Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Participant Blinding and Gastrointestinal Illness in a Randomized, Controlled Trial of an In-Home Drinking Water Intervention

We conducted a randomized, triple-blinded home drinking water intervention trial to determine if a large study could be undertaken while successfully blinding participants. Households were randomized 50:50 to use externally identical active or sham treatment devices. We measured the effectiveness of blinding of participants by using a published blinding index in which values >0.5 indicate successful blinding. The principal health outcome measured was “highly credible gastrointestinal illness” (HCGI). Participants (n=236) from 77 households were successfully blinded to their treatment assignment. At the end of the study, the blinding index was 0.64 (95% confidence interval 0.51-0.78). There were 103 episodes of HCGI during 10,790 person-days at risk in the sham group and 82 episodes during 11,380 person-days at risk in the active treatment group. The incidence rate ratio of disease (adjusted for the clustered sampling) was 1.32 (95% CI 0.75, 2.33) and the attributable risk was 0.24 (95% CI -0.33, 0.57). These data confirm that participants can be successfully blinded to treatment group assignment during a randomized trial of an in-home drinking water intervention.
An Online System for Automatic Annotation of Audio Documents

This article presents a system for automatic transcription of audio documents. The system includes online implementations of recent algorithms for audio segmentation, speech/nonspeech classification, and speaker clustering, and integrates them with large vocabulary speech recognition systems for both English and French. We also propose a segment-based speech confidence score, and demonstrate that this correlates well with the correctness of the speech recognition output. In the scope of the ASSAVID and CIMWOS European projects, the system has been integrated with other audio and video processing modules, providing rich annotations of multimedia content for subsequent indexing and retrieval.
Speeding Up Inference for Probabilistic Logic Programs

Probabilistic Logic Programming (PLP) allows to represent domains containing many entities connected by uncertain relations and has many applications in particular in Machine Learning. PITA is a PLP algorithm for computing the probability of queries that exploits tabling, answer subsumption and Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs). PITA does not impose any restriction on the programs. Other algorithms, such as PRISM, reduce computation time by imposing restrictions on the program, namely that subgoals are independent and that clause bodies are mutually exclusive. Another assumption that simplifies inference is that clause bodies are independent. In this paper we present the algorithms PITA(IND,IND) and PITA(OPT). PITA(IND,IND) assumes that subgoals and clause bodies are independent. PITA(OPT) instead first checks whether these assumptions hold for subprograms and subgoals: if they do, PITA(OPT) uses a simplified calculation, otherwise it resorts to BDDs. Experiments on a number of benchmark datasets show that PITA(IND,IND) is the fastest on datasets respecting the assumptions while PITA(OPT) is a good option when nothing is known about a dataset.
Characterization of Five Novel Brevibacillus Bacteriophages and Genomic Comparison of Brevibacillus Phages

Brevibacillus laterosporus is a spore-forming bacterium that causes a secondary infection in beehives following European Foulbrood disease. To better understand the contributions of Brevibacillus bacteriophages to the evolution of their hosts, five novel phages (Jenst, Osiris, Powder, SecTim467, and Sundance) were isolated and characterized. When compared with the five Brevibacillus phages currently in NCBI, these phages were assigned to clusters based on whole genome and proteome synteny. Powder and Osiris, both myoviruses, were assigned to the previously described Jimmer-like cluster. SecTim467 and Jenst, both siphoviruses, formed a novel phage cluster. Sundance, a siphovirus, was assigned as a singleton phage along with the previously isolated singleton, Emery. In addition to characterizing the basic relationships between these phages, several genomic features were observed. A motif repeated throughout phages Jenst and SecTim467 was frequently upstream of genes predicted to function in DNA replication, nucleotide metabolism, and transcription, suggesting transcriptional co-regulation. In addition, paralogous gene pairs that encode a putative transcriptional regulator were identified in four Brevibacillus phages. These paralogs likely evolved to bind different DNA sequences due to variation at amino acid residues predicted to bind specific nucleotides. Finally, a putative transposable element was identified in SecTim467 and Sundance that carries genes homologous to those found in Brevibacillus chromosomes. Remnants of this transposable element were also identified in phage Jenst. These discoveries provide a greater understanding of the diversity of phages, their behavior, and their evolutionary relationships to one another and to their host. In addition, they provide a foundation with which further Brevibacillus phages can be compared.
Changes in the Swine Gut Microbiota in Response to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Infection

The gastrointestinal tract of mammals is a complex ecosystem with distinct environments and comprises hundreds of different types of bacterial cells. The gut microbiota may play a critical role in the gut health of the host. We herein attempted to identify a microbiota shift that may be affected by porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). We observed significant differences in microbiota between the control and PED virus (PEDV)-infected groups at both the phylum and genus level. Most commensal bacteria (i.e. Psychrobacter, Prevotella, and Faecalibacterium) in the healthy gastrointestinal tract were decreased due to dysbiosis induced by PEDV infection.
Trajectory optimization of two-link rigid flexible manipulators in Dynamic Object Manipulation missions

This research focuses on proposing an optimal trajectory planning method of two link rigid-flexible manipulators (TLRFM) for Dynamic Object Manipulation (DOM) missions. For the first time, achievement of DOM task using a rotating one flexible link robot was taken into account in [15]. The authors do not aim to contribute on either trajectory tracking or vibration control of the End-Effector (EE) of the manipulator; On the contrary, utilizing the powerful tool optimal control accomplishing a point-to-point task for TLRFM is the purpose of the current research. Towards this goal, the pseudospectral method will be developed to meet the optimality conditions subject to system dynamics and boundary conditions. The complicated optimal trajectory planning is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem and solved by SNOPT nonlinear solver. The obtained simulation results reveal the usefulness and optimality of the developed scheme, in DOM missions.
Visualizing Quantitative Proteomics Datasets using Treemaps

One of the major challenges of large scale mass spectrometry based proteomics experiments is organizing and visualizing the data in such a way so that meaningful biological conclusions can be drawn from the data. Our tool, ZoomQuant, is capable of quantitating relative protein abundance between two samples in stable isotope labeled quantitative proteomics experiments. The resulting protein ratios are then annotated and categorized using the GO ontology terms. Sets of data representing different biological states can then be compared quantitatively and the results formatted for dynamic visualization. Using TreeMap, the user can visualize the quantitative differences between the biological states in a single view. The peptide or scan count and ratio for individual proteins are displayed and organized by the GO ontologies so that the user can easily see the global differences in protein expression between the two samples.
Nobel lecture: The BEH mechanism and its scalar boson

CONTENTS I. Introduction: Short and long range interactions 843 II. Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking 844 A. Spontaneous symmetry breaking in phase transitions 844 B. Spontaneous symmetry breaking in field theory 845 III. The BEH Mechanism 846 A. The fate of the Nambu-Goldstone boson and vector boson masses 846 B. The fate of the massive scalar boson 847 C. Fermion masses 848 D. Why is the mechanism needed? 848 E. Dynamical symmetry breaking 848 F. The electroweak theory and the standard model 848 IV. The Discovery 849 References 850
[POSTER] Towards Estimating Usability Ratings of Handheld Augmented Reality Using Accelerometer Data

Usability evaluations are important to the development of augmented reality systems. However, conducting large-scale longitudinal studies remains challenging because of the lack of inexpensive but appropriate methods. In response, we propose a method for implicitly estimating usability ratings based on readily available sensor logs. To demonstrate our idea, we explored the use of features of accelerometer data in estimating usability ratings in an annotation task. Results show that our implicit method corresponds with explicit usability ratings at 79% and 84%. These results should be investigated further in other use cases, with other sensor logs.
Sensorimotor integration in human postural control.

It is generally accepted that human bipedal upright stance is achieved by feedback mechanisms that generate an appropriate corrective torque based on body-sway motion detected primarily by visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive sensory systems. Because orientation information from the various senses is not always available (eyes closed) or accurate (compliant support surface), the postural control system must somehow adjust to maintain stance in a wide variety of environmental conditions. This is the sensorimotor integration problem that we investigated by evoking anterior-posterior (AP) body sway using pseudorandom rotation of the visual surround and/or support surface (amplitudes 0.5-8 degrees ) in both normal subjects and subjects with severe bilateral vestibular loss (VL). AP rotation of body center-of-mass (COM) was measured in response to six conditions offering different combinations of available sensory information. Stimulus-response data were analyzed using spectral analysis to compute transfer functions and coherence functions over a frequency range from 0.017 to 2.23 Hz. Stimulus-response data were quite linear for any given condition and amplitude. However, overall behavior in normal subjects was nonlinear because gain decreased and phase functions sometimes changed with increasing stimulus amplitude. "Sensory channel reweighting" could account for this nonlinear behavior with subjects showing increasing reliance on vestibular cues as stimulus amplitudes increased. VL subjects could not perform this reweighting, and their stimulus-response behavior remained quite linear. Transfer function curve fits based on a simple feedback control model provided estimates of postural stiffness, damping, and feedback time delay. There were only small changes in these parameters with increasing visual stimulus amplitude. However, stiffness increased as much as 60% with increasing support surface amplitude. To maintain postural stability and avoid resonant behavior, an increase in stiffness should be accompanied by a corresponding increase in damping. Increased damping was achieved primarily by decreasing the apparent time delay of feedback control rather than by changing the damping coefficient (i.e., corrective torque related to body-sway velocity). In normal subjects, stiffness and damping were highly correlated with body mass and moment of inertia, with stiffness always about 1/3 larger than necessary to resist the destabilizing torque due to gravity. The stiffness parameter in some VL subjects was larger compared with normal subjects, suggesting that they may use increased stiffness to help compensate for their loss. Overall results show that the simple act of standing quietly depends on a remarkably complex sensorimotor control system.
Transcriptome Analysis of the Barley-Rhynchosporium secalis Interaction

Leaf scald caused by the infection of Rhynchosporium secalis, is a worldwide crop disease resulting in significant loss of barley yield. In this study, a systematic sequencing of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) was chosen to obtain a global picture of the assembly of genes involved in pathogenesis. To identify a large number of plant ESTs, which are induced at different time points, an amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) display of complementary DNA (cDNA) was utilized. Transcriptional changes of 140 ESTs were observed, of which 19 have no previously described function. Functional annotation of the transcripts revealed a variety of infection-induced host genes encoding classical pathogenesis-related (PR) or genes that play a role in the signal transduction pathway. The expression analyses by a semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) revealed that Rar1 and Rpg4 are defense inducible genes, and were consistent with the cDNA-AFLP data in their expression patterns. Hence, the here presented transcriptomic approach provides novel global catalogue of genes not currently represented in the EST databases.
Experimental Evaluation of the Heat Sink Effect in Hepatic Microwave Ablation

Purpose To demonstrate and quantify the heat sink effect in hepatic microwave ablation (MWA) in a standardized ex vivo model, and to analyze the influence of vessel distance and blood flow on lesion volume and shape. Materials and Methods 108 ex vivo MWA procedures were performed in freshly harvested pig livers. Antennas were inserted parallel to non-perfused and perfused (700,1400 ml/min) glass tubes (diameter 5mm) at different distances (10, 15, 20mm). Ablation zones (radius, area) were analyzed and compared (Kruskal-Wallis Test, Dunn’s multiple comparison Test). Temperature changes adjacent to the tubes were measured throughout the ablation cycle. Results Maximum temperature decreased significantly with increasing flow and distance (p<0.05). Compared to non-perfused tubes, ablation zones were significantly deformed by perfused tubes within 15mm distance to the antenna (p<0.05). At a flow rate of 700ml/min ablation zone radius was reduced to 37.2% and 80.1% at 10 and 15mm tube distance, respectively; ablation zone area was reduced to 50.5% and 89.7%, respectively. Conclusion Significant changes of ablation zones were demonstrated in a pig liver model. Considerable heat sink effect was observed within a diameter of 15mm around simulated vessels, dependent on flow rate. This has to be taken into account when ablating liver lesions close to vessels.
The rural-urban divide, intergroup relations, and social identity formation of rural migrant children in a Chinese urban school

Abstract Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a Beijing public school, this study aims to investigate how rural migrant children in China negotiate and construct their identity vis-à-vis the school’s local children. Building on social identity theory, this study reveals that rural migrant children develop a strong non-local group identity as a response to the Hukou-based social policy and the occupation-based social hierarchies in contemporary China. Such an identity helps migrant children combat a sense of inferiority that is reinforced by their daily interactions with the socially and economically more advantaged urban peers. However, this group-based identity forestalls intergroup contact and prevents the migrant children from successfully integrating into Chinese urban society.
Video segmentation and stabilization for BallCam

We present a video stabilization algorithm for ball camera systems that undergo extreme egomotion during sports play. In particular, we focus on the BallCam system which is an American football embedded with an action camera at the tip of the ball. We propose an activity-aware video stabilization algorithm which is able to understand the current activity of the BallCam, which uses estimated activity labels to inform a robust video stabilization algorithm. Activity recognition is performed with a deep convolutional neural network, which uses optical flow.
MR Diagnosis of a Pulmonary Embolism: Comparison of P792 and Gd-DOTA for First-Pass Perfusion MRI and Contrast-Enhanced 3D MRA in a Rabbit Model

Objective To compare P792 (gadomelitol, a rapid clearance blood pool MR contrast agent) with gadolinium-tetraazacyclododecanetetraacetic acid (Gd-DOTA), a standard extracellular agent, for their suitability to diagnose a pulmonary embolism (PE) during a first-pass perfusion MRI and 3D contrast-enhanced (CE) MR angiography (MRA). Materials and Methods A perfusion MRI or CE-MRA was performed in a rabbit PE model following the intravenous injection of a single dose of contrast agent. The time course of the pulmonary vascular and parenchymal enhancement was assessed by measuring the signal in the aorta, pulmonary artery, and lung parenchyma as a function of time to determine whether there is a significant difference between the techniques. CE-MRA studies were evaluated by their ability to depict the pulmonary vasculature and following defects between 3 seconds and 15 minutes after a triple dose intravenous injection of the contrast agents. Results The P792 and Gd-DOTA were equivalent in their ability to demonstrate PE as perfusion defects on first pass imaging. The signal from P792 was significantly higher in vasculature than that from Gd-DOTA between the first and the tenth minutes after injection. The results suggest that a CE-MRA PE could be reliably diagnosed up to 15 minutes after injection. Conclusion P792 is superior to Gd-DOTA for the MR diagnosis of PE.
Negotiating With Exper ience

Current E-Commerce trading systems which look at electronic negotiation facilities usually uses predefined and non-adaptive negotiation mechanisms [Maes, et. al. 1999]. This paper presents a negotiation framework which applies Case-Based Reasoning(CBR) techniques to capture and reuse previously successful negotiation experiences. This experience based negotiation framework provides adaptive negotiation strategies that can be generated dynamically and are context-sensitive. We illustrate this framework in the used car trading domain and have developed a web-based negotiation module for used-car trading. This paper begins by describing our formulation for negotiation, our CBR approach within negotiation framework and our representation of each negotiation case pertaining to the used car trading domain. It focuses on our methodologies to match and re-use similar negotiation experience. It also presents the software architecture, design and implementation of our web-based used-car trading module. We believe that our experience based negotiation framework will enhance the negotiation skills and performance of current trading agents.
Pragmatic Language Development and Correlation with Vocabulary Ability of 4- to 10-Year-Old Typically Developing Korean Children using Audio-Visual Discourse Tasks

배경 및 목적 : 아동은 사회적인 상호작용속에서 언어를 사용하는 화용능력을 기르게 된다. 이러한 화용능력은 의미론적 발달이나 전반적인 언어습득과도 상관이 높다고 알려져 있다. 그러나 우리나라에서는 평가도구의 제한으로 인해 화용능력에 대한 세부적인 연구가 매우 부족하다. 이에 본 연구에서는 대화나 이야기 화면을 보면서 화용적인 적절성을 판단하고 수정하는.
New Multiwavelength Observations of PKS 2155–304 and Implications for the Coordinated Variability Patterns of Blazars

The TeV blazar PKS 2155-304 was the subject of an intensive 2 week optical and near-infrared observing campaign in 2004 August with the CTIO 0.9 m telescope. During this time, simultaneous X-ray data from RXTE were also obtained. We compare the results of our observations to the results from two previous simultaneous multiwavelength campaigns on PKS 2155-304. We conclude that the correlation between the X-ray and UV/optical variability is strongest and the time lag is shortest (only a few hours) when the object is brightest. As the object becomes fainter, the correlations are weaker and the lags longer, increasing to a few days. Based on the results of four campaigns, we find evidence for a linear relationship between the mean optical brightness and lag time of X-ray and UV/optical events. Furthermore, we assert that this behavior, along with the different multiwavelength flare lag times across different flux states, is consistent with a highly relativistic shock propagating down the jet producing the flares observed during a high state. In a quiescent state, the variability is likely to be due to a number of factors including both the jet and contributions outside of the jet, such as the accretion disk.
Ensemble Determinization in Monte Carlo Tree Search for the Imperfect Information Card Game Magic: The Gathering

In this paper, we examine the use of Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) for a variant of one of the most popular and profitable games in the world: the card game Magic: The Gathering (M:TG). The game tree for M:TG has a range of distinctive features, which we discuss here; it has incomplete information through the opponent's hidden cards and randomness through card drawing from a shuffled deck. We investigate a wide range of approaches that use determinization, where all hidden and random information is assumed known to all players, alongside MCTS. We consider a number of variations to the rollout strategy using a range of levels of sophistication and expert knowledge, and decaying reward to encourage play urgency. We examine the effect of utilizing various pruning strategies in order to increase the information gained from each determinization, alongside methods that increase the relevance of random choices. Additionally, we deconstruct the move generation procedure into a binary yes/no decision tree and apply MCTS to this finer grained decision process. We compare our modifications to a basic MCTS approach for M:TG using fixed decks, and show that significant improvements in playing strength can be obtained.
Quantitative Evaluation of Polarimetric Classification for Agricultural Crop Mapping

Agricultural crops classification capability of single band full polarization SAR data with different classification methods was evaluated using AIRSAR L-band polarimetric SAR data. It has been found that if only maximum likelihood (ML) classifiers, such as Wishart-maximum likelihood (WML) and normal distribution probability density functions (PDF)based Maximum Likelihood (NML) classifier can be utilized, it is better to choose WML directly applied to complex coherency or covariance matrix. NML cannot achieve acceptable classification result if intensity and phase images derived from coherency matrix are directly used for training the classifier. But if these images were supplied to the spatial-spectral based classifier, Extraction and Classification of Homogenous Objects (ECHO), higher classification accuracy can be obtained. Very low crop types discrimination accuracy has been observed when only H-Alpha polarimetric decomposition resultant images, such as entropy, alpha and anisotropy, were supplied to NML or a spatialspectral based classifier such as ECHO.
Large-scale World Cup 2014 outcome prediction based on Tumblr posts

With the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicking o on June 12th, billions of fans across the world have turned their attention toward host country Brazil to root for their teams. Soccer (or football, if you prefer) fans are loud; you need only remember the last World Cup’s infamous vuvuzelas for a demonstration. But fans are not only loud in stadiums. They also make their voices heard across social media. And though you may assume these fans are just blowing their vuvuzelas into the social abyss, if you listen closely, you will discover a treasure trove of data, including an answer to the most important question of all: "Who will win? ". In this paper we use Tumblr posts collected during 4 months prior to the start of the World Cup to predict the outcome of every game. We describe the prediction algorithm as well as the analysis of the performance results, including comparison of the predictions of several competing methods.