Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-Term Alcohol Consumption and Breast, Upper Aero-Digestive Tract and Colorectal Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

AIMS Cancers of female breast, upper aero-digestive tract (UADT) (oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus) and colorectum are causally related to alcohol consumption. Although alcohol consumption is likely to vary during life, the few studies that have explicitly measured lifetime consumption or intake over time have not been summarised. We therefore conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS Studies were identified by searching the Medline, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) and Scopus databases through January 2015 using broad search criteria. Studies reporting relative risks (RR) for quantitatively defined categories of alcohol consumption over time for breast, UADT or colorectal cancer were eligible. A two-stage random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate a dose-response relationship between alcohol intake and each cancer site. RRs were also calculated for the highest relative to the lowest intake category. RESULTS Sixteen articles for breast, 16 for UADT and 7 for colorectal cancer met the eligibility criteria. We observed a weak non-linear dose-response relationship for breast cancer and positive linear dose-response relationships for UADT and colorectal cancer. The pooled RRs were 1.28 (95% confidence interval, CI: 1.07, 1.52) for breast, 2.83 (95% CI: 1.73, 4.62) for UADT, 4.84 (95% CI: 2.51, 9.32) for oral cavity and pharynx, 2.25 (95% CI: 1.49, 3.42) for larynx, 6.71 (95% CI: 4.21, 10.70) for oesophageal and 1.49 (95% CI: 1.27, 1.74) for colorectal cancer. CONCLUSION Our findings confirm dose-dependent associations between long-term alcohol intake and breast, UADT and colorectal cancer.
Robust MIMO OFDM transmit beamformer design for large Doppler scenarios under partial CSIT

Performance of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) systems is limited by inter carrier interference (ICI) under high Doppler scenarios such as that encountered in high speed trains like TGV. The use of multiple receive antennas is known to be a very effective way to combat ICI. In a recent publication, the authors explored the use of transmit (Tx) antennas for ICI mitigation. It considered a MIMO (multiple input multiple output) scenario with perfect channel state information at transmitter (CSIT) and iteratively designed a transmit beamformer to maximize the sum capacity across all the subcarriers in the presence of ICI. In this paper, we make the design more robust by considering only partial CSIT knowledge. The beamformer is designed by optimizing the expected weighted sum rate (EWSR) under large MIMO asymptotics regime. The convergence of the beamformer follows easily from the design.
Giant MagnetoResistive ( GMR ) Sensors for Non-Destructive Detection of Magnetic Flux Leakage from Sub-Surface Defects in Steels

There is an increasing demand for using high sensitive sensors which can detect very low levels of magnetic flux leakage from hidden defects or far-side wall loss due to pitting or local corrosion in ferromagnetic steels. This paper discusses the use of highly sensitive tiny GMR sensors for detection of sub-surface defects in carbon steel plates. Notches located at different depths below surface are machined in 12 mm thick carbon steel plates and the tangential component of the leakage magnetic field is measured. The sensor output is amplified selectively for reliable detection of feeble leakage magnetic fields from sub-surface notches. MFL images of notches are obtained by raster scan imaging of surfaces using GMR sensor. Application of GMR sensor to detect natural and artificial defects in steel wire ropes is also discussed.
The Re-entrance Problem and Its Solution

In this paper we take a formal look at the nature of the re-entrance problem . W see the essence of the problem in a conflict between the assumptions components make about each other’s behavior. We argue that to ensure safe composability of mutually dependent componen ts in a open system one needs to reason about them modularly. We propose an approach for extending component specifications with rely/guarantee conditions, explicitly expressing the as sumptions components can safely make about each other. Accordingly, we define how to refine components in accord n e with the rely/guarantee conditions. By extending the refinement calculus, we define a customized theory of components necessary for reasoning about composability. Then we formally prove that refining components taking into account the rely/guarantee conditions permits to reas n about component systems modularly and in this way avoid the re-entrance problem.
OpenRAM: An open-source memory compiler

Computer systems research is often inhibited by the availability of memory designs. Existing Process Design Kits (PDKs) frequently lack memory compilers, while expensive commercial solutions only provide memory models with immutable cells, limited configurations, and restrictive licenses. Manually creating memories can be time consuming and tedious and the designs are usually inflexible. This paper introduces OpenRAM, an open-source memory compiler, that provides a platform for the generation, characterization, and verification of fabricable memory designs across various technologies, sizes, and configurations. It enables research in computer architecture, system-on-chip design, memory circuit and device research, and computer-aided design.
Accurate Background Modeling for Moving Object Detection in a Dynamic Scene

Fast and accurate foreground detection in video sequences is the first step in many computer vision applications. In this paper, we propose a new method for background modeling that operates in color and gray spaces and that manages the entropy information to obtain the pixel state card. Our method is recursive and does not require a training period to handle various problems when classify pixels into either foreground or background. First, it starts by analyzing the pixel state card to build a dynamic matrix. This latter is used to selectively update background model. Secondly, our method eliminates noise and holes from the moving areas, removes uninteresting moving regions and refines the shape of foregrounds. A comparative study through quantitative and qualitative evaluations shows that our method can detect foreground efficiently and accurately in videos even in the presence of various problems including sudden and gradual illumination changes, shaking camera, background component changes, ghost, and foreground speed.
Designing a Heuristic Cross-Architecture Combination for Breadth-First Search

Breadth-First Search (BFS) is widely used in real-world applications including computational biology, social networks, and electronic design automation. The most effective BFS approach has been shown to be a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Such hybrid techniques need to identify a switching point which is conventionally found through expensive trial-and-error and exhaustive search routines. We present an adaptive method based on regression analysis that enables dynamic switching at runtime with little overhead. We improve the performance of our method by exploiting popular heterogeneous platforms and efficiently design the approach for a given architecture. An 155x speedup is achieved over the standard top-down approach on GPUs. Our approach is the first to combine top-down and bottom-up across different architectures. Unlike combination on a single architecture, a mistuned switching point may significantly decrease the performance of cross-architecture combination. Our adaptive method can predict the switching point with high accuracy, leading to an 695x speedup compared the worst switching point.
Practices in Dialogue

We explore the idea that conversational episodes not only ground facts, but also establish practices (know how). We apply this idea to the well-studied phenomenon of lexical entrainment. We provide a formal model of situations giving rise to lexical entrainment, and use it to make precise implications of extant attempts to explain this phenomenon (the lexical pact model, and the interactive alignment model) and to make precise where our attempt differs: it is an automatic and non-strategic, but goal-driven account, which has a place for partner-specificity and group forming. We define a learning mechanism for practices, and test it in simulation. We close with a discussion of further implications of the model and possible extensions.
Organotypic Brain Slice Cultures of Adult Transgenic P301S Mice—A Model for Tauopathy Studies

Background Organotypic brain slice cultures represent an excellent compromise between single cell cultures and complete animal studies, in this way replacing and reducing the number of animal experiments. Organotypic brain slices are widely applied to model neuronal development and regeneration as well as neuronal pathology concerning stroke, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is characterized by two protein alterations, namely tau hyperphosphorylation and excessive amyloid β deposition, both causing microglia and astrocyte activation. Deposits of hyperphosphorylated tau, called neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), surrounded by activated glia are modeled in transgenic mice, e.g. the tauopathy model P301S. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study we explore the benefits and limitations of organotypic brain slice cultures made of mature adult transgenic mice as a potential model system for the multifactorial phenotype of AD. First, neonatal (P1) and adult organotypic brain slice cultures from 7- to 10-month-old transgenic P301S mice have been compared with regard to vitality, which was monitored with the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)- and the MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assays over 15 days. Neonatal slices displayed a constant high vitality level, while the vitality of adult slice cultures decreased significantly upon cultivation. Various preparation and cultivation conditions were tested to augment the vitality of adult slices and improvements were achieved with a reduced slice thickness, a mild hypothermic cultivation temperature and a cultivation CO2 concentration of 5%. Furthermore, we present a substantial immunohistochemical characterization analyzing the morphology of neurons, astrocytes and microglia in comparison to neonatal tissue. Conclusion/Significance Until now only adolescent animals with a maximum age of two months have been used to prepare organotypic brain slices. The current study provides evidence that adult organotypic brain slice cultures from 7- to 10-month-old mice independently of the transgenic modification undergo slow programmed cell death, caused by a dysfunction of the neuronal repair systems.
Code acquisition in coherent optical pulse CDMA systems utilizing coherent correlation demodulation

A code acquisition technique based on active optical correlation detection is introduced for coherent optical pulse code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems implemented through coherent correlation demodulation. Passive matched filter acquisition, commonplace in most radio CDMA systems, does not translate directly into the optical domain since synchronization between the incoming optical signal and a local optical code of the intended user at the receiver has to take place in several picosecond duration. Parallel and serial acquisition schemes under the same search algorithm are described and the effect of optical device noise, partial autocorrelation, and multiuser interference on acquisition performance is theoretically analyzed. Numerical results are given for Gold codes. In general, the degree of parallelism inherent in code acquisition techniques for radio systems allows a tradeoff between acquisition speed and hardware cost; however, in optical acquisition schemes, increasing the degree of parallelism with the concomitant hardware cost penalty does not necessarily reduce the time to acquisition. This is due to optical power budget limitations brought about by the need to split the optical signal, although optical amplifier technology can improve the performance of these parallel search schemes. The expressions for the partial correlation and multiuser interference derived in the paper can also be utilized for the analysis of other radio and optical acquisition schemes.
Using ANN for Multi-View Activity Recognition in Indoor Environment

In this paper, we generated an activity recognition model using an ANN and trained it using Backpropagation learning. We considered a sandwich making scenario and identified the hand-motion-based activities of reaching, sprinkling, spreading and cutting. The contribution of this paper is twofold: First, given the fact that many image processing steps like feature identification are computation intensive and execution time increases sharply as more images are added, we've shown that it is not always useful to add more data. We trained our system using (i) single (front) camera only and (ii) multiple (left, front, right) cameras, and have shown that adding extra cameras decreased the recognition precision from 89.22% to 79.99%. Hence, we've shown that a properly-positioned camera results in a higher precision than multiple, inappropriately-positioned cameras. Second, in the ANN training part, we've shown that adding additional hidden layers/neurons lead to unnecessary complexity which in turn result in longer computational time and lower precision. In our experiments, using a single hidden layer resulted in a precision of 90.77% and the training was completed in less than 1200 cycles. On the other hand, adding or deleting hidden layers not only decreased the precision, but also increased the training time by many folds.
The Solid Map : Methods for Generating a 2-D Texture Map for Solid Texturing

The solid map provides a view-independent method for solid texturing using an ordinary 2-D surface texture map. The solid map transforms a model’s polygons into 2-D texture space without overlap. It then rasterizes the polygons in this space, interpolating the solid texture coordinates across the pixels of the polygon. These stored solid texture coordinates are then read by a texture synthesis procedure, which generates a color that is stored at the corresponding location in the texture map. This texture map when applied to the model’s polygons yields a procedural solid texturing of the model. Artifacts of this method include coverage, sampling, distortion and seams. Four algorithms for mapping polygons into texture space without overlap are presented and compared across these artifacts. Applications of the solid map are also presented, including solid texturing deformed objects, real time procedural solid texturing, procedural solid texturing in OpenGL and storing solid textures in model description files.
Enhanced Field Ionization Enabled by Metal Induced Surface States on Semiconductor Nanotips

Recent progress in the realization of material structures with quantum confinement and high surface to volume ratio in nanoscale interwoven metal and semiconductor building blocks offers a strong potential to build highly functional nanodevices. Ultra‐sharp tips with distinct material dependent properties of metal and semiconductor exhibit important functionalities in devices including gas ionization sensors, field emission devices, and ion‐mobility spectrometry. Herein, a dramatically enhanced field ionization process and a device based on charged particle beams for which the geometrical and surface properties of the constituent semiconductor nanotips are engineered with controlled introduction of metallic impurities to realize close to three orders of magnitude reduction in the ionization electric‐field strength are described. Experimentally observed low voltage field ionization phenomenon is explained using the geometrical field enhancement, surface states induced by controlled introduction of metallic impurities, and polarizabilities of gas particles at the nanotips. The nanotips are employed to design field ionization gas sensors whose nanoscale pristine semiconductor tips are controllably decorated with atomic metal impurities to boost the electron tunneling properties under extremely low bias voltages. These devices also outperform their solid‐state macroscopic counterparts in terms of simplicity of their construction and higher selectivity.
Quantifying optic nerve axons in a cat glaucoma model by a semi-automated targeted counting method

Purpose To describe and validate a semi-automated targeted sampling (SATS) method for quantifying optic nerve axons in a feline glaucoma model. Methods Optic nerve cross sections were obtained from 15 cats, nine with mild to severe glaucoma and six with normal eyes. Optic nerves were dissected, fixed in paraformaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, and processed for light microscopy by resin embedding, sectioning, and staining of axon myelin sheaths with 1% p-phenylenediamine before axon quantification. Commercially available image analysis software was used as a semi-automated axon counting tool (SCT) and was first validated by comparison with a manual axon count (MAC). This counting tool was then used in a SATS method performed by three masked raters and in a semi-automated full count (SAFC) method performed by a single observer. Correlation was assessed between the SCT and MAC using a linear model and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Correlation between the SATS and SAFC methods was calculated and the bias, systematic errors, and variance component assessed. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was determined to establish inter-rater agreement. In addition, the time required to perform the SATS and SAFC methods was evaluated. Results Correlation between the axon counts obtained by the SCT and MAC was strong (r = 0.9985). There was evidence of an overcounting of axons by the SCT compared to the MAC with a percentage error rate of 13.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 11.0%, 15.1%). Both the correlation of SATS count (average per rater) to SAFC (r = 0.9891) and inter-rater agreement (ICC = 0.986) were high. The SATS method presented an overall positive counting error (p<0.001) when compared to the SAFC, consistent with a fixed percentage overestimation of 11.2% (95% CI 8.3%, 14.2%) of the full count. The average time required to quantify axons by the SATS method was 10.9 min, only 27% of that required to conduct the SAFC. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that the SATS method provides a practical, rapid, and reliable means of estimating axon counts in the optic nerves of cats with glaucoma.
Query optimization in xml-based information integration

The problem of decentralized data sharing is relevant for a wide range of applications and is still a source of major theoretical and practical challenges, in spite of many years of sustained research in information integration. We focus on the challenge of efficiency of query evaluation in information-integration systems, with the objective of developing query-processing strategies that are widely applicable and easy to implement in real-life applications. In our algorithms we take into account important features of today's data-sharing applications, namely: XML as likely interface to or representation for data sources; potential for information overlap across data sources; and the need for inter-source processing (i.e., joins of data across data sources) in many applications. To the best of our knowledge, our methods are the first to account for the practical issues of information overlap across data sources and of inter-source processing. While most of our algorithms are platform- and implementation-independent, we also propose XML-specific optimization techniques that allow for system-level tuning of query processing performance. Finally, using real-life datasets and our implementation of an information-integration system shell, we provide experimental results that demonstrate that our algorithms are efficient and competitive in the information-integration setting. For all the details, please see [1].
Robust PI and LQR controller design for active suspension system with parametric uncertainty

The robust PI controller and state feedback (Linear Quadratic Regulator) controller are designed to stabilize the dynamic responses of active suspension system with parametric uncertainty followed by road irregularities. To take care about the parametric uncertainties in the suspension system, we design the controller to make robust by polytopic representation of the system. A graphical method is used for computing PI controller parameters for all feasible gain and phase margin specifications. For this purpose, a stability boundary locus in (kp, ki) - plane is used. To achieve the specified gain and phase margin of the system, a gain-phase margin tester is used and stability boundary locus is plotted. The controller gains guarantee the stabilization of the system response with uncertain parameters. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Entropy-Based Saliency Computation in Log-Polar Images

Visual saliency provides a filtering mechanism to focus on a set of interesting areas in the scene, but these mechanisms often overload the computational resources of many computer vision tasks. In order to reduce such an overload and improve the computational performance, we propose to exploit the advantages of logpolar vision to detect salient regions with economy of computational resources and quite stable results. Particularly, in this paper we study the application of the entropy-based saliency to log-polar images. Some interesting considerations are presented in reference to the concept of “scale” and the effects of space-variant sampling on scale selection. We also propose a necessary border extension to detect objects present in peripheral areas. The original entropy-based saliency algorithm can be used in log-polar images, but the results show that our adaptations allow to detect with more precision log-polar salient forms because they consider the information redundancy of space-variant sampling. Compared with cartesian, log-polar salient results allow a significant saving of computational resources.
Critical role of smoking and household dampness during childhood for adult phlegm and cough: a research example from a prospective cohort study in Great Britain

Objective To examine independent associations between childhood exposures to smoking and household dampness, and phlegm and cough in adulthood. Design A prospective cohort study. Participants 7320 of the British cohort who were born during 1 week in 1970 and had complete data for childhood and adult information. Main outcome measures Experiences of phlegm and coughing over the previous 3 months were assessed using questions from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Questionnaire on respiratory symptoms when the cohort participants were 29 years of age. 4 response patterns (no symptoms, phlegm only, cough only, both symptoms present) were created based on the responses to these questions. Results Childhood smoking and exposure to marked household dampness at age 10 were associated with phlegm (childhood smoking: relative risk ratio (RRR)=1.45, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.05; dampness: RRR=2.05, 95% CI 1.07 to 3.91) and co-occurring cough and phlegm (childhood smoking: RRR=1.35. 95% CI 1.08 to 1.67; dampness: RRR=2.73, 95% CI 1.88 to 3.99), while exposure to two or more adult smokers in the household was associated with cough-related symptoms (cough only: RRR=1.28, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.58; phlegm and cough: RRR=1.32, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.64). These associations were independent from adult smoking, childhood phlegm and cough, early social background and sex. Current smoking at age 29 contributed to all symptom patterns; however, a substantial association between household dampness and co-occurring phlegm and cough suggest long-term detrimental effects of childhood environmental exposures. Conclusions Our findings give support to current public health interventions for adult smoking and raise concerns about the long-term effects of a damp home environment on the respiratory health of children.