the Yomiyasusa Levels predicting 68% of variance, while the Lexile measure of mean sentence length was moderately predictive, with 40% of variance explained. These results show that current headword levelling of graded readers is ineffective and that publishers’ book levels do not provide useful guidance in selection of books to read. It is therefore recommended that students use book length as their primary consideration in choosing books and that reading recommendations and purchasing decisions be based on Yomiyasusa Levels rather than publishers’ levels.
Robust infrared vehicle tracking across target pose change using L1 regularization

In this paper, we propose a robust vehicle tracker for Infrared (IR) videos motivated by the recent advance in compressive sensing (CS). The new eL1-PF tracker solves a sparse model representation of moving targets via L1 regularized least squares. The sparse-model solution addresses real-world environmental challenges such as image noises and partial occlusions. To further improve tracking performance for frame-to-frame sequences involving large target pose changes, two extensions to the original L1 tracker are introduced (eL1). First, in the particle filter (PF) framework, pose information is explicitly modelled into the state space which significantly improves the effectiveness of particle sampling and propagation. Second, a probabilistic template update scheme is designed, which helps alleviating drift caused by a target pose change. The proposed tracker, named eL1-PF tracker, is tested on IR sequences from the DARPA Video Verification of Identity (VIVID) dataset. Promising results from the eL1-PF tracker are observed in these experiments in comparison with previous mean-shift and original L1-regularization trackers.
The Translation Repressor 4E-BP2 Is Critical for eIF4F Complex Formation, Synaptic Plasticity, and Memory in the Hippocampus

Long-lasting synaptic plasticity and memory requires mRNA translation, yet little is known as to how this process is regulated. To explore the role that the translation repressor 4E-BP2 plays in hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and learning and memory, we examined 4E-BP2 knock-out mice. Interestingly, genetic elimination of 4E-BP2 converted early-phase LTP to late-phase LTP (L-LTP) in the Schaffer collateral pathway, likely as a result of increased eIF4F complex formation and translation initiation. A critical limit for activity-induced translation was revealed in the 4E-BP2 knock-out mice because L-LTP elicited by traditional stimulation paradigms was obstructed. Moreover, the 4E-BP2 knock-out mice also exhibited impaired spatial learning and memory and conditioned fear-associative memory deficits. These results suggest a crucial role for proper regulation of the eIF4F complex by 4E-BP2 during LTP and learning and memory in the mouse hippocampus.
Molecular cloning and structural analysis of murine thymidine kinase genomic and cDNA sequences

Two functional cytosolic thymidine kinase (tk) cDNA clones were isolated from a mouse L-cell library. An RNA blot analysis indicated that one of these clones contains a nearly full-length tk sequence and that LTK- cells contain little or no TK message. The nucleotide sequences of both clones were determined, and the functional mouse tk cDNA contains 1,156 base pairs. An analysis of the sequence implied that there is an untranslated 32-nucleotide region at the 5' end of the mRNA, followed by an open reading frame of 699 nucleotides. The 3' untranslated region is 422 nucleotides long. Thus, the gene codes for a protein containing 233 amino acids, with a molecular weight of 25,873. A comparison of the coding sequences of the mouse tk cDNA with the human and chicken tk genes revealed about 86 and 70% homology, respectively. We also isolated the tk gene from a mouse C57BL/10J cosmid library. The structural organization was determined by restriction mapping, Southern blotting, and heteroduplex analysis of the cloned sequences, in combination with a mouse tk cDNA. The tk gene spans approximately 11 kilobases and contains at least five introns. Southern blot analysis revealed that this gene is deleted in mouse LTK- cells, consistent with the inability of these cells to synthesize TK message. This analysis also showed that tk-related sequences are present in the genomes of several mouse strains, as well as in LTK- cells. These segments may represent pseudogenes.
Client-side monitoring techniques for web sites

Ensuring the correct presentation and execution of web sites is a major concern for system developers and administrators. Unfortunately, only end users can determine which resources are available and working properly. For example, some internal or external addresses might be unavailable or unreachable for specific clients, while seemingly available resources, like JavaScript, might run with errors in some browsers. While standard monitoring and analytic tools certainly provide valuable information on web pages, problems might still escape such measures, to reach end web users. To demonstrate the limitations of current tools, we ran an experiment to count web page errors in a sample of 3,000 web sites, including network and JavaScript errors. Our results are significant: as many as 16% of the top 1,000 sites have errors in their own resources; less popular sites have even more. Based on these results, we make a review of three client-side monitoring approaches to mitigate such errors: stand-alone applications, browser extensions and JavaScript snippets with analytic tools. Interestingly, even the latter approach, which requires no software installation, and involves no security changes, can cover a large fraction of existing web errors.
Symptom management in patients with lung cancer: Diagnosis and management of lung cancer, 3rd ed: American College of Chest Physicians evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

BACKGROUND Many patients with lung cancer will develop symptoms related to their disease process or the treatment they are receiving. These symptoms can be as debilitating as the disease progression itself. To many physicians these problems can be the most difficult to manage. METHODS A detailed review of the literature using strict methodologic review of article quality was used in the development of this article. MEDLINE literature reviews, in addition to Cochrane reviews and other databases, were used for this review. The resulting article lists were then reviewed by experts in each area for quality and finally interpreted for content. RESULTS We have developed recommendations for the management of many of the symptom complexes that patients with lung cancer may experience: pain, dyspnea, airway obstruction, cough, bone metastasis, brain metastasis, spinal cord metastasis, superior vena cava syndrome, hemoptysis, tracheoesophageal fistula, pleural effusions, venous thromboembolic disease, depression, fatigue, anorexia, and insomnia. Some areas, such as dyspnea, are covered in considerable detail in previously created high-quality evidence-based guidelines and are identified as excellent sources of reference. The goal of this guideline is to provide the reader recommendations based on evidence supported by scientific study. CONCLUSIONS Improved understanding and recognition of cancer-related symptoms can improve management strategies, patient compliance, and quality of life for all patients with lung cancer.
The Agile Quality Culture - A survey on agile culture and software quality

Despite the importance of the agile methods and the ac-knowledgement that they do contribute to the software quality and client satisfaction, little is known about what factors, habits or tools usage have high impact on the product quality. It has been observed that agile practitioners have a different posture towards the development process they use. This paper goal is to report an analysis of agile practitioner’s opinion and behavior on agile development methods and what’s the impact of those issues on the product quality. To construct the analysis an online survey was planned and executed with agile methods practitioners. The results shows that agile practitioners have a very good knowledge of the method they use, they know the ben-eﬁts, and pledge to be committed to the development process. The subjects showed a great interest in test activities and quality assurance activities. It’s possible to grasp an insight on the commitment of agile practitioners with their development method. The relation between agile practice and software quality may lie on the agile culture. The agile methods make their participants more engaged to the development process.
Doppler Algorithm for Modeling Sea Surface Current from RADARSAT-1 SAR Images

Summary work introduces a new approach for modeling sea surface current from microwave satellite RADARSAT-1 SAR images. The Doppler shift frequency model was modified by using robust model. The modified Doppler shift frequency model was experienced on the RADARSAT-1 SAR data of two different modes (Wide-3 and Standard 2). The results of the study were validated using real time ocean current measurements by using AWAC equipment. It is interesting to find that the Doppler shift frequency affected the pattern of current variations in the SAR images. The statically analysis showed that there was a high correlation between real ocean current measurements and ones was simulated from SAR images.
A Mathematical Model for the Control and Eradication of a Wood Boring Beetle Infestation

We propose a mathematical model for an infestation of a wooded area by a beetle species in which the larvae develop deep in the wood of living trees. Due to the difficulties of detection, we presume that only a certain proportion of infested trees will be detected and that detection, if it happens, will occur only after some delay, which could be long. An infested tree once detected is immediately cut down and burned. The model is stage structured and contains a second time delay, which is the development time of the beetle from egg to adult. There is a delicate interplay between the two time delays due to the possibility in one case for a larva to mature even in a tree destined for destruction. We present conditions sufficient for infestation eradication and discuss the significance of the conditions, particularly in terms of the proportion of infested trees that need to be detected and removed. If the infestation is successfully eradicated, there are always a number of trees that completely escape infestation, and we compute lower bounds and an approximation for this number. Finally, we present the results of some numerical simulations.