Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microvascular flow, clinical illness severity and cardiovascular function in the preterm infant

Objectives: To characterise the relationships between peripheral microvascular blood flow and measures of physiological and cardiovascular function in preterm infants in the immediate newborn period. Design: Prospective observational cohort study. Setting: Tertiary neonatal intensive care unit, New South Wales, Australia. Patients: Ninety-six preterm neonates (24–36 weeks’ gestation) admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Main outcome measure: Relationship between laser Doppler-derived basal microvascular blood flow, functional echocardiographic measurements of cardiovascular status, mean arterial blood pressure and clinical illness severity at 24, 72 and 120 h of age. Results: At 24 h of age, multiple linear regression revealed a significant positive relationship, independent of gestational age, between baseline microvascular blood flow and clinical risk index for babies (CRIB II) score (r2 = 0.442). Microvascular blood flow was inversely related to mean arterial blood pressure (r2 = −0.563), and correlated positively with left ventricular output (r2 = 0.435). Microvascular blood flow continued to exhibit a significant inverse relationship with mean arterial blood pressure (r2 = −0.4) at 72 h of age, but by 120 h no significant relationships were evident. Conclusions: This is the first study to show that baseline microvascular blood flow in premature infants exhibits significant relationships with clinical illness severity and cardiovascular function in the immediate postnatal period. The effects of temporal and functional changes in the microvasculature on cardiovascular adaptation warrant further detailed study.
Identification of Antheridiogens in Lygodium circinnatum and Lygodium flexuosum

Antheridiogens in two species of Schizaeaceous ferns, Lygodium circinnatum and Lygodium flexuosum, were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In L. circinnatum, gibberellin A73 (GA73) methyl ester (GA73-Me), which had originally been identified in L. japonicum, was identified as a principal antheridiogen, and the methyl esters of five known GAs (GA9, GA20, GA70, GA88, and 3-epi-GA88) were also identified as minor antheridiogens. In addition, four compounds corresponding to isomers of monohydroxy-GA73-Me were detected. One of these was shown to be 12[beta]-hydroxy-GA73-Me, the parent acid of which has been allocated the GA assignment GA96. The other three compounds, tentatively named X1, X2, and X3, have not been fully characterized. In L. flexuosum, GA73-Me was also identified as a major antheridiogen, with X2 being detected as a minor one. The total antheridium-formation activity in the culture medium of 7-week-old prothallia of L. circinnatum and L. flexuosum was more than 1000 times higher than that of L. japonicum. On the other hand, the response of gametophytes of the former two Lygodium ferns to GA73-Me was more than 100 times lower than that of L. japonicum.
Early and Late Adopters of IT Innovations: Extensions to Innovation Diffusion Theory

This paper draws upon innovation diffusion theory and more recent conceptualizations of IT adoption behavior to examine systematic differences among Rogers’ adopter categories. We extend Rogers’ theory by characterizing adopter categories based on personality, belief, and attitudinal variables recently found to be salient in IT adoption behaviors. Theoretical predictions were empirically tested via a field study of 326 potential users of an IT innovation, which included early adopters as well as non-adopters in the sample. Results provide strong support for the research hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications that follow are discussed.
Searching the semantic Web: approximate query processing based on ontologies

The semantic Web aims to represent the contents of Web resources in formalisms that both programs and humans can understand. It relies on rich metadata, called semantic annotations, offering explicit semantic descriptions of Web resources. These annotations are built on ontologies, representing domains through their concepts and the semantic relations between them. Ontologies are the foundations of the semantic Web and the keystone of the Web's automated tasks - searching, merging, sharing, maintaining, customizing, and monitoring.
Modulation and SNR Optimization for Achieving Energy-Efficient Communications over Short-Range Fading Channels

It is commonly assumed that the energy consumption of wireless communications is minimized when low-order modulations such as BPSK are used. Nevertheless, the literature provides some evidence that low-order modulations are suboptimal for short transmission distances. No complete analysis on how the modulation size and transmission power must be chosen in order to achieve energy-efficient communications over fading channels has been reported so far. In this paper we provide this analysis by presenting a model that determines the energy consumed per payload bit transferred without error over fading channels of various statistics. We find that each modulation scheme has a single optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the energy consumption is minimized. The optimal SNR and the minimal energy consumption are larger for channels with less favorable error statistics. We also find that, if each modulations is operated at its optimal SNR, BPSK and QPSK are the optimal choices for long transmission distances, but as the transmission distance shortens the optimal modulation size grows to 16-QAM and even to 64-QAM. This result leads to showing that for short-range communications the lifetime of a typical low-power transceiver can be up to 500% longer by selecting the optimal constellation instead of BPSK.
To grab or not to grab: a viable framework for physically based hand animation in game characters

In games, grasping or haptic interaction with game world objects is underplayed and still relies on stored animation. With the advent of powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPU) and physics middleware, it is possible to explore the dynamic aspects of grasping. In the real-time scenario of games, scope exists for procedural controller systems, which when coupled with AI and physics simulation, would allow the birth of not only autonomous game characters with the ability to interact with the game world realistically, but also to bring about new types of game play. This paper is a brief look into an ongoing research, proposing to conceptualize and create a new AI augmented real-time physically based controller system for hand animation.
Neuropsychological effects of treatments for adults with cancer: A meta-analysis and review of the literature

A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate possible neuropsychological effects of treatments for cancer in adults. A search revealed 30 studies, encompassing 29 eligible samples, and leading to inclusion of a total of 838 patients and control participants. A total of 173 effect sizes (Cohen's d) were extracted across 7 cognitive domains and as assessed in the literature via 3 methods of comparison (post-treatment compared with normative data, controls, or baseline performance). Statistically significant negative effect sizes were found consistently across both normative and control methods of comparison for executive function, verbal memory, and motor function. The largest effects were for executive function and verbal memory normative comparisons (−.93 and −.91, respectively). When limiting the sample of studies in the analyses to only those with relatively “less severe” diagnoses and treatments, the effects remained. While these results point toward some specific cognitive effects of systemic cancer therapies in general, no clear clinical implications can yet be drawn from these results. More research is needed to clarify which treatments may produce cognitive decrements, the size of those effects, and their duration, while ruling out a wide variety of possible mediating or moderating variables. (JINS, 2003, 9, 967–982.)
The N170 is not modulated by attention in autism spectrum conditions

Face processing deficits are characteristic of autism spectrum conditions. However, event-related potential studies of autism spectrum conditions have found inconsistent results for the face selective N170 component. In this study, 15 adult males with autism spectrum conditions and 15 matched, typically developing controls completed a task in which pictures of faces were either attended to or ignored. In the control group, the N170 was larger when faces were attended to. However, there was no such modulation in the autism spectrum conditions group. This finding helps clarify the results from the earlier event-related potential studies of face processing in autism spectrum conditions and suggests that visual attention does not enhance face processing in autism spectrum conditions as it does in typical development.
Financial considerations in a small open economy model for Mexico

This paper develops a quantitative SOE model with …nancial frictions and an imperfectly competitive banking sector for the Mexican economy. The model is used to evaluate the role of both …nancial and banking frictions on the transmission and propagation of aggregate shocks into the economy, to assess the importance of …nancial shocks in business cycle ‡uctuations and try to examine considerations about the transmission mechanism of monetary policy.
Analysis of Performance of Consultation Methods in Computer Chess

The performance of consultation methods, i.e., majority voting, the optimistic selection rule, and the pseudo-random number (PRN) ensemble method, are examined in computer chess using 2180 chess problems. Here, the optimistic selection rule selects a program that returns the highest search value, and the PRN ensemble consists of multiple individual copies of one base program, and each copy is diversified by adding random numbers to the evaluation function of the base program. We carried out empirical experiments by using state-of-the-art chess-program Crafty as the base program. We found that the percentage of correct answers increased from 55.6 to 57.1% using optimistic selection from the PRN ensemble. The experimental results indicated that the consultation methods allowed simple yet effective distributed computing in chess.
Footstep localization using seismic sensors in an indoor environment : SO-TDOA algorithm

In this study, we consider the use of seismic sensors for footstep localization in indoor environments. A popular strategy of localization is to use the measured differences in arrival times of source signals at multiple pairs of receivers. In the literature, most algorithms that are based on time differences of arrival (TDOA) assume that the propagation velocity is a constant as a function of the source position, which is valid for air propagation. However, a bounded medium, such as a concrete slab, is usually dispersive and damped. This study demonstrates that under such conditions, assimilating the concrete slab to a thin plate and considering a Kelvin-Voigt damping model, the perceived propagation velocity decreases when the source-sensor distance increases. Based on the sign of the measured TDOA (SO-TDOA), a new localization algorithm that is adapted to a damped and dispersive medium is proposed here. A simulation and some experimental results are included, to define the performance of this SO-TDOA algorithm.
Integration of User Centered Design and Software Development Process

User Centered Design is an important aspect of any product to evaluate its success in the market, where there is an abundance of product of similar functionalities. The software products are moving towards the phase where the end user can take the blocks of software, customize and build their own products. This adds more emphasize on the role of UCD in the product development. Many a time, the process for providing a good user experience is treated separate from the process of developing the product or software. There is an increased awareness that the two process need to integrate and proceed hand in hand for success of the product. This paper investigates and proposes the integration model for different development models with the User Centered Design process.
Scoup-SMT: Scalable Coupled Sparse Matrix-Tensor Factorization

How can we correlate neural activity in the human brain as it responds to words, with behavioral data expressed as answers to questions about these same words? In short, we want to find latent variables, that explain both the brain activity, as well as the behavioral responses. We show that this is an instance of the Coupled Matrix-Tensor Factorization (CMTF) problem. We propose Scoup-SMT, a novel, fast, and parallel algorithm that solves the CMTF problem and produces a sparse latent low-rank subspace of the data. In our experiments, we find that Scoup-SMT is 50-100 times faster than a state-of-the-art algorithm for CMTF, along with a 5 fold increase in sparsity. Moreover, we extend Scoup-SMT to handle missing data without degradation of performance. We apply Scoup-SMT to BrainQ, a dataset consisting of a (nouns, brain voxels, human subjects) tensor and a (nouns, properties) matrix, with coupling along the nouns dimension. Scoup-SMT is able to find meaningful latent variables, as well as to predict brain activity with competitive accuracy. Finally, we demonstrate the generality of Scoup-SMT, by applying it on a Facebook dataset (users, friends, wall-postings); there, Scoup-SMT spots spammer-like anomalies.
Study of Association of Substance Use Disorders with Family Members' Psychological Disorders.

INTRODUCTION Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) represents a serious problem in Iranian community that may lead to psychological disorders in families. AIM This study was conducted to investigate the association of SUDs with family members' psychological disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS The sample size of the study consisted of 724 people referred to a counseling and psychology clinic in Shahrekord, southwest Iran. For data gathering, random method was adopted. After the relationship was established with the patients during the counseling and their confidence was gained, development of SUDs and related effect on the referred patient's family members were investigated by a pre-developed checklist. The statistical tests used to analyse the data were chi-square, Fisher's exact test, and odds ratio. RESULTS The most frequent disorder noted was depression (40.5%) followed by generalized anxiety disorder (21%), minor interpersonal and children's behavioural problems (15%), and hysteria (8%). Depression, hysteria, and minor interpersonal and children's behavioural problems in the women and men were reported 48% vs. 20%, 9% vs. 5%, and 10% vs. 27%, respectively. A significant association was seen between SUDs in the patients' spouses and children as well as in their families, and gender, marital status, and occupation, but not place of residence and education. CONCLUSION An association was seen between the psychiatric disorders in the people referring the studied center and SUDs in their families. Addiction in family plays an important role in developing or recurring psychiatric disorders in other family members.
Randomized trial of early corticosteroid reduction vs. regular‐dose corticosteroid maintenance in combination with tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil in living donor kidney transplant recipients: the Brazilian CORRETA trial

Garcia VD, Carvalho DBM, Gonçalves RT, Cavalcanti RL, Campos HH, Abbud‐Filho M, Lobao‐Neto AA. Randomized trial of early corticosteroid reduction vs. regular‐dose corticosteroid maintenance in combination with tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil in living donor kidney transplant recipients: the Brazilian CORRETA trial. Clin Transplant 2010: 24: E109–E115. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Subcubic Equivalences between Path, Matrix and Triangle Problems

We say an algorithm on n by n matrices with entries in [-M, M] (or n-node graphs with edge weights from [-M, M]) is truly sub cubic if it runs in O(n^{3-\delta} \poly(\log M)) time for some \delta > 0. We define a notion of sub cubic reducibility, and show that many important problems on graphs and matrices solvable in O(n^3) time are equivalent under sub cubic reductions. Namely, the following weighted problems either all have truly sub cubic algorithms, or none of them do: - The all-pairs shortest paths problem (APSP). - Detecting if a weighted graph has a triangle of negative total edge weight. - Listing up to n^{2.99} negative triangles in an edge-weighted graph. - Finding a minimum weight cycle in a graph of non-negative edge weights. - The replacement paths problem in an edge-weighted digraph. - Finding the second shortest simple path between two nodes in an edge-weighted digraph. - Checking whether a given matrix defines a metric. - Verifying the correctness of a matrix product over the (\min, +)-semiring. Therefore, if APSP cannot be solved in n^{3-\eps} time for any \eps > 0, then many other problems also need essentially cubic time. In fact we show generic equivalences between matrix products over a large class of algebraic structures used in optimization, verifying a matrix product over the same structure, and corresponding triangle detection problems over the structure. These equivalences simplify prior work on sub cubic algorithms for all-pairs path problems, since it now suffices to give appropriate sub cubic triangle detection algorithms. Other consequences of our work are new combinatorial approaches to Boolean matrix multiplication over the (OR, AND)-semiring (abbreviated as BMM). We show that practical advances in triangle detection would imply practical BMM algorithms, among other results. Building on our techniques, we give two new BMM algorithms: a derandomization of the recent combinatorial BMM algorithm of Bansal and Williams (FOCS'09), and an improved quantum algorithm for BMM.
Using Actor–Network Theory to understand planning practice: Exploring relationships between actants in regulating low-carbon commercial development

There has been a recent growth in interest within planning theory in Actor–Network Theory. This article explores the potential for Actor–Network Theory to deliver a distinctive perspective on planning practice. Using a case study of commercial office development and the discussion of its carbon performance within the regulatory planning process, an Actor–Network Theory–based analysis is provided. The analysis points to the role of planning policy documents as intermediaries, the planning consent process as an obligatory passage point and energy-modelling exercises as potentially black-boxing low-carbon development. It also emphasises how materiality of the development embodies compliance with policy through the construction and warranting of evidence claims. In all these ways, the relationships between actants within networks are shaped. The practice-based conclusions draw attention to the importance of planners devising highly detailed and carefully worded plan policies, and understanding and being able to challenge the knowledge derived from energy-modelling tools as ways of developing agency to influence the outcomes of planning practice. Such agency is revealed by an Actor–Network Theory analysis to be small work in local sites of practice but set against the backdrop of regulatory regimes.
Learning-based fully 3D face reconstruction from a single image

This paper presents an algorithm for fully reconstructing a 3D face from a single image. This task is still highly challenging as most current methods only care about the frontal face, ignoring side face, such as the neck, ears etc. In our algorithm, to get the more detailed texture, we deal with the shape reconstruction and texture recovery respectively. For shape, we estimate the deformation of the 3D model by a set of feature points. For texture, due to the similar facial structure, we divide the full texture into patches and show how sparse learning model can be used to fully recover the texture of the 3D face. Extensive experiment results on the CMU-PIE database and images downloaded from the Internet demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Carotid atherosclerosis and chronic hepatitis C: A prospective study of risk associations

There are contrasting results in studies of cardiovascular risk in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C (G1 CHC). We evaluated the prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis compared with a control population in order to assess the potential association between atherosclerosis, host and viral factors, and liver histological features. In all, 174 consecutive biopsy‐proven G1 CHC patients were evaluated by anthropometric and metabolic measurements and 174 patients attending an outpatient cardiology unit were used as controls. Intima‐media thickness (IMT) and carotid plaques, defined as focal thickening of >1.3 mm at the level of common carotid, were evaluated using ultrasonography. All G1 CHC biopsies were scored by one pathologist for staging and grading, and graded for steatosis. Carotid plaques were found in 73 (41.9%) G1 CHC patients compared with 40 (22.9%) control patients (P < 0.001). Similarly, G1 CHC patients had a greater IMT compared with control patients (1.04 ± 0.21 versus 0.90 ± 0.16; P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that older age (odds ratio [OR] 1.047, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.014‐1.082, P = 0.005), and severe hepatic fibrosis (OR 2.177, 95% CI: 1.043‐4.542, P = 0.03), were independently linked to the presence of carotid plaques. In patients ≤55 years, 15/67 cases with F0‐F2 fibrosis (22.3%) had carotid plaques, compared with 11/21 (52.3%) with F3‐F4 fibrosis (P = 0.008). By contrast, in patients >55 years the prevalence of carotid plaques was similar in those with or without severe fibrosis (25/43, 58.1% versus 22/43, 51.1%; P = 0.51). Conclusion: Severe hepatic fibrosis is associated with a high risk of early carotid atherosclerosis in G1 CHC patients. (HEPATOLOGY 2012)
Effect of Pranayama on stress and cardiovascular autonomic function.

The stress either physical or mental, leads to cardiovascular morbidity. Newly admitted medical students are likely to be exposed to various stresses like change of environment, demanding medical education and different teaching protocol in a medical college. Pranayama is known since ancient times to relieve stress and stabilize autonomic function of the body. Therefore it was decided to study effect of Pranayama on stress and cardiovascular autonomic function. The subjects were first M.B. B.S students and the sample size was 59 consisting of 27 males and 32 females. The group of students thus selected was briefed about the study. After the orientation session, informed written consent was taken, stress questionnaire was put and the autonomic function tests were done. This was followed by practice of Pranayama for 2 months, 1 hour/day for 5 days/week and again stress questionnaire was put and the autonomic function tests were performed on the study group. The above tests were done before and after the practice of Pranayama. The results obtained were analyzed using SPSS software. The stress level has reduced after 2 months of practicing various pranayama as evident by decrease in total stress score which is highly significant. VLF and LF in n.u have reduced significantly after practice of pranayama signifying reduction in sympathetic drive to heart. HF in n.u has increased significantly after practice of pranayama for 2 months showing the increase in parasympathetic output to the heart. LF/ HF ratio reduced significantly after 2 months of practice of pranayama indicating a better sympatho vagal balance with resting balance tilting toward better parasympathetic control.