Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compressive Shift Retrieval

The classical shift retrieval problem considers two signals in vector form that are related by a shift. This problem is of great importance in many applications and is typically solved by maximizing the cross-correlation between the two signals. Inspired by compressive sensing, in this paper, we seek to estimate the shift directly from compressed signals. We show that under certain conditions, the shift can be recovered using fewer samples and less computation compared to the classical setup. We also illustrate the concept of superresolution for shift retrieval. Of particular interest is shift estimation from Fourier coefficients. We show that under rather mild conditions only one Fourier coefficient suffices to recover the true shift.
A Simulated Global Neuronal Workspace with Stochastic Wiring

It has been hypothesised that a global neuronal workspace underlies the brain's capacity to process information consciously. This paper describes a significant variation on a previously reported computer simulation of such a global neuronal workspace, in which competition and broadcast were realised through reverberating populations of spiking neurons. In the present model, unlike the previous one, the wiring of the workspace is not predefined but constructed in a stochastic fashion on the fly, which is far more biologically plausible. We demonstrate that the new model exhibits the same capacity for broadcast and competition as the previous one. We conclude with a short discussion of a brain-inspired cognitive architecture that incorporates a global workspace of the sort described.
Extraction of Electrocardiographic Interference from Multichannel Surface Electroenterogram

Surface electroenterogram (EEnG) is a novel technique for monitoring intestinal motility non-invasively. Nevertheless, surface EEnG recordings are contaminated by cardiac activity, respiratory artifact, movement artifact and other interferences. The goal of this work is to cancel the interference of electrocardiogram (ECG) on multichannel surface EEnG by means of a combined method of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and independent component analysis (ICA). Surface signals from 4 different channels are decomposed using EMD. Resulting intrinsic mode functions are analyzed subsequently using ICA algorithm which permits to separate the ECG activity from the other activities. Signal components associated to ECG activity are removed and the processed signals are reconstructed by means of an inverse procedure. The results show that the proposed method allows extracting and canceling cardiac activity from surface EEnG. Therefore, this tool could be useful to enhance the quality of external EEnG recording and of similar biosignals.
How Did We Adapt Agile Processes to Our Distributed Development?

Today, many software projects are being developed by collaborating programmers working across multiple locations. Whatever the reason may be, outsourcing, organizational structure, or external collaboration, these projects often suffer from the physical separation of developing across the city, across the country, or around the world. Such distances intensify challenges such as peer communications, shared understanding between teams, and systems integration. This paper describes how three organizations adapted agile processes to overcome barriers such as multiple time zones, mixed cultures, mismatched schedules, and limited travel budget to frequently deliver successful software releases.
Posttraumatic Stress, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation, and Coping-Oriented Marijuana Use

In an effort to better understand factors that may explain prior findings of a positive relation between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and coping-oriented marijuana use motivation, the present study tested whether the association between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and marijuana use coping motives is mediated by difficulties in emotion regulation. Participants were 79 (39 women; M age = 22.29 years, SD = 6.99) community-recruited adults who reported (1) lifetime exposure to at least one posttraumatic stress disorder Criterion A traumatic event and (2) marijuana use in the past 30 days. Results indicated that difficulties in emotion regulation, as indexed by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), fully mediated the association between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and marijuana use coping motives. Implications for the treatment of co-occurring posttraumatic stress and marijuana use are discussed.
Associations between holotranscobalamin, vitamin B12, homocysteine and depressive symptoms in community‐dwelling elders

Vitamin B12 and homocysteine have been shown to be associated with depression or depressive symptoms, but the relationship has not been universal. Both vitamin B12 and homocysteine may exert an effect via vascular mechanisms; it is possible that other mechanisms apply. Holotranscobalamin is a novel, more accurate measure of tissue vitamin B12.
Comparing regret of disclosing HIV versus sexual orientation information by MSM

Abstract Very little research has been conducted focusing on regret associated with disclosing either HIV-positive serostatus or sexual orientation information. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of regret related to the disclosure of serostatus and sexual orientation to family members among HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM) and to further explore the participant, family member, and relationship characteristics that influence the likelihood of experiencing regret. Almost half of participants indicated no regret with the disclosure of either HIV-positive serostatus or sexual orientation. Among those that did experience some regret, the prevalence of regret with at least one family member was similar for HIV-positive serostatus (39.4%) and for sexual orientation (37.3%). Suggestions for professionals working with HIV-positive MSM and implications for future research are presented.
Inference of missing spectrographic features for robust speech recognition

Two types of algorithms are introduced that recover missing time-frequency regions of log-spectral representations of speech. These compensation algorithms modify the incoming feature vector without any changes to the speech recognition system, in contrast to previously-described approaches. The first approach clusters the log-spectral vectors representing clean speech. Missing data are recovered by estimating the spectral cluster in each analysis frame on the basis of the feature values that are present. The second approach uses MAP procedures to estimate the values of missing data elements based on their correlation with the features that are present. Greatest recognition accuracy was obtained using the correlation-based approach, presumably because of its ability to exploit the temporal as well as spectral structure of speech. The recognition accuracy provided by these algorithms approaches but does not exceed that obtained by traditional marginalization. Nevertheless, it is believed that these algorithms provide greater computational efficiency and enable greater flexibility in recognition system structure.
Ambient Air Pollutant Exposures and Hospitalization for Kawasaki Disease in Taiwan: A Case-Crossover Study (2000–2010)

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute and multi-systemic vasculitis that occurs predominantly in infants and young children. Although the etiological agent of KD remains unclear, limited studies have reported that windborne environmental factors may trigger KD. Objectives: We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study to assess the associations between air pollutants and KD in Taiwan. Methods: We identified children < 5 years old with a diagnosis of KD from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000) between 2000 and 2010. We obtained data regarding carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 10 μm (PM10), and sulfate dioxide (SO2) from 70 monitoring stations and used inverse distance weighting to calculate average daily exposures for the residential postal code of each case. We performed conditional logistic regression to estimate associations between KD and each air pollutant according to interquartile range (IQR) increases and quartiles of exposure on the day of hospitalization versus 3–4 reference days during the same month for each case. Additionally, we estimated associations with single-day exposures lagged 1–2 days. Results: We identified 695 KD hospital admissions during the study period. An IQR increase (28.73 ppb) of O3 was positively associated with KD after adjusting for temperature, humidity, northward wind, and eastward wind [adjusted odds ratio = 1.21; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 1.44]. There were no significant associations between KD and CO, NO2, PM10, or SO2. The association with O3 was limited to exposure on the day of hospitalization and to exposure during the summer months (June–August). Conclusions: Our results provide new evidence that exposure to O3 may increase the risk of KD in children. However, further investigation is needed to confirm the association and identify a potential biological mechanism. Citation: Jung CR, Chen WT, Lin YT, Hwang BF. 2017. Ambient air pollutant exposures and hospitalization for Kawasaki disease in Taiwan: a case-crossover study (2000–2010). Environ Health Perspect 125:670–676; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/EHP137
Remoto Plant Structure Analysis of Cerrado Fragments by Remote Sensing

With the development of society to preserve the environment becomes essential. Biodiversity is a resource that has strategic value and is related to the territorial heterogeneity. The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity resulting biotic and abiotic changes in the remaining. The Cerrado occupied 23% of the Brazilian territory in the plains of the central plateau. Estimates indicates that the Cerrado will be completely destroyed in 2030. The environmental heterogeneity contributes to the high species richness and from the environmental services offering stands out the protection of water resources. This study aims to analyze the structural vegetation of 18 Cerrado fragments by multi-temporal composite applied to Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Normalized Difference Water Index. Both indices were calculated using Landsat images 1985-2015 and a falsecolor composite was then generated to detect changes in vegetation cover. It was possible to detect changes in vegetation cover and moisture over time. The false-color multi-temporal combination proved to be a quick and easy way to locate the places where there have been changes in vegetation cover.
Cl-Assisted Large Scale Synthesis of Cm-Scale Buckypapers of Fe3C-Filled Carbon Nanotubes with Pseudo-Capacitor Properties: The Key Role of SBA-16 Catalyst Support as Synthesis Promoter

We show a novel chemical vapour deposition (CVD) approach, in which the large-scale fabrication of ferromagnetically-filled cm-scale buckypapers is achieved through the deposition of a mesoporous supported catalyst (SBA-16) on a silicon substrate. We demonstrate that SBA-16 has the crucial role of promoting the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a horizontal plane with random orientation rather than in a vertical direction, therefore allowing a facile fabrication of cm-scale CNTs buckypapers free from the onion-crust by-product observed on the buckypaper-surface in previous reports. The morphology and composition of the obtained CNTs-buckypapers are analyzed in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM (HRTEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), while structural analysis is performed by Rietveld Refinement of XRD data. The room temperature magnetic properties of the produced buckypapers are also investigated and reveal the presence of a high coercivity of 650 Oe. Additionally, the electrochemical performances of these buckypapers are demonstrated and reveal a behavior that is compatible with that of a pseudo-capacitor (resistive-capacitor) with better performances than those presented in other previously studied layered-buckypapers of Fe-filled CNTs, obtained by pyrolysis of dichlorobenzene-ferrocene mixtures. These measurements indicate that these materials show promise for applications in energy storage systems as flexible electrodes.
A Homolog of ScRAD5 Is Involved in DNA Repair and Homologous Recombination in Arabidopsis1[W]

Rad5 is the key component in the Rad5-dependent error-free branch of postreplication repair in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Rad5 is a member of the Snf2 ATPase/helicase family, possessing as a characteristic feature, a RING-finger domain embedded in the Snf2-helicase domain and a HIRAN domain. Yeast mutants are sensitive to DNA-damaging agents and reveal differences in homologous recombination. By sequence comparisons we were able to identify two homologs (AtRAD5a and AtRAD5b) in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, sharing about 30% identity and 45% similarity to yeast Rad5. AtRad5a and AtRad5b have the same kind of domain organization with a higher degree of similarity to each other than to ScRad5. Surprisingly, both genes differ in function: whereas two independent mutants of Atrad5a are hypersensitive to the cross-linking agents mitomycin C and cis-platin and to a lesser extent to the methylating agent, methyl methane sulfonate, the Atrad5b mutants did not exhibit any sensitivity to all DNA-damaging agents tested. An Atrad5a/Atrad5b double mutant resembles the sensitivity phenotype of the Atrad5a single mutants. Moreover, in contrast to Atrad5b, the two Atrad5a mutants are deficient in homologous recombination after treatment with the double-strand break-inducing agent bleomycin. Our results suggest that the RAD5-dependent error-free branch of postreplication repair is conserved between yeast and plants, and that AtRad5a might be functionally homologous to ScRad5.
THE PUBLIC HEALTH BURDEN OF PHYSICAL INACTIVITY IN SAUDI ARABIA

Because of the enormous changes in the lifestyle of Saudis in the last three decades, the risk factors of coronary heart disease (CHD), including physical inactivity, are increasingly becoming prevalent in the society. This paper provides an overview of the importance of physical activity in health promotion and disease prevention, and discusses the public health burden of physical inactivity in Saudi Arabia. Available evidence clearly indicates that physical inactivity is extremely prevalent in the different ages and sex of the Saudi population. This high prevalence of inactivity in Saudi society presents a major public health burden, as evidenced by the high risk in the Saudi population as a risk of physical inactivity compared with the populations of United States and the United Kingdom. Unless concrete steps are taken to reduce physical inactivity in the Saudi population, the future public health cost would be enormous. It is well known that physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits and plays a major role in modifying many other CHD risk factors. Finally, several recommendations for reducing physical inactivity and promoting active life in the Saudi population have been discussed.
Querying Heterogeneous Information Sources Using Source Descriptions

We witness a rapid increase in the number of structured information sources that are available online, especially on the WWW. These sources include commercial databases on product information, stock market information, real estate, automobiles, and entertainment. We would like to use the data stored in these databases to answer complex queries that go beyond keyword searches. We face the following challenges: (1) Several information sources store interrelated data, and any query-answering system must understand the relationships between their contents. (2) Many sources are not full-featured database systems and can answer only a small set of queries over their data (for example, forms on the WWW restrict the set of queries one can (3) Since the number of sources is very large, effective techniques are needed to prune the set of information sources accessed to answer a query. (4) The details of interacting with each source vary greatly. We describe the Information Manifold, an implemented system that provides uniform access to a heterogeneous collection of more than 100 information sources, many of them on the WWW. IM tackles the above problems by providing a mechanism to describe declaratively the contents and query capabilities of available information sources. There is a clean separation between the declarative source description and the actual details of interacting with an information source. We describe algorithms that use the source descriptions to prune effciently the set of information sources for a given query and practical algorithms to generate executable query plans. The query plans we generate can inolve querying several information sources and combining their answers. We also present experimental studies that indicate that the architecture and algorithms used in the Information Manifold scale up well to several hundred information sources
Fusion Competence of Myoblasts Rendered Genetically Null for N-Cadherin in Culture

Myoblast fusion is essential to muscle tissue development yet remains poorly understood. N-cadherin, like other cell surface adhesion molecules, has been implicated by others in muscle formation based on its pattern of expression and on inhibition of myoblast aggregation and fusion by antibodies or peptide mimics. Mice rendered homozygous null for N-cadherin revealed the general importance of the molecule in early development, but did not test a role in skeletal myogenesis, since the embryos died before muscle formation. To test genetically the proposed role of N-cadherin in myoblast fusion, we successfully obtained N-cadherin null primary myoblasts in culture. Fusion of myoblasts expressing or lacking N-cadherin was found to be equivalent, both in vitro by intracistronic complementation of lacZ and in vivo by injection into the muscles of adult mice. An essential role for N-cadherin in mediating the effects of basic fibroblast growth factor was also excluded. These methods for obtaining genetically homozygous null somatic cells from adult tissues should have broad applications. Here, they demonstrate clearly that the putative fusion molecule, N-cadherin, is not essential for myoblast fusion.
Constraint-Theorems on the Prototypification of Shape

Mathematical results are presented that strongly constrain the prototypification of complex shape. Such shape requires local prototypification in two senses: (1) prototypification occurs in parallel at different parts of the figure, and (2) prototypification varies differentially (smoothly) across an individual part. With respect to (1), we present a theorem that states that every Hoffman-Richards codon has a unique Brady Smooth Local Symmetry. The theorem solves the issue of defining units for parallel decomposition, for it implies that a codon is the minimal unit with respect to the existence of prototypification via symmetry, and is maximal with respect to prototypification via non-ambiguous symmetry. Concerning issue (2) above, a further theorem is offered that severely limits the possible shapes that result from the sequential application of prototypifying operations to smoothly varying deformation. This second result explains why considerably fewer prototype classes exist than one would otherwise expect.
Assessment of soil physical properties' statuses under different land covers within a landscape dominated by exotic industrial tree plantations in south-central Chile

Land use and land cover changes (LULCC) within a highly anthropized Mediterranean landscape dominated by industrial tree plantation leads to degradation of soil physical properties. This process has been more intense in the coastal range of south-central Chile due to its soils, which are highly susceptible to erosion, combined with a long history of intensive land use changes during the last century, transitioning from native forest (NF) to agriculture and the more recent establishment of Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus spp. exotic tree plantations. In this context, the aim of this study was to assess the statuses of soil physical properties over different land cover situations. Historical land cover maps were determined via supervised classifications using the maximum likelihood classifier applied to satellite imagery. Five land use and land cover categories (LULC) were defined according to main land cover transitions associated with active and abandoned forestry operations that have been reported in the region: NF, pine plantation (P), eucalyptus plantation (Eu), early successional (E-S), and secondary successional (S-S). Successional stages were generated using change detection statistics considering changes between 2001 and 2014 maps. Soil samples were collected at three depths in 39 plots that describe the five LULC. High clay contents were found in all the LULC except Eu and P. These sites have shown more signs of degradation, with lower organic matter (SOM) and macropores and higher shear strength (ShS). Soil organic matter was consistent with litter contribution and quality, establishing lower bulk density (Db) for NF and S-S and higher values for Eu and E-S. ShS and dispersion rate (DR) exhibit a correlation with SOM with lower ShS and higher DR when SOM increased. Relevant differences were identified for structural stability index (SSI) between LULC depending on soil physical quality, besides a positive correlation with SOM. Those results show the need to generate appropriate conditions of vegetation cover in order to recover soils subjected to current forestry management of industrial plantations.
Capacitive Micro Pressure Sensor Integrated with a Ring Oscillator Circuit on Chip

The study investigates a capacitive micro pressure sensor integrated with a ring oscillator circuit on a chip. The integrated capacitive pressure sensor is fabricated using the commercial CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) process and a post-process. The ring oscillator is employed to convert the capacitance of the pressure sensor into the frequency output. The pressure sensor consists of 16 sensing cells in parallel. Each sensing cell contains a top electrode and a lower electrode, and the top electrode is a sandwich membrane. The pressure sensor needs a post-CMOS process to release the membranes after completion of the CMOS process. The post-process uses etchants to etch the sacrificial layers, and to release the membranes. The advantages of the post-process include easy execution and low cost. Experimental results reveal that the pressure sensor has a high sensitivity of 7 Hz/Pa in the pressure range of 0–300 kPa.
Evaluation of YadC protein delivered by live attenuated Salmonella as a vaccine against plague.

Yersinia pestis YadB and YadC are two new outer membrane proteins related to its pathogenicity. Here, codon-optimized yadC, yadC810 (aa 32-551), or yadBC antigen genes delivered by live attenuated Salmonella strains are evaluated in mice for induction of protective immune responses against Y. pestis CO92 through subcutaneous or intranasal challenge. Our findings indicate that mice immunized with Salmonella synthesizing YadC, YadC810, or YadBC develop significant serum IgG responses to purified recombinant YadC protein. For subcutaneous challenge (approximately 230 LD50 of Y. pestis CO92), mice immunized with Salmonella synthesizing YadC or YadC810 are afforded 50% protection, but no protection by immunization with the Salmonella strain synthesizing YadBC. None of these antigens provided protection against intranasal challenge (approximately 31 LD50 of Y. pestis CO92). In addition, subcutaneous immunization with purified YadC810 protein emulsified with alum adjuvant does not elicit a protective response against Y. pestis administered by either challenge route.