Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Building optimal information systems automatically: configuration space exploration for biomedical information systems

Software frameworks which support integration and scaling of text analysis algorithms make it possible to build complex, high performance information systems for information extraction, information retrieval, and question answering; IBM's Watson is a prominent example. As the complexity and scaling of information systems become ever greater, it is much more challenging to effectively and efficiently determine which toolkits, algorithms, knowledge bases or other resources should be integrated into an information system in order to achieve a desired or optimal level of performance on a given task. This paper presents a formal representation of the space of possible system configurations, given a set of information processing components and their parameters (configuration space) and discusses algorithmic approaches to determine the optimal configuration within a given configuration space (configuration space exploration or CSE). We introduce the CSE framework, an extension to the UIMA framework which provides a general distributed solution for building and exploring configuration spaces for information systems. The CSE framework was used to implement biomedical information systems in case studies involving over a trillion different configuration combinations of components and parameter values operating on question answering tasks from the TREC Genomics. The framework automatically and efficiently evaluated different system configurations, and identified configurations that achieved better results than prior published results.
The Geography of Urban Food Access: Exploring the Spatial and Socioeconomic Dimensions

Adequate access to affordable, healthy food has long been a public health concern and has become a more pressing societal issue following the Great Recession and rising incidents of diet-related diseases. In response, research and government efforts have largely focused on identifying disadvantaged areas with poor food access and formulating policies to improve accessibility. However, the approaches that have been widely relied upon by researchers and practitioners for food access assessment are severely flawed, which may lead to inconsistent research findings or neglect of the needs of under-served/un-served neighborhoods. This dissertation identifies three important aspects of food access for improvement: the appropriate scale/neighborhoods for analysis, the use of food outlets as a proxy for affordable, healthy food; and the assessment method. In particular, three studies are conducted to: (1) examine how varying spatial scales and aggregation methods affect accessibility assessments; (2) explore the role of independent grocers, which have been neglected in previous food access studies as elements of the food landscape that may change the perception of food deserts; and (3) investigate how individual-level food access patterns compare to the widely used, area-based neighborhood measures of expected accessibility. While the dissertation discusses and addresses theoretical challenges in food access, the empirical studies conducted in the Tucson, Arizona metropolitan area contribute to a better understanding of the real-world complexity of food access. The results shed light on some predicaments identified in recent studies and have important policy implications for how best to efficiently and effectively design strategies and initiatives to enhance food-provision access.
A Naming Service Architecture and Optimal Periodical Update Scheme for a Multi Mobile Agent System

An agent's mobility presents a challenge to the communication framework in the mobile agent paradigm. A mobile agent communication, e.g. messaging, can only occur when the actual location of the mobile agent is known and a reliable message delivery scheme is utilized. This paper concentrates on designing a globally distributed naming service architecture, which aids in locating a mobile agent and finding the optimal time threshold. The optimal time threshold aims to minimize the sum of the cost of periodical updates and the cost of maintaining forwarding pointers
Comparison of the frictional characteristics of aesthetic orthodontic brackets measured using a modified in vitro technique

Objective The coefficients of friction (COFs) of aesthetic ceramic and stainless steel brackets used in conjunction with stainless steel archwires were investigated using a modified linear tribometer and special computer software, and the effects of the bracket slot size (0.018 inches [in] or 0.022 in) and materials (ceramic or metal) on the COF were determined. Methods Four types of ceramic (one with a stainless steel slot) and one conventional stainless steel bracket were tested with two types of archwire sizes: a 0.017 × 0.025-in wire in the 0.018-in slots and a 0.019 × 0.025-in wire in the 0.022-in slot brackets. For pairwise comparisons between the 0.018-in and 0.022-in slot sizes in the same bracket, an independent sample t-test was used. One-way and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's post-hoc test at the 95% confidence level (α = 0.05) were also used for statistical analyses. Results There were significant differences between the 0.022-in and 0.018-in slot sizes for the same brand of bracket. ANOVA also showed that both slot size and bracket slot material had significant effects on COF values (p < 0.001). The ceramic bracket with a 0.022-in stainless steel slot showed the lowest mean COF (µ = 0.18), followed by the conventional stainless steel bracket with a 0.022-in slot (µ = 0.21). The monocrystalline alumina ceramic bracket with a 0.018-in slot had the highest COF (µ = 0.85). Conclusions Brackets with stainless steel slots exhibit lower COFs than ceramic slot brackets. All brackets show lower COFs as the slot size increases.
Coarsening graph signal with spectral invariance

Signal processing on graphs is an emerging field that attracts increasing attention. For applications such as multiscale transforms on graphs, it is often necessary to get a coarsened version of graph signal with its underlying graph. However, most of the existing methods use only topology information but no property of graph signals to complete the process. In this paper, we propose a novel graph signal coarsening method with spectral invariance, which means both the spectrum of the graph and the spectrum of the graph signal are approximately kept invariant. The problem is formulated into an optimization problem and is solved by projected subgradient method. Experiment results verify the effectiveness of the coarsening method.
Clinical Outcome of Posterolateral Endoscopic Surgery for Pyogenic Spondylodiscitis: Results of 15 Patients With Serious Comorbid Conditions

Study Design. Clinical results of posterolateral endoscopic debridement and irrigation followed by percutaneous drainage for pyogenic spondylodiscitis were analyzed. Objectives. To report clinical results of transforaminal endoscopic surgery for pyogenic spondylodiscitis and to evaluate the effectiveness of this procedure in treatment of pyogenic spinal infections. Summary of Background Data. Pyogenic spinal infections have been increasing due to the development of medical treatment for patients with comorbid medical problems. Common treatments for spinal infections are administration of antibiotics or surgical debridement with bone grafts. There have been no reports, however, regarding the clinical outcome of posterolateral endoscopic treatment for pyogenic spinal infections. Methods. Fifteen consecutive patients with pyogenic spondylodiscitis in the thoracic or lumbar spine were enrolled. Preoperative antibiotic treatment had failed in all the patients. The procedures consisted of posterolateral endoscopic debridement and irrigation followed by percutaneous drainage through single portal under the combination of local and intravenous anesthesia. Pain response using visual analog scale (VAS, 0–100 mm), inflammation parameters, and duration of antibiotic therapy were investigated. Radiologic evaluation focused on bony fusion, local kyphosis, disc height reduction, and abscess formation. Results. All patients showed immediate pain reduction after surgery. Averaged VAS for pain was 86 before surgery and 25 at postoperative 1 week. Average of CRP was 4.00 mg/dL before surgery and 1.88 mg/dL at postoperative 1 week. Averaged duration of antibiotics therapy was 3.7 weeks. Spinal fusion was obtained in 13 patients. Two patients with neurologic deficits due to epidural abscess returned to normal. Preoperative psoas abscess in 6 patients disappeared after surgery on MRI. Conclusions. Posterolateral spinal endoscopic debridement and irrigation brought immediate pain reduction and good clinical results to patients who had comorbid medical problems and had pyogenic spondylodiscitis.
Design of Dual-Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide Band-Pass Filters

Three dual-mode band-pass filters are presented in the present paper. The first filter is realized by dual-mode substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity; the second is based on the integration of SIW cavity with electromagnetic band gap (EBG); and the third is based on the integration of SIW cavity with complementary split ring resonator (CSRR). The dual-mode SIW cavity is designed to have a fractional bandwidth of 4.95% at the midband frequency of 9.08 GHz; the proposed EBGSIW resonator operates at 9.12 GHz with a bandwidth of 4.38% and the CSRR-SIW resonator operates at 8.66 GHz with a bandwidth of 2.54%. The proposed filters have the high Q-factors and generate a transmission zero in upper stopband, and these by the use of Rogers RT/duriod 5880 (tm).
Pain Variability and Its Predictors in Older Adults

Objectives: The purpose of this secondary data analysis is to determine whether depression, cognition, functional status, health, and pain severity are predictors of day-to-day pain variability in older adults in long-term care settings. Methods: Seventy-seven adults aged 68 years and older were included in the multiple linear regression analyses. Pain severity mean and variability were measured over 30 days of daily self-reported pain levels. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Blessed Memory-Information-Concentration test, Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS), baseline pain severity, mean of daily health, and mean of daily pain severity were used as predictors. Pain variability was measured by examining intra-individual standard deviations of daily pain scores. Results: Results show that global depression and pain severity are predictors of pain variability in that greater baseline depression and pain severity predicted higher pain variability. Daily mean pain and health were also found to be predictors of pain variability. Discussion: Pain variability is an important characteristic that is not given enough emphasis in current literature. Understanding pain variability may give insight into older adults’ experiences with both pain and depression, and may essentially improve quality of care and quality of life.
TDOA-SDOA estimation with moving source and receivers

When there is a relative motion (rm) between a signal source and a receiver, the signal arrives at the receiver with a time-scaling. Under this condition, estimating the time-difference of-arrival (TDOA) of the signal at two receivers will have large errors, if the estimator ignores the effects of the rm. The correct approach estimates both the TDOA and scale-difference-of-arrival (SDOA) between the signals of the two receivers, via the maximization of the cross-ambiguity function (CAF). This paper first derives the bias of TDOA estimation under rm, when neglecting SDOA. It then gives a new, fast method, based on the Newton root finding algorithm, for determining the maximum of the CAF. Simulation results indicate that the TDOA and SDOA mean square errors attain the Cramer Rao lower bound.
DYNAMIC MODEL OF A TWO-LINK ROBOT MANIPULATOR WITH FUZZY UNCERTAIN PARAMETERS

: This paper aims at studying the effect of uncertain parameters on a two-link planar manipulator using a fuzzy logic approach. The uncertain parameters are modeled as fuzzy variables and the dynamic simulation of the robot is performed using fuzzy dynamic analysis. Two case studies are considered to analyze the dynamic behavior of the robot manipulator: a) uncertain payload and b) uncertain payload and friction force simultaneously. Numerical simulations illustrate the proposed methodology so that the effect of fuzzy uncertain parameters on the performance of the robot manipulator is analyzed.
Analysis of Huge-Scale Periodic Array Antenna Using Impedance Extension Method

An extreamly large scale periodic array antenna is required for transmitting power from space solar power systems. Analysis of the huge-scale array antenna is important to estimate the radiation property of the array antenna, but a full-wave analysis requires too much computer memory and excessive CPU time. In order to overcome these difficulties, the impedance extension method is proposed as a method of approximate analysis for huge periodic array antennas. From the results of actual gain pattern obtained by the proposed method and its relative error, it is shown that edge effects of a huge-scale array antenna can be ignored in calculating the radiation property.
Biliary excretion of cefixime: assessment in patients provided with T-tube drainage

The biliary excretion profile of cefixime was studied in 10 patients provided with T-tube drainage of the common bile duct after cholecystectomy. Following a single 200-mg oral dose, the peak concentration of cefixime in bile reached 56.9 +/- 70 mg/liter, approximately 20 times as high as the peak concentration in serum, 2.3 +/- 0.85 mg/liter. Cefixime levels in bile proved relatively sustained, since a concentration of 4.3 +/- 3.7 mg/liter was still found 20 h after dosing. The cumulative amount of cefixime recovered in the 24-h bile drainage averaged 10.0 +/- 12.3 mg, which is 5% of the administered dose and positions this beta-lactam antibiotic among the most highly bile-excreted cephalosporins. The presented results show that a single 200-mg oral dose of cefixime provided drug levels in bile consistently higher than the MICs for the most frequently recovered members of the family Enterobacteriaceae in biliary tract infections and maintained these levels for over 20 h after dosing. Accordingly, this cephalosporin deserves further clinical trials to assess its usefulness in both prophylaxis and treatment of biliary tract infections.
Integrating Knowledge from Latent and Explicit Features for Triple Scoring - Team Radicchio's Triple Scorer at WSDM Cup 2017

The objective of the triple scoring task in WSDM Cup 2017 is to compute relevance scores for knowledge-base triples of type-like relations. For example, consider Julius Caesar who has had various professions, including Politician and Author. For two given triples (Julius Caesar, profession, Politician) and (Julius Caesar, profession, Author), the former triple is likely to have a higher relevance score (also called "triple score") because Julius Caesar was well-known as a politician and not as an author. Accurate prediction of such triple scores greatly benefits real-world applications, such as information retrieval or knowledge base query. In these scenarios, being able to rank all relations (Profession/Nationality) can help improve the user experience. We propose a triple scoring model which integrates knowledge from both latent features and explicit features via an ensemble approach. The latent features consist of representations for a person learned by using a word2vec model and representations for profession/nationality values extracted from a pre-trained GloVe embedding model. In addition, we extract explicit features for person entities from the Freebase knowledge base. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs competitively at WSDM Cup 2017, ranking at the third place with an accuracy of 79.72% for predicting within two places of the ground truth score.
Parallel Shortest Path Algorithms for Solving Large-Scale Instances

We present an experimental study of parallel algorithms for solving the single source shortest path problem with non-negative edge weights (NSSP) on large-scale graphs. We implement Meyer and Sander’s Δ-stepping algorithm and report performance results on the Cray MTA-2, a multithreaded parallel architecture. The MTA-2 is a high-end shared memory system offering two unique features that aid the efficient implementation of irregular parallel graph algorithms: the ability to exploit fine-grained parallelism, and low-overhead synchronization primitives. Our implementation exhibits remarkable parallel speedup when compared with a competitive sequential algorithm, for low-diameter sparse graphs. For instance, Δ-stepping on a directed scale-free graph of 100 million vertices and 1 billion edges takes less than ten seconds on 40 processors of the MTA-2, with a relative speedup of close to 30. To our knowledge, these are the first performance results of a parallel NSSP problem on realistic graph instances in the order of billions of vertices and edges.
Does choice of drought index influence estimates of drought-induced rice losses in India?

Abstract Drought events have critical impacts on agricultural production yet there is little consensus on how these should be measured and defined, with implications for drought research and policy. We develop a flexible rainfall-temperature drought index that captures all dry events and we classify these as Type 1 (above-average cooling degree days) and Type 2 droughts (below-average cooling degree days). Applied to a panel dataset of Indian districts over 1966–2009, Type 2 droughts are found to have negative marginal impacts comparable to those of Type 1 droughts. Irrigation more effectively reduces Type 2 drought-induced yield losses than Type 1 yield losses. Over time, Type 1 drought losses have declined while Type 2 losses have risen. Estimates of average yield losses due to Type 1 droughts are reduced by up to 27 per cent when Type 2 droughts are omitted. The associated ex-post economic costs in terms of rice production are underestimated by up to 124 per cent.
Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography Predicts Guidewire Crossing and Success of Percutaneous Intervention for Chronic Total Occlusion: Korean Multicenter CTO CT Registry Score as a Tool for Assessing Difficulty in Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background— We developed a model that predicts difficulty of percutaneous coronary intervention for coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) using coronary computed tomographic angiography. Methods and Results— A total of 684 CTO lesions with preprocedural computed tomographic angiography were enrolled from 4 centers. Data were randomly divided into derivation and validation datasets at 2:1 ratio. The end point was successful guidewire crossing ⩽30 minutes, which was met in 50%. The KCCT (Korean Multicenter CTO CT Registry) score was developed based on independent predictors identified by multivariable analysis, which were proximal blunt entry, proximal side branch, bending, occlusion length ≥15 mm, severe calcification, whole luminal calcification, reattempt, and ≥12 months or unknown duration of occlusion. The KCCT score was compared with the other prediction scores, including angiography-based J-CTO, PROGRESS-CTO, CL-score, and CT-based CT-RECTOR. The probability of guidewire crossing ⩽30 minutes declined consistently from 100% to 0% according to the KCCT score (P<0.01, all). The KCCT score showed higher discriminative performance compared with the other scoring systems (c-statistics=0.78 versus 0.65–0.72, P<0.001, all). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of a KCCT score of <4 for guidewire crossing ⩽30 minutes was 70%, 68%, 72%, 73%, and 70%, respectively. The KCCT score also showed consistent results with procedural success (P<0.05, all). These results could be reproduced in validation data set (P<0.05, all). Conclusions— KCCT scoring could predict successful guidewire crossing ⩽30 minutes and also procedural success. KCCT scoring may enable noninvasive grading difficulty of CTO percutaneous coronary intervention.
Anogenital distance and reproductive parameters in young men

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between anogenital distance (AGD) measures and semen quality and serum reproductive hormone levels in Caucasian young men from southern Spain. Two variants of AGD [from the anus to the posterior base of the scrotum (AGDAS) and to the cephalad insertion of the penis (AGDAP)] were assessed in 215 university students. Semen parameters (semen volume, sperm concentration, total sperm counts, motility and morphology) and serum reproductive hormones (follicle stimulating hormone, luteinising hormone, inhibin B, testosterone, calculated free testosterone, oestradiol and sex hormone‐binding globulin) were also determined. Associations between AGD measures and the semen quality and reproductive hormone levels were tested using multiple regression analyses. Overall, median sperm concentration was 44.0 × 106 ml−1 (5th–95th percentiles: 8.9–129 × 106 ml−1), median total sperm count was 121 × 106 (18.0–400 × 106), and mean (SD) testosterone level was 21.7 nmol/l (6.9). Mean (SD) AGDAS and AGDAP measures were 48.3 mm (11.6) and 128 mm (12.0) respectively. In the multivariable analysis, AGD measures were not associated with any semen parameters or any of the reproductive hormone levels, which is in contrast to results of studies of US young men or infertile men. Further research is warranted to confirm these findings.
A 1V 14kfps smart CMOS imager with tracking and edge-detection modes for biomedical monitoring

This paper presents a low power, high frame rate, 64×64 analog pre-processing smart CMOS imager with two operation modes as asynchronous target tracking and object edge-detection. The array-level analog processing function is achieved by the floating-gate mechanism (FGM), tracking error reduction technique and a novel event-driven (ED) readout structure. A prototype chip was fabricated in 0.18um CMOS technology to demonstrate a real-time edge-detection and tracking CMOS imager with a frame rate of 14.28kfps, a tracking error of 0.5pixel, a barycenter tracking latency of 1us with the readout bandwidth of 140 bits/frame and a total chip power of 199.2uW. The operating supply of the whole system is 1V. The proposed smart imager chip provides a low-power, high-frame-rate, and low-coast smart imager solution suitable for biomedical monitoring and optical touch-panel.
A Practical Modeling Method for Eddy-Current Losses Computation in Laminated Magnetic Cores

This paper contributes to the development of realistic methods which utilize finite element program to calculate eddy-current losses in laminated magnetic cores. The direct modeling method needs a fine mesh within each sheet and consequently results in large number of unknowns. To avoid modeling individually each sheet, we try to replace a number of sheets by a single one with either an equivalent conductivity or an equivalent imaginary permeability. At first, the equivalent quantities are deduced by analyzing power losses in a single sheet with infinite width. Then, the losses in two different types of cores are studied and the results obtained from the equivalent models are compared with those obtained from the original models. This comparison verifies the simplifications applied to the core models. Also, it shows the advantage of the equivalent imaginary permeability model over the equivalent conductivity model. Finally, as an example of application of the method developed above, the eddy-current losses in a three-phase transformer core are computed.