Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constructing Linear Encoders With Good Spectra

Linear encoders with good joint spectra are suitable candidates for optimal lossless joint source-channel coding (JSCC), where the joint spectrum is a variant of the input-output complete weight distribution and is considered good if it is close to the average joint spectrum of all linear encoders (of the same coding rate). In spite of their existence, little is known on how to construct such encoders in practice. This paper is devoted to their construction. In particular, two families of linear encoders are presented and proved to have good joint spectra. The first family is derived from Gabidulin codes, a class of maximum-rank-distance codes. The second family is constructed using a serial concatenation of an encoder of a low-density parity-check code (as outer encoder) with a low-density generator matrix encoder (as inner encoder). In addition, criteria for good linear encoders are defined for three coding applications: 1) lossless source coding; 2) channel coding; and 3) lossless JSCC. In the framework of the code-spectrum approach, these three scenarios correspond to the problems of constructing linear encoders with good kernel spectra, good image spectra, and good joint spectra, respectively. Good joint spectra imply both good kernel spectra and good image spectra, and for every linear encoder having a good kernel (respectively, image) spectrum, it is proved that there exists a linear encoder not only with the same kernel (respectively, image) but also with a good joint spectrum. Thus, a good joint spectrum is the most important feature of a linear encoder.
Sleep Deprivation during Night Shift Alters White Blood Cell Indices

Cognitive impairment is a common important effect of night time sleep loss. However, in addition, compelling evidence links sleep loss to alterations in the metabolic, endocrine, immune and inflammatory systems with potential clinical relevance. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of sleep deprivation on white blood cell indices in night shift nurses. Twenty one (21) subjects during their night shifts were used for the study (10 males and 11 females). Blood samples (2ml) were collected from the subjects via venepuncture and analysed using standard methods to determine the total white blood cell count and differential white blood cell count. Samples were collected at the commencement of the night shift and after four days of night shift duty. Results were presented as mean ± S.D and data analysed with paired t-test with a level of significance of p<0.05. The result showed a significant decrease in mean white blood cell count (from 5.41± 1.42× 10 3 cells/μl to 4.47 ± 0.97 × 10cells/μl at p< 0.001) and mean neutrophil differential count (58.43 ± 9.00% to 47.10 ± 11.30%) at p < . 0.05. There wasa significant increase in differential lymphocyte count (from 33.38 ± 10.13% to 43.86 ± 7.37 % at p< 0.001). Sleep deprivation in night shift nurses was associated with a significant decrease in mean white blood cell count and mean differential neutrophil counts with an increase in the mean differential lymphocyte count.
Uncertainty and concentration inequalities for nonstationary random processes and time-frequency energy spectra

We provide various sharp uncertainty inequalities for nonstationary random processes. These inequalities relate the temporal and spectral energy concentration of a process to the "effective rank" of its correlation operator. Similar inequalities are established for the time-frequency (TF) concentration of a wide range of TF energy spectra. We further identify TF energy spectra that feature maximum TF concentration and illustrate our results for the practically important class of underspread random processes.
Eye tracking scanpath analysis on web pages: how many users?

The number of users required for usability studies has been a controversial issue over 30 years. Some researchers suggest a certain number of users to be included in these studies. However, they do not focus on eye tracking studies for analysing eye movement sequences of users (i.e., scanpaths) on web pages. We investigate the effects of the number of users on scanpath analysis with our algorithm that was designed for identifying the most commonly followed path by multiple users. Our experimental results suggest that it is possible to approximate the same results with a smaller number of users. The results also suggest that more users are required when they serendipitously browse on web pages in comparison with when they search for specific information or items. We observed that we could achieve 75% similarity to the results of 65 users with 27 users for searching tasks and 34 users for browsing tasks. This study guides researchers to determine the ideal number of users for analysing scanpaths on web pages based on their budget and time.
In Vivo Tibiofemoral Kinematics During 4 Functional Tasks of Increasing Demand Using Biplane Fluoroscopy

Background: The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) has been well defined as the main passive restraint to anterior tibial translation (ATT) in the knee and plays an important role in rotational stability. However, it is unknown how closely the ACL and other passive and active structures of the knee constrain translations and rotations across a set of functional activities of increasing demand on the quadriceps. Hypothesis: Anterior tibial translation and internal rotation of the tibia relative to the femur would increase as the demand on the quadriceps increased. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: The in vivo 3-dimensional knee kinematics of 10 adult female patients (height, 167.8 ± 7.1 cm; body mass, 57 ± 4 kg; body mass index [BMI], 24.8 ± 1.7 kg/m2; age, 29.7 ± 7.9 years) was measured using biplane fluoroscopy while patients completed 4 functional tasks. The tasks included an unloaded knee extension in which the patient slowly extended the knee from 90° to 0° of flexion in 2 seconds; walking at a constant pace of 90 steps per minute; a maximum effort isometric knee extension with the knee at 70° of flexion; and landing from a height of 40 cm in which the patient stepped off a box, landed, and immediately performed a maximum effort vertical jump. Results: Landing (5.6 ± 1.9 mm) produced significantly greater peak ATT than walking (3.1 ± 2.2 mm) and unweighted full extension (2.6 ± 2.1 mm) (P < .01), but there was no difference between landing and a maximum isometric contraction (5.0 ± 1.9 mm). While there was no significant difference in peak internal rotation between landing (19.4° ± 5.7°), maximum isometric contraction (15.9° ± 6.7°), and unweighted full knee extension (14.5° ± 7.7°), each produced significantly greater internal rotation than walking (3.9° ± 4.2°) (P < .001). Knee extension torque significantly increased for each task (P < .01): unweighted knee extension (4.7 ± 1.2 N·m), walking (36.5 ± 7.9 N·m), maximum isometric knee extension (105.1 ± 8.2 N·m), and landing (140.2 ± 26.2 N·m). Conclusion: Anterior tibial translations significantly increased as demand on the quadriceps and external loading increased. Internal rotation was not significantly different between landing, isometric contraction, and unweighted knee extension. Additionally, ATT and internal rotation from each motion were within the normal range, and no excessive amounts of translation or rotation were observed. Clinical Relevance: This study demonstrated that while ATT will increase as demand on the quadriceps and external loading increases, the knee is able to effectively constrain ATT and internal rotation. This suggests that the healthy knee has a safe envelope of function that is tightly controlled even though task demand is elevated.
Sequence-based class tagging for robust transcription in ASR

We present a method of modeling non-lexical vocabulary items such as numbers, times, dates, monetary amounts and address components that avoids the data sparsity and out-of-vocabulary problems of written-domain language models. Like previous approaches, we use a class-based language model and efficient finite-state class grammars during run-time decoding. We mitigate the problem of context-independent replacement of class items by employing a contextual sequence labeling model to identify which class instances should be replaced, leaving others to appear in their original form. Applied to the task of general voice-search audio transcription, our method achieves 10% relative error reduction (on the numeric error rate metric) compared to the previous system (based on a verbalizer transducer). On a numeric entity recognition task, our method achieves a 23% relative error reduction on the same metric. In both cases, word error rate remains the same or is reduced.
SITUATIONAL AND PERSONAL DETERMINANTS OF COPING WITH STRESSFUL SITUATIONS

Coping has been thought t o be determined by the joint effects of stressful situations' characteristics and the personality of the person who is coping. This study attempted t o show how ten forms o f coping fo l low f rom features o f situations and from personality characteristics, and to show the relationship between situation and personality effects on coping. Two hundred and sixty undergraduates f i l led out Locus o f Control, Flexibility, and Sociability scales, selected three stressful situations experienced by them recently, rated these on a series o f scales, and reported how they coped. The consistency with which they used various forms of coping varied with the type o f coping. Sociability and Locus o f Control were weakly related to three forms o f coping. Flexibility moderated the effect o f situations on coping: the coping o f highly flexible people was more responsive to situation characteristics than that o f less flexible people. Six canonical correlations described the relationship between situation characteristics and coping. Stressful change elicited adaptation and efforts at control. Disastrous events elicited primarily wishful thinking. Undesirable situations for which the person was responsible elicited self-blame. People responded to failure situations with self-blame, to challenge wi th wishful thinking, adaptation, and control, and to lack or loss with expression o f emotion. There was an inverse relationship between the degree to which people were consistent in the use o f a form o f coping and the extent its use could be predicted f rom situation characteristics. Separate factor analyses o f continuous situation variables and situation categories showed that stressful situations have a complex rather than simple structure. I t was concluded that both personality and situation factors are important in the determination of coping, and they have both individual and interacting effects on coping. There appears to be a trade-off between the contingency and consistency o f use o f different forms of coping. Lastly, people respond in complex ways to stressful situations, and tend not t o have a single simple "style" of response.
Patient dignity inventory (PDI) questionnaire: the validation study in Italian patients with solid and hematological cancers on active oncological treatments.

BACKGROUNDS In Oncology, little is known about dignity-related distress and the issues that influence the sense of dignity for patients. We validated the Patient Dignity Inventory (PDI) questionnaire in Italian patients on oncological active treatments. METHODS After the translation procedures, the PDI was administered to 266 patients along with other questionnaires to assess the psychometric properties of the Italian version of PDI. Factor structure was tested by both explorative and confirmatory factor analyses. Concurrent validity was tested through convergent and divergent validity with validated questionnaires inquiring about physical and psychological symptoms, and religiosity. The test/retest reliability was assessed through the concordance coefficient of Linn (two-week interval, 80 patients). RESULTS The explorative analysis suggested one factor only loading highly on all the 25 items (>.45) and explaining the 48% variance; confirmative analysis and Cronbach alpha (0.96) confirmed the adequacy of the one-factor model. In the 2-week test-retest study, a concordance coefficient of 0.73 (95% CI, 0.64-0.83) was found. High correlations of problems with dignity were found with both physical and psychological symptoms (0.52 and 0.64 rho coefficient, respectively), and a moderate inverse correlation with spiritual well being (-.40). The dignity construct, as measured by PDI, proved to be orthogonal to that of religiosity (-.02). CONCLUSIONS The Italian version of PDI is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate the dignity related-distress in out-patients with solid and hematological cancers, on active oncological treatments, in non advanced stages of the disease.
A Printed LPDA Fed by a Coplanar Waveguide for Broadband Applications

A printed log-periodic dipole array (LPDA), operating between 3 and 6 GHz and fed with a coplanar waveguide, is presented. The antenna has been designed starting from Carrel's theory, optimized using CST Microwave Studio 2012, and then realized. The comparison between simulated and measured results shows that the proposed antenna can be used for broadband applications in the whole operating frequency band (3-6 GHz), with a very good input matching and a satisfactory endfire radiation pattern.
Patterns of Attachment and Responses to Accommodative Dilemmas among Interethnic/Interracial Couples

In the present study, partners from 103 heterosexual inter-ethnic/interracial couples (103 men and 103 women) completed categorical measures of attachment style and continuous measures of responses to accommodative dilemmas. Consistent with hypotheses, there was a significantly higher proportion of secure over insecure individuals among both sexes. Further, the difference between secure and insecure individuals’ accommodative tendencies was greater for destructive responses than for constructive responses (significant among men, marginally significant among women). However, contrary to hypotheses, attachment style per sewas not a significant predictor of accommodation responses among either sex. Implications for the study of interethnic/interracial romantic relationships are discussed.
Neural network approach to blind signal separation of mono-nonlinearly mixed sources

A new result is developed for separating nonlinearly mixed signals in which the nonlinearity is characterized by a class of strictly monotonic continuously differentiable functions. The structure of the blind inverse system is explicitly derived within the framework of maximum likelihood estimation and the system culminates to a special architecture of the 3-layer perceptron neural network where the parameters in the first layer are inversely related to the output layer. The proposed approach exploits both the structural and signal constraints to search for the solution and assumes that the cumulants of the source signals are known a priori. A novel statistical algorithm based on the hybridization of the generalized gradient algorithm and metropolis algorithm has been derived for training the proposed perceptron which results in improved performance in terms of accuracy and convergence speed. Simulations and real-life experiment have also been conducted to verify the efficacy of the proposed scheme in separating the nonlinearly mixed signals.
The IEMA Fuzzy c-Means Algorithm for Text Clustering

The fuzzy c-means algorithm is a soft version of the popular k-means clustering. As is well known, the k-means method begins with an initial set of randomly selected exemplars and iteratively refines this set so as to decrease the sum of squared errors. The k-centers clustering is moderately sensitive to the initial selection of centers, so it is usually rerun many times with different initializations in an attempt to find a good solution. We propose a new version of the fuzzy c-means algorithm for unstructured data to detect the best centroid of clusters, and we choose the final partition according to the validation of the Xie-Beni index. We apply our method to three different corpora (literature, forum, and ads) to verify the quality of the procedures. Riassunto L’algoritmo fuzzy c-means e la versione soft del popolare algoritmo di classificazione k-medie. Il metodo kmedie seleziona casualmente i primi centroidi, dopo avere fissato un numero k di gruppi in cui partizionare il dataset, poi, iterativamente, migliora la partizione ottenuta calcolando la distanza euclidea minima tra i centroidi e gli oggetti da classificare. Il centroide e sensibile alla selezione iniziale dei punti, infatti, usualmente si cercano differenti inizializzazioni dei punti per trovare una buona soluzione finale. L’obiettivo di questo lavoro e proporre una nuova versione dell’algoritmo fuzzy c-means (IEMA fuzzy c-means) per dati non strutturati. Per verificare la qualita dei risultati ottenuti, sono stati utilizzati tre differenti corpora (Alice, pubblicita natalizie e analisi di un forum di turismo) e validati mediante l’indice Xie-Beni.
Original Article Performance of a condensed electrode patch compared to a diffuse electrode array for transabdominal fetal heart rate and uterine contraction monitoring: a preliminary report

Objective: Intrapartum monitoring of the fetal heart rate (FHR), maternal heart rate (MHR) and uterine activity (UA) can be done noninvasively via adhesive electrodes on the parturient's abdominal surface. This ap- proach, requiring multiple electrodes placed at specific positions on the abdomen, performs at least as well as ultrasound and tocodynamometry-based monitoring. We tested whether a single adhesive electrode template (a "patch"), which would simplify use and obviate errors in electrode placement, would function as well as diffusely ar- rayed single electrodes. Methods: Seventeen healthy term parturients were monitored simultaneously with a diffuse electrode array and a condensed array patch, each connected to an identical electronic processor. Equivalence of the two electrode systems was determined by comparing their success rate, percent agreement and percent equiva- lence for FHR and MHR detection. UA monitoring was assessed by comparing the percent agreement and sensitivity of the systems. Results: The success rates of the multiple electrode array and the patch for FHR and MHR detection were above 96%. The reliability of the patch was statistically equivalent to the standard electrode array. The percent agreement for FHR was 94.7 ± 4.0% and for MHR was 92.8 ± 5.3%. These were not affected by maternal body mass index or whether it was early or late labor. The percent equivalence for both FHR and MHR was above 98% indicating equivalence of the patch with the diffuse electrode array in the accuracy of heart rate detection. The percent agree- ment of UA detection between the patch and the electrode array averaged 98% and was not influenced by whether it was early or late labor. The sensitivity of the patch for detecting individual contractions was 86.1%, equivalent to the standard electrode array. However, the sensitivity was lower in early compared to late labor (82.1 ± 13.9 vs. 90.3 ± 9.3%; P=0.052). The lower 95% confidence limit in early labor (74.9%) fell below the 80% limit necessary for equiva - lence. Conclusion: The performance of an electrode patch template for intrapartum monitoring of fetal and maternal heart rate and uterine contractions was equivalent to that of a more diffuse electrode array in almost all respects.
Serum lactic dehydrogenase activity and diffuse interstitial pneumonitis.

At the Mayo Clinic, elevated serum lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activity was observed in five patients with diffuse interstitial pneumonitis. This finding may have significance in terms of the differential diagnosis of diffuse pulmonary disease, the selection of patients with diffuse interstitial pneumonitis for treatment with corticosteroids, the level and duration of such treatment, and the prognosis for such patients.
Creating and benchmarking a new dataset for physical activity monitoring

Physical activity monitoring has recently become an important field in wearable computing research. However, there is a lack of a commonly used, standard dataset and established benchmarking problems. In this work, a new dataset for physical activity monitoring --- recorded from 9 subjects, wearing 3 inertial measurement units and a heart rate monitor, and performing 18 different activities --- is created and made publicly available. Moreover, 4 classification problems are benchmarked on the dataset, using a standard data processing chain and 5 different classifiers. The benchmark shows the difficulty of the classification tasks and exposes some challenges, defined by e.g. a high number of activities and personalization.
Prospective study of toenail selenium levels and cancer among women.

BACKGROUND Inverse associations between selenium status and cancer risk have been observed in animal studies, ecologic studies, and some case-control and prospective studies. Whereas results of some prospective studies have suggested an overall inverse relationship between selenium levels and cancer, other prospective studies have failed to confirm this finding. Prospective data on women are particularly limited because fewer women than men have been studied prospectively. PURPOSE The aim of this study was to prospectively examine the relationship between selenium levels in toenails (previously shown to reflect selenium intake) and incidence of cancer among women. METHODS The Nurses' Health Study cohort began in 1976 with 121,700 female nurses aged 30-55 years living in 11 U.S. states. In 1982, we requested toenail clippings from the members of the cohort, and 62,641 participants with no history of cancer returned these clippings. During 41 months of follow-up, 503 cases of cancer other than breast cancer (results previously reported) or nonmelanoma skin cancer were analyzed. For each case patient, a control subject was chosen from women who remained free of diagnosed cancer, matched by age and by date of nail return. RESULTS No inverse association was observed between selenium levels in toenails and cancer risk. The age- and smoking-adjusted relative risk (RR), comparing the highest with the lowest quintile of toenail selenium level, was 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.97-2.13), and the trend across quintiles was marginally significant (two-sided P = .06). Comparing the highest with the lowest decile, the RR (age- and smoking-adjusted) was 1.77 (95% CI = 1.04-3.02). When these data were combined with the data from 434 breast cancer case patients and their matched control subjects identified in parallel from this same cohort, the RR comparing the highest with the lowest quintile was 1.24 (95% CI = 0.93-1.65). Toenail selenium level was not inversely associated with cancer at any major site, including uterine cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma, ovarian cancer, or lung cancer (after adjusting for smoking); in fact, nonsignificant positive associations were observed at several sites. CONCLUSIONS Toenail selenium levels were not inversely associated with cancer risk in this study. IMPLICATIONS These data, in conjunction with previous findings of no association between toenail selenium status and breast cancer risk, strongly suggest that higher selenium intake within the range consumed by most U.S. women (as reflected by toenail selenium levels) is not protective against overall cancer incidence in women.