Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asymmetric Anomalous Diffusion: an Efficient Way to Detect Memory in Time Series

We study time series concerning rare events. The occurrence of a rare event is depicted as a jump of constant intensity always occurring in the same direction, thereby generating an asymmetric diffusion process. We consider the case where the waiting time distribution is an inverse power law with index μ. We focus our attention on μ<3, and we evaluate the scaling exponent δ of the time in the resulting diffusion process. We prove that δ gets its maximum value, δ=1, corresponding to the ballistic motion, at μ=2. We study the resulting diffusion process by means of joint use of the continuous time random walk and of the generalized central limit theorem (CLT), as well as adopting a numerical treatment. We show that rendering the diffusion process to be asymmetric yields the significant benefit of enhancing the value of the scaling parameter δ. Furthermore, this scaling parameter becomes sensitive to the power index μ in the whole region 1
Revascularization of the lunate by a volar vascularized bone graft and an osteotomy of the radius in treatment of the Kienböck's disease

Kienböck, a German radiologist, described avascular necrosis of the lunate (Kienböck's disease) in 1910. The epidemiology and etiology are not well‐known and always has been debated. A negative ulnar variance is considered as a predisposing factor for Kienböck's disease by the majority of the authors. The treatment depends upon the stage of the disease at the time of presentation and diagnosis. Radial shortening and lengthening of the ulna are biomechanically satisfactory procedures because they increase the load sharing of the ulna and result in decompression of the lunate. Revascularization of the lunate by shortening of the radius may appear to be a very bold and ambitious technique. In very advanced cases, palliative procedures like wrist denervation, resection of the proximal carpal row, or wrist arthrodesis are the techniques resorted to. We report our experience of a series of 22 operated cases between 1994 and 2000 with a minimum follow up of 5 years. All cases were treated with an anterior vascularized bone graft based on the volar carpal artery associated to an osteotomy of the radius. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery 2009.
A Variant Quorum Sensing System in Aeromonas veronii MTCC 3249

We have investigated the quorum sensing control in Aeromonas veronii MTCC 3249, originally isolated as A. culicicola from the midgut of Culex quinquefasciatus. Based on biosensor assays, the bacterium showed constant production of multiple acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) with increasing cell-density. The luxRI gene homologs, acuR (A. culicicola transcriptional Regulator) and acuI (A. culicicola autoInducer) were successfully amplified by inverse-PCR. Sequence analysis indicated acuRI were divergent from all known quorum sensing gene homologs in Aeromonas. Two localized regions in the C-terminal autoinducer binding domain of acuR showed indels suggesting variations in autoinducer specificity. Further, only a single copy of the quorum sensing genes was detected, suggesting a tight regulation of mechanisms under its control. Chromatography and further chemical analysis identified two AHLs in the culture supernatant: 6-carboxy-HHL (homoadipyl homoserine lactone), a novel AHL, and N-tetradecanoylhomoserine lactone. The existence of a potentially variant quorum sensing system might therefore, reflect in some way the ecological strategies adopted by this bacterium in the mosquito midgut.
Optimum Injected Harmonics Into Magnet Shape in Multiphase Surface-Mounted PM Machine for Maximum Output Torque

Harmonics can be injected into the permanent magnet (PM) shape to maximize the output torque in five-phase machines. The optimal harmonics of different orders for maximum torque is mathematically derived and validated by the finite element (FE) method in this paper. The output torque of the five-phase machine with sinusoidal shape can be improved by 12.5% by injecting the optimal third harmonic. Meanwhile, 3.2% further more torque improvement can be obtained with the optimal third and fifth harmonics injected. However, the output torque barely change with the seventh harmonic injection. The torque ripple of the machines with shaped PMs is much lower than the machines with conventional tile PM. The electromagnetic performance for all the machines including back electromotive force, average torque, torque ripple, etc., are compared. Finally, the five-phase machine with third and fifth harmonics injection into the rotors is prototyped to verify the analytical and FE analyses.
Staphylococcal enterotoxins in the Etiopathogenesis of Mucosal Autoimmunity within the Gastrointestinal Tract

The staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are the products of Staphylococcus aureus and are recognized as the causative agents of classical food poisoning in humans following the consumption of contaminated food. While illness evoked by ingestion of the SE or its producer organism in tainted food are often self-limited, our current understanding regarding the evolution of S. aureus provokes the utmost concern. The organism and its associated toxins, has been implicated in a wide variety of disease states including infections of the skin, heart, sinuses, inflammatory gastrointestinal disease, toxic shock, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The intricate relationship between the various subsets of immunocompetent T cells and accessory cells and the ingested material found within the gastrointestinal tract present daunting challenges to the maintenance of immunologic homeostasis. Dysregulation of the intricate balances within this environment has the potential for extreme consequences within the host, some of which are long-lived. The focus of this review is to evaluate the relevance of staphylococcal enterotoxin in the context of mucosal immunity, and the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal autoimmune disease.
N-Best Reranking by Multitask Learning

We propose a new framework for N-best reranking on sparse feature sets. The idea is to reformulate the reranking problem as a Multitask Learning problem, where each N-best list corresponds to a distinct task. This is motivated by the observation that N-best lists often show significant differences in feature distributions. Training a single reranker directly on this heteroge-nous data can be difficult. Our proposed meta-algorithm solves this challenge by using multitask learning (such as e1/e2 regularization) to discover common feature representations across N-best lists. This meta-algorithm is simple to implement, and its modular approach allows one to plug-in different learning algorithms from existing literature. As a proof of concept, we show statistically significant improvements on a machine translation system involving millions of features.
A twin study of early cannabis use and subsequent use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs

Introduction. Cannabis use is strongly associated with the use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs. Gateway and common liabilities models have been employed to explain this relationship. We sought to examine this association using a combination of the discordant twin design and modeling methods. Method. We assess the relationship between early cannabis use and the subsequent use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs in a population-based sample of male and female twin pairs using four analyses: (i) analysis of the association between early cannabis use and other illicit drug use and abuse/dependence in the entire sample of twins, (ii) assessment of the influence of early cannabis use in twin 1 on twin 2's use or abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs, (iii) use of twin pairs discordant for early cannabis use in a discordant twin design and (iv) a model-fitting procedure. Results. We found: (i) a strong association between early cannabis use and use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs in the sample, (ii) twin 1's early cannabis use is significantly associated with the twin 2's other illicit drug use, (iii) the role of correlated genetic factors with some evidence for a causal influence, and (iv) the correlated liabilities model fits the data well. Conclusions. Early cannabis use is strongly associated with other illicit drug use and abuse/dependence. The relationship arises largely due to correlated genetic and environmental influences with persisting evidence for some causal influences.
Causal Role of Thalamic Interneurons in Brain State Transitions: A Study Using a Neural Mass Model Implementing Synaptic Kinetics

Experimental studies on the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) of mammals and rodents show that the inhibitory interneurons (IN) receive around 47.1% of their afferents from the retinal spiking neurons, and constitute around 20–25% of the LGN cell population. However, there is a definite gap in knowledge about the role and impact of IN on thalamocortical dynamics in both experimental and model-based research. We use a neural mass computational model of the LGN with three neural populations viz. IN, thalamocortical relay (TCR), thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), to study the causality of IN on LGN oscillations and state-transitions. The synaptic information transmission in the model is implemented with kinetic modeling, facilitating the linking of low-level cellular attributes with high-level population dynamics. The model is parameterized and tuned to simulate alpha (8–13 Hz) rhythm that is dominant in both Local Field Potential (LFP) of LGN and electroencephalogram (EEG) of visual cortex in an awake resting state with eyes closed. The results show that: First, the response of the TRN is suppressed in the presence of IN in the circuit; disconnecting the IN from the circuit effects a dramatic change in the model output, displaying high amplitude synchronous oscillations within the alpha band in both TCR and TRN. These observations conform to experimental reports implicating the IN as the primary inhibitory modulator of LGN dynamics in a cognitive state, and that reduced cognition is achieved by suppressing the TRN response. Second, the model validates steady state visually evoked potential response in humans corresponding to periodic input stimuli; however, when the IN is disconnected from the circuit, the output power spectra do not reflect the input frequency. This agrees with experimental reports underpinning the role of IN in efficient retino-geniculate information transmission. Third, a smooth transition from alpha to theta band is observed by progressive decrease of neurotransmitter concentrations in the synaptic clefts; however, the transition is abrupt with removal of the IN circuitry in the model. The results imply a role of IN toward maintaining homeostasis in the LGN by suppressing any instability that may arise due to anomalous synaptic attributes.
Head pose estimation using Spectral Regression Discriminant Analysis

In this paper, we investigate a recently proposed efficient subspace learning method, Spectral Regression Discriminant Analysis (SRDA), and its kernel version SRKDA for head pose estimation. One important unsolved issue of SRDA is how to automatically determine an appropriate regularization parameter. The parameter, which was empirically set in the existing work, has great impact on its performance. By formulating it as a constrained optimization problem, we present a method to estimate the optimal regularization parameter in SRDA and SRKDA. Our experiments on two databases illustrate that SRDA, especially SRKDA, is promising for head pose estimation. Moreover, our approach for estimating the regularization parameter is shown to be effective in head pose estimation and face recognition experiments.
Characterisation of phenotypes based on severity of emphysema in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Airflow limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is caused by a mixture of small airway disease and emphysema, the relative contributions of which may vary among patients. Phenotypes of COPD classified purely based on severity of emphysema are not well defined and may be different from the classic phenotypes of “pink puffers” and “blue bloaters”. Methods: To characterise clinical phenotypes based on severity of emphysema, 274 subjects with COPD were recruited, excluding those with physician-diagnosed bronchial asthma. For all subjects a detailed interview of disease history and symptoms, quality of life (QOL) measurement, blood sampling, pulmonary function tests before and after inhalation of salbutamol (0.4 mg) and high-resolution CT scanning were performed. Results: Severity of emphysema visually evaluated varied widely even among subjects with the same stage of disease. No significant differences were noted among three groups of subjects classified by severity of emphysema in age, smoking history, chronic bronchitis symptoms, blood eosinophil count, serum IgE level or bronchodilator response. However, subjects with severe emphysema had significantly lower body mass index (BMI) and poorer QOL scores, evaluated using St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), than those with no/mild emphysema (mean (SD) BMI 21.2 (0.5) vs 23.5 (0.3) kg/m2, respectively; SGRQ total score 40 (3) vs 28 (2), respectively; p<0.001 for both). These characteristics held true even if subjects with the same degree of airflow limitation were chosen. Conclusions: The severity of emphysema varies widely even in patients with the same stage of COPD, and chronic bronchitis symptoms are equally distributed irrespective of emphysema severity. Patients with the phenotype in which emphysema predominates have lower BMI and poorer health-related QOL.
Proposal of acoustic measures for automatic detection of vocal fry

Vocal fry is a voice quality that often appears in relaxed voices indicating low tension, or in pressed voices expressing attitudes/feelings of surprise, admiration and suffering. We propose a set of acoustic measures for automatically detecting vocal fry segments in speech utterances. In order to deal with vocal fry utterances with very low fundamental frequencies, where classic short-term analysis methods become problematic, a glottal pulse synchronized method is proposed. The acoustic measures are based on power, periodicity and similarity properties of vocal fry signals. The basic idea is to scan for power peaks in a “very short-term” power contour, check for periodicity properties and evaluate a similarity measure between power peaks for deciding the possibility of vocal fry pulses. Sub-harmonic properties are also taken into account in the periodicity analysis. Evaluation of the proposed measures in automatic detection resulted in 73.3 % correct detection, with an insertion error rate of 3.9 %.
Discrete vs. Continuous Orthogonal Moments for Image Analysis

− Image feature representation techniques using orthogonal moment functions have been used in many applications such as invariant pattern recognition, object identification and image reconstruction. Legendre and Zernike moments are very popular in this class, owing to their feature representation capability with a minimal information redundancy measure. This paper presents a comparative analysis between these moments and a new set of discrete orthogonal moments based on Tchebichef polynomials. The implementation aspects of orthogonal moments are discussed, and experimental results using both binary and gray-level images are included to show the advantages of discrete orthogonal moments over continuous moments.
A mathematical model for cell cycle-specific cancer virotherapy

Oncolytic viruses preferentially infect and replicate in cancerous cells, leading to elimination of tumour populations, while sparing most healthy cells. Here, we study the cell cycle-specific activity of viruses such as vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). In spite of its capacity as a robust cytolytic agent, VSV cannot effectively attack certain tumour cell types during the quiescent, or resting, phase of the cell cycle. In an effort to understand the interplay between the time course of the cell cycle and the specificity of VSV, we develop a mathematical model for cycle-specific virus therapeutics. We incorporate the minimum biologically required time spent in the non-quiescent cell cycle phases using systems of differential equations with incorporated time delays. Through analysis and simulation of the model, we describe how varying the minimum cycling time and the parameters that govern viral dynamics affect the stability of the cancer-free equilibrium, which represents therapeutic success.
The Low-Frequency Distortion in D-Class Amplifiers

D-class amplifiers use pulsewidth modulation to transform an input signal u into a rectangular signal p whose duty cycle linearly depends on the input signal u. After low-pass-filtering p to suppress the switching frequency and its harmonics, we obtain the output signal y that is a good approximation of u. This kind of an amplifier is attractive (as compared with the classical A-class and B-class amplifiers) due to its high efficiency. A buck power supply may be regarded as a particular instance of a D-class amplifier. While the operating principle of the D-class amplifier is intuitively clear, a rigorous mathematical analysis of this system is not trivial, as the amplifier is time-varying and nonlinear. We derive a rigorous proof of the fact that the signal p is a good approximation of u in the low-frequency range, and we provide precise error bounds for this approximation.
Moving from the Question of Efficacy to the Question of Therapeutic Relevance: An Exploratory Reanalysis of a Controlled Clinical Study of 130 Inpatients With Dementia Syndrome Taking Piracetam

The authors reanalyzed previously published data from a prospectively randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind phase-III study of 130 inpatients with dementia syndrome. The patients in the study had been diagnosed as having suffered from organic brain syndrome (ICD 290), which is the core syndrome of dementia (so-called dementia syndrome) for at least two years. They were treated with piracetam for three months at a dose level of 4,800 mg/d. These data were reexamined in order both to survey the extent of drugrelated improvement and response rates when assessed at different levels and to investigate the comparability of efficacy in subgroups suffering from either senile dementia of the Alzheimer type or multi-infarct dementia. Three scales were used for the assessment of efficacy. They were the CGI, or Clinical Global Impression, completed by the physicians; the SCAG, or Sandoz Clinical Assessment Geriatric, used by clinical psychologists; and the BGP, or Beurteilungsskala f$uUr Geriatrische Patienten (Evaluation Scale for Geriatric Patients), employed by the nursing staff. The Syndrom-Kurztest (SKT) and Benton tests served to measure performance. The items and subscores of the SCAG and the SKT were highly intercorrelated at baseline, forming a common factor fairly independent of the information gained by BGP. This suggests that merely using different kinds of information-gathering methods, i.e., clinical scales and performance tests, completed by different groups of observers, does not automatically result in nonredundant comprehensive information.
Genetic testing for hereditary hearing loss: Connexin 26 (GJB2) allele variants and two novel deafness‐causing mutations (R32C and 645‐648delTAGA)

Mutations in GJB2 are the most common cause of hereditary congenital hearing loss in many countries and are found in about half of persons with severe‐to‐profound congenital autosomal recessive non‐syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL). We report the results of GJB2 mutation screening in 209 consecutive persons with congenital deafness of indeterminate etiology using an allele‐specific polymerase chain reaction assay, single‐strand conformational polymorphism analysis, and direct sequencing. GJB2 allele variants were detected in 74 of 209 deaf individuals (35%). Over one‐fourth of screened individuals were either homozygous (n=31) or heterozygous (n=24) for the 35delG mutation. Of those with the 35delG mutation, 51 (92.7%) were diagnosed with GJB2‐related deafness. Nineteen persons were identified with other GJB2 allele variants — two novel deafness‐causing mutations (R32C, 645‐648delTAGA), one mutation of unknown significance (E47K), and one benign polymorphism (I128I). While these data enable health care professionals to provide parents and patients with improved genetic counseling data, difficulty still exists is determining whether some missense mutations compromise auditory function and are deafness‐causing. Hum Mutat 16:502–508, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
User-Behavior Based Detection of Infection Onset

A major vector of computer infection is through exploiting software or design flaws in networked applications such as the browser. Malicious code can be fetched and executed on a victim’s machine without the user’s permission, as in drive-by download (DBD) attacks. In this paper, we describe a new tool called DeWare for detecting the onset of infection delivered through vulnerable applications. DeWare explores and enforces causal relationships between computer-related human behaviors and system properties, such as file-system access and process execution. Our tool can be used to provide real time protection of a personal computer, as well as for diagnosing and evaluating untrusted websites for forensic purposes. Besides the concrete DBD detection solution, we also formally define causal relationships between user actions and system events on a host. Identifying and enforcing correct causal relationships have important applications in realizing advanced and secure operating systems. We perform extensive experimental evaluation, including a user study with 21 participants, thousands of legitimate websites (for testing false alarms), as well as 84 malicious websites in the wild. Our results show that DeWare is able to correctly distinguish legitimate download events from unauthorized system events with a low false positive rate (< 1%).
Development and Evaluation of a Broadly Reactive TaqMan Assay for Rapid Detection of Hepatitis A Virus

ABSTRACT Primers and a TaqMan probe for the 5′-untranslated region (UTR) of the hepatitis A virus (HAV) genome were designed and evaluated. The assay detected 0.5 infectious units of HAV and 40 copies of a synthetic transcript and provides an important screening tool for rapid quantitative HAV detection in clinical or environmental samples.