Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parental Explicit Heuristics in Decision-making for Children With Life-threatening Illnesses

OBJECTIVE: To identify and illustrate common explicit heuristics (decision-making aids or shortcuts expressed verbally as terse rules of thumb, aphorisms, maxims, or mantras and intended to convey a compelling truth or guiding principle) used by parents of children with life-threatening illnesses when confronting and making medical decisions. METHODS: Prospective cross-sectional observational study of 69 parents of 46 children who participated in the Decision-making in Pediatric Palliative Care Study between 2006 and 2008 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Parents were guided individually through a semistructured in-depth interview about their experiences and thoughts regarding making medical decisions on behalf of their ill children, and the transcribed interviews were qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: All parents in our study employed explicit heuristics in interviews about decision-making for their children, with the number of identified explicit heuristics used by an individual parent ranging from tens to hundreds. The heuristics served 5 general functions: (1) to depict or facilitate understanding of a complex situation; (2) to clarify, organize, and focus pertinent information and values; (3) to serve as a decision-making compass; (4) to communicate with others about a complex topic; and (5) to justify a choice. CONCLUSIONS: Explicit heuristics played an important role in decision-making and communication about decision-making in our population of parents. Recognizing explicit heuristics in parent interactions and understanding their content and functions can aid clinicians in their efforts to partner with parents in the decision-making process.
Evaluation of cord/rubber adhesion by a new fatigue test method

Polymer adhesion and its evaluation are important from academic and industrial points of view. Today cords are used to reinforce rubber in various products. Cord–rubber adhesion can be evaluated using static and dynamic methods. The static methods are commonly used for qualification of raw materials. These methods are not suitable for prediction of durability of the cord/rubber system in real conditions. The dynamic adhesion tests (e.g., fatigue method) involve some important parameters to simulate the real conditions of cord/rubber composite usage. So they produce reliable results in comparison with static adhesion results. Increase in temperature of cord/rubber system occurs during utilization of product. Adhesion usually decreases with increasing temperature. So the static adhesion test (e.g., H-pull test) results that are measured in the ambient temperature (23 ± 2°C) cannot be considered as the composite's performance in the utilization condition. Although heat build up occurs in the test samples during the fatigue test procedure, but this is not enough to illustrate the decreasing effect of the increased temperature on the results. The authors produced a heat chamber to improve the dynamic test. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 2488–2494, 2006
Novel Approach to Structure-Based Pharmacophore Search Using Computational Geometry and Shape Matching Techniques

Computationally efficient structure-based virtual screening methods have recently been reported that seek to find effective means to utilize experimental structure information without employing detailed molecular docking calculations. These tools can be coupled with efficient experimental screening technologies to improve the probability of identifying hits and leads for drug discovery research. Commercial software ROCS (rapid overlay of chemical structures) from Open Eye Scientific is such an example, which is a shape-based virtual screening method using the 3D structure of a ligand, typically from a bound X-ray costructure, as the query. We report here the development of a new structure-based pharmacophore search method (called Shape4) for virtual screening. This method adopts a variant of the ROCS shape technology and expands its use to work with an empty crystal structure. It employs a rigorous computational geometry method and a deterministic geometric casting algorithm to derive the negative image (i.e., pseudoligand) of a target binding site. Once the negative image (or pseudoligand) is generated, an efficient shape comparison algorithm in the commercial OE SHAPE Toolkit is adopted to compare and match small organic molecules with the shape of the pseudoligand. We report the detailed computational protocol and its computational validation using known biologically active compounds extracted from the WOMBAT database. Models derived for five selected targets were used to perform the virtual screening experiments to obtain the enrichment data for various virtual screening methods. It was found that our approach afforded similar or better enrichment ratios than other related methods, often with better diversity among the top ranking computational hits.
Measuring the Impact of Database Selection on Distributed

The proliferation of online information resources increases the importance of eeective and ee-cient distributed searching. Distributed searching is cast in three parts { database selection, query processing , and results merging. In this paper we examine the eeect of database selection on retrieval performance. We look at retrieval performance in three diierent distributed retrieval testbeds and distill some general results. First we nd that good database selection can result in better retrieval eeectiveness than can be achieved in a centralized database. Second we nd that good performance can be achieved when only a few sites are selected and that the performance generally increases as more sites are selected. Finally we nd that when database selection is employed, it is not necessary to maintain collection wide information (CWI), e.g. global idf. Local information can be used to achieve superior performance. This means that distributed systems can be engineered with more autonomy and less cooperation. This work suggests that improvements in database selection can lead to broader improvements in retrieval performance, even in centralized (i.e. single database) systems. Given a centralized database and a good selection mechanism, retrieval performance can be improved by decomposing that database conceptually and employing a selection step.
Brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity compared with mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure in risk stratification in a Chinese population

Background: Brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) can be easily measured in an observer-independent way, but lacks robust population-based validation in terms of fatal combined with nonfatal outcomes. Method: To address this issue, we studied 4251 Chinese randomly recruited Gaoyou County (54.1% women; mean age, 52.1). Results: In the whole study population, mean values were 102.4 mmHg for mean arterial pressure (MAP), 51.1 mmHg for pulse pressure, and 14.8 m/s for baPWV. Over 4.4 years (median), 74 participants experienced a fatal or nonfatal cardiovascular event and 44 a stroke. In multivariable-adjusted Cox regression, standardized hazard ratios expressing the risk of a composite cardiovascular endpoint were 1.77 (95% confidence interval, 1.43–2.20), 1.37 (1.14–1.64) and 1.50 (1.26–1.78) for MAP, PP and baPWV, respectively; the corresponding hazard ratios for stroke were 1.82 (1.39–2.38), 1.39 (1.12–1.74) and 1.53 (1.25–1.89). baPWV did not add to the prediction of cardiovascular events or stroke by MAP (hazard ratios for baPWV, 1.25 and 1.27, respectively; P ≥ 0.053) but refined models including PP (hazard ratios, 1.42 and 1.45; P ⩽ 0.0033). The optimized baPWV threshold, obtained by maximizing Youden's index (16.7 m/s), increased the integrated discrimination improvement over and beyond MAP (+1.27%; P = 0.021) and PP (+1.37%; P = 0.038) for the cardiovascular outcome, but not stroke, and increased the net reclassification improvement for both endpoints (≥42.2%; P ⩽ 0.004). Conclusion: With fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular and cerebrovascular endpoints as outcome, baPWV marginally increases risk stratification over and beyond MAP, but is a better predictor than PP. A threshold of 16.7 m/s might be used in Chinese populations.
Expression and localisation of vascular ribonucleases in endothelial cells

Summary The functions of extracellular RNA in the vascular system as new procoagulatory and permeability-increasing factor in vivoand in vitrowere shown to be counteracted by pancreatic type RNase1. Based on the identification of RNase1 in plasma and serum, it is proposed that the enzyme is expressed by vascular cells to contribute in the regulation of extracellular RNA. It is demonstrated that RNase1 and RNase5 (also termed angiogenin) were differentially expressed in various types of endothelial cells, whereby human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) expressed and released the highest concentration of active RNase1. Expression and release of RNase5 were similar in all types of endothelial cells tested. Both RNases were constitutively produced and secreted, whereby a portion of RNase1, but not RNase5, was stored in Weibel-Palade bodies, co-localising with von Willlebrand factor and P-selectin. Accordingly, immediate release of RNase1 from these granules was demonstrated in vitroand in vivousing Weibel-Palade body exocytosis-inducing agents. Additionally, extracellular RNA or poly:IC (but not DNA) induced this short-term release of RNase1. Our results indicate that vascular RNase1 and RNase5 are mainly produced by vascular endothelial cells and can serve, depending on the vascular bed, different functions in vascular homeostasis and endothelial cell responses.
Precomputed Atmospheric Scattering

We present a new and accurate method to render the atmosphere in real time from any viewpoint from ground level to outer space, while taking Rayleigh and Mie multiple scattering into account. Our method reproduces many effects of the scattering of light, such as the daylight and twilight sky color and aerial perspective for all view and light directions, or the Earth and mountain shadows (light shafts) inside the atmosphere. Our method is based on a formulation of the light transport equation that is precomputable for all view points, view directions and sun directions. We show how to store this data compactly and propose a GPU compliant algorithm to precompute it in a few seconds. This precomputed data allows us to evaluate at runtime the light transport equation in constant time, without any sampling, while taking into account the ground for shadows and light shafts.
Semantic Excavation of the City of Books

As the Semantic Web gains momentum, so grows the interest in making knowledge kept in various repositories available. In this paper we describe a case study using a methodological approach for porting cultural repositories to the Semantic Web. The approach consists of thesaurus conversion, meta-data schema mapping, meta-data value mapping, and thesauri alignment. It is derived from our experience collected in a number of conversions we have performed for the E-Culture project, and in this paper we apply it to a collection of data about images related to book printing.
Robust dynamic walking using online foot step optimization

To enable robust dynamic walking on the Atlas robot, we extend our previous work by adding a receding-horizon component. The new controller consists of three hierarchies: a center of mass (CoM) trajectory planner that follows a sequence of desired foot steps, a receding-horizon controller that optimizes the next foot placement to minimize future CoM tracking errors, and an inverse dynamics based full body controller that generates instantaneous joint commands to track these motions while obeying physical constraints. An approximate value function is generated by the CoM planner, and is used to guide the foot placement and inverse dynamics optimizations. The proposed controller is implemented and tested on the Atlas robot. It is capable of walking with strong external perturbations such as recovering from large pushes and traversing unstructured terrain.
Understanding a Wireless Decentralized Check pointing Arrangement in QOS using MoG

-This paper deals with the understanding a wireless decentralized check pointing arrangement in QOS using MOG. Check pointing is more crucial in MOG systems than in their conventional wired counter parts due to host mobility. Dynamically, less reliable wireless links frequent disconnections and variation in mobile systems. The algorithms and protocols than we can take an adaptive protocol to reduce the overhead and leasing mechanism is for storage but have a problem that can overcome by synchronous snapshot algorithm is that we have rollback/recovery algorithm but have low communication, and storage overhead . The mutable checkpoints should be minimized. If we talk about a large scale super computing system with coordinated check pointing and rollback recovery. We have work fraction is relatively low correlated failures must be taken in to account. We can also see an NP-Complete problem, so these all problems can overcome by using an algorithm said to be as Reliability Driven (ReD). With ReD an MH simply sends its check pointed data to one selected neighboring MH, and also serves as a stable point of storage for check pointed data received from a single approved neighboring MH. Here ReD works to maximize the probability of check pointed data recovery during job execution. So we are going to implement one of them as NP-Complete problem can be solved by this we can see in future as Overview of Decentralized Check pointing Using QOS in MOG.
Modeling Character Canvases from Cartoon Drawings

We introduce a novel technique for the construction of a 3D character proxy, or canvas, directly from a 2D cartoon drawing and a user-provided correspondingly posed 3D skeleton. Our choice of input is motivated by the observation that traditional cartoon characters are well approximated by a union of generalized surface of revolution body parts, anchored by a skeletal structure. While typical 2D character contour drawings allow ambiguities in 3D interpretation, our use of a 3D skeleton eliminates such ambiguities and enables the construction of believable character canvases from complex drawings. Our canvases conform to the 2D contours of the input drawings, and are consistent with the perceptual principles of Gestalt continuity, simplicity, and contour persistence. We first segment the input 2D contours into individual body-part outlines corresponding to 3D skeletal bones using the Gestalt continuation principle to correctly resolve inter-part occlusions in the drawings. We then use this segmentation to compute the canvas geometry, generating 3D generalized surfaces of revolution around the skeletal bones that conform to the original outlines and balance simplicity against contour persistence. The combined method generates believable canvases for characters drawn in complex poses with numerous inter-part occlusions, variable contour depth, and significant foreshortening. Our canvases serve as 3D geometric proxies for cartoon characters, enabling unconstrained 3D viewing, articulation, and non-photorealistic rendering. We validate our algorithm via a range of user studies and comparisons to ground-truth 3D models and artist-drawn results. We further demonstrate a compelling gallery of 3D character canvases created from a diverse set of cartoon drawings with matching 3D skeletons.
A robust interference mitigation technique for BFSK Fast Frequency Hopped signals

This paper presents an improvement to the Frequency Shift Keying - Fast Frequency Hopping demodulator, which provides increased resilience to interference with a very slight complexity increase. The additional robustness against jamming is achieved by jointly observing the FSK demodulator branches. This allows the proposed demodulator to distinguish the jammer from the signal more accurately. This demodulator is particularly robust for the case of high J/S (Jammer to Signal Ratio), while for the case of low J/S its performance is in line with state-of-the-art receivers.
Charakterisierung von Methoden und Anwendungen der digitalholographischen Mikroskopie

An off-axis setup for digital holographic microscopy in incident and transmission light arrangement for simultaneous high resolution full field amplitude and quantitative phase contrast microscopy is presented. Different kinds of algorithms for numerical reconstruction of the complex object wave are compared concerning their applicability to the microscopy arrangement. By combining a non-diffractive spatial phase shifting algorithm that performs reconstruction without the disturbing terms twin image and zero order with the numerical evaluation of the FresnelKirchhoff diffraction integral by a convolution method we achieve best results. The simultaneous reconstruction of the object wave’s amplitude and phase from a single hologram requires a mathematical model of the spatial phase distribution within the hologram plane. An efficient numerical algorithm has been developed for determining the model’s parameters automatically and tested concerning its accuracy. Furthermore, the relation between the axial position of the object and the distance of reconstruction which is required for the quantitative evaluation of the reconstructed images and the application of a pure numerical focus is derived. Technical objects were used to quantify the lateral resolution and the phase resolution of the system and to optimize several parameters of the setup. Biological probes such as living cells are analyzed in transmission light arrangement. As a result the knowledge of the refractive index of the medium and the cell is required to derive the cell’s thickness from the reconstructed phase. Thus a special experimental method for the approximation of the integral refractive index of single cells from the reconstructed phase has been developed. Finally results of cell differentiation by morphological varieties as well as results of stimulated dynamic morphological changes are presented and discussed.
Morphological Priors for Probabilistic Neural Word Embeddings

Word embeddings allow natural language processing systems to share statistical information across related words. These embeddings are typically based on distributional statistics, making it difficult for them to generalize to rare or unseen words. We propose to improve word embeddings by incorporating morphological information, capturing shared sub-word features. Unlike previous work that constructs word embeddings directly from morphemes, we combine morphological and distributional information in a unified probabilistic framework, in which the word embedding is a latent variable. The morphological information provides a prior distribution on the latent word embeddings, which in turn condition a likelihood function over an observed corpus. This approach yields improvements on intrinsic word similarity evaluations, and also in the downstream task of part-of-speech tagging.
Abstractions for Software Architecture and Tools to Support Them

Architectures for software use rich abstractions and idioms to describe system components, the nature of interactions among the components, and the patterns that guide the composition of components into systems. These abstractions are higher level than the elements usually supported by programming languages and tools. They capture packaging and interaction issues as well as computational functionality. Well-established (if informal) patterns guide the architectural design of systems. We sketch a model for defining architectures and present an implementation of the basic level of that model. Our purpose is to support the abstractions used in practice by software designers. The implementation provides a testbed for experiments with a variety of system construction mechanisms. It distinguishes among different types of components and different ways these components can interact. It supports abstract interactions such as data flow and scheduling on the same footing as simple procedure call. It can express and check appropriate compatibility restrictions and configuration constraints. It accepts existing code as components, incurring no runtime overhead after initialization. It allows easy incorporation of specifications and associated analysis tools developed elsewhere. The implementation provides a base for extending the notation and validating the model. >
Omnidirectional sparse visual path following with occlusion-robust feature tracking

Omnidirectional vision sensors are very attractive for autonomous robots because they offer a rich source of environment information. The main challenge in using these for mobile robots is managing this wealth of information. A relatively recent approach is the use of fast wide baseline local features, which we developed and use in the novel sparse visual path following method described in this paper. These local features have the great advantage that they can be recognized even if the viewpoint differs significantly. This opens the door to a memory efficient description of a path by sparsely sampling it with images. We propose a method for reexecution of these paths by a series of visual homing operations. Motion estimation is done by simultaneously tracking the set of features, with recovery of lost features by backprojecting them from a local sparse 3D feature map. This yields a navigation method with unique properties: it is accurate, robust, fast, and without odometry error build-up.
Up-Regulated Dicer Expression in Patients with Cutaneous Melanoma

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs (18–24 nucleotides) that have recently been shown to regulate gene expression during cancer progression. Dicer, a central enzyme in the multi-component miRNA biogenesis pathway, is involved in cutting precursor miRNAs to functionally mature forms. Emerging evidence shows that Dicer expression is deregulated in some human malignancies and it correlates with tumor progression, yet this role has not yet been investigated in skin cancers. Methods and Findings Using an anti-human monoclonal antibody against Dicer and immunohistochemistry, we compared the expression of Dicer protein among 404 clinically annotated controls and skin tumors consisting of melanocytic nevi (n = 71), a variety of melanomas (n = 223), carcinomas (n = 73) and sarcomas (n = 12). Results showed a cell-specific up-regulated Dicer in 81% of cutaneous, 80% of acrolentiginous and 96% of metastatic melanoma specimens compared to carcinoma or sarcoma specimens (P<0.0001). The expression of Dicer was significantly higher in melanomas compared to benign melanocytic nevi (P<0.0001). In patients with cutaneous melanomas, Dicer up-regulation was found to be significantly associated with an increased tumor mitotic index (P = 0.04), Breslow's depth of invasion (P = 0.03), nodal metastasis (P = 0.04) and a higher American Joint Committee on Caner (AJCC) clinical stage (P = 0.009). Using western blot analysis, we confirmed the cell-specific up-regulation of Dicer protein in vitro. A pooled-analysis on mRNA profiling in cutaneous tumors showed up-regulation of Dicer at the RNA level in cutaneous melanoma, also showing deregulation of other enzymes that participate in the biogenesis and maturation of canonical miRNAs. Conclusions Increased Dicer expression may be a clinically useful biomarker for patients with cutaneous melanoma. Understanding deregulation of Dicer and its influence on miRNA maturation is needed to predict the susceptibility of melanoma patients to miRNA-based therapy in the future.