Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating and Predicting the Distribution of the Number of Visits to the Medical Doctor

In many countries the demand for health care services is of increasing importance. Especially in the industrialized world with a changing demographic structure social insurances and politics face real challenges. Reliable predictors of those demand functions will therefore become invaluable tools. This article proposes a prediction method for the distribution of the number of visits to the medical doctor for a determined population, given a sample that is not necessarily taken from that population. It uses the estimated conditional sample distribution, and it can be applied for forecast scenarios. The methods are illustrated along data from Sidney. The introduced methodology can be applied as well to any other prediction problem of discrete distributions in real, future or any fictitious population. It is therefore also an excellent tool for future predictions, scenarios and policy evaluation.
Performance Analysis of Different Smoothing Methods on n-grams for Statistical Machine Translation

Smoothing techniques adjust the maximum likelihood estimate of probabilities to produce more accurate probabilities. This is one of the most important tasks while building a language model with a limited number of training data. Our main contribution of this paper is to analyze the performance of different smoothing techniques on n-grams. Here we considered three most widely-used smoothing algorithms for language modeling: Witten-Bell smoothing, Kneser-Ney smoothing, and Modified Kneser-Ney smoothing. For the evaluation we use BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy) and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) scoring techniques. A detailed evaluation of these models is performed by comparing the automatically produced word alignment. We use Moses Statistical Machine Translation System for our work (i.e.Moses decoder, GIZA++, mkcls, SRILM, IRSTLM, Pharaoh, BLEU Scoring Tool). Here machine translation approach has been tested on German to English and English to German task. Our obtain results are significantly better than those obtained with alternative approaches to machine translation. This paper addresses several aspects of Statistical Machine Translation (SMT). The emphasis is put on the architecture and modeling of an SMT system.
Compact Four-Ports Coupler

This work is aimed at miniaturizing a four-port coupler device. Miniaturization was carried out with the help of artificial transmission lines that have the same phase shift at the operating frequency as the replaceable section of the microstrip line. Using the NI-AWR DE 13 program, numerical simulation of the original broadband coupler device was carried out. This coupler operates at a center frequency of 2000 MHz. The operating frequency band (estimated by the −20 dB isolation level) is 857 MHz. The area of the designed coupler is 628.65 mm2, which is 58% less than the standard design. Perhaps an additional reduction in size IS due to optimization of the scheme.
Managing Neuropathic Pain in Dogs

Disorders of the somatosensory system such as neuropathic pain are common in people with chronic neurologic and musculoskeletal diseases, yet these conditions remain an underappreciated morbidity in veterinary patients. This is likely because assessment of neuropathic pain in people relies heavily on self-reporting, something our veterinary patients are not able to do. The development of neuropathic pain is a complex phenomenon, and concepts related to it are frequently not addressed in the standard veterinary medical curriculum such that veterinarians may not recognize this as a potential problem in patients. The goals of this review are to discuss basic concepts in the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain, provide definitions for common clinical terms used in association with the condition, and discuss pharmacological treatment options for dogs with neuropathic pain. The development of neuropathic pain involves key mechanisms such as ectopic afferent nerve activity, peripheral sensitization, central sensitization, impaired inhibitory modulation, and pathologic activation of microglia. Treatments aimed at reducing neuropathic pain are targeted at one or more of these mechanisms. Several drugs are commonly used in the veterinary clinical setting to treat neuropathic pain. These include gabapentin, pregabalin, amantadine, and amitriptyline. Proposed mechanisms of action for each drug, and known pharmacokinetic profiles in dogs are discussed. Strong evidence exists in the human literature for the utility of most of these treatments, but clinical veterinary-specific literature is currently limited. Future studies should focus on objective methods to document neuropathic pain and monitor response to therapy in veterinary patients.
A symbian based mobile user authorization system using mobile networks

Authorization means using techniques to establish identity, based on the knowledge and information you know, have or are. A user name and a password is the knowledge people know, for example. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card in your mobile or a security ID card is what people have. Biometrics information, such as iris, fingerprint or face structure are what people are. The main theme of this paper is using a mobile authorization application to demonstrate using an integrated Symbian development environment to support wireless network connections and protect information security. In this paper, a Mobile Biometric Identification (MBI) system is introduced. This application was developed using Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) on a UIQ2.1 platform, executed on a Sony Ericsson P800 mobile phone.
Prognostic role of vascular endothelial growth factor in cervical cancer: a meta-analysis

The prognostic role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in cervical cancer is controversial to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of VEGF and VEGF-C in patients with cervical cancer. Relevant studies were identified by systematic search of the PubMed and Embase database. The primary data of eligible studies was hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of survival outcomes, including overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Pooled HR (95% CI) was calculated to evaluate the prognostic role of VEGF and VEGF-C in cervical cancer patients. The methodological qualities of the included studies were assessed using REMARK. Fourteen eligible articles including 1306 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled HRs (95% CIs) of VEGF for OS and DFS/PFS were 2.29 [1.27, 4.14] and 2.77 [1.37, 5.62], respectively. The HR (95% CI) of VEGF-C for OS was 3.94 [2.22, 6.99]. This meta-analysis suggested that high expressions of VEGF and VEGF-C were significantly associated with poor survival outcome in cervical cancer patients.
Hostility Patterns

In order to present the state of the science of hostility among and across disciplines, a review of the literature was completed. The knowledge gained may influence nursing practice. Scholarly works from nursing, medical and basic sciences, psychology, sociology, education, philosophy, business, communication, and criminology were reviewed. Similar patterns in the use of the concept were discovered. The patterns revealed five themes: hostility as a health-risk factor, hostility as a factor in family relationships, hostility as a factor in perceived challenge, hostility as a factor in criminal behavior, and hostility as a factor in the workplace. Based on the knowledge gained about hostility, implications for nursing practice related to changing the hostile working environment for nurses were suggested using modeling and role-modeling nursing theory.
SPANX Gene Variation in Fertile and Infertile Males

Protein expression data suggests that the SPANX gene family is expressed throughout spermatogenesis, including post-meiotic expression, consistent with a potential role in sperm development. The genomic architecture of this region is unstable and past studies have found evidence of variation in this gene family. This study used a novel assay to evaluate copy number variation (CNV) in SPANX gene family, in fertile and infertile men. The case group was comprised of 50 oligozoospermic and 50 azoospermic men, and the control group was comprised of 67 normozoospermic men with children. The assay, real-time quantitative PCR, evaluated CNV of the entire gene cluster containing all four SPANXA-E genes and with SPANXB, found exclusively in maturing sperm. While variation was found in both groups, average CNV patterns did not differ between fertile and infertile males. As this was a targeted assay, it was limited in scope to detect further CNV at a genome-wide level which is an area of increasing interest in the field of genomics.
Multicanonical multigrid Monte Carlo method.

To further improve the performance of Monte Carlo simulations of first-order phase transitions we propose to combine the multicanonical approach with multigrid techniques. We report tests of this proposition for the $d$-dimensional $\Phi^4$ field theory in two different situations. First, we study quantum tunneling for $d = 1$ in the continuum limit, and second, we investigate first-order phase transitions for $d = 2$ in the infinite volume limit. Compared with standard multicanonical simulations we obtain improvement factors of several resp. of about one order of magnitude.
Longitudinal Associations Between Neighborhood Physical and Social Environments and Incident Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

IMPORTANCE Neighborhood environments may influence the risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but, to our knowledge, no longitudinal study has evaluated specific neighborhood exposures. OBJECTIVE To determine whether long-term exposures to neighborhood physical and social environments, including the availability of healthy food and physical activity resources and levels of social cohesion and safety, are associated with incident T2DM during a 10-year period. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We used data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a population-based cohort study of adults aged 45 to 84 years at baseline (July 17, 2000, through August 29, 2002). A total of 5124 participants free of T2DM at baseline underwent 5 clinical follow-up examinations from July 17, 2000, through February 4, 2012. Time-varying measurements of neighborhood healthy food and physical activity resources and social environments were linked to individual participant addresses. Neighborhood environments were measured using geographic information system (GIS)- and survey-based methods and combined into a summary score. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) of incident T2DM associated with cumulative exposure to neighborhood resources using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for age, sex, income, educational level, race/ethnicity, alcohol use, and cigarette smoking. Data were analyzed from December 15, 2013, through September 22, 2014. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Incident T2DM defined as a fasting glucose level of at least 126 mg/dL or use of insulin or oral antihyperglycemics. RESULTS During a median follow-up of 8.9 years (37,394 person-years), 616 of 5124 participants (12.0%) developed T2DM (crude incidence rate, 16.47 [95% CI, 15.22-17.83] per 1000 person-years). In adjusted models, a lower risk for developing T2DM was associated with greater cumulative exposure to indicators of neighborhood healthy food (12%; HR per interquartile range [IQR] increase in summary score, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.79-0.98]) and physical activity resources (21%; HR per IQR increase in summary score, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.71-0.88]), with associations driven primarily by the survey exposure measures. Neighborhood social environment was not associated with incident T2DM (HR per IQR increase in summary score, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.88-1.07]). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Long-term exposure to residential environments with greater resources to support physical activity and, to a lesser extent, healthy diets was associated with a lower incidence of T2DM, although results varied by measurement method. Modifying neighborhood environments may represent a complementary, population-based approach to prevention of T2DM, although further intervention studies are needed.
Force-enabled Touch Input on the Steering Wheel: An Elicitation Study

In this paper, we contribute to the growing effort in the community to standardize the in-car interaction space. We present an interaction language for steering wheel interfaces with force-enabled touch input. Based on an elicitation study, the language maps core force interactions to common in-car commands. The results also shed light onto mental models of force touch interaction on the steering wheel and provide guidelines for future interfaces.
Large-Scale Reverse Genetics in Arabidopsis: Case Studies from the Chloroplast 2010 Project1[C][W][OA]

Traditionally, phenotype-driven forward genetic plant mutant studies have been among the most successful approaches to revealing the roles of genes and their products and elucidating biochemical, developmental, and signaling pathways. A limitation is that it is time consuming, and sometimes technically challenging, to discover the gene responsible for a phenotype by map-based cloning or discovery of the insertion element. Reverse genetics is also an excellent way to associate genes with phenotypes, although an absence of detectable phenotypes often results when screening a small number of mutants with a limited range of phenotypic assays. The Arabidopsis Chloroplast 2010 Project (www.plastid.msu.edu) seeks synergy between forward and reverse genetics by screening thousands of sequence-indexed Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) T-DNA insertion mutants for a diverse set of phenotypes. Results from this project are discussed that highlight the strengths and limitations of the approach. We describe the discovery of altered fatty acid desaturation phenotypes associated with mutants of At1g10310, previously described as a pterin aldehyde reductase in folate metabolism. Data are presented to show that growth, fatty acid, and chlorophyll fluorescence defects previously associated with antisense inhibition of synthesis of the family of acyl carrier proteins can be attributed to a single gene insertion in Acyl Carrier Protein4 (At4g25050). A variety of cautionary examples associated with the use of sequence-indexed T-DNA mutants are described, including the need to genotype all lines chosen for analysis (even when they number in the thousands) and the presence of tagged and untagged secondary mutations that can lead to the observed phenotypes.
Recognition through constructing the Eigenface classifiers using conjugation indices

The principal component analysis (PCA), also called the eigenfaces analysis, is one of the most extensively used face image recognition techniques. The idea of the method is decomposition of image vectors into a system of eigenvectors matched to the maximum eigenvalues. The method of proximity assessment of vectors composed of principal components essentially influences the recognition quality. In the paper the use of different indices of conjugation with subspace stretched on training vectors is considered as a proximity measure. It is shown that this approach is very effective in the case of a small number of training examples. The results of experiments for a standard ORL-face database are presented.
Multi-Task Neural Network for Non-discrete Attribute Prediction in Knowledge Graphs

Many popular knowledge graphs such as Freebase, YAGO or DBPedia maintain a list of non-discrete attributes for each entity. Intuitively, these attributes such as height, price or population count are able to richly characterize entities in knowledge graphs. This additional source of information may help to alleviate the inherent sparsity and incompleteness problem that are prevalent in knowledge graphs. Unfortunately, many state-of-the-art relational learning models ignore this information due to the challenging nature of dealing with non-discrete data types in the inherently binary-natured knowledge graphs. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-task neural network approach for both encoding and prediction of non-discrete attribute information in a relational setting. Specifically, we train a neural network for triplet prediction along with a separate network for attribute value regression. Via multi-task learning, we are able to learn representations of entities, relations and attributes that encode information about both tasks. Moreover, such attributes are not only central to many predictive tasks as an information source but also as a prediction target. Therefore, models that are able to encode, incorporate and predict such information in a relational learning context are highly attractive as well. We show that our approach outperforms many state-of-the-art methods for the tasks of relational triplet classification and attribute value prediction.
Establishment of the African termite, Coptotermes sjostedti (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), on the Island of Guadeloupe, French West Indies

Abstract Based on morphological and genetic comparisons, an established population of the African termite, Coptotermes sjostedti Holmgren, was identified on the island of Guadeloupe. This is the sixth recorded species of an endemic Old World termite becoming established in the New World. We hypothesize that this species arrived from tropical West Africa by maritime transport.
Word Learning Deficits in Children With Dyslexia.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate word learning in children with dyslexia to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses during the configuration stage of word learning. Method Children with typical development (N = 116) and dyslexia (N = 68) participated in computer-based word learning games that assessed word learning in 4 sets of games that manipulated phonological or visuospatial demands. All children were monolingual English-speaking 2nd graders without oral language impairment. The word learning games measured children's ability to link novel names with novel objects, to make decisions about the accuracy of those names and objects, to recognize the semantic features of the objects, and to produce the names of the novel words. Accuracy data were analyzed using analyses of covariance with nonverbal intelligence scores as a covariate. Results Word learning deficits were evident for children with dyslexia across every type of manipulation and on 3 of 5 tasks, but not for every combination of task/manipulation. Deficits were more common when task demands taxed phonology. Visuospatial manipulations led to both disadvantages and advantages for children with dyslexia. Conclusion Children with dyslexia evidence spoken word learning deficits, but their performance is highly dependent on manipulations and task demand, suggesting a processing trade-off between visuospatial and phonological demands.
Changing wound care protocols to reduce postoperative caesarean section infection and readmission

Due to concern centring on the caesarean section wound infection rate being higher than the national average, a project was undertaken at the Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust to reduce overall infection and readmission rates in this patient group. Changes in practice included wound care education for midwives, a change in the standard postoperative dressing, and the introduction of a new portable negative pressure system for incision management for patients with a high body mass index (BMI). Following the implementation of these measures, the infection rate dropped from 12% to 6%; in the highest risk group there were no infections or readmissions. � Caesarean section � � Infection � � Diabetes � � Obesity � � PICO � � Opsite Post-Op Visible
Liquid crystal based electronically steerable 4×4 antenna array with single horn feed at Ka-Band

This paper presents the design setup of an 4times4 array, each element consists of two Vivaldi antennas connected by an overlapped antipodal finline phase shifter. Simulations of an infinite expanded array showed a good matching in the whole investigated frequency range and fairly low insertion losses of less than 7.7 dB at 35 GHz. The phase can be continuously tuned up to 465deg. Measurement results of the realized array will be presented in the full paper. The presented results depict the first investigations of electronically steerable arrays fed from the back, based on liquid crystals. The results are very promising, encouraging further research: Rising the number of element cells and adding orthogonal arranged Vivaldi antennas for dual polarized signals, [8]. The setup can easily scaled down to rise the frequency. It is aimed to process the structure on fused silica, which improves the mechanical strength as well as excellent microwave properties.
Segmentation and classification of medical images using texture-primitive features: Application of BAM-type artificial neural network

The objective of developing this software is to achieve auto-segmentation and tissue characterization. Therefore, the present algorithm has been designed and developed for analysis of medical images based on hybridization of syntactic and statistical approaches, using artificial neural network (ANN). This algorithm performs segmentation and classification as is done in human vision system, which recognizes objects; perceives depth; identifies different textures, curved surfaces, or a surface inclination by texture information and brightness. The analysis of medical image is directly based on four steps: 1) image filtering, 2) segmentation, 3) feature extraction, and 4) analysis of extracted features by pattern recognition system or classifier. In this paper, an attempt has been made to present an approach for soft tissue characterization utilizing texture-primitive features with ANN as segmentation and classifier tool. The present approach directly combines second, third, and fourth steps into one algorithm. This is a semisupervised approach in which supervision is involved only at the level of defining texture-primitive cell; afterwards, algorithm itself scans the whole image and performs the segmentation and classification in unsupervised mode. The algorithm was first tested on Markov textures, and the success rate achieved in classification was 100%; further, the algorithm was able to give results on the test images impregnated with distorted Markov texture cell. In addition to this, the output also indicated the level of distortion in distorted Markov texture cell as compared to standard Markov texture cell. Finally, algorithm was applied to selected medical images for segmentation and classification. Results were in agreement with those with manual segmentation and were clinically correlated.