Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variable block size motion estimation architecture with a fast bottom-up decision mode and an integrated motion compensation targeting the H.264/AVC video coding standard

This work presents a new algorithm for the H.264/AVC Variable Block Size Motion Estimation (VBSME) Decision Mode, which uses a bottom-up approach to merge the 4x4 motion vectors into larger-block predicted vectors. This work also presents a low cost architecture for the VBSME with an Integrated Motion Compensation that implements our decision mode algorithm. This architecture reduces the number of accesses to the encoder main memory, since the Motion Compensation module does not access the main memory in our solution. The architecture also presents the best trade-off between cost and throughput among the related works. This is important since this is a simplified low cost solution for the Inter Frame prediction, the most complex hardware module of the H.264/AVC video encoder.
Duration of length of stay in pneumonia: influence of clinical factors and hospital type

Length of stay (LOS) in hospital for community-acquired pneumonia depends on the characteristics of the patient and hospital. The present study sought to identify these variables within the first 24 h of hospitalisation. Patients hospitalised for pneumonia in four hospitals (one teaching and three general hospitals) had their data analysed by univariate and multivariate statististics. The variables entered were LOS, demographical characteristics, referral source, comorbidity, initial severity of illness, laboratory analyses, initial radiograph findings and antibiotic treatment regimens. The study sample included 425 patients. The overall mortality was 8.2% and the median LOS was 9 days. Using LOS as a dependent variable, three multivariate linear regression analyses were performed with: 1) the whole cohort; 2) the low-risk classes (categories I and II of Fine); and 3) the high-risk classes (categories III, IV and V of Fine). The mathematical model identified hypoxemia, low diastolic pressure, pleural effusion, multi-lobe involvement and hypoalbuminaemia as associated with longer stays in risk classes III–V, while in the low-risk patients (I–II) only hypoxemia and pleural effusion appeared in the equation. Following adjustment for these clinical variables, the LOS remained lower in some hospitals. Several independent clinical factors increased the pneumonia-associated length of stay with significant differences between hospitals. Hypoxemia and pleural effusions were the predictive variables of length of stay in low-risk patients and, additionally, diastolic blood pressure, multi-lobe involvement and hypoalbuminaemia were significant in the higher-risk classes III–V.
Neurotrophic Factors NGF, GDNF and NTN Selectively Modulate HSV1 and HSV2 Lytic Infection and Reactivation in Primary Adult Sensory and Autonomic Neurons

Herpes simplex viruses (HSV1 and HSV2) establish latency in peripheral ganglia after ocular or genital infection, and can reactivate to produce different patterns and frequencies of recurrent disease. Previous studies showed that nerve growth factor (NGF) maintains HSV1 latency in embryonic sympathetic and sensory neurons. However, adult sensory neurons are no longer dependent on NGF for survival, some populations cease expression of NGF receptors postnatally, and the viruses preferentially establish latency in different populations of sensory neurons responsive to other neurotrophic factors (NTFs). Thus, NGF may not maintain latency in adult sensory neurons. To identify NTFs important for maintaining HSV1 and HSV2 latency in adult neurons, we investigated acute and latently-infected primary adult sensory trigeminal (TG) and sympathetic superior cervical ganglia (SCG) after NTF removal. NGF and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) deprivation induced HSV1 reactivation in adult sympathetic neurons. In adult sensory neurons, however, neurturin (NTN) and GDNF deprivation induced HSV1 and HSV2 reactivation, respectively, while NGF deprivation had no effects. Furthermore, HSV1 and HSV2 preferentially reactivated from neurons expressing GFRα2 and GFRα1, the high affinity receptors for NTN and GDNF, respectively. Thus, NTN and GDNF play a critical role in selective maintenance of HSV1 and HSV2 latency in primary adult sensory neurons.
Forecasting cosmological constraints from redshift surveys

Observations of redshift-space distortions in spectroscopic galaxy surveys offer an attractive method for observing the build-up of cosmological structure, which depends both on the expansion rate of the Universe and our theory of gravity. In this paper, we present a formalism for forecasting the constraints on the growth of structure which would arise in an idealized survey. This Fisher matrix based formalism can be used to study the power and aid in the design of future surveys.
Time series prediction with a non-causal neural network

Neural networks have been widely applied to time series prediction over past few decades. Generally, applications of them restrict to causal models where current values are dependent on past values. In contrast, a non-causal neural network is proposed in this paper to deal with time series prediction by allowing dependence on future values. Both past and future values are used together for training and prediction. In prediction, future values are the expected values of training samples. In addition, weightings of the past and future values are incorporated into the network to improve prediction performance. Experimental results on benchmark and FX time series show that the proposed network is effective.
Associations among Wine Grape Microbiome, Metabolome, and Fermentation Behavior Suggest Microbial Contribution to Regional Wine Characteristics

ABSTRACT Regionally distinct wine characteristics (terroir) are an important aspect of wine production and consumer appreciation. Microbial activity is an integral part of wine production, and grape and wine microbiota present regionally defined patterns associated with vineyard and climatic conditions, but the degree to which these microbial patterns associate with the chemical composition of wine is unclear. Through a longitudinal survey of over 200 commercial wine fermentations, we demonstrate that both grape microbiota and wine metabolite profiles distinguish viticultural area designations and individual vineyards within Napa and Sonoma Counties, California. Associations among wine microbiota and fermentation characteristics suggest new links between microbiota, fermentation performance, and wine properties. The bacterial and fungal consortia of wine fermentations, composed from vineyard and winery sources, correlate with the chemical composition of the finished wines and predict metabolite abundances in finished wines using machine learning models. The use of postharvest microbiota as an early predictor of wine chemical composition is unprecedented and potentially poses a new paradigm for quality control of agricultural products. These findings add further evidence that microbial activity is associated with wine terroir. IMPORTANCE Wine production is a multi-billion-dollar global industry for which microbial control and wine chemical composition are crucial aspects of quality. Terroir is an important feature of consumer appreciation and wine culture, but the many factors that contribute to terroir are nebulous. We show that grape and wine microbiota exhibit regional patterns that correlate with wine chemical composition, suggesting that the grape microbiome may influence terroir. In addition to enriching our understanding of how growing region and wine properties interact, this may provide further economic incentive for agricultural and enological practices that maintain regional microbial biodiversity. Wine production is a multi-billion-dollar global industry for which microbial control and wine chemical composition are crucial aspects of quality. Terroir is an important feature of consumer appreciation and wine culture, but the many factors that contribute to terroir are nebulous. We show that grape and wine microbiota exhibit regional patterns that correlate with wine chemical composition, suggesting that the grape microbiome may influence terroir. In addition to enriching our understanding of how growing region and wine properties interact, this may provide further economic incentive for agricultural and enological practices that maintain regional microbial biodiversity.
Chemical characterization of Brickellia cavanillesii (Asteraceae) using gas chromatographic methods

A methanol extract of lyophilized Brickellia cavanillesii was quantitatively analyzed using gas chromatographic (GC) techniques. The chromatographic methods employed were (i) GC-flame ionization detector (GC-FID), (ii) GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and (iii) purge and trap GC-MS (P&T GC-MS). Thirteen compounds were identified with a quality match of 90% and above using GC-MS. The compounds were (1) Cyclohexene, 6-ethenyl-6-methyl-1-(1-methylethyl)-3-(1-methylethylidene)-, (S)-; (2) Bicylo (2.2.1) heptan-2-one, 1, 7, 7-trimethyl-(1S, 4S)-; (3) Phenol, 2-methoxy-4-(1-propenyl)-; (4) Benzene, 1-(1, 5-dimethyl-4-hexenyl)-4-methyl-; (5) Naphthalene, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8a-hexahydro4, 7-dimethyl-1-1-(1-methylethyl)-, (1S-cis)-; (6) Phenol, 2-methoxy-; (7) Benzaldehyde, 3-hydroxy-4-methoxy-; (8) 11, 13-Eicosadienoic acid, methyl ester; (9) 2-Furancarboxaldehyde, 5-methyl-; (10) Maltol; (11) Phenol; (12) Hydroquinone; (13) 1H-Indene, 1-ethylideneoctahydro-7a-methyl-, (1E, 3a.alpha, 7a.beta.). Other compounds (14) 3-methyl butanal; (15) (D)-Limonene; (16) 1-methyl-4-(1-methyl ethyl) benzene; (17) Butanoic acid methyl ester; (18) 2-methyl propanal; (19) 2-butanone; (20) 2-pentanone; and (21) 2-methyl butane were also identified when P&T GC-MS was performed. Of the 21 compounds identified, 12 were validated using chemical standards. The identified compounds were found to be terpenes, derivatives of terpenes, esters, ketones, aldehydes, and phenol-derived aromatic compounds; these are the primary constituents of the essential oils of many plants and flowers.
μDatabase: parallelism in a memory-mapped environment (research summary)

The goal of the ~Database project is to understand the behaviour of data structures and their algorithms, both parallel and sequential, in a memory-mapped environment. Memory mapping allows primary-memory pointer-based data structures to be stored on secondary storage, and subsequently traversed and modified, without transforming the embedded point ers. The project incorporates a collaboration between practitioners and theoreticians and has produced a toolkit to support a parallel memory-mapped environment, ext ensive concurrence y tools, an analytical model for the system vaEdated by experiments, and preliminary results involving parallel database join algorithms as well as sequential Btree and R-tree data structures. Future work includes augmenting the toolkit, developing and testing more parallel algorithms tuned for efficiency in a memory-mapped environment, and extending the current model to cover more general algorithms and capture more low-level details of the physical machine.
China’s Rural Education: Chinese Migrant Children and Left-Behind Children

This special issue focuses on the education of rural youths who have been influenced by China’s rural-to-urban migration, probably among the largest in human history (UNICEF 2014, 112). In contemporary China, rural-to-urban migration has not only fueled the nation’s economic boom, but also affected the lives of a significant proportion of China’s children. Among the estimated 106 million children impacted by migration in 2010, 35.81 million children migrated with their parents to urban areas, while 70 million were left-behind in predominately rural areas (UNICEF 2014). The rural youths who have been influenced by China’s massive rural-to-urban migration face formidable challenges for socioeconomic mobility. Access to quality education is a critical component of their poor societal prospects (Kwong 2006). Migrant and left-behind children hold lower educational aspirations and are less likely to complete compulsory education (Koo 2012; Koo, Ming, and Tsang 2014; Lu 2012; UNICEF 2014; Jianwen and Jiawei 2010). Given the importance of education as a key transition for youths’ assimilation prospects, the articles here examine the schooling of rural youths who have been influenced by migration policies and processes: rural migrant youths (who move to the city with their rural parents) and left-behind children (whose parents have migrated to the cities, while their children remain in the rural hometown). To examine the educational trajectory of China’s rural migrant and left-behind youths, our article utilizes a framework that considers both schooling and migration issues. Our framework conceptualizes educational experiences and outcomes as a consequence of dynamic interrelationships between individual, family and societal factors. To account for the vulnerability and resources affecting schooling for migrant and left-behind children, our framework encompasses the following dimensions: background factors (step 1), school as context of reception (step 2), educational outcomes (step 3). Specifically, “background factors” include: individual characteristics (e.g. gender, human capital), family factors (e.g. socio-economic status, family none defined
The Recall and New Job Search of Laid-Off Workers: A Bivariate Proportional Hazard Model with Unobserved Heterogeneity

Workers who lose their jobs can become reemployed either by being recalled to their previous employers or by finding new jobs. Workers' chances for recall should depress their job search intensity, so the rates of exit from unemployment by these two routes should be negatively related. We look for evidence in the PSID data by estimating a semiparametric competing risks model with explicitly related hazards. Our estimates reveal a statistically precise but small negative effect of recall probabilities on the rate of new job finding.
The Definition of a Prolonged Intensive Care Unit Stay for Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage Patients: An Application with National Health Insurance Research Database

Introduction. Length of stay (LOS) in the intensive care unit (ICU) of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) patients is one of the most important issues. The disease severity, psychosocial factors, and institutional factors will influence the length of ICU stay. This study is used in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to define the threshold of a prolonged ICU stay in sICH patients. Methods. This research collected the demographic data of sICH patients in the NHIRD from 2005 to 2009. The threshold of prolonged ICU stay was calculated using change point analysis. Results. There were 1599 sICH patients included. A prolonged ICU stay was defined as being equal to or longer than 10 days. There were 436 prolonged ICU stay cases and 1163 nonprolonged cases. Conclusion. This study showed that the threshold of a prolonged ICU stay is a good indicator of hospital utilization in ICH patients. Different hospitals have their own different care strategies that can be identified with a prolonged ICU stay. This indicator can be improved using quality control methods such as complications prevention and efficiency of ICU bed management. Patients' stay in ICUs and in hospitals will be shorter if integrated care systems are established.
Significant inverse associations of serum n-6 fatty acids with plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor-1

Epidemiological studies suggested that n-6 fatty acids, especially linoleic acid (LA), have beneficial effects on CHD, whereas some in vitro studies have suggested that n-6 fatty acids, specifically arachidonic acid (AA), may have harmful effects. We examined the association of serum n-6 fatty acids with plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). A population-based cross-sectional study recruited 926 randomly selected men aged 40–49 years without CVD during 2002–2006 (310 Caucasian, 313 Japanese and 303 Japanese-American men). Plasma PAI-1 was analysed in free form, both active and latent. Serum fatty acids were measured with gas-capillary liquid chromatography. To examine the association between total n-6 fatty acids (including LA and AA) and PAI-1, multivariate regression models were used. After adjusting for confounders, total n-6 fatty acids, LA and AA, were inversely and significantly associated with PAI-1 levels. These associations were consistent across three populations. Among 915 middle-aged men, serum n-6 fatty acids had significant inverse associations with PAI-1.
Information entropy of Gegenbauer polynomials and Gaussian quadrature

In a recent paper (Buyarov V S, Lopez-Artes P, Martinez-Finkelshtein A and Van Assche W 2000 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 33 6549–60), an efficient method was provided for evaluating in closed form the information entropy of the Gegenbauer polynomials C(λ)n(x) in the case when λ = l . For given values of n and l, this method requires the computation by means of recurrence relations of two auxiliary polynomials, P(x) and H(x), of degrees 2l − 2 and 2l − 4, respectively. Here it is shown that P(x) is related to the coefficients of the Gaussian quadrature formula for the Gegenbauer weights wl(x) = (1 − x2)l−1/2, and this fact is used to obtain the explicit expression of P(x). From this result, an explicit formula is also given for the polynomial S(x) = limn→∞ P(1 − x/(2n2)), which is relevant to the study of the asymptotic (n → ∞ with l fixed) behaviour of the entropy.
Boosting HIV treatment options: good news, new challenges.

Keywords. pharmacoenhancer; cobicistat; boosted PIs.For >15 years, ritonavir (RTV) has beenthe only pharmacokinetic enhancer (ie,booster) for human immunodeﬁciencyvirus (HIV) protease inhibitors. The de-velopment of cobicistat (COBI) promisesto provide an alternative to RTV withoutdirect antiviral effects of its own. COBI, apotent cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A)inhibitor recently approved by the Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) for usein a single-tablet regimen of elvitegravir/COBI/emtricitabine(FTC)/tenofovir dis-oproxil fumarate (TDF), is currentlybeing studied in phase 3 trials as boosterof other antiretroviral drugs. In vitrostudies demonstrate that COBI, unlikeRTV, is a weak inhibitor for CYP2D6 anddoes not have inhibitory effects on otherCYP isoforms (ie, CYP1A2, CYP2C09,and CYP2c19), making pharmacologicinteractions more predictable [1]. COBIalso seems to have less impact than RTVon normal adipocyte functions, such aslipid accumulation and/or response toinsulin, which may offer the potential forfewer adverse biochemical effects relativeto RTV [2]. In addition, the better solu-bility of COBI allows creation of a tabletformulation and coformulations thatmight foster the availability of othersingle-tablet regimens.In this issue of the Journal, Gallantet al report the 48-week results of a studycomparing COBI with RTVas a pharma-coenhancer for atazanavir (ATV) plusFTC/TDF in 698 treatment-naive HIVtype 1 (HIV-1)–infected patients. Studysubjects were recruited in the UnitedStates, the Dominican Republic, Mexico,Thailand, Portugal, Germany, the UnitedKingdom, Italy, and Switzerland andwere randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio toreceive COBI or RTV. Most of the partic-ipants (60%) were white, and similar toother large trials, the proportion ofwomen (17%) was low. Twenty-fourpercent reported Hispanic/Latino ethnic-ity. The studyallowed the inclusion of in-dividuals with active hepatitis, withhepatitis B present in 3.6% of patientsand hepatitisC in 5.3%. The immunolog-ic status of the patients was relativelygood, with 48% having CD4
Relevance of Respiratory Symptoms and Signs to Ventilatory Capacity Changes after Exposure to Grain Dust and Phosphate Rock Dust

Ventilatory capacity was measured before and after exposure to high concentrations of wheat dust in 24 men, 18 of whom were similarly studied while working with calcium phosphate rock. Changes in ventilatory capacity were examined in relation to respiratory symptoms as commonly elicited in occupational surveys, and to the presence or absence of a productive cough on request and under observation. A significant decrease in the forced expiratory volume at one second was observed within half an hour of beginning work in the wheat dust, and this decrease was maintained throughout the work shift. A smaller significant decrease was found on exposure to phosphate rock over several hours, no significant change occurring within the first half-hour. Greater or more consistent decreases were recorded in those men who gave a history of persistent cough and sputum, and more particularly in those who had a productive cough on request, than in those without these features. A history of symptoms on exposure failed to define a group showing any more severe ventilatory reaction on exposure to wheat dust than the average. Some of the factors influencing the history of symptoms in occupational populations are reviewed, and the advantage of an objective sign, as provided by a deliberate cough, is indicated in defining an `abnormal' group within such a population.
The Father Motive: Predicting the Impact of Father Attitudes on Involvement

The Father Motive: Predicting the Impact of Father Attitudes on Involvement Nathan Lovell Robbins School of Family Life, BYU Master of Science The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects that a man’s attitudes towards fathering have on the level of involvement with his children. Of particular interest was whether fathering attitudes moderated some of the more consistent predictors of involvement, such as relationship quality, maternal gatekeeping, mother’s and father’s employment hours, a man’s history with his own father, family structure, and child characteristics. A sample of 2300 men was used to evaluate the effects of fathering attitudes on engagement and warmth among children ages 2 to 8 and 9 to 11. Results indicate an inconsistent main effect between fathering attitudes and the types of involvement among the two age groups. However, moderated multiple regression analysis revealed that, in many instances, fathering attitudes completely mitigated the effect of several of the traditional predictors of involvement. Among the younger group, men with high fathering attitudes maintained high levels of engagement despite poor history with their own father and high levels of work hours, and engagement increased as maternal employment hours increased. Warmth among these men also remained unchanged at high levels of maternal gatekeeping and low levels of relationship quality. In the older group, high father attitudes mitigated the effects of relationship quality and fathers’ work hours on warmth. Attitudes did not moderate engagement among the older group.