Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic classification of environmental noise events by hidden Markov models

The automatic classification of environmental noise sources from their acoustic signatures recorded at the microphone of a noise monitoring system (NMS) is an active subject of research nowadays. This paper shows how hidden Markov models (HMMs) can be used to build an environmental noise recognition system based on a time-frequency analysis of the noise signal. The performance of the proposed HMM-based approach is evaluated experimentally for the classification of five types of noise events (car, truck, moped, aircraft, train). The HMM-based approach is found to outperform previously proposed classifiers based on the average spectrum of the noise event with more than 95% of correct classifications. For comparison, a classification test is performed with human listeners for the same data which shows that the best HMM-based classifier outperforms the "average" human listener who achieves only 91.8% of correct classification for the same task.
A 12-week lutein supplementation improves visual function in Chinese people with long-term computer display light exposure

We aimed to examine the effect of different doses of lutein supplementation on visual function in subjects with long-term computer display light exposure. Thirty-seven healthy subjects with long-term computer display light exposure ranging in age from 22 to 30 years were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group L6 (6 mg lutein/d, n 12); Group L12 (12 mg lutein/d, n 13); and Group Placebo (maltodextrin placebo, n 12). Levels of serum lutein and visual performance indices such as visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and glare sensitivity were measured at weeks 0 and 12. After 12-week lutein supplementation, serum lutein concentrations of Groups L6 and L12 increased from 0·356 (sd 0·117) to 0·607 (sd 0·176) μmol/l, and from 0·328 (sd 0·120) to 0·733 (sd 0·354) μmol/l, respectively. No statistical changes from baseline were observed in uncorrected visual acuity and best-spectacle corrected visual acuity, whereas there was a trend toward increase in visual acuity in Group L12. Contrast sensitivity in Groups L6 and L12 increased with supplementation, and statistical significance was reached at most visual angles of Group L12. No significant change was observed in glare sensitivity over time. Visual function in healthy subjects who received the lutein supplement improved, especially in contrast sensitivity, suggesting that a higher intake of lutein may have beneficial effects on the visual performance.
Constructive Interference Based Secure Precoding: A New Dimension in Physical Layer Security

Conventionally, interference and noise are treated as catastrophic elements in wireless communications. However, it has been shown recently that exploiting known interference constructively can contribute to signal detection ability at the receiving end. This paper exploits this concept to design artificial noise (AN) beamformers constructive to the intended receiver (IR) yet keeping AN disruptive to possible eavesdroppers (Eves). The scenario considered here is a multiple-input single-output wiretap channel with multiple Eves. This paper starts from AN design without any knowledge of Eve’s CSI, builds with solutions with statistical CSI up to full CSI. Both perfect and imperfect channel information have been considered, in particular, with different extent of Eves’ channel responses. The main objective is to improve the receive signal-to-interference and noise ratio at IR through exploitation of AN power in an attempt to minimize the total transmit power, while hindering detection at the Eves. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed constructive AN precoding approach yields superior performance over conventional AN schemes in terms of transmit power. Critically, they show that, while the statistical constraints of conventional approaches may lead to instantaneous IR outages and security breaches from the Eves, the instantaneous constraints of our approach guarantee both IR performance and secrecy at every symbol period.
hnRNP L controls HPV16 RNA polyadenylation and splicing in an Akt kinase-dependent manner

Abstract Inhibition of the Akt kinase activates HPV16 late gene expression by reducing HPV16 early polyadenylation and by activating HPV16 late L1 mRNA splicing. We identified ‘hot spots’ for RNA binding proteins at the early polyA signal and at splice sites on HPV16 late mRNAs. We observed that hnRNP L was associated with sequences at all HPV16 late splice sites and at the early polyA signal. Akt kinase inhibition resulted in hnRNP L dephosphorylation and reduced association of hnRNP L with HPV16 mRNAs. This was accompanied by an increased binding of U2AF65 and Sam68 to HPV16 mRNAs. Furthermore, siRNA knock-down of hnRNP L or Akt induced HPV16 gene expression. Treatment of HPV16 immortalized keratinocytes with Akt kinase inhibitor reduced hnRNP L binding to HPV16 mRNAs and induced HPV16 L1 mRNA production. Finally, deletion of the hnRNP L binding sites in HPV16 subgenomic expression plasmids resulted in activation of HPV16 late gene expression. In conclusion, the Akt kinase inhibits HPV16 late gene expression at the level of RNA processing by controlling the RNA-binding protein hnRNP L. We speculate that Akt kinase activity upholds an intracellular milieu that favours HPV16 early gene expression and suppresses HPV16 late gene expression.
Learning Policies for Markov Decision Processes From Data

We consider the problem of learning a policy for a Markov decision process consistent with data captured on the state-action pairs followed by the policy. We parameterize the policy using features associated with the state-action pairs. The features can be handcrafted or defined using kernel functions in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. In either case, the set of features can be large and only a small, unknown subset may need to be used to fit a specific policy to the data. The parameters of such a policy are recovered using <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _1$</tex-math></inline-formula>-regularized logistic regression. We establish bounds on the difference between the average reward of the estimated and the unknown original policies (regret) in terms of the generalization error and the ergodic coefficient of the underlying Markov chain. To that end, we combine sample complexity theory and sensitivity analysis of the stationary distribution of Markov chains. Our analysis suggests that to achieve regret within order <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(\sqrt{\epsilon })$</tex-math></inline-formula>, it suffices to use training sample size of the order of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Omega (\log n \cdot \text{poly}(1/\epsilon))$</tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of the features. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on a synthetic robot navigation example.
Endovascular neurointervention success and complication rates in the first year of independent practice in a suburban hospital setup

Context: Endovascular neurointervention (interventional neuroradiology) is a highly demanding science requiring deep understanding of disease, anatomy, clinical skills and manual dexterity, consequently with a long learning curve and thus posing significant challenges to a physician entering new into the competitive arena. Aim: To evaluate the procedural success, complications and outcome in the first year of independent endovascular neurointervention practice in a suburban hospital. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of prospectively maintained data of all diagnostic and therapeutic neurointerventional cases performed by the author between the period of January 02, 2012 and December 31, 2012. Results: A total of 61 procedures were performed. The performance success rate of the diagnostic procedures was 100% (38/38) and that of therapeutic procedures was 82.6% (19/23). The periprocedural complication rates were nil and 13%, respectively, for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The 3-month patient outcome for therapeutic procedures was good outcome (Modified Rankin Scale <2) in 87% cases (20/23), and poor outcome in 13% (2 dead and 1 debilitated with Modified Rankin Scale of 3). Conclusion: For a well-trained endovascular neurointerventionalist, the first year of practice had high procedural success rate and acceptable complication with patient outcome rates comparable to the existing literature.
Feeling in control of your footsteps: Conscious gait monitoring and the auditory consequences of footsteps

A fundamental aspect of the “I” of conscious experience is that the self is experienced as a single coherent representation of the entire, spatially situated body. The purpose of the present study was to investigate agency for the entire body. We provided participants with performance-related auditory cues and induced online sensorimotor conflicts in free walking conditions investigating the limits of human consciousness in moving agents. We show that the control of full-body locomotion and the building of a conscious experience of it are at least partially distinct brain processes. The comparable effects on agency using audio-motor and visuo-motor cues as found in the present and previous agency work may reflect common supramodal mechanisms in conscious action monitoring. Our data may help to refine the scientific criteria of selfhood and are of relevance for the investigation of neurological and psychiatric patients with disturbance of selfhood.
Laparoscopy-assisted Billroth-I Gastrectomy (LADG) for Cancer: Our 10 Years' Experience

To evaluate laparoscopy-assisted Billroth-I gastrectomy (LADG), we examined the outcome of its use over the last 10 years. From December 1991 to December 2001, 116 patients with early gastric cancer underwent LADG in the surgical department of Oita Medical University and Koga hospital by the same surgical staffs. An operation record and clinical sheets were reviewed to obtain the operative findings, clinical course, and pathologic findings of resected specimens to evaluate the usefulness of LADG in the management of early gastric cancer. In all LADG procedures, regional lymph nodes dissection (D1+&agr;) was successfully performed using laparoscopy. The mean operative duration and blood loss were 234 minutes and 139 mL, respectively. There were only four major complications, including pneumonia, leakage of anastomosis, pancreatic injury, and anastomotic stenosis, but all these cases were successfully treated conservatively. The mean length of postoperative stay was 16.3 ± 2.5 days. All patients except one, who died not of cancer but of cerebral bleeding, were alive without recurrence or port-site metastasis during mean follow-up period of 45 months. We successfully performed 116 LADG procedures over 10 years. This procedure is recommended for the treatment of patients with early gastric cancer because of the associated good prognosis and several benefits, including less invasiveness and early recovery.
Time-Varying Mixtures of Markov Chains: An Application to Road Traffic Modeling

Time-varying mixture models are useful for representing complex, dynamic distributions. Components in the mixture model can appear and disappear, and persisting components can evolve. This allows great flexibility in streaming data applications where the model can be adjusted as new data arrives. Fitting a mixture model with computational guarantees which can meet real-time requirements is challenging with existing algorithms, especially when the model order can vary with time. Existing approximate inference methods may require multiple restarts to search for a good local solution. Monte-Carlo methods can be used to jointly estimate the model order and model parameters, but when the distribution of each mixand has a high-dimensional parameter space, they suffer from the curse of dimensionality and and from slow convergence. This paper proposes a generative model for time-varying mixture models, tailored for mixtures of discrete-time Markov chains. A novel, deterministic inference procedure is introduced and is shown to be suitable for applications requiring real-time estimation, and the method is guaranteed to converge at each time step. As a motivating application, we model and predict traffic patterns in a transportation network. Experiments illustrate the performance of the scheme and offer insights regarding tuning of the algorithm parameters. The experiments also investigate the predictive power of the proposed model compared to less complex models and demonstrate the superiority of the mixture model approach for prediction of traffic routes in real data.
Urethral obstruction with oxidized cellulose following retropubic prostatectomy.

Oxidized cellulose in gauzelike form (oxycel®) is finding increasing favor among urologic surgeons. Postoperative hemorrhage is minimized in nearly all the cases in which it is used in the prostatic cavity following prostatectomy. When gauze packs and "pressure rubber bags" are eliminated the postoperative morbidity is definitely shortened. With oxidized cellulose or absorbable gelatin sponge (gelfoam®) patients have infinitely less pain and discomfort. Sedatives are unnecessary unless the catheter fails to drain properly. After the catheter is removed the oxidized cellulose or the absorbable gelatin sponge usually disintegrates or the material can be irrigated out. The purpose of this report is to call attention to the retention of oxidized cellulose in the posterior urethra following retropubic prostatectomy. The retained material caused posterior urethral obstruction and severe vesical symptoms. REPORT OF CASE Mr. E. S. J., aged 80, was admitted to the Passavant Memorial Hospital Dec. 27, 1948 complaining of inability
Stent-Assisted Coiling in Acutely Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms: A Qualitative, Systematic Review of the Literature

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The use of stents for treatment of morphologically unfavorable, acutely ruptured aneurysms is avoided by most operators because of concerns about the risk of using dual antiplatelet therapy in the setting of acute SAH. Our aim was to review the literature regarding stent-assisted coil embolization of acutely ruptured intracranial aneurysms to determine the safety and efficacy of this treatment option. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Articles including ≥5 patients with ruptured aneurysms who were treated acutely with stent-assisted coiling or uncovered stent placement alone were identified. Data on clinical presentation, technical success, surgical crossover, intracranial complications, and clinical outcome were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 17 articles were identified reporting 339 patients who met inclusion criteria. Among 212 patients with available data, technical success was noted in 198 (93%) patients. Three hundred twenty-six (96%) of 339 patients received both heparin during the procedure and dual-antiplatelet therapy during or immediately postprocedure. One hundred thirty (63%) of 207 aneurysms were completely occluded. Six (2%) of 339 patients required surgical crossover, usually for failure in stent placement or for intraprocedural aneurysm rupture. Clinically significant intracranial hemorrhagic complications occurred in 27 (8%) of 339 patients, including 9 (10%) of 90 patients known to have EVDs who had ventricular drain−related hemorrhages. Clinically significant thromboembolic events occurred in 16 (6%) of 288 patients. Sixty-seven percent of patients had favorable clinical outcomes, 14% had poor outcomes, and 19% died. CONCLUSIONS: Stent-assisted coiling in ruptured aneurysms can be performed with high degrees of technical success, but adverse events appear more common and clinical outcomes are likely worse than those achieved without stent assistance. Thromboembolic complications appear reasonably well-controlled. Reported EVD-related hemorrhagic complications were uncommon, though the total number of EVDs placed was unknown.
Tumor Treatment by Direct Electric Current: Computation of Electric Current and Power Density Distribution

Electrotherapy by direct electric current was shown to have an anti-tumor effect in different animal tumor models and in clinic. Information on the current density distributions in the tumor, surrounding tissues, and its differences in the different electrode configurations used in our previous studies could be useful in future studies of electrotherapy mechanisms. Therefore, a three-dimensional, anatomically based, finite element model of the mouse with a subcutaneous tumor was built. Different types of electrotherapy, i.e., different electrode configurations, were modeled by applying appropriate boundaq conditions in the grid points. The magnitude of current density in anodic/cathodic electrotherapy is 50 times higher in the middle and 10 times higher on the edge of the tumor when compared to the “field” electrotherapy. The results of the computation show that the effects of the electrotherapy on tumor growth, which were similar in terms of tumor growth delay in all three configurations, are not directl.
Gait alterations to effectively reduce hip contact forces

Patients with hip pathology present alterations in gait which have an effect on joint moments and loading. In knee osteoarthritic patients, the relation between medial knee contact forces and the knee adduction moment are currently being exploited to define gait retraining strategies to effectively reduce pain and disease progression. However, the relation between hip contact forces and joint moments has not been clearly established. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of changes in hip and pelvis kinematics during gait on internal hip moments and contact forces which is calculated using muscle driven simulations. The results showed that frontal plane kinetics have the largest effect on hip contact forces. Given the high correlation between the change in hip adduction moment and contact force at initial stance (R2 = 0.87), this parameter can be used to alter kinematics and predict changes in contact force. At terminal stance the hip adduction and flexion moment can be used to predict changes in contact force (R2 = 0.76). Therefore, gait training that focuses on decreasing hip adduction moments, a wide base gait pattern, has the largest potential to reduce hip contact forces. © 2015 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 33:1094–1102, 2015.
Women's Perceptions Regarding Obesity and Comorbidities and Provider Interaction.

OBJECTIVE To assess women's perceptions of current body mass index (BMI) category, evaluate their knowledge of medical and surgical conditions associated with obesity, and assess their previous exposure to counseling on obesity. DESIGN Questionnaire-based survey. SETTING Gynecology clinics in a large midwestern city. PARTICIPANTS Non-pregnant women age 18 to 65 years. METHODS Descriptive design with distribution of anonymous questionnaires pertaining to demographics, current medical conditions, perceived weight, medical conditions associated with obesity, surgical complications from obesity, and previous weight loss counseling. All data were analyzed using chi-squared tests, and statistical significance was set at a p value of <. 05. RESULTS The majority of the sample (65%) was overweight or obese, and 44% of participants underestimated their BMI categories. The relationship of perceived versus actual BMI differed significantly by race (p < .001), income (p < .05), and education (p < .05); African American women and women with less education tended to underestimate their BMI categories. Increasing actual BMI was inversely correlated with the ability to identify obesity as a risk factor for medical conditions (p < .01). Only 43% of participants discussed their weight or related concerns with medical professionals. CONCLUSION A significant number of participants were unaware of their BMI status as well as the relationship between obesity and other comorbidities. Counseling and patient education efforts by health care providers are essential.
A New Discrete-Time Multi-Constrained $K$ -Winner-Take-All Recurrent Network and Its Application to Prioritized Scheduling

In this paper, we propose a novel discrete-time recurrent neural network aiming to resolve a new class of multi-constrained <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-winner-take-all (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-WTA) problems. By facilitating specially designed asymmetric neuron weights, the proposed model is capable of operating in a fully parallel manner, thereby allowing true digital implementation. This paper also provides theorems that delineate the theoretical upper bound of the convergence latency, which is merely <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(K)$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Importantly, via simulations, the average convergence time is close to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(1)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in most general cases. Moreover, as the multi-constrained <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-WTA problem degenerates to a traditional single-constrained problem, the upper bound becomes exactly two parallel iterations, which significantly outperforms the existing <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-WTA models. By associating the neurons and neuron weights with routing paths and path priorities, respectively, we then apply the model to a prioritized flow scheduler for the data center networks. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed scheduler converges to the equilibrium state within near-constant time for different scales of networks while achieving maximal throughput, quality-of-service priority differentiation, and minimum energy consumption, subject to the flow contention-free constraints.
Modeling of multilevel converters

In this paper, the imbricated cells multilevel converters are studied and modeled from a control viewpoint. These converters make use of several switches connected in a series, which allows using switches with reduced voltage ratings; these low voltage switches have lower conduction losses and can switch at higher frequency. In addition to this feature common to all converters using series connected switches, the control signals of multilevel converters can be phase shifted to increase the apparent switching frequency and improve the dynamic performances of the whole converter. It is shown that a multilevel inverter leg, composed of p pairs of switches and p-1 capacitors, forms a multivariable nonlinear system that cannot be properly modeled by standard methods such as state-space averaging. The transient behavior of this system depends on the current harmonics and their phase shift with the different control signals. A specific model is detailed, studied, and used to illustrate the properties of these converters. In particular, the natural balancing of the voltage across the switches is demonstrated and the time constants involved in this process are determined.