Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A more efficient path-finding algorithm

Presents a new routing algorithm, which the authors call a path-finding algorithm (PFA). It drastically reduces the possibility of temporary routing loops, which accounts for its fast convergence properties. Like other path-finding algorithms, the PFA operates by specifying the second-to-last hop to each destination, in addition to the distance to the destination. A detailed proof of correctness and complexity is presented elsewhere. The PFA's performance is compared quantitatively by simulation with DUAL (a loop-free routing algorithm) and an ideal link-state algorithm (ILS). A number of parameters, including the length of the messages and the number of steps required for convergence, are used in the comparison. The simulation results indicate that the PFA constitutes a very efficient distance-vector algorithm. It provides about 50% improvement in performance compared to DUAL in terms of the convergence time and the number of updates after single link failures, and provides comparable or better convergence speed and traffic overhead than ILS, with orders of magnitude fewer CPU cycles. <<ETX>>
Risk Attitudes and Decision Weights

textabstractTo accommodate the observed pattern of risk-aversion and risk-seeking, as well as common violations of expected utility (e.g., the certainty effect), we introduce and characterize a weighting function according to which an event has greater impact when it turns impossibility into possibility, or possibility into certainty, that when it merely makes a possibility more or less likely. We show how to compare such weighting functions (of different individuals) with respect to the degree of departure from expected utility, and we present a method for comparing an individual's weighting functions for risk and for uncertainty.
Nucleosome positions establish an extended mutation signature in melanoma

Ultraviolet (UV) light-induced mutations are unevenly distributed across skin cancer genomes, but the molecular mechanisms responsible for this heterogeneity are not fully understood. Here, we assessed how nucleosome structure impacts the positions of UV-induced mutations in human melanomas. Analysis of mutation positions from cutaneous melanomas within strongly positioned nucleosomes revealed a striking ~10 base pair (bp) oscillation in mutation density with peaks occurring at dinucleotides facing away from the histone octamer. Additionally, higher mutation density at the nucleosome dyad generated an overarching “translational curvature” across the 147 bp of DNA that constitutes the nucleosome core particle. This periodicity and curvature cannot be explained by sequence biases in nucleosomal DNA. Instead, our genome-wide map of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) indicates that CPD formation is elevated at outward facing dinucleotides, mirroring the oscillation of mutation density within nucleosome-bound DNA. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) activity, as measured by XR-seq, inversely correlated with the curvature of mutation density associated with the translational setting of the nucleosome. While the 10 bp periodicity of mutations is maintained across nucleosomes regardless of chromatin state, histone modifications, and transcription levels, overall mutation density and curvature across the core particle increased with lower transcription levels. Our observations suggest structural conformations of DNA promote CPD formation at specific sites within nucleosomes, and steric hindrance progressively limits lesion repair towards the nucleosome dyad. Both mechanisms create a unique extended mutation signature within strongly positioned nucleosomes across the human genome.
HEBBIAN SPIKE-TIMING DEPENDENT SELF-ORGANIZATION IN PULSED NEURAL NETWORKS

We present a mechanism of unsupervised competitive learning and development of topology preserving self-organizing maps of spiking neurons. The information encoding is based on the precise timing of single spike events. The work provides a competitive learning algorithm that is based on the relative timing of the preand post-synaptic spikes, local synapse competitions within a single neuron and global competition via lateral connections. Furthermore, we present part of the experimental work on the capability of the suggested mechanism to perform topology preserving mapping and competitive learning. The results show that our model covers the main characteristic behaviour of the standard SOM but uses a computationally more powerful timing-dependent spike encoding.
Optimising service organisation for stroke patients

Background Stroke is the leading cause of long-term neurological disability in adults and the third most common cause of death in Britain. It is well known that in addition to the patient characteristics of age and severity, the treatment a stroke patient receives in hospital signifcantly affects outcome. The effectiveness of complex service interventions, how the benefits of these interventions are achieved and the economic impact of different types of service delivery were explored. Methods The Stroke Unit Trialists' Collaboration systematic review was updated and currently contains 31 clinical trials (6936 subjects). The aims were explored using various basic frequentist and Bayesian meta-analysis techniques as well as more complex meta-analysis ideas. These more complex ideas include: meta-regression where covariate information is incorporated into the model; and network meta-analysis where direct and indirect information is used in a mixed treatment comparisons model while also incorporating covariate information. Results Organised inpatient (stroke unit) care showed reductions in death, death or dependency and death or institutional care compared to general medical wards. Stroke unit care appears to reduce the risk of adverse outcomes through prevention and treatment of complications. Acute, comprehensive and rehabilitation stroke unit care appeared to be most effective and acute stroke unit care appeared to be the most cost-effective. However, acute followed by rehabilitation stroke unit care, if required, appears to be the most cost-effective pathway of care compared to the other pathways analysed. Discussion Future research should focus on rehabilitation, acute and comprehensive systems of inpatient care, and explore the best ways of preventing and managing specific complications. Effort should be made to make individual patient data and information on the care pathway of a stroke patient available for meta-analysis.
Normal vaginal microbiome in women with primary Sjögren’s syndrome-associated vaginal dryness

Dryness of epithelial surfaces is characteristic for patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS). Vaginal dryness is frequently reported by pSS-women and is associated with sexual dysfunction.1 2 Recently, we showed that dysbiosis of the oral microbiome is largely similar between oral dryness patients with and without pSS when compared with healthy controls.3 4 The objective of our current study was to assess whether the vaginal microbiome of women with pSS-associated vaginal dryness differs from controls. In a case-control design, we compared the vaginal microbiome of 10 premenopausal pSS-women with that of 10 age-matched premenopausal women without pSS, who underwent general anaesthesia for a laparoscopic procedure. Exclusion criteria were genital inflammatory or infectious comorbidity, endometriosis and use of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs, corticosteroids, vaginal oestrogens or an intrauterine contraceptive device. All patients with pSS fulfilled the 2016 ACR/EULAR classification criteria. All participants completed a questionnaire on vaginal symptoms. Patient-reported vaginal dryness was scored using a Numeric Rating Scale (NRS, range 0–10). Vaginal health was assessed with the Vaginal Health Index (VHI). 5 From all participants, a cervicovaginal lavage (CVL) and endocervical swab (ES) were collected. DNA from all samples was …
Direct Evidence for the Polymeric Nature of Polydopamine.

Inspired by the adhesive proteins of mussels, polydopamine (pDA) has emerged as one of the most widely employed materials for surface functionalization. Despite numerous attempts at characterization, little consensus has emerged regarding whether pDA is a covalent polymer or a noncovalent aggregate of low molecular weight species. Here, we employed single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) to characterize pDA films. Retraction of a pDA-coated cantilever from an oxide surface shows the characteristic features of a polymer with contour lengths of up to 200 nm. pDA polymers are generally weakly bound to the surface through much of their contour length, with occasional "sticky" points. Our findings represent the first direct evidence for the polymeric nature of pDA and provide a foundation upon which to better understand and tailor its physicochemical properties.
Interactive character animation by learning multi-objective control

We present an approach that learns to act from raw motion data for interactive character animation. Our motion generator takes a continuous stream of control inputs and generates the character's motion in an online manner. The key insight is modeling rich connections between a multitude of control objectives and a large repertoire of actions. The model is trained using Recurrent Neural Network conditioned to deal with spatiotemporal constraints and structural variabilities in human motion. We also present a new data augmentation method that allows the model to be learned even from a small to moderate amount of training data. The learning process is fully automatic if it learns the motion of a single character, and requires minimal user intervention if it deals with props and interaction between multiple characters.
Articular Cartilage Injuries of the Knee: Patient Health Literacy, Expectations for Management, and Clinical Outcomes

Objective The purpose of this article is to review the orthopedic literature regarding patient understanding of articular cartilage disease, interpret literature reporting patient expectations for surgical management of articular cartilage injuries of the knee, and review patient-reported outcomes and patient satisfaction with management of these injuries. Design A retrospective review of the current literature using the PubMed database (1980-current) was performed on July 15, 2017. The search terms used were “patient understanding knee cartilage,” “patient satisfaction knee cartilage,” “patient expectation knee cartilage,” and “patient reported outcomes knee cartilage. ” All searches were filtered to human studies and English language only and were reviewed by 2 independent reviewers. Studies not relevant to articular cartilage injury and/or surgical management in the knee were excluded. Additional references were found by backtracing references from obtained articles. Results The published study search results for the terms: “patient understanding knee cartilage,” “patient satisfaction knee cartilage,” “patient expectation knee cartilage,” and “patient reported outcomes knee cartilage” displayed a total of 873 studies. Two independent reviewers screen all studies A total of 50 published studies were relevant and included. Conclusion The subjective and objective clinical outcomes reported are inconsistently obtained resulting in difficulty drawing comparisons between studies. While the relationship between preoperative patient expectations and patient-reported outcomes and patient satisfaction has yet to be well developed, authors have reported patient and injury specific variables associated with superior and inferior outcomes. In conclusion, more work is needed to correlate patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction for cartilage treatments with preoperative expectations and health literacy.
Une économie de chasse au Néolithique ancien. La Grotte Lombard à Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey (Alpes-Maritimes).

La Grotte Lombard au Neolithique ancien. Faits techniques et exploitation du milieu : outillages lithiques (technologie, etude fonctionnelle, outils non tailles, repartition au sol)| ceramique (matieres premieres, etude stylistique, place dans le contexte cardial, repartition au sol)| la faune et sa gestion| la foret. Elements pour l'etude des structures territoriales au Neolithique ancien. Fonctions de la grotte : activites liees a la chasse, fabrication de ceramique. Les relations exterieures : economie de production, des matieres premieres lithiques, des materiaux ceramiques. Mobilite ou sedentarite
Child Health and Nutritional Status of Children: The Role of Sex Differentials

The main objective of this paper is to examine the patterns of gender differences for children in the north state of Haryana in India for health outcomes. Specifically it addresses the incidence, and use of preventive and curative health care services and nutrition. Does the extent of male bias if it is present, depend on the socioeconomic status, caste, religion, education, and rural/urban residence of the head of the household? The odds of female children being discriminated against with respect to each of these indicators are estimated by using logistic regression analysis. [Working paper No. 262]. URL:[http://www.iegindia. org/].
Injury Incidence, Injury Risk Factors, and Physical Fitness of U.S. Army Basic Trainees at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina

Abstract : An epidemiological consultation was requested by the Commander, U.S. Army Training Center, Ft. Jackson SC, to assist in the establishment of an Army Center of Excellence for the Study of Training-Related Injuries. A preliminary investigation of basic trainees was conducted to determine injury incidence, risk factors for injuries, physical fitness, and directions for a more comprehensive investigation. Data obtained on a battalion of basic trainees (n=799) included information from medical records, platoon manning rosters, Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores, discharge packets, and newstart rosters. Cumulative injury incidence (one or more visits to a health care provider for overuse or traumatic events) was 15.4% for men and 38.0% for women.
An Exploratory Study of English Language Teachers' Beliefs, Assumptions, and Knowledge about Learner-Centeredness.

The purpose of this comparative case study was to explore English language teachers’ beliefs, assumptions and knowledge about learner-centeredness and to see how they implement learner-centeredness in their classrooms. The study was conducted at one public and one private primary school in Istanbul. Focus group interviews were held in each school with thirteen teachers of English and then individual interviews and observations were carried out with four volunteer teachers being 2 from the public primary school during the spring semester, 2004-2005. The four participant teachers were observed in their classrooms ten times along with beforeand after-class observation reflections facilitated by the researcher. These observations were accompanied by document analysis. Data from the interviews were inductively analyzed. The findings indicated that public school EFL teachers had limited knowledge to implement learner-centeredness whereas private teachers did not.
Sleepless in school: The role of social determinants of sleep health among college students

Abstract Sleep health is a public health concern and has been linked to an increased risk of number of deleterious health outcomes. Poor sleep health has been documented among college student populations; however, few studies have examined the social determinants of deficient sleep. The present study aims to address this gap, with emphasis on food insecurity, psychological distress, everyday discrimination, and academic performance. Participants (n = 282) completed self-report measures online assessing the variables of interest for the present study. Results revealed that the majority of college students in our sample reported feeling tired, fatigue, or daytime sleepiness and sleeping less than eight hours per night during the school week. Poor sleep health was significantly associated with being food insecurity, serious psychological distress, and poorer self-rated mental and physical health. Results have important implications for the development of targeted evidence-based interventions to improve sleep health among college populations.
Short‐term Sahaja Yoga meditation training modulates brain structure and spontaneous activity in the executive control network

While cross‐sectional studies have shown neural changes in long‐term meditators, they might be confounded by self‐selection and potential baseline differences between meditators and non meditators. Prospective longitudinal studies of the effects of meditation in naïve subjects are more conclusive with respect to causal inferences, but related evidence is so far limited.
The Rotator Cuff Healing Index: A New Scoring System to Predict Rotator Cuff Healing After Surgical Repair

Background: Scoring systems integrating possible prognostic factors and predicting rotator cuff healing after surgical repair could provide valuable information for clinical practice. Purpose: To determine the prognostic factors predictive of rotator cuff healing after surgical repair and to integrate these factors into a scoring system. Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: The authors reviewed the records of 603 patients who, at least 12 months after primary rotator cuff repair by a single surgeon, had magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomographic arthrography to assess repair integrity. The mean age at the time of surgery was 60 years (range, 39-81 years), and 378 patients were women (62.7%). Previous known or suggested factors affecting cuff integrity were analyzed through univariate and multivariate analyses. Factors identified in the multivariate analysis were integrated in a scoring system based on odds ratios (ORs). Results: The overall healing failure rate was 24%. The following independent risk factors were identified in the multivariate analysis: age >70 years at the time of surgery (P = .003, OR = 2.71), size of the tear in anteroposterior dimension (P = .033, OR = 1.94) and retraction (P = .000, OR = 4.56), fatty infiltration of infraspinatus exceeding grade 2 (P = .001, OR = 2.91), low bone mineral density (T score ≤ –2.5, P = .04, OR = 1.95), and high level of work activity (P = .036, OR = 2.18). A 15-point scoring system comprised the following: 4 points for retraction; 3 points for fatty infiltration of infraspinatus; and 2 points for anteroposterior tear size, age, bone mineral density, and work activity, weighted according to multivariate analysis ORs. Patients with ≤4 points had a 6.0% healing failure rate, and those with ≥5 and ≥10 points had 55.2% and 86.2% healing failure rates, respectively. Conclusion: A numerical scoring system including significant clinical and radiological factors was designed to predict healing of the rotator cuff after surgical repair. This scoring system helped predict the adequacy of the repair and assist in deciding the appropriate treatment options.
Re : Mortality rates at 10 years after metal-on-metal hip resurfacing compared with total hip replacement in England : retrospective cohort analysis of hospital episode statistics

Two recent BMJ papers analyse mortality of recipients of hip replacements; they report strikingly superior survival for metal on metal resurfacing recipients relative to those getting cemented or un-cemented Total Hip Replacement (THR)1, 2. Both use observational data. In contrast, cost-effectiveness models of hip replacement, also based on observational data, have assumed that after surgical recovery the same mortality applies for all types of prosthesis, differences have been assumed or found to be attributable to age, gender and other population characteristics 3,4,5. We were interested to see if the new estimates published by McMinn et al1 and Kendal et al2 might be useful for cost-effectiveness comparisons in which lifetime models necessitate extrapolation beyond observed data in order to determine mean survival6.
Crowdsourcing of Histological Image Labeling and Object Delineation by Medical Students

Crowdsourcing in pathology has been performed on tasks that are assumed to be manageable by nonexperts. Demand remains high for annotations of more complex elements in digital microscopic images, such as anatomical structures. Therefore, this paper investigates conditions to enable crowdsourced annotations of high-level image objects, a complex task considered to require expert knowledge. Seventy six medical students without specific domain knowledge who voluntarily participated in three experiments solved two relevant annotation tasks on histopathological images: 1) labeling of images showing tissue regions and 2) delineation of morphologically defined image objects. We focus on methods to ensure sufficient annotation quality including several tests on the required number of participants and on the correlation of participants’ performance between tasks. In a set up simulating annotation of images with limited ground truth, we validated the feasibility of a confidence score using full ground truth. For this, we computed a majority vote using weighting factors based on individual assessment of contributors against scattered gold standard annotated by pathologists. In conclusion, we provide guidance for task design and quality control to enable a crowdsourced approach to obtain accurate annotations required in the era of digital pathology.
Detecting chlamydial infection in women

Chlamydia trachomatis infections are the most common bacterial cause of sexually transmitted disease in the world. In women, these infections often result in such serious reproductive tract complications as pelvic inflamatory disease, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy and an infected woman can pass the infection to her newborn during delivery. The diagnosis of C Trachomatis infections has historically been difficult, but newer chlamydia diagnostic tests have become clinically available in the past decade.
An Esterel Compiler for a Synchronous/Reactive Development System

The objective of this project was to create a di erent scheme for compiling the Esterel synchronous reactive programming language [6, 5, 4, 9] which could handle larger programs, facilitates debugging, and could be easily retargeted toward di erent architectures. The approach presented here uses an intermediate representation which is somewhere between a high-level reactive language like Esterel and assembly code for a traditional processor. This is similar to the ic format used in the Esterel V3 compiler [8] and Baker's NDAM[2, 3]. Compilation proceeds by translating this into assembly code for a SPARC processor. This di ers signi cantly from the scheme used in the V3 compiler, which derives a single nite-state machine representing the behavior of the program. The FSM approach o ers fast executables and exact causality checking, but su ers from exponential growth of compile times and object code sizes. This report describes the Esterel language, the intermediate representation used by this new compiler, and how the format is translated into executable SPARC assembly code. Its intended audience are those who wish to understand the workings of this Esterel compiler and those simply curious about the Esterel language.