Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonlinear Filtering for Sparse Signal Recovery From Incomplete Measurements

The problem of recovering sparse signals and sparse gradient signals from a small collection of linear measurements is one that arises naturally in many scientific fields. The recently developed Compressed Sensing Framework states that such problems can be solved by searching for the signal of minimum L 1-norm, or minimum Total Variation, that satisfies the given acquisition constraints. While L 1 optimization algorithms, based on Linear Programming techniques, are highly effective at generating excellent signal reconstructions, their complexity is still too high and renders them impractical for many real applications. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to solve the L 1 optimization problems, based on the use of suitable nonlinear filters widely applied for signal and image denoising. The corresponding algorithm has two main advantages: low computational cost and reconstruction capabilities similar to those of Linear Programming optimization methods. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with many numerical examples and comparisons.
Efficacy of Lapatinib in Therapy-Resistant HER2-Positive Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Breast Cancer

Background To evaluate the efficacy of lapatinib, a dual EGFR and HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in therapy-resistant HER2-positive CTCs in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Patients and Methods Patients with MBC and HER2-positive CTCs despite disease stabilization or response to prior therapy, received lapatinib 1500 mg daily in monthly cycles, till disease progression or CTC increase. CTC monitoring was performed by immunofluorescent microscopy using cytospins of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) double stained for HER2 or EGFR and cytokeratin. Results A total of 120 cycles were administered in 22 patients; median age was 62.5 years, 15 (68.2%) patients were post-menopausal and 20 (90.1%) had HER2-negative primary tumors. At the end of the second course, HER2-positive CTC counts decreased in 76.2% of patients; the median number of HER2-positive CTCs/patient also declined significantly (p = 0.013), however the decrease was significant only among patients presenting disease stabilization (p = 0.018) but not among those with disease progression during lapatinib treatment. No objective responses were observed. All CTC-positive patients harbored EGFR-positive CTCs on progression compared to 62.5% at baseline (p = 0.054). The ratio of EGFR-positive CTCs/total CTCs detected in all patients increased from 17.1% at baseline to 37.6% on progression, whereas the mean percentage of HER2-negative CTCs/patient increased from 2.4% to 30.6% (p = 0.03). Conclusions The above results indicate that lapatinib is effective in decreasing HER2-positive CTCs in patients with MBC irrespectively of the HER2 status of the primary tumor and imply the feasibility of monitoring the molecular changes on CTCs during treatment with targeted agents. Trial Registration Clinical trial.gov NCT00694252
Application characteristics of permanent magnet synchronous and brushless DC motors for servo drives

The permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and the brushless DC motor (BDCM) have many similarities; they both have permanent magnets on the rotor and require alternating stator currents to produce constant torque. For application considerations, these two motor drives have to be differentiated on the basis of known engineering criteria. Some of the criteria used to assess these two machines include power density, torque per unit current, speed range, feedback devices, inverter rating, cogging torque, ripple torque, and parameter sensitivity. Guidelines for the appropriate machine to be used for a given application are given based on the results of the criteria. >
On Nonprimordial Deuterium Production by Accelerated Particles

Deuterium plays a crucial role in cosmology because the primordial D/H abundance, in the context of big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) theory, yields a precise measure of the cosmic baryon content. Observations of D/H can limit or measure the true primordial abundance because D is thought to be destroyed by stars and thus D/H monotonically decreases after BBN. Recently, however, Mullan & Linsky have pointed out that D arises as a secondary product of neutrons in stellar flares that then capture on protons via n + p → d + γ and that this could dominate over direct D production in flares. Mullan & Linsky note that if this process is sufficiently vigorous in flaring dwarf stars, it could lead to significant non-BBN D production. We have considered the production of D in stellar flares, both directly and by n capture. We find that for reasonable flare spectra, n/d ≲ 10 and (n + d)/6Li ≲ 400, both of which indicate that the n-capture channel does not allow for Galactic D production at a level that will reverse the monotonic decline of D. We also calculate the 2.22 MeV gamma-ray line production associated with n capture and find that existing COMPTEL limits also rule out significant D production in the Galaxy today. Thus, we find that flares in particular and neutron captures in general are not an important Galactic source of D. On the other hand, we cannot exclude that flare production might contribute to recent Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) observations of large variations in the local interstellar D/H abundance; we do, however, offer important constraints on this possibility. Finally, since flare stars should inevitably produce some n-capture events, a search for diffuse 2.22 MeV gamma rays by INTEGRAL can further constrain (or measure! ) Galactic deuterium production via n-capture.
Striving for Social Good Through Organizational Inclusion: A Latent Profile Approach

Purpose: Promoting social good in the context of diverse organizations inevitably involves creating inclusive work environments wherein all members feel valued and appreciated for who they are. However, limited empirical work has uncovered evidence-based tools that can help organizational leaders strive for more inclusive organizations. Method: The current study used latent profile analysis as an empirical tool to provide a more in-depth understanding of workplace inclusion. Data were collected from a diverse nonprofit organization with 213 employees. Results: Findings suggested two latent profiles or subgroups of employees (those who felt less valued and those who felt more valued) who shared similar personal characteristics. Discussion: This information can be used to develop culturally sensitive and inclusive evidence-based workplace interventions that achieve social good by ensuring everyone in the organization feels valued. Implications are discussed for expanding macrolevel social work practice for professionals interested in promoting social good in diverse organizations.
On the (Mis)Use of Conditional Value-at-Risk and Spectral Risk Measures for Portfolio Selection - A Comparison with Mean-Variance Analysis

We study portfolio selection using Conditional Value-at-Risk and, as its natural extension, spectral risk measures instead of the variance. We do not focus only on the derivation of the efficient frontiers, but also consider the choice of optimal portfolios within an integrated framework. We find that spectral risk measures tend towards corner solutions. If a risk free asset exists, diversification is never optimal. Similarly, for risky assets we obtain only limited diversification. The reason is that spectral risk measures are based on a regulatory concept of diversification that differs fundamentally from the reward-risk tradeoff underlying the traditional mean-variance framework.
Walking the Middle Path: How Medium Trade-Off Exposure Leads to Higher Consumer Satisfaction in Recommender Agents

Recommender Agents (RAs) facilitate consumers’ online purchase decisions for complex, multi-attribute products. As not all combinations of attribute levels can be obtained, users are forced into trade-offs. The exposure of trade-offs in a RA has been found to affect consumers’ perceptions. However, little is known about how different preference elicitation methods in RAs affect consumers by varying degrees of trade-off exposure. We propose a research model that investigates how different levels of trade-off exposure cognitively and affectively influence consumers’ satisfaction with RAs. We operationalize these levels in three different RA types and test our hypotheses in a laboratory experiment with 116 participants. Our results indicate that with increasing tradeoff exposure, perceived enjoyment and perceived control follow an inverted Ushaped relationship. Hence, RAs using preference elicitation methods with medium trade-off exposure yield highest consumer satisfaction. This contributes to the understanding of trade-offs in RAs and provides valuable implications to e-commerce practitioners.
Solvability of dissipative second order left-invariant differential operators on the Heisenberg group

We prove local solvability for large classes of operators of the form $$ L=\sum_{j,k=1}^{2n}a_{jk}V_jV_k+i\alpha U,$$ where the $V_j$ are left-invariant vector fields on the Heisenberg group satisfying the commutation relations $[V_j,V_{j+n}]=U$ for $1\le j\le n$, and where $A=(a_{jk})$ is a complex symmetric matrix with semi-definite real part. Our results widely extend all of the results for the case of non-real, semi-definite matrices $A$ known to date, in particular those obtained recently jointly with F. Ricci under Sjostrand's cone condition.
A Word by Any Other Intonation: FMRI Evidence for Implicit Memory Traces for Pitch Contours of Spoken Words in Adult Brains

Objectives Intonation may serve as a cue for facilitated recognition and processing of spoken words and it has been suggested that the pitch contour of spoken words is implicitly remembered. Thus, using the repetition suppression (RS) effect of BOLD-fMRI signals, we tested whether the same spoken words are differentially processed in language and auditory brain areas depending on whether or not they retain an arbitrary intonation pattern. Experimental design Words were presented repeatedly in three blocks for passive and active listening tasks. There were three prosodic conditions in each of which a different set of words was used and specific task-irrelevant intonation changes were applied: (i) All words presented in a set flat monotonous pitch contour (ii) Each word had an arbitrary pitch contour that was set throughout the three repetitions. (iii) Each word had a different arbitrary pitch contour in each of its repetition. Principal findings The repeated presentations of words with a set pitch contour, resulted in robust behavioral priming effects as well as in significant RS of the BOLD signals in primary auditory cortex (BA 41), temporal areas (BA 21 22) bilaterally and in Broca's area. However, changing the intonation of the same words on each successive repetition resulted in reduced behavioral priming and the abolition of RS effects. Conclusions Intonation patterns are retained in memory even when the intonation is task-irrelevant. Implicit memory traces for the pitch contour of spoken words were reflected in facilitated neuronal processing in auditory and language associated areas. Thus, the results lend support for the notion that prosody and specifically pitch contour is strongly associated with the memory representation of spoken words.
TEACHERS AND PARENTS ATTITUDES TOWARD STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Attitudes towards people with disability for centuries have been segregating, learned through prejudice and lack of information. The inclusion of students with disability in regular classes is a basic prerequisite for school and social integration, as well as changes in attitudes towards students with disabilities. Inclusiveness is a complex commitment that stems from the essence of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, each child has equal chances in development and the opportunity to be an equal member of the community.This paper presents the attitudes of elementary teachers and parents towards inclusive education, especially their views about the acceptance of students with disability.For the purpose of the research it was applied descriptive – analytical method and questionnaire as research technique. The sample of the research was consisted of 60 teachers and 250 parents (100 parents of children with disabilities and 150 parents of children with a typical development) from 10 primary schools in Republic of Macedonia. The result showed that most of the parents and teachers accept attitudes towards inclusion in accordance with the human principle, agree that inclusion develop empathy, altruism, respect for differences and acceptance of every child; socialization of children and development of humanity; overcoming the stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination. On the other hand, for the parents of children with typical development the most important thing is that the children with disability will not be aggressive towards the other children in the class, and will not decrease the quality of the teacher's work with their children.
Exploring Features for Named Entity Recognition in Lithuanian Text Corpus

Despite the existence of effective methods that solve named entity recognition tasks for such widely used languages as English, there is no clear answer which methods are the most suitable for languages that are substantially different. In this paper we attempt to solve a named entity recognition task for Lithuanian, using a supervised machine learning approach and exploring different sets of features in terms of orthographic and grammatical information, different windows, etc. Although the performance is significantly higher when language dependent features based on gazetteer lookup and automatic grammatical tools (part-of-speech tagger, lemmatizer or stemmer) are taken into account; we demonstrate that the performance does not degrade when features based on grammatical tools are replaced with affix information only. The best results (micro-averaged F-score=0.895) were obtained using all available features, but the results decreased by only 0.002 when features based on grammatical tools were omitted.
An integrated model for ICT Governance and Management applied to the Council for Evaluation, Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Higher Education Institutions in Ecuador (CEAACES)

As an effect of the modernization policy in the administrative processes inside the Ecuadorean Central Government, the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has increased during the last years within more than 300 of the most important and high-ranked public institutions. Likewise, the citizen access to Internet and eGovernment services has grown due to the democratization of the governmental ICT platform to ensure access to the most important public services, including those offered by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). However, the applicable regulatory and legal framework in the public sector has very little compliance with governance and management considerations. Our work develops a combined model for ICT governance and management based on academic models for governance and strategic alignment, aided by professional practices in the field, fully compliant with the regulatory mechanisms that operate within the Central Government of Ecuador. Also, our work analyzes the results, limitations and future work regarding the applicability of this model inside the Council for Evaluation, Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Higher Education Institutions (CEAACES) in order to support the process of continuous improvement of public higher education in Ecuador.
Computerized nuclear morphometry in the diagnosis of thyroid lesions with predominant follicular pattern

Background: Differential diagnosis of thyroid lesions with predominantly follicular pattern is one of the most common problems in thyroid pathology. Development of more objective and reproducible tools for diagnosis is needed. This work is aimed at studying the role of nuclear morphometry in differential diagnosis of different thyroid lesions having predominant follicular pattern. Material and methods: Semiautomatic image analysis system was used to measure a total of 8 nuclear parameters in 48 thyroid lesions including seven nodular goiter (NG), 14 follicular adenoma (FA), 14 follicular carcinoma (FC) and 13 follicular variant papillary carcinoma (FVPC). Results: The parameters related to nuclear size (area, perimeter, MaxD, MinD, nuclear size) and shape (L/S ratio, Form_AR) were significantly higher in neoplastic group (FA, FC, FVPC) when compared to non-neoplastic group (NG) P<0.05. The perimeter was the most reliable parameter (area under the cure (AUC)=97%) followed by area, MaxD, and size (all have AUC= 96%) then form-AR (90%), LS ratio (86%) and the least reliable was Min D (79%). Within the neoplastic group, most parameters related to size and shape of the nuclei was significantly higher in FVPC than in FA and FC (p ≤ 0.05). Nuclear area and size (AUC 77%) were the most reliable parameters for differentiation between FVPC and FA. The best cut off values for diagnosing FVPC are nuclear area ≥39. 9μm2 and nuclear size ≥27. 7μm2. However, there was no quantitative difference between FC and FA. Conclusion: Nuclear morphometric parameters may help in the differentiation between neoplastic and non-neoplastic thyroid lesions and between FVPC and follicular neoplasms (FC and FA) but they have no value in the differentiation between FC and FA.
Reactive Oxygen Species Evoked by Potassium Deprivation and Staurosporine Inactivate Akt and Induce the Expression of TXNIP in Cerebellar Granule Neurons

The reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a critical role in neuronal apoptosis; however, the mechanisms are not well understood. It has been shown that thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) overexpression renders cells more susceptible to oxidative stress and promotes apoptosis and that the activation of PI3K/Akt pathway leads to a downregulation of TXNIP. Here, we evaluated the role of ROS in the regulation of Akt activity and the subsequent regulation of the TXNIP expression in a model of apoptotic death of cerebellar granule neurons (CGN). We observed that two apoptotic conditions that generate ROS at short times led to an increase in the expression of TXNIP in a time-dependent manner; antioxidants significantly reduced this expression. Also, H2O2 caused an increase in TXNIP expression. Moreover, apoptotic conditions induced inactivation of Akt in a time-dependent manner similar to TXNIP expression and H2O2 treatment led to Akt inactivation. Besides, the pharmacological inhibition of Akt increases TXNIP expression and induces CGN cell death. Together, these results suggest that ROS promote neuronal apoptosis through the Akt-TXNIP signaling pathway, supporting the idea that the PI3K/Akt pathway regulates the TXNIP expression. This study highlights the potential importance of this mechanism in neuronal death.
The Chen-Ruan Cohomology Ring of Mirror Quintic

Abstract We compute the Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomology ring of the Batyrev mirror of a smooth quintic hypersurface in ℙ4. We identify the obstruction bundle for this example by using the Riemann bilinear relations for periods. We expect that our method can be used to compute the Chen-Ruan ring for Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in projective simplicial toric varieties when every obstruction bundle is a direct sum of orbifold line bundles.
Grad-Shafranov Approach To Axisymmetric Stationary Flows In Astrophysics

My lecture is devoted to the analytical results available for a large class of axisymmetric stationary flows in the vicinity of compact astrophysical objects. First, the most general case is formulated corresponding to the axisymmetric stationary MHD flow in the Kerr metric. Then, I discuss the hydrodynamical version of the Grad-Shafranov equation. Although not so well-known as the full MHD one, it allows us to clarify the nontrivial structure of the Grad-Shafranov approach as well as to discuss the simplest version of the 3+1-split language -- the most convenient one for the description of ideal flows in the vicinity of rotating black holes. Finally, I consider several examples that demonstrate how this approach can be used to obtain the quantitative description of the real transonic flows in the vicinity of rotating and moving black holes.
Biopsychosocial needs of survivors of testicular cancer and evidence of validation of a brief scale

Abstract The favorable prognosis of testicular cancer does not minimize immediate and late biopsychosocial implications. This study sought to determine these needs, and to evaluate the evidence of validation of a brief and specific scale for this population. A sample of 29 survivors of testicular cancer (n = 29) was assessed for distress (Distress Thermometer), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), quality of life and cognitive impairment (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-General and Cognitive Function), and specific needs (Cancer Assessment for Young Adults-Testicular). It was observed a high prevalence of distress (41.4%), a low prevalence of anxiety (6.9%) and depression (6.9%), and a moderate impact on quality of life and cognition. Self-image and sexual function were the most preponderant problems. The evidence of validation of Cancer Assessment for Young Adults-Testicular12 was verified in the psychometric analysis. Notably, biopsychosocial needs identified on global scales, and particularly in Cancer Assessment for Young Adults-Testicular12, assisted in understanding these specificities and in therapeutic planning.
Adopting robot lawyer? The extending artificial intelligence robot lawyer technology acceptance model for legal industry by an exploratory study

Abstract The development of artificial intelligence has created new opportunities and challenges in industries. The competition between robots and humans has elicited extensive attention among legal researchers. In this exploratory study, we addressed issues regarding the introduction of robots to the practice of legal service through a semistructured interviews with lawyers, judges, artificial intelligence experts, and potential clients. An extended robot lawyer technology acceptance model with five facets and 11 elements is proposed in this study. This model highlights two dimensions: ‘legal use’ and ‘perception of trust. ’ In summary, this study provides new specific implications and exhibits three characteristics, namely, derivative, macroscopic, and instructive, in the legal services with artificial intelligence. In addition, artificial intelligence robot lawyers are being developed with some of the abilities necessary to substitute for human beings. Nevertheless, working with human lawyers is imperative to produce benefits from this type of reciprocity.
Effect of Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor on the Peripheral Nerves in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rat

There are controversial reports about the effect of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in peripheral nerve protection. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of G-CSF on peripheral nerves in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. After STZ or vehicle injection, rats were divided into five groups (n=6) as follows: normal+vehicle, normal+G-CSF (50 µg/kg for 5 days), diabetes mellitus (DM)+vehicle, DM+G-CSF (50 µg/kg for 5 days), and DM+G-CSF extension (50 µg/kg for 5 days and followed by two injections per week up to 24 weeks). Our results showed that the current perception threshold was not significantly different among experimental groups. G-CSF treatment inhibited the loss of cutaneous nerves and gastric mucosal small nerve fibers in morphometric comparison, but statistical significance was not observed. The present results demonstrated that G-CSF has no harmful but minimal beneficial effects with respect to peripheral nerve preservation in diabetic rats.