Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Artificial neural networks distinguish among subtypes of neoplastic colorectal lesions.

BACKGROUND & AIMS There is a subtle distinction between sporadic colorectal adenomas and cancers (SAC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-associated dysplasias and cancers. However, this distinction is clinically important because sporadic adenomas are usually managed by polypectomy alone, whereas IBD-related high-grade dysplasias mandate subtotal colectomy. The current study evaluated the ability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) based on complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray data to discriminate between these 2 types of colorectal lesions. METHODS We hybridized cDNA microarrays, each containing 8064 cDNA clones, to RNAs derived from 39 colorectal neoplastic specimens. Hierarchical clustering was performed, and an ANN was constructed and trained on a set of 5 IBD-related dysplasia or cancer (IBDNs) and 22 SACs. RESULTS Hierarchical clustering based on all 8064 clones failed to correctly categorize the SACs and IBDNs. However, the ANN correctly diagnosed 12 of 12 blinded samples in a test set (3 IBDNs and 9 SACs). Furthermore, using an iterative process based on the computer programs GeneFinder, Cluster, and MATLAB, we reduced the number of clones used for diagnosis from 8064 to 97. Even with this reduced clone set, the ANN retained its capacity for correct diagnosis. Moreover, cluster analysis performed with these 97 clones now separated the 2 types of lesions. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that ANNs have the potential to discriminate among subtly different clinical entities, such as IBDNs and SACs, as well as to identify gene subsets having the power to make these diagnostic distinctions.
Methodology Courage Kamusoko

Remote sensing, GIS, and land change models (LCMs) are critical for mapping urban land use/cover and simulating “what if” urban growth scenarios, particularly in developing countries experiencing rapid urbanization. The purpose of this chapter is to describe briefly the methodology used to produce land use/cover maps, and simulate land use/cover changes for selected metropolitan areas in Asia and Africa. Land use/cover maps were classified from Landsat imagery for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2014 using the random forest (RF) classifier. Quantitative accuracy assessment was not conducted for the 1990 land use/cover maps due to lack of reference data. However, qualitative and quantitative accuracy assessment was performed for the 2000, 2010, and 2014 land use/cover maps based on Google Earth imagery. Overall land use/cover classification accuracy for all land use/cover maps ranged from 70 to 90%. Land use/cover changes were simulated based on the boosted regression trees-cellular automata (BRT-CA) and RF-CA LCMs. We evaluated the goodness-of-fit of transition potential maps, and validated the simulated land use/cover changes based on robust statistical measures. Generally, the BRT-CA and RF-CA LCMs for all metropolitan areas in Asia and Africa performed relatively well. In particular, the BRT-CA and RF-CA LCMs for metropolitan areas in Africa had the best performance. The modeling and simulation results presented in this chapter provide an initial exploration of BRT-CA and RF-CA LCMs in Asia and Africa. This chapter demonstrates the significance of robust calibration, validation, and simulation of spatial LCMs for all metropolitan areas in Asia and Africa. C. Kamusoko (&) Asia Air Survey Co., Ltd, Kawasaki, Japan e-mail: kamas72@gmail.com © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 Y. Murayama et al. (eds.), Urban Development in Asia and Africa, The Urban Book Series, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3241-7_2 11
Bandwidth Extension in CMOS with Transmission Line

In this paper, a technology is proposed to extend the bandwidth of limiting amplifier in CMOS process. The simulated and measured results proved that a coplanar transmission line terminated in a short circuit can realize an inductor in CMOS process, and it can extend the bandwidth of limiting amplifier extremely. Furthermore, the inductors made of transmission line can replace the spiral inductor in CMOS integrated circuits when operating frequency is below 10 GHz
The Euro and Inflation Divergence in Europe

In January 1999, eleven European countries abandoned their respective national currencies and monetary independence to adopt a common currency, the Euro. Inflation dispersion and inflation differentials (with respect to German inflation) within the Euro-area countries have increased after the adoption of the common currency. Countries with higher inflation rates tend to have also had higher GDP growth rates and a lower price level when the Euro was adopted.
Resistin Regulates Pituitary Lipid Metabolism and Inflammation In Vivo and In Vitro

The adipokine resistin is an insulin-antagonizing factor that also plays a regulatory role in inflammation, immunity, food intake, and gonadal function and also regulates growth hormone (GH) secretion in rat adenopituitary cells cultures with the adipokine. Although adipose tissue is the primary source of resistin, it is also expressed in other tissues, including the pituitary. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible action of resistin on the lipid metabolism in the pituitary gland in vivo (rats in two different nutritional status, fed and fast, treated with resistin on acute and a chronic way) and in vitro (adenopituitary cell cultures treated with the adipokine). Here, by a combination of in vivo and in vitro experimental models, we demonstrated that central acute and chronic administration of resistin enhance mRNA levels of the lipid metabolic enzymes which participated on lipolysis and moreover inhibiting mRNA levels of the lipid metabolic enzymes involved in lipogenesis. Taken together, our results demonstrate for the first time that resistin has a regulatory role on lipid metabolism in the pituitary gland providing a novel insight in relation to the mechanism by which this adipokine can participate in the integrated control of lipid metabolism.
Therapist Self-disclosure with Clients from Diverse Backgrounds

The psychological literature on therapist self-disclosure in counselling and psychotherapy has shown to be a beneficial tool in working with clients’ in-session. Current research on therapist self-disclosure suggests that not all therapy skills have been successfully adapted when working with clients of from diverse backgrounds. Using a grounded theory approach, nine therapists were interviewed about the ways in which they use self-disclosure with clients from differing social locations than themselves. Four major themes emerged from the data: 1) Understanding Therapist Self-Disclosure; 2) Conceptualizing ‘Diversity’; 3) Contexts in which Therapists Conceal Themselves from the Client; and 4) Contexts in which Therapists Reveal Themselves to the Client. The results showed that participants were more inclined to disclose sooner and with greater comfort when working with someone from a similar ethno-cultural background whereas they were more cautious and less inclined to disclose to a client if they were from an unfamiliar cultural background.
Spoof Attacks on Multimodal Biometric Systems

Biometrics, referred as the science of recognizing an individual based on his or her physical or behavioral traits, has been widely employed as a security system in the awake of latest security issues. However, recent researches have shown that many biometric traits are vulnerable to spoof attacks. In addition, a latest results have questioned that, contrary to a common claim, multimodal systems can be cracked by spoofing only one trait. Those results were obtained using simulated spoof attacks, under the unrealistic assumption that the spoofed and genuine samples are identical, turned out to be the same outputs. We further investigate this significant security issue, focusing on behavior of fixed and trained score fusion rules, using real spoof attack samples under different spoof attack scenarios. Preliminary empirical results on real biometric systems made up of face, fingerprint and iris with twelve score fusion rules confirm that multimodal biometric systems are not intrinsically robust against spoof attacks as believed so far. In particular, most widely used fixed rules can be less robust, even if the quality of fake biometric trait is low. The false acceptance rate increases substantially under spoof attacks which means that an attacker might wrongly get authenticated by spoofing a subset of traits. In all considered spoofing scenarios, we also found that trained rules are more accurate, flexible and robust against spoof attacks as compare to fixed one.
The evaluator effect in usability tests

Usability tests are applied in industry to evaluate systems and in research as a yardstick for other usability evaluation methods. However, one potential threat to the reliability of usability tests has been letI unaddressed: the evaluator effect. In this study, four evaluators analyzed four videotaped usability test sessions. Only 20% of the 93 unique problems were detected by all four evaluators and 46% were detected by only a single evaluator. Severe problems were detected more often by all four evaluators (41%) and less often by only one evaluator (22%) but a substantial evaluator effect remained.
Navigating the “Sea of Goodwill”: Lessons from Regional Veterans Collaboratives

ABSTRACT Veterans and military families face a complex set of challenges transitioning to civilian life. Following in a tradition of community collaboration and collective impact, we believe that a coordinated community-based approach can help ease this transition. Our comparative case study suggests that veteran collaborative efforts should be based on best principles including a neutral and natural convening organization; the presence of credibility, respect, and trust; resources to administer and facilitate; and using data for planning and implementation. Looking forward, these collaboratives need to address issues of scale, formalizing and broadening their scope to identify and achieve and evaluate their impact.
Genetic design of 3D modular manipulators

This paper proposes a method for task based design of modular robotic systems using genetic algorithms (GA). We introduce a 3D kinematic description for modular serial manipulators and a two-level GA to optimize their topology from task specifications. Revolute and prismatic joints are considered and the number of DOF is let to the GA to determine (allowing redundant manipulators). The upper-level GA is dedicated to the topology evolution and uses the lower-level GA to search for inverse kinematics problem solutions. The topology is evolved for adaptation to a global task constituted by several required end effector configurations (subtasks). The implemented GA optimizes several performance criteria under constraints. To illustrate the method capacities, an example is presented for a redundant manipulator in a cluttered workspace.
Imaging of evoked dense-core-vesicle exocytosis in hippocampal neurons reveals long latencies and kiss-and-run fusion events

Evoked neuropeptide secretion in the central nervous system occurs slowly, but the basis for slow release is not fully understood. Whereas exocytosis of single synaptic vesicles in neurons and of dense-core vesicles (DCVs) in endocrine cells have been directly visualized, single DCV exocytic events in neurons of the central nervous system have not been previously studied. We imaged DCV exocytosis in primary cultured hippocampal neurons using fluorescent propeptide cargo and total internal reflectance fluorescence microscopy. The majority of Ca2+-triggered exocytic events occurred from immobile plasma-membrane-proximal DCVs in the cell soma, whereas there were few events in the neurites. Strikingly, DCVs in the cell soma exhibited 50-fold greater release probabilities than those in neurites. Latencies to depolarization-evoked fusion for DCVs were surprisingly long, occurring with an average time constant (τ) of 16 seconds for DCVs in the soma and even longer for DCVs in neurites. All of the single DCV release events exhibited rapid fusion-pore openings and closures, the kinetics of which were highly dependent upon Ca2+ levels. These `kiss-and-run' events were associated with limited cargo secretion. Thus, the slow evoked release of neuropeptides could be attributed to very prolonged latencies from stimulation to fusion and transient fusion-pore openings that might limit cargo secretion.
Linear and successive predistortion in the frequency domain: performance evaluation in SDMA systems

In this paper, linear and successive predistortion techniques for single-carrier and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission systems with frequency domain filtering are presented using either zero forcing or Wiener optimization. The successive predistortion scheme applies modulo arithmetic in each iteration, borrowed from Tomlinson-Harashima precoding. The achievable uncoded and coded bit error ratios are presented. We demonstrate that the successive scheme has the ability to improve performance compared to linear predistortion. However, in combination with channel coding this improvement vanishes, depending on the chosen coding scheme. Furthermore, signal dynamics at transmitter and receiver are analyzed, showing that successive predistortion has no impact on the dynamic range of transmit signals, but increases the dynamic range of receive signals compared to linear predistortion.
The Role of Free-Living Daily Walking in Human Weight Gain and Obesity

OBJECTIVE—Diminished daily physical activity explains, in part, why obesity and diabetes have become worldwide epidemics. In particular, chair use has replaced ambulation, so that obese individuals tend to sit for ∼2.5 h/day more than lean counterparts. Here, we address the hypotheses that free-living daily walking distance is decreased in obesity compared with lean subjects and that experimental weight gain precipitates decreased daily walking. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—During weight-maintenance feeding, we measured free-living walking using a validated system that captures locomotion and body movement for 10 days in 22 healthy lean and obese sedentary individuals. These measurements were then repeated after the lean and obese subjects were overfed by 1,000 kcal/day for 8 weeks. RESULTS—We found that free-living walking comprises many (∼47) short-duration (<15 min), low-velocity (∼1 mph) walking bouts. Lean subjects walked 3.5 miles/day more than obese subjects (n = 10, 10.3 ± 2.5 vs. n = 12, 6.7 ± 1.8 miles/day; P = 0.0009). With overfeeding, walking distance decreased by 1.5 miles/day compared with baseline values (−1.5 ± 1.7 miles/day; P = 0.0005). The decrease in walking that accompanied overfeeding occurred to a similar degree in the lean (−1.4 ± 1.9 miles/day; P = 0.04) and obese (−1.6 ± 1.7 miles/day; P = 0.008) subjects. CONCLUSIONS—Walking is decreased in obesity and declines with weight gain. This may represent a continuum whereby progressive increases in weight are associated with progressive decreases in walking distance. By identifying walking as pivotal in weight gain and obesity, we hope to add credence to an argument for an ambulatory future.
The Role of Intonation Units in Memory for Spoken English

Author(s): Simpson, Heather Elizabeth | Advisor(s): Moscoso del Prado Martin, Fermin | Abstract: Comprehension and production of spoken language are very memory-intensive tasks, especially in real-time natural interactions. Yet, it is well-known that human beings have a very limited capacity for retention of newly-presented material, a phenomenon normally attributed to limitations on short-term memory. This dissertation provides evidence that the Intonation Unit (IU), an intermediate-level prosodic phrase, serves a critical role in processing of spoken English by carving up the continuous speech stream into bite-sized 'chunks' that can be easily fit into listeners' limited focus of attention. Three empirical studies are presented: a study of memory span in terms of IUs, employing data from a verbatim recall experiment; a study of association strength between and across IU boundaries, employing data from the same recall experiment; and a study of priming duration in terms of IUs, analyzing a corpus of spoken English. The implications of the findings with respect to Wallace Chafe's (1980,1987,1994) conception of Intonation Units and theories of short-term memory are explored.
EddyScan: A physically consistent ocean eddy monitoring application

Rotating coherent structures of water known as ocean eddies are the oceanic analog of storms in the atmosphere and a crucial component of ocean dynamics. In addition to dominating the ocean's kinetic energy, eddies play a significant role in the transport of water, salt, heat, and nutrients. Therefore, understanding current and future eddy activity is a central challenge to address future sustainability of marine ecosystems. The emergence of sea surface height observations from satellite radar altimeter has recently enabled researchers to track eddies at a global scale. The majority of studies that identify eddies from observational data employ highly parametrized connected component algorithms using expert filtered data, effectively making reproducibility and scalability challenging. In this paper, we improve upon the state-of-the-art connected component eddy monitoring algorithms to track eddies globally. This work makes three main contributions: first, we do not pre-process the data therefore minimizing the risk of wiping out important signals within the data. Second, we employ a physically-consistent convexity requirement on eddies based on theoretical and empirical studies to improve the accuracy and computational complexity of our method from quadratic to linear time in the size of each eddy. Finally, we accurately separate eddies that are in close spatial proximity, something existing methods cannot accomplish. We compare our results to those of the state of the art and discuss the impact of our improvements on the difference in results.
A Self-Hosting Evaluator using HOAS A Scheme

We demonstrate a tiny, yet non-trivial evaluator that is powerful enough to run practical code, including itself. This is made possible using a Higher-Order Abstract Syntax (HOAS) representation — a technique that has become popular in syntax-related research during the past decade. With a HOAS encoding, we use functions to encode binders in syntax values, leading to an advantages of reflecting binders rather than re-implementing them. In Scheme, hygienic macros cover problems that are associated with binders in an elegant way, but only when extending the language, i.e., when we work at the meta-level. In contrast, HOAS is a useful object-level technique, used when we need to represent syntax values that contain bindings — and this is achieved in a way that is simple, robust, and efficient. We gradually develop the code, explaining the technique and its benefits, while playing with the evaluator.
Hierarchical road understanding for intelligent vehicles based on sensor fusion

Comprehensive situational awareness is paramount to the effectiveness of proprietary navigational and higher-level functions of the intelligent vehicles. In this paper, we address a hierarchical road understanding system for intelligent vehicles with respect to the road topography and the existence of objects based on sensor fusion. The proposed system consists of three modules that run in parallel. Module one classifies the road environment into four categories, i.e. the reachable region, the drivable region, the obstacle region and the unknown region. In module two, an efficient graph-based clustering algorithm is performed in the obstacle region to generate a list of object hypotheses, and their characteristics are used for the coarse identification. In module three, for the object hypotheses in front of the vehicle, particular objects of interest, including vehicles, pedestrians, motorcycles and bicycles, are identified using a multi-class object detector with deformable part-based models, and tracked using particle filters. In the experiments, the data of various typical but challenging road scenarios were acquired by a Velodyne sensor and a monocular camera, and the results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system.
SmgGDS antagonizes BPGAP1-induced Ras/ERK activation and neuritogenesis in PC12 cell differentiation

BPGAP1 controls morphogenesis, migration, and ERK signaling by the concerted action of its multiple domains. Its BCH domain targets K-Ras and induces robust ERK activation and neuronal differentiation in a process antagonized by SmgGDS. The results highlight unique cross-talk of two regulators of GTPases in Ras/ERK signaling and differentiation.
A Stackelberg Game Approach to maximise electricity retailer's profit and minimse customers' bills for future smart grid

This paper proposes a Stackelberg Game Approach to trade-off between maximising the profit of the retailer and minimising the payment bills of the customers. The electricity retailer determines the retail price and sends the price information to customers through an advanced metering infrastructure. According to the announced price, the customers obtain the optimal scheduling details of the appliances in each household through an optimal residential electricity consumption scheduling framework. Once the scheduling details of appliances in each household are obtained, the retailer can maximise its profit by solving the profit maximisation problem. We model the interactions between the retailer and electricity customers as a 1-leader, N-follower Stackelberg Game. At the leader's side, i.e., for the retailer, we use genetic algorithms to maximise the profit while at the followers side, i.e., for customers, we use linear programming techniques (Simplex Method) to optimise the payment bills. Simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Noncooperative waveform adaptation games in multiuser wireless communications

This article provided a survey of waveform adaptation algorithms for multiuser wireless communications based on noncooperative game theory. Emphasis has been given to the problem of spreading code optimization in CDMA systems, a research topic that has attracted the interest of many researchers for years, and some space has also been devoted to other applications of waveform adaptation algorithms, such as beamforming in multiantenna multiuser communications and waveform selection in cognitive radio networks. For these three research tracks we have reviewed the principal results pertaining to the issue of noncooperative waveform adaptation, and some open research problems have been discussed. We believe that, given the rapid pace at which wireless communications have been developing, waveform adaptation will play a key role in the future to enhance the performance of increasingly highly loaded wireless data networks.