Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scalable decoding on factor trees: a practical solution for wireless sensor networks

We consider the problem of jointly decoding the correlated data picked up and transmitted by the nodes of a large-scale sensor network. Assuming that each sensor node uses a very simple encoder (a scalar quantizer and a modulator), we focus on decoding algorithms that exploit the correlation structure of the sensor data to produce the best possible estimates under the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) criterion. Our analysis shows that a standard implementation of the optimal MMSE decoder is unfeasible for large-scale sensor networks, because its complexity grows exponentially with the number of nodes in the network. Seeking a scalable alternative, we use factor graphs to obtain a simplified model for the correlation structure of the sensor data. This model allows us to use the sum-product decoding algorithm, whose complexity can be made to grow linearly with the size of the network. Considering large sensor networks with arbitrary topologies, we focus on factor trees and give an exact characterization of the decoding complexity, as well as mathematical tools for factorizing Gaussian sources and optimization algorithms for finding optimal factor trees under the Kullback-Leibler criterion.
Ultraviolet Photoprocessing of Interstellar Dust Mantles as a Source of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Other Conjugated Molecules

By co-depositing a gas mixture of simple carbon- and nitrogen-containing molecules with water on a 10 K surface and exposing it to ultraviolet radiation, we were able to form a residue. This residue was then placed aboard the EURECA satellite behind a magnesium fluoride window and exposed to solar radiation for 4 months before it was returned and analyzed. The resulting residue is believed to simulate the photoprocessing of organic dust mantles in the interstellar medium. Mass spectrometry indicated that the photoprocessing created a rich mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other conjugated organic molecules, which may explain how PAHs are replenished in space.
Exhaled CO2 Parameters as a Tool to Assess Ventilation-Perfusion Mismatching during Neonatal Resuscitation in a Swine Model of Neonatal Asphyxia

Background End-tidal CO2 (ETCO2), partial pressure of exhaled CO2 (PECO2), and volume of expired CO2 (VCO2) can be continuously monitored non-invasively to reflect pulmonary ventilation and perfusion status. Although ETCO2 ≥14mmHg has been shown to be associated with return of an adequate heart rate in neonatal resuscitation and quantifying the PECO2 has the potential to serve as an indicator of resuscitation quality, there is little information regarding capnometric measurement of PECO2 and ETCO2 in detecting return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survivability in asphyxiated neonates receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Methods Seventeen newborn piglets were anesthetized, intubated, instrumented, and exposed to 45-minute normocapnic hypoxia followed by apnea to induce asphyxia. Protocolized resuscitation was initiated when heart rate decreased to 25% of baseline. Respiratory and hemodynamic parameters including ETCO2, PECO2, VCO2, heart rate, cardiac output, and carotid artery flow were continuously measured and analyzed. Results There were no differences in respiratory and hemodynamic parameters between surviving and non-surviving piglets prior to CPR. Surviving piglets had significantly higher ETCO2, PECO2, VCO2, cardiac index, and carotid artery flow values during CPR compared to non-surviving piglets. Conclusion Surviving piglets had significantly better respiratory and hemodynamic parameters during resuscitation compared to non-surviving piglets. In addition to optimizing resuscitation efforts, capnometry can assist by predicting outcomes of newborns requiring chest compressions.
Design and psychophysical evaluation of a tactile pulse display for teleoperated artery palpation

During traditional open procedures, surgeons directly palpate tissues before dissecting them. In this way, they can avoid the accidental damage of hidden arteries that can lead to fatal hemorrhage. New Minimally Invasive Surgical (MIS) techniques progressively decreased the instrument access into the patient's body to reduce scars and side effects. The major drawback of these procedures is that they do not permit surgeons to perform direct tactile exploration of internal tissues. Surgeons have to rely on preoperative images and anatomical knowledge to avoid artery locations. However, the exact artery position changes depending on the patient and his posture. Hence, it is of primary importance to assist surgeons with technology that can guide them during the surgical procedure. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a tactile display that reproduces pulse-like feedback on the surgeon's fingertip. The display bandwidth and performance of the ad-hoc control unit were assessed with encouraging results. In addition, the outcome of two psychophysical studies carried out in this work validate the usability of the display in terms of user perception.
BiDil in the Clinic: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Physicians’ Prescription Patterns of a Race-Based Therapy

Background: The African American Heart Failure Trial (A-HeFT) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of BiDil for race-specific prescription have stirred the debate about the scientific and medical status of race. Yet there is no assessment of the potential fallout of this dispute on physicians’ willingness to prescribe the drug. We present here an analysis of the factors influencing physicians’ prescription of BiDil and investigate whether exposure to the controversy has an impact on their therapeutic judgments about the drug. Methods: We conducted an electronic survey with physicians in the department of internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, with one group receiving information about the controversy over BiDil. We used various statistical tests, including a linear mixed effects model, to analyze the results. Results: Twenty-seven percent of the participants reported using patients’ race as a major factor in making treatment decisions. Thirty-three percent reported the inefficacy of standard therapies, 25% the severity of the disease, and 15% other unspecified factors as primary determining criteria in prescribing BiDil. With respect to the controversy, 68% of physicians reported that they were not aware of any controversy surrounding BiDil. Physicians’ willingness to prescribe BiDil as a therapy was associated with their awareness of the controversy surrounding A-HeFT (p < .003). But their willingness to prescribe the therapy along racial lines did not vary significantly with exposure to the controversy. Conclusions: Overall, physicians prescribe and are willing to prescribe BiDil more to black patients than to white patients. However, physicians’ lack of awareness about the controversial scientific status of A-HeFT suggests the need for more efficient ways to convey scientific information about BiDil to clinicians. Furthermore, the uncertainties about the determination of clinical utility of BiDil for the individual patient raise questions about whether this specific race-based therapy is in patients’ best interests.
Psychotropic medication in children: a study from the Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE Although there is a global concern about the increased use of psychotropic agents in children, most research literature originates in the United States and is based on figures from the first half of the 1990s. Also, few studies document the use of various types of psychotropic agents. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of psychotropic medication in children in the Netherlands and to determine whether this corresponds with previously reported figures from the United States. METHODS A drug utilization study based on computerized pharmacy dispensing records was conducted from 1995 to 1999 for children aged 0 to 19 years in the north of the Netherlands. RESULTS Stimulants were the most widely used psychotropic agents among 0- to 19-year-olds (prevalence: 7.4/1000 in 1999), followed by hypnotics/anxiolytics (6.9/1000) and antidepressants (4.4/1000). Prevalence rates of stimulants increased from 1.5/1000 in 1995 to 7.4/1000 in 1999. Incidence rates, proportion of girls, and duration of stimulant treatment increased as well. Changes in prevalence rates of other psychotropic agents were much smaller than those of stimulants. Finally, the vast majority of children who were treated with psychotropic agents used only 1 agent at a time. CONCLUSION The prevalence of stimulant use in the Netherlands is much lower than reported previously (28/1000 children in 1995) from the United States, and differences also existed with regard to the use of other psychotropic agents and combinations of psychotropic agents. However, the increase in Dutch stimulant use agrees with the previously reported 2.5-fold increase in the United States and shows that the increased use of stimulants is not limited to the United States.
The Contribution of Growth and Maturation in the Functional Capacity and Skill Performance of Male Adolescent Handball Players

Abstract The present study determined to what extent the variance in performance might be explained by chronological age, biological maturation, training load and anthropometry in 168 Belgian male handball players aged 14 years: anthropometric, strength, speed and sport-specific skills were assessed. MANOVA tested the effect of chronological age and biological maturity, whereas MANCOVA was used to compare maturity groups controlling for chronological age and training load. In addition, canonical correlation analysis was used between age, maturity-offset and anthropometry, on one side, and performance and sport-specific skills, on the other side. Results revealed significant differences between early, on-time and late maturity groups for anthropometry (p<0.001), strength (p<0.001) and sprint 20-m (p<0.05) in favour of the early maturing players. The difference between the mean values of the extreme groups for height was 24.8 cm, for weight 33.2 kg and, for body fat 6.5%; for handgrip 20.2 kg, for 5-jump test 1.1 m and for 20-m sprint 0.20 s. Maturity status had no effect on sport-specific skills. Canonical correlations indicated that poorer scores in sport-specific skills were related to fatness and lack of training. In parallel, a substantial relationship was found between early maturity-offset, body size, strength and 20-m sprint.
Efficient Data Transmission for an Energy Harvesting Node with Battery Capacity Constraint

Energy harvesting is increasingly gaining importance as a means to charge battery powered devices such as sensor nodes. Efficient transmission strategies must be developed taking into account both the availability of energy and data in the node. In this paper, the best data transmission strategy is found by taking into account that the node has a finite battery capacity and that the data and energy arrivals occur at known time instants. Losing energy due to overflows of the battery is proved to be inefficient unless there is no more data to transmit. Finally, an algorithm that computes the data transmission curve minimizing the total transmission time while spending the minimum energy and that satisfies energy and data constraints has been developed.
Ultrawideband Antenna Arrays and Directional Propagation Channels

The large spectral occupancy of ultrawideband (UWB) wireless signals significantly complicates the design of multi-antenna arrays and the characterization of propagation channels determining the performance of such arrays. This survey paper develops generic techniques for double-directional UWB channel characterization, and surveys methods for the extraction of the parameters of multipath components. The key channel attributes affecting multi-antenna performance, such as the angular spread and spatial correlation, are discussed in the light of measurement results. Guidelines for UWB array design are provided. Throughout the discussion, the differences from narrowband systems are highlighted.
Independent elaboration of steroid hormone signaling pathways in metazoans

Steroid hormones regulate many physiological processes in vertebrates, nematodes, and arthropods through binding to nuclear receptors (NR), a metazoan-specific family of ligand-activated transcription factors. The main steps controlling the diversification of this family are now well-understood. In contrast, the origin and evolution of steroid ligands remain mysterious, although this is crucial for understanding the emergence of modern endocrine systems. Using a comparative genomic approach, we analyzed complete metazoan genomes to provide a comprehensive view of the evolution of major enzymatic players implicated in steroidogenesis at the whole metazoan scale. Our analysis reveals that steroidogenesis has been independently elaborated in the 3 main bilaterian lineages, and that steroidogenic cytochrome P450 enzymes descended from those that detoxify xenobiotics.
Therapeutic Effect of Human iPS-Cell–Derived Myeloid Cells Expressing IFN-β against Peritoneally Disseminated Cancer in Xenograft Models

We recently developed a method to generate myeloid cells with proliferation capacity from human iPS cells. iPS-ML (iPS-cell–derived myeloid/macrophage line), generated by introducing proliferation and anti-senescence factors into iPS-cell–derived myeloid cells, grew continuously in an M-CSF–dependent manner. A large number of cells exhibiting macrophage-like properties can be readily obtained by using this technology. In the current study, we evaluated the possible application of iPS-ML in anti-cancer therapy. We established a model of peritoneally disseminated gastric cancer by intraperitoneally injecting NUGC-4 human gastric cancer cells into SCID mice. When iPS-ML were injected intraperitoneally into the mice with pre-established peritoneal NUGC-4 tumors, iPS-ML massively accumulated and infiltrated into the tumor tissues. iPS-ML expressing IFN-β (iPS-ML/IFN-β) significantly inhibited the intra-peritoneal growth of NUGC-4 cancer. Furthermore, iPS-ML/IFN-β also inhibited the growth of human pancreatic cancer MIAPaCa-2 in a similar model. iPS-ML are therefore a promising treatment agent for peritoneally disseminated cancers, for which no standard treatment is currently available.
Parents' Perceived Treatment Match and Treatment Retention Over 12 Months Among Youths in the LAMS Study.

OBJECTIVE The goal of these analyses was to describe the 12-month prevalence of mental health services retention for youths ages six to 12 years and identify predictors of treatment retention. Data were from the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms study. METHODS In a longitudinal cohort study, 416 children and their parents completed measures of mental health services use and parents' perception of the services and participated in semistructured psychodiagnostic interviews during a baseline and 12-month assessment. Logistic regression analyses examined the effects on 12-month treatment retention of demographic and clinical variables and parents' perception of how well their children's treatment matched their needs. RESULTS Sixty-nine percent of youths (N=289) continued to use services at 12 months. After the analyses controlled for other demographic and clinical factors, white race (p<.001) and greater functional impairment (p=.024) were associated with treatment retention; greater perceived treatment match at baseline significantly predicted retention above and beyond the effects of sociodemographic and clinical variables (p=.001). CONCLUSIONS Parents' perceptions about appropriateness of treatment, white race, and functional impairment predicted 12-month treatment retention.
Preliminary Study of Acute Changes in Emotion Processing in Trauma Survivors with PTSD Symptoms

Accumulating evidence suggests traumatic experience can rapidly alter brain activation associated with emotion processing. However, little is known about acute changes in emotion neurocircuits that underlie PTSD symptom development. To examine acute alterations in emotion circuit activation and structure that may be linked to PTSD symptoms, thirty-eight subjects performed a task of appraisal of emotional faces as their brains were functionally and structurally studied with MRI at both two weeks and three months after motor vehicle collision (MVC). As determined by symptoms reported in the PTSD Checklist at three months, sixteen survivors developed probable PTSD, whereas the remaining 22 did not meet criteria for PTSD diagnosis (non-PTSD). The probable PTSD group had greater activation than the non-PTSD group in dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC and vmPFC) while appraising fearful faces within two weeks after MVC and in left insular cortex (IC) three months after MVC. dmPFC activation at two weeks significantly positively correlated with PTSD symptom severity at two weeks (R = 0.462, P = 0.006) and three months (R = 0.418, p = 0.012). Changes over time in dmPFC activation and in PTSD symptom severity were also significantly positively correlated in the probable PTSD group (R = 0.641, P = 0.018). A significant time by group interaction was found for volume changes in left superior frontal gyrus (SFG, F = 6.048, p = 0.019) that partially overlapped dmPFC active region. Between two weeks and three months, left SFG volume decreased in probable PTSD survivors. These findings identify alterations in frontal cortical activity and structure during the early post-trauma period that appear to be associated with development of PTSD symptoms.
Improving Memory-System Performance of Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication

Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication is an important kernel that often runs ine(cid:14)ciently on superscalar RISC processors. This paper describe techniques that increase instruction-level parallelism and improve performance. The techniques include reordering to reduce cache misses originally due to Das et al., blocking to reduce load instructions, and prefetching to prevent multiple load-store units from stalling simulteneously. The techniques improve performnance from about 40 M(cid:13)ops (on a well-ordered matrix) to over 100 M(cid:13)ops on a 266 M(cid:13)ops machine. The techniques are applicable to other superscalar RISC processors as well and have improved performance on a Sun UltraSparc I workstation, for example.
Fast rates for empirical vector quantization

We consider the rate of convergence of the expected loss of empirically optimal vector quantizers. Earlier results show that the mean-squared expected distortion for any fixed distribution supported on a bounded set and satisfying some regularity conditions decreases at the rate O(log n/n). We prove that this rate is actually O(1/n). Although these conditions are hard to check, we show that well-polarized distributions with continuous densities supported on a bounded set are included in the scope of this result.
Development of thermoelectric devices: design, fabrication and characterisation

Improved efficiencies during waste heat recovery using currently available thermoelectric devices by increased hot-side temperatures push device materials to their operating limits. Magnesium silicide is one such material that is of interest for improved devices which can provide increased efficiencies by withstanding far higher temperatures. Within this report, progress has been made in achieving ohmic contacts for high-performance tin-antimony doped magnesium silicide and higher manganese silicide. To achieve this, a lab scale prototyping and characterisation facility was designed and tested. Furthermore, a COMSOL model was developed for module prototyping verification and has been validated using empirical data. In addition, to achieve the fabrication of a prototype module a joining process is developed for pre-contacted co-sintered antimony doped magnesium silicide and undoped higher manganese silicide. Moreover, assembly and characterisation of a prototype 7-couple module is performed followed by its characterisation data being used to validate a COMSOL model. Results showed contact sheet resistances of 8.58 ± 0.61 μΩ. cm2 and 32.7 ± 0.95 μΩ. cm2 being achieved for silver brazed antimony doped magnesium silicide and undoped higher manganese silicide, respectively. Furthermore, the prototype module created within this study has a power density of 130.29 mW/cm2 under a 300oC temperature differential. Moreover, barrier coating studies were additionally carried out for high figure of merit tin-antimony doped magnesium silicide and undoped higher manganese silicide investigating electrolytic plating, electroless plating, and sputter coating deposition techniques. Results demonstrated a sputter-coated nickel layer at a thickness of 1.2 μm with a 300 nm titanium adhesion layer results in a contact sheet resistance of 467.00 ± 8.35E μΩ. cm2 and 17.00 ± 0.13 μΩ. cm2 for silver brazed tin-antimony doped magnesium silicide and undoped higher manganese silicide, respectively. Furthermore, from the empirically verified COMSOL model a final COMSOL simulation is carried out with ideal values for the high-performance silicide material and a power density of 143mW/cm2 is calculated. These results show that improvement of the barrier layer can lead to a significantly more efficient device by incorporating higher performance, higher operating temperature materials, however with increasing dopant levels effective joining processes becomes increasingly difficult.
CELLULOSE SYNTHASE-LIKE A2, a Glucomannan Synthase, Is Involved in Maintaining Adherent Mucilage Structure in Arabidopsis Seed1[C][W]

Disruption of a glucomannan synthase alters cellulose crystallinity and spatial distribution, yielding thinner adherent mucilage with increased density in seeds of Arabidopsis. Mannans are hemicellulosic polysaccharides that are considered to have both structural and storage functions in the plant cell wall. However, it is not yet known how mannans function in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seed mucilage. In this study, CELLULOSE SYNTHASE-LIKE A2 (CSLA2; At5g22740) expression was observed in several seed tissues, including the epidermal cells of developing seed coats. Disruption of CSLA2 resulted in thinner adherent mucilage halos, although the total amount of the adherent mucilage did not change compared with the wild type. This suggested that the adherent mucilage in the mutant was more compact compared with that of the wild type. In accordance with the role of CSLA2 in glucomannan synthesis, csla2-1 mucilage contained 30% less mannosyl and glucosyl content than did the wild type. No appreciable changes in the composition, structure, or macromolecular properties were observed for nonmannan polysaccharides in mutant mucilage. Biochemical analysis revealed that cellulose crystallinity was substantially reduced in csla2-1 mucilage; this was supported by the removal of most mucilage cellulose through treatment of csla2-1 seeds with endo-β-glucanase. Mutation in CSLA2 also resulted in altered spatial distribution of cellulose and an absence of birefringent cellulose microfibrils within the adherent mucilage. As with the observed changes in crystalline cellulose, the spatial distribution of pectin was also modified in csla2-1 mucilage. Taken together, our results demonstrate that glucomannans synthesized by CSLA2 are involved in modulating the structure of adherent mucilage, potentially through altering cellulose organization and crystallization.