Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bootstrapping for text learning tasks

When applying text learning algorithms to complex tasks, it is tedious and expensive to hand-label the large amounts of training data necessary for good performance. This paper presents bootstrapping as an alternative approach to learning from large sets of labeled data. Instead of a large quantity of labeled data, this paper advocates using a small amount of seed information and a large collection of easily-obtained unlabeled data. Bootstrapping initializes a learner with the seed information; it then iterates, applying the learner to calculate labels for the unlabeled data, and incorporating some of these labels into the training input for the learner. Two case studies of this approach are presented. Bootstrapping for information extraction provides 76% precision for a 250-word dictionary for extracting locations from web pages, when starting with just a few seed locations. Bootstrapping a text classifier from a few keywords per class and a class hierarchy provides accuracy of 66%, a level close to human agreement, when placing computer science research papers into a topic hierarchy. The success of these two examples argues for the strength of the general bootstrapping approach for text learning tasks.
An unsupervised clustering method using the entropy minimization

We address the problem of unsupervised clustering using a Bayesian framework. The entropy is considered to define a priori and enables one to overcome the problem of defining a priori the number of clusters and an initialization of their centers. A deterministic algorithm derived from the standard k-means algorithm is proposed and compared with simulated annealing algorithms. The robustness of the proposed method is shown on a magnetic resonance images database containing 65 volumetric (3D) images.
A Practical Partial Evaluation Scheme for Multi-Paradigm Declarative Languages

We present a practical partial evaluation scheme for multi-paradigm declarative languages combining features from functional, logic, and concurrent programming. In contrast to previous approaches, we consider an intermediate representation for programs into which source programs can be automatically translated. The use of this simplied representation, together with the appropriate control issues, make our partial evaluation scheme practically applicable to modern multi-paradigm declarative languages like Curry. An implementation of a partial evaluator for Curry programs has been undertaken. The partial evaluator allows the specialization of programs containing higher-order functions, calls to external functions, concurrent constraints, etc. Our partial evaluation tool is integrated in the PAKCS programming environment for the language Curry as a source-to-source transformation on intermediate programs. The partial evaluator is written in Curry itself. To the best of our knowledge, this is the rst purely declarative partial evaluator for a multi-paradigm functional logic language.
Testing causality in the association between regular exercise and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

CONTEXT In the population at large, regular exercise is associated with reduced anxious and depressive symptoms. Results of experimental studies in clinical populations suggest a causal effect of exercise on anxiety and depression, but it is unclear whether such a causal effect also drives the population association. We cannot exclude the major contribution of a third underlying factor influencing exercise behavior and symptoms of anxiety and depression. OBJECTIVE To test causal effects of exercise on anxious and depressive symptoms in a population-based sample. DESIGN Population-based longitudinal study (1991-2002) in a genetically informative sample of twin families. SETTING Causal effects of exercise were tested by bivariate genetic modeling of the association between exercise and symptoms of anxiety and depression, correlation of intrapair differences in these traits among genetically identical twins, and longitudinal modeling of changes in exercise behavior and anxious and depressive symptoms. PARTICIPANTS A total of 5952 twins from the Netherlands Twin Register, 1357 additional siblings, and 1249 parents. All participants were aged 18 to 50 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS Survey data about leisure-time exercise (metabolic equivalent task hours per week based on type, frequency, and duration of exercise) and 4 scales of anxious and depressive symptoms (depression, anxiety, somatic anxiety, and neuroticism, plus a composite score). RESULTS Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations were small and were best explained by common genetic factors with opposite effects on exercise behavior and symptoms of anxiety and depression. In genetically identical twin pairs, the twin who exercised more did not display fewer anxious and depressive symptoms than the co-twin who exercised less. Longitudinal analyses showed that increases in exercise participation did not predict decreases in anxious and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION Regular exercise is associated with reduced anxious and depressive symptoms in the population at large, but the association is not because of causal effects of exercise.
FastRoute: A Scalable Load-Aware Anycast Routing Architecture for Modern CDNs

Performance of online applications directly impacts user satisfaction. A major component of the user-perceived performance of the application is the time spent in transit between the user's device and the application existing in data centers. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are typically used to improve user-perceived application performance through a combination of caching and intelligent routing via proxies. In this paper, we describe FastRoute, a highly scalable and operational anycast-based system that has significantly improved the performance of numerous popular online services. While anycast is a common technique in modern CDNs for providing high-performance proximity routing, it sacrifices control over the load arriving at any individual proxy. We demonstrate that by collocating DNS and proxy services in each FastRoute node location, we can create a high-performance, completely distributed system for routing users to a nearby proxy while still enabling the graceful avoidance of overload an any individual proxy.
Evolution of Premalignant Disease.

Where does cancer come from? Although the cell-of-origin is difficult to pinpoint, cancer clones harbor information about their clonal ancestries. In an effort to find cells before they evolve into a life-threatening cancer, physicians currently diagnose premalignant diseases at frequencies that substantially exceed those of clinical cancers. Cancer risk prediction relies on our ability to distinguish between which premalignant features will lead to cancer mortality and which are characteristic of inconsequential disease. Here, we review the evolution of cancer from premalignant disease, and discuss the concept that even phenotypically normal cell progenies inherently gain more malignant potential with age. We describe the hurdles of prognosticating cancer risk in premalignant disease by making reference to the underlying continuous and multivariate natures of genotypes and phenotypes and the particular challenge inherent in defining a cell lineage as "cancerized. "
A comprehensive review of water quality control on lentic ecosystem through the water quality, IoT and aeration models

Eutrophication is the term used to describe the phenomenon in which a body of water becomes excessively loaded with nutrients, leading to a population of basic plant life. Excessive growth of algae and planktonic organism’s manifests as blooms on the water surface. Eutrophication gets worse in a lentic ecosystem when there is no outflow or water movement, resulting in the accumulation of pollutants on the surface. Water quality measurements, including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), exhibit correlations with one another. Therefore, this article provides a comprehensive review of the water quality model, aeration system, and IoT technology. The water quality model enables the development of forecasts on future water quality. Therefore, effective water quality management can be strategized based on the specific attributes of the water. In addition, an aeration system is a technology used to improve water quality by enhancing oxygen levels and decreasing nutrient levels. Furthermore, it has been shown that real-time surveillance with IoT technology can enhance precision, effectiveness, and reduce time consumption. Therefore, it is important to priorities the implementation of water quality model, aeration, and IoT technology since they offer significant benefits in controlling water quality.
A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Neural Dissociations between Brand and Person Judgments

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate whether semantic judgments about products and persons are processed similarly. Our results suggest they are not: comparisons of neural correlates of product versus human descriptor judgments indicated greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex regions for persons; for products, activation was greater in the left inferior prefrontal cortex, an area known to be involved in object processing. These findings serve to challenge the view that processing of products and brands is akin to that of humans and set a precedent for the use of fMRI techniques in consumer neuroscience studies.
IODINE AND THE THYROID

This paper deals with experiments undertaken with the object of determining, by quantitative feeding, the approximate amount of elemental iodine necessary to induce complete metamorphosis in normal and thyroidless toad larvae, reared under identical environmental conditions. In previous studies on the relation of iodine to the thyroid, I as determlned by feeding this halogen and its compounds to tadpoles, the experimental evidence led to the suggestion that probably the chief function of I he l hyroid apparatus, at any rate in the Anura, is the extraction from the blood, and storage of the extremely minute quantities of iodine taken into the body by means of food and water, and the subsequent release of this substance perhaps in a modified form, as. the thyroid hor~ one. The purpose of this experiment was to test the validity of this conclusion, for it is evident, that if the thyroid apparatus in Anura serves the purpose of collecting, storing, and transforming the incoming iodine into a more active hormonic agent, then tadpoles possessing nor~ al thyroid glands should react more promptly by metamorphosis to iodine feeding than tadpoles of similar age and parentage, whose thyroids had been removed before the period of their first functioning, and hence were devoid of the requisite mechanism for collecting, storing, and transforming iodine. Moreover, it was hoped that such an experiment would show whether or not there is an irreducible minimum quantity of iodine required by anurans for metamorphosis.
ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids direct differentiation of the membrane phenotype in mesenchymal stem cells to potentiate osteogenesis

Dietary lipids change membrane phenotypes, which can be used to affect lineage specification in stem cells. Mammalian cells produce hundreds of dynamically regulated lipid species that are actively turned over and trafficked to produce functional membranes. These lipid repertoires are susceptible to perturbations from dietary sources, with potentially profound physiological consequences. However, neither the lipid repertoires of various cellular membranes, their modulation by dietary fats, nor their effects on cellular phenotypes have been widely explored. We report that differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into osteoblasts or adipocytes results in extensive remodeling of the plasma membrane (PM), producing cell-specific membrane compositions and biophysical properties. The distinct features of osteoblast PMs enabled rational engineering of membrane phenotypes to modulate differentiation in MSCs. Specifically, supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a lipid component characteristic of osteoblast membranes, induced broad lipidomic remodeling in MSCs that reproduced compositional and structural aspects of the osteoblastic PM phenotype. The PM changes induced by DHA supplementation potentiated osteogenic differentiation of MSCs concurrent with enhanced Akt activation at the PM. These observations prompt a model wherein the DHA-induced lipidome leads to more stable membrane microdomains, which serve to increase Akt activity and thereby enhance osteogenic differentiation. More broadly, our investigations suggest a general mechanism by which dietary fats affect cellular physiology through remodeling of membrane lipidomes, biophysical properties, and signaling.
Farm and non-farm income diversification activities among rural households in southeast, Nigeria

The study assessed farm and non-farm income diversification activities among rural households in Southeast, Nigeria. Purposive and multi-stage random sampling techniques were used to collection data from three hundred and sixty (360) rural households using structured interview schedule. Means, percentage and frequency count were used to analyse the objectives of the study. The result showed that 82.5 % of rural households diversified their income sources into other non-farm activities as against 17.5% that depended solely to farm activities. Further analysis indicated that 64.4 % of the rural households engaged in crop production, 46.9 % practiced livestock production, 5% were into collection of forestry products, 13.1 % engaged in farm products processing while 23.3 % engaged in storage and marketing of agricultural products. However, the various non-farm activities diversified into by the households were: petty trading (53.53 %), storage and marketing of agricultural commodities (31.31 %), sale of landed property (15.82 %), agricultural wage labour (16.84 %) and hire purchase (9.09 %). Others included rental services (19.52 %), transportation (example taxis, motorcycle and tri-cycle business) (21.21 %), craftsmanship (13.46 %) and civil/public service jobs (28.28 %). The study recommended that government should improve rural infrastructures like good road network, electrification, potable water, telecommunication service, and affordable healthcare system since they are important for enhancing socio-economic activities. It is also recommended that government should initiate policy for reducing risk and uncertainties inherent in agricultural activities in order to encourage farmers to remain in the business of farming. Keywords: Diversification, economic activities, rural households, livelihood, South East Nigeria
Feedback Cleaning of Machine Translation Rules Using Automatic Evaluation

When rules of transfer-based machine translation (MT) are automatically acquired from bilingual corpora, incorrect/redundant rules are generated due to acquisition errors or translation variety in the corpora. As a new countermeasure to this problem, we propose a feedback cleaning method using automatic evaluation of MT quality, which removes incorrect/redundant rules as a way to increase the evaluation score. BLEU is utilized for the automatic evaluation. The hill-climbing algorithm, which involves features of this task, is applied to searching for the optimal combination of rules. Our experiments show that the MT quality improves by 10% in test sentences according to a subjective evaluation. This is considerable improvement over previous methods.
Demographics and trends in overweight and obesity in patients at time of kidney transplantation.

BACKGROUND The epidemic of overweight and obesity is one of the most serious public health problems in the United States, although information regarding its effect on chronic kidney transplant patients is sparse. The authors describe the prevalence, demographics, and trends in overweight and obesity at the time of kidney transplantation. METHODS Data were obtained from a national transplant database that included all kidney transplants since 1987. Body mass indices (BMI) at time of transplantation were stratified by demographic categories and year. Trends of overweight and obesity between the general population and subjects undergoing kidney transplantation were compared. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify variables associated with increased likelihood of being obese. RESULTS The majority (60%) of subjects at time of transplantation currently are overweight or obese. Between 1987 and 2001, the proportion of obese transplant recipients rose by 116%. The rate of increase was grossly similar to that in the general population. The likelihood of being obese increased with age, female sex, noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, black race, and the more recent the transplant year. Conversely, the proportion of recipients with lower BMI fell by approximately 50%. CONCLUSIONS Overweight and obesity are very prevalent at the time of kidney transplantation and are eclipsing protein-energy malnutrition as the more common nutritional illness. This may have profound negative effects on patient and allograft outcomes. Nephrologists may need to reexamine traditional notions of nutritional disease and therapeutic strategies to more effectively deal with this formidable challenge.
Pure haploinsufficiency for Dravet syndrome NaV1.1 (SCN1A) sodium channel truncating mutations

Purpose: Dravet syndrome (DS), a devastating epileptic encephalopathy, is mostly caused by mutations of the SCN1A gene, coding for the voltage‐gated Na+ channel NaV1.1 α subunit. About 50% of SCN1A DS mutations truncate NaV1.1, possibly causing complete loss of its function. However, it has not been investigated yet if NaV1.1 truncated mutants are dominant negative, if they impair expression or function of wild‐type channels, as it has been shown for truncated mutants of other proteins (e.g., CaV channels). We studied the effect of two DS truncated NaV1.1 mutants, R222* and R1234*, on coexpressed wild‐type Na+ channels.
Assumption based multi-valued semantics for extended logic programs

The paper presents an approach for handling uncertain information in extended logic programs using multi-valued logics defined by bilattices. Uncertainty means that the atoms may be assigned logical values other than the conventional ones - true and false, in the semantics of the program. The logical values represent various degrees of truth, which may be combined and propagated by applying the program rules. However, as not any atom can be derived through the program rules, the resulting incomplete information problem is treated here by using assumptions, according to which atoms not derivable may be assigned a (default) logical value. Our approach extends the concept of assumption by employing any value from the considered multi-valued logic as a default value. We define the assumption based multi-valued semantics that extends successful conventional logic programming semantics as the well-founded semantics and the Kripke-Kleene semantics. We show that our semantics has a polynomial data complexity.
Quantifying environmental effects of Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) on biodiversity, soil and water

a joint effort by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Johann Heinrich von ThünenInstitute (vTI), University of Rostock, Chalmers University of Technology, Georg-August University of Goettingen, University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde, Biop Institut and Buro for Applied Landscape Ecology and Scenario Analysis. The report addresses environmental effects of short rotation coppice production. The purpose of the report was to produce an unbiased, authoritative statement on this topic based on a review of relevant scientific literature. Quantifying environmental effects of Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) on biodiversity, soil and water
Magnetization transfer measurements of the hippocampus in patients with Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and other types of dementia.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although atrophy of structures in the medial temporal lobe has been considered an indication of Alzheimer's disease (AD), atrophic changes on MR images have also been associated with other dementing diseases and are not specific to AD. This study was undertaken to determine whether characteristic alterations in the hippocampus of patients with AD are detectable with magnetization transfer (MT) imaging. METHODS Coronal MT imaging was performed in 35 patients with probable AD, in 14 patients with vascular dementia, in 13 patients with other types of dementia, and in 23 control subjects to measure MT ratios of the hippocampus. Medial temporal lobe atrophy was graded subjectively on a five-point scale. RESULTS Scores of medial temporal lobe atrophy in all dementia groups were significantly higher than those in control subjects, but no differences were found among the dementia groups. MT ratios in the hippocampus were significantly lower in patients with AD than in those with non-AD dementia and in the control subjects; however, no differences were found between the non-AD dementia patients and the control subjects. MT ratio measurements were better than visual analysis of atrophy for differentiating AD patients from those with non-AD dementia (an overall discrimination rate of 77% versus 65%). MT ratios significantly correlated with scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination and with medial temporal lobe atrophy in AD patients but not in patients with non-AD dementia. CONCLUSION MT measurements may be more specific than visual analysis in detecting structural damage of the hippocampus in AD patients and might be useful in discriminating AD from vascular dementia and other types of dementia.
RRD-SLAM: Radial-distorted rolling-shutter direct SLAM

In this paper, we present a monocular direct semi-dense SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) method that can handle both radial distortion and rolling-shutter distortion. Such distortions are common in, but not restricted to, situations when an inexpensive wide-angle lens and a CMOS sensor are used, and leads to significant inaccuracy in the map and trajectory estimates if not modeled correctly. The apparent naive solution of simply undistorting the images using pre-calibrated parameters does not apply to this case since rows in the undistorted image are no longer captured at the same time. To address this we develop an algorithm that incorporates radial distortion into an existing state-of-the-art direct semi-dense SLAM system that takes rolling-shutters into account. We propose a method for finding the generalized epipolar curve for each rolling-shutter radially distorted image. Our experiments demonstrate the efficacy of our approach and compare it favorably with the state-of-the-art in direct semi-dense rolling-shutter SLAM.