Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Principal differential analysis with a continuous covariate: low-dimensional approximations for functional data

Given a collection of n curves that are independent realizations of a functional variable, we are interested in finding patterns in the curve data by exploring low-dimensional approximations to the curves. It is assumed that the data curves are noisy samples from the vector space span <texlscub>f 1, …, f m </texlscub>, where f 1, …, f m are unknown functions on the real interval (0, T) with square-integrable derivatives of all orders m or less, and m<n. Ramsay [Principal differential analysis: Data reduction by differential operators, J. R. Statist. Soc. Ser. B 58 (1996), pp. 495–508] first proposed the method of regularized principal differential analysis (PDA) as an alternative to principal component analysis for finding low-dimensional approximations to curves. PDA is based on the following theorem: there exists an annihilating linear differential operator (LDO) ℒ of order m such that ℒf i =0, i=1, …, m [E.A. Coddington and N. Levinson, Theory of Ordinary Differential Equations, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1955, Theorem 6.2]. PDA specifies m, then uses the data to estimate an annihilating LDO. Smooth estimates of the coefficients of the LDO are obtained by minimizing a penalized sum of the squared norm of the residuals. In this context, the residual is that part of the data curve that is not annihilated by the LDO. PDA obtains the smooth low dimensional approximation to the data curves by projecting onto the null space of the estimated annihilating LDO; PDA is thus useful for obtaining low-dimensional approximations to the data curves whether or not the interpretation of the annihilating LDO is intuitive or obvious from the context of the data. This paper extends PDA to allow for the coefficients in the LDO to smoothly depend upon a single continuous covariate. The estimating equations for the coefficients allowing for a continuous covariate are derived; the penalty of Eilers and Marx [Flexible smoothing with B-splines and penalties, Statist. Sci. 11(2) (1996), pp. 89–121] is used to impose smoothness. The results of a small computer simulation study investigating the bias and variance properties of the estimator are reported.
Projected changes in mean rainfall and temperature over East Africa based on CMIP5 models

This study presents potential future variations of mean rainfall and temperature over East Africa (EA) based on five models that participated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs): 4.5 and 8.5. In this study, climate simulations of two timeframes, a baseline period (1961–1990) and projection period (2071–2100), are compared. The models reproduce EA's bimodal rainfall pattern but overestimate and underestimate seasonal rainfall of October–December (OND) and March–May (MAM), respectively. Rainfall is projected to increase under the two scenarios. Larger increases in rainfall will occur during the OND season than during the MAM season and in RCP8.5 than in RCP4.5. During the last half of the 21st century, EA is likely to warm by 1.7–2.8 and 2.2–5.4 °C under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively, relative to the baseline period. Scenario uncertainty is projected to exceed model uncertainty from the middle to the end of the 21st century. The central parts of Kenya and the Lake Victoria Basin will witness the highest increases in seasonal rainfall. The probability density functions (PDFs) of future seasonal rainfall show a positive shift and a statistically insignificant increase in variance relative to the baseline. Thus, EA is likely to experience an increase in extreme rainfall events. Understanding the future climate variability in EA is important for planning purposes but these results are based on relatively course resolution models prone to bias and therefore should be used with caution. There is a need for further research on climate projections over EA, including determining the causes of the poor performance of global models in reproducing rainfall climatology and trends over the region.
Normal Postprandial Nonesterified Fatty Acid Uptake in Muscles Despite Increased Circulating Fatty Acids in Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Postprandial plasma nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) appearance is increased in type 2 diabetes. Our objective was to determine whether skeletal muscle uptake of plasma NEFA is abnormal during the postprandial state in type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Thigh muscle blood flow and oxidative metabolism indexes and NEFA uptake were determined using positron emission tomography coupled with computed tomography (PET/CT) with [11C]acetate and 14(R,S)-[18F]fluoro-6-thia-heptadecanoic acid (18FTHA) in seven healthy control subjects (CON) and seven subjects with type 2 diabetes during continuous oral intake of a liquid meal to achieve steady postprandial NEFA levels with insulin infusion to maintain similar plasma glucose levels in both groups. RESULTS In the postprandial state, plasma NEFA level was higher in type 2 diabetic subjects versus CON (P < 0.01), whereas plasma glucose was at the same level in both groups. Muscle NEFA fractional extraction and blood flow index levels were 56% (P < 0.05) and 24% (P = 0.27) lower in type 2 diabetes, respectively. However, muscle NEFA uptake was similar to that of CON (quadriceps femoris [QF] 1.47 ± 0.23 vs. 1.37 ± 0.24 nmol ⋅ g−1 ⋅ min−1, P = 0.77; biceps femoris [BF] 1.54 ± 0.26 vs. 1.46 ± 0.28 nmol ⋅ g−1 ⋅ min−1, P = 0.85). Muscle oxidative metabolism was similar in both groups. Muscle NEFA fractional extraction and blood flow index were strongly and positively correlated (r = 0.79, P < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS Postprandial muscle NEFA uptake is normal despite elevated systemic NEFA levels and acute normalization of plasma glucose in type 2 diabetes. Lower postprandial muscle blood flow with resulting reduction in muscle NEFA fractional extraction may explain this phenomenon.
Predicting Audio Advertisement Quality

Online audio advertising is a particular form of advertising used abundantly in online music streaming services. In these platforms, which tend to host tens of thousands of unique audio advertisements (ads), providing high quality ads ensures a better user experience and results in longer user engagement. Therefore, the automatic assessment of these ads is an important step toward audio ads ranking and better audio ads creation. In this paper we propose one way to measure the quality of the audio ads using a proxy metric called Long Click Rate (LCR), which is defined by the amount of time a user engages with the follow-up display ad (that is shown while the audio ad is playing) divided by the impressions. We later focus on predicting the audio ad quality using only acoustic features such as harmony, rhythm, and timbre of the audio, extracted from the raw waveform. We discuss how the characteristics of the sound can be connected to concepts such as the clarity of the audio ad message, its trustworthiness, etc. Finally, we propose a new deep learning model for audio ad quality prediction, which outperforms the other discussed models trained on hand-crafted features. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale audio ad quality prediction study.
A cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the chornobyl accident: thyroid cancer in Ukraine detected during first screening.

BACKGROUND The Chornobyl accident in 1986 exposed thousands of people to radioactive iodine isotopes, particularly (131)I; this exposure was followed by a large increase in thyroid cancer among those exposed as children and adolescents, particularly in Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. Here we report the results of the first cohort study of thyroid cancer among those exposed as children and adolescents following the Chornobyl accident. METHODS A cohort of 32 385 individuals younger than 18 years of age and resident in the most heavily contaminated areas in Ukraine at the time of the accident was invited to be screened for any thyroid pathology by ultrasound and palpation between 1998 and 2000; 13 127 individuals (44%) were actually screened. Individual estimates of radiation dose to the thyroid were available for all screenees based on radioactivity measurements made shortly after the accident and on interview data. The excess relative risk per gray (Gy) was estimated using individual doses and a linear excess relative risk model. RESULTS Forty-five pathologically confirmed cases of thyroid cancer were found during the 1998-2000 screening. Thyroid cancer showed a strong, monotonic, and approximately linear relationship with individual thyroid dose estimate (P<.001), yielding an estimated excess relative risk of 5.25 per Gy (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.70 to 27.5). Greater age at exposure was associated with decreased risk of radiation-related thyroid cancer, although this interaction effect was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION Exposure to radioactive iodine was strongly associated with increased risk of thyroid cancer among those exposed as children and adolescents. In the absence of Chornobyl radiation, 11.2 thyroid cancer cases would have been expected compared with the 45 observed, i.e., a reduction of 75% (95% CI = 50% to 93%). The study also provides quantitative risk estimates minimally confounded by any screening effects. Caution should be exercised in generalizing these results to any future similar accidents because of the potential differences in the nature of the radioactive iodines involved, the duration and temporal patterns of exposures, and the susceptibility of the exposed population.
Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography-Based Spinal Navigation in Minimally Invasive Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Feasibility, Technique, and Initial Results

BACKGROUND: As with most minimally invasive spine procedures, lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) requires the use of biplanar fluoroscopy for localization and safe interbody cage placement. Computed tomography (CT)-based intraoperative spinal navigation has been shown to be more effective than fluoroscopic guidance for posterior-based approaches such as pedicle screw instrumentation. However, the use of spinal navigation in LLIF has not been well studied. OBJECTIVE: To present the technique for using an intraoperative cone-beam CT and image-guided navigation system in LLIF and to provide a preliminary analysis of outcomes. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed a prospectively acquired database and the electronic records of patients undergoing LLIF with spinal navigation. Eight patients were identified. Postoperative neurological deficits were recorded. All patients underwent postprocedural CT and x-ray imaging for analysis of accuracy of cage placement. Accuracy of cage placement was determined by location within the disk space. RESULTS: The mean age was 66 years, and 6 patients were women. A mean 2.8 levels were treated with a total of 22 lateral cages implanted via navigation. All cages were placed within quarters 1 to 2 or 2 to 3, signifying the anterior half or middle portions of the disk space. There were no sensory or motor deficits postoperatively. CONCLUSION: Use of an intraoperative cone-beam CT with an image-guided navigation system is feasible and safe and appears to be accurate, although a larger study is required to confirm these results. ABBREVIATIONS: ASIS, anterior superior iliac spine iCBCT, intraoperative cone-beam computed tomography IGNS, image-guided navigation system LLIF, lateral lumbar interbody fusion
Cloud Condensate and Radiative Feedbacks at Midlatitudes in an Aquaplanet

Climate models show a robust negative feedback in the midlatitudes, coincident with an increase in cloud liquid in the mixed‐phase region of the control climate. This “mixed‐phase feedback” is normally attributed to a feedback caused by a phase change feedback (ice to liquid). Here we use an aquaplanet configuration to investigate this in more detail. We use high‐frequency instantaneous diagnostics and composite them in ascending and descending regimes. We find that a large fraction of the increase in cloud liquid water in the mixed‐phase region does not significantly contribute to the radiative feedback due to a masking effect of the ice cloud above. Using some simple arguments and approximate calculations, we estimate that about one third of the total shortwave negative radiative feedback is driven by a phase change feedback, whereas the rest of the feedback is driven by changes in ice and warm liquid clouds.
A Comparative Study of Potential Evapotranspiration Estimation by Eight Methods with FAO Penman–Monteith Method in Southwestern China

Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is crucial for water resources assessment. In this regard, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)–Penman–Monteith method (PM) is commonly recognized as a standard method for PET estimation. However, due to requirement of detailed meteorological data, the application of PM is often constrained in many regions. Under such circumstances, an alternative method with similar efficiency to that of PM needs to be identified. In this study, three radiation-based methods, Makkink (Mak), Abtew (Abt), and Priestley–Taylor (PT), and five temperature-based methods, Hargreaves–Samani (HS), Thornthwaite (Tho), Hamon (Ham), Linacre (Lin), and Blaney–Criddle (BC), were compared with PM at yearly and seasonal scale, using long-term (50 years) data from 90 meteorology stations in southwest China. Indicators, viz. (videlicet) Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), relative error (Re), normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE), and coefficient of determination (R2) were used to evaluate the performance of PET estimations by the above-mentioned eight methods. The results showed that the performance of the methods in PET estimation varied among regions; HS, PT, and Abt overestimated PET, while others underestimated. In Sichuan basin, Mak, Abt and HS yielded similar estimations to that of PM, while, in Yun-Gui plateau, Abt, Mak, HS, and PT showed better performances. Mak performed the best in the east Tibetan Plateau at yearly and seasonal scale, while HS showed a good performance in summer and autumn. In the arid river valley, HS, Mak, and Abt performed better than the others. On the other hand, Tho, Ham, Lin, and BC could not be used to estimate PET in some regions. In general, radiation-based methods for PET estimation performed better than temperature-based methods among the selected methods in the study area. Among the radiation-based methods, Mak performed the best, while HS showed the best performance among the temperature-based methods.
Comparative study of 1+PRN ranibizumab versus bevacizumab in the clinical setting

Purpose We compared the efficacy of intravitreal ranibizumab and bevacizumab for treating neovascular age-related macular degeneration using an on-demand regimen. Methods A total of 186 wet age-related macular degeneration eyes of 186 treatment-naïve patients were compared retrospectively (67 eyes treated with ranibizumab with 91 treated with bevacizumab). At baseline, mean age, best corrected visual acuity, and angiographic lesion types were similar in both groups. Best corrected visual acuity and ocular coherence tomography were evaluated. Results Sixty eyes treated with ranibizumab and 85 eyes treated with bevacizumab completed a 12-month evaluation. At 12 months, mean best corrected visual acuity increased by +6.65 letters with ranibizumab treatment and by +5.59 with bevacizumab treatment (P = 0.64). Visual acuity improved by ≥15 letters in 15 eyes treated with ranibizumab and in 21 eyes treated with bevacizumab (P = 0.75). An overall reduction in ocular coherence tomography central thickness occurred for all time points. The mean number of injections per eye was 5.97 with ranibizumab and 5.92 with bevacizumab (P = 0.90). Conclusion Intravitreal therapies with ranibizumab or bevacizumab have similar visual and anatomical results. These results confirm those of comparison of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatment Trials in as-needed cohorts in clinical practice. Randomized long-term clinical trials are necessary to examine the systemic safety of these treatments.
Figure 1 : Land Use Pattern in the Waikato Region

This study describes the development of bio economic models examining the economic and water quality impact of various proposed policy options in the Upper Waikato catchment. In the first phase nitrogen emissions are determined for representative farming systems using the Overseer nutrient budget model. These model components are integrated into an economic model, which predicts producer responses to various policy options. The second phase determines catchment wide costs and water quality impacts of riparian buffers by combining geographic information system, bio economic modelling and experimental data. The results of the study signals directions for policy initiatives and further analysis exploring policy design and all costs associated with production adjustment.
Collective Mind, Part II: Towards Performance- and Cost-Aware Software Engineering as a Natural Science

Nowadays, engineers have to develop software often without even knowing which hardware it will eventually run on in numerous mobile phones, tablets, desktops, laptops, data centers, supercomputers and cloud services. Unfortunately, optimizing compilers are not keeping pace with ever increasing complexity of computer systems anymore and may produce severely underperforming executable codes while wasting expensive resources and energy. We present our practical and collaborative solution to this problem via light-weight wrappers around any software piece when more than one implementation or optimization choice available. These wrappers are connected with a public Collective Mind autotuning infrastructure and repository of knowledge (c-mind.org/repo) to continuously monitor various important characteristics of these pieces (computational species) across numerous existing hardware configurations together with randomly selected optimizations. Similar to natural sciences, we can now continuously track winning solutions (optimizations for a given hardware) that minimize all costs of a computation (execution time, energy spent, code size, failures, memory and storage footprint, optimization time, faults, contentions, inaccuracy and so on) of a given species on a Pareto frontier along with any unexpected behavior. The community can then collaboratively classify solutions, prune redundant ones, and correlate them with various features of software, its inputs (data sets) and used hardware either manually or using powerful predictive analytics techniques. Our approach can then help create a large, realistic, diverse, representative, and continuously evolving benchmark with related optimization knowledge while gradually covering all possible software and hardware to be able to predict best optimizations and improve compilers and hardware depending on usage scenarios and requirements.
Everything robots always wanted to know about housework (but were afraid to ask)

In this paper we discuss the problem of action-specific knowledge processing, representation and acquisition by autonomous robots performing everyday activities. We report on a thorough analysis of the household domain, which has been performed on a large corpus of natural-language instructions from the Web and underlines the supreme need of action-specific knowledge for robots acting in those environments. We introduce the concept of Probabilistic Robot Action Cores (PRAC) that are well-suited for encoding such knowledge in a probabilistic first-order knowledge base. We additionally show how such a knowledge base can be acquired by natural language and we address the problems of incompleteness, underspecification and ambiguity of naturalistic action specifications and point out how PRAC models can tackle those.
Sustained Reduction of the Dengue Vector Population Resulting from an Integrated Control Strategy Applied in Two Brazilian Cities

Aedes aegypti has developed evolution-driven adaptations for surviving in the domestic human habitat. Several trap models have been designed considering these strategies and tested for monitoring this efficient vector of Dengue. Here, we report a real-scale evaluation of a system for monitoring and controlling mosquito populations based on egg sampling coupled with geographic information systems technology. The SMCP-Aedes, a system based on open technology and open data standards, was set up from March/2008 to October/2011 as a pilot trial in two sites of Pernambuco -Brazil: Ipojuca (10,000 residents) and Santa Cruz (83,000), in a joint effort of health authorities and staff, and a network of scientists providing scientific support. A widespread infestation by Aedes was found in both sites in 2008–2009, with 96.8%–100% trap positivity. Egg densities were markedly higher in SCC than in Ipojuca. A 90% decrease in egg density was recorded in SCC after two years of sustained control pressure imposed by suppression of >7,500,000 eggs and >3,200 adults, plus larval control by adding fishes to cisterns. In Ipojuca, 1.1 million mosquito eggs were suppressed and a 77% reduction in egg density was achieved. This study aimed at assessing the applicability of a system using GIS and spatial statistic analysis tools for quantitative assessment of mosquito populations. It also provided useful information on the requirements for reducing well-established mosquito populations. Results from two cities led us to conclude that the success in markedly reducing an Aedes population required the appropriate choice of control measures for sustained mass elimination guided by a user-friendly mosquito surveillance system. The system was able to support interventional decisions and to assess the program’s success. Additionally, it created a stimulating environment for health staff and residents, which had a positive impact on their commitment to the dengue control program.
Experimental Comparison Study for Savonius Wind Turbine of Two & Three Blades At Low Wind Speed

In this project, experimental comparison and investigations were carried out to study the performance and to make a comparison between two and three blades Savonius wind turbine. For this purpose, two models of two and three blades were designed and fabricated from Aluminum sheet, each of them has an aspect ratio of ( As = H/D =1), the dimension is ( H = 200 mm height and diameter D = 200 mm) and the blades were made of semi – cylindrical half of diameter (d = 100 mm). The two models were assembled to have (overlap e = 0 and a separation gap e ' = 0). These two models were tested and investigated by using a subsonic wind tunnel that was fabricated for this purpose under a low wind speed due to many reason mostly that the savonius wind turbine has its maximum performance at (λ = TSR = 1) and a high starting torque at low wind speed. It was observed from the measured and calculated results that the two blades savonius wind turbine is more efficient, it has higher power coefficient under the same test condition than that of three blades savonius wind turbine. The reason is that increasing the number of blades will increase the drag surfaces against the wind air flow and causes to increase the reverse torque and leads to decrease the net torque working on the blades of savonius wind turbine.