Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparative analysis of Patient-Reported Expanded Disability Status Scale tools

Background: Patient-Reported Expanded Disability Status Scale (PREDSS) tools are an attractive alternative to the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) during long term or geographically challenging studies, or in pressured clinical service environments. Objectives: Because the studies reporting these tools have used different metrics to compare the PREDSS and EDSS, we undertook an individual patient data level analysis of all available tools. Methods: Spearman’s rho and the Bland–Altman method were used to assess correlation and agreement respectively. Results: A systematic search for validated PREDSS tools covering the full EDSS range identified eight such tools. Individual patient data were available for five PREDSS tools. Excellent correlation was observed between EDSS and PREDSS with all tools. A higher level of agreement was observed with increasing levels of disability. In all tools, the 95% limits of agreement were greater than the minimum EDSS difference considered to be clinically significant. However, the intra-class coefficient was greater than that reported for EDSS raters of mixed seniority. The visual functional system was identified as the most significant predictor of the PREDSS–EDSS difference. Conclusion: This analysis will (1) enable researchers and service providers to make an informed choice of PREDSS tool, depending on their individual requirements, and (2) facilitate improvement of current PREDSS tools.
Enantiodivergent Synthesis of (R)- and (S)-Rolipram

Abstract : Both enantiomers of rolipram ( 1 ) have been prepared in large quantity from a commonintermediate rac- 3-(3’-cyclopentyloxy-4’-methoxy)phenyl-4-nitro butyric acid ( 6 ), which was resolved byway of the two readily separable diastereoisomeric amides obtained with ( S )-(−)-phenylethylamine. Reductionof the nitro group and intramolecular transamidation gave ( R )-(−)- 1 and ( S )-(+)- 1 , respectively. CD spectraof both enantiomers of rolipram are reported and discussed. Both enantiomers of rolipram presented the samepotency of inhibitory activity against recombinant cyclic-AMP-selective phosphodiesterase (PDE4) subtypes. Keywords: Rolipram, phosphodiesterase, circular dichroism (CD) spectra, enantiodivergent synthesis. Introduction Rolipram ( 1 ) is a compound with varied biologicalactivity. In particular, attention has been drawn to theemetic [1], antiinflammatory [2], immunosupressant [3],antidepressive [4,5], putative antiparkinsonian [6], andneuroprotective [7] effects. The best characterisedbiochemical activity of
Contribution of communications to dependability in massively-defective general-purpose nanoarchitectures

Many previous studies have analyzed the issues of dependability in the physical layers of future nanoarchitectures. Here we consider the upper layers and especially the contribution of communications to reinforcing the dependability of general-purpose nanoarchitectures (GPN). We adhere to the idea that a GPN should be viewed as a single-chip massive multiprocessor system, consisting in immersing a few high-performance processors in a grid of medium-performance processors to enable efficient execution of both parallelizable and not parallelizable applications. We especially discuss the operation of the communication layer and introduce the mechanism of "blind" task allocation through a contract network protocol. In the framework of this GPN sketch, we show that the communication layer could dramatically contribute to improving the dependability of massively-faulty GPNs by tolerating the increasing number of defective nodes expected with the reduction of dimensions, so that chips with as much as 30% of defective nodes could be validated for deployment
Efficient Deterministic Replay of Multithreaded Programs Based on Efficient Tracking of Cross-Thread Dependences ∗

Shared-memory parallel programs are inherently nondeterministic, making it difficult to diagnose rare bugs and to achieve deterministic execution, e.g., for replication. Existing multithreaded record & replay approaches have serious limitations such as relying on custom hardware or slowing programs by an order of magnitude. This paper introduces an approach for multithreaded record & replay based on tracking and reproducing shared memory dependences accurately and efficiently. We extend prior work that introduces an efficient dependence recorder, by developing a new analysis for replaying dependences. To demonstrate multithreaded record & replay, we make substantial modifications to a Java virtual machine to control sources of nondeterminism in the JVM that affect application-level determinism such as garbage collection and class loading. We also introduce a research methodology that enables us to demonstrate replay in the inherently nondeterministic JVM. Overall the performance of both recorded and replayed executions compares favorably with existing software-based record & replay approaches.
How can EPs best support secondary school staff to work effectively with children and young people who experience social, emotional and mental health difficulties?

Schools are increasingly being positioned as providers and coordinators of social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) support for children and young people, yet the voice of school staff and Educational Psychologists (EPs) is underrepresented. This research utilised focus groups with 14 school staff across two mainstream secondary schools in a south London borough to understand what is supportive in their role helping children and young people (CYP) who experience SEMH difficulties. Five EPs constituted a focus group in the same borough to understand their view on how they can be bolder in stepping into their role supporting schools and staff with SEMH. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory was used as a lens through which to explore the complex factors which impact on schools and EPs. Attunement in the school community, staff knowledge and skills and role conflicts emerged as themes through a thematic analysis of focus group transcripts. Conclusions focus on the importance of an inclusive ethos within the school which supports both staff and students, and discussion of whether schools are culturally and systemically adapting to meet children and young people’s SEMH needs. EPs are positioned at the intersection of psychology and education, and so are well placed to support schools across the ecological system. Implications for further research and policy are suggested.
Over-the-horizon, autonomous navigation for planetary exploration

The success of NASA's Mars exploration rovers has demonstrated the important benefits that mobility adds to planetary exploration. Very soon, mission requirements will impose that planetary exploration rovers drive over-the-horizon in a single command cycle. This require an evolution of the methods and technologies currently used. This paper presents experimental validation of our over-the-horizon autonomous planetary navigation. We present our approach to 3D terrain reconstruction from large sparse range data sets, localization and autonomous navigation in a Mars-like terrain. Our approach is based on on-line acquisition of range scans, map construction from these scans, path planning and navigation using the map. An autonomy engine supervises the whole process ensuring the safe navigation of the planetary rover. The outdoor experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the reconstructed terrain model for rover localization, path planning and motion execution scenario as well as the autonomy capability of our approach.
Comments on D-branes in Kazama-Suzuki models and Landau-Ginzburg theories

We study D-branes in Kazama-Suzuki models by means of the boundary state description. We can identify the boundary states of Kazama-Suzuki models with the solitons in = 2 Landau-Ginzburg theories. We also propose a geometrical interpretation of the boundary states in Kazama-Suzuki models.
A Novel High-Resolution Single Locus Sequence Typing Scheme for Mixed Populations of Propionibacterium acnes In Vivo

The Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium Propionibacterium acnes is a prevalent member of the normal skin microbiota of human adults. In addition to its suspected role in acne vulgaris it is involved in a variety of opportunistic infections. Multi-locus sequence-typing (MLST) schemes identified distinct phylotypes associated with health and disease. Being based on 8 to 9 house-keeping genes these MLST schemes have a high discriminatory power, but their application is time- and cost-intensive. Here we describe a single-locus sequence typing (SLST) scheme for P. acnes. The target locus was identified with a genome mining approach that took advantage of the availability of representative genome sequences of all known phylotypes of P. acnes. We applied this SLST on a collection of 188 P. acnes strains and demonstrated a resolution comparable to that of existing MLST schemes. Phylogenetic analysis applied to the SLST locus resulted in clustering patterns identical to a reference tree based on core genome sequences. We further demonstrate that SLST can be applied to detect multiple phylotypes in complex microbial communities by a metagenomic pyrosequencing approach. The described SLST strategy may be applied to any bacterial species with a basically clonal population structure to achieve easy typing and mapping of multiple phylotypes in complex microbiotas. The P. acnes SLST database can be found at http://medbac.dk/slst/pacnes.
Historical relevance of Vygotsky’s work: Its significance for a new approach to the problem of subjectivity in psychology

This paper discusses theoretical issues concerning Vygotsky’s work that have remained unaddressed in the dominant interpretations of his work, either in the former Soviet psychology or in the dominant Western interpretations. This paper builds on interpretations of Vygotsky’s concepts oriented by the unity of emotional and cognitive processes and focused on the search for new psychical unities on which to build a systemic representation of the human mind. Because Vygotsky did not provide a definite position on such questions, I have centered on the analysis of the consequences of his legacy for the development of a definition of subjectivity from a cultural-historical standpoint.
Aggregation in Swarm Robotic Systems: Evolution and Probabilistic Control

In this study we investigate two approachees for aggregation behavior in swarm robotics systems: Evolutionary methods and probabilistic control. In first part, aggregation behavior is chosen as a case, where performance and scalability of aggregation behaviors of perceptron controllers that are evolved for a simulated swarm robotic system are systematically studied with different parameter settings. Using a cluster of computers to run simulations in parallel, four experiments are conducted varying some of the parameters. Rules of thumb are derived, which can be of guidance to the use of evolutionary methods to generate other swarm robotic behaviors as well. In the second part a systematic analysis of probabilistic aggregation strategies in swarm robotic systems is presented. A generic aggregation behavior is proposed as a combination of four basic behaviors: obstacle avoidance, approach, repel, and wait. The latter three basic behaviors are combined using a three-state finite state machine with two probabilistic transitions among them. Two different metrics were used to compare performance of strategies. Through systematic experiments, how the aggregation performance, as measured by these two metrics, change 1) with transition probabilities, 2) with number of simulation steps, and 3) with arena size, is studied. We then discuss these two approaches for the aggregation problem.
Use of Ecotilling as an efficient SNP discovery tool to survey genetic variation in wild populations of Populus trichocarpa

Ecotilling was used as a simple nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovery tool to examine DNA variation in natural populations of the western black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa, and was found to be more efficient than sequencing for large‐scale studies of genetic variation in this tree. A publicly available, live reference collection of P. trichocarpa from the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden was used in this study to survey variation in nine different genes among individuals from 41 different populations. A large amount of genetic variation was detected, but the level of variation appears to be less than in the related species, Populus tremula, based on reported statistics for that tree. Genes examined varied considerably in their level of variation, from PoptrTB1 which had a single SNP, to PoptrLFY which had more than 23 in the 1000‐bp region examined. Overall nucleotide diversity, measured as Total, was relatively low at 0.00184. Linkage disequilibrium, on the other hand, was higher than reported for some woody plant species, with mean r2 equal to 0.34. This study reveals the potential of Ecotilling as a rapid genotype discovery method to explore and utilize the large pool of genetic variation in tree species.
Detecting Earnings Management: A New Approach

This paper provides a new approach to testing for accrual-based earnings management. Our approach exploits the inherent property of accrual accounting that any accrual-based earnings management in one period must reverse in another period. If the researcher has priors concerning the timing of the reversal, incorporating these priors significantly improves the power and specification of tests for earnings management. Our results indicate that incorporating reversals can increase test power by over 40% and also provides a robust solution for mitigating model misspecification arising from correlated omitted variables.
Integrating Distributional Similarity as an Abduction Mechanism in Recognizing Textual Entailment

The task of determining whether one sentence intuitively entails another sentence often depends on a rich body of lexical and world knowledge. Since its emergence in the 1960s, however, the formal semantics of natural language has shown that an important class of entailment relations can be accounted for in terms of the compositional structure of a sentence, more specifically, from the way functional or logical expressions combined with other expressions to build complex expressions. In Mineshima et al. (2015), we presented a system that combines formal compositional semantics with a wide-coverage CCG parser (Clark and Curran, 2004) and performs inferences in higherorder logic (HOL). The system is applied to textual entailment tasks, and consists of three steps. First, using the CCG parser, sentences are mapped onto CCG derivation trees. Then, the outputs are compositionally mapped onto formulas in HOL. Finally, the inference system checks for entailment and contradiction; for a set of premises P1, . , Pn and a conclusion H , the system outputs yes if P1∧· · ·∧Pn → H is proved, no if P1∧· · ·∧Pn → ¬H is proved, and unknown otherwise. The system was evaluated on the FraCaS dataset (Cooper et al., 1994; MacCartney and Manning, 2007), which consists of linguistically challenging entailment problems. The results showed that our system performs efficient and precise inferences on complex phenomena such as generalized quantifiers, coordination, adjectives, intensional modifiers, and attitude verbs, improving on the Boxer/Nutcracker system (Bos et al., 2004) based on the standard first-order logic. The focus of the system presented in Mineshima et al. (2015) is on logical and structural aspects of inferences—typical instances are those triggered by logical expressions such as quantifiers, negation, and connectives. However, in order to deal with lexical knowledge and develop a richer system of natural language inference, our system needs to be augmented with other methods. One possible step to achieve this goal is to integrate distributional approaches to word meanings with formal semantics. The primary motivation behind such a hybrid system is the thought that the two approaches to semantics are complementary; formal semantics can capture logical/structural aspects of entailment in a clear way but usually do not handle rich lexical contents of particular words, while the opposite is true of distributional semantics. Important contributions along this line of thought include the hybrid system of Lewis and Steedman (2013), where lexical contents of words are represented by first clustering predicates based on their usage in large corpora. In this paper, we attempt to combine the system of Mineshima et al. (2015) with an abduction mechanism that discerns linguistic relationships between words from the premises and the conclusion and introduces axioms on-demand.
The Relationship of Throwing Arm Mechanics and Elbow Varus Torque: Within-subject Variation for Professional Baseball Pitchers Across 81,999 Throws

Objectives: Likely due to the high level of strain exerted across the elbow during the throwing motion, elbow injuries are on the rise in baseball. In order to identify at risk athletes and guide post-injury return to throw programs, a better understanding of the variables that influence elbow varus torque is desired. The purpose of this work was to describe the within-subject relationship between elbow varus torque and arm slot, arm speed, and shoulder rotation in professional baseball pitchers. Methods: A total of 81 professional pitchers performed 81,999 throws while wearing a motusBASEBALL sensor and sleeve (Motus Global, Massapequa, NY, USA). These throws represented a combination of throw types, such as warm-up/catch, structured long-toss, bullpen throwing from a mound, and live game activity. Variables recorded for each throw included arm slot, arm speed, shoulder rotation, and elbow varus torque. Linear mixed-effects models and likelihood ratio tests were utilized to estimate to the relationship between elbow varus torque and arm slot, arm speed, and shoulder rotation within individual pitchers. Results: All three metrics, arm slot (χ2 = 428, p<0.01), arm speed (χ2 = 57683, p<0.01), and shoulder rotation (χ2 = 1392, p<0.01), were estimated to have a significant relationship with elbow varus torque. Within individual athletes, a 1-Nm increase in elbow varus torque was associated with a 13° decrease in arm slot, a 116°/s increase in arm speed, and an 8° increase in shoulder rotation. Conclusion: Elbow varus torque increased significantly as pitchers increased shoulder rotation during the arm cocking phase and rotational velocity of the arm during the arm acceleration phase of throwing. Thus shoulder flexibility, arm speed, and elbow varus torque (and likely injury risk) are inter-related and should be considered collectively when treating pitchers.
Performance Evaluation of Bottom-Up Saliency Models for Object Proposal Generation

In this work, we present the performance evaluationof twelve existing saliency models for the purpose of objectproposal generation. The topic of object proposal generation isof high importance as most of the successful object detectiontechniques still employ the sliding window approach. Intelligentpre-selection of sliding windows using object proposalgeneration methods have shown to boost both runtime anddetection performance. Unlike existing approaches, we do notemploy any machine learning classifier or require training. The saliency map of the corresponding image is computedand the variance of the region of interest on the saliencymap is considered as its score correspondingly. Experimentson two contemporary object detection datasets have revealedthe effectiveness of bottom-up saliency models as a tool forobject proposal generation.
A multidisciplinary research framework for analysing the spatial enablement of public sector processes

Although Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a complex concept with many facets, it is widely recognised that SDIs are about facilitating and coordinating spatial information flows. This paper argues that the analysis of spatial information flows should not be separated from the processes in which they are embedded. The paper presents the development of a multidisciplinary research framework to study the spatial enablement of public sector processes, and the application of this research framework in a case study on zoning planning in Flanders (Belgium). The paper demonstrates the applicability of the proposed research framework for enhancing our understanding of factors that may influence the role of spatial information in public sector processes. The identification of these decisive factors may contribute to the further advancement of SDI as an enabling platform.
New schedule of bevacizumab/paclitaxel as first‐line therapy for metastatic HER2‐negative breast cancer in a real‐life setting

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in the growth and progression of breast cancer. This observational single center study evaluated the efficacy and safety of a new weekly schedule of bevacizumab/paclitaxel combination in the first‐line treatment of unselected, HER2‐negative, metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients, in a real‐life setting. Thirty‐five patients (median age 56 years, range 40–81) with HER2‐negative MBC were treated with paclitaxel (70 mg/m2) dd 1,8,15 q21 (60 mg/m2 if ≥65 years or secondary Cumulative Illness Rating Scale) plus bevacizumab (10 mg/kg) every 2 weeks. Twenty‐two patients (63%) had ≥2 metastatic sites and 15 (43%) visceral disease. Eleven patients (31%) had a triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC). A clinical complete response (cCR) was observed in 6 (17%) cases after a median of seven cycles, a partial response (PR) in 22 (63%), and a stable disease (SD) in 6 (17%) cases; the overall clinical benefit rate was 97%. In TNBC subgroup, cCR occurred in 1 (9%) case, PR in 8 (73%), and SD in 2 (18%). At a median follow‐up of 13 months (range 1–79 months), the median progression‐free survival was 11 months and the median overall survival was 36 months. No grade 4 adverse events occurred. The main grade 3 toxicities observed were neutropenia (11.4%), hypertension (5.7%), stomatitis (2.8%), diarrhea (2.8%), and vomiting (2.8%). The administration of weekly paclitaxel plus bevacizumab in this real‐life experience shows similar efficacy than previously reported schedules, with a comparable dose intensity and a good toxicity profile.
An efficient iris recognition system based on modular neural networks

In this paper, we propose a neural network based iris recognition approach by analyzing iris patterns. The iris recognition system consists of iris localization, feature extraction and classification of the iris images. Hough transforms were used for localizing the iris region; Cartesian to polar coordinate transform was used for transforming the ring shaped iris image to the rectangular shape. Then, histogram equalization was applied to the iris image for making the shapes in image more distinctive. Average absolute deviation (AAD) algorithm was used for feature extraction in this approach. In matching process, Multi-Layered Perceptron (MLP) and Modular Neural Networks (MNN) are applied to the iris feature vector for classifying the iris images. In fact, this research is focused on measuring the performance of MNN in iris recognition system compared with Multi-Layered Perceptron (MLP) neural network. The gray-level iris images, experimented in this work, were obtained from Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Science (CASIA) iris images database and Departments of Informatics University of Beira Interior (UBIRIS) iris images database. Experimental results are given in the last stage of this paper.
Designing Mobility Eco-Feedback for Elderly Users

This paper describes a design-case study for eliciting user feedback and investigating the requirements of a mobile app fostering the adoption of sustainable mobile behavior by elderly users. We report the main lessons learned based on an interview-study using low-mid fidelity prototyping design features for eco-feedback. These lessons currently inform our implementation work in the INNOLAB project and could be of interest for designers in the eco-sustainability field.