Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of bariatric surgery on outcomes of patients with celiac disease: a nationwide inpatient sample analysis, 2004-2014

Background While patients with celiac disease have increasingly developed an atypical pattern of weight gain and obesity, the role of bariatric surgery remains unclear. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of bariatric surgery on clinical outcomes among hospitalized patients with celiac disease. Methods The United States Nationwide Inpatient Sample database was queried for discharges with co-diagnoses of morbid obesity and celiac disease between 2004 and 2014. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included renal failure, urinary tract infection, malnutrition, sepsis, pneumonia, respiratory failure, thromboembolic events, strictures, micronutrient deficiency, length of stay, and hospitalization costs. Using Poisson regression, adjusted incidence risk ratios (IRR) were derived for clinical outcomes in patients with prior bariatric surgery compared to those without bariatric surgery. Results Among 1499 patients with a discharge diagnosis of celiac disease and morbid obesity, 126 patients (8.4%) underwent bariatric surgery. Despite an increase in morbid obesity over the study period, the proportion of morbidly obese patients with celiac disease who had bariatric surgery declined by 18.5% (Ptrend<0.05). On multivariable analysis, bariatric surgery did not influence mortality (P=0.98), but was associated with a lower risk of renal failure, pneumonia, sepsis, urinary tract infection and respiratory failure (all P<0.05). Bariatric surgery increased the risk of vitamin D deficiency (IRR 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6-7.7; P=0.002) and post-operative strictures (IRR 3.3; 95%CI 1.5-7.5; P=0.004). Conclusion Despite the underutilization of bariatric surgery in morbidly obese celiac disease patients, the procedure is safe and appears to significantly reduce morbidity.
Effects of Cooperative Script Manipulations on Initial Learning and Transfer

When two people study cooperatively, their expectations, roles, and prior exposure to the information to be discussed can potentially affect retention. In addition, a cooperative experience has the potential to facilitate subsequent individual study. Four cooperativestudy scripts were employed to test their effects on initial recall and on transfer to an individual task. As partners, students read and studied two passages. In Group 1, partners each read one passage only and then taught the material to each other. They did not expect to be able to read their partner's passage, although they were later given time to do so. Group 2 was identical to Group 1, except that partners in Group 2 expected the extra reading time. In Group 3, partners cooperated in reading both passages by alternating summarizer and listener roles four times within each passage. In Group 4, partners played summarizer and listener roles only once, at the end of each passage. All participants later studied a third passage individually (.
Decision Making in Three Modes

This paper presents an integrative framework for analyzing decisions. Three generic modes of decision making are identified: consequential choice (comparing alternatives in terms of expected consequences), matching (evaluating single options in terms of a certain criterion) and reassessment (re-evaluating an action to which one is already committed). The three generic modes are compared on a common set of attributes, and the conditions for their proper use are outlined. Two case analyses illustrate how the framework can be used to analyze specific decisions from multiple perspectives.
Cued speech hand gestures recognition tool

Automatic real-time translation of gestured languages for hearing-impaired would be a major advance on disabled integration path. In this paper, we present a demonstrator on Cued Speech hand gesture recognition. Cued Speech is a specific visual coding that complements oral languages lip-reading. Its nature provides a simple gestures set which is likely to be automatically and reliably recognized in rather little constraint conditions. A first PC-demonstrator illustrates the recognition process.
ON EFFICIENT VALIDATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF SMOOTH AND RELIABLE SENSOR NETWORKS BY VIRTUAL WIRING

The use of wireless sensor networks is gathering momentum in recent days owing to its service in effectively assisting the expansion of the computing process from fixed terminals of computers to the real world. There are numerous issues involved in the operation of sensor networks spanning electronics, communication and data management. However, energy constraints play a dominant role in almost all considerations. In this paper, we suggest a method to reduce energy wastage by avoiding unwanted transmissions and then validating the network for two key features namely, reliability and smoothness of data flow. The former gives the network the ability to function with knode failure and the latter provides a logical closeness to nodes that are physically close. The network can be rendered virtually wired by exploiting the choice of communication channels between nodes and then validated for the desired features and subsequently amended if the conditions are not met.
A survey on automated microaneurysm detection in Diabetic Retinopathy retinal images

Automated retinal image analysis is becoming an imperative screening tool for early revealing of certain risks and diseases like Diabetic Retinopathy. Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is the prominent cause of blindness in the world. Early detection of diabetic retinopathy can provide operative treatment. Early treatment can be conducted from detection of microaneurysms. Microaneurysms are the earliest clinical sign of diabetic retinopathy and they appear as small red spots on retinal fundus images. Microaneurysms are reddish in color with a diameter less than 125 μm. The existing trained eye care specialists are not able to screen the growing number of diabetic patients. So there is a need to develop a technique that is capable to detect microaneurysms as a part of diagnosis system, so that medical professionals are able to diagnose the stage of the disease with ease. Automated microaneurysm detection can decrease the workload of ophthalmologists and cost in DR screening system. Early automated microaneurysms detection can help in reducing the incidence of blindness. In this paper, we review and analyze the techniques, algorithms and methodologies used for the detection of microaneurysms from diabetic retinopathy retinal fundus images.
Performance analysis of an Intrusion Detection System using Panjab University Intrusion DataSet

Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used to detect malware by its network activities or behavioral profiles. Common challenges for IDS are large amount of data to process, low detection rate and high rate of false alarms. Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OS-ELM) based IDS with network traffic profiling is tested on Panjab University - Intrusion DataSet (PU-IDataSet). This IDS is known as alpha-FST-Beta IDS. The training connections are first categorized on the basis of protocol and service features. This categorization is named as alpha profiling. It increases the scalability and reduces the time complexity of IDS. Large feature set of network traffic dataset is reduced using ensemble of three feature selection techniques. Beta profiling is used to reduce the size of training dataset. Various parameters like accuracy, true positive rate, false positive rate, true negative rate, false negative rate, precision, F1-score and detection time is used to evaluate the performance. The results obtained encourage the integration of this system in intrusion detection models.
Across-speaker articulatory normalization for speaker-independent silent speech recognition

Silent speech interfaces (SSIs), which recognize speech from articulatory information (i.e., without using audio information), have the potential to enable persons with laryngectomy or a neurological disease to produce synthesized speech with a natural sounding voice using their tongue and lips. Current approaches to SSIs have largely relied on speaker-dependent recognition models to minimize the negative effects of talker variation on recognition accuracy. Speaker-independent approaches are needed to reduce the large amount of training data required from each user; only limited articulatory samples are often available for persons with moderate to severe speech impairments, due to the logistic difficulty of data collection. This paper reported an across-speaker articulatory normalization approach based on Procrustes matching, a bidimensional regression technique for removing translational, scaling, and rotational effects of spatial data. A dataset of short functional sentences was collected from seven English talkers. A support vector machine was then trained to classify sentences based on normalized tongue and lip movements. Speaker-independent classification accuracy (tested using leave-one-subject-out cross validation) improved significantly, from 68.63% to 95.90%, following normalization. These results support the feasibility of a speaker-independent SSI using Procrustes matching as the basis for articulatory normalization across speakers.
VideoAnnEx: IBM MPEG-7 Annotation Tool for Multimedia Indexing and Concept Learning

The VideoAnnEx, a.k. a. IBM MPEG-7 Annotation Tool, assists authors in the task of annotating video sequences with MPEG-7 metadata. Each shot in the video sequence can be annotated with static scene descriptions, key object descriptions, event descriptions, and other lexicon sets. The annotated descriptions are associated with each video shot or regions in the keyframes, and are stored as MPEG-7 XML file. The tool allows customized lexicons to be created, saved, downloaded, and updated. It can also be used to generate storyboards by saving all keyframes using JPEG. An annotationlearning component is encompassed in the tool to speed up the annotation task.
Don't touch my code!: examining the effects of ownership on software quality

Ownership is a key aspect of large-scale software development. We examine the relationship between different ownership measures and software failures in two large software projects: Windows Vista and Windows 7. We find that in all cases, measures of ownership such as the number of low-expertise developers, and the proportion of ownership for the top owner have a relationship with both pre-release faults and post-release failures. We also empirically identify reasons that low-expertise developers make changes to components and show that the removal of low-expertise contributions dramatically decreases the performance of contribution based defect prediction. Finally we provide recommendations for source code change policies and utilization of resources such as code inspections based on our results.
Review on text summarization evaluation methods

To familiarize oneself with a subject area summaries play an important role. Text Summarization is a challenging problem these days. Summarization is very interesting and useful task that gives support to many other tasks as well as it takes advantage of techniques developed for related Natural Language Processing tasks. Evaluating summaries and automatic text summarization systems are not a straightforward process. This review paper discusses an overview of text summarization, various evaluation approaches on intrinsic and extrinsic techniques. In principle, text summarization is achieved because of the naturally occurring redundancy in text and because important (salient) information is spread irregularly in textual documents. Recognizing the redundancy is a challenge that hasn't been fully resolved yet.
Concise postsynthetic preparation of oligonucleotide-oligopeptide conjugates through facile disulfide bond formation.

BACKGROUND Despite recent advances, major hurdles still need to be cleared for widespread application of therapeutic antisense technologies. In particular, pharmacokinetic properties and efficient cellular uptake need to be improved through chemical derivatization or bioconjugation. RESULTS The 2'-O-thioethylene nucleotide building block affords easy implementation into standard oligonucleotide synthesis protocols and was used to attach oligolysine chains to phosphodiester oligonucleotides by direct reaction with S-sulfonate protected peptides. Efficient gene silencing was induced in a cell culture model after transfection reagent-free application of the conjugates. CONCLUSION A facile optimized procedure for generating oligonucleotide-peptide conjugates was established. The attachment of short basic peptides via a labile linker is sufficient to enhance membrane permeability of oligonucleotides and result in successful gene silencing.
A Small Zinc Finger Thylakoid Protein Plays a Role in Maintenance of Photosystem II in Arabidopsis thaliana[W][OA]

This work identifies LOW QUANTUM YIELD OF PHOTOSYSTEM II1 (LQY1), a Zn finger protein that shows disulfide isomerase activity, interacts with the photosystem II (PSII) core complex, and may act in repair of photodamaged PSII complexes. Two mutants of an unannotated small Zn finger containing a thylakoid membrane protein of Arabidopsis thaliana (At1g75690; LQY1) were found to have a lower quantum yield of PSII photochemistry and reduced PSII electron transport rate following high-light treatment. The mutants dissipate more excess excitation energy via nonphotochemical pathways than wild type, and they also display elevated accumulation of reactive oxygen species under high light. After high-light treatment, the mutants have less PSII–light-harvesting complex II supercomplex than wild-type plants. Analysis of thylakoid membrane protein complexes showed that wild-type LQY1 protein comigrates with the PSII core monomer and the CP43-less PSII monomer (a marker for ongoing PSII repair and reassembly). PSII repair and reassembly involve the breakage and formation of disulfide bonds among PSII proteins. Interestingly, the recombinant LQY1 protein demonstrates a protein disulfide isomerase activity. LQY1 is more abundant in stroma-exposed thylakoids, where key steps of PSII repair and reassembly take place. The absence of the LQY1 protein accelerates turnover and synthesis of PSII reaction center protein D1. These results suggest that the LQY1 protein may be involved in maintaining PSII activity under high light by regulating repair and reassembly of PSII complexes.
Antiproliferative, Cytotoxic, Antioxidant Activity and Polyphenols Contents in Leaves of Four Staphylea L. Species

Staphylea has been used for long time in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and by Native Americans in a number of therapeutical indications. The present study describes in vitro antiproliferative, cytotoxic properties (MTT and LDH test) and antioxidant activities (reduction of DPPH radical and peroxynitrite radical) of Staphylea colchica Stev. (SC), S. elegans Zab. (SC), S. holocarpa Hemsl. (SH) and S. pinnata L. (SP) leave water extracts. Time- (24 and 72 h) and dose- (1-150 μg/mL) dependent effects of the above extracts were tested at the mitochondrial (MTT test) and plasma membrane level (LDH leakage) in A431 human skin carcinoma cells. Screening of these properties has shown time and dose dependent increase of harmful effects, the highest activity was observed for the SE, while the less active was the SH extract. The ED50 values for the mitochondrial and membrane damage were nearly identical for the SE and very similar for SH extract. These findings indicate simultaneous injury of both cell compartments by SE and SH extracts. The highest antioxidant potential of SE species is accompanied by the highest content of flavones/flavonols and polyphenols. Only flavonoid contents are associated with antiproliferative effects and cell membrane injury, while antioxidant properties are the result of polyphenol content. The data clearly demonstrate that individual Staphylea L. species differ, not only in the amount of biologically active compounds, but also by the extent of harmful and beneficial effects.
Finding Cut from the Same Cloth: Cross Network Link Recommendation via Joint Matrix Factorization

With the emergence of online forums associated with major diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, many patients are increasingly dependent on such disease-specific social networks to gain access to additional resources. Among these patients, it is common for them to stick to one disease-specific social network, although their desired resources might be spread over multiple social networks, such as patients with similar questions and concerns. Motivated by this application, in this paper, we focus on cross network link recommendation, which aims to identify similar users across multiple heterogeneous social networks. The problem setting is different from existing work on cross network link prediction, which either tries to link accounts of the same user from different social networks, or aims to match users with complementary expertise or interest. To approach the problem of cross network link recommendation, we propose to jointly decompose the user-keyword matrices from multiple social networks, while requiring them to share the same topics and user group-topic association matrices. This constraint comes from the fact that social networks dedicated to the same disease tend to share the same topics as well as the interests of users groups in certain topics. Based on this intuition, we construct a generic optimization framework, provide four instantiations and an iterative optimization algorithm with performance analysis. In the experiments, we demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm over state-of-the-art techniques on various real-world data sets.
Work Sample Selection Tests and Expected Reduction in Adverse Impact: A Cautionary Note

Almost all book chapters, review articles, and textbooks in the field of personnel selection suggest that work sample tests are associated with lower levels of ethnic group adverse impact than paper-and-pencil tests of cognitive ability. However, the empirical literature is heavily dependent on adverse impact estimates obtained from incumbent samples rather than applicant samples. As such, parameter estimates are subject to range restriction from prior selection and on-the-job experiences. Further, an emerging consensus in the selection literature indicates that any method of assessment can be associated with high low levels of adverse impact - depending on the nature of the construct(s) being measured. To begin to examine these issues, we present two recent sets of applicant data from public sector jobs (for a management and entry-level job, each with technical and interpersonal skill requirements) and show that adverse impact of work sample exams might be more extensive than realized. We discuss the mismatch between what the field of employee selection "knows" and what is said in articles/summaries about work samples. Employers and other practitioners who depend on advice in academic overview articles may be overly optimistic and eventually disappointed by minimal reduction in adverse impact. Implications for workforce diversity and future research needs are also discussed.
Single‐layer bandpass active frequency selective surface

A single‐layer, bandpass, active FSS is presented. It shows good angle of incidence stability for TE incidence, at the operating frequency of 2.45 GHz. It is based on circular loop aperture with each unit cell having four PIN diodes. A novel method for dc biasing is used. About 12 dB average variation in transmission loss, between ON and OFF states, has been experimentally achieved at 2.45 GHz. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 2149–2151, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23615
Association mapping and haplotype analysis of the pre-harvest sprouting resistance locus Phs-A1 reveals a causal role of TaMKK3-A in global germplasm

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is an important cause of quality loss in many cereal crops and is particularly prevalent and damaging in wheat. Resistance to PHS is therefore a valuable target trait in many breeding programmes. The Phs-A1 locus on wheat chromosome arm 4AL has been consistently shown to account for a significant proportion of natural variation to PHS in diverse mapping populations. However the deployment of sprouting resistance is confounded by the fact that different candidate genes, including the tandem duplicated Plasma Membrane 19 (PM19) genes and the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 3 (TaMKK3-A) gene, have been proposed to underlie Phs-A1. To further define the Phs-A1 locus, we constructed a physical map across this interval in hexaploid and tetraploid wheat. We established close proximity of the proposed candidate genes which are located within a 1.2 Mb interval. An association analysis of diverse germplasm used in previous genetic mapping studies suggests that TaMKK3-A, and not PM19, is the major gene underlying the Phs-A1 effect in European, North American, Australian and Asian germplasm. We identified the non-dormant TaMKK3-A allele at low frequencies within the A-genome diploid progenitor Triticum urartu genepool, and show an increase in the allele frequency in modern varieties. In UK varieties, the frequency of the dormant TaMKK3-A allele was significantly higher in bread-making quality varieties compared to feed and biscuit-making cultivars. Analysis of exome capture data from 58 diverse hexaploid wheat accessions identified fourteen haplotypes across the extended Phs-A1 locus and four haplotypes for TaMKK3-A. Analysis of these haplotypes in a collection of UK and Australian cultivars revealed distinct major dormant and non-dormant Phs-A1 haplotypes in each country, which were either rare or absent in the opposing germplasm set. The diagnostic markers and haplotype information reported in the study will help inform the choice of germplasm and breeding strategies for the deployment of Phs-A1 resistance into breeding germplasm.
Incorporating genetic susceptibility feedback into a smoking cessation program for African-American smokers with low income.

PURPOSE Markers of genetic susceptibility to tobacco-related cancers could personalize harms of smoking and motivate cessation. Our objective was to assess whether a multicomponent intervention that included feedback about genetic susceptibility to lung cancer increased risk perceptions and rates of smoking cessation compared with a standard cessation intervention. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Our design was a two-arm trial with eligible smokers randomized in a 1:2 ratio to Enhanced Usual Care or Biomarker Feedback (BF). Surveys were conducted at baseline, 6, and 12 months later. The setting was an inner city community health clinic. African-American patients who were current smokers (n = 557) were identified by chart abstraction and provider referral. All smokers received a self-help manual and, if appropriate, nicotine patches. Smokers in the BF arm also were offered a blood test for genotyping the GST(3) gene (GSTM1), sent a test result booklet, and called up to four times by a health educator. Prevalent abstinence was assessed by self-report of having smoked no cigarettes in the prior 7 days at the 6- and 12-month follow-ups and sustained abstinence, i.e., not smoking at either follow-up or in-between. RESULTS Smoking cessation was greater for the BF arm than the Enhanced Usual Care arm (19% versus 10%, respectively; P < 0.006) at 6 months but not at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS Smokers agreed to genetic feedback as part of a multicomponent cessation program. Although the program increased short-term cessation rates compared with standard intervention, genetic feedback of susceptibility may not benefit smokers with high baseline risk perceptions.