Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stream types of the Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) watershed

ABSTRACT The Lake Kinneret watershed (LKW) is an important freshwater resource in Israel, providing a myriad of water-dependent ecosystem services. Presently, environmental monitoring of the LKW is focused mainly on water quality and quantity parameters, but neglects biology. To fill this gap, a reference-based biological monitoring scheme is being developed. This approach requires a description of stream types, i.e. clusters of streams that naturally share similar environmental conditions, to help identify type-specific reference conditions and their associated communities. Here, we present the first stream typology for the entire LKW. Using a compilation of data layers of regional climate (precipitation and air temperature), local geology (volcanic, carbonic, and organic), and geomorphology (elevation, size, and slope), we have differentiated altogether nine stream types: small and mid-sized basaltic streams (41.6 and 2% of the entire catchment, respectively), small and mid-sized calcareous streams (36.4 and 2.9%), small organic streams (6.8%), and montane streams (6.5%). In addition, due to its size, the Jordan River is divided into three section-types: the karstic upper Jordan (6.3 km), the organic section of the Hula Valley (HV) (13.1 km), and the basaltic canyon-like section (16.9 km that stretches between the HV and the Lake Kinneret). Although Israel is not obligated to comply with the EU Water Framework Directive, this work constitutes an important step towards the development of the first bioassessment scheme for the LKW.
Dynamic Model Adaptive to User Interest Drift Based on Cluster and Nearest Neighbors

A recommendation system provides personalized recommendations on products and services to users. In the traditional recommendation system, the user interest is regarded as constant over time, while in fact, the user interest changes over time. Hence, tracking the user interest drift becomes key in designing the dynamic recommendation system. However, it is a challenge to find an accurate and effective method that can predict the user interest drift. To solve the prediction problem of the user interest drift, this paper adopts clustering and time impact factor matrix to monitor the degree of user interest drift in the class and more accurately predict an item’s rating. We add a time impact factor to the original baseline estimates and use the linear regression to predict the user interest drift. Our comparative experiments are conducted on three big data sets: MovieLens100K, MovieLens1M, and MovieLens10M. The experimental results show that our proposed approach can efficiently improve the prediction accuracy.
Oral contraceptives for functional ovarian cysts.

BACKGROUND Functional ovarian cysts are a common gynecological problem among women of reproductive age worldwide. When large, persistent, or painful, these cysts may require operations, sometimes resulting in removal of the ovary. Since early oral contraceptives were associated with a reduced incidence of functional ovarian cysts, many clinicians inferred that birth control pills could be used to treat cysts as well. This became a common clinical practice in the early 1970s. OBJECTIVES This review examined all randomized controlled trials that studied oral contraceptives as therapy for functional ovarian cysts. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the databases of CENTRAL, MEDLINE, POPLINE, and EMBASE, as well as clinical trials databases (ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP). We also examined the reference lists of articles and wrote to authors of identified trials to seek articles we had missed. SELECTION CRITERIA We included randomized controlled trials in any language that included oral contraceptives used for treatment and not prevention of functional ovarian cysts. Criteria for diagnosis of cysts were those used by authors of trials. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently abstracted data from the articles. One entered the data into RevMan and a second verified accuracy of data entry. For dichotomous outcomes, we used Peto odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI). For continuous outcomes, we calculated mean differences with 95% CI. MAIN RESULTS We identified seven randomized controlled trials from four countries; the studies included a total of 500 women. Treatment with combined oral contraceptives did not hasten resolution of functional ovarian cysts in any trial. This held true for cysts that occurred spontaneously as well as those that developed after ovulation induction. Most cysts resolved without treatment within a few cycles; persistent cysts tended to be pathological (e.g., endometrioma or para-ovarian cyst) and not physiological. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Although widely used for treating functional ovarian cysts, combined oral contraceptives appear to be of no benefit. Watchful waiting for two or three cycles is appropriate. Should cysts persist, surgical management is often indicated.
Pricing cloud bandwidth reservations under demand uncertainty

In a public cloud, bandwidth is traditionally priced in a pay-as-you-go model. Reflecting the recent trend of augmenting cloud computing with bandwidth guarantees, we consider a novel model of cloud bandwidth allocation and pricing when explicit bandwidth reservation is enabled. We argue that a tenant's utility depends not only on its bandwidth usage, but more importantly on the portion of its demand that is satisfied with a performance guarantee. Our objective is to determine the optimal policy for pricing cloud bandwidth reservations, in order to maximize social welfare, i.e., the sum of the expected profits that can be made by all tenants and the cloud provider, even with the presence of demand uncertainty. The problem turns out to be a large-scale network optimization problem with a coupled objective function. We propose two new distributed solutions --- based on chaotic equation updates and cutting-plane methods --- that prove to be more efficient than existing solutions based on consistency pricing and subgradient methods. In addition, we address the practical challenge of forecasting demand statistics, required by our optimization problem as input. We propose a factor model for near-future demand prediction, and test it on a real-world video workload dataset. All included, we have designed a fully computerized trading environment for cloud bandwidth reservations, which operates effectively at a fine granularity of as small as ten minutes in our trace-driven simulations.
Ranitidine Hydrochloride-loaded Ethyl Cellulose and Eudragit RS 100 Buoyant Microspheres: Effect of pH Modifiers

A floating type of dosage form of ranitidine hydrochloride in the form of microspheres capable of floating on simulated gastric fluid was prepared by solvent evaporation technique. Microspheres prepared with ethyl cellulose, Eudragit® RS100 alone or in combination were evaluated for percent yield, drug entrapment, percent buoyancy and drug release and the results demonstrated satisfactory performance. Microspheres exhibited ranitidine hydrochloride release influenced by changing ranitidine hydrochloride-polymer and ranitidine hydrochloride-polymer-polymer ratio. Incorporation of a pH modifier has been the usual strategy employed to enhance the dissolution rate of weakly basic drug from floating microspheres. Further citric acid, fumaric acid, tartaric acid were employed as pH modifiers. Microspheres prepared with ethyl cellulose, Eudragit® RS100 and their combination that showed highest release were utilized to study the effect of pH modifiers on ranitidine hydrochloride release from microspheres which is mainly affected due to modulation of microenvironmental pH. In vitro release of ranitidine hydrochloride from microspheres into simulated gastric fluid at 37° showed no significant burst effect. However the amount of release increased with time and significantly enhanced by pH modifiers. 15% w/w concentration of fumaric acid provide significant drug release from ranitidine hydrochloride microspheres prepared with ranitidine hydrochloride:ethyl cellulose (1:3), ranitidine hydrochloride:Eudragit® RS100 (1:2) and ranitidine hydrochloride:ethyl cellulose:Eudragit® RS100 (1:2:1) whereas citric acid, tartaric acid showed significant cumulative release at 20% w/w. In all this study suggest that ethyl celluose, Eudragit® RS100 alone or in combination with added pH modifiers can be useful in floating microspheres which can be proved beneficial to enhance the bioavailability of ranitidine hydrochloride.
Video methodology for research in psychopathology and psychopharmacology: Rationale and application.

We believe clinical evaluation of interview behavior has reached a plateau and propose a new method for enhancing the sensitivity of observational procedures. Although of obvious value as a permanent record of interview behavior, video methodology has been difficult to harness. A method is described, based on advances in the development of standard rating schedules, designed to increase reliability of ratings, to emphasize the measurement of nonverbal, expressive aspects of behavior, and to enhance the capacity of observers in the exercise of clinical judgment. Its sensitivity was tested by comparing it with a conventional rating procedure in a clinical trial, involving the use of two drugs with different chemical structures but presumed to have similar actions. The video method showed increased sensitivity in detecting systemic and important differences in behavioral effects between the agents.
A Vibration Control Method of an Electrolarynx Based on Statistical F0 Pattern Prediction

This paper presents a novel speaking aid system to help laryngectomees produce more naturally sounding electrolaryngeal (EL) speech. An electrolarynx is an external device to generate excitation signals, instead of vibration of the vocal folds. Although the conventional EL speech is quite intelligible, its naturalness suffers from the unnatural fundamental frequency (F0) patterns of the mechanically generated excitation signals. To improve the naturalness of EL speech, we have proposed EL speech enhancement methods using statistical F0 pattern prediction. In these methods, the original EL speech recorded by a microphone is presented from a loudspeaker after performing the speech enhancement. These methods are effective for some situation, such as telecommunication, but it is not suitable for face-to-face conversation because not only the enhanced EL speech but also the original EL speech is presented to listeners. In this paper, to develop an EL speech enhancement also effective for face-to-face conversation, we propose a method for directly controlling F0 patterns of the excitation signals to be generated from the electrolarynx using the statistical F0 prediction. To get an ”actual feel” of the proposed system, we also implement a prototype system. By using the prototype system, we find latency issues caused by a real-time processing. To address these latency issues, we furthermore propose segmental continuous F0 pattern modeling and forthcoming F0 pattern modeling. With evaluations through simulation, we demonstrate that our proposed system is capable of effectively addressing the issues of latency and those of electrolarynx in term of the naturalness. key words: laryngectomee, electrolarynx, voice restoration, speech enhancement, statistical F0 pattern prediction
Normalization based K means Clustering Algorithm

K-means is an effective clustering technique used to separate similar data into groups based on initial centroids of clusters. In this paper, Normalization based K-means clustering algorithm(N-K means) is proposed. Proposed N-K means clustering algorithm applies normalization prior to clustering on the available data as well as the proposed approach calculates initial centroids based on weights. Experimental results prove the betterment of proposed N-K means clustering algorithm over existing K-means clustering algorithm in terms of complexity and overall performance.
Detection of acoustic events in interactive seminar data with temporal overlaps

In Acoustic Event Detection (AED), both the identity of sounds and their position in time have to be obtained. In this paper, we first present our SVM-based system for AED in real-time conditions, along with the databases and metrics developed for the international evaluation campaign CLEAR 2007. In that evaluation, which was carried out with a real environment database that consists of interactive seminar recordings, the biggest encountered problem for AED was the presence of temporal overlaps, since they account for more than 70% of errors. In this paper we also report an initial attempt to deal with the overlap problem at the level of models. A two-step approach is proposed and it is tested firstly with artificially – overlapped acoustic data, and then with the above-mentioned seminar data.
Need-driven dementia-compromised behavior: An alternative view of disruptive behavior

The disruptive behavior of persons with dementia is a problem of considerable clinical interest and growing scientific concern. This paper offers a view of these behaviors as expressions of unmet needs or goals and provides a comprehensive conceptual framework to guide further research and clinical practice. Empiricalfindings and clinical impressions related to wandering, vocalizations and aggression to support and illustrate the framework are presented
Atmospheric sensitivity on land surface temperature retrieval using single channel thermal infrared remote sensing data: Comparison among models

Atmospheric effect is one of the most important error sources of land surface temperature (LST) retrieval using single channel thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing data. This paper focuses on the theoretical analysis of the atmospheric correction error sensitivity on LST retrieval, which applied on a new TIR remote sensing data of HJ-1B satellite. For this purpose, atmospheric effects on three different methods for LST retrieval are analyzed and compared: the radiant transfer method (RTM), the mono-window algorithm (Qin method) and the generalized single-channel method (JM&S method). The MODTRAN 4 codes are compiled in order to simulate the atmospheric radiance in different situations. Differential equations are built from each LST model by converting the derivatives of atmospheric parameters, then the change rate of the model with respect to the atmospheric variables are exhibited. The results show that for all methods, the increasing of LST error is ensued from the increasing of water vapor content and viewing angle, and aerosols effect on LST is negligible for all methods; JM&S method is most sensitive to water vapor content uncertainty followed by JM and Qin methods, with an error on LST of 0.8K, 0.6K and 0.4K, respectively, on typical condition that water vapor uncertainty is 0.15 g cm−2 with mid-latitude summer atmospheric; for a view angle of 33°, error on LST is lower than 2.3K, 1.9K and 1.1K for JM&S, RTM and Qin method, respectively; Qin method is also sensitive to mean atmospheric temperature, which leads to an error on LST of 0.5K, assuming an atmospheric temperature uncertainty of 0.1K; JM method is still sensitive to effective wavelength, which leads to an error on LST of 0.3K, assuming an wavelength uncertainty of 0. 3μm; Hence, JM&S method is more suitable for the condition that precise water vapor profiles are applied, while Qin method can be more precisely if atmospheric temperature is fully estimated. For non-mathematical simplification, RTM could be the most accurate and complex choice if in situ measurement and angular correction of atmospheric are undertook.
The blue-c distributed scene graph

We present a distributed scene graph architecture for use in the blue-c, a novel collaborative immersive virtual environment. We extend the widely used OpenGL Performer toolkit to provide a distributed scene graph maintaining full synchronization down to vertex and texel level. We propose a synchronization scheme including customizable, relaxed locking mechanisms. We demonstrate the functionality of our toolkit with two prototype applications in our high-performance virtual reality and visual simulation environment.
Mobile pointing task in the physical world: balancing focus and performance while disambiguating

We address the problem of mobile distal selection of physical objects when pointing at them in augmented environments. We focus on the disambiguation step needed when several objects are selected with a rough pointing gesture. A usual disambiguation technique forces the users to switch their focus from the physical world to a list displayed on a handheld device's screen. In this paper, we explore the balance between change of users' focus and performance. We present two novel interaction techniques allowing the users to maintain their focus in the physical world. Both use a cycling mechanism, respectively performed with a wrist rolling gesture for P2Roll or with a finger sliding gesture for P2Slide. A user experiment showed that keeping users' focus in the physical world outperforms techniques that require the users to switch their focus to a digital representation distant from the physical objects, when disambiguating up to 8 objects.
Regulation of human T cell leukemia virus expression 1

Retroviruses of the type C morphology have been implicated in a wide variety of diseases in animals and humans. The human T cell leukemia viruses types I (HTLV‐I) and II (HTLV‐II), the prototypic human‐type C retroviruses, have been identified as the causative agents of some forms of human leukemia and neurological disorders. The genetic structure and regulation of the HTLVs are more complex than their avian and murine leukemia virus counterparts. In addition to the gag, pol, and env genes that encode the characteristic virion proteins of all replication competent retroviruses, the genomes of HTLV encode the nonstructural proteins, Tax and Rex, which are required for regulating viral gene expression. To understand what appears to be a complex mechanism of disease induction by HTLV, elucidating the regulation and function of the viral gene products and the interaction of these products with each other, as well as with cellular factors, will be critical. This review focuses primarily on regulation of HTLV gene expression in the infected human T lymphocyte, but also discusses analogous gene regulation by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It concentrates specifically on the role these gene products play in virus replication and, ultimately, pathogenesis. —Green, P. L. ; Chen, I. S. Y. Regulation of human T cell leukemia virus expression. FASEB J. 4: 169‐175; 1990.
Flocking with multiple virtual leaders based on position measurements

Most existing flocking algorithms assume one single virtual leader and rely on information about both relative positions and relative velocities among neighboring agents. In this paper, we investigate the problem of controlling a flock of mobile autonomous agents to follow multiple virtual leaders using only position information in the sense that agents with the same virtual leader asymptotically attain the same velocity and track the corresponding virtual leader based only on position measurements. We propose a flocking algorithm, under which every agent asymptotically attains its desired velocity, collision between agents can be avoided, and the final tight formation minimizes all agents' global potentials. We show one simulation to verify and illustrate the theoretical results.
Association between fatigue and Internet addiction in female hospital nurses.

AIMS To report a study conducted to examine the association between fatigue and Internet addiction among female hospital nurses. BACKGROUND The Internet provides unprecedented convenience for social interaction and information retrieval. Although excessive Internet use has been demonstrated to correlate with fatigue in adolescents, no studies have examined whether it is associated with fatigue in nurses. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. METHODS The study was conducted in August 2010. Female Registered Nurses working in a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan were asked to complete a paper-based questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions on demographics, the Chen Internet Addiction Scale and the Chalder Fatigue Scale. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed using Chalder fatigue scale as the dependent variable. RESULTS Of the 564 (79% response) valid questionnaires returned, 6 and 10% of the participants were classified as diagnostic cases and possible cases of Internet addiction, respectively. Fatigue levels, adjusting for other potential confounders including work unit, shift work, regular self-medication, and self-perceived health status, was significantly associated with both possible cases of Internet addiction and diagnostic cases of Internet addiction. CONCLUSION This study is the first in reporting a statistically significant association between fatigue levels and Internet addiction in female hospital nurses. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Nurses should pay attention to their Internet activity and whether it adds to their fatigue levels. Addictive behaviour should promptly be dealt with to ensure that the best care is provided to patients.
3D analysis of facial morphology

Dense surface models can be used to analyze 3D facial morphology by establishing a correspondence of thousands of points across each 3D face image. The models provide dramatic visualizations of 3D face‐shape variation with potential for training physicians to recognize the key components of particular syndromes. We demonstrate their use to visualize and recognize shape differences in a collection of 3D face images that includes 280 controls (2 weeks to 56 years of age), 90 individuals with Noonan syndrome (NS) (7 months to 56 years), and 60 individuals with velo‐cardio‐facial syndrome (VCFS; 3 to 17 years of age). Ten‐fold cross‐validation testing of discrimination between the three groups was carried out on unseen test examples using five pattern recognition algorithms (nearest mean, C5.0 decision trees, neural networks, logistic regression, and support vector machines). For discriminating between individuals with NS and controls, the best average sensitivity and specificity levels were 92 and 93% for children, 83 and 94% for adults, and 88 and 94% for the children and adults combined. For individuals with VCFS and controls, the best results were 83 and 92%. In a comparison of individuals with NS and individuals with VCFS, a correct identification rate of 95% was achieved for both syndromes. This article contains supplementary material, which may be viewed at the American Journal of Medical Genetics website at http://www.interscience. wiley.com/jpages/0148‐7299/suppmat/index.html. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
tSEARCH: Flexible and Fast Search over Automatic Translations for Improved Quality/Error Analysis

This work presents tSEARCH, a web-based application that provides mechanisms for doing complex searches over a collection of translation cases evaluated with a large set of diverse measures. tSEARCH uses the evaluation results obtained with the ASIYA toolkit for MT evaluation and it is connected to its on-line GUI, which makes possible a graphical visualization and interactive access to the evaluation results. The search engine offers a flexible query language allowing to find translation examples matching a combination of numerical and structural features associated to the calculation of the quality metrics. Its database design permits a fast response time for all queries supported on realistic-size test beds. In summary, tSEARCH, used with ASIYA, offers developers of MT systems and evaluation metrics a powerful tool for helping translation and error analysis.