Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sketch Techniques for Approximate Query Processing

Sketch techniques have undergone extensive development within the past few years. They are especially appropriate for the data streaming scenario, in which large quantities of data flow by and the the sketch summary must continually be updated quickly and compactly. Sketches, as presented here, are designed so that the update caused by each new piece of data is largely independent of the current state of the summary. This design choice makes them faster to process, and also easy to parallelize. “Frequency based sketches” are concerned with summarizing the observed frequency distribution of a dataset. From these sketches, accurate estimations of individual frequencies can be extracted. This leads to algorithms to find the approximate heavy hitters (items which account for a large fraction of the frequency mass) and quantiles (the median and its generalizations). The same sketches are also used to estimate (equi)join sizes between relations, self-join sizes and range queries. These can be used as primitives within more complex mining operations, and to extract wavelet and histogram representations of streaming data. A different style of sketch construction leads to sketches for distinct-value queries. As mentioned above, using a sample to estimate the answer to a COUNT DISTINCT query does not give accurate results. In contract, sketching methods which can make a pass over the whole data can provide guaranteed accuracy. Once built, these sketches estimate not only the cardinality of a given attribute or combination of attributes, but also the cardinality of various operations performed on them, such as set operations (union and difference), and selections based on arbitrary predicates.
Determinants of pregnancy rate in the donor oocyte model: a multivariate analysis of 450 frozen-thawed embryo transfers.

BACKGROUND Conflicting results have been published about the determinants of pregnancy after oocyte donation (OD). We used the OD model to determine predictive factors of pregnancy in the recipient after frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FTET) in a specific series where all the embryos were cryopreserved without any prior selection for fresh transfer. METHODS We report a retrospective study in a university tertiary care center. Multivariate analysis and logistic regression were used to identify predictive factors of pregnancy in a series of 450 OD FTET cycles in 198 infertile women between January 1992 and December 2006. RESULTS The mean (+/-SD) recipient age was 35.7 (+/-4.5). Impaired ovarian function was the main indication for OD. The mean +/- SD (range) number of embryos transferred was 1.65 +/- 0.5 (1-3). Overall clinical pregnancy, implantation and delivery rates were 30, 18 and 23%, respectively. After univariate analysis, pregnancy rates were significantly higher in recipients under 35 years, in women with a body mass index (BMI) <30 kg/m(2), in women with an endometrial thickness of > or =8 mm, in amenorrheic women and in women not receiving pituitary down-regulation before endometrial preparation. Using multivariate analysis, the BMI, endometrial thickness and the use of pituitary down-regulation were independent predictors of pregnancy, regardless of age. CONCLUSIONS This study supports that endometrial thickness of <8 mm, obesity and the use of GnRH analogue pituitary down-regulation before endometrial priming negatively impact pregnancy rates, independently of the recipient's age.
The Role of Transposable Elements in the Origin and Evolution of MicroRNAs in Human

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial regulators of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level in eukaryotes via targeting gene 3'-untranslated regions. Transposable elements (TEs) are considered as natural origins of some miRNAs. However, what miRNAs are and how these miRNAs originate and evolve from TEs remain unclear. We identified 409 TE-derived miRNAs (386 overlapped with TEs and 23 un-overlapped with TEs) which are derived from TEs in human. This indicates that the TEs play important roles in origin of miRNAs in human. In addition, we found that the proportions of miRNAs derived from TEs (MDTEs) in human are more than other vertebrates especially non-mammal vertebrates. Furthermore, we classified MDTEs into three types and found that TE head or tail sequences along with adjacent genomic sequences contribute to generation of human miRNAs. Our current study will improve the understanding of origin and evolution of human miRNAs.
Health-related quality of life during the first year after traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVES To document health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to examine the relationship between TBI severity and HRQOL during the first year after injury. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Four pediatric level I trauma centers. PATIENTS Children with TBI (n = 330). MAIN EXPOSURE Traumatic brain injury. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A primary caregiver completed telephone interviews at baseline, 3 months, and 12 months to measure the child's HRQOL using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory. The HRQOL outcomes were modeled as a function of injury, patient characteristics, and family characteristics using longitudinal, multivariable regression. RESULTS A considerable proportion of children had impaired HRQOL at 3 months (42% of children) and 12 months (40% of children) after injury. Multiple dimensions of HRQOL were negatively affected among children with moderate or severe TBI (decrease of 3.7 to 17.6) (P<.05) and did not improve significantly over time. Concomitant lower extremity fractures and spinal injuries resulted in large declines in overall HRQOL, particularly at 3 months after injury (decrease of 12.9 and 8.1, respectively) (P<.05). The HRQOL scores were also reduced by preexisting psychosocial conditions (decrease of 2.9 to 12.3), impaired family functioning (decrease of 5.1 to 6.8), having Medicaid coverage or being uninsured (decrease of 3.1 to 5.5), and single-parent households (decrease of 3.2 to 3.4) (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS Moderate or severe TBI resulted in measurable declines in children's HRQOL after injury. Injury-related factors impacted HRQOL more compared with patient and family characteristics during the first year after injury.
Deficits in Decision-Making and reversal learning in college students who participate in Binge drinking

Objectives: We investigated deficits in decision-making and reversal learning, and the relationship between them in college students who engaged in binge drinking. Methods: In total, 30 students involved in binge drinking and 31 non-binge drinking participated. Binge drinking was defined on the basis of the quantity, frequency and speed of alcohol consumption. Decision-making and reversal learning were measured using the Iowa gambling task (IGT) and a reversal-learning task, respectively. Results: The binge drinking group obtained significantly lower total net scores on the IGT versus the non-binge drinking group. Additionally, the binge drinking group obtained significantly lower block net scores in the third and fourth blocks of the IGT, and selected cards from deck B (disadvantageous) more frequently than did the non-binge drinking group. In the reversal-learning task, the binge drinking group had significantly lower accuracy than the non-binge drinking group in the reversal-learning stage but not in the contingency-learning stage. Moreover, associations between performance on the IGT and the reversal-learning task were observed in the binge drinking group but not in the non-binge drinking. Conclusion: These results indicate that college students participating in BD had impairments in decision-making and reversal learning. Difficulties with reversing previously learned outcomes might lead to repetition of choices that are no longer advantageous.
Global space–time models for climate ensembles

Global climate models aim to reproduce physical processes on a global scale and predict quantities such as temperature given some forcing inputs. We consider climate ensembles made of collections of such runs with different initial conditions and forcing scenarios. The purpose of this work is to show how the simulated temperatures in the ensemble can be reproduced (emulated) with a global space/time statistical model that addresses the issue of capturing nonstationarities in latitude more effectively than current alternatives in the literature. The model we propose leads to a computationally efficient estimation procedure and, by exploiting the gridded geometry of the data, we can fit massive data sets with millions of simulated data within a few hours. Given a training set of runs, the model efficiently emulates temperature for very different scenarios and therefore is an appealing tool for impact assessment.
PixelVAE: A Latent Variable Model for Natural Images

Natural image modeling is a landmark challenge of unsupervised learning. Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) learn a useful latent representation and model global structure well but have difficulty capturing small details. PixelCNN models details very well, but lacks a latent code and is difficult to scale for capturing large structures. We present PixelVAE, a VAE model with an autoregressive decoder based on PixelCNN. Our model requires very few expensive autoregressive layers compared to PixelCNN and learns latent codes that are more compressed than a standard VAE while still capturing most non-trivial structure. Finally, we extend our model to a hierarchy of latent variables at different scales. Our model achieves state-of-the-art performance on binarized MNIST, competitive performance on 64x64 ImageNet, and high-quality samples on the LSUN bedrooms dataset.
BEHIND THE SEAMS: UNVEILING SOCIAL INJUSTICES IN A SCHOOL’S ENFORCEMENT OF PRESCRIBED DRESS RULES

Research on school drop-out rates in democratic South Africa cites school uniforms among the predominant causes of high school children, from impoverished contexts, dropping out of school. In light of this finding, this paper offers a critical examination of a school’s uniform rules against South Africa’s National Schools Uniform policy. Research data presented and discussed in this paper is drawn from a small scale case study, conducted in a working class South African school. Hermeneutics provided the analytical lens through which data were analysed. Critical theory offered a theoretical framework for data interpretation. The findings unearth social injustices which have become embedded in the schools dress code, when the national uniform policies were translated into school rules by a school’s leadership. The findings cannot be generalized to other schools. However, they do provide some insight into how children from impoverished backgrounds may be unfairly labelled, unjustly treated and possibly drop out of school, on account of the biased way in which a schools dress code expectations are decided on and enforced by a school’s leadership. Keywords: School Uniforms, Democratic Policies, Working-class schools, Subjective Dress Codes, Insensitive Dress Rules.
Organizational Discourse

Abstract This article highlights the increasing significance of “organizational discourse” as a field of inquiry. It defines the term, identifies its antecedents, and provides a commentary on the articles published in this issue. In so doing, it outlines several ways in which organizational discourse contributes to the study and understanding of organizations. It also identifies a number of challenges faced by proponents of organizational discourse. It addresses each of these challenges in turn and suggests that in some cases they are not insurmountable while in others they are unwarranted.
CYCLoPs: A Comprehensive Database Constructed from Automated Analysis of Protein Abundance and Subcellular Localization Patterns in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Changes in protein subcellular localization and abundance are central to biological regulation in eukaryotic cells. Quantitative measures of protein dynamics in vivo are therefore highly useful for elucidating specific regulatory pathways. Using a combinatorial approach of yeast synthetic genetic array technology, high-content screening, and machine learning classifiers, we developed an automated platform to characterize protein localization and abundance patterns from images of log phase cells from the open-reading frame−green fluorescent protein collection in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For each protein, we produced quantitative profiles of localization scores for 16 subcellular compartments at single-cell resolution to trace proteome-wide relocalization in conditions over time. We generated a collection of ∼300,000 micrographs, comprising more than 20 million cells and ∼9 billion quantitative measurements. The images depict the localization and abundance dynamics of more than 4000 proteins under two chemical treatments and in a selected mutant background. Here, we describe CYCLoPs (Collection of Yeast Cells Localization Patterns), a web database resource that provides a central platform for housing and analyzing our yeast proteome dynamics datasets at the single cell level. CYCLoPs version 1.0 is available at http://cyclops.ccbr. utoronto.ca. CYCLoPs will provide a valuable resource for the yeast and eukaryotic cell biology communities and will be updated as new experiments become available.
Status Locality on the Web: Implications for Building Focused Collections

Topical locality on the Web is the notion that pages tend to link to other topically similar pages and that such similarity decays rapidly with link distance. This supports meaningful web browsing and searching by information consumers. It also allows topical web crawlers, programs that fetch pages by following hyperlinks, to harvest topical subsets of the Web for applications such as those in vertical search and business intelligence. We show that the Web exhibits another property that we call “status locality. ” It is based on the notion that pages tend to link to other pages of similar status (importance) and that this status similarity also decays rapidly with link distance. Analogous to topical locality, status locality may also be exploited by web crawlers. Collections built by such crawlers include pages that are both topically relevant and also important. This capability is crucial because of the large numbers of web pages addressing even niche topics. The challenge in exploiting status locality while crawling is that page importance (or status) is typically recognized through global measures computed by processing link data from billion of pages. In contrast, topical web crawlers depend on local information based on previously downloaded pages. We solve this problem by using methods developed previously that utilize local characteristics of pages to estimate their global status. This leads to the design of new crawlers, specifically of utility-biased crawlers guided by a Cobb-Douglas utility function. Our crawler experiments show that status and topicality of web collections present a tradeoff. An adaptive version of our utility-biased crawler dynamically modifies output elasticities of topicality and status to create web collections that maintain high average topicality. This can be done while simultaneously achieving significantly higher average status as compared to several benchmarks including a state-of-the-art topical crawler.
A STUDY ON THE VARIABLES OF STRAIGHT-EYED AMBLYOPIA WITH ANISOMETROPIA

Aims and objectives: The aim was to analyze the relationship of increasing magnitude of anisometropia with the depth of amblyopia and magnitude of its effect on binocularity, viz. fusion and steroacuity, also to determine the number of monofixators in anisometropic amblyopes and percentage of aniseikonia in anisometropic amblyopes. Magnitude of accommodation lag in amblyopes and assessment of inter-ocular accommodation differences in anisometropic amblyopes was also studied. Materials and methods: Visual acuity was measured with Snellen’s chart, retinoscopy was done with streak retinoscope, fusion was looked for with Worth’s 4 dot test and Bagolini’s striated glasses. Steroacuity at near was recorded with Titmus fly test. Aniseikonia was recorded using aniseikonia booklet. Monofixation sought for 4 pd base out test. Results: Anisometropic amblyopes in our study presented with moderate vision impairment. A strong correlation was found between degree of anisometropia and final visual acuity. Increasing anisometropia was found to be associated with decreasing stereoacuity. The mean log-MAR inter-ocular acuity difference (IOAD) of the anisohyperopic amblyopes was 0.6+(0.3), while that of anisomyopic amblyopes was 0.52+ (0.33). Conclusions: Anisometropia in the absence of strabismus is a known etiology of amblyopia. Hyperopic anisometropia was found to be more prevalent in our study population with increasing magnitude of anisometropia (>3D) having a strong association with higher grades of amblyopia. Increasing anisometropia and amblyopia also showed a significant correlation with impairment of binocular functions like stereoacuity. Timely detection of uncorrected refractive error and its correction is essential to prevent the development of amblyopia and
Analysis of Social Cognitive Model in the Context of Green Marketing: A Study of the Ghanaian Environment

Abstract Environmental degradation is the concern of governments, organizations, and consumers all over the world as each party has a role to play. The aim of this article was to test and explain the triadic interactions of the consumer behavior, personal factor, and environmental factors which constitute the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) model. The study also identified the variables that mostly influence green behavior of consumers of sachet drinking water. In total, a quantitative approach and multistage research designs were utilized to gather 1,589 valid questionnaires from consumers at Labadi Pleasure Beach, Ghana. Findings revealed that personal factors positively relate to green behavior that influences environmental degradation conforming to the SCT model. The study recommended the provision of litterbins, enactment of beach sanitation rules and regulations, introduction of sanitation beach guards and collaboration of the beach authourities, producers of sachet water, and regulating bodies in carrying out regular sanitation exercises.
High-field, T2 reversed MRI of the hippocampus in transient global amnesia

Objective: To investigate the fine structural integrity of the hippocampus in patients with transient global amnesia (TGA) using high-resolution T2 reversed (T2R) MRI. Methods: The authors performed detailed structural analysis of the hippocampus in 15 patients who had recovered from an episode of TGA and 150 randomly recruited normal volunteers across the adult age spectrum using high-resolution T2R MRI obtained on a 3.0-T system. An additional 100 subjects, with stroke or tumor, were similarly studied and served as disease controls. Results: The overall incidence of hippocampal cavities detected in normal volunteers increased with age but never exceeded 40%, whereas the incidence in disease control group was 31%. They were always unilateral. In contrast, cavities were found in all 15 patients with TGA (100%), an incidence higher than in normal or disease controls (p < 0.05; Ryan’s multiple comparison test), and were bilateral in eight patients (53%). The cavities in all but one of the normal volunteers (99%) and all disease controls (100%) were crescent shaped and ≤2 mm in width. The cavities in 14 of 15 patients with TGA (93%) were considerably larger (>3 mm in width), and five of the patients had giant cavities (>5 mm in width). Most of the cavities in patients with TGA had a rounded shape and resembled pathologic cavities described in specimens of hypoxia-related CA1 necrosis. Conclusion: The data indicate that transient global amnesia may not be a benign entity. Delayed neuronal loss within CA1 area of Lorente de No may represent its important sequel.
Perceptual learning of degraded speech by minimizing prediction error

Significance Experience-dependent changes in sensory processing are critical for successful perception in dynamic and noisy environments. However, the neural and computational mechanisms supporting such changes have remained elusive. Using electrical and magnetic recordings of human brain activity, we demonstrate that two different sources of experience-dependent improvement in perception of degraded speech—the immediate effects of prior knowledge and longer-term changes resulting from perceptual learning—arise from common neural machinery in the sensory cortex although they operate over dramatically different behavioral timescales. Our findings support a specific neuro-computational account of perception in which a single mechanism, minimization of prediction error, drives both the immediate perceptual effects of prior knowledge and longer-term perceptual learning. Human perception is shaped by past experience on multiple timescales. Sudden and dramatic changes in perception occur when prior knowledge or expectations match stimulus content. These immediate effects contrast with the longer-term, more gradual improvements that are characteristic of perceptual learning. Despite extensive investigation of these two experience-dependent phenomena, there is considerable debate about whether they result from common or dissociable neural mechanisms. Here we test single- and dual-mechanism accounts of experience-dependent changes in perception using concurrent magnetoencephalographic and EEG recordings of neural responses evoked by degraded speech. When speech clarity was enhanced by prior knowledge obtained from matching text, we observed reduced neural activity in a peri-auditory region of the superior temporal gyrus (STG). Critically, longer-term improvements in the accuracy of speech recognition following perceptual learning resulted in reduced activity in a nearly identical STG region. Moreover, short-term neural changes caused by prior knowledge and longer-term neural changes arising from perceptual learning were correlated across subjects with the magnitude of learning-induced changes in recognition accuracy. These experience-dependent effects on neural processing could be dissociated from the neural effect of hearing physically clearer speech, which similarly enhanced perception but increased rather than decreased STG responses. Hence, the observed neural effects of prior knowledge and perceptual learning cannot be attributed to epiphenomenal changes in listening effort that accompany enhanced perception. Instead, our results support a predictive coding account of speech perception; computational simulations show how a single mechanism, minimization of prediction error, can drive immediate perceptual effects of prior knowledge and longer-term perceptual learning of degraded speech.