Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of cytokine gene polymorphisms with hepatitis C virus infection in a population from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Background The host immune response is an important indicator of the outcome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and disease progression. The aim of this study was to explore cytokine gene polymorphisms as a candidate for susceptibility to persistent HCV infection or HCV spontaneous clearance in a population from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Methods Genetic polymorphisms in the cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (−308), transforming growth factor-beta 1 (codons 10 and 25), interleukin-10 (IL-10; −1082 and −592), IL-6 (−174), and interferon-gamma (+874) were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers in 245 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), 41 spontaneous recovery (SR) patients, and 189 healthy volunteers. Further, polymorphisms in IL-28B (rs12979860, rs12980275, and rs8099917) were assessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction in all groups. Results The IL-28B rs12979860 CC and rs12980275 AA genotypes were significantly associated with SR of HCV infection and response to therapy, whereas the C allele of IL-6 (−174) was associated with protection to CHC. A multivariate analysis showed that the male sex and IL-28B rs12979860 CT and TT and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (codon 10) TC genotypes were factors associated with CHC. Additionally, IL-6 (−174) C allele was increased in SR patients compared with patients with CHC. Conclusion IL-28B polymorphisms are associated with spontaneous clearance of HCV and response to therapy in a Brazilian population. Also, IL-6 (−174) C allele is involved in SR and decreased inflammation scores.
Speech Recognition using MFCC

This paper describes an approach of speech recognition by using the Mel-Scale Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) extracted from speech signal of spoken words. Principal Component Analysis is employed as the supplement in feature dimensional reduction state, prior to training and testing speech samples via Maximum Likelihood Classifier (ML) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Based on experimental database of total 40 times of speaking words collected under acoustically controlled room, the sixteen-ordered MFCC extracts have shown the improvement in recognition rates significantly when training the SVM with more MFCC samples by randomly selected from database, compared with the ML. Keywords—Speech Signal, MFCC, SVM, ML I. INTRODUCTION PEECH recognition is the process of automatically recognizing the spoken words of person based on information in speech signal. Recognition technique makes it possible to the speaker's voice to be used in verifying their identity and control access to services such as voice dialing, banking by telephone, telephone shopping, database access services, information service, voice mail, security control for the confidential information areas, and remote access to computers. The acoustical parameters of spoken signal used in recognition tasks have been popularly studied and investigated, and being able to be categorized into two types of processing domain: First group is spectral based parameters and another is dynamic time series. The most popular spectral based parameter used in recognition approach is the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients called MFCC (2,3). Due to its advantage of less complexity in implementation of feature extraction algorithm, only sixteen coefficients of MFCC corresponding to the Mel scale frequencies of speech Cepstrum are extracted from spoken word samples in database. All extracted MFCC samples are then statistically analyzed for principal components, at least two dimensions minimally required in further recognition performance evaluation.
Selective Cooperative Relaying in OFDMA-TDD System for Broadband Mobile Wireless Services

Depending on the position of mobile stations in the multi-hop relay system, various types of cooperative relaying schemes show the different level of throughput and outage performance, due to their inherent trade-off between diversity gain and overhead associated with individual cooperation scheme. In order to improve both throughput and outage performance at the same time, we propose a unified selection criterion to deal with the different level of combining gain and overhead associated with each scheme, which allows for employing the different cooperative relaying scheme in the varying position of mobile station. Our system-level simulation results for IEEE 802.16j multi-hop relay confirm the varying level of trade-off among the different cooperative relaying schemes and demonstrate the possible performance that can be achieved by using the various types of cooperative relaying schemes in the multi-hop relay system.
Characterization of In100, a New Integron Carrying a Metallo-β-Lactamase and a Carbenicillinase, from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT In100, a new integron carrying a carbapenemase gene (blaVIM-2) associated with a carbenicillinase (blaP1b) and aminoglycoside resistance genes (aacA4 and aadA2), was detected in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolate. The particular gene cassette organization of In100 seems to reflect the evolution of antibiotic usage in therapeutics.
Instrument Learning and Sparse NMD for Automatic Polyphonic Music Transcription

In this paper, an automatic music transcription (AMT) algorithm based on a supervised non-negative matrix decomposition (NMD) is discussed. In particular, a novel approach for enhancing the sparsity of the solution is proposed. It consists of a two-step processing in which the NMD is solved joining a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _2$</tex-math></inline-formula> regularization and a threshold filtering. In the first step, the NMD is performed with the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _2$</tex-math></inline-formula> regularization in order to get an overall selection of the notes most likely appearing in the monotimbral musical excerpt. In the second step, a threshold filtering followed by another <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $\ell _2$</tex-math></inline-formula> regularized NMD are repeatedly performed in order to progressively reduce the dictionary matrix and to refine the notes transcription. Furthermore, a user-oriented instrument learning procedure has been conceived and proposed. The proposed AMT system has been tested upon the dataset collected by the LabROSA laboratories considering the transcription of three different pianos. Moreover, it has been validated through a comparison with a regularized NMD and with three open source AMT software. The results prove the effectiveness of the proposed two-step processing in enhancing the sparsity of the solution and in improving the transcription accuracy. Moreover, the proposed system shows promising performance in both multi-F0 and note tracking tasks, obtaining better transcription accuracy than the competing algorithms in most tests.
Discrete-time variable structure control systems

This paper presents a treatment of discrete variable structure control systems. The purpose is to lay a foundation upon which design of such type of systems can be made properly. Phenomena of switching, reaching, and quasi-sliding mode are investigated thoroughly. Terms pertaining to discrete variable structure control are defined. A method of quasi-sliding mode design is given. The inherently existing quasi-sliding mode band is analyzed. A recently introduced "reaching law approach" is conveniently used to develop the control law for robust control. Comments are given regarding chattering. The design technique is illustrated by a simulated system. >
FIXED-GRID FRONT-TRACKING ALGORITHM FOR SOLIDIFICATION PROBLEMS, PART I: METHOD AND VALIDATION

This article presents a method for solving moving-boundary problems associated with phase change. This method is an explicit interface-tracking scheme that involves the reconstruction and advection of the moving interface on a fixed grid. Three distinct steps are undertaken to handle the movement of the interface: advection and reconstruction (tracking); calculation of normal velocities; and the solution of the governing equations for different phases. Details of each step and its implementation are provided. The transient heat diffusion equation in two space dimensions is the governing equation for energy transport. In order to validate the approach, results obtained from the front-tracking scheme are compared with exact analytical solutions for melting problems in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates. It is shown that the numerical and analytical results are in excellent agreement. Finally, problems involving the multidimensional solidification of a pure aluminum ingot subject to bi-directional heat extraction are presented. The results indicate that the algorithm was able to track the front accurately under these aggressive conditions which caused large curvature. In Part II, the front-tracking approach described herein is applied to directional solidification problems influenced by melt convection.
Fracture of multiyear sea ice

The fracture and flow of multiyear sea ice was investigated under triaxial compression and uniaxial tension in the temperature range −40° to −3.5°C, for strain rates from 10−7 to 10−2s−1 and for confining pressures up to 30 MPa using 40 mm diameter specimens. Specimens both in the horizontal plane of the multiyear floe and perpendicular to this plane were tested. The results of short-rod fracture toughness tests on multiyear and first-year sea ice at temperatures −20°C are also reported. The multiyear sea ice came from an unridged portion of a single floe about 7 m thick, which was found to be massive and not blocky with large voids. The ice had low salinity and high porosity. The inelastic deformation of multiyear sea ice was found to be strongly dependent upon strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure. In compression, four main types of deformation were observed. (1) Under uniaxial compression, completely brittle fracture at high strain rates (of 10−3 to 10−2 s−1) was characterized by multiple axial splitting. (2) Application of even a small confining pressure inhibited splitting, and fracture took place by the formation of a narrow shear fault inclined at 45±3°. (3) At higher confining pressures, plastic deformation accompanied substantial cracking activity. (4) However, at still higher confining pressures, cracking was completely inhibited and deformation was entirely plastic. At −20°C, shear fracture occurred according to a maximum shear stress criterion and hence was pressure independent, with crack nucleation dominating the fracture behavior. At −40°C, however, the shear fracture stress was found to be strongly pressure dependent up to 14 MPa and could be described in terms of a Coulombic failure envelope. The unusual 45° orientation of ice shear fractures, together with the unusual pressure dependencies of ice peak strengths, may be explained by the fact that low-stress slip and cleavage occurs in the basal planes of ice crystals.
Section Ii‐ Exercise Physiology & Sports Medicine Reference Values of Maximal Oxygen Uptake for Polish Rowers

The aim of this study was to characterize changes in maximal oxygen uptake over several years and to elaborate current reference values of this index based on determinations carried out in large and representative groups of top Polish rowers. For this study 81 female and 159 male rowers from the sub-junior to senior categories were recruited from the Polish National Team and its direct backup. All the subjects performed an incremental exercise test on a rowing ergometer. During the test maximal oxygen uptake was measured with the BxB method. The calculated reference values for elite Polish junior and U23 rowers allowed to evaluate the athletes' fitness level against the respective reference group and may aid the coach in controlling the training process. Mean values of VO2max achieved by members of the top Polish rowing crews who over the last five years competed in the Olympic Games or World Championships were also presented. The results of the research on the " trainability " of the maximal oxygen uptake may lead to a conclusion that the growth rate of the index is larger in case of high-level athletes and that the index (in absolute values) increases significantly between the age of 19-22 years (U23 category).
Predictors of travel motivations: the case of domestic tourists to island destinations in northwest of Malaysia

This paper examines the role of key socio-demographic attributes and trip characteristics in travel motivations of domestic tourists to island destinations. A total of 1780 useful survey responses were collected over a period of 6 months via an assisted survey. Analysis using independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA revealed that only the “travel companionship status” in respondents' trip characteristics significantly influences the travel motivations of domestic tourists. Particularly, family and friends were found to be a major influence on the travel motivations of domestic tourists. The study concludes that the travel motivations of domestic tourists are more influenced by who individuals choose to travel with, therefore reflecting the issue of local conditions. The findings support Gilbert's (1991, Progress in tourism, recreation and hospitality management. London: Belhaven) theory of family influence in travel decisions. However, it adds that where the population is relatively young, friends can also be a major influence. Theoretical and managerial implications are then discussed.
Multi-way Clustering on Relation Graphs

A number of real-world domains such as social networks and e-commerce involve heterogeneous data that describes relations between multiple classes of entities. Understanding the natural structure of this type of heterogeneous relational data is essential both for exploratory analysis and for performing various predictive modeling tasks. In this paper, we propose a principled multi-way clustering framework for relational data, wherein different types of entities are simultaneously clustered based not only on their intrinsic attribute values, but also on the multiple relations between the entities. To achieve this, we introduce a relation graph model that describes all the known relations between the different entity classes, in which each relation between a given set of entity classes is represented in the form of multi-modal tensor over an appropriate domain. Our multi-way clustering formulation is driven by the objective of capturing the maximal “information” in the original relation graph, i.e., accurately approximating the set of tensors corresponding to the various relations. This formulation is applicable to all Bregman divergences (a broad family of loss functions that includes squared Euclidean distance, KL-divergence), and also permits analysis of mixed data types using convex combinations of appropriate Bregman loss functions. Furthermore, we present a large family of structurally different multi-way clustering schemes that preserve various linear summary statistics of the original data. We accomplish the above generalizations by extending a recently proposed key theoretical result, namely the minimum Bregman information principle [1], to the relation graph setting. We also describe an efficient multi-way clustering algorithm based on alternate minimization that generalizes a number of other recently proposed clustering methods. Empirical results on datasets obtained from real-world domains (e.g., movie recommendations, newsgroup articles) demonstrate the generality and efficacy of our framework.
A HF ionospheric propagation model using analytic ray tracing

A method to approximate horizontal gradients when using analytic ray tracing is presented. This method involves automatically tilting the modelled ionospheric profile by displacing the Earth's centre. This method is applied to a grid point ionospheric model which consists of a known ionospheric model coupled with real-time ionospheric measurements at a number of locations. Thus, the grid point ionospheric model is a real-time ionospheric model and together with the tilting method, is useful in a number of applications. Analytic ray tracing results incorporating the tilting method and the grid point ionospheric model are presented. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of this analytic approach the results are compared with those obtained using the numerical ray tracing package HIRT (homing-in ray tracing) Norman et al., [1994] over the same region. (6 pages)
Using stationary wavelet transformation for signal denoising

Because singular points were existed in the signal, the Pesudo-Gibbs phenomenon would produce in the singular points when the traditional wavelet threshold value algorithm was used for signal denoising. The threshold denoising algorithm based on the stationary wavelet transformation may be possible to suppress the Pesudo-Gibbs phenomenon effectively, because the staionary wavelet transformation is proposed on the foundation of orthogonal wavelet transformation, which possess the properties of rotation, shift and scale invariance. Denoising method based on the stationary wavelet transformation need to carry on the multi-layered wavelet decomposition to the signal firstly, then carries on thresholding processing to the high frequency coefficients, finally realizes wavelet reconstruction to achieve the denoising goal. The threshold value function uses half soft threshold value which is combination of soft and hard threshold value. The simulation experiment results indicated: denoising method based on the stationary wavelet transformation can enhance the signal-to-noise ratio obviously, its denoising effects is better than soft and hard threshold value method, has higher use value.
Infliximab treatment reduces complement activation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) blocking agents decrease C reactive protein (CRP) levels in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It has been shown that CRP may contribute to complement activation in RA. Objective: To assess the effect of intravenous infliximab treatment on complement activation, especially that mediated by CRP, in RA. Methods: 35 patients with active RA (28 joint count Disease Activity Score (DAS28) >4.4) were treated with intravenous injections of infliximab (3 mg/kg, at weeks 0, 2, 6, 14, and 22). Clinical response and plasma levels of complement activation products, of CRP and of CRP-complement complexes, which are specific markers for CRP mediated complement activation, were assessed at the indicated time points up to 22 weeks. The relationship between CRP and CRP-complement complexes was analysed by paired t test between two time points and by generalised estimated equation, to test differences of variables over time. Results: At 2 weeks after the first dose, infliximab significantly reduced overall C3 and C4 activation and plasma levels of CRP and CRP-complement complexes were also significantly reduced at this time point. The effects of infliximab on CRP and complement continued throughout the observation period and were more pronounced in patients with a good response to infliximab treatment. Conclusion: Treatment with infliximab decreases plasma levels of CRP and CRP dependent complement activation products and concomitantly may reduce complement activation in RA. Complement activation may be among the effector mechanisms of TNF in RA.
Field‐scale evaluation of in situ cosolvent flushing for enhanced aquifer remediation

A comprehensive, field‐scale evaluation of in situ cosolvent flushing for enhanced remediation of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL)‐contaminated aquifers was performed in a hydraulically isolated test cell (about 4.3 m × 3.6 m) constructed at a field site at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. This sand‐gravel‐cobble surficial aquifer, underlain by a deep clay confining unit at about 6 m below ground surface, was contaminated with a multicomponent NAPL as a result of jet fuel and chlorinated solvent disposal during the 1940s and 1950s. The water table within the test cell was raised to create a 1.5 m saturated flow zone that contained the NAPL smear zone. The cosolvent flushing test consisted of pumping about 40,000 L (approximately nine pore volumes) of a ternary cosolvent mixture (70% ethanol, 12% n‐pentanol, and 18% water) through the test cell over a period of 10 days, followed by flushing with water for another 20 days. Several methods for assessing site remediation yielded consistent results, indicating that on the average >85% mass of the several target contaminants was removed as a result of the cosolvent flushing; NAPL constituent removal effectiveness was greater (90–99+%) in the upper 1‐m zone, in comparison to about 70–80% in the bottom 0.5‐m zone near the clay confining unit. Various interacting factors that control the hydrodynamic sweep efficiency, and the NAPL removal effectiveness during cosolvent flushing in this unconfined aquifer are discussed.
TM and IRS-1C-PAN data fusion using multiresolution decomposition methods based on the 'a tròus' algorithm

Image fusion represents an important tool for remote sensing data elaborations. This technique is used for many purposes. Very often it is used to produce improved spatial resolution. The most common situation is represented by a pair of images: the first acquired by a multispectral sensor with a pixel size greater than the pixel size of the second image given by a panchromatic sensor (PAN). Starting from these images fusion produces a new multispectral image with a spatial resolution equal, or close, to that of the PAN. Very often fusion introduces important distortions on the pixel spectra. This fact could compromise the extraction of information from the image, especially when using an automatic algorithm based on spectral signature such as in the case of image classification. In this work we present the analysis of two fusion methods based on multiresolution decomposition obtained using the 'a tròus' algorithm and applied to a pair of images acquired by Thematic Mapper (TM) and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)-1C-PAN sensors. The methods studied are also compared with two classical fusion methods, the intensity, hue and saturation (IHS) and standardized principal components (SPC). Fused results are studied and compared using various tests including supervised classification. Most of the tests used have been extracted from literature regarding the assessment of spatial and spectral quality of fused images. This study shows that the methods based on multiresolution decomposition outperform the classical fusion methods considered with respect to spectral content preservation. Moreover, it is shown that some of the quality tests are more significant than others. The discussion of this last aspect furnishes important indications for data quality assessment methods.
Distribution of phytobenthos in the Yakima River basin, Washington, in relation to geology, land use and other environmental factors

Benthic-algal distributions in the Yakima River, Washington, basin were, examined in relation to geology, land use, water chemistry, and stream habitat using indicator-species classification (TWINSPAN) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Algal assemblages identified by TWINSPAN were each associated with a narrow range of water-quality conditions. In the Cascade geologic province, where timber harvest and grazing are the dominant land uses, differences in community structure (CCA site scores) and concentrations of major ions (Ca and Mg) and nutrients (solute P, SiO2 and inorganic N) varied with dominant rock type of the basin. In agricultural areas of the Columbia Plateau province, differences in phytobenthos structure were based primarily on the degree of enrichment of dissolved solids, inorganic N, and solute P from irrigation-return flows and subsurface drainage. Habitat characteristics strongly correlated with community structure included reach altitude, turbidity, substratum embeddedness (Col.