Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New pre-processing technique to enhance single-user-type DS-CDMA detectors in "blind" space-time rake receivers

Proposed herein is a pre-processing technique applicable to maximum-SINR beamformers for "blind" space-time Rake receivers in "single-user"-type DS-CDMA detection. This smart-antennas signal-processing technique enhances the constructive summation of multipaths and the rejection of co-channel interference, both of which decrease the bit-error-rate and lower the error-floor of the cellular uplink's near-far problem at high SNR. This technique is "blind" in that it needs neither prior knowledge nor explicit estimation of (1) the channel-faded multipaths' arrival angles, relative arrival delays or power profiles, (2) the receiving antenna array's nominal or actual gain-phase-polarization response, and (3) the co-channel multi-access users' signature-spreading codes. Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed scheme can enhance the output-SINR by 1 - 10 dB. A mathematical analysis shows this proposed pre-processing scheme to always improve the asymptotic output-SINR. A formula is analytically derived to predict this asymptotic output-SINR. This formula lies within 1 dB of limited simulation results at an input-SIR above -7 dB and a chip-rate space time-sampling, but the formula is less accurate otherwise
The Effects of Decision Makers’ Roles and Related Variables on Risk Preferences

Many studies have examined the self-other decision making bias, but few have considered the role of self-esteem in the bias. Conversely, many studies have examined how self-esteem affects risk preference, but almost none have considered the impact of the decision maker's role. In addition, these studies made few allowances for the gain and loss frameworks of decision tasks. In this study, the complex relationships among decision makers' roles, self-esteem, and the frameworks of decision tasks are explored. 111 undergraduate subjects with high or low self-esteem were asked to either make decisions for themselves or make decisions for others on a risk preference questionnaire involving twelve items under gain or loss task frameworks. Implicit self-esteem levels were tested with IAT technology. The results of the experiment show that (1) Subjects were more willing to take risks when making decisions for others than when making decisions for themselves in the gain framework but not in the loss framework; (2) Subjects were more willing to take risks when making decisions for others than when making decisions for themselves if they had low implicit self-esteem but not if they had high implicit self-esteem; (3) There was no significant interaction between task framework and level of implicit self-esteem, and no significant interaction among task framework, level of implicit self-esteem, and decision maker's role. These results support the general findings from Hsee Weber (1997); Liu, Chen, Lu, and Wang (2010); and Xu and Xie (2011), but they are inconsistent with the findings from Wallach and Wing (1968); Stone, Yates, and Caruthers (2002); and Guo et al. (2010). The complicated interactions among task framework, level of implicit self-esteem, and decision maker's role are discussed based on the relevant findings.
The role of urban living labs in a smart city

In a rapidly changing socio-technical environment cities are increasingly seen as main drivers for change. Against this backdrop, this paper studies the emerging Urban Living Lab and Smart City concepts from a project based perspective, by assessing a series of five Smart City initiatives within one local city ecosystem. A conceptual and analytical framework is used to analyse the architecture, nature and outcomes of the Smart City Ghent and the role of Urban Living Labs. The results of our analysis highlight the potential for social value creation and urban transition. However, current Smart City initiatives face the challenge of evolving from demonstrators towards real sustainable value. Furthermore, Smart Cities often have a technological deterministic, project-based approach, which forecloses a sustainable, permanent and growing future for the project outcomes. ‘City-governed’ Urban Living Labs have an interesting potential to overcome some of the identified challenges.
Overweight and obesity among mothers of malnourished children--Brazil--PNSN--1989.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between the nutritional status of the youngest child under 48 months of age (in families with the biological mother present) and their mothers among 3906 children selected from a sample of a national survey in 1989 (PNSN). RESULTS Malnutrition was present in 5.8% of the children. From these, 21.8%, 60.9% and 17.3% had overweight/obese, eutrophic and malnourished mothers, respectively. Stratified analyses taking into account the regions, situation, income distribution and mother's educational level demonstrated that a lower proportion of malnourished children was concurrent with a higher proportion of overweight/obese mothers. The Kappa test evidenced a poor agreement between the nutritional conditions of the child-mother pairs (K < = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS When the proportion of malnourished children decreased within the analyzed groups, the proportion of overweight/obese mothers increased. Such an epidemiological pattern indicates that within groups in which malnutrition is less prevalent, the proportion of children for whom a lack of food in the household is the main determinant factor for malnutrition is lower.
A Stackelberg Game Approach for Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation and Interference Coordination in Heterogeneous Networks

In this paper, we propose a game-theoretical approach for energy-efficient resource allocation and interference coordination in heterogeneous networks (Het Nets). Considering the joint interaction of cross-tier interference and energy consumption in a two-tier Het Net consisting of one central macro and N picos, we develop the system model and measure the energy efficiency (EE) by utility. Since global optimization of the Het Net EE is intractable and computationally expensive, we formulate the optimization problems for macro and picos respectively as a two-stage Stackelberg game. Then we employ a backward induction method to solve this game model and analyze the method complexity. Simulation results verify the performance of the proposed approach and it can be easily implemented in a distributed manner in practical Het Nets.
Circulating free DNA concentration is an independent prognostic biomarker in lung cancer

Plasma circulating cell-free (cf)DNA is of interest in oncology because it has been shown to contain tumour DNA and may thus be used as liquid biopsy. In nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), cfDNA quantification has been proposed for the monitoring and follow-up of patients. However, available studies are limited and need to be confirmed by studies with larger sample sizes and including patients who receive more homogenous treatments. Our objective was to assess the predictive and prognostic value of plasma cfDNA concentration in a large series of patients with NSCLC and treated with a standard chemotherapy regimen. We included samples from lung cancer patients recruited into the Pharmacogenoscan study. The cfDNA of 218 patients was extracted and quantified by fluorometry before and after two or three cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy. The association between baseline and post-chemotherapy concentrations and treatment response, assessed by RECIST (response evaluation criteria in solid tumours) or patient survival was analysed. Patients with high cfDNA concentrations (highest tertile) at baseline had a significantly worse disease-free and overall survival than those with lower concentrations (lowest and middle tertiles) (median overall survival 10 months (95% CI 10.7–13.9) versus 14.2 months (95% CI 12.6–15.8), respectively; p=0.001). In multivariate analysis, increased baseline concentration of cfDNA was an independent prognostic factor. However, we did not find any association between cfDNA concentration and response to treatment. cfDNA may be a biomarker for the assessment of prognosis in NSCLC. However, total concentration of cfDNA does not appear to predict chemotherapy response. Total cell-free DNA is not associated with chemotherapy response in advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer http://ow.ly/Qpqyx
Classroom Applications of a Trial-Based Functional Analysis in an Early Childhood Education Setting

Functional analysis has proven to be an effective way of determining the function of problem behaviors. However, this process can consume a great deal of time and resources. Also, the majority of analyses are conducted with subjects greater than six years of age with unfamiliar persons conducting the analysis. Therefore, there is a need to examine a method that will expend less time and resources, and to determine if this new method will be effective with subjects in an early childhood setting. The current study examines the ability of classroom teachers to conduct a trial-based functional analysis within an early childhood classroom. Results suggest that trial-based functional analysis conducted by classroom teachers is effective in early childhood settings. The study's findings also suggest that a function-based intervention may effectively reduce problem behaviors for preschoolers.
Dynamic Dopamine Modulation of Striato-Cortical Circuits in Cognition: Converging Neuropsychological, Psychopharmacological and Computational Studies

Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. How do we produce complex motor sequences? To what extent do we learn from the positive versus negative consequences of our decisions? How do we maintain task-relevant information in working memory while ignoring distracting information? This dissertation provides a mechanistic framework that explores how these seemingly unrelated processes recruit remarkably similar neural circuits linking the basal ganglia (BG) with frontal cortex. Drawing from neuroanatomical and biochemical considerations, this framework suggests that the BG facilitate or suppress cortical " actions " (e.g., motor responses and working memory updating) via separate Go and NoGo pathways projecting to frontal cortex, and that the relative balance of these pathways is dynamically modulated by dopamine (DA). Transient DA bursts and dips during positive and negative reinforcement support Go and NoGo learning via D1 and D2 receptors, respectively. Computational neural network models instantiate key biological properties and provide insight into the underlying role of BG/DA interactions during the learning and execution of cognitive tasks. These models account for complex medication-dependent cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease, and make simple predictions for the underlying source of these deficits, emphasizing the importance of the dynamic range of DA signals. These predictions have been subsequently confirmed in medicated and non-medicated Parkinson's patients and in healthy individuals under pharmacologically-induced DA manipulation. In all of these studies, elevated levels of phasic DA release led to greater Go learning from positive outcomes of decisions, whereas diminished DA levels led to better NoGo learning to avoid negative outcomes. Tonic DA stimulation led to more overall Go responding. These effects extended to higher level cognitive function: tonic DA stimulation led to more overall working memory updating and concomitant distractibility, whereas enhanced phasic DA release led to greater selective updating for task-relevant (i.e., " positively-valenced ") information, but difficulty in ignoring this information in a subsequent set-shift. Drug effects also interacted with baseline working memory span. Taken together, these results provide substantial support for a unified account of the role of DA in modulating cognitive processes that depend on the basal ganglia. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would have not been possible without the support of many people and institutions throughout the last several years. First and foremost, I want to thank …
Cerebral Hemodynamics Assessed by means of Transcranial Doppler and Near - Infrared Spectroscopy in Healthy Smokers and non-Smokers

The assessment of cerebral vasomotor reactivity (VMR) is a valuable tool for the early detection of risk condition in healthy subjects and for the non-invasive bedside evaluation of patients. Typically, cerebral hemodynamics assessment is performed in correspondence of CO2 reactivity. We studied the VMR of a population of young healthy non-smokers (n=10, age 27 plusmn 4.1) and healthy smokers (n=4, age 28 plusmn 4.5) using a joint approach based on transcranial Doppler ultrasonography and near-infrared spectroscopy, to monitor cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) and concentrations of oxygenated (O2Hb) and reduced (CO2Hb) haemoglobin. VMR was induced by means of voluntary breath-holding (BH). We quantified VMR using the breath-holding index (BHI). Smokers BH duration was significantly lower than that of non-smokers (p < 10-4; their BHI did not significantly differ from that of non-smokers in terms of CBFV, but differed in terms of O2Hb and CO2Hb concentrations changes. Specifically, with respect to non-smokers, smokers presented a delayed VMR that took place only around 60% of the apnoea phase. This delayed response could reveal an impaired autoregulatory mechanism and could be a risk condition when the subjects need to compensate an abrupt change in the cerebral blood flow
On the Use of the Formant Features in the Dynamic Time Warping Based Recognition of Isolated Words

A possibility to use the formant features (FF) in the user-dependent isolated word recognition has been investigated. The word recognition was performed using a dynamic time-warping technique. Several methods of the formant feature extraction were compared and a method based on the singular prediction polynomials has been proposed for the recognition of isolated words. Recognition performance of the proposed method was compared to that of the linear prediction coding (LPC) and LPC-derived cepstral features (LPCC). In total, 111 Lithuanian words were used in the recognition experiment. The recognition performance was evaluated at various noise levels. The experiments have shown that the formant features calculated from the singular prediction polynomials are more reliable than the LPC and LPCC features at all noise levels.
Oral Bioavailability and Pharmacokinetic Study of Clarithromycin in Different Dosage Forms in Iranian Healthy Volunteers

The objective of the present study was to study the bioavailability and pharmacokinetic parameters of three formulations of clarithromycin after oral administration in 12 normal adult male volunteers. Each subject received 500 mg of clarithromycin as two 250 mg tablets, one 500 mg tablet or suspension in a randomized crossover sequence. Blood samples were collected at selected time intervals up to 24 hours and plasma concentrations of CLR were determined using a validated HPLC method. The pharmacokinetics parameters including tmax, t1/2, Cmax, AUC, AUMC were determined from inspection of the individual subject concentration time curves and by model independent methods. The results showed that these parameters were not influenced by dosage form. Although higher maximum concentrations were achieved with the suspension, this was not statistically different from the other formulations. The tablets were not found to be statistically different from the suspension in any pharmacokinetic parameter. Bioequivalence of the test versus reference formulations was accepted for both AUC0–∞ and Cmax because the 90% CIs lie within the acceptable range of 80-125%. In the light of the results of the studies reported here, it can be concluded that CLR test formulations, i.e. tablet and suspension are bioequivalent to the respective reference formulations.
Immunity to poliovirus and immunization with inactivated poliovirus vaccine after autologous bone marrow transplantation.

Titers of antibody to poliovirus in 102 patients were determined with a sensitive neutralization assay before and 1 year after autologous bone marrow transplantation. At 1 year 14 patients (14%) had lost antibodies to poliovirus type 1 (P < .001), 10 (10%) to poliovirus type 2 (P < .05), and 13 (13%) to poliovirus type 3 (P < .01). Twenty-two patients had lost antibodies to at least one type of poliovirus. Follow-up of unimmunized patients 2 years (n = 40) and 3 years (n = 23) after transplantation documented a continuous decrease in antibody titer; by 3 years after transplantation, another 6 patients had become seronegative. When one dose of inactivated trivalent poliovirus vaccine was administered 1 year after transplantation, 2 (25%) of 8 patients seronegative for poliovirus type 1 had an increase of at least fourfold in antibody titer; after three doses, 10 (83%) of 12 patients exhibited such an increase (P < .05). The corresponding figures were 5 (71%) of 7 and 13 (100%) of 13 for poliovirus type 2 (difference not significantly) and 2 (22%) of 9 and 14 (88%) of 16 for poliovirus type 3 (P < .01). These results indicate that at least 30% of patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation including those seronegative for poliovirus before transplantation will benefit from reimmunization with three doses of inactivated trivalent poliovirus vaccine 1 year after transplantation.
Oncotargets and Therapy Dovepress Clinical Implication of Long Noncoding Rna 91h Expression Profile in Osteosarcoma Patients

hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms Abstract: Long noncoding RNAs have been documented as having widespread roles in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. However, roles of long noncoding RNAs in osteosarcoma remain unclear. This study is to investigate the clinical relevance and biological functions of long noncoding RNA 91H in osteosarcoma. Herein, we confirmed that 91H expression was notably increased in osteosarcoma patients and cell lines compared to healthy controls and normal human bone cell lines. High expression of 91H was significantly correlated with advanced clinical stage, chemotherapy after surgery, and tumor size . 5 cm. Furthermore, 91H was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in osteosarcoma patients after treatments. Additionally, the knockdown of 91H expression inhibited osteosarcoma cells' proliferation and promoted their apoptosis in vitro. In summary, these findings indicate that 91H may be a novel biomarker for risk prognostication and also provide a clue to the molecular etiology of osteosarcoma.
Determinants of Adoption and Extent of Agricultural Intensification in the Central Mid-hills of Nepal

This study analyzed the adoption and extent of agricultural intensification at household level in Ansikhola watershed in mid-hills. Structured questionnaire survey of 310 households, key informants interviews and focus group discussion methods were applied to collect the necessary information. The results revealed that 63% of the sampled households were practicing AI, with differences in the area under cropping intensification. The binary logistic regression model carried out to determine the factors influencing the adoption of AI, indicated five significantly influencing variables to the adoption process, namely, irrigation facility, higher crop yield, landholding size, access to credit and distance to market for chemical fertilizer purchase. Likewise, the Linear Regression performed to find out the determinants of the extent of AI revealed three significantly influencing variables, namely, total amount of fertilizer application, net income from cereals and vegetables and distance to chemical fertilizer store. The results of this study could help in formulating policies based on farmers’ need, interest, capacity and limitation in promoting sustainable AI.
Title Feedforward and recurrent processing in scene segmentation : Electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging

& In texture segregation, an example of scene segmentation, we can discern two different processes: texture boundary detection and subsequent surface segregation [Lamme, V. A. F. , Rodriguez-Rodriguez, V. , & Spekreijse, H. Separate processing dynamics for texture elements, boundaries and surfaces in primary visual cortex of the macaque monkey. Cerebral Cortex, 9, 406–413, 1999]. Neural correlates of texture boundary detection have been found in monkey V1 [Sillito, A. M. , Grieve, K. L. , Jones, H. E. , Cudeiro, J., & Davis, J. Visual cortical mechanisms detecting focal orientation discontinuities. Nature, 378, 492–496, 1995; Grosof, D. H. , Shapley, R. M. , & Hawken, M. J. Macaque-V1 neurons can signal illusory contours. Nature, 365, 550–552, 1993], but whether surface segregation occurs in monkey V1 [Rossi, A. F. , Desimone, R. , & Ungerleider, L. G. Contextual modulation in primary visual cortex of macaques. Journal of Neuroscience, 21, 1698–1709, 2001; Lamme, V. A. F. The neurophysiology of figure ground segregation in primary visual-cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 15, 1605–1615, 1995], and whether boundary detection or surface segregation signals can also be measured in human V1, is more controversial [Kastner, S. , De Weerd, P., & Ungerleider, L. G. Texture segregation in the human visual cortex: A functional MRI study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 83, 2453–2457, 2000]. Here we present electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging data that have been recorded with a paradigm that makes it possible to differentiate between boundary detection and scene segmentation in humans. In this way, we were able to show with EEG that neural correlates of texture boundary detection are first present in the early visual cortex around 92 msec and then spread toward the parietal and temporal lobes. Correlates of surface segregation first appear in temporal areas (around 112 msec) and from there appear to spread to parietal, and back to occipital areas. After 208 msec, correlates of surface segregation and boundary detection also appear in more frontal areas. Blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging results show correlates of boundary detection and surface segregation in all early visual areas including V1. We conclude that texture boundaries are detected in a feedforward fashion and are represented at increasing latencies in higher visual areas. Surface segregation, on the other hand, is represented in ‘‘reverse hierarchical’’ fashion and seems to arise from feedback signals toward early visual areas such as V1. &
Reaction Time and Movement Time in Four Large Muscle Movements

Abstract The relation between RT and MT was determined in 70 male college students. Four types of discrete movement were studied. Reliabilities were high, namely r = . 87 to . 95 uncorrected. The correlations between RT and MT ranged from r = −. 06 to . 23, and none was statistically significant. It was concluded that individual differences in ability to react quickly and ability to move quickly are almost entirely unrelated.
Comparative evaluation of F0 estimation algorithms

This paper reports the comparative evaluation of several speech F0 evaluation algorithms over a wide database of laryngographlabeled speech. Included are several classic algorithms that are available in software on the net, as well as two new algorithms that offer greatly reduced error rates. Particular attention is given to the methodology of evaluation.