Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Benefits of ultrasonography in the management of early arthritis: a cross-sectional study of baseline data from the ESPOIR cohort.

OBJECTIVE To assess ultrasonography's (US) performance to detect the structural damage in the initial evaluation of early arthritis (EA) using the Etude et Suivides Polyarthrites Indifférenciées Récentes (ESPOIR) cohort. METHODS ESPOIR is a French, multi-centric EA cohort. Four centres assessed the structural damage by both X-ray and US examination at baseline. X-rays of hands and feet were read first by the centre's local investigator (usual reading), then in the X-ray coordinating centre (central reading). Four trained examiners performed US blindly from clinical data to detect erosions on the second and fifth MCP (MCP2 and 5) and the fifth MTP (MTP5) joints bilaterally. RESULTS Patients' characteristics (n = 126) were: female 78%; mean age 50.3 years; disease duration 103 days; disease activity score on 28 joints 5; CRP level 22.7 mg/l; and 79.4% of the patients fulfilling RA ACR criteria. Twelve patients had missing data for X-rays. US revealed 42 (36.8%) patients with erosive disease, whereas radiography revealed only 30 (26%) with central reading and only 11% with usual reading. US missed erosive disease present in X-rays in 10 (8.8%) patients. Combined technique of both revealed 52 (45.6%) patients with erosive diseases. On the targeted joints, US detected erosion on 75 (11%) joints vs X-rays on only 11 (1.5%). Only three joints with erosion(s) detected on X-rays were missed on US. At baseline, the presence of PD activity was not associated with joint erosions. CONCLUSIONS US on six joints detected 1.4-fold more patients with erosions (3.3-fold more with the usual reading). In clinical practice, US combined with X-rays is of helpful diagnostic value in EA.
Molecular characterization of XVT 8 , a stress-responsive gene from the resurrection plant Xerophyta viscosa

Xerophyta viscosa (Baker) is a monocotyledonous resurrection plant that is capable of tolerating extremes of desiccation. Upon rewatering, it rehydrates completely, assuming its full physiological activities. Studies on changes in gene expression associated with dehydration stress tolerance were conducted. A cDNA library was constructed from mRNA isolated from dehydrated X. viscosa leaves [85%, 37% and 5% relative water content (RWC)]. XVT8 represents one of 30 randomly selected clones that were differentially expressed when X. viscosa was dehydrated. Sequence analysis of XVT8 revealed that XVT8 exhibited 45% and 43% identity to dehydrin proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana and Pisum sativum respectively, at the amino acid level. XVT8 encodes a glycine -rich protein (27 kDa) which is largely hydrophilic and contains a hydrophobic segment at the C-terminus. Southern blot analysis confirmed the presence of XVT8 in the X. viscosa genome. XVT8 transcripts accumulated in X. viscosa plants that were exposed to heat, low temperature and dehydration stresses, and to exogenous abscisic acid and ethylene. These results provide direct evidence for the heat, low temperature, dehydration, abscisic acid and ethylene -dependent regulation of the XVT8 gene in X. viscosa.
Childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as an extreme of a continuous trait: a quantitative genetic study of 8,500 twin pairs.

BACKGROUND Although the clinical utility of categorically defined attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is well established, there is also strong evidence supporting the notion of ADHD as an extreme of a continuous trait. Nevertheless, the question of whether the etiology is the same for different levels of DSM-IV ADHD symptoms remains to be investigated. The aim of this study was to assess genetic links between the extreme and the subthreshold range of ADHD symptoms. METHOD Parents of all Swedish 9- and 12-year-old twins born between 1992 and 2000 were interviewed for DSM-IV ADHD symptoms and associated conditions. Two validated cutoff values were used for screening and assigning research diagnoses. Response rate was 80%. Twin methods were applied to investigate the extent to which ADHD is etiologically distinct from subthreshold variations in ADHD symptoms. RESULTS Extremes analyses indicated a strong genetic link between the extreme and the subthreshold variation, with almost identical group heritability estimates around . 60 for the diagnostic (prevalence 1.78%) and screening (prevalence 9.75%) criteria of ADHD. CONCLUSION A strong genetic link between the extreme and the subthreshold variation of DSM-IV based assessments of ADHD symptoms was found. The data suggest that ADHD is best viewed as the quantitative extreme of genetic and environmental factors operating dimensionally throughout the distribution of ADHD symptoms, indicating that the same etiologic factors are involved in the full range of symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Processes of Self-concept Integration in Student Teachers

Considerable research evidence has been amassed to suggest that individuals integrate a concept of themselves by utilising any one of a number of processes. The current research investigated two such processes, namely self-enhancement and self-verification, and indicated their significance for the way in which student teachers integrated a concept of themselves as professionals. The design took the form of providing feedback to second year teacher education students who took part in responding to a series of classroom-related vignettes, and then examining their responses against the criteria for self-enhancement and self-verification established from the literature. The integration processes favoured were designated as the dependant variables with independent variables consisting of status (expert/novice), age (mature-age/school leaver), type of feedback presented (favourable/unfavourable), and performance on school-based teaching practice. Data were analysed using X2 and ANOVA and findings are
Changing Patterns? Occasional Consumers of New Activities in Old Churches

This article examines motivations for participation in a specific church activity (baby hymn singing) within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark from a consumer profile perspective. The following research question is addressed in this article: Is it possible to identify what motivates contemporary individuals to participate in a specific church activity through the perspective of consumer profiles? The analysis is based on a national study from 2014 among participants of baby hymn singing containing survey data and interview data, as well as participant observation. The analysis shows that a majority of participants can be identified as occasional consumers with a primary motivation of betterment.
Identification of opportunities for energy management applications for mobile devices

The set of services, provided by the mobile phone platform, is becoming increasingly complex and requiring more computational power, hence higher energy consumption and compromising the autonomy of these devices. Thus, it is important to identify scenarios where we could apply methods to decrease such consumption and extend the mobile autonomy. This work presents practical results of an experimental study that evaluates four scenarios. For these scenarios, a control threshold was defined and, after that, important variables were modified so that we could analyze the impact of these variables in the energy consumption. From this analysis we could identify opportunities to develop new methods for saving energy, as the examples listed in this paper.
The Approach of a Neuron Population Firing Rate to a New Equilibrium: An Exact Theoretical Result

The response of a noninteracting population of identical neurons to a step change in steady synaptic input can be analytically calculated exactly from the dynamical equation that describes the population's evolution in time. Here, for model integrate-and-fire neurons that undergo a fixed finite upward shift in voltage in response to each synaptic event, we compare the theoretical prediction with the result of a direct simulation of 90,000 model neurons. The degree of agreement supports the applicability of the population dynamics equation. The theoretical prediction is in the form of a series. Convergence is rapid, so that the full result is well approximated by a few terms.
Concurrent Use of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco in Minnesota

Cigarette smokers are being encouraged to use smokeless tobacco (SLT) in locations where smoking is banned. We examined state-wide data from Minnesota to measure changes over time in the use of SLT and concurrent use of cigarettes and SLT. The Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey was conducted four times between 1999 and 2010 and has provided state-wide estimates of cigarette smoking, SLT use and concurrent use of SLT by smokers. The prevalence of SLT was essentially unchanged through 2007, then increased significantly between 2007 and 2010 (3.1% versus 4.3%, P < 0.05). Similarly, the prevalence of cigarette smokers who reported using SLT was stable then increased between 2007 and 2010 (4.4% versus 9.6%, P < 0.05). The finding of higher SLT use by smokers could indicate that smokers in Minnesota are in an experimental phase of testing alternative products as they adjust to recent public policies restricting smoking in public places. The findings are suggestive that some Minnesota smokers are switching to concurrent use of cigarettes and SLT. Future surveillance reports will be necessary to confirm the results.
Linguistic structure is an evolutionary trade-off between simplicity and expressivity

Language exhibits structure: a species-unique system for expressing complex meanings using complex forms. We present a review of modelling and experimental literature on the evolution of structure which suggests that structure is a cultural adaptation in response to pressure for expressivity (arising during communication) and compressibility (arising during learning), and test this hypothesis using a new Bayesian iterated learning model. We conclude that linguistic structure can and should be explained as a consequence of cultural evolution in response to these two pressures.
Methodology Framework for Information Systems Development

The paper describes so-called “Methodology Framework for Information Systems Development”. It has been developed at the Department of Information Technologies of the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic, and its development still continues. Moreover, the development of this facility is intended as the never ending process – the process of international collaboration and experience exchange in the field of the information systems development methodologies.
Lifted Inference for Faster Training ( LIFT ) in End-to-End Neural-CRF Models

Several works have explored the use of CRFs as a post-processing step at the end of a neural model to explicitly impose structure in the output space. This has resulted in improved performance in many domains with inherent structure over the output variables e.g., labels over pixels in an image. As an extension, joint training of neural-CRF models has also been explored albeit with limited success. This is due to the high cost of CRF inference which becomes a bottleneck in each iteration of back-propagation. On the other side of the spectrum, there has been tremendous progress in the graphical models community on the topic of lifted inference. Lifted inference algorithms exploit symmetry of the underlying model to significantly reduce the computational cost of graphical model inference. In this paper, we set out to explore the following question: Can the advances in lifted inference be leveraged to speed up the joint training of neural-CRF models? Answering in affirmative, our analysis shows that while pure lifted inference does not help in reducing the cost of training (without compromising the quality), a hybrid approach does the job where we gradually refine the level of lifting as the learning proceeds. As the main contribution of our paper, we present LIFT: Lifted Inference for Faster Training, a generic algorithm for faster joint training of neural-CRF models. Experiments in stereo-vision show that our approach can result in up to 50% reduction in training time without any loss in accuracy.
PARAMETRIC AND NON-PARAMETRIC ESTIMATION OF INCOMPLETE MANPOWER DATA USING COX’S APPROACH

In manpower planning the data are often incomplete due to left truncation as well as right censoring occurs when a number of people have not yet left when data collection is terminated. Left truncation arises when some people are already in service at the commencement of data collection. Several models have been suggested to describe the internal and external movements of staff in a commercial or industrial organization relating to censored data. In manpower planning, one of the most important variables is completed length of service on leaving a job, since it enables us to predict staff turnover. The most widely used distributions for completed length of service until leaving are the mixed exponential distribution and the lognormal distribution. The Weibull distribution is a particularly important life distribution and a large body of literature on statistical methods has evolved for it. In place of the Weibull distribution, it is often more convenient to work with the equivalent extreme value distribution when the observation are censored. In this paper a parametric and non-parametric estimate of the survivor function which extends Kaplan and Meier’s estimate to include left truncation as well as right censoring has been discussed. A suitable model is also developed, to analyze and predict the pattern of manpower wastage and the basis of all possible individual characteristics responsible for the wastage on the basis of Cox’s approach using Weibull and Extreme value distribution. A real industrial data has been used to validate the above models.
Stratospheric influence on baroclinic lifecycles and its connection to the Arctic Oscillation

Using an idealized primitive equation model, we investigate how stratospheric conditions alter the development of baroclinic instability in the troposphere. Starting from the lifecycle paradigm of Thorncroft et al., we consider the evolution of baroclinic lifecycles resulting from the addition of a stratospheric jet to the LC1 initial condition. We find that the addition of the stratospheric jet yields a net surface geopotential height anomaly that strongly resembles the Arctic Oscillation. With the additional modification of the tropospheric winds to resemble the high‐AO climatology, the surface response is amplified by a factor 10 and, though dominated by the tropospheric changes, shows similar sensitivity to the stratospheric conditions.
SINAI at VideoCLEF 2008

This paper describes the flrst participation of the SINAI research group in the VideoCLEF 2008 track. We have only submitted runs for the classiflcation task on Dutch and English languages. Our approach has consisted in the use of a particular Information Retrieval system as classiflcation architecture, using the speech transcriptions as textual queries and generating textual corpus for each topic class. In order to generate this textual corpus we have used the Google 1 search engine. The experiments show that an IR system can perform well as classifler of multilingual videos, using their speech transcriptions and obtaining good results.
Robust Adaptive Vibration Control with Application to a Robot Beam

This paper presents the adaptive control scheme with sliding mode compensator for vibration control problem in the presence of disturbance. The dynamic model of the flexible cantilever beam using finite element modeling is derived. The adaptive control with sliding mode compensator using output feedback for output tracking is developed to reject the external disturbance, and to improve the tracking performance. Satisfactory simulation results verify that the effectiveness of adaptive control scheme with sliding mode compensator. Keywords—finite element model, adaptive control, sliding mode control, vibration suppression
Executive Functions in Tobacco Dependence: Importance of Inhibitory Capacities

Background Executive functions are linked to tobacco dependence and craving. In this cross-sectional study, we assessed the impact of three executive functions: updating, inhibition and shifting processes on tobacco craving and dependence. Method 134 tobacco consumers were included in this study: 81 moderately (Fagerström score <7) and 53 heavily dependent (Fagerström score >7). Dependence was assessed with the Fagerström test and craving with the tobacco craving questionnaire (TCQ 12). We used the Stroop test and the Hayling test to measure inhibition, the Trail Making Test to measure shifting processes and the n-back test to measure updating processes. A multivariate logistic model was used to assess which variables explained best the level of nicotine dependence. Results Inhibition (p = 0.002) and updating (p = 0.014) processes, but not shifting processes, were associated with higher tobacco dependence. Inhibition capacity had a significant effect on the nicotine dependence level independently of age, education, time since last cigarette, intellectual quotient, craving, updating and shifting process. Conclusions Nicotine dependence level seems better explained by inhibition capacities than by craving and updating effects. The capacity to inhibit our behaviours is a good predictor of the severity of tobacco dependence. Our results suggest a prefrontal cortex dysfunction affecting the inhibitory capacities of heavy tobacco dependent smokers. Further studies are needed to investigate the application of these findings in the treatment of tobacco dependence.
Explanation Fiends and Foes: How Mechanistic Detail Determines Understanding and Preference

People differ in their threshold for satisfactory causal understanding and therefore in the type of explanation that will engender understanding and maximize the appeal of a novel product. Explanation fiends are dissatisfied with surface understanding and desire detailed mechanistic explanations of how products work. In contrast, explanation foes derive less understanding from detailed than coarse explanations and downgrade products that are explained in detail. Consumers' attitude toward explanation is predicted by their tendency to deliberate, as measured by the cognitive reflection test. Cognitive reflection also predicts susceptibility to the illusion of explanatory depth, the unjustified belief that one understands how things work. When explanation foes attempt to explain, it exposes the illusion, which leads to a decrease in willingness to pay. In contrast, explanation fiends are willing to pay more after generating explanations. We hypothesize that those low in cognitive reflection are explanation foes because explanatory detail shatters their illusion of understanding.
A Graphical User Interface to the Object-Oriented Database System VODAK on the Basis of the Generic Visualisation Toolkit Lyberworld

With the Lyberworld system a new approach offering the user a convenient interface to the data stored within an information retrieval system has been introduced. Accessing database contents by using the visualisation metaphors search tree and relevance sphere has achieved two main benefits: first, the user can construct and pose queries much easier than using a query language and second, query results are presented in a way which in opposition to, e.g., tabular output displays the relations between the different queries and query results. In our most recent research work we are aiming at integrating the visualisation concepts of Lyberworld with the object oriented database system VODAK, a powerful tool to implement database applications which require a complex database schema. Posing queries against such a database is a complex task which requires profound knowledge of the database schema and a query language. The approach presented within this paper integrates the Lyberworld concepts with the requirements for a visual interface to the VODAK database system. Furthermore, it develops Lyberworld towards a system which integrates and visualises data from various heterogeneous data sources.
The road less travelled - transforming information systems research into practice

The issue of ‘transforming Research into Practice’ is not new to the discipline of Information Systems and has generated much interest over the years. In this paper we propose to examine the transfer of research knowledge and research skills from Academic supervisors to undergraduate students. This study will focus on the transfer process occurring during the students’ final year whilst undertaking the honours research component of their degree program. This research-in-progress paper proposes a conceptual research-to-practice diffusion framework in order to facilitate the study of the transfer of research knowledge and research skills via the application of social judgement theory as the underlying theory. A pluralist methodology with a sequential research design is proposed for this exploratory study.
The theoretical framework of agent based monitoring for use in the production of gellan gum in a microbial fermentation system

This paper introduces the application of an agent-based software system for monitoring the process of gellan gum production. Gellan gum (biopolymer) is produced in industrial scale in bioreactors (sealed vessels) where the microbial culture is grown in a liquid fermentation medium under controlled environmental conditions (temperature, pH, aeration and agitation). The multi agent system will view the monitoring problem as the interaction of simple independent software entities, for effective use of the available data. The outcome of this agent – based solution will include the automatic on-line data acquisition and correlation of the most important parameters. Within such a dynamic process, like the gellan gum production, certan parameters (such as biomass, gellan and glucose concentration) change continuously and have to be measured and controlled. Also automatic knowledge derivation from past cases through the multi agent software system can be of future benefit.
Fast and bottom-up object detection, segmentation, and evaluation using Gestalt principles

In many scenarios, domestic robot will regularly encounter unknown objects. In such cases, top-down knowledge about the object for detection, recognition, and classification cannot be used. To learn about the object, or to be able to grasp it, bottom-up object segmentation is an important competence for the robot. Also when there is top-down knowledge, prior segmentation of the object can improve recognition and classification. In this paper, we focus on the problem of bottom-up detection and segmentation of unknown objects. Gestalt psychology studies the same phenomenon in human vision. We propose the utilization of a number of Gestalt principles. Our method starts by generating a set of hypotheses about the location of objects using symmetry. These hypotheses are then used to initialize the segmentation process. The main focus of the paper is on the evaluation of the resulting object segments using Gestalt principles to select segments with high figural goodness. The results show that the Gestalt principles can be successfully used for detection and segmentation of unknown objects. The results furthermore indicate that the Gestalt measures for the goodness of a segment correspond well with the objective quality of the segment. We exploit this to improve the overall segmentation performance.