Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of body mass index and serum vitamin D level in healthy Iranian adolescents.

INTRODUCTION In studies of obese adolescents in various countries, vitamin D deficiency has been correlated with greater weight and elevated BMI. However, there is insufficient data on the relation between vitamin D status and body fat indexes in adolescence. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of serum (25[OH]D) concentrations with body mass index of healthy Iranian subjects to understand whether specific data on the relation between vitamin D status and body mass index is common in all populations. MATERIAL AND METHODS Data was collected from 259 ambulant medical staff adults, students and other subjects who met the inclusion criteria of the study. Body mass index and fasting 25-Hydroxy vitamin D level were measured. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as having a 25(OH)D concentration 〈 25 nmol/L. RESULTS Participants were aged 20-64 years, mean age 34 ± 9 years, and about 57.5% of the participants were women. The mean (± SD) body mass index (kg/m2) was 24.2 ± 3.8 kg/m2 (median = 23.7 kg/m2), the mean (± SD) vitamin D level of the participants was 29 ± 16 nmol/L (median = 26 nmol/L), and 48% of the participants had vitamin D deficiency. In this study, there was no significant association between vitamin D level and BMI (r = 0.064; p = 0.307) (age adjusted). Moreover, there was no association between vitamin D level and sex of the participants. In addition, no association between BMI and sex of the adolescents was seen (p; NS), but a significant association between age and vitamin D level was found (r = 0.002). CONCLUSION Our data suggests that various mechanisms could potentially contribute to the robust association of vitamin D with adiposity; in normal or near normal BMI, vitamin D status may not be correlated with age.
Analysis of cross-cultural online collaborative learning with social software

Purpose – The rising popularity of social software poses challenges to the design and evaluation of pedagogically sound cross‐cultural online collaborative learning environments (OCLEs). In the literature of computer‐mediated communications, there exist only a limited number of related empirical studies, indicating that it is still an emergent research area. The purpose of this paper is to describe an OCLE – iCamp Space – which addresses the challenges by integrating three pedagogical concepts – cross‐cultural collaboration, self‐directed learning (SDL) and social networking – with the aim to advance participants' competencies and by mixed‐method approaches to evaluating the complex situations.Design/methodology/approach – A validation field study involving four European countries was conducted. Groups of students co‐created a questionnaire, which was assessed to provide an indicator of task performance. Multi‐source (surveys, blogs, emails, diaries, chats, videoconference and interviews) and multi‐perspe.
Fast and robust framework for view-invariant gait recognition

View-invariant gait recognition is one of the major challenges in identifying people through their gait. Many researchers have evaluated view angle transformation techniques, discriminant analysis and manifold learning approaches for cross-view recognition, and their proposals are usually based on a common factor, i.e., to establish a cross-view mapping between gallery and probe templates. However, their effectiveness is restricted to small view angle variances. A promising approach to perform view-invariant gait recognition is through multi-view feature learning. In this paper, we propose the view-invariant feature selector (ViFS) and integrate it in a framework for view-invariant gait recognition. ViFS select features from multi-view gait templates and reconstructs gallery templates that accurately match the data for a specific view angle. ViFS is thus able to reconstruct gallery templates from arbitrary view angles, and thus help to transfer the cross-view problem to identical-view gait recognition. We also apply linear subspace learning methods as feature enhancers for ViFS, which substantially reduce the computational cost and improve the recognition speed. We test the proposed framework on the CASIA Dataset B. The average recognition accuracy of the proposed framework for 11 different views exceed 98%.
A modified conjugate gradient reconstruction algorithm for electromagnetic tomography

Electromagnetic tomography (EMT) is a new kind of electrical tomography, which can be used to monitor the processes that contain conductive or magnetic permeable materials measuring their flow rate and phase density. Image reconstruction is one of the main challenges and crucial steps in EMT, which is the key to the quality of reconstructed images and performance of the EMT system. A Conjugate Gradient (CG) algorithm based on improved Tikhonov regularization is proposed to enhance the quality of image reconstruction and reduce the ill-posed nature of the EMT inverse problem. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The image quality of the proposed algorithm is greatly improved and also better than the conventional algorithms.
An Existence Result for Hierarchical Stackelberg v/s Stackelberg Games

In a hierarchical Stackelberg v/s Stackelberg game, a collection of players called leaders play a Nash game constrained by the equilibrium conditions of a distinct Nash game played amongst another set of players, called followers. Generically, follower equilibria are non-unique as a function of leader strategies and the decision problems of leaders are highly nonconvex and lacking in standard regularity conditions. Consequently, the provision of sufficient conditions for the existence of global or even local equilibria remains a largely open question. In this paper, we present what is possibly the first general existence result for equilibria for this class of games. Importantly, we impose no single-valuedness assumption on the equilibrium of the follower-level game. Specifically, under the assumption that the objectives of the leaders admit a quasi-potential function, a notion introduced in this paper, the global and local minimizers of a suitably defined optimization problem are shown to be the global and local equilibria of the game. In effect, existence of equilibria can be guaranteed by the solvability of an optimization problem which holds under mild conditions. We motivate quasi-potential games through an application in communication networks.
cient Recurrent Residual Networks Improved by Feature Transfer MSc Thesis

Over the past several years, deep and wide neural networks have achieved great success in many tasks. However, in real life applications, because the gains usually come at a cost in terms of the system resources (e.g., memory, computation and power consumption), it is impractical to run top-performing but heavy networks such as VGGNet and GoogleNet directly on mobile and embedded devices, like smartphones and cameras. To tackle this problem, we propose the use of recurrent layers in residual networks to reduce the redundant information and save the parameters. Furthermore, with the help of feature map knowledge transfer, the performance of Recurrent Residual Networks (ReResNet) can be improved so as to reach similar accuracy to some complex state-of-the-art architectures on CIFAR10, even with much fewer parameters. In this paper, we demonstrate the efficiency of ReResNet possibly improved by Feature Transfer on three datasets, CIFAR-10, Scenes and MiniPlaces.
Provenance and Probabilities in Relational Databases: From Theory to Practice

We review the basics of data provenance in relational databases. We describe different provenance formalisms, from Boolean provenance to provenance semirings and beyond, that can be used for a wide variety of purposes, to obtain additional information on the output of a query. We discuss representation systems for data provenance, circuits in particular, with a focus on practical implementation. Finally, we explain how provenance is practically used for probabilistic query evaluation in probabilistic databases.
Transcranial Doppler and risk of recurrence in patients with stroke and patent foramen ovale

The importance of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in stroke of unknown cause remains disputed, as PFO may be present in up to 20% of normal people and in a high proportion of patients with non‐vascular disorders. Recent evidence suggests that the amount of right‐to‐left shunt (RLS) may be the crucial factor for stroke occurrence and relapse. The aim of the study was to assess predictors of recurrence in PFO‐related stroke patients with particular emphasis on amount of shunting. Patients less than 61 years old who had been admitted for a PFO‐related stroke within the previous 5 years, were re‐evaluated on a follow‐up visit. The clinical syndrome, residual disability, vascular risk factors and number of relapses as the index event were assessed. RLS sizing was semi‐quantitatively performed with saline‐enhanced transcranial Doppler (TCD), by assuming a cut‐off of more or less 10 bubbles recorded in the cerebral vessels as a criterion to discriminate large versus small shunt, respectively. Thereafter patients were prospectively followed‐up for a median time of 23 months. Total follow‐up was 61 months. Fifty‐nine patients (M/F = 23/36, mean age 43 ± 13) were studied. Overall there were 23 relapses in 13 patients. The amount of shunting was the only significant independent variable associated with relapse: at the end of the follow‐up period the recurrence rate was 0.66 and 8.2% per patient per year in patients with small and large shunt, respectively. This difference was statistically significant (χ2 = 10.39, P = 0.0012; OR 17.05, 95% CI 2.10–755.22). In patients with PFO‐related stroke, the amount of RLS as assessed with TCD is the only independent predictor of relapse. PFO sizing is mandatory in patients with PFO.
LE TRANSFERT DE GENES CHEZ LES PLANTES, MISE EN PERSPECTIVE.

Apres la decouverte de la structure de l'ADN en 1953, l'essor de la microbiologie moderne resulte pour l'essentiel du developpement des concepts et des techniques de la biologie moleculaire. Dans ce contexte, et des les annees 60, il etait clair pour quelques biologistes qu'il faudrait disposer des techniques de transfert de genes afin d'elucider l'organisation et l'expression des genes, ainsi que la regulation de leur expression, puis leur role dans le controle du developpement des organismes. De fait, pour certains d'entre nous, cette projection constituait l'une des principales motivations intellectuelles pour s'engager dans les perfectionnements fastidieux de la culture in vitro. Notre objectif concernait la definition des conditions experimentales propices a la realisation effective du transfert de genes. Des 1965 en effet, cet objectif paraissait plus realiste pour les cellules vegetales dont les capacites de totipotence etaient deja demontrees experimentalement, au moins pour les especes modeles de l'epoque : le tabac et la carotte. Cependant, la paroi pecto-cellulosique des cellules vegetales constituait un obstacle de taille a la penetration d'ADN vers le cytoplasme, puis le noyau des cellules cibles. Dans ce contexte specifique des cellules vegetales, l'idee de faciliter la penetration d'ADN a egalement incite les equipes specialisees a perfectionner les approches pionnieres concernant l'obtention de protoplastes de cellules vegetales (Cocking, 1960). De fait ces possibilites ont ete verifiees assez rapidement par les virologistes, qui ont utilise des protoplastes de tabac pour l'etude de la penetration de virus et d'acides nucleiques viraux (Aoki et Takebe, 1969). En depit de ces acquis techniques, les premieres tentatives de transfert d'ADN radioactif a l'aide de protoplastes (Ohyama et al, 1972), voire sur des plantes entieres (Ledoux et al., 1974) se sont revelees peu concluantes, essentiellement en raison du manque de dispositif de selection puis de caracterisation biologique et moleculaire d'eventuels rares evenements de transfert.
Static Contract Simplification

Contracts and contract monitoring are a powerful mechanism for specifying properties and guaranteeing them at run time. However, run time monitoring of contracts imposes a significant overhead. The execution time is impacted by the insertion of contract checks as well as by the introduction of proxy objects that perform delayed contract checks on demand. Static contract simplification attacks this issue using program transformation. It applies compile-time transformations to programs with contracts to reduce the overall run time while preserving the original behavior. Our key technique is to statically propagate contracts through the program and to evaluate and merge contracts where possible. The goal is to obtain residual contracts that are collectively cheaper to check at run time. We distinguish different levels of preservation of behavior, which impose different limitations on the admissible transformations: Strong blame preservation, where the transformation is a behavioral equivalence, and weak blame preservation, where the transformed program is equivalent up to the particular violation reported. Our transformations never increase the overall number of contract checks.
The effect of various menopausal hormone therapies on markers of inflammation, coagulation, fibrinolysis, lipids, and lipoproteins in healthy postmenopausal women

Objective: Androgenic progestins such as norethisterone acetate (NETA) may influence the effect of estradiol (E2) therapy. We compared the influence of oral E2, with and without NETA, and transdermal E2 on markers of coagulation, fibrinolysis, and inflammation and on lipids and lipoproteins in healthy postmenopausal women. Design: A total of 112 healthy postmenopausal women were randomized to receive treatment with either oral E2, with or without NETA, transdermal E2, or placebo. At baseline and after 28 weeks, levels of serum lipids and lipoproteins and markers of coagulation, fibrinolysis, and inflammation were determined. Results: Of the fibrinolytic parameters, oral E2 (P < 0.05) and E2 with NETA (P < 0.01) shortened euglobulin clot lysis time. Oral E2 decreased plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 activity (P < 0.05). Oral E2 with NETA reduced plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 antigen levels (P < 0.01) and increased D-dimer antigen levels (P < 0.001). All three modes of menopausal hormone therapy reduced tissue type plasminogen activator antigen. Of the coagulation parameters, both routes of E2 therapy decreased fibrinogen levels (P = 0.002 for oral and P = 0.007 for transdermal E2), whereas E2 with NETA showed no effect. The decrease of fibrinogen was larger after oral E2 (P = 0.02). Oral E2 with NETA reduced antithrombin III (P < 0.001) and protein C (P < 0.001) activity. Oral E2 (P = 0.04) and E2 with NETA (P < 0.01) increased C-reactive protein (CRP). Transdermal E2 showed no influence on CRP. The addition of NETA influenced the change in CRP, as the increase in CRP was more pronounced after E2 without NETA (P = 0.005). The levels of serum amyloid A, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-&agr; did not change significantly after any of the modes of hormone therapy. Of the lipids and lipoproteins, oral E2 decreased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.01), lipoprotein (a) (P < 0.05), and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.05). Transdermal E2 decreased triglycerides (P < 0.02) and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.03). Oral E2 with NETA decreased total cholesterol (P < 0.01) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.005). Conclusions: Oral E2, with or without NETA, produced no net activation of coagulation but improved fibrinolysis. Both modes of oral menopausal hormone therapy have a greater impact on markers of inflammation, coagulation, fibrinolysis, lipids, and lipoproteins than transdermal E2. NETA attenuates some E2 effects. Further studies are needed to elucidate the impact of these effects on clinical endpoints.
Molecular Mechanisms of Bone 18F-NaF Deposition

There is renewed interest in 18F-NaF bone imaging with PET or PET/CT. The current brief discussion focuses on the molecular mechanisms of 18F-NaF deposition in bone and presents model-based approaches to quantifying bone perfusion and metabolism in the context of preclinical and clinical applications of bone imaging with PET.
Freezing Solutions of Equivariant Evolution Equations

In this paper we develop numerical methods for integrating general evolution equations u t = F(u), $u(0)=u 0, where F is defined on a dense subspace of some Banach space (generally infinite-dimensional) and is equivariant with respect to the action of a finite-dimensional (not necessarily compact) Lie group. Such equations typically arise from autonomous PDEs on unbounded domains that are invariant under the action of the Euclidean group or one of its subgroups. In our approach we write the solution u(t) as a composition of the action of a time-dependent group element with a "frozen solution" in the given Banach space. We keep the frozen solution as constant as possible by introducing a set of algebraic constraints (phase conditions), the number of which is given by the dimension of the Lie group. The resulting PDAE (partial differential algebraic equation) is then solved by combining classical numerical methods, such as restriction to a bounded domain with asymptotic boundary conditions, half-explicit Eu.
An Ensemble of Fine-Tuned Heterogeneous Bayesian Classifiers

Bayesian network (BN) classifiers use different structures and different training parameters which leads to diversity in classification decisions. This work empirically shows that building an ensemble of several fine-tuned BN classifiers increases the overall classification accuracy. The accuracy of the constituent classifiers can be achieved by fine-tuning each classifier and the diversity is achieved using different BN classifiers. The proposed ensemble combines a Naive Bayes (NB) classifier, five different models of Tree Augmented Naive Bayes (TAN), and four different model of Bayesian Augmented Naive Bayes (BAN). This work also proposes a new Distance-based Diversity Measure (DDM) and uses it to analyze the diversity of the ensembles. The ensemble of fine-tuned classifier achieves better average classification accuracy than any of its constituent classifiers or the ensemble of un-tuned classifiers. Moreover, the empirical experiments present better significant results for many data sets.
The Use of Platelet-Rich and Platelet-Poor Plasma to Enhance Differentiation of Skeletal Myoblasts: Implications for the Use of Autologous Blood Products for Muscle Regeneration

Background: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been used to augment tissue repair and regeneration after musculoskeletal injury. However, there is increasing clinical evidence that PRP does not show a consistent clinical effect. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study aimed to compare the effects of the following non–neutrophil-containing (leukocyte-poor) plasma fractions on human skeletal muscle myoblast (HSMM) differentiation: (1) PRP, (2) modified PRP (Mod-PRP), in which transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and myostatin (MSTN) were depleted, and (3) platelet-poor plasma (PPP). The hypothesis was that leukocyte-poor PRP would lead to myoblast proliferation (not differentiation), whereas certain modifications of PRP preparations would increase myoblast differentiation, which is necessary for skeletal muscle regeneration. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Blood from 7 human donors was individually processed to simultaneously create leukocyte-poor fractions: PRP, Mod-PRP, PPP, and secondarily spun PRP and Mod-PRP (PRPss and Mod-PRPss, respectively). Mod-PRP was produced by removing TGF-β1 and MSTN from PRP using antibodies attached to sterile beads, while a second-stage centrifugal spin of PRP was performed to remove platelets. The biologics were individually added to cell culture groups. Analysis for induction into myoblast differentiation pathways included Western blot analysis, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry, as well as confocal microscopy to assess polynucleated myotubule formation. Results: HSMMs cultured with PRP showed an increase in proliferation but no evidence of differentiation. Western blot analysis confirmed that MSTN and TGF-β1 could be decreased in Mod-PRP using antibody-coated beads, but this modification mildly improved myoblast differentiation. However, cell culture with PPP, PRPss, and Mod-PRPss led to a decreased proliferation rate but a significant induction of myoblast differentiation verified by increased multinucleated myotubule formation and myosin heavy chain expression (mean 8-fold change in mRNA level; P < .05), which was comparable with 2% horse serum, the positive control. Conclusion: PPP and leukocyte-poor PRP preparations subjected to a second spin to remove the platelets led to induction of myoblast cells into the muscle differentiation pathway, whereas unmodified leukocyte-poor PRP led to myoblast proliferation. Clinical Relevance: These results indicate that traditionally formulated PRP may not be appropriate to induce muscle regeneration. Laboratory evidence suggests that PPP or non–neutrophil-containing PRPss, subjected to an additional spin to remove platelets, should be used to stimulate myoblast differentiation, which is necessary for skeletal muscle regeneration. Clinical studies will be required to confirm the effect of these biologics on muscle regeneration.
Model‐Averaged Benchmark Concentration Estimates for Continuous Response Data Arising from Epidemiological Studies

Worker populations often provide data on adverse responses associated with exposure to potential hazards. The relationship between hazard exposure levels and adverse response can be modeled and then inverted to estimate the exposure associated with some specified response level. One concern is that this endpoint may be sensitive to the concentration metric and other variables included in the model. Further, it may be that the models yielding different risk endpoints are all providing relatively similar fits. We focus on evaluating the impact of exposure on a continuous response by constructing a model‐averaged benchmark concentration from a weighted average of model‐specific benchmark concentrations. A method for combining the estimates based on different models is applied to lung function in a cohort of miners exposed to coal dust. In this analysis, we see that a small number of the thousands of models considered survive a filtering criterion for use in averaging. Even after filtering, the models considered yield benchmark concentrations that differ by a factor of 2 to 9 depending on the concentration metric and covariates. The model‐average BMC captures this uncertainty, and provides a useful strategy for addressing model uncertainty.
A Posteriori Verification of Invariant Objects of Evolution Equations: Periodic Orbits in the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky PDE

In this paper, a method for computing periodic orbits of the Kuramoto--Sivashinsky PDE via rigorous numerics is presented. This is an application and an implementation of the theoretical method introduced in [J.-L. Figueras, M. Gameiro, J.-P. Lessard, and R. de la Llave, “A framework for the numerical computation and a posteriori verification of invariant objects of evolution equations,” SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst. , to appear]. Using a Newton--Kantorovich-type argument (the radii polynomial approach), existence of solutions is obtained in a weighted $\ell^\infty$ Banach space of Fourier coefficients. Once a proof of a periodic orbit is done, an associated eigenvalue problem is solved and Floquet exponents are rigorously computed, yielding proofs that some periodic orbits are unstable. Finally, a predictor-corrector continuation method is introduced to rigorously compute global smooth branches of periodic orbits. An alternative approach and independent implementation of [J.-L. Figueras, M. Gameiro, J.-P. Less.