Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Case-control study of breast cancer in south east England: nutritional factors.

OBJECTIVES: To explore dietary risk factors, in particular fat intake, for breast cancer, using an approach to reduce recall bias of subjects and so provide a more reliable estimate of dietary intake than previous similar studies. DESIGN: A case-control study of women aged 50-65 years attending the breast assessment clinics of the breast screening programme in Southampton and Portsmouth, southern England. Data were analysed for all women requiring further clinical procedures; all women recalled to have an early rescreen; and a random sample of women found to be normal and referred for a routine rescreening appointment (standard recall). MEASUREMENTS: An interview obtained information on various lifestyle characteristics including smoking and alcohol intake, weight, waist, and hip measurements were also taken at the clinic. Women were given a detailed questionnaire on food intake to complete at home and return by post. RESULTS: 1577 women were included in the study: 220 with breast cancer (cases); 179 with benign breast disease; 353 early rescreen and 825 given a standard recall appointment. There were few differences in nutritional intake between the four groups. Logistic regression analyses were carried out comparing the dietary intake of cases with that of each control group adjusting for important demographic and reproductive factors. Results for the case and standard recall comparison are presented. The only non-calorific nutrient to reach significance was iron, which was negatively associated with risk (p = 0.03). For fat intake, the odds decreased with increasing polyunsaturated fat (p = 0.15), showed no trend with monounsaturated fat (p = 0.37) and increased (p = 0.10) with increasing saturated fat. No pattern was clear for the other calorie providing nutrients. CONCLUSIONS: In line with recent cohort studies, this study has shown no evidence to support the hypothesis that dietary fat is an important contributor to breast cancer rates. Biases should have been reduced by studying subjects from the screening programme who were at an early stage of disease.
Access Control in Publicly Verifiable Outsourced Computation

Publicly Verifiable Outsourced Computation (PVC) allows devices with restricted resources to delegate computations to more powerful external servers, and to verify the correctness of results. Whilst beneficial in many situations, this increases the visibility and availability of potentially sensitive data, so we may wish to limit the sets of entities that can view input data and results. Additionally, it is highly unlikely that all users have identical and uncontrolled access to all functionality within an organization. Thus there is a need for access control mechanisms in PVC environments. In this work, we define a new framework for Publicly Verifiable Outsourced Computation with Access Control (PVC-AC) and discuss the security models and forms of access control policies that are necessary in such environments.
Natural Language Processing for the Swiss German Dialect Area

This paper discusses work on data collection for Swiss German dialects taking into account the continuous nature of the dialect landscape, and proposes to integrate these data into natural language processing models. We present knowledge-based models for machine translation into any Swiss German dialect, for dialect identification, and for multi-dialectal parsing. In a dialect continuum, rules cannot be applied uniformly, but have restricted validity in well-defined geographic areas. Therefore, the rules are parametrized with probability maps extracted from dialectological atlases.
Subspace based estimation of the signal to interference ratio for TDMA cellular systems

The Signal‐to‐Interference Ratio (SIR) has been highlighted in the literature to be a most efficient criterion for several methods aiming at reducing the effects of cochannel interference, e.g., diversity reception, dynamic channel allocation and power control. In this paper we address the problem of how to obtain fast and accurate measurements of this parameter in a practical context. We develop a general SIR estimation technique for narrow‐band cellular systems that is based on a signal subspace approach using the sample covariance matrix of the received signal. Simulation results using the frame structure in the GSM system show that the SIR can be estimated to within an error of 0.3 dB after only 200 ms, or within an error of 0.1 dB after only 0.6 seconds.
Contributing Knowledge to Electronic Knowledge Repositories: An Empirical Investigation

Organizations are attempting to leverage their knowledge resources by employing knowledge management (KM) systems, a key form of which are electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs). A large number of KM initiatives fail due to the reluctance of employees to share knowledge through these systems. Motivated by such concerns, this study formulates and tests a theoretical model to explain EKR usage by knowledge contributors. The model employs social exchange theory to identify cost and benefit factors affecting EKR usage, and social capital theory to account for the moderating influence of contextual factors. The model is validated through a large-scale survey of public sector organizations. The results reveal that knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others significantly impact EKR usage by knowledge contributors. Contextual factors (generalized trust, pro-sharing norms, and identification) moderate the impact of codification effort, reciprocity, and organizational reward on EKR usage, respectively. It can be seen that extrinsic benefits (reciprocity and organizational reward) impact EKR usage contingent on particular contextual factors whereas the effects of intrinsic benefits (knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) on EKR usage are not moderated by contextual factors. The loss of knowledge power and image do not appear to impact EKR usage by knowledge contributors. Besides contributing to theory building in KM, the results of this study inform KM practice.
Materializing and crafting cherished digital media

People's digital media collections are often large and poorly organized. In sharp contrast to collections of physical possessions in the home, in the digital realm there are few possessions that are considered special. As a result, digital possessions are infrequently used, e.g. for reminiscing or storytelling. By studying cherished physical and digital possessions and designing novel products or systems, this PhD explores how digital media can become more cherished. More specifically, newly created designs will aim to integrate physical and digital realms and encourage novel creation or augmentation of digital media, here called digital craft, as a promising means to increase attachment to digital possessions.
Performance Comparison of LDPC Block and Spatially Coupled Codes Over GF  $(q)$

In this paper, we compare the finite-length performance of protograph-based spatially coupled low-density paritycheck (SC-LDPC) codes and LDPC block codes (LDPC-BCs) over GF(q). To reduce computational complexity and latency, a sliding window decoder with a stopping rule based on a soft belief propagation (BP) estimate is used for the q-ary SC-LDPC codes. Two regimes are considered: one when the constraint length of q-ary SC-LDPC codes is equal to the block length of q-ary LDPC-BCs and the other when the two decoding latencies are equal. Simulation results confirm that, in both regimes, (3,6)-, (3,9)-, and (3,12)-regular non-binary SC-LDPC codes can significantly outperform both binary and non-binary LDPC-BCs and binary SC-LDPC codes. Finally, we present a computational complexity comparison of q-ary SC-LDPC codes and q-ary LDPC-BCs under equal decoding latency and equal decoding performance assumptions.
Modelling Semantic Context of OOV Words in Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition

The diachronic nature of broadcast news data leads to the problem of out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) systems. Analysis of OOV words reveals that a majority of them are proper names (PNs). However, PNs are important for automatic indexing of audio–video content and for obtaining reliable automatic transcriptions. In this paper, we focus on the problem of OOV PNs in diachronic audio documents. To enable the recovery of the PNs missed by the LVCSR system, relevant OOV PNs are retrieved by exploiting the semantic context of the LVCSR transcriptions. For retrieval of OOV PNs, we explore topic and semantic context derived from latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models, continuous word vector representations and the neural bag-of-words (NBOW) model which is capable of learning task specific word and context representations. We propose a neural bag-of-weighted words (NBOW2) model which learns to assign higher weights to words that are important for retrieval of an OOV PN. With experiments on French broadcast news videos, we show that the NBOW and NBOW2 models outperform the methods based on raw embeddings from LDA and Skip-gram models. Combining the NBOW and NBOW2 models gives a faster convergence during training. Second pass speech recognition experiments, in which the LVCSR vocabulary and language model are updated with the retrieved OOV PNs, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed context models.
Computational Complexity of Some Enumeration Problems About Uniformly Sparse Boolean Network Automata

We study the computational complexity of counting the fixed point configurations (FPs), the predecessor configurations and the ancestor configurations in certain classes of network automata viewed as discrete dynamical systems. Some early results of this investigation are presented in [38, 39]. In particular, it is proven in [39] that both exact and approximate counting of FPs in the two closely related classes of Boolean network automata, called Sequential and Synchronous Dynamical Systems (SDSs and SyDSs, respectively), are computationally intractable problems when each node is required to update according to a monotone Boolean function. In the present paper, we further strengthen those results by showing that the intractability of exact enumeration of FPs of a monotone Boolean SDS or SyDS still holds even when (i) the monotone update rules are restricted to linear threshold functions, and (ii) the underlying graph is uniformly sparse. By uniform sparseness we mean that every node in the graph has its degree bounded by = O(1) for a small value of constant . In particular, we prove that exactly enumerating FPs in such SDSs and SyDSs remains #P-complete even when no node degree exceeds = 3. Among other consequences, we show that this result also implies intractability of determining the exact memory capacity of discrete Hopfield networks with uniformly sparse and nonnegative integer weight matrices.
Animating animal motion from still

Even though the temporal information is lost, a still picture of moving animals hints at their motion. In this paper, we infer motion cycle of animals from the "motion snapshots" (snapshots of different individuals) captured in a still picture. By finding the motion path in the graph connecting motion snapshots, we can infer the order of motion snapshots with respect to time, and hence the motion cycle. Both "half-cycle" and "full-cycle" motions can be inferred in a unified manner. Therefore, we can animate a still picture of a moving animal group by morphing among the ordered snapshots. By refining the pose, morphology, and appearance consistencies, smooth and realistic animal motion can be synthesized. Our results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method to a wide range of species, including birds, fishes, mammals, and reptiles.
Activation of mammalian DNA ligase I through phosphorylation by casein kinase II.

Mammalian DNA ligase I has been shown to be a phosphoprotein. Dephosphorylation of purified DNA ligase I causes inactivation, an effect dependent on the presence of the N‐terminal region of the protein. Expression of full‐length human DNA ligase I in Escherichia coli yielded soluble but catalytically inactive enzyme whereas an N‐terminally truncated form expressed activity. Incubation of the full‐length preparation from E. coli with purified casein kinase II (CKII) resulted in phosphorylation of the N‐terminal region and was accompanied by activation of the DNA ligase. Of a variety of purified protein kinases tested, only CKII stimulated the activity of calf thymus DNA ligase I. Tryptic phosphopeptide analysis of DNA ligase I revealed that CKII specifically phosphorylated a major peptide also apparently phosphorylated in cells, implying that CKII is a protein kinase acting on DNA ligase I in the cell nucleus. These data suggest that DNA ligase I is negatively regulated by its N‐terminal region and that this inhibition can be relieved by post‐translational modification.
Core strength training for patients with chronic low back pain

[Purpose] Through core strength training, patients with chronic low back pain can strengthen their deep trunk muscles. However, independent training remains challenging, despite the existence of numerous core strength training strategies. Currently, no standardized system has been established analyzing and comparing the results of core strength training and typical resistance training. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the results of previous studies to explore the effectiveness of various core strength training strategies for patients with chronic low back pain. [Methods] We searched for relevant studies using electronic databases. Subsequently, we evaluated their quality by analyzing the reported data. [Results] We compared four methods of evaluating core strength training: trunk balance, stabilization, segmental stabilization, and motor control exercises. According to the results of various scales and evaluation instruments, core strength training is more effective than typical resistance training for alleviating chronic low back pain. [Conclusion] All of the core strength training strategies examined in this study assist in the alleviation of chronic low back pain; however, we recommend focusing on training the deep trunk muscles to alleviate chronic low back pain.
Musical Predispositions in Infancy

Abstract: Some scholars consider music to exemplify the classic criteria for a complex human adaptation, including universality, orderly development, and special‐purpose cortical processes. The present account focuses on processing predispositions for music. The early appearance of receptive musical skills, well before they have obvious utility, is consistent with their proposed status as predispositions. Infants' processing of musical or music‐like patterns is much like that of adults. In the early months of life, infants engage in relational processing of pitch and temporal patterns. They recognize a melody when its pitch level is shifted upward or downward, provided the relations between tones are preserved. They also recognize a tone sequence when the tempo is altered so long as the relative durations remain unchanged. Melodic contour seems to be the most salient feature of melodies for infant listeners. However, infants can detect interval changes when the component tones are related by small‐integer frequency ratios. They also show enhanced processing for scales with unequal steps and for metric rhythms. Mothers sing regularly to infants, doing so in a distinctive manner marked by high pitch, slow tempo, and emotional expressiveness. The pitch and tempo of mothers' songs are unusually stable over extended periods. Infant listeners prefer the maternal singing style to the usual style of singing, and they are more attentive to maternal singing than to maternal speech. Maternal singing also has a moderating effect on infant arousal. The implications of these findings for the origins of music are discussed.
PLP2 of Mouse Hepatitis Virus A59 (MHV-A59) Targets TBK1 to Negatively Regulate Cellular Type I Interferon Signaling Pathway

Background Coronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SCoV) and mouse hepatitis virus A59 (MHV-A59) have evolved strategies to disable the innate immune system for productive replication and spread of infection. We have previously shown that papain-like protease domain 2 (PLP2), a catalytic domain of the nonstructural protein 3 (nsp3) of MHV-A59, encodes a deubiquitinase (DUB) and inactivates IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) thereby the type I interferon (IFN) response. Principal Findings Here we provide further evidence that PLP2 may also target TANK-binding kinase-1 (TBK1), the upstream kinase of IRF3 in the IFN signaling pathway. Overexpression experiments showed that PLP2 deubiquitinated TBK1 and reduced its kinase activity, hence inhibited IFN-β reporter activity. Albeit promiscuous in deubiquitinating cellular proteins, PLP2 inactivated TBK1 and IFN-β response in TNF receptor associated factor 3 (TRAF3) deficient cells, suggesting that targeting TBK1 would be sufficient for PLP2 to inhibit IRF3 activation. This notion was further supported by in vitro kinase assays, in which prior treatment of TBK1 with PLP2 inhibited its kinase activity to phosphorylate IRF3. Intriguing enough, results of PLP2 overexpression system and MHV-A59 infection system proved that PLP2 formed an inactive complex with TBK1 and IRF3 in the cytoplasm and the presence of PLP2 stabilized the hypo-phosphorylated IRF3-TBK1 complex in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusions These results suggest that PLP2 not only inactivates TBK1, but also prevents IRF3 nuclear translocation hence inhibits IFN transcription activation. Identification of the conserved DUB activity of PLP2 in suppression of IFN signaling would provide a useful clue to the development of therapeutics against coronaviruses infection.
Marked improvement in nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux in a large cohort of patients with obstructive sleep apnea treated with continuous positive airway pressure.

BACKGROUND Nocturnal gastroesophageal reflux (nGER) is common in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Small, short-term studies have shown that treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) decreases esophageal acid exposure. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between OSA and nGER, and the effect of CPAP on nGER, in a long-term follow-up study of a large cohort of patients with OSA and nGER. METHODS We prospectively studied 331 patients diagnosed as having OSA between October 1, 1993, and November 30, 2000. At baseline, patients graded their frequency of nGER symptoms on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always). All patients were prescribed CPAP for their OSA. At follow-up, the frequency of nGER symptoms was obtained by telephone interview. RESULTS Of the 331 patients with OSA, nGER was present in 204 (62%) before treatment with CPAP. Follow-up was obtained in 181 patients (89%). Of these 181 patients, 165 (91%) were still using CPAP and 16 (9%) were not, forming the treatment and control groups, respectively. The patients compliant with CPAP had a significant improvement in nGER score, from a mean of 3.38 before CPAP treatment to 1.75 after treatment (48% improvement; P<.001), while patients not using CPAP (control subjects) showed no improvement (mean, 3.56 to 3.44; P =.55). There was a strong correlation between CPAP pressure and improvement in nGER score (correlation, r = 0.70; P<.001), with patients with higher CPAP pressures demonstrating a greater improvement in nGER score. CONCLUSIONS Nocturnal GER is common in patients with OSA. Treatment with nasal CPAP decreases the frequency of nGER symptoms by 48%. Higher nasal CPAP pressures are associated with greater improvement in nGER.
Upper bounds of rates of complex orthogonal space-time block code

We derive some upper bounds of the rates of (generalized) complex orthogonal space-time block codes. We first present some new properties of complex orthogonal designs and then show that the rates of complex orthogonal space-time block codes for more than two transmit antennas are upper-bounded by 3/4. We show that the rates of generalized complex orthogonal space-time block codes for more than two transmit antennas are upper-bounded by 4/5, where the norms of column vectors may not be necessarily the same. We also present another upper bound under a certain condition. For a (generalized) complex orthogonal design, its variables are not restricted to any alphabet sets but are on the whole complex plane. A (generalized) complex orthogonal design with variables over some alphabet sets on the complex plane is also considered. We obtain a condition on the alphabet sets such that a (generalized) complex orthogonal design with variables over these alphabet sets is also a conventional (generalized) complex orthogonal design and, therefore, the above upper bounds on its rate also hold. We show that commonly used quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations of sizes above 4 satisfy this condition.
“To be or not to be Retained … That’s the Question!” Retention, Self-esteem, Self-concept, Achievement Goals, and Grades

Keeping students back in the same grade – retention – has always been a controversial issue in Education, with some defending it as a beneficial remedial practice and others arguing against its detrimental effects. This paper undertakes an analysis of this issue, focusing on the differences in student motivation and self-related variables according to their retention related status, and the interrelationship between retention and these variables. The participants were 695 students selected from two cohorts (5th and 7th graders) of a larger group of students followed over a 3-year project. The students were assigned to four groups according to their retention-related status over time: (1) students with past and recent retention; (2) students with past but no recent retention; (3) students with no past but recent retention; (4) students with no past or recent retention. Measures of achievement goal orientations, self-concept, self-esteem, importance given to school subjects and Grade Point Average (GPA) were collected for all students. Repeated measures MANCOVA analyses were carried out showing group differences in self-esteem, academic self-concept, importance attributed to academic competencies, task and avoidance orientation and academic achievement. To attain a deeper understanding of these results and to identify profiles across variables, a cluster analysis based on achievement goals was conducted and four clusters were identified. Students who were retained at the end of the school year are mainly represented in clusters with less adaptive motivational profiles and almost absent from clusters exhibiting more adaptive ones. Findings highlight that retention leaves a significant mark that remains even when students recover academic achievement and retention is in the distant past. This is reflected in the low academic self-concept as well as in the devaluation of academic competencies and in the avoidance orientation which, taken together, can undermine students’ academic adjustment and turn retention into a risk factor.