Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image retrieval using multiple evidence ranking

The World Wide Web is the largest publicly available image repository and a natural source of attention. An immediate consequence is that searching for images on the Web has become a current and important task. To search for images of interest, the most direct approach is keyword-based searching. However, since images on the Web are poorly labeled, direct application of standard keyword-based image searching techniques frequently yields poor results. We propose a comprehensive solution to this problem. In our approach, multiple sources of evidence related to the images are considered. To allow combining these distinct sources of evidence, we introduce an image retrieval model based on Bayesian belief networks. To evaluate our approach, we perform experiments on a reference collection composed of 54000 Web images. Our results indicate that retrieval using an image surrounding text passages is as effective as standard retrieval based on HTML tags. This is an interesting result because current image search engines in the Web usually do not take text passages into consideration. Most important, according to our results, the combination of information derived from text passages with information derived from HTML tags leads to improved retrieval, with relative gains in average precision figures of roughly 50 percent, when compared to the results obtained by the use of each source of evidence in isolation.
Characterization of antibody variants during process development: The tale of incomplete processing of N-terminal secretion peptide

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have emerged as one of the most important classes of biotherapeutics, although development of these molecules is long and arduous. A production cell line must be established, and growth conditions for the cells and purification processes for the product must be optimized. Integration of the appropriate analytical strategies in these activities is the cornerstone of Quality by Design and in-process control approaches are encouraged by the Food and Drug Administration. We report here the development of a reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method to follow the presence of a mAb product-related variant observed during the purification process development. The variant eluted as a later peak on RP-HPLC, compared with the mAb control (3.25 min and 2.85 min, respectively). We isolated this hydrophobic variant and further analyzed it by mass spectrometry. We identified the variant as a mAb with an incompletely processed leader sequence attached to the N-terminus of one of the two heavy chains.
Relation between speech intelligibility, temporal auditory perception, and auditory-evoked potentials

This study investigates the relationship between psychophysical experiments, speech intelligibility in noise and evoked auditory brainstem responses in high-frequency hearingimpaired listeners and normal-hearing listeners. Psychophysical experiments related to temporal processing and the bandwidth of auditory filters were performed in the lowfrequency region of hearing-impaired listeners where they showed normal pure-tone thresholds. Speech intelligibility in noise was measured for the same hearing-impaired listeners using the DANTALE II Danish sentences test. The auditory brainstem responses (ABR) elicited by a click and a chirp that compensates for cochlear travel-time difference across frequency were recorded. The amplitudes of the chirp-evoked wave-V responses were compared to click-evoked responses for the hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners. The main hypothesis was that listeners with normal low-frequency and reduced high-frequency audibility showing reduced performance in temporal processing tasks have problems in speech perception in noise and show a reduced wave-V response amplitude for the chirp. The results of the current study are as follows: (i) Hearing-impaired listeners with reduced temporal processing abilities showed reduced speech intelligibility in noise. (ii) Hearingimpaired listeners showed smaller wave-V amplitudes for the click and chirp in comparison to normal-hearing listeners. (iii) The chirp-evoked wave-V amplitude was larger than the click-evoked wave-V amplitude among the normal-hearing and the hearing-impaired listeners. (iv) The chirp produced the largest responses, particular at moderate stimulation levels for the normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners with near-normal performance in the temporal processing experiments. (v) Click-evoked responses were similar between listeners with significant differences in speech intelligibility, while the chirp-evoked responses were severely reduced for the listeners with reduced temporal processing performance. The chirp might therefore be useful in clinical ABR diagnostics since it demonstrates the temporal processing abilities of the auditory system better than the click, particularly for high-frequency hearing-impaired listeners.
Novel cis-Regulatory Modules Control Expression of the Hairy and Enhancer of Split-1 (HES1) Transcription Factor in Myoblasts*

Background: DNA sequences called CRMs determine the precise patterns of gene expression. Results: We identify and characterize the function of six novel hes1 CRMs. Conclusion: HES1 expression is controlled by multiple distal CRMs in addition to the known promoter. Significance: A powerful combination of computational and experimental methodologies enhances our knowledge of hes1 transcriptional control. The expression profile of a gene is controlled by DNA sequences called cis-regulatory modules (CRMs). CRMs can function over large genomic distances and can be located many kilobases away from their target promoters. hes1 is a key developmental gene that is overexpressed in certain cancers and is a primary target of NOTCH signaling. Despite this, analysis of hes1 transcriptional control has been limited solely to its promoter. Here, we identify seven conserved DNA sequence blocks, representing the hes1 promoter and six novel CRMs, within 57 kb upstream of the mouse hes1 gene. We identify 12 binding sites for the RBP-Jκ NOTCH effector and a single M-CAT motif within these regions. We validate RBP-Jκ and TEAD family occupancy in cells in culture and test the response of each of these CRMs to active NOTCH. We show that two regions, CRM5 and CRM7, function as enhancers, and four can repress transcription. A pair of RBP-Jκ motifs arranged in a tail-tail configuration in CRM5 and the M-CAT motif in CRM7 are necessary for enhancer function. Furthermore, these enhancers are occupied by transcriptional co-activators and loop onto the hes1 promoter within the endogenous hes1 locus. This work demonstrates the power of combining computational genomics and experimental methodologies to identify novel CRMs and characterize their function.
A Reliable Time Synchronization Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Reliability is crucial for time synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Existing time synchronization algorithms provide on average good synchronization in laboratory environment, however, outdoor environment associated with radio interference will influence the performance of time synchronization. In this paper, we proposed a Reliable Time Synchronization Protocol (RTSP) which is designed to adapt topology changes due to link failures or node mobility. RTSP works in a level fashion: each level means the nodes in this level have the same hop. MAC layer time-stamping and linear regression is adopted to compensate clock drift. Compensation mechanism and random time source choice mechanism is introduced to make synchronization robust against link and node failures. The protocol is implemented on the SIA2420 platform using TinyOS and the result show the reliability of our protocol.
Optimization of Cell Adhesion on Mg Based Implant Materials by Pre-Incubation under Cell Culture Conditions

Magnesium based implants could revolutionize applications where orthopedic implants such as nails, screws or bone plates are used because they are load bearing and degrade over time. This prevents a second surgery to remove conventional implants. To improve the biocompatibility we studied here if and for how long a pre-incubation of the material under cell culture conditions is favorable for cell attachment and proliferation. For two materials, Mg and Mg10Gd1Nd, we could show that 6 h pre-incubation are already enough to form a natural protective layer suitable for cell culture.
Premarital prediction of marital quality or breakup : research, theory, and practice

Dedication. Associates. Preface. 1. Premarital Factors and Later Marital Quality and Stability T.B. Holman, S.T. Linford. 2. Assumptions and Methods T.B. Holman, S.T. Linford. 3. Breaking up Before And After Marriage D.B. Meredith, T.B. Holman. 4. Family of Origin Structures and Processes and Adult Children's Marital Quality T.B. Holman, P.J. Birch. 5. Individual Characteristics Influencing Marital Quality T.B. Holman, et al. 6. Social Contexts Influencing Marital Quality C. Doxey, T.B. Holman. 7. Premarital Couple Interactional Processes and Later Marital Quality J.S. Carroll, T.B. Holman. 8. Putting it All Together: Four Longitudinal, Multivariate Models of Premarital Prediction of Marital Quality T.B. Holman, et al. 9. General Principles, Implications, and Future Directions T.B. Holman, et al. 10. Epilogue and Invitation T.B. Holman. Appendix A: PREParation for Marriage (PREP-M) T.B. Holman, et al. Appendix B: The Relationship Quality Follow-up Study T.B. Holman, S.T. Linford. Appendix C: A Century-end Comprehensive Review of Premarital Predictors of Marital Quality and Stability S.T. Linford, J.S. Carroll.
Strategic subchannel resource allocation for cooperative OFDMA Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are emerging as a key solution to provide broadband and mobile wireless connectivity in a flexible and cost effective way. In suburban areas, a common deployment model relies on OFDMA communications between mesh routers (MRs), with one MR installed at each user premises. In this paper, we investigate a possible user cooperation path to implement strategic resource allocation in OFDMA WMNs, under the assumption that users want to control their interconnection. In this case, a novel strategic situation appears: how much a MR can demand, how much it can obtain and how this shall depend on the interference with its neighbors. Strategic interference management and resource allocation mechanisms are needed to avoid performance degradation during congestion cases between MRs. In this paper, we model the problem as a bankruptcy game taking into account the interference between MRs. We identify possible solutions from cooperative game theory, namely the Shapley value and the Nucleolus, and show that they outperform two state-of-the-art schemes, namely Centralized-Dynamic Frequency Planning, C-DFP, and Frequency-ALOHA, F-ALOHA. In particular, the Nucleolus solution offers best performance overall in terms of throughput and fairness.
Comparison of helium dilution and nitrogen washout measurements of functional residual capacity in premature infants

Comparison has been made of measurements of functional residue capacity (FRC) by a helium gas dilution (He) and a nitrogen washout (N2) technique. Twenty infants (median gestational age, 29.5 weeks) were studied at a median postnatal age of 25 days. No infant was oxygen dependent. The coefficient of repeatability of FRC (He) was 6.4 mL/kg and of FRC (N2), 6.3 mL/kg. The coefficient of repeatability of the two methods combined was 13.8 mL/kg. In 10 infants the results of two techniques differed by more than 20% of the mean FRC; those infants were born at a significantly earlier gestation than the rest of the cohort (P < 0.01). We conclude that, except in very immature infants, techniques for measuring FRC (He) and FRC (N2) yield reproducible and comparable results in convalescent premature infants. Pediatr Pulmonol. Pediatr Pulmonol. 1993; 16:197–200. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A taxonomy-based classification model by using abstraction and aggregation

Data preprocessing is an important data manipulation process prior to mining actions. Various techniques that include feature selection and data transformation have been studied in the past, with the aim of producing a compact and efficient decision tree. They all have their respective strengths, but in general they commonly lack of preserving the meanings of the attributes. The concept of Attribute Value Taxonomies (AVT) that is a value set of a particular attribute which is specified at different levels of precision and can be represented as a tree-structure was originally proposed by Honavar in year 2003. AVT has the advantages of naturally and easily understanding the attributes in a hierarchy of resolutions. In this paper, we extend the concept of AVT into the domain of data preprocessing for building decision trees based on attributes that are abstracted in different levels. The result is a series of decision trees with each specifically built pertaining to an abstract level of concept. A visualization tool is also programmed that shows both the significances of the attributes and the predictive powers in each tree. A live dataset of e-Bay transactions was used as a case study. The experimental results indicate that by applying appropriate abstraction and aggregation techniques, the decision tree can be made simpler, and accuracy can be improved. The resultant trees can be mapped across to AVT for easy interpretation by human.
Egli Security assessment of infection incidents in the ETH university campus

Infections of the end user’s IT systems have become a lucrative goal for cybercriminals. Many types of malware are used and constantly multiple new variants are developed with increasingly stealthier behavior. As a consequence, the task to detect the diverse types of malware is becoming progressively harder. In this master thesis a framework which collects and correlates signs of infections was developed. Multiple sources of security relevant informations were analyzed and used to provide forensic evidence of high confidence. The Intrusion Detection System SNORT provided the basic informations about suspicious behavior of a host. This information was enriched by querying blacklists and a web search engine about the contacted hosts in the Internet. The operating system and running services on the host were detected through network scans. All features were made available through a web-based security dashboard. An automated classification based on a decision tree enabled the quick analysis of new incidents. During two periods of 41 and 7 consecutive days 316 suspicious hosts were assessed. 31 Trojan infected hosts, 136 Spyware infections and 124 clean hosts were found. The remaining 25 cases remained unknown. In 51% of the cases two methods and in 20% of the cases 3 methods had to be combined to guarantee high confidence in the classification of a suspicious host. The automated classification could correctly analyze 83% of all infections. A labeled data set of security incidents based on realistic traffic from a medium sized network was created and can be used for future research. Concluding, the combination of multiple methods to reliably infer an infection is necessary in most cases. Classification algorithms can help to classify many incidents, but their success rate is too low for a fully automated security assessment.
Effects of a rule change that eliminates body-checking on the relative age effect in Ontario minor ice hockey

Abstract Relative age effects in sport reflect an over-representation of athletes born early in a selection year that lead to selection and performance advantages. These effects might be enhanced by rules that increase physicality. An opportunity to investigate these influences arose when Hockey Canada altered its body-checking rules. Two studies are described that investigate the possible influence of this rule change. Study 1 used cross-sectional data to contrast relative age effects for 9-year-olds in games with and without body-checking (birth quartile 1 ranged from 27 to 39%; birth quartile 4 from 10 to 20%). Study 2 used quasi-longitudinal data to examine age effects when players transitioned from a season in which body-checking was permitted to one that prohibited such checking (birth quartile 1 ranged from 27 to 39%; birth quartile 4 from 11 to 20%). Chi-square statistics demonstrated relative age effects in both studies irrespective of body-checking. Post-hoc analyses indicated reductions in these effects that were limited to some second and third quartiles when body-checking was prohibited. Body-checking is not a critical mechanism of relative age effects. The physicality of ice hockey, regardless of body-checking, and increased experience in ice hockey are influential.
An almost-bijective proof of an asymptotic property of partitions

Let 𝓟n be the set of all distinct ordered pairs (λ,λi), where λ is a partition of n and λi is a part size of λ. The primary result of this note is a combinatorial proof that the probability that, for a pair (λ,λi) chosen uniformly at random from 𝓟 n, the multiplicity of λi in λ is 1 tends to 1/2 as n ➝ ∞. This is inspired by work of Corteel, Pittel, Savage, and Wilf (Random Structures and Algorithms 14 (1999), 185197). © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2007 Part of this work was carried out when the author was at the University of Pennsylvania. Partially supported by NSF grant DMS 0239996.
The Transition from AFDC to PRWORA in Florida; Perceptions of the Role of Case Manager in Welfare Reform

Welfare reform was implemented in Florida with the passage of WAGES. WAGES' emphasis on support services in preparation for employment portends to be a radical transformation of the eligibility compliance organizational culture that had developed under AFDC. Interviews with welfare staff focused on whether WAGES' offices were able to develop the organizational culture and methods of frontline practice needed to implement the goals of welfare reform legislation. The interviews indicate an emerging organizational culture in which case managers readily identify with the mantra of welfare reform. The interviews also indicate a discrepancy between the importance of the case manager role and the ability to perform all of their responsibilities in light of large caseloads and the desire to quickly involve clients in employment-seeking activities.
Clinical and histological features of primary testicular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a single center experience in China

Primary testicular lymphoma (PTL) is a rare and aggressive form of extranodal lymphoma. Approximately 80–98% of PTLs are diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (PT-DLBCL). The prognosis of DLBCL patients has improved with the addition of rituximab to systemic chemotherapy, but outcomes of PT-DLBCL remain poor. This may be explained by the high rate of relapse in the central nervous system (CNS) and contralateral testis. We analyzed 1,132 newly diagnosed DLBCL patients (37 with PT-DLBCL) who were treated at our hospital between January 2009 and December 2014. Twenty-five patients finished follow-up. We analyzed clinical characteristics, response to chemotherapy, overall survival, and relapse in the CNS and contralateral testis. All patients underwent orchiectomy. The median age was 60 (range: 43–82) years. Eleven patients had stage III/IV disease. Five patients experienced CNS relapse, and three experienced relapse in the contralateral testis. Median overall survival (OS) was not reached at the time of reporting. The 3-year OS rate was 57%. None of the nine patients who received radiotherapy to the contralateral testis experienced relapse in that location. Intrathecal prophylaxis did not reduce the risk of CNS relapse. All five patients who experienced CNS relapse had the germinal center B-cell-like subtype of DLBCL.
The End of Time

The horse of samarra sometimes disorder degenerates into order from class consciousness to consciousness of species - the left needs biology the demographic problem and the loss of estrus Maya, maize, Malthus and Marx - a key to the phenomenon of war energy from the sun nuclear energy - from medieval technocracy to future imperfect two seasons instead of four the green scene - agriculture in terms of energy the chronovisor - eco-nomy or eco-logy? to be or not to be - hypothesis for a renewable life historical tempos, biological tempos revisited.
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: The Vancouver Experience

Abstract Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been available as a therapeutic modality for selected adult patients in Vancouver, British Columbia since 1981. We report on the history, progress, and future prospects of the Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplantation Program of British Columbia. The basic mechanisms and indications for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are outlined. Limitations of this procedure are also examined, particularly that of associated toxicities such as graft-versus-host-disease.
Altered ganglioside expression modulates the pathogenic mechanism of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy by increase in hyaluronic acid.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine the role of gangliosides in pathogenic mechanisms of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO). METHODS The gangliosides profile and mRNA level of sialyltransferases of the orbital tissues from TAO patients (n = 5) and non-TAO subjects (n = 4) were investigated. In addition, the effect of exogenous gangliosides on the expression of hyaluronic acid was examined in orbital fibroblasts. For in vitro experiments, we used four different strains of cells obtained from non-TAO subjects with at least three replicates for each strain. RESULTS Trisialoganglioside 1b (GT1b) was significantly overexpressed in the orbital tissue of TAO patients compared with control tissue, whereas no significant difference was observed for either monosialoganglioside 1 (GM1) or disialoganglioside 1a (GD1a) by digital analyses of immunohistochemical images. Moreover, mRNA levels of sialyltransferase (SAT)-I and SAT II were increased in TAO patients compared with control. Exogenous GT1b strongly induced the morphologic changes related to an accumulation of sparse flocculent precipitates in lysosomes and increased the extracellular hyaluronic acid level in orbital fibroblasts with the induction of hyaluronic acid synthase, which were less by GD1a but not by GM1. The GT1b-induced morphologic changes of cells were due, at least in part, to an increase of intracellular hyaluronic acid. Co-treatment of hyaluronidase nicely attenuated the morphologic changes in orbital fibroblasts. Thy-1(+) orbital fibroblasts were more capable of producing hyaluronic acid by exogenous GT1b. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that gangliosides, particularly GT1b, may play a role in the pathologic mechanisms of TAO by stimulating an increase in hyaluronic acid.
Lossless data hiding: fundamentals, algorithms and applications

Recently, among various data hiding techniques, a new subset called lossless data hiding has drawn tremendous interest. By lossless data hiding, it is meant that the marked media can be reversed to the original cover media without any distortion after the hidden data are retrieved. After a careful study of all lossless data hiding algorithms published up to today, we classify the existing algorithms into three categories: 1) Those developed for fragile authentication; 2) Those developed aiming at large embedding capacity; 3) Those developed for semi-fragile authentication. The mechanisms, merits, drawbacks and applications of these algorithms are analyzed, and some future research issues are addressed in this paper.