Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypertension Analysis of stress Reduction using Mindfulness meditatiON and Yoga (The HARMONY Study): study protocol of a randomised control trial

Introduction Hypertension (HTN) is a leading risk factor for preventable cardiovascular disease, with over one in five adults affected worldwide. Lifestyle modification is a key strategy for the prevention and treatment of HTN. Stress has been associated with greater cardiovascular risk, and stress management is a recommended intervention for hypertensives. Stress reduction through relaxation therapies has been shown to have an effect on human physiology, including lowering blood pressure (BP). However, individualised behavioural interventions are resource intensive, and group stress management approaches have not been validated for reducing HTN. The HARMONY Study is a pilot randomised controlled trial designed to determine if mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a standardised group therapy, is an effective intervention for lowering BP in stage 1 unmedicated hypertensives. Methods and analysis Men and women unmedicated for HTN with mean daytime ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) ≥135/85 mm Hg or 24 h ABP ≥130/80 mm Hg are included in the study. Subjects are randomised to receive MBSR immediately or after a wait-list control period. The primary outcome measure is mean awake and 24 h ABP. The primary objective of the HARMONY Study is to compare ABP between the treatment and wait-list control arm at the 12-week primary assessment period. Results from this study will determine if MBSR is an effective intervention for lowering BP in early unmedicated hypertensives. Ethics and dissemination This research project was approved by the Sunnybrook Research Ethics Board and the University Health Network Research Ethics Board (Toronto, Canada). Planned analyses are in full compliance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Data collection will be completed by early spring 2012. Primary and secondary analysis will commence immediately after data monitoring is completed; dissemination plans include preparing publications for submission during the summer of 2012. Trial registration number This study is registered with http://clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00825526).
Tiered scene labeling with dynamic programming

Dynamic programming (DP) has been a useful tool for a variety of computer vision problems. However its application is usually limited to problems with a one dimensional or low treewidth structure, whereas most domains in vision are at least 2D. In this paper we show how to apply DP for pixel labeling of 2D scenes with simple “tiered” structure. While there are many variations possible, for the applications we consider the following tiered structure is appropriate. An image is first divided by horizontal curves into the top, middle, and bottom regions, and the middle region is further subdivided vertically into subregions. Under these constraints a globally optimal labeling can be found using an efficient dynamic programming algorithm. We apply this algorithm to two very different tasks. The first is the problem of geometric class labeling where the goal is to assign each pixel a label such as “sky”, “ground”, and “surface above ground”. The second task involves incorporating simple shape priors for segmentation of an image into the “foreground” and “background” regions.
Composing requirements using problem frames

Problem frames are a systematic approach to the decomposition of problems that allows us to relate requirements, domain properties, and machine specifications. Having decomposed a problem, one approach to solving it is through a process of composing solutions to sub-problems. In This work, we contribute to supporting such a process by providing a way to compose multiple problem frames. We develop a systematic approach to composing inconsistent requirements. We introduce composition frames, a requirements construct that models relevant aspects of composition and thus deals with unwanted effects, such as interference of overlapping reactions to events. Throughout the paper, we use a simple case study to illustrate and validate our ideas.
Fast Simplified Successive-Cancellation List Decoding of Polar Codes

Polar codes are capacity achieving error correcting codes that can be decoded through the successive-cancellation algorithm. To improve its error-correction performance, a list-based version called successive-cancellation list (SCL) has been proposed in the past, that however substantially increases the number of time-steps in the decoding process. The simplified SCL (SSCL) decoding algorithm exploits constituent codes within the polar code structure to greatly reduce the required number of time-steps without introducing any error-correction performance loss. In this paper, we propose a faster decoding approach to decode one of these constituent codes, the Rate-1 node. We use this Rate-1 node decoder to develop Fast-SSCL. We demonstrate that only a list-size-bound number of bits needs to be estimated in Rate-1 nodes and Fast-SSCL exactly matches the error-correction performance of SCL and SSCL. This technique can potentially greatly reduce the total number of time-steps needed for polar codes decoding: analysis on a set of case studies show that Fast-SSCL has a number of time- steps requirement that is up to 66.6% lower than SSCL and 88.1% lower than SCL.
Prevalence and Effects of Violence Against Women in a Rural Community in Minia Governorate, Egypt*

Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate prevalence and the characteristics of domestic violence (DV) against women in a rural area in Minia governorate, Egypt, as well as its physical and psychological consequences. Seven hundred and seventy‐two women were interviewed. Sociodemographic data were collected; the WHO questionnaire was used to identify the abuse; the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IIIR (SCID) to detect psychiatric disorders. Abused females constituted 57.4% of the total sample. There were significant relationships between DV and low education, low income, higher number of children, and husband’s education. Psychiatric disorders occurred in 18% of the sample. There were statistically significant relationships between psychological and physical abuse of women and the occurrence of psychiatric disorders. In conclusion, DV against women was related to various negative health outcomes, and it is recommended to be given its real importance in both Forensic Medicine Council and in psychiatric assessment.
On-the-fly scene acquisition with a handy multi-sensor system

We present a scene acquisition system which allows for fast and simple acquisition of arbitrarily large 3D environments. We propose a small device which acquires and processes frames consisting of depth and colour information at interactive rates. This allows the operator to control the acquisition process on the fly. However, no user input or prior knowledge of the scene is required. In each step of the processing, pipeline colour and depth data are used in combination in order to gain from different strengths of the sensors. A novel registration method is introduced that combines geometry and colour information for enhanced robustness and precision. We evaluate the performance of the system and present results from acquisition in different environments.
Implicit Mixtures of Restricted Boltzmann Machines

We present a mixture model whose components are Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs). This possibility has not been considered before because computing the partition function of an RBM is intractable, which appears to make learning a mixture of RBMs intractable as well. Surprisingly, when formulated as a third-order Boltzmann machine, such a mixture model can be learned tractably using contrastive divergence. The energy function of the model captures three-way interactions among visible units, hidden units, and a single hidden discrete variable that represents the cluster label. The distinguishing feature of this model is that, unlike other mixture models, the mixing proportions are not explicitly parameterized. Instead, they are defined implicitly via the energy function and depend on all the parameters in the model. We present results for the MNIST and NORB datasets showing that the implicit mixture of RBMs learns clusters that reflect the class structure in the data.
Type I Receptor Family Shares Homology with Members of the Cytokine Cytokine-Like Factor-1, a Novel Soluble Protein,

In this report we describe the identiﬁcation, cloning, and expression pattern of human cytokine-like factor 1 (hCLF-1) and the identiﬁcation and cloning of its murine homologue. They were identiﬁed from expressed sequence tags using amino acid sequences from conserved regions of the cytokine type I receptor family. Human CLF-1 and murine CLF-1 shared 96% amino acid identity and signiﬁcant homology with many cytokine type I receptors. CLF-1 is a secreted protein, suggesting that it is either a soluble subunit within a cytokine receptor complex, like the soluble form of the IL-6R a -chain, or a subunit of a multimeric cytokine, e.g., IL-12 p40. The highest levels of hCLF-1 mRNA were observed in lymph node, spleen, thymus, appendix, placenta, stomach, bone marrow, and fetal lung, with constitutive expression of CLF-1 mRNA detected in a human kidney ﬁbroblastic cell line. In ﬁbroblast primary cell cultures, CLF-1 mRNA was up-regulated by TNF- a , IL-6, and IFN- g . Western blot analysis of recombinant forms of hCLF-1 showed that the protein has the tendency to form covalently linked di- and tetramers. These results suggest that CLF-1 is a novel soluble cytokine receptor subunit or part of a novel cytokine complex, possibly playing a regulatory role in the immune system and during fetal development. The Journal of Immunology, 1998, 161: 1371–1379.
Finding the Cell Center by a Balance of Dynein and Myosin Pulling and Microtubule Pushing: A Computational Study

By comparing computer modeling predictions with observations, we conclude that strong dynein and weaker myosin-generated forces pull the microtubules inward competing with microtubule plus-ends pushing the microtubule aster outward and that the balance of these forces positions the centrosome at the cell center.
Subcellular Neural Probes from Single-Crystal Gold Nanowires

Size reduction of neural electrodes is essential for improving the functionality of neuroprosthetic devices, developing potent therapies for neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, and long-term brain–computer interfaces. Typical neural electrodes are micromanufactured devices with dimensions ranging from tens to hundreds of micrometers. Their further miniaturization is necessary to reduce local tissue damage and chronic immunological reactions of the brain. Here we report the neural electrode with subcellular dimensions based on single-crystalline gold nanowires (NWs) with a diameter of ∼100 nm. Unique mechanical and electrical properties of defect-free gold NWs enabled their implantation and recording of single neuron-activities in a live mouse brain despite a ∼50× reduction of the size compared to the closest analogues. Reduction of electrode dimensions enabled recording of neural activity with improved spatial resolution and differentiation of brain activity in response to different social situations for mice. The successful localization of the epileptic seizure center was also achieved using a multielectrode probe as a demonstration of the diagnostics potential of NW electrodes. This study demonstrated the realism of single-neuron recording using subcellular-sized electrodes that may be considered a pivotal point for use in diverse studies of chronic brain diseases.
Particle size study of diazonaphthoquinone/novolak

With decreasing CD in semiconductor industry, the ability to detect smaller resist particles on wafers after photolithography process becomes increasingly important for the advanced photolithography processes. It is important to be able to detect the resist defect for the advanced photolithography processes. To be able to measure the resist, defect after development process can give the indication and the early warning of the photoresist defect on the wafer. The diazoquinone/novolak resist particles were collected after the development of several lots of wafers, while the wafer critical dimension is 2μm. The particle size and its distribution after development process were obtained. The resist particles were negatively stained before TEM. The TEM figures and the measurement data of the resist particle diameters were reported. The size measurement data of TEM figures of diazoquinone/novolak resist particles after photolithography development process was analyzed. The particle size mainly has dual separate distribution peaks: >85% of particles have the diameters distributed around ~23 nm and 15% of bigger particles around 220 nm. Because of the unique role of DNQ, which is both the photo-sensitizer and the development inhibitor before exposure, the correlation of resist particle size with respect to the developer concentration, the size of the radius of gyration, the "photosensitizing center" and the "development center" is speculated. Generally the particle size distribution is mainly correlated to the developer concentration, polymer macromolecular weight and the polymer / PAC ratio.
Making a DSM consistency protocol hierarchy-aware: an efficient synchronization scheme

We consider the design of DSM consistency protocols for hierarchical architectures. Such architectures typically consist of a constellation of loosely-interconnected clusters, each cluster consisting of a set of tightly-interconnected nodes running multithreaded programs. We claim that high performance can only be reached by taking into account this interconnection hierarchy at the very core of the protocol design. Previous work has focused on improving locality in data management by caching remote data within clusters. In contrast, our idea is to improve locality in the synchronization management. We demonstrate the feasibility through an experimental implementation of this idea in a home-based protocol for Release Consistency, and we provide a preliminary evaluation of the expectable performance gain.
Spacetime constraints

Spacetime constraints are a new method for creating character animation. The animator specifies what the character has to do, for instance, "jump from here to there, clearing a hurdle in between;" how the motion should be performed, for instance "don't waste energy," or "come down hard enough to splatter whatever you land on;" the character's physical structure---the geometry, mass, connectivity, etc. of the parts; and the physical resources' available to the character to accomplish the motion, for instance the character's muscles, a floor to push off from, etc. The requirements contained in this description, together with Newton's laws, comprise a problem of constrained optimization. The solution to this problem is a physically valid motion satisfying the "what" constraints and optimizing the "how" criteria. We present as examples a Luxo lamp performing a variety of coordinated motions. These realistic motions conform to such principles of traditional animation as anticipation, squash-and-stretch, follow-through, and timing.
Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer Augmentation in Automobile Radiator With CNT/Water Nanofluid

The trend toward higher engine power leads to larger radiators in automobile sector and increased frontal areas, resulting increased fuel consumption. Heat transfer of coolant flow through the automobile radiators is of great importance for the optimization of fuel consumption. Compaq cooling system can be manufactured by introducing nanocoolant with in automobile radiator. In this paper, heat transfer of CNT based nanocoolant has experimentally compared to that of pure water in an automobile radiator. Four different concentrations of nanofluids in the range of 0.15–1 vol. % have been prepared by the addition of CNT nanoparticles into the water. The test liquid flows through the radiator consisted of vertical tubes with rectangle cross section and air makes a cross flow inside the tube bank with constant speed. The CNT nanocoolants are synthesized by functionalization CNT (FCNT) and surface treatment (SCNT) method. The effects of type of nanofluid, variation in pH and nanoparticle concentration on the Nusselt number are deeply investigated. Results demonstrate that both nanocoolant show enormous change Nusselt number in comparison with water. The results of functionalized CNT nanocoolant with 5.5 pH show better performance than 6.8 and 9 pH nanocoolant. The surface treated CNT nanocoolant show results deterioration in heat transfer performance. Furthermore, increasing the nanoparticle concentration and nanofluid velocity enhances the Nusselt number. © 2013 ASME
Chicken or Egg: Exploring the Coevolution of VC Firm Reputation and Status

We explore the relationships between status and reputation, and between past and current status and reputation, and examine how these dynamics change over time and are influenced by participation in highly visible events. Using a sample of more than 500 newly-founded VC firms, we find that reputation and status positively influence each other, but that reputation has a greater effect on status, particularly when firms are younger. We also find that the effect of past status on current status weakens as VC firms age, but the relationship between past and current reputation remains consistent with age. Participating in blockbuster deals has a positive relationship with status when firms are young and a positive relationship with reputation when firms are older, and helps low status and low reputation firms more than it helps high status and high reputation firms. This study contributes to our understanding of how status and reputation develop and are differentiated, and provides insight into how new firms b.
Setting the Stage for Molecular Dissection of the Regulatory Components of BK Channels

Despite remarkable diversity in the properties of large-conductance, calcium- and voltage-activated K+ channels (also termed “BK” or “maxi-K” channels) in different tissues, (McManus, 1991; Vergara et al., 1998), the defining characteristic of all BK channels is that their activation is controlled by two independent physiological stimuli, membrane voltage and cytosolic Ca2+ concentrations ([Ca2+]i). This dual regulation by Ca2+ and voltage allows BK channels to play a more dynamic role in the regulation of cellular excitability than is possible with strictly voltage-gated K+ channel homologues, as the extent of activation during any particular depolarization is also linked to [Ca2+]i. Since the initial discovery of BK channels, this dual regulation has naturally tantalized those interested in channel gating mechanisms, posing the fascinating question: what is the molecular mechanism by which two independent stimuli each influence the ability of the BK channel to open?
The Varieties of Pathways to Dysfluent Reading

The majority of work on the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) of dyslexia has been done at the letter and word levels of reading. Key research questions addressed in this study are (a) do readers with different subtypes of dyslexia display differences in fluency at particular reading levels (e.g., letter, word, and connected text)? and (b) do children with dyslexia identified by either low-achievement or ability—achievement discrepancy criteria show similar differences when classified by the DDH? To address these questions, the authors assessed a sample of 158 children with severe reading impairments in second and third grades on an extensive battery and classified them into three reader subtypes using the DDH. The results demonstrated that the three DDH subtypes exhibited differences in fluency at different levels of reading (letter, word, and connected text), underscoring the separate reading profiles of these subtypes and the different possible routes to dysfluency in reading disabilities. Furthermore, the results suggest that the different patterns among DDH subtypes are primarily driven by the ability—achievement discrepancy group. The implications of these findings are discussed for intervention, reading theory, and a more refined understanding of heterogeneity.
Author's Personal Copy Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment Contribution of Woody Habitat Islands to the Conservation of Birds and Their Potential Ecosystem Services in an Extensive Colombian Rangeland

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: Keywords: Bird community Ecosystem service Forest fragment Habitat association Indicator species Tropical savanna a b s t r a c t In agricultural landscapes, patches of natural or semi-natural habitat are crucial for the survival of plant and animal populations, which in turn are essential to maintain ecosystem functioning. Species composition and diversity of trees and birds among woody habitat islands were compared in a Colombian rangeland to assess how habitat characteristics influence bird community composition, bird species traits and their potential ecosystem services. Bird and tree diversity was higher in gallery forest fragments compared to hedgerows and isolated tree islands within rangelands. Forest fragments shared over 50% of their bird and tree species with tree islands and hedgerows, yet communities differed markedly. Tree islands and hedgerows had relatively more endozoochorous and small-seeded tree species and hosted birds of forest, savanna and shrubland, while forest fragments had more synzoochorous and large-seeded tree species and primarily hosted forest birds. Hedges and tree islands contribute to the conservation of forest bird and tree biodiversity in rangeland, but gallery forests are essential for the conservation of less tolerant forest species. The savanna rangeland acts as an ecological filter between the gallery forests and the hedges and tree islands, which in turn facilitate the spillover of tolerant forest birds and their ecological functions, including tree seed dispersal, into the rangeland, and thus support regional forest conservation and restoration.
Coherence regularized dictionary learning

Sparse representations over redundant learned dictionaries have shown to produce high quality results in various image processing tasks. An important characteristic of a learned dictionary is the mutual coherence of dictionary that affects its generalization performance and the optimality of sparse codes generated from it. In this paper, we present a dictionary learning model equipped with coherence regularization. For this model, two novel dictionary optimization algorithms based on group-wise minimization of inter- and intra-coherence penalties are proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms improve the generalization properties and sparse approximation performance of the trained dictionary compared to several incoherent dictionary learning methods.