Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The variational hierarchical EM algorithm for clustering hidden Markov models

In this paper, we derive a novel algorithm to cluster hidden Markov models (HMMs) according to their probability distributions. We propose a variational hierarchical EM algorithm that i) clusters a given collection of HMMs into groups of HMMs that are similar, in terms of the distributions they represent, and ii) characterizes each group by a "cluster center", i.e., a novel HMM that is representative for the group. We illustrate the benefits of the proposed algorithm on hierarchical clustering of motion capture sequences as well as on automatic music tagging.
Rearrangements in Non-Hodgkin ' s Lymphoma : Correlation With Histology , Immunophenotype , Karyotype , and Clinical Outcome in 217 Patients

We have recently shown that an evolutionary conserved gene LAZ3, encoding a zinc finger protein, is disrupted and overexpressed in some B-cell lymphomas (mainly with a large cell component) that show chromosomal rearrangements involving 3q27. Because the breakpoints involved in these rearrangements are focused in a narrow major translocation cluster (MTC) on chromosome 3, we used genomic probes from this region to study the molecular rearrangements of LAZ3 in a large series of patients (217) with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Southern blot analysis showed LAZ3 rearrangement in 43 patients (19.8%). Rearrangement was found in 11 of the 84 patients (13%) with follicular lymphoma but was most frequent in aggressive lymphoma (diffuse mixed, diffuse large cell, and large cell immunoblastic subtypes), in which 31 of the 114 patients (27%) were affected. The highest proportion of LAZ3 alteration was observed in B-cell aggressive lymphoma (26 of 71
A Natural Language Processing System That Links Medical Terms in Electronic Health Record Notes to Lay Definitions: System Development Using Physician Reviews

Background Many health care systems now allow patients to access their electronic health record (EHR) notes online through patient portals. Medical jargon in EHR notes can confuse patients, which may interfere with potential benefits of patient access to EHR notes. Objective The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the usability and content quality of NoteAid, a Web-based natural language processing system that links medical terms in EHR notes to lay definitions, that is, definitions easily understood by lay people. Methods NoteAid incorporates two core components: CoDeMed, a lexical resource of lay definitions for medical terms, and MedLink, a computational unit that links medical terms to lay definitions. We developed innovative computational methods, including an adapted distant supervision algorithm to prioritize medical terms important for EHR comprehension to facilitate the effort of building CoDeMed. Ten physician domain experts evaluated the user interface and content quality of NoteAid. The evaluation protocol included a cognitive walkthrough session and a postsession questionnaire. Physician feedback sessions were audio-recorded. We used standard content analysis methods to analyze qualitative data from these sessions. Results Physician feedback was mixed. Positive feedback on NoteAid included (1) Easy to use, (2) Good visual display, (3) Satisfactory system speed, and (4) Adequate lay definitions. Opportunities for improvement arising from evaluation sessions and feedback included (1) improving the display of definitions for partially matched terms, (2) including more medical terms in CoDeMed, (3) improving the handling of terms whose definitions vary depending on different contexts, and (4) standardizing the scope of definitions for medicines. On the basis of these results, we have improved NoteAid’s user interface and a number of definitions, and added 4502 more definitions in CoDeMed. Conclusions Physician evaluation yielded useful feedback for content validation and refinement of this innovative tool that has the potential to improve patient EHR comprehension and experience using patient portals. Future ongoing work will develop algorithms to handle ambiguous medical terms and test and evaluate NoteAid with patients.
Diagnostic differentiation of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease using a hippocampus‐dependent test of spatial memory

The hippocampus is one of the earliest brain regions affected in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and tests of hippocampal function have the potential to detect AD in its earliest stages. Given that the hippocampus is critically involved in allocentric spatial memory, this study applied a short test of spatial memory, the 4 Mountains Test (4MT), to determine whether test performance can differentiate mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients with and without CSF biomarker evidence of underlying AD and whether the test can distinguish patients with MCI and mild AD dementia when applied in different cultural settings. Healthy controls (HC), patients with MCI, and mild AD dementia were recruited from study sites in UK and Italy. Study numbers were: HC (UK 20, Italy 10), MCI (UK 21, Italy 14), and AD (UK 11, Italy 9). Nineteen UK MCI patients were grouped into CSF biomarker‐positive (MCI+, n = 10) and biomarker‐negative (MCI–, n = 9) subgroups. Behavioral data were correlated with hippocampal volume and cortical thickness of the precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus. Spatial memory was impaired in both UK and Italy MCI and AD patients. Test performance additionally differentiated between MCI+ and MCI– subgroups (P = 0.001). A 4MT score of ≤8/15 was associated with 100% sensitivity and 90% specificity for detection of early AD (MCI+ and mild AD dementia) in the UK population, and with 100% sensitivity and 50% specificity for detection of MCI and AD in the Italy sample. 4MT performance correlated with hippocampal volume in the UK population and cortical thickness of the precuneus in both study populations. In conclusion, performance on a hippocampus‐sensitive test of spatial memory differentiates MCI due to AD with high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. The observation that similar diagnostic sensitivity was obtained in two separate study populations, allied to the scalability and usability of the test in community memory clinics, supports future application of the 4MT in the diagnosis of pre‐dementia due to AD. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Energy Saving Potential of a Thermoelectric Heat Pump-Assisted Liquid Desiccant System in a Dedicated Outdoor Air System

The main objective of this study was to develop a thermoelectric heat pump and liquid desiccant system based on a dedicated outdoor air system (THPLD-DOAS). An internally-cooled and -heated liquid desiccant system was used and a thermoelectric heat pump (THP) served as the desiccant cooling and heating energy source for dehumidification and regeneration of the desiccant solution, respectively. In order to investigate the energy-saving potential of the proposed system, its thermal performance and operating energy consumption during the cooling season were compared to those of a conventional dedicated outdoor air system with a ceiling radiant cooling panel system (DOAS-CRCP). Detailed simulations for each system were conducted under hot and humid climatic conditions. Their thermal performance under various room sensible heat factor (RSHF) conditions was evaluated to observe the energy performance, depending on the dehumidification performance, of the liquid desiccant system integrated with the THP. The results showed that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the THP ranged from 0.8 to 1.2 to maintain a sufficient dehumidification rate. The operating energy of the THPLD of the proposed system was 6.6% to 16.0% less than that of the chiller operating energy of a conventional DOAS. Consequently, the proposed system consumed 0.6–23.5% less operating energy compared to the conventional DOAS.
PRISM: PRincipled Implicit Shape Model

This paper addresses the problem of object detection by means of the Generalised Hough transform paradigm. The Implicit Shape Model (ISM) is a well-known approach based on this idea. It made this paradigm popular and has been adopted many times. Although the algorithm exhibits robust detection performance, its description, i.e. its probabilistic model, involves arguments which are unsatisfactory from a probabilistic standpoint. We propose a framework which overcomes these problems and gives a sound justification to the voting procedure. Furthermore, our framework allows for a formal understanding of the heuristic of soft-matching commonly used in visual vocabulary systems. We show that it is sufficient to use soft-matching during learning only and to perform fast nearest neighbour matching at recognition time (where speed is of prime importance). Our implementation is based on Gaussian Mixture Models (instead of kernel density estimators as with ISM) which lead to a fast gradient-based object detector.
The Significance of African Lions for the Financial Viability of Trophy Hunting and the Maintenance of Wild Land

Recent studies indicate that trophy hunting is impacting negatively on some lion populations, notably in Tanzania. In 2004 there was a proposal to list lions on CITES Appendix I and in 2011 animal-welfare groups petitioned the United States government to list lions as endangered under their Endangered Species Act. Such listings would likely curtail the trophy hunting of lions by limiting the import of lion trophies. Concurrent efforts are underway to encourage the European Union to ban lion trophy imports. We assessed the significance of lions to the financial viability of trophy hunting across five countries to help determine the financial impact and advisability of the proposed trade restrictions. Lion hunts attract the highest mean prices (US$24,000–US$71,000) of all trophy species. Lions generate 5–17% of gross trophy hunting income on national levels, the proportional significance highest in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. If lion hunting was effectively precluded, trophy hunting could potentially become financially unviable across at least 59,538 km2 that could result in a concomitant loss of habitat. However, the loss of lion hunting could have other potentially broader negative impacts including reduction of competitiveness of wildlife-based land uses relative to ecologically unfavourable alternatives. Restrictions on lion hunting may also reduce tolerance for the species among communities where local people benefit from trophy hunting, and may reduce funds available for anti-poaching. If lion off-takes were reduced to recommended maximums (0.5/1000 km2), the loss of viability and reduction in profitability would be much lower than if lion hunting was stopped altogether (7,005 km2). We recommend that interventions focus on reducing off-takes to sustainable levels, implementing age-based regulations and improving governance of trophy hunting. Such measures could ensure sustainability, while retaining incentives for the conservation of lions and their habitat from hunting.
Overweight and its associated risk factors among urban school adolescents in Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Objectives The prevalence of non-communicable diseases is increasing in Nepal. Overweight and obesity are the major risk factors of many non-communicable diseases. Adolescence is a critical phase for development of overweight and obesity. Risk factors associated with overweight and obesity are not well understood in Nepal. The objective of the study was to identify the factors associated with overweight and obesity among adolescent students. Setting A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on higher secondary school students in the Lalitpur sub-metropolitan city, Nepal. Participants A random sample of 360 students aged 16–19 years from eight schools was included in the study. Results The prevalence of overweight among adolescent students was 12.2% (95% CI 8.9 to 15.5). Factors associated with being overweight included being male (adjusted OR (AOR) 2.64, 95% CI 1.18 to 4.88), studying in private school (AOR 2.10, 95% CI 1.03 to 4.28), high socioeconomic status family (AOR 4.77, 95% CI 1.36 to 16.72), watching television for more than 2 h per day (AOR 8.86, 95% CI 3.90 to 20.11), and consuming fruit four times or less per week (AOR 3.13, 95% CI 1.39 to 7.01). There was no statistically significant association between adolescent overweight and age, ethnicity, mother's education level, mother's occupation, number of siblings or family type. Conclusions Socioeconomic status, watching television for a longer time and consuming less fruit are major risk factors for overweight among adolescents in Nepal. Interventions are needed to increase awareness about the risk factors of adolescent overweight and obesity to decrease prevalence of overweight-associated non-communicable diseases.
Home oxygen therapy reduces risk of hospitalisation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a population-based retrospective cohort study, 2005–2012

Objective This study evaluated the effect of home oxygen therapy (HOT) on hospital admissions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Design and setting Using nationwide health insurance claims from 2002–2012, we conducted a longitudinal population-based retrospective cohort study. Participants Individuals who were aged 40 years or above and newly diagnosed with COPD in 2005. Outcome measures The primary outcome was total number of hospitalisations during the study period. Participants were matched using HOT propensity scores and were stratified by respiratory impairment (grade 1: FEV1 ≤25% or PaO2 ≤55 mm Hg; grade 2: FEV1 ≤30% or PaO2 56–60 mm Hg; grade 3: FEV1 ≤40% or PaO2 61–65 mm Hg; ‘no grade’: FEV1 or PaO2 unknown), then a negative binomial regression analysis was performed for each group. Results Of the 36 761 COPD patients included in our study, 1330 (3.6%) received HOT. In a multivariate analysis of grade 1 patients performed before propensity score matching, the adjusted relative risk of hospitalisation for patients who did not receive HOT was 1.27 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.60). In a multivariate analysis of grade 1 patients performed after matching, the adjusted relative risk for patients who did not receive HOT was 1.65 (95% CI 1.25 to 2.18). In grade 2 or grade 3 patients, no statistical difference in hospital admission risk was detected. In the ‘no grade’ group of patients, HOT was associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation. Conclusions HOT reduces the risk of hospital admission in COPD patients with severe hypoxaemia. However, apart from these patients, HOT use is not associated with hospital admissions.
Distinctive Steady-State Heart Rate and Blood Pressure Responses to Passive Robotic Leg Exercise and Functional Electrical Stimulation during Head-Up Tilt

Introduction: Tilt tables enable early mobilization of patients by providing verticalization. But there is a high risk of orthostatic hypotension provoked by verticalization, especially after neurological diseases such as spinal cord injury. Robot-assisted tilt tables might be an alternative as they add passive robotic leg exercise (PE) that can be enhanced with functional electrical stimulation (FES) to the verticalization, thus reducing the risk of orthostatic hypotension. We hypothesized that the influence of PE on the cardiovascular system during verticalization (i.e., head-up tilt) depends on the verticalization angle, and FES strengthens the PE influence. To test our hypotheses, we investigated the PE effects on the cardiovascular parameters heart rate (HR), and systolic and diastolic blood pressures (sBP, dBP) at different angles of verticalization in a healthy population. Methods: Ten healthy subjects on a robot-assisted tilt table underwent four different study protocols while HR, sBP, and dBP were measured: (1) head-up tilt to 60° and 71° without PE; (2) PE at 20°, 40°, and 60° of head-up tilt; (3) PE while constant FES intensity was applied to the leg muscles, at 20°, 40°, and 60° of head-up tilt; (4) PE with variation of the applied FES intensity at 0°, 20°, 40°, and 60° of head-up tilt. Linear mixed models were used to model changes in HR, sBP, and dBP responses. Results: The models show that: (1) head-up tilt alone resulted in statistically significant increases in HR and dBP, but no change in sBP. (2) PE during head-up tilt resulted in statistically significant changes in HR, sBP, and dBP, but not at each angle and not always in the same direction (i.e., increase or decrease of cardiovascular parameters). Neither adding (3) FES at constant intensity to PE nor (4) variation of FES intensity during PE had any statistically significant effects on the cardiovascular parameters. Conclusion: The effect of PE on the cardiovascular system during head-up tilt is strongly dependent on the verticalization angle. Therefore, we conclude that orthostatic hypotension cannot be prevented by PE alone, but that the preventive effect depends on the verticalization angle of the robot-assisted tilt table. FES (independent of intensity) is not an important contributing factor to the PE effect.
Unpacking the buffering effect of social support figures: Social support attenuates fear acquisition

Social support is associated with positive health outcomes, and research has demonstrated that the presence, or even just a reminder, of a social-support figure can reduce psychological and physiological responses to threats. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect are unclear, and no previous work has examined the impact of social support on basic fear learning processes, which have implications for threat responding. This study examined whether social support inhibits the formation of fear associations. After conducting a fear-conditioning procedure in which social-support stimuli were paired with conditional stimuli during fear acquisition, we found that the threat of shock was not associated with conditional stimuli paired with images of social-support figures, but was associated with stimuli paired with images of strangers. These findings indicate that social support prevents the formation of fear associations, reducing the amount of learned fears people acquire as they navigate the world, consequently reducing threat-related stress.
DREW: Double-Throughput Emulated WiFi

Bidirectional communication between BLE/FSK devices and WiFi access points (APs) combines the benefits of long battery life, low device cost, and ubiquitous Internet access. However, prior cross-technology communication (CTC) solutions require transmission mixers inside FSK chips, thus not applicable to newer ultra-low-power (ULP) BLE chips, which removes these mixers to conserve power. Furthermore, throughputs of prior CTC solutions are limited to 1Mbps. We present DREW that fundamentally overcomes these limitations. It is designed to effectively transmit WiFi packets by only controlling the power amplifier (PA), and is thus applicable to mixer-less ULP BLE chips. We also propose an innovative use of BLE’s IQ sampling capability to receive standard WiFi packets. We design efficient algorithms with SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) acceleration to detect, synchronize and demodulate WiFi packets from IQ samples in real time. DREW also implements WiFi’s CS-MA/CA and timing, thus adding direct WiFi connectivity to ULP BLE devices. Unlike prior work, DREW uniquely supports QPSK and therefore doubles the downlink throughput. This 2x throughput increase is crucial for new applications that prior work cannot support. In particular, DREW can stream lossless, HiFi-quality audio from WiFi to ULP BLE chips. Since stereo audio requires a throughput of 1.411Mbps, no prior work can support this important application due to their 1Mbps limitation.
A Formal Approach for the Veriﬁcation of AWS IAM Access Control Policies

Cloud computing oﬀers elastic, scalable and on-demand network access to a shared pool of computing resources, such as storage, computation and others. Resources can be rapidly and elastically provisioned and the users pay for what they use. One of the major challenges in Cloud computing adoption is security and in this paper we address one important security aspect, the Cloud authorization. We have provided a formal Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) model, that is based on Event-Calculus and is able to model and verify Amazon Web Services (AWS) Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies. The proposed approach is expressive and extensible. We have provided generic Event-Calculus modes and provided tool support to automatically convert JSON based IAM policies in Event-Calculus. We have also presented performance evaluation results on actual IAM policies to justify the scalability and practicality of the approach.
Pna Probability, Networks and Algorithms Probability, Networks and Algorithms Resource Dimensioning through Buffer Sampling Resource Dimensioning through Buffer Sampling Resource Dimensioning through Buffer Sampling

CWI's research has a theme-oriented structure and is grouped into four clusters. Listed below are the names of the clusters and in parentheses their acronyms. ABSTRACT Link dimensioning, i.e., selecting a (minimal) link capacity such that the users' performance requirements are met, is a crucial component of network design. It requires insight into the interrelationship between the traffic offered (in terms of the mean offered load M, but also its fluctuation around the mean, i.e., 'burstiness'), the envisioned performance level, and the capacity needed. We first derive, for different performance criteria, theoretical dimensioning formulae that estimate the required capacity C as a function of the input traffic and the performance target. For the special case of Gaussian input traffic these formulae reduce to C = M + alpha V , where alpha directly relates to the performance requirement (as agreed upon in a service level agreement) and V reflects the burstiness (at the timescale of interest). We also observe that Gaussianity applies for virtually all realistic scenarios; notably, already for a relatively low aggregation level the Gaussianity assumption is justified. As estimating M is relatively straightforward, the remaining open issue concerns the estimation of V. We argue that, particularly if V corresponds to small timescales , it may be inaccurate to estimate it directly from the traffic traces. Therefore, we propose an indirect method that samples the buffer content, estimates the buffer content distribution, and 'inverts' this to the variance. We validate the inversion through extensive numerical experiments (using a sizeable collection of traffic traces from various representative locations); the resulting estimate of V is then inserted in the dimensioning formula. These experiments show that both the inversion and the dimensioning formula are remarkably accurate. Abstract Link dimensioning, i.e., selecting a (minimal) link capacity such that the users' performance requirements are met, is a crucial component of network design. It requires insight into the interrelationship between the traffic offered (in terms of the mean offered load M , but also its fluctuation around the mean, i.e., 'burstiness'), the envisioned performance level, and the capacity needed. We first derive, for different performance criteria, theoretical dimensioning formulae that estimate the required capacity C as a function of the input traffic and the performance target. For the special case of Gaussian input traffic these formulae reduce to C = M + α V , where α directly relates to the performance requirement (as …