Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statins but Not Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors Delay Progression of Aortic Stenosis

Background—Recently, statins and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) have been shown to slow aortic valve calcium accumulation. Although several studies also suggest that statins may reduce the hemodynamic progression of aortic stenosis (AS), no data are available for ACEIs or the combination of both. Methods and Results—A total of 211 consecutive patients (aged 70±10 years, 104 females) with native AS, defined by a peak velocity >2.5 m/s (valve area 0.84±0.23 cm2, mean gradient 42±19 mm Hg), with normal left ventricular function and no other significant valvular lesion who were examined between 2000 and 2002 and who had 2 echocardiograms separated by at least 6 months were included. Of these, 102 patients were treated with ACEIs, 50 patients received statins, and 32 patients received both. Hemodynamic progression of AS was assessed and related to medical treatment. Annualized increase in peak aortic jet velocity for the entire study group was 0.32±0.44 m · s−1 · y−1. Progression was significantly lower in patients treated with statins (0.10±0.41 m · s−1 · y−1) than in those who were not (0.39±0.42 m · s−1 · y−1; P<0.0001). This effect was observed both in mild-to-moderate and severe AS. ACEI use, however, did not significantly affect hemodynamic progression (P=0.29). Furthermore, ACEIs had no additional effect on AS progression when given in combination with statins (0.11±0.42 versus 0.08±0.43 m · s−1 · y−1 for combination versus statin only; P=0.81). Cholesterol levels did not correlate with hemodynamic progression either in the group receiving statins or in the group that did not. Conclusions—ACEIs do not appear to slow AS progression. However, statins significantly reduce the hemodynamic progression of both mild-to-moderate and severe AS, an effect that may not be related to cholesterol lowering.
Self-Regulated Multi-criteria Decision Analysis: An Autonomous Brokerage-Based Approach for Service Provider Ranking in the Cloud

The use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) by online broker to rank different service providers in the Cloud is based upon criteria provided by a customer. However, such ranking is prone to bias if the customer has insufficient domain knowledge. He/she may exclude relevant or include irrelevant criterion termed as 'misspecification of criterion'. This causes structural uncertainty within the MCDA leading to selection of suboptimal service provider by online broker. To cater such issue, we propose a self-regulatedMCDA, which uses notion of factor analysis from the field of statistics. Two QoS based datasets were used for evaluation of proposed model. The prior dataset i.e., feedback from customers, was compiled using leading review websites such as Cloud Hosting Reviews, Best Cloud Computing Providers, and Cloud Storage Reviews and Ratings. The later dataset i.e., feedback from servers, was generated from Cloud brokerage architecture that was emulated using high performance computing (HPC) cluster at University of Luxembourg (HPC @ Uni.lu). The results show better performance of proposed model as compared to its counterparts in the field. The beneficiary of the research would be enterprises that view insufficient domain knowledge as a limiting factor for acquisition of Cloud services.
MIMO Wiretap Channels with Arbitrarily Varying Eavesdropper Channel States

In this work, a class of information theoretic secrecy problems is addressed where the eavesdropper channel states are completely unknown to the legitimate parties. In particular, MIMO wiretap channel models are considered where the channel of the eavesdropper is arbitrarily varying over time. Assuming that the number of antennas of the eavesdropper is limited, the secrecy rate of the MIMO wiretap channel in the sense of strong secrecy is derived, and shown to match with the converse in secure degrees of freedom. It is proved that there exists a universal coding scheme that secures the confidential message against any sequence of channel states experienced by the eavesdropper. This yields the conclusion that secure communication is possible regardless of the location or channel states of (potentially infinite number of) eavesdroppers. Additionally, it is observed that, the present setting renders the secrecy capacity problems for multi-terminal wiretap-type channels more tractable as compared the case with full or partial knowledge of eavesdropper channel states. To demonstrate this observation, secure degrees of freedom regions are derived for the Gaussian MIMO multiple access wiretap channel (MIMO MAC-WT) and the Gaussian MIMO broadcast wiretap channel (MIMO BC-WT) where the transmitter(s) and the intended receiver(s) have the same number of antennas.
Oxidation of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase positively regulates translational quality control

Significance Regulation of translational quality control during adverse growth conditions is critical to maintain cellular homeostasis. Translational quality control is maintained by proofreading by the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRS), which ensure that cognate aminoacyl-tRNAs are provided to the ribosome for protein synthesis. Our findings now show that under oxidative stress a global conformational change in the phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase positively regulates quality control by increasing the rate of proofreading. These results demonstrate that the translational machinery is able to rapidly and positively respond to environmental challenges to maintain the accuracy of protein synthesis. Accurate translation of the genetic code is maintained in part by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRS) proofreading mechanisms that ensure correct attachment of a cognate amino acid to a transfer RNA (tRNA). During environmental stress, such as oxidative stress, demands on aaRS proofreading are altered by changes in the availability of cytoplasmic amino acids. For example, oxidative stress increases levels of cytotoxic tyrosine isomers, noncognate amino acids normally excluded from translation by the proofreading activity of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase (PheRS). Here we show that oxidation of PheRS induces a conformational change, generating a partially unstructured protein. This conformational change does not affect Phe or Tyr activation or the aminoacylation activity of PheRS. However, in vitro and ex vivo analyses reveal that proofreading activity to hydrolyze Tyr-tRNAPhe is increased during oxidative stress, while the cognate Phe-tRNAPhe aminoacylation activity is unchanged. In HPX−, Escherichia coli that lack reactive oxygen-scavenging enzymes and accumulate intracellular H2O2, we found that PheRS proofreading is increased by 11%, thereby providing potential protection against hazardous cytoplasmic m-Tyr accumulation. These findings show that in response to oxidative stress, PheRS proofreading is positively regulated without negative effects on the enzyme’s housekeeping activity in translation. Our findings also illustrate that while the loss of quality control and mistranslation may be beneficial under some conditions, increased proofreading provides a mechanism for the cell to appropriately respond to environmental changes during oxidative stress.
Analysis of 1-D Nested Lattice Quantization and Slepian-Wolf Coding for Wyner-Ziv Coding of i . i . d . Sources

Entropy coded scaler quantization (ECSQ) performs 1.53 dB from optimal lossy compression at high data rates. In this paper, we generalize this result for distributed source coding with side information. 1-D nested scaler quantization with Slepian-Wolf coding is compared to Wyner-Ziv coding of i.i. d. Gaussian sources at high data rates. We show that nested scaler quantization with Slepian-Wolf coding performs 1.53 dB from Wyner-Ziv at high data rates.
Modeling the High-Frequency Degradation of Phase/Frequency Detectors

The gain of a widely used sequential-type phase/frequency detector (PFD) as a function of its input frequency is modeled adopting a continuous-time approximation. High-frequency gain degradation is described by a frequency-dependent attenuation factor characterized in terms of the propagation delays of the PFD. The attenuation factor can be readily included in the dynamics equations of phase-locked loop to account for the effect of the PFD degradation. Gain-modeling-related delay components of a complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor PFD are also described. The high-frequency model is in good agreement with the simulation results of the PFD.
Fabrication and characterization of bio-engineered cardiac pseudo tissues

We report on fabricating functional three-dimensional (3D) tissue constructs using an inkjet based bio-prototyping method. With the use of modified inkjet printers, contractile cardiac hybrids that exhibit the forms of the 3D rectangular sheet and even the ‘half heart’ (with two connected ventricles) have been fabricated by arranging alternate layers of biocompatible alginate hydrogels and mammalian cardiac cells according to pre-designed 3D patterns. In this study, primary feline adult and H1 cardiomyocytes were used as model cardiac cells. Alginate hydrogels with controlled micro-shell structures were built by spraying cross-linkers in micro-drops onto un-gelled alginic acid. The cells remained viable in constructs as thick as 1 cm due to the programmed porosity. Microscopic and macroscopic contractile functions of these cardiomyocyte constructs were observed in vitro. These results suggest that the inkjet bio-prototyping method could be used for hierarchical design of functional cardiac pseudo tissues, balanced with porosity for mass transport and structural support.
SCRAMSAC: Improving RANSAC's efficiency with a spatial consistency filter

Geometric verification with RANSAC has become a crucial step for many local feature based matching applications. Therefore, the details of its implementation are directly relevant for an application's run-time and the quality of the estimated results. In this paper, we propose a RANSAC extension that is several orders of magnitude faster than standard RANSAC and as fast as and more robust to degenerate configurations than PROSAC, the currently fastest RANSAC extension from the literature. In addition, our proposed method is simple to implement and does not require parameter tuning. Its main component is a spatial consistency check that results in a reduced correspondence set with a significantly increased inlier ratio, leading to faster convergence of the remaining estimation steps. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate that RANSAC can operate entirely on the reduced set not only for sampling, but also for its consensus step, leading to additional speed-ups. The resulting approach is widely applicable and can be readily combined with other extensions from the literature. We quantitatively evaluate our approach's robustness on a variety of challenging datasets and compare its performance to the state-of-the-art.
A Chaotic Image Encryption

Throughout the years, there has been significant technological expansion, and with this the need for keeping information secure has also grown. The Internet has made it easy to send and receive pictures, but it has also made it relatively uncomplicated for others to find and view those images. This creates a problem with security, and therefore the issue of encoding pictures has increased in popularity. This presentation will focus on a greyscale image encryption. The techniques involved include the Arnold Cat Map and Chen’s chaotic system which are based on ideas from linear algebra and dynamical systems. The Arnold Cat Map will rearrange the order of the pixel values so that each one will be shuffled around, and the Chen’s chaotic map will change the greyscale values of the pixels. We will demonstrate an actual example of the encryption method using Mathematica.
Smiles, affordances, and social interaction

This thesis describes a program of research designed to investigate the sensitivity of perceivers to the ontological distinctions between simulated expressions of happiness unrelated to positive emotional experience, or, posed smiles, and spontaneous, veridical expressions of positive affect, or, genuine smiles. Importantly, this research was conducted from within the theoretical framework of Gibsonian ecological psychology, an alternative approach to the information processing theories that dominate contemporary psychological theorising. Four experiments were conducted that employed an original set of ecologically valid facial displays generated specifically for the present research. In Experiments I a and 1 b, it was demonstrated that when jUdging from either photographs or video, participants could determine whether a smile reflected a positive emotional experience or not. Furthermore, for both of these studies, participants exhibited a bias toward misidentifying posed smiles that expose the teeth as genuine smiles. Experiment 2 also revealed findings consistent with the notion that perceivers are sensitive to the meaningful differences between posed and genuine smiles. In this study, participants were required to judge the valence of a series of target words, each of which was preceded by a briefly presented facial expression (i.e. a prime). The results of this study indicated that the identification of positive words was facilitated when preceded by a genuine smile, but not a posed smile. Experiment 3 was conducted to further investigate how such sensitivity may be manifest in regard to guiding effective social interaction. PartiCipants were required to play several rounds of the Prisoners' Dilemma game with partners (actually video recordings) exhibiting Xll either posed or genuine smiles. The results of this experiment indicated that genuine smiles facilitated cooperative interaction, but posed smiles did not. The results of all four experiments are discussed in terms of the functionality provided by accurate social perception with regard to the acquisition of information specifying the emotional state, and more broadly, the dispositional properties of conspecifics. Finally, these results will be considered in terms of the ecological conceptualisation of psychological activity, with an emphasis on the social affordances specified by posed and genuine smiles respectively.
Robotic thumb grasp-based range of motion optimisation

With the thumb serving an important role in the function of the human hand, improving robotic prosthetic thumb functionality will have a direct impact on the prosthesis itself. So far, no significant work exists that examines the ranges of motion a prosthetic thumb should exhibit; many myoelectric prostheses arbitrarily select them. We question this design practice as we expect a significant functional volume reduction for performing certain activities vs. the maximum obtainable workspace. To this end, we compare and contrast four anatomically-accurate thumb models. We quantify their angular ranges of motion by generating point clouds of end-effector positions, and by computing their alpha-shape bounded volumes. Examining the function of the thumb for several grasps, we identify a 76% reduction of the required workspace volume vis-a-vis the maximum volume of a “`generic'” human thumb.
How conservative is Fisher's exact test? A quantitative evaluation of the two‐sample comparative binomial trial

The debate as to which statistical methodology is most appropriate for the analysis of the two‐sample comparative binomial trial has persisted for decades. Practitioners who favor the conditional methods of Fisher, Fisher's exact test (FET), claim that only experimental outcomes containing the same amount of information should be considered when performing analyses. Hence, the total number of successes should be fixed at its observed level in hypothetical repetitions of the experiment. Using conditional methods in clinical settings can pose interpretation difficulties, since results are derived using conditional sample spaces rather than the set of all possible outcomes. Perhaps more importantly from a clinical trial design perspective, this test can be too conservative, resulting in greater resource requirements and more subjects exposed to an experimental treatment. The actual significance level attained by FET (the size of the test) has not been reported in the statistical literature. Berger (J. R. Statist. Soc. D (The Statistician) 2001; 50:79–85) proposed assessing the conservativeness of conditional methods using p‐value confidence intervals. In this paper we develop a numerical algorithm that calculates the size of FET for sample sizes, n, up to 125 per group at the two‐sided significance level, α=0.05. Additionally, this numerical method is used to define new significance levels α*=α+ε, where ε is a small positive number, for each n, such that the size of the test is as close as possible to the pre‐specified α (0.05 for the current work) without exceeding it. Lastly, a sample size and power calculation example are presented, which demonstrates the statistical advantages of implementing the adjustment to FET (using α* instead of α) in the two‐sample comparative binomial trial. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Putting declarative programming into the web: translating curry to javascript

We propose a framework to construct web-oriented user interfaces in a high-level way by exploiting declarative programming techniques. Such user interfaces are intended to manipulate complex data in a type-safe way, i.e., it is ensured that only typecorrect data is accepted by the interface, where types can be specified by standard types of a programming language as well as any computable predicate on the data. The interfaces are web based, i.e., the data can be manipulated with standard web browsers without any specific requirements on the client side. However, if the client's browser has JavaScript enabled, one could also check the correctness of the data on the client side providing immediate feedback to the user. In order to release the application programmer from the tedious details to interact with JavaScript, we propose an approach where the programmer must only provide a declarative description of the requirements of the user interface from which the necessary JavaScript programs and HTML forms are automatically generated. This approach leads to a very concise and maintainable implementation of web-based user interfaces. We demonstrate an implementation of this concept in the declarative multi-paradigm language Curry where the integrated functional and logic features are exploited to enable the high level of abstraction proposed in this paper.
Health Care Providers and Human Trafficking: What do They Know, What do They Need to Know? Findings from the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Central America

Background: Human trafficking is a crime that commonly results in acute and chronic physical and psychological harm. To foster more informed health sector responses to human trafficking, training sessions for health care providers were developed and pilot-tested in the Middle East, Central America, and the Caribbean. This study presents the results of an investigation into what health care providers knew and needed to know about human trafficking as part of that training program. Methods: Participants attended one of seven two-day training courses in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Guyana, and Jordan. We assessed participants’ knowledge about human trafficking and opinions about appropriate responses in trafficking cases via questionnaires pre-training, and considered participant feedback about the training post-training. Results: 178 participants attended the trainings. Pre-training questionnaires were completed by 165 participants (93%) and post-training questionnaires by 156 participants (88%). Pre-training knowledge about health and human trafficking appeared generally high for topics such as the international nature of trafficking and the likelihood of poor mental health outcomes among survivors. However, many participants had misconceptions about the characteristics of trafficked persons and a provider’s role in responding to cases of trafficking. The most valued training components included the “Role of the Health Provider,” “Basic Definitions and Concepts,” and “Health Consequences of Trafficking. ” Discussion: Training health care providers on caring for trafficked persons has the potential to improve practitioners’ knowledge about human trafficking and its health consequences, and to increase safe practices when responding in cases of trafficking. This study provides lessons for the design of training programs on human trafficking that aim to help health care providers identify and refer victims, and provide care for survivors.
Biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

CONTEXT Endothelial dysfunction occurs in diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus but may also precede development of diabetes. OBJECTIVE To determine whether elevated plasma levels of biomarkers reflecting endothelial dysfunction (E-selectin; intercellular adhesion molecule 1 [ICAM-1]; and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 [VCAM-1]) predict development of type 2 diabetes in initially nondiabetic women. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective, nested case-control study within the Nurses' Health Study, an ongoing US study initiated in 1976. PARTICIPANTS Of 121 700 women initially enrolled, 32 826 provided blood samples in 1989-1990; of those free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline, 737 developed incident diabetes by 2000. Controls (n = 785) were selected according to matched age, fasting status, and race. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Risk of confirmed clinically diagnosed type 2 diabetes by baseline levels of E-selectin, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1. RESULTS Baseline median levels of the biomarkers were significantly higher among cases than among controls (E-selectin, 61.2 vs 45.4 ng/mL; ICAM-1, 264.9 vs 247.0 ng/mL; VCAM-1, 545.4 vs 526.0 ng/mL [all P values < or =.004]). Elevated E-selectin and ICAM-1 levels predicted incident diabetes in logistic regression models conditioned on matching criteria and adjusted for body mass index (BMI), family history of diabetes, smoking, diet score, alcohol intake, activity index, and postmenopausal hormone use. The adjusted relative risks for incident diabetes in the top quintile vs the bottom quintiles were 5.43 for E-selectin (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.47-8.50), 3.56 for ICAM-1 (95% CI, 2.28-5.58), and 1.12 for VCAM-1 (95% CI, 0.76-1.66). Adjustment for waist circumference instead of BMI or further adjustment for baseline levels of C-reactive protein, fasting insulin, and hemoglobin A(1c) or exclusion of cases diagnosed during the first 4 years of follow-up did not alter these associations. CONCLUSION Endothelial dysfunction predicts type 2 diabetes in women independent of other known risk factors, including obesity and subclinical inflammation.
Triphone State-Tying via Deep Canonical Correlation Analysis

Context-dependent phone models are used in modern speech recognition systems to account for co-articulation effects. Due to the vast number of possible context-dependent phones, statetying is typically used to reduce the number of target classes for acoustic modeling. We propose a novel approach for state-tying which is completely data dependent and requires no domain knowledge. Our method first learns low-dimensional embeddings of context-dependent phones using deep canonical correlation analysis. The learned embeddings capture similarity between triphones and are highly predictable from the acoustics. We then cluster the embeddings and use cluster IDs as tied states. The bottleneck features of a DNN predicting the tied states achieve competitive recognition accuracy on TIMIT.