Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BAYESIAN NETWORK STRUCTURAL LEARNING AND INCOMPLETE DATA

Bayesian networks formalism is becoming increasingly popular in a lot of areas such as decision aid, diagnosis and complex systems control, in particular thanks to its inference capabilities, even when data are incomplete. Besides, estimating the parameters of a fixed-structure Bayesian network is easy. However, very few methods are capable of using incomplete cases as a base to determine the structure of a Bayesian network. In this paper, we take up the structural EM algorithm principle [8, 9] and put forward some potential improvements based upon principles recently developed in structural learning with complete data.
Universität Des Saarlandes Fachrichtung 6.1 – Mathematik a Highly Efficient Gpu Implementation for Variational Optic Flow Based on the Euler-lagrange Framework a Highly Efficient Gpu Implementation for Variational Optic Flow Based on the Euler-lagrange Framework

The Euler-Lagrange (EL) framework is the most widely-used strategy for solving variational optic flow methods. We present the first approach that solves the EL equations of state-of-the-art methods on sequences with 640 × 480 pixels in near-realtime on GPUs. This performance is achieved by combining two ideas: (i) We extend the recently proposed Fast Explicit Diffusion (FED) scheme to optic flow, and additionally embed it into a coarse-to-fine strategy. (ii) We paral-lelise our complete algorithm on a GPU, where a careful optimisation of global memory operations and an efficient use of on-chip memory guarantee a good performance. Applying our approach to the varia-tional 'Complementary Optic Flow' method (Zimmer et al. (2009)), we obtain highly accurate flow fields in less than a second. This currently constitutes the fastest method in the top 10 of the widely used Middlebury benchmark.
Intensity Matters: High-intensity Interval Exercise Enhances Motor Cortex Plasticity More Than Moderate Exercise.

A single bout of cardiovascular exercise can enhance plasticity in human cortex; however, the intensity required for optimal enhancement is debated. We investigated the effect of exercise intensity on motor cortex synaptic plasticity, using transcranial magnetic stimulation. Twenty healthy adults (Mage = 35.10 ± 13.25 years) completed three sessions. Measures of cortico-motor excitability (CME) and inhibition were obtained before and after a 20-min bout of either high-intensity interval exercise, moderate-intensity continuous exercise, or rest, and again after intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS). Results showed that high-intensity interval exercise enhanced iTBS plasticity more than rest, evidenced by increased CME and intracortical facilitation, and reduced intracortical inhibition. In comparison, the effect of moderate-intensity exercise was intermediate between high-intensity exercise and rest. Importantly, analysis of each participant's plasticity response profile indicated that high-intensity exercise increased the likelihood of a facilitatory response to iTBS. We also established that the brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met polymorphism attenuated plasticity responses following high-intensity exercise. These findings suggest that high-intensity interval exercise should be considered not only when planning exercise interventions designed to enhance neuroplasticity, but also to maximize the therapeutic potential of non-invasive brain stimulation. Additionally, genetic profiling may enhance efficacy of exercise interventions for brain health.
Mining Web logs to improve hit ratios of prefetching and caching

In the Internet, proxy servers play the key roles between users and Web sites, which could reduce the response time of user requests and save network bandwidth. Basically, an efficient buffer manager should be built in a proxy server to cache frequently accessed documents in the buffer, thereby achieving better response time. In the paper, we developed an access sequence miner to mine popular surfing 2-sequences with their conditional probabilities from the proxy log, and stored them in the rule table. Then, according to buffer contents and the rule table, a prediction-based buffer manager also developed here makes appropriate actions such as document caching, document prefetching, and even cache/prefetch buffer size adjusting to achieve better buffer utilization. Through the simulation, we found that our approach has better performance than the others, in the quantitative measures such as hit ratios and byte hit ratios of accessed documents.
Comparison of acoustic therapies for tinnitus suppression: a preliminary trial

Abstract Objective: This study obtained preliminary data using two types of sound therapy to suppress tinnitus and/or reduce its functional effects: (1) Notched noise (1000–12,000 Hz notched within a 1-octave range centred around the tinnitus pitch match [PM] frequency); and (2) Matched noise (1-octave wide band of noise centred around the PM frequency). A third (Placebo) group listened to low frequency noise (250–700 Hz). Design: Participants with bothersome tinnitus were randomised into one of the three groups and instructed to listen to the acoustic stimulus for 6 hours a day for 2 weeks. Stimuli were delivered using an iPod Nano, and tinnitus counselling was not performed. Outcome measures were recorded at the 0, 2 and 4 week study visits. Study Sample: Thirty participants with constant and bothersome tinnitus were recruited and randomised. Results: All groups showed, on average, overall improvement, both immediately post-treatment and 2 weeks following treatment. Outcomes varied between groups on the different measures and at the two outcome points. Conclusion: This study showed improvement for all of the groups, lending support to the premise that any type of sound stimulation is beneficial for relieving effects of tinnitus. These results may serve as a preliminary evidence for a larger study.
Negotiation over tasks in hybrid human-agent teams for simulation-based training

The effectiveness of simulation-based training for individual tasks -- such as piloting skills -- is well established, but its use for team training raises challenging technical issues. Ideally, human users could gain valuable leadership experience by interacting with synthetic teammates in realistic and potentially stressful scenarios. However, creating human-like teammates that can support flexible, natural interactions with humans and other synthetic agents requires integrating a wide variety of capabilities, including models of teamwork, models of human negotiation, and the ability to participate in face-to-face spoken conversations in virtual worlds. We have developed such virtual humans by integrating and extending prior work in these areas, and we have applied our virtual humans to an example peacekeeping training scenario to guide and evaluate our research. Our models allow agents to reason about authority and responsibility for individual actions in a team task and, as appropriate, to carry out actions, give and accept orders, monitor task execution, and negotiate options. Negotiation is guided by the agents' dynamic assessment of alternative actions given the current scenario conditions, with the aim of guiding the human user towards an ability to make similar assessments.
Adverse trends in male reproductive health: we may have reached a crucial ‘tipping point’

Healthy men produce an enormous number of sperms, far more than necessary for conception. However, several studies suggest that semen samples where the concentration of sperms is below 40 mill/mL may be associated with longer time to pregnancy or even subfertility, and specimens where the concentration of sperms is below 15 mill/mL may carry a high risk of infertility. Historic data from the 1940s show that the bulk of young men at that time had sperm counts far above 40 mill/mL with averages higher than 100 mill/mL. However, recent surveillance studies of young men from the general populations of young men in Northern Europe show that semen quality is much poorer. In Denmark approximately 40 percent of the men have now sperm counts below 40 mill/mL. A simulation assuming that average sperm count had declined from 100 mill/mL in ‘old times’ to a current level close to 40 mill/mL indicated that the first decline in average sperm number of 20–40 mill/mL might not have had much effect on pregnancy rates, as the majority of men would still have had counts far above the threshold value. However, due to the assumed decline in semen quality, the sperm counts of the majority of 20 year old European men are now so low that we may be close to the crucial tipping point of 40 mill/mL spermatozoa. Consequently, we must face the possibility of more infertile couples and lower fertility rates in the future.
Anterior maxillary dentoalveolar and skeletal cephalometric factors involved in upper incisor crown exposure in subjects with Class II and III skeletal open bite.

OBJECTIVE To compare the anterior dentoalveolar and skeletal maxillary cephalometric factors involved in excessive upper incisor crown exposure (UICE) in subjects with skeletal open bite Class II (SOBCIIG) and Class III (SOBCIIIG) against an untreated control group (CG). MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy pretreatment lateral cephalograms of orthodontic young adult patients (34 men, 36 women) were examined. The sample was divided into three groups according to both sagittal and vertical growth pattern and occlusion. The CG group (n = 25) included Class I, normodivergent cases with adequate overbite, and the SOBCIIG group (n = 25) and SOBCIIIG group (n = 20) included skeletal Class II or III malocclusions, respectively, with hyperdivergent pattern and negative overbite. Several cephalometric measurements were considered (skeletal and dental). Analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of covariance, and Tukey HSD post hoc tests were used. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used for reducing the number of cephalometric variables related to UICE. Finally, a multiple linear regression was calculated. RESULTS Significant differences in UICE were found between the groups (P < .05). UICE was 3.9 mm in SOBCIIG, 2.5 mm in SOBCIIIG, and 0.4 mm in CG. PCA showed that a nondental component-including vertical maxillary height (VMH) and upper lip height (ULH)-was the only component significantly associated with UICE. The regression model had a moderate prediction capability. CONCLUSIONS Although the UICE was statistically different in SOBCIIG, the values were within the esthetic standards. The UICE was mainly influenced by VMH and ULH.
On the Kullback Leibler information for mixed systems

Entropy and Kullback–Leibler (KL) information for engineering systems have been studied in both statistical and reliability contexts. In this paper, we prove that the KL information between distributions of mixed system lifetimes and the corresponding component lifetimes and also the associated order statistics are distribution free and depends only on the signature of the system provided that lifetimes of components are independent and identically distributed (iid). The obtained results are used to find the closest and the farthest distribution of order statistics from the distribution of the system’s lifetime which is useful to approximate stochastic behaviour of mixed systems when the number of components is large. Finally, we provide bounds and also use the results to obtain a more preferable system among all systems. Some illustrative examples are also given.
The Mental Health Disparity Among Nonheterosexuals: Risk, Resiliency, and New Perspectives to Consider in the Context of Mormonism

54 Introduction 54 Methods 60 Results 66 Discussion 73 References 81 x Page 4. OUT AND PROUD: ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN DISCLOSURE AND PERCIEVED BENEFITS OF BEING NONHETEROSEXUAL . 88 Abstract 88 Introduction 88 Methods 94 Results 99 Discussion 107 References 114 5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 118 Specific Aspects of Minority Stress Related to Depression 118 Quantitative Assessment of the Positive Aspects of Nonheterosexuality . 121 Outness and the Positive Aspects of Nonheterosexuality 122 References 123 APPENDICES 125 Appendix A: Informed Consent 126 Appendix B: Measures 129 Appendix C: Permissions for Use Letters 128 VITA 142
Coupling with the stationary distribution and improved sampling for colorings and independent sets

We present an improved coupling technique for analyzing the mixing time of Markov chains. Using our technique, we simplify and extend previous results for sampling colorings and independent sets. Our approach uses properties of the stationary distribution to avoid worst-case configurations which arise in the traditional approach.As an application, we show that for <i>k</i>/Δ > 1.764, the Glauber dynamics on <i>k</i>-colorings of a graph on <i>n</i> vertices with maximum degree Δ converges in <i>O</i>(<i>n</i> log <i>n</i>) steps, assuming Δ = Ω(log <i>n</i>) and that the graph is triangle-free. Previously, girth ≥ 5 was needed.As a second application, we give a polynomial-time algorithm for sampling weighted independent sets from the Gibbs distribution of the hard-core lattice gas model at fugacity λ < (1 - ε)<i>e</i>/Δ, on a regular graph <i>G</i> on <i>n</i> vertices of degree Δ = Ω(log <i>n</i>) and girth ≥ 6. The best known algorithm for general graphs currently assumes λ < 2/(Δ - 2).
Pre-treatment gelatinases' serum levels and post-treatment changes in laryngeal cancer patients.

INTRODUCTION Laryngeal cancer, especially in the advanced stages, is a highly devastating disease, characterized by increased invasiveness and high rates of metastasis. Gelatinases A and B (MMP-2 and -9 respectively) are of particular interest due to their contribution to various stages of carcinogenesis. There is a growing body of evidence with regard to the prognostic value of certain MMPs and their possible role as tumour markers. AIM To identify the pattern of alteration of serum gelatinases A and B in patients with laryngeal cancer following treatment, and a possible correlation with various clinicopathological parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty nine patients were included in this study. Pre-treatment and post-treatment serum samples were collected and processed by gelatin zymography and western blotting. RESULTS Only the latent forms of MMP-2 and -9 were identified. Both gelatinases were increased in the serum of laryngeal cancer patients compared to healthy individuals. Patients with supraglottic tumours and active smokers had significantly higher pre-treatment levels of proMMP-2 than patients with glottic tumours (p < 0.05) and ex-smokers (p < 0.05), respectively. Patients with primary disease and patients with lymph node involvement showed lower serum proMMP-9 pre-treatment levels than patients with recurrence (p < 0.05) and patients without neck disease (p < 0.1), respectively. During the follow-up period the proMMP-2 serum levels increased significantly in the first ten to fifteen days after treatment, gradually decreasing over the following months. The proMMP-9 serum levels showed a gradual decrease after treatment, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS The post-treatment alteration pattern of proMMP-9 serum levels shows a possible role of this molecule as a tumour marker in laryngeal cancer. Further research is necessary to clarify the contribution of both gelatinases to the disease progress and determine their role as prognostic factors and tumour markers.
Learning to select a time-aware retrieval model

Time-aware retrieval models exploit one of two time dimensions, namely, (a) publication time or (b) content time (temporal expressions mentioned in documents). We show that the effectiveness for a temporal query (e.g., illinois earthquake 1968) depends significantly on which time dimension is factored into ranking results. Motivated by this, we propose a machine learning approach to select the most suitable time-aware retrieval model for a given temporal query. Our method uses three classes of features obtained from analyzing distributions over two time dimensions, a distribution over terms, and retrieval scores within top-k result documents. Experiments on real-world data with crowdsourced relevance assessments show the potential of our approach.
Chronic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure causes DNA damage and genomic instability in lung epithelial cells

Cell exposure to atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is closely associated with DNA damage and genomic instability. We assessed the mechanisms of chronic and acute PAH exposure-induced genotoxicity in two human lung epithelial cell lines, A549 and NC-H1975. We sampled atmospheric PAHs at the Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China during August (non-haze episode) and November (haze episode) 2015. We identified vehicle emissions as a dominant anthropogenic PAH source in our study. PAHs were extracted according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Method TO-13A. We found that chronic PAH exposure saturated lung cell xenobiotic metabolic pathways, promoting intercellular reactive oxygen species production and accumulation. Chronic alteration of the cellular redox status resulted in DNA damage and genomic instability. Chronic PAH exposure also perturbed the cellular DNA damage response, inducing S phase arrest and inhibiting apoptosis. Dysregulation of PAH metabolism and the DNA damage response altered cellular homeostasis and increased cell susceptibility to subsequent PAH exposures, thereby enhancing the likelihood of genomic mutation and instability.
Response to Acute Psychophysical Stress and 24-Hour Glycemic Control in Healthy Older People

We examined the relation between stress reactivity and 24 h glycemic control in 17 inactive, healthy older people (≥60 years) under both a novel psychophysical stress and a seated control condition. Plasma cortisol was measured over the course of the stress and recovery periods. Glycemic control was determined over the subsequent 3 h from an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and over 24 h via continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). We observed significant (P < 0.05) elevations in perceived stress, cardiovascular activity, and peak cortisol response at 30 min (10.6 ± 3.1 versus 8.6 ± 2.6 μg·dL−1, resp.) during the stress compared with the control condition; however, 3 h OGTT glucose and insulin responses were similar between conditions. The CGM data suggested a 30–40 min postchallenge delay in peak glucose response and attenuated glucose clearance over the 6 h following the stress condition, but these alterations were not statistically significant. Healthy older people may demonstrate minimal disruption in metabolic resiliency following everyday psychological stress.
Simple Ka-band Earth coverage antennas for LEO satellites

Preliminary design of simple antennas to give approximately uniform illumination of the Earth from low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the 20/30 GHz band is outlined. Three designs are compared for a satellite with an altitude of 800-km. As the satellite altitude decreases it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain the desired wide beamwidth using horn antennas and some improvement may be obtained using a small reflector.
Robust FCM Algorithm with Local and Gray Information for Image Segmentation

The FCM fuzzy c-mean algorithm has been extended and modified in many ways in order to solve the image segmentation problem. However, almost all the extensions require the adjustment of at least one parameter that depends on the image itself. To overcome this problem and provide a robust fuzzy clustering algorithm that is fully free of the empirical parameters and noise type-independent, we propose a new factor that includes the local spatial and the gray level information. Actually, this work provides three extensions of the FCM algorithm that proved their efficiency on synthetic and real images.
Classifying Web pages employing a probabilistic neural network

The paper proposes a system capable of identifying and categorising Web pages on the basis of information filtering. The system is a three-layer probabilistic neural network (PNN) with biases and radial basis neurons in the middle layer and competitive neurons in the output layer. The domain of study involves the e-commerce area. Thus, the PNN scopes to identify e-commerce Web pages and classify them to the respective type according to a framework which describes the fundamental phases of commercial transactions in the Web. The system was tested with many types of Web pages, demonstrating the robustness of the method, since no restrictions were imposed except for the language of the content, which is English. The probabilistic classifier was used for estimating the population of specific e-commerce Web pages. Potential applications involve surveying Web activity in commercial servers, as well as Web page classification in largely expanding information areas like e-government or news and media.
High variety cloud databases

Big Data is colloquially described in terms of the three Vs: Volume, Velocity, and Variety. Volume and velocity receive a disproportionate amount of research attention, however, variety is frequently cited by practitioners as the Big Data problem that “keeps them up at night” - the problem that resists direct attacks in terms of new algorithms, systems, and approaches. We find that the cloud-based data management platform attracts higher variety workloads, therefore motivating a new classes of High Variety Database Management Systems (HVDBMS). This work provides an operational model of variety emphasizing the complexity of user intent as well as the complexity of the data itself. The proposed model captures intuitive notions of variety that are distinct from, and broader than, conventional data integration challenges, establishes criteria for a “High Variety benchmark” that can be used to evaluate competing systems, and motivates new research directions in the design of HVDBMS.
Common NOS1AP variants are associated with a prolonged QTc interval in the Rotterdam Study.

BACKGROUND QT prolongation is an important risk factor for sudden cardiac death. About 35% of QT-interval variation is heritable. In a recent genome-wide association study, a common variant (rs10494366) in the nitric oxide synthase 1 adaptor protein (NOS1AP) gene was found to be associated with QT-interval variation. We tested for association of 2 NOS1AP variants with QT duration and sudden cardiac death. METHODS AND RESULTS The Rotterdam Study is a population-based, prospective cohort study of individuals > or = 55 years of age. The NOS1AP variants rs10494366 T>G and rs10918594 C>G were genotyped in 6571 individuals. Heart rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) was determined with ECG analysis software on up to 3 digital ECGs per individual (total, 11,108 ECGs from 5374 individuals). The association with QTc duration was estimated with repeated-measures analyses, and the association with sudden cardiac death was estimated by Cox proportional-hazards analyses. The rs10494366 G allele (36% frequency) was associated with a 3.8-ms (95% confidence interval, 3.0 to 4.6; P=7.8x10(-20)) increase in QTc interval duration for each additional allele copy, and the rs10918594 G allele (31% frequency) was associated with a 3.6-ms (95% confidence interval, 2.7 to 4.4; P=6.9x10(-17)) increase per additional allele copy. None of the inferred NOS1AP haplotypes showed a stronger effect than the individual single-nucleotide polymorphisms. There were 233 sudden cardiac deaths over 11.9 median years of follow-up. No significant association was observed with sudden cardiac death risk. CONCLUSIONS Common variants in NOS1AP are strongly associated with QT-interval duration in an elderly population. Larger sample sizes are needed to confirm or exclude an effect on sudden cardiac death risk.