Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Evoked Potential Multiple EEG Recordings in Patients with Chronic Pain by Means of Parallel Factor Analysis

This paper presents an alternative method, called as parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) with a continuous wavelet transform, to analyze of brain activity in patients with chronic pain in the time-frequency-channel domain and quantifies differences between chronic pain patients and controls in these domains. The event related multiple EEG recordings of the chronic pain patients and non-pain controls with somatosensory stimuli (pain, random pain, touch, random touch) are analyzed. Multiple linear regression (MLR) is applied to describe the effects of aging on the frequency response differences between patients and controls. The results show that the somatosensory cortical responses occurred around 250 ms in both groups. In the frequency domain, the neural response frequency in the pain group (around 4 Hz) was less than that in the control group (around 5.5 Hz) under the somatosensory stimuli. In the channel domain, cortical activation was predominant in the frontal region for the chronic pain group and in the central region for controls. The indices of active ratios were statistical significant between the two groups in the frontal and central regions. These findings demonstrate that the PARAFAC is an interesting method to understanding the pathophysiological characteristics of chronic pain.
Energy-efficient and reliable 3D Network-on-Chip (NoC): Architectures and optimization algorithms

The Network-on-Chip (NoC) paradigm has emerged as an enabler for integrating a large number of embedded cores in a single die. Three-dimensional (3D) integration, a breakthrough technology to achieve “More Moore and More Than Moore,” provides numerous benefits e.g., better performance, lower power consumption, and higher bandwidth, by utilizing vertical interconnects and 3D stacking. Energy-efficient and high-bandwidth vertical interconnects enable the design of an energy efficient 3D NoC for massive manycore platforms. Existing 3D NoCs are deficient for meeting ever-increasing performance requirements of manycore processors since they are simple extension of regular 2D architectures and they do not fully exploit the advantages provided by 3D integration. Moreover, the anticipated performance gain of a 3D NoC-enabled manycore chip will be compromised due to the potential failures of through-silicon-vias (TSVs) that are predominantly used as vertical interconnects in a 3D IC. In this paper, we present the various challenges and possible solutions for designing energy-efficient and reliable manycore chips enabled by the 3D integration.
Mobility impaired users respond differently than healthy users in virtual environments

Virtual environments (VEs) have been shown to be beneficial in physical rehabilitation, increasing motivation and the range of exercises that can be safely performed. However, little is known about how disabilities may impact a user's responses to a VE, which could affect rehabilitation motivation. Thus, the primary objective of this research is to understand how VEs affect users with mobility impairments (MI). Specifically, we investigate the influence of full body avatars that have canes. To begin investigating this, we designed a VE that included a range of multimodal feedback to induce a strong sense of presence and was novel to the participants. Using this VE, we conducted a study with two different populations: eight persons with MI and eight healthy persons as a control. The healthy participants were of similar demographics (e.g., age, weight, height, and previous VE experience) to the participants with MI who walked with a cane (i.e., on the basis of strict selection criteria to maintain homogeneity). This is one of the first studies to investigate how a VE can affect the gait of the users with MI, physiological response, presence, behavior, and the influence of avatars. Results of the study suggest generalizable guidelines for the design of VEs for users with MI. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Boron Toxicity Causes Multiple Effects on Malus domestica Pollen Tube Growth

Boron is an important micronutrient for plants. However, boron is also toxic to cells at high concentrations, although the mechanism of this toxicity is not known. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of boron toxicity on Malus domestica pollen tube growth and its possible regulatory pathway. Our results showed that a high concentration of boron inhibited pollen germination and tube growth and led to the morphological abnormality of pollen tubes. Fluorescent labeling coupled with a scanning ion-selective electrode technique detected that boron toxicity could decrease [Ca2+]c and induce the disappearance of the [Ca2+]c gradient, which are critical for pollen tube polar growth. Actin filaments were therefore altered by boron toxicity. Immuno-localization and fluorescence labeling, together with fourier-transform infrared analysis, suggested that boron toxicity influenced the accumulation and distribution of callose, de-esterified pectins, esterified pectins, and arabinogalactan proteins in pollen tubes. All of the above results provide new insights into the regulatory role of boron in pollen tube development. In summary, boron likely plays a structural and regulatory role in relation to [Ca2+]c, actin cytoskeleton and cell wall components and thus regulates Malus domestica pollen germination and tube polar growth.
On the tractability of rule discovery from distributed data

This paper analyses the tractability of rule selection for supervised learning in distributed scenarios. The selection of rules is usually guided by a utility measure such as predictive accuracy or weighted relative accuracy. A common strategy to tackle rule selection from distributed data is to evaluate rules locally on each dataset. While this works well for homogeneously distributed data, this work proves limitations of this strategy if distributions are allowed to deviate. The identification of those subsets for which local and global distributions deviate, poses a learning task of its own, which is shown to be at least as complex as discovering the globally best rules from local data.
Annotation and Disambiguation of Semantic Types in Biomedical Text: A Cascaded Approach to Named Entity Recognition

Publishers of biomedical journals increasingly use XML as the underlying document format. We present a modular text-processing pipeline that inserts XML markup into such documents in every processing step, leading to multi-dimensional markup. The markup introduced is used to identify and disambiguate named entities of several semantic types (protein/gene, Gene Ontology terms, drugs and species) and to communicate data from one module to the next. Each module independently adds, changes or removes markup, which allows for modularization and a flexible setup of the processing pipeline. We also describe how the cascaded approach is embedded in a large-scale XML-based application (EBIMed) used for on-line access to biomedical literature. We discuss the lessons learnt so far, as well as the open problems that need to be resolved. In particular, we argue that the pragmatic and tailored solutions allow for reduction in the need for overlapping annotations --- although not completely without cost.
Cognitive radio spectrum sensing: A survey

Cognitive Radio (CR) is a promising technology to improve the spectrum utilization efficiency. Due to the increasing demand for wireless communication CR allows better use of the radio spectrum. CR is intelligent network that adapt to the changes in spectrum environment. The main aspect of the cognitive radio is spectrum sensing. It is one of the most challenging issues in cognitive radio systems. In this paper, a survey of spectrum sensing techniques for cognitive radio is presented. Various sensing scheme for the cognitive radio are reviewed and the challenges associated with it. The paper describes the cooperative and signal processing sensing techniques and their various forms.
Reproductive and morphological condition of wild mink (Mustela vison) and river otters (Lutra canadensis) in relation to chlorinated hydrocarbon contamination.

We assessed chlorinated hydrocarbon contamination of mink and river otters on the Columbia and Fraser River systems of northwestern North America, in relation to morphological measures of condition. We obtained carcasses of mink and river otters from commercial trappers during the winters 1994-1995 and 1995-1996. Necropsies included evaluation of the following biological parameters: sex, body mass and length, age, thymus, heart, liver, lung, spleen, pancreas, kidney, gonad, omentum, adrenal gland and baculum masses, baculum length, and stomach contents. Livers were analyzed, individually or in pools, for residues of organochlorine (OC) pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dibenzo-p-dioxins, and dibenzofurans. Contaminant levels were relatively low compared to those documented in other North American populations, although they ranged higher than those detected during an earlier survey (1990-1992) of these regional populations. Body condition varied slightly among collection regions, but showed no relationship with contaminant burden. Mink from the upper Fraser River had less fat stores and also had some of the lowest OC contamination levels observed. Similarly, a few individuals with enlarged livers and kidneys had low contaminant levels. Although a few individual animals with gross abnormalities of reproductive systems did not show high levels of contamination, there was a significant negative correlation between total PCB concentrations (as Aroclor 1260) and baculum length in juvenile mink (r = 0.707; p = 0.033; n = 8). The association of juvenile baculum length with eventual reproductive success is unknown, but further characterization of reproductive organ morphology and relationship to contaminants should be undertaken in a larger subset of these populations. ImagesFigure 1Figure 2Figure 3
One or Many? Commentary on Paper by Debra Rothschild

This discussion of Rothschild's case history of a multiple personality disorder (MPD) treatment situates the issue of integration versus multiple self states in terms of cultural values, psychoanalytic theory, and transference–countertransference experience of MPD patients and therapists. Views from autobiographies of multiple personalities are included, and some questions are raised about the relationship of “parts” to traumatic experience: When, and for whom, is integration a treatment goal? When is dissociation a characterological defense, and when do the parts each hold separate traumatic knowledge? How does this question bear on treatment—what gets integrated, the knowledge or the parts? Are termination and integration simultaneous? A recommendation is offered for a wider, more complex view of narrative and historicity in the understanding of narrative reconstruction. A concrete focus on veridicality can be a defense against the overwhelming nature of traumatic experience. A final view is offered which positions the author as more distant from integration as a goal than is Rothschild.
High-$\kappa$ Metal Gate MOSFETs: Impact of Extrinsic Process Condition on the Gate-Stack Quality—A Mobility Study

The effects of source/drain activation thermal budget and premetallization degas conditions on interfacial regrowth, carrier mobility, and defect densities are examined for SiO2/HfO2/TaN stacks. We observe a correlation between the mobility degradation and the interfacial re-growth possible with the thermal budget employed. The mobility degradation arises from an increase of defects, both within the interface layer (IL) and the high-kappa bulk, as detected by both pulsed current-voltage and charge-pumping measurements. Two junction activation processes have been applied: a conventional process (peak temperature of 1000 degC spike for t=1 s) and a Solid Phase Epitaxial Re-growth (SPER) (peak temperature of 650 degC for t=60 s). For 1000 degC spike-annealed films, where the highest SiO2/IL defect density is observed, the consequent mobility degradation is explained by a transition region between HfO2 and the IL which increases for high-temperature processing
Hyperpolarized [1-13C]-Ascorbic and Dehydroascorbic Acid: Vitamin C as a Probe for Imaging Redox Status in Vivo

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) of 13C-labeled metabolic substrates in vitro and their subsequent intravenous administration allow both the location of the hyperpolarized substrate and the dynamics of its subsequent conversion into other metabolic products to be detected in vivo. We report here the hyperpolarization of [1-13C]-ascorbic acid (AA) and [1-13C]-dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), the reduced and oxidized forms of vitamin C, respectively, and evaluate their performance as probes of tumor redox state. Solution-state polarization of 10.5 ± 1.3% was achieved for both forms at pH 3.2, whereas at pH 7.0, [1-13C]-AA retained polarization of 5.1 ± 0.6% and [1-13C]-DHA retained 8.2 ± 1.1%. The spin–lattice relaxation times (T1's) for these labeled nuclei are long at 9.4 T: 15.9 ± 0.7 s for AA and 20.5 ± 0.9 s for DHA. Extracellular oxidation of [1-13C]-AA and intracellular reduction of [1-13C]-DHA were observed in suspensions of murine lymphoma cells. The spontaneous reaction of DHA with the cellular antioxidant glutathione was monitored in vitro and was approximately 100-fold lower than the rate observed in cell suspensions, indicating enzymatic involvement in the intracellular reduction. [1-13C]-DHA reduction was also detected in lymphoma tumors in vivo. In contrast, no detectable oxidation of [1-13C]-AA was measured in the same tumors, consistent with the notion that tumors maintain a reduced microenvironment. This study demonstrates that hyperpolarized 13C-labeled vitamin C could be used as a noninvasive biomarker of redox status in vivo, which has the potential to translate to the clinic.
Voxel-Based Haptic Rendering Using Implicit Sphere Trees

Haptic interaction in six degrees of freedom is critical to numerous applications, but is still prohibitively complex for realistic environments. This paper presents an approach to rendering six-degree-of-freedom contact among virtual objects using a novel data structure referred to as an implicit sphere tree. This data structure allows an extremely compact representation of volumetric objects and extremely rapid intersection testing among objects, which broadens the scope of virtual environments that can be rendered in six degrees of freedom at interactive rates. We introduce this data structure, along with appropriate techniques for collision detection and haptic rendering, and demonstrate its efficiency in representing and manipulating complex models.
Population Ageing and its Impact Upon Health Resource Requirements at Government and Familial Levels in Japan

ABSTRACT Rapid economic growth in post-war Japan, has been accompanied by unprecedented population ageing. In this paper the impact of Japan's ageing population is analysed in respect of (i) health-care services (ii) allocation of resources to health care and (iii) the manpower requirements to support health in old age. These projections are based upon macroeconomic modelling techniques.
Staying Alone or Getting Attached: Development of the Motivations Toward Romantic Relationships During Adolescence

ABSTRACT The authors present the initial validation of a romantic relationship motivation scale, enabling the level of self-determined involvement in romantic relationships during adolescence to be examined. The inclusion of Self-Determination Theory (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 2000) in the motivational constructs enhances the developmental perspective regarding adolescent romantic involvement. The scale was administered to 284 adolescents (163 girls and 121 boys, age 14–19 years) with a self-esteem scale and some questions about their romantic experiences to provide some elements of external validation. The results confirmed the 4-factor structure: intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation, which follow the self-determination continuum, previously highlighted in friendship motivation. As hypothesized, adolescents became more self-determined with age and girls were more self-determined than boys. Other findings show specific links between motivation for romantic relationships, self-esteem and romantic experiences. It highlights the importance of considering adolescents’ motivations when exploring their romantic relationships.
User Interest Modeling in Twitter with Named Entity Recognition

Considering wide use of Twitter as the source of information, reaching an interesting tweet for a user among a bunch of tweets is challenging. In this work we propose a Named Entity Recognition (NER) based user profile modeling for Twitter users and employ this model to generate personalized tweet recommendations. E↵ectiveness of the proposed method is shown through a set of experiments.
Power management for electric vehicle with PID and Fuzzy logic controllers

Electric vehicle technology is becoming increasingly important as it takes care of the environmental issues related to ICE vehicle and reduces the dependency on oil. Electric vehicle being greatly dependent on the limited electrical energy provided by a battery, the power flow efficiency is very important in this context. The major contribution of this work is to propose a power management strategy using PID controller and Fuzzy logic controller so that the performance of electric vehicle is comparable to that of an IC engine vehicle. This has been achieved for two processes, forward driving and regenerative braking using the principle of voltage matching. The system parameters observed are, namely: vehicle power, vehicle torque, vehicle speed, efficiency achieved, demand voltage, which have been simulated in time domain for input road torque and road speed. The result obtained from PID controlled system is compared to that of Fuzzy Logic controlled system.
Floating-point to fixed-point compilation and embedded architectural support

Floating-Point to Fixed-Point Compilation and Embedded Architectural Support Tor Aamodt Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2001 Recently, software utilities for automating the translation of floating-point signal-processing applications written in ANSI C into fixed-point versions have been presented. This dissertation investigates a novel fixed-point instruction-set operation, Fractional Multiplication with internal Left Shift (FMLS), and an associated translation algorithm, Intermediate-Result-Profiling based Shift Absorption (IRP-SA), that combine to enhance fixed-point rounding-noise and runtime performance when supported by a utility that directly targets the instruction set. A significant feature of FMLS is that it is well suited to the latest generation of embedded processors that maintain relatively homogeneous register architectures. FMLS may improve the rounding-noise performance of fractional multiplication operations in several ways depending upon the specific fixed-point scaling properties an application exhibits. The IRP-SA algorithm enhances this by exploiting the modular nature of 2’s-complement addition, which allows the discarding of mostsignificant-bits that are redundant due to inter-operand correlations that often arise, for example, in recursive filters with poles close to the unit circle. Rounding-noise reductions equivalent to carrying as much as 2.0 additional bits of precision throughout the computation are demonstrated. Furthermore, by encoding a set of only four shift distances into the FMLS operation, speedups of up to 13 percent are produced while retaining almost all of the noise reduction benefits. Generally, the conversion process uses profiling to capture the dynamic-range of floatingpoint variables and intermediate calculations that in turn guides the generation of fixed-point scaling operations. Two enhancements are presented: index-dependent scaling (IDS), and secondorder profiling. IDS implements a form of unconditional block-floating-point scaling that can dramatically reduce output rounding-noise. Second-order profiling helps eliminate arithmetic overflows due to the accumulated effects of roundoff errors. Finally, a brief investigation into the impact of profile input selection indicates that small samples can suffice to obtain robust conversions.
An analysis of the cost-effectiveness of switching from biphasic human insulin 30, insulin glargine, or neutral protamine Hagedorn to biphasic insulin aspart 30 in people with type 2 diabetes

Abstract Aims: The aim of this analysis was to assess the cost-effectiveness of switching from biphasic human insulin 30 (BHI), insulin glargine (IGlar), or neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin (all ± oral glucose-lowering drugs [OGLDs]) to biphasic insulin aspart 30 (BIAsp 30) in people with type 2 diabetes in India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Methods: The IMS CORE Diabetes Model was used to determine the clinical outcome, costs, and cost-effectiveness of switching from treatment with BHI, IGlar, or NPH to BIAsp 30 over a 30-year time horizon. A 1-year analysis was also performed based on quality-of-life data and treatment costs. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were expressed as a fraction of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and cost-effectiveness was defined as ICER <3-times GDP per capita. Results: Switching treatment from BHI, IGlar, or NPH to BIAsp 30 was associated with an increase in life expectancy of >0.7 years, reduction in all diabetes-related complications, and was considered as cost-effective or highly cost-effective in India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia (BHI to BIAsp 30, 0.26 in India, 1.25 in Indonesia, 0.01 in Saudi Arabia; IGlar to BIAsp 30, −0.68 in India, −0.21 in Saudi Arabia; NPH to BIAsp 30, 0.15 in India, −0.07 in Saudi Arabia; GDP per head per annum/quality-adjusted life-year). Cost-effectiveness was maintained in the 1-year analyses. Conclusions: Switching from treatment with BHI, IGlar, or NPH to BIAsp 30 (all ± OGLDs) was found to be cost-effective in India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, both in the long and short term.
BUAP: Evaluating Features for Multilingual and Cross-Level Semantic Textual Similarity

In this paper we present the evaluation of different features for multiligual and crosslevel semantic textual similarity. Three different types of features were used: lexical, knowledge-based and corpus-based. The results obtained at the Semeval competition rank our approaches above the average of the rest of the teams highlighting the usefulness of the features presented in this paper.
PROXY SIDE WEB PREFETCHING SCHEME FOR EFFICIENT BANDWIDTH USAGE: DATA MINING APPROACH

As the number of World Wide Web (Web) users grows, Web traffic continues to increase at an exponential rate and has become one of the major components of Internet traffic. One of the solutions to reduce Web traffic and speed up Web access is Web caching and prefetching. Web prefetching is one of the methods to condense user's latencies in the World Wide Web professionally. User's accesses makes it possible to predict future accesses based on the previous objects and previous sites. A prefetching engine makes use of these predictions to prefetch the web objects and performed site before the user demands them on the behalf of user. Web prefetching is becoming important and demanding, even though the Web caching system has been recover because of bandwidth usage. Web prefetching is a helpful implement for upgrading the access to the World Wide Web and it also diminish the bandwidth usage at the time. We propose proxy-side web prefetching scheme for efficient bandwidth usage that improves cache hit rate with a small amount of additional storage space. We have simulated our scheme based on logs of a real Web proxy server and the results indicate that the proposed prefetching scheme can reduce bandwidth during peak-periods. Also, the scheme can be adaptively applied to any Web usage patterns by changing prefetching parameters.