Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generative or Discriminative? Getting the Best of Both Worlds

For many applications of machine learning the goal is to predict the value of a vector c given the value of a vector x of input features. In a classification problem c represents a discrete class label, whereas in a regression problem it corresponds to one or more continuous variables. From a probabilistic perspective, the goal is to find the conditional distribution p(c|x). The most common approach to this problem is to represent the conditional distribution using a parametric model, and then to determine the parameters using a training set consisting of pairs {xn, cn} of input vectors along with their corresponding target output vectors. The resulting conditional distribution can be used to make predictions of c for new values of x. This is known as a discriminative approach, since the conditional distribution discriminates directly between the different values of c.
Angry, Disgusted, or Afraid?

Current theories of emotion perception posit that basic facial expressions signal categorically discrete emotions or affective dimensions of valence and arousal. In both cases, the information is thought to be directly “read out” from the face in a way that is largely immune to context. In contrast, the three studies reported here demonstrated that identical facial configurations convey strikingly different emotions and dimensional values depending on the affective context in which they are embedded. This effect is modulated by the similarity between the target facial expression and the facial expression typically associated with the context. Moreover, by monitoring eye movements, we demonstrated that characteristic fixation patterns previously thought to be determined solely by the facial expression are systematically modulated by emotional context already at very early stages of visual processing, even by the first time the face is fixated. Our results indicate that the perception of basic facial expressions is not context invariant and can be categorically altered by context at early perceptual levels.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Global Banking and International Business Cycles Schnabl and Andrew Scott for Their Advice. for Useful Suggestions We Thank

This paper incorporates a global bank into a two-country business cycle model. The bank collects deposits from households and makes loans to entrepreneurs, in both countries. It has to finance a fraction of loans using equity. We investigate how such a bank capital requirement affects the international transmission of productivity and loan default shocks. Three findings emerge. First, the bank's capital requirement has little effect on the international transmission of productivity shocks. Second, the contribution of loan default shocks to business cycle fluctuations is negligible under normal economic conditions. Third, an exceptionally large loan loss originating in one country induces a sizeable and simultaneous decline in economic activity in both countries. This is particularly noteworthy, as the 2007-09 global financial crisis was characterized by large credit losses in the US and a simultaneous sharp output reduction in the US and the Euro Area. Our results thus suggest that global banks may have played an important role in the international transmission of the crisis. the EU Commission under its 7th Framework Programme for Research. ) The quantitative model presented here draws heavily on Robert Kollmann's manuscript 'Banks and the Domestic and International Propagation of Macroeconomic and Financial Shocks' (May 2010). The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.
Maternal Consumption of Dairy Products, Calcium, and Vitamin D During Pregnancy and Infantile Allergic Disorders

Y Miyake, K Tanaka, H Okubo, S Sasaki, M Arakawa. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2014;133(1):82–87 To assess the effect of maternal consumption during pregnancy of dairy foods, calcium, and vitamin D on allergic disorders in Japanese children aged 23 to 29 months. The study recruited 1354 Japanese mother-child between April 2007 and March 2008, and between 5 and 39 weeks of pregnancy. Data were obtained using the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study (KOMCHS), a prospective prebirth cohort …
Throughput maximization with multiple codes and partial outages

We provide an information theoretic perspective on the problem of throughput maximization in a block flat fading wireless data system with codeword lengths restricted to be less than the fade block duration. We assume no channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) and perfect channel state information at the receiver (CSIR). We explore the tradeoffs between using a single codebook vs. multiple codebooks (rate-splitting) on single input single output (SISO) channels, and scalar coding vs. vector coding for diagonal multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels. For all log-concave scalar channel fade distributions, we show that using multiple codebooks increases the average throughput of the system when the multiple codewords are transmitted simultaneously in time, frequency and space over the same channel. Splitting the channel orthogonally in time, frequency, or among the inputs of a MIMO system and then transmitting different codewords on each orthogonal sub-channel significantly reduces the achievable average throughput.
Molecular analysis of immunoglobulin variable genes in human immunodeficiency virus-related non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma reveals implications for disease pathogenesis and histogenesis

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas are a major complication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and include heterogeneous conditions. This study shows evidence of a skewed IGHV repertoire in specific categories and suggests B-cell receptor restriction in some HIV-primary central nervous system lymphomas. See related perspective article on page 1129. Background Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (HIV-NHL) are heterogeneous and associated with distinct molecular pathways. Analysis of immunoglobulin variable genes (IGV) may provide insights into the pathogenesis and histogenesis of HIV-NHL. Design and Methods IGV rearrangements were amplified from genomic DNA by polymerase chain reaction and directly sequenced in 87 cases of HIV-NHL (17 Burkitt/Burkitt-like lymphomas, 38 diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, and 32 primary central nervous system lymphomas). Results A skewed IGHV repertoire in specific HIV-NHL clinico-pathological categories was observed. Systemic HIV-diffuse large B-cell lymphomas displayed underrepresentation of the IGHV3 family (11/38, 28.9%; p=0.0047) and, in particular, of the IGHV3–23 gene (0/38; p<0.001). These same cases were also characterized by significant overrepresentation of the IGHV4 family (18/38; 47.4%; p=0.0044) and, in particular, of the IGHV4–34 gene (10/38; 26.3%; p=0.003). HIV-primary central nervous system lymphomas displayed a preferential usage of IGLV6–57, with stereotyped B-cell receptor in two cases. Somatic hypermutation of IGHV genes was detected in 81/87 (93.1%) HIV-NHL. Unmutated cases were restricted to six HIV-primary central nervous system lymphomas with immunoblastic plasmacytoid morphology. A mutational profile suggesting a tendency to maintain antigen binding and antigen selection was observed in more than 50% of the cases of IGV mutated HIV-NHL. Conclusions Our data show evidence of a skewed IGHV repertoire in specific HIV-NHL categories and suggest B-cell receptor restriction in some HIV-primary central nervous system lymphomas. The heterogeneous representation of IGHV genes in HIV-NHL may be related to specific pathways of antigen stimulation, or to differences in host’s immune dysregulation and lymphoma histogenesis.
Joint Carrier Allocation and Beamforming for cognitive SatComs in Ka-band (17.3–18.1 GHz)

Herein, we study the spectral coexistence of Geostationary (GEO) Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) downlink and Broadcasting Satellite Services (BSS) feeder links in the Ka-band (17.3 - 18.1 GHz) which is primarily allocated for BSS feeder links. Firstly, a novel cognitive spectrum exploitation framework is proposed in order to utilize the available band efficiently. Subsequently, based on the interference analysis carried out between these systems, two cognitive approaches, namely Carrier Allocation (CA) and Beamforming (BF), are investigated under the considered framework assuming the availability of an accurate Radio Environment Map (REM). The employed techniques allow the flexibility of using additional shared carriers for the FSS downlink system along with the already available exclusive carriers (19.7 - 20.2 GHz), thus increasing the overall system throughput. It is shown that a significant improvement in the per beam throughput as well as in the beam availability can be achieved by applying CA and BF approaches in the considered scenario.
Lattice-based System Combination for Statistical Machine Translation

Current system combination methods usually use confusion networks to find consensus translations among different systems. Requiring one-to-one mappings between the words in candidate translations, confusion networks have difficulty in handling more general situations in which several words are connected to another several words. Instead, we propose a lattice-based system combination model that allows for such phrase alignments and uses lattices to encode all candidate translations. Experiments show that our approach achieves significant improvements over the state-of-the-art baseline system on Chinese-to-English translation test sets.
Lipid and Fatty Acid Composition of Rabbit Meat as Affected by Gamma Irradiation

The present study was conducted to investigate the changes in lipid and fatty acid composition of gamma irradiated rabbit meat. Samples of rabbit meat were aerobically packaged and exposed to gamma irradiation at doses of 0 and 3 kGy at room temperature and 0 and 7 kGy at the frozen state. Lipids were extracted and isolated as neutral lipids and phospholipids classes, then the individual fractions of these classes were separated by thin layer chromatography. Furthermore, the observed neutral lipids and total phospholipids as well as the major phospholipids fractions, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine, were converted to fatty acid methyl esters and analyzed by gas chromatography. The obtained results revealed that irradiation of rabbit meat samples had no significant effect on their contents of total lipids and the observed fractions for neutral and phospholipid classes were similar in lipids separated from irradiated and non-irradiated rabbit meat. Moreover, irradiation treatments showed no significant effects on the contents of triglycerides, however, significant decreases in the contents of cholesterol and phospholipids were observed. The fatty acids of neutral lipid class showed no significant changes due to irradiation of rabbit meat, while significant decreases, but of minor interest, were observed in the polyunsaturated fatty acids of total phospholipids and their major fractions. The observed results demonstrate that irradiation of rabbit meat samples at doses recommended for irradiation of poultry had no adverse effects on their lipid and fatty acid composition and the observed decreases in the contents of cholesterol or phospholipids and their polyunsaturated fatty acids were of minor interest.
What is a melody? On the relationship between pitch and brightness of timbre

Previous studies showed that the perceptual processing of sound sequences is more efficient when the sounds vary in pitch than when they vary in loudness. We show here that sequences of sounds varying in brightness of timbre are processed with the same efficiency as pitch sequences. The sounds used consisted of two simultaneous pure tones one octave apart, and the listeners’ task was to make same/different judgments on pairs of sequences varying in length (one, two, or four sounds). In one condition, brightness of timbre was varied within the sequences by changing the relative level of the two pure tones. In other conditions, pitch was varied by changing fundamental frequency, or loudness was varied by changing the overall level. In all conditions, only two possible sounds could be used in a given sequence, and these two sounds were equally discriminable. When sequence length increased from one to four, discrimination performance decreased substantially for loudness sequences, but to a smaller extent for brightness sequences and pitch sequences. In the latter two conditions, sequence length had a similar effect on performance. These results suggest that the processes dedicated to pitch and brightness analysis, when probed with a sequence-discrimination task, share unexpected similarities.
Beta-blocker therapy in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and chronic obstructive lung disease in an ambulatory care setting

Objective: To evaluate beta blocker persistence six months after beta-blocker initiation or dose titration in heart failure (HF) patients with COPD compared to those without COPD. Secondary objectives included comparison of beta-blocker dose achieved, changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and incidence of hospitalizations or emergency department (ED) visits during follow-up. Methods: We conducted a matched, retrospective, cohort study including 86 patients with COPD plus concomitant HF (LVEF ≤40%) and 137 patients with HF alone. All patients were followed in an outpatient HF clinic. Eligible patients had a documented LVEF ≤40% and were initiated or titrated on a beta-blocker in the HF clinic. Patients were matched based on LVEF (categorized as ≤ 20% or 21-40%), gender, and age (> or ≤70 years). The primary outcome was beta blocker persistence at 6 months. Secondary outcomes were dose achieved, LVEF, and incidence of hospitalizations or ED visits. Results: There were no differences between the COPD and non-COPD groups in beta-blocker persistence at six-month follow-up (94.2% vs. 93.4% respectively, adjusted p=0.842). The proportion of patients who achieved a daily metoprolol dose equivalent of at least 100 mg was similar between the groups (adjusted p=0.188). The percent of patients with at least one ED visit or hospitalization in the six-month post-titration period was substantial but similar between the groups (53.5% and 48.2% for COPD and non-COPD patients, respectively, adjusted p=0.169). Conclusion: Our results support the use of beta-blockers in the population of heart failure patients with COPD and without reactive airway disease.
Coronary Heart Disease and Cortical Thickness, Gray Matter and White Matter Lesion Volumes on MRI

Coronary heart disease (CHD) has been linked with cognitive decline and dementia in several studies. CHD is strongly associated with blood pressure, but it is not clear how blood pressure levels or changes in blood pressure over time affect the relation between CHD and dementia-related pathology. The aim of this study was to investigate relations between CHD and cortical thickness, gray matter volume and white matter lesion (WML) volume on MRI, considering CHD duration and blood pressure levels from midlife to three decades later. The study population included 69 elderly at risk of dementia who participated in the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study. CAIDE participants were examined in midlife, re-examined 21 years later, and then after additionally 7 years (in total up to 30 years follow-up). MRIs from the second re-examination were used to calculate cortical thickness, gray matter and WML volume. CHD diagnoses were obtained from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register. Linear regression analyses were adjusted for age, sex, follow-up time and scanner type, and additionally total intracranial volume in GM volume analyses. Adding diabetes, cholesterol or smoking to the models did not influence the results. CHD was associated with lower thickness in multiple regions, and lower total gray matter volume, particularly in people with longer disease duration (>10 years). Associations between CHD, cortical thickness and gray matter volume were strongest in people with CHD and hypertension in midlife, and those with CHD and declining blood pressure after midlife. No association was found between CHD and WML volumes. Based on these results, long-term CHD seems to have detrimental effects on brain gray matter tissue, and these effects are influenced by blood pressure levels and their changes over time.
Heterogeneous austenite grain growth in martensitic 9cr steel: coupled influence of initial metallurgical state and heating rate

Abstract The coupled influence of the initial metallurgical state and the heating rate to austenite on the occurrence of heterogeneous grain growth during austenitisation of an ASTM A213–T91 steel has been studied. To that aim, two-step thermal cycles were designed. In the first step, different starting metallurgical conditions were obtained by treating the as received material at 780°C for increasing times up to 6 h. In the second step, in situ austenitisation was performed by heating to austenite at rates of 1, 30 and 50°C s−1 and then holding at 1050°C for 30’. Two types of austenite grain structures were obtained after austenitisation, namely, homogeneous and heterogeneous. The homogeneous structure was characterised by a smooth size distribution of approximately equiaxed, normally grown grains. The heterogeneous structure, instead, exhibited the exaggerated growth of a few austenite grains embedded in a small to medium sized matrix. For the 1°C s−1 heating rate and all of the initial metallurgical states, only homogeneous grain growth was observed, whereas for the 50°C s−1 heating rate only heterogeneous grain growth was observed regardless the starting metallurgical condition. Instead, the occurrence of homogeneous or heterogeneous grain growth after heating at 30°C s−1 was observed to be a function of the time of previous tempering. Some explanations of the phenomenon are advanced taking into account the precipitation state of second phases.
Activity and structure of methanotrophic communities in landfill cover soils.

The composition of the methanotrophic community in soil covers on five landfills in Northern and Eastern Germany was investigated by means of diagnostic microarray and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), both targeting the pmoA gene of methanotrophs. Physical and chemical properties of the 15 sampled soil profiles varied greatly, thus providing for very different environmental conditions. The potential methane oxidation activity, assessed using undisturbed soil cores, varied between 0.2 and 28 µg CH4 gdw (-1) h(-1) , the latter amounting to 426 g CH4 m(-2) h(-1) . Total nitrogen was found to be the soil variable correlating most strongly with methanotrophic activity. Explaining close to 50% of the observed variability, this indicates that on the investigated sites activity and thus abundance of methanotrophs may have been nitrogen-limited. Variables that enhance organic matter and thus nitrogen accumulation, such as field capacity, also positively impacted methanotrophic activity. In spite of the great variability of soil properties and different geographic landfill location, both microarray and T-RFLP analysis suggested that the composition of the methanotrophic community on all five sites, in all profiles and across all depths was similar. Methylocystis, Methylobacter and Methylococcus species, including Methylococcus-related uncultivated methanotrophs, were predominantly detected among type II, Ia and Ib methanotrophs, respectively. This indicates that the high methane fluxes typical for landfill environments may be the most influential driver governing the community composition, or other variables not analysed in this study. Principal component analysis suggested that community diversity is most influenced by the site from which the samples were taken and second, from the location on the individual sites, i.e. the soil profile. Landfill and individual profiles reflect the combined impact of all effective variables, including those that were not measured in this study.
Fatty Acid Oxidation Changes and the Correlation with Oxidative Stress in Different Preeclampsia-Like Mouse Models

Background Long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCHAD) expression is decreased in placenta of some cases of preeclampsia (PE) which may result in free fatty acid (FFA) increased. High FFA level will induce oxidative stress, so abnormal long-chain fatty acid-oxidation may participate in the pathogenesis of PE through oxidative stress pathway. Methods PE-like groups were ApoC3 transgenic mice with abnormal fatty acid metabolism, classical PE-like models with injection of Nw-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NA) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) mouse model with β2GPI injection (ApoC3+NS, ApoC3+L-NA, L-NA, LPS and β2GPI groups). The control group was wild-type mice with normal saline injection. Except for β2GPI mice, the other mice were subdivided into pre-implantation (Pre) and mid-pregnancy (Mid) subgroups by injection time. Results All PE-like groups showed hypertension and proteinuria except ApoC3+NS mice only showed hypertension. Serum FFA levels increased significantly except in LPS group compared to controls (P<0.05). LCHAD mRNA and protein expression in the liver and placenta was significantly higher for ApoC3+NS, ApoC3+L-NA and β2GPI mice and lower for L-NA mice than controls (P<0.05) but did not differ between LPS mice and controls. P47phox mRNA and protein expression in the liver significantly increased in all PE-like groups except LPS group, while P47phox expression in the placenta only significantly increased in L-NA and β2GPI groups. Conclusions Abnormal long-chain fatty acid-oxidation may play a different role in different PE-like models and in some cases participate in the pathogenesis of PE through oxidative stress pathway.
Negotiating Complex Contracts

Work to date on computational models of negotiation has focused almost exclusively on defining contracts consisting of one or a few independent issues and tractable contract spaces. Many real-world contracts, by contrast, are much more complex, consisting of multiple inter-dependent issues and intractably large contract spaces. This paper describes a simulated annealing based approach appropriate for negotiating such complex contracts that achieves near-optimal social welfares for negotiations with binary issue dependencies.