Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fixed point theorems for mappings satisfying inwardness conditions

Let X be a normed linear space and let K be a convex subset of X. The inward set, IK(x), of x relative to K is defined as follows: IK(x) = {x + c(u x):c ; 1, u E K}. A mapping T:K X is said to be inward if Tx E IK(x) for each x E K, and weakly inward if Tx belongs to the closure of IK(x) for each x E K. In this paper a characterization of weakly inward mappings is given in terms of a condition arising in the study of ordinary differential equations. A general fixed point theorem is proved and applied to derive a generalization of the Contraction Mapping Principle in a complete metric space, and then applied together with the characterization of weakly inward mappings to obtain some fixed point theorems in Banach spaces. 0. Introduction. Let X be a topological vector space, K C X, and T a mapping of K into X. An inwardness condition on T is one which asserts that, in some sense, T maps points x of K "toward" K, or more precisely into the set generated by rays emanating from x and passing through other points of K. Such conditions are always weaker than the assumption that T map the boundary of K, MK, into K. They have been formulated in a variety of ways and imposed by several authors recently in connection with studies both in fixed point theory and in certain differential equations. Our purpose in this paper is to illustrate how different types of inwardness assumptions are related, and to prove several new fixed point theorems in which these concepts play a role. Before stating precise definitions we give a brief review of some of the previous work in this area. The study of inward mappings originated with the investigations of B. Halpern in his 1965 doctoral thesis [7] where he obtained a generalization of the Schauder-Tychonov Theorem, a result he and Bergman further generalized in 1968 [9]. Since then many results have appeared in the literature concerning inward and weakly inward mappings in Halpern's sense, for both single and multivalued mappings (cf. [3], [6], [8], [9], [14], [16] -[19]). Another type of inwardness assumption was used by H. Brezis [11 in Received by the editors May 1, 1974 and, in revised form, October 16, 1974. AMS (MOS) subject classifications (1970). Primary 47H10; Secondary 54H25.
A comparison of hybrid HMM architecture using global discriminating training

This paper presents a comparison if different model architectures for TIMIT phoneme recognition. The baseline is a conventional diagonal covariance Gaussian mixture HMM. This system is compared to two different hybrid MLP/HMMs, both adhering to the same restrictions regarding input context and output states as the Gaussian mixtures. All free parameters in the three systems are jointly optimised using the same global discriminative criterion. A forward decoder, with total likelihood scoring, is used for recognition. While the global discriminative training method is found to improve the baseline HMM significantly, the differences between Gaussian and MLP-based architecture are small. The Gaussian mixture system however performs slightly better at the lowest complexity levels.
A comparison of human and automatic musical genre classification

Recently there has been an increasing amount of work in the area of automatic genre classification of music in audio format. In addition to automatically structuring large music collections such classification can be used as a way to evaluate features for describing musical content. However the evaluation and comparison of genre classification systems is hindered by the subjective perception of genre definitions by users. In this work, we describe a set of experiments in automatic musical genre classification. An important contribution of this work is the comparison of the automatic results with human genre classifications on the same dataset. The results show that, although there is room for improvement, genre classification is inherently subjective and therefore perfect results can not be expected neither from automatic nor human classification. The experiments also show that features derived from an auditory model have similar performance with features based on mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC).
Data-driven synthesis for object-oriented frameworks

Software construction today often involves the use of large frameworks. The challenge in this type of programming is that object-oriented frameworks tend to grow exceedingly intricate; they spread functionality among numerous classes, and any use of the framework requires knowledge of many interacting components. We present a system named MATCHMAKER that from a simple query synthesizes code that interacts with the framework. The query consists of names of two framework classes, and our system produces code enabling interaction between them. MATCHMAKER relies on a database of dynamic program traces called DELIGHT that uses novel abstraction-based indexing techniques to answer queries about the evolution of heap connectivity in a matter of seconds. The paper evaluates the performance and effectiveness of MATCHMAKER on a number of benchmarks from the Eclipse framework. The paper also presents the results of a user study that showed a 49% average productivity improvement from the use of our tool.
OpenSalicon: An Open Source Implementation of the Salicon Saliency Model

In this technical report, we present our publicly downloadable implementation of the SALICON saliency model. At the time of this writing, SALICON is one of the top performing saliency models on the MIT 300 fixation prediction dataset which evaluates how well an algorithm is able to predict where humans would look in a given image. Recently, numerous models have achieved state-of-the-art performance on this benchmark, but none of the top 5 performing models (including SALICON) are available for download. To address this issue, we have created a publicly downloadable implementation of the SALICON model. It is our hope that our model will engender further research in visual attention modeling by providing a baseline for comparison of other algorithms and a platform for extending this implementation. The model we provide supports both training and testing, enabling researchers to quickly fine-tune the model on their own dataset. We also provide a pre-trained model and code for those users who only need to generate saliency maps for images without training their own model.
Psychosis incidence through the prism of early intervention services

Summary We know little about first-episode psychosis epidemiology beyond cities or when measured through early intervention in psychosis services. We present results from 18 months of the 3-year Social Epidemiology of Psychoses in East Anglia (SEPEA) study of incepted incidence observed through five early intervention services. We identified 378 eligible individuals (incidence: 45.1/100 000 person-years, 95% CI 40.8–49.9). Rates varied across these services, but were 2–3 times higher than those on which services were commissioned. Risk decreased with age, was nearly doubled among men and differed by ethnic group; doubled in people of mixed ethnicity but lower for those of Asian origin, compared with White British people. Psychosis risk among ethnic minorities was lower than reported in urban settings, which has potential implications for aetiology. Our data suggest considerable psychosis morbidity in diverse, rural communities.
An Efficient Algorithm for Unsupervised Word Segmentation with Branching Entropy and MDL

This paper proposes a fast and simple unsupervised word segmentation algorithm that utilizes the local predictability of adjacent character sequences, while searching for a least-effort representation of the data. The model uses branching entropy as a means of constraining the hypothesis space, in order to efficiently obtain a solution that minimizes the length of a two-part MDL code. An evaluation with corpora in Japanese, Thai, English, and the "CHILDES" corpus for research in language development reveals that the algorithm achieves an accuracy, comparable to that of the state-of-the-art methods in unsupervised word segmentation, in a significantly reduced computational time.
Involvement of the Fas system in liver allograft rejection

OBJECTIVE:Recent studies suggest that apoptosis is an important mechanism of cell death in the rejection of liver allografts and that this process is mediated via Fas. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of the Fas system during the liver allograft rejection and its evolution after treatment.METHODS:We evaluated 14 patients with liver allograft rejection before and after treatment. Fas immunostaining was performed by the labeled streptavidin-biotin peroxidase method using a 200-fold dilution of a monoclonal antibody. Assessment of apoptosis was determined by the terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique on deparaffined liver samples. Serum levels of soluble Fas antigen (sFas) were detected by an enzyme immunoassay procedure. Twelve liver transplant patients without allograft rejection were analyzed as a control group.RESULTS:The number of hepatocytes expressing Fas antigen, the percentage of apoptotic hepatocytes, and the sFas levels were higher in patients with liver allograft rejection than in controls (27.9 ± 23.1% vs 1.4 ± 1.2%, p < 0.001; 2.2 ± 0.9% vs 1.0 ± 0.1%, p = 0.02; 24.2 ± 39.6 vs 2.8 ± 4.0 IU/ml, p = 0.03, respectively). There was a correlation between the levels of sFas, AST (r = 0.86, p < 0.001), ALT (r = 0.78, p = 0.02), and γ-globulin levels (r = 0.86, p < 0.001). After the rejection treatment we found a significant decrease in the Fas antigen expression (18.6 ± 13.3%, p < 0.05), TUNEL index (0.2 ± 0.4, p < 0.05), and levels of sFas (9.9 ± 30.25 IU/ml, p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS:1) The demonstration of hepatocytes with Fas antigen expression and the labeling of the nuclei by the TUNEL assay suggest that apoptosis mediated by the Fas system plays a role in the pathogenesis of liver allograft rejection. 2) The Fas expression and the sFas levels decreased in patients with treatment response.
Direct Nitrate Reductase Assay versus Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility Test for Rapid Detection of MDR-TB in Uganda

The most common method for detection of drug resistant (DR) TB in resource-limited settings (RLSs) is indirect susceptibility testing on Lowenstein-Jensen medium (LJ) which is very time consuming with results available only after 2–3 months. Effective therapy of DR TB is therefore markedly delayed and patients can transmit resistant strains. Rapid and accurate tests suitable for RLSs in the diagnosis of DR TB are thus highly needed. In this study we compared two direct techniques - Nitrate Reductase Assay (NRA) and Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS) for rapid detection of MDR-TB in a high burden RLS. The sensitivity, specificity, and proportion of interpretable results were studied. Smear positive sputum was collected from 245 consecutive re-treatment TB patients attending a TB clinic in Kampala, Uganda. Samples were processed at the national reference laboratory and tested for susceptibility to rifampicin and isoniazid with direct NRA, direct MODS and the indirect LJ proportion method as reference. A total of 229 specimens were confirmed as M. tuberculosis, of these interpretable results were obtained in 217 (95%) with either the NRA or MODS. Sensitivity, specificity and kappa agreement for MDR-TB diagnosis was 97%, 98% and 0.93 with the NRA; and 87%, 95% and 0.78 with the MODS, respectively. The median time to results was 10, 7 and 64 days with NRA, MODS and the reference technique, respectively. The cost of laboratory supplies per sample was low, around 5 USD, for the rapid tests. The direct NRA and MODS offered rapid detection of resistance almost eight weeks earlier than with the reference method. In the study settings, the direct NRA was highly sensitive and specific. We consider it to have a strong potential for timely detection of MDR-TB in RLS.
ON THE CALIBRATION OF REACTIVE ENERGY METERS UNDER NON SINUSOIDAL CONDITIONS

This paper is focused on the problems related to the calibration of the reactive energy meters on the place of installation of the electricity meter (on-site), using the load of the same electrical system. In the presence of harmonic distortion, the behaviour of the meters ca n go out of the limits imposed by the theoretical calibratio n curve, depending on the metric used by both reference stan dard meters and meters under test.
Effect of oxytocin injection on folliculogenesis, ovulation and endometrial growth in mice

Background: Induction of ovulation in ART is necessary for superovulation and the side effects of superovulatory drugs are debated. Oxytocin as a natural hormone, have receptors and is synthesized by several reproductive organs. Preovulatory presence of oxytocin receptor mRNAs in granulosa cells indicating a role for oxytocin in follicular development. Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of exogenous oxytocin injection on folliculogenesis, ovulation and endometrial growth in mice. Materials and Methods: Forty adult female mice were divided into two groups as control and experimental. The mice at their sterous cycle received 1 IU/gr oxytocin, in experimental, and the same volume of solvent in control groups. Half of the mice in each group are sacrificed at 24 hours post injection and the other half, 48 hours after the injection. Ovarian samples fixed in 10% formalin, embedded in paraffin and sections were stained with H and E and studied using stereological techniques. The data were analyzed with Man – Whitney test. Results: Microscopic examination revealed that the number and morphological features of follicles at different stages were similar at 24 and 48 hours post injection in both groups. The volumes of the ovaries were similar in both groups at 24 hour. However, at 48 hour, the volume of ovaries, corpora lutea and endometrial thickness, in experimental group, were significantly higher than those in control group (p< 0.05). Conclusion: According to the increased volume of corpus luteum in the experimental group, it is concluded that oxytocin injection has a stimulatory effect on induction of ovulation.
PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTION CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES: A REVIEW

- Protein is a very important part of a cell. It carries out its duties as specified by the information encoded in genes. Proteins interact with each other to carry out different biological functions. Information about these interactions will help a lot in understanding different diseases. Different classifiers have been used till now to classify the protein-protein interactions. Some of the classifiers are SVM, SVM-KNN, BP Neural Network. This paper presents the different classifiers that had been used and will also present the future scope in the classification of the protein-protein interactions.
A Topological Description of Hubs in Amino Acid Interaction Networks

We represent proteins by amino acid interaction networks. This is a graph whose vertices are the proteins amino acids and whose edges are the interactions between them. Once we have compared this type of graphs to the general model of scale-free networks, we analyze the existence of nodes which highly interact, the hubs. We describe these nodes taking into account their position in the primary structure to study their apparition frequency in the folded proteins. Finally, we observe that their interaction level is a consequence of the general rules which govern the folding process.
Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in beef retail markets from Argentina

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are foodborne pathogens that cause mild or serious diseases and can lead to people death. This study reports the prevalence and characteristics of STEC O157 and non-O157 in commercial ground beef and environmental samples, including meat table, knife, meat mincing machine, and manipulator hands (n = 450) obtained from 90 retail markets over a nine-month period. The STEC isolates were serotyped and virulence genes as stx (Shiga toxin), rfbO157] (O157 lipopolysaccharide), fliCH7 (H7 flagellin), eae (intimin), ehxA (enterohemolysin) and saa (STEC autoagglutinating adhesin), were determined. STEC O157 were identified in 23 (25.5%) beef samples and 16 (4.4%) environmental samples, while STEC non-O157 were present in 47 (52.2%) and 182 (50.5%), respectively. Among 54 strains isolated, 17 were STEC O157:H7 and 37 were STEC non-O157. The prevalent genotype for O157 was stx2/eae/ehxA/fliCH7 (83.4%), and for STEC non-O157 the most frequent ones were stx1/stx2/saa/ehxA (29.7%); stx2 (29.7%); and stx2/saa/ehxA (27%). None of the STEC non-O157 strains were eae-positive. Besides O157:H7, other 20 different serotypes were identified, being O8:H19, O178:H19, and O174:H28 the prevalent. Strains belonging to the same serotype could be isolated from different sources of the same retail market. Also, the same serotype could be detected in different stores. In conclusion, screening techniques are increasingly sensitive, but the isolation of STEC non-O157 is still a challenge. Moreover, with the results obtained from the present work, although more studies are needed, cross-contamination between meat and the environment could be suspected.
Convex Learning of Multiple Tasks and their Structure

Reducing the amount of human supervision is a key problem in machine learning and a natural approach is that of exploiting the relations (structure) among different tasks. This is the idea at the core of multi-task learning. In this context a fundamental question is how to incorporate the tasks structure in the learning problem. We tackle this question by studying a general computational framework that allows to encode apriori knowledge of the tasks structure in the form of a convex penalty; in this setting a variety of previously proposed methods can be recovered as special cases, including linear and non-linear approaches. Within this framework, we show that tasks and their structure can be efficiently learned considering a convex optimization problem that can be approached by means of block coordinate methods such as alternating minimization and for which we prove convergence to the global minimum.
Nurses' Perspectives on Patient Satisfaction and Expectations: An International Cross-Sectional Multicenter Study With Implications for Evidence-Based Practice.

BACKGROUND Addressing patient expectations is necessary to achieve high satisfaction. However, few data are available on nurses' perceptions and performance with respect to patient expectations and satisfaction. OBJECTIVES This international multicenter study aimed to: (a) evaluate nurses' attitudes and performance with respect to patient satisfaction and expectations, and (b) identify predictors of nurses' inquiry of patients' satisfaction at the point of discharge. METHODS A questionnaire examining attitudes and performance toward patient satisfaction and expectations was developed and validated. Nurses at four academic hospitals in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Denmark were surveyed. RESULTS A total of 536 nurses participated in the study (response rate 85.3%). Nurses expressed positive attitudes toward activities related to patient satisfaction and expectations, endorsing the importance of talking with patients about their satisfaction status (91.6%) and their expectations (93.2%). More than half of the responders (51.8%) claimed to have responded to the status of patient satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Israel: 25%; United States: 54.9%; United Kingdom: 61.7%; Denmark: 69.9%; p < .001). However, only 12.1% stated that they routinely ask patients about their level of satisfaction, with nurses in the United States (18.3%) and Denmark (17.5%) more likely to ask compared to nurses in the United Kingdom (7.4%) and Israel (6.3%; p = .001). Adjusted logistic regression identified four significant predictors (p < .05) of nurses' inquiry about patients' satisfaction: "Responding to patient's satisfaction status" (OR: 3.1; 95% CI: 1.7-5.8); "Documenting patient's satisfaction status" (OR: 2.8; 95% CI: 1.6-5.1); "Asking routinely about expectations" (OR: 5.4; 95% CI: 3-9.7); and "Responded to expectations during the past month" (OR: 4.3; 95% CI: 1.9-9.4). LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION These findings warrant further investigation, potentially into the nurses' work environments or educational programs, to better understand why nurses' positive attitudes toward patient satisfaction and expectations do not result in actively asking patients about their satisfaction level and what should be done to improve nurses' performance. Healthcare organizations and policy makers should develop and support structured programs to address patient expectations and improve patient satisfaction during hospitalization.
The social parasite wasp Polistes atrimandibularis does not form host races

Parasites that exploit the parental behaviour of several host species may be selected to form distinct host‐specific genetic lineages. This process is well documented in bird brood parasites, but not in insect social parasites. Polistes atrimandibularis is the only paper‐wasp social parasite known to exploit four host species. It does not form genetically distinct host races according to analyses based on microsatellite loci. Also, there were no size‐matching between parasites and host species. Instead, P. atrimandibularis queens seemed to be successful as parasites in this population only when they originated from nests of P. dominulus, the largest species. The other host species are a sink for P. atrimandibularis since adult females emerging from those nests appear too small to usurp colonies themselves. Traits that may help P. atrimandibularis infiltrate multiple species may include its nonaggressive usurpation tactics and its ability to acquire host cuticular hydrocarbon recognition labels.
Impacts of market and organizational characteristics on hospital efficiency and uncompensated care

Background: Hospitals have confronted a difficult financial environment given many factors, including expansion of managed care, changes in public policy, growing market competition for certain services, and growth in the number of uninsured. Policy makers have expressed concern that hospitals may forgo providing care to the indigent as a means to reduce costs and become more efficient when faced with financial pressures. Purpose: This article examined the effects of environmental pressures on two dimensions of hospital performance: hospital efficiency and uncompensated care provision. Methodology/Approach: Longitudinal data for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1998 to 2004 were analyzed. Data Envelopment Analysis and bivariate probit were used to examine the factors associated with efficiency and uncompensated care. Findings: The results indicated that a positive relationship between hospital efficiency and uncompensated care provision exists. That is, hospitals that are categorized as efficient are likely to provide more uncompensated care. We also found that hospitals tended to provide more uncompensated care when increased demand for these services occurred in a market. Increases in Medicare or Medicaid patient share reduced the provision of uncompensated care. In relation to hospital efficiency, the results indicated that HMO penetration and Medicaid patient share reduced hospital efficiency. Practice Implications: This study found that efficient hospitals tend to provide more uncompensated care over time. The findings also suggest that hospitals alter their efficiency and provision of uncompensated care in response to a number of environmental pressures, but it may depend on the type of pressures or uncertainties encountered.