Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of HLA-DRB1 Gene Polymorphism with Risk of Asthma: A Meta-Analysis

Background The relationship between HLA-DRB1 alleles and asthma is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between HLA-DRB1 alleles and risk of asthma. Material/Methods We searched PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang (Chinese) database, and Chinese Biomedical Medical databases (CBM) to find studies on the relationship between HLA-DRB1 alleles and risk of asthma. We calculated the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using STATA 12.0. Finally, a total of 24 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Results The results revealed that DRB1*03 was positively associated with risk of asthma (OR=1.51, 95%CI=1.27–1.80), and DRB1*15 was negatively associated with risk of asthma (OR=0.63, 95%CI=0.42–0.93), but no association was found in other HLA-DRB1 alleles. Subgroup analysis by age revealed that DRB1*03, DRB1*04, DRB1*09, and DRB1*15 were associated with asthma in children. Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed that DRB1*03 and DRB1*15 were associated with asthma in whites, and DRB1*07 and DRB1*14 were associated with asthma in Asians. Conclusions This results of this meta-analysis suggest that HLA-DRB1 alleles are associated with asthma.
Aspects on speech perception as the model for ASR

Over the last decades it has become increasingly popular to adopt inspiration from knowledge on human language skills in applications within speech technology. It has proven to be successful in some aspects, such as signal processing in automatic speech recognition (ASR) but the overall performance is still far behind that of humans. Perhaps problems within speech technology can be solved with improved engineering but a closer collaboration between technology and cognitive science might lead to insight on more fundamental principles involved in language processing that could turn out useful in speech technology.
The fate of the bicuspid valve aortopathy after aortic valve replacement.

OBJECTIVES The fate of the aortic dimensions in patients with a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) after aortic valve replacement (AVR) is unclear. We investigated the evolution of aortic root and ascending aorta dimensions in patients with a BAV after AVR. To neutralize the effect of pathological transvalvular haemodynamics on aortic dimensions, we evaluated our hypotheses in patients with normal transvalvular haemodynamics after a subcoronary autograft procedure, which preserves intact the native aortic wall. METHODS We excluded patients operated on for endocarditis; who developed autograft insufficiency > trivial and who required autograft reoperation during the follow-up. We included 448 patients (361 with BAV; 340 males; 44.6 ± 11.4 years; mean follow-up: 7.5 ± 3.9 years). Valve phenotype was determined during surgery. Annual echocardiographic examinations (n = 3336) were performed (follow-up completeness: 98%). To allow for somatometric, gender and age influences, z-values of measurements were calculated from the general population (GP) and analysed using longitudinal methods. RESULTS The increase in ascending aorta did not differ from that expected in the GP (0.04 z-values/year; P = 0.06). No difference could be observed in diameter increase rates between BAV and tricuspid aortic valve patients (TAV) (0.04 vs 0.06 z-values/year; P = 0.3), as well as between BAV phenotypes. The sinus increase did not differ from that expected in the GP (0.03 z-values/year; P = 0.1), and no significant differences could be observed between BAV phenotypes. In patients undergoing aortoplasty (n = 70), no significant difference in the rates of ascending aorta and sinus increase could be observed, compared with the GP. CONCLUSION For the time period of this study and in patients with normal aortic root haemodynamics after AVR, ascending aorta dimensions over time are similar to that of the matched GP. Patients with a BAV did not exhibit higher rates of ascending aorta dilatation after AVR than patients with TAV. At least for the first postoperative decade, transvalvular haemodynamics appear to exhibit a greater influence than the genetic component of BAV on the development of the BAV aortopathy.
Online Submission ID : 0378 Streaming Surface Reconstruction Using Wavlets

We present a streaming method for reconstructing surfaces from large data sets generated by a laser range scanner using wavelets. Wavelets provide a localized, multiresolution representation of functions and this makes them ideal candidates for streaming surface reconstruction algorithms. We show how wavelets can be used to reconstruct the indicator function of a shape from a cloud of points with associated normals. Our method proceeds in several steps. We first compute a low-resolution approximation of the indicator function using an octree followed by a second pass that incrementally adds fine resolution details. The indicator function is then blurred using a modified octree convolution step and contoured to produce the final surface. Due to the local, multiresolution nature of wavelets, our approach results in an algorithm 10-100 times faster than previous methods and can process extremely large data sets in the order of several hundred million points in only an hour. CR Categories: I.3. 5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling—Curve, surface, solid, and object representations; Geometric algorithms, languages, and systems
A systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the effect of sperm DNA damage on in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcome

Sperm DNA damage is prevalent among infertile men and is known to influence natural reproduction. However, the impact of sperm DNA damage on assisted reproduction outcomes remains controversial. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies on sperm DNA damage (assessed by SCSA, TUNEL, SCD, or Comet assay) and clinical pregnancy after IVF and/or ICSI treatment from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PUBMED database searches for this analysis. We identified 41 articles (with a total of 56 studies) including 16 IVF studies, 24 ICSI studies, and 16 mixed (IVF + ICSI) studies. These studies measured DNA damage (by one of four assays: 23 SCSA, 18 TUNEL, 8 SCD, and 7 Comet) and included a total of 8068 treatment cycles (3734 IVF, 2282 ICSI, and 2052 mixed IVF + ICSI). The combined OR of 1.68 (95% CI: 1.49-1.89; P < 0.0001) indicates that sperm DNA damage affects clinical pregnancy following IVF and/or ICSI treatment. In addition, the combined OR estimates of IVF (16 estimates, OR = 1.65; 95% CI: 1.34-2.04; P < 0.0001), ICSI (24 estimates, OR = 1.31; 95% CI: 1.08-1.59; P = 0.0068), and mixed IVF + ICSI studies (16 estimates, OR = 2.37; 95% CI: 1.89-2.97; P < 0.0001) were also statistically significant. There is sufficient evidence in the existing literature suggesting that sperm DNA damage has a negative effect on clinical pregnancy following IVF and/or ICSI treatment.
Autonomous Computing Systems: A Proposed Roadmap

An autonomous computing system is a system that functions with a large degree of independence, and assumes a large amount of responsibility for its own resources and operation. As a counterpart to ongoing research in the software domain, this work proposes a forward-looking roadmap for systems that are able to autonomously modify their hardware, and considers what properties such systems require. Of particular interest is the possibility of shifting much of the associated complexity into the systems themselves. This results in simpler interfaces to the outside world, and systems that are able to respond to changes in themselves or their environments with little or no outside intervention.
Item Similarity in Scale Analysis

A statistic—the similarity coefficient—is developed for assessing the property that a set of scale items measures one and only one construct. This statistic is rooted in an explicit measurement model and is flexible enough to be used in exploratory scale analyses, even in small samples. Methods for analyzing similarity coefficients are described and illustrated in analyses of Stimson's (1991) policy mood data and Markus' (1990) popular individualism items. The Appendix discusses the statistical properties of similarity coefficients.
Efficient Database Reduction Method of Building Recognition using Global Positioning System On Mobile Device

Most of people recognize urban area using landmark, like big buildings, sculptures, or relics. If urban area didn't support information and also traveler didn't know information of landmarks, there are not a way to know where he is. Recently, mobile devices are tending to include Global Positioning System and navigation maps. But these research are not sufficient to know about local geometry information. Because if traveler didn't know about detail regional name or local map traveler, hard to estimate it. Recently works suggest some way of building recognition, but these methods militate in favor of recognition because large searching space. And the previous research have restricted to limited space due to restrictive mobile storage. So in this paper we propose optimizing solution for recognition of buildings through optimizing of comparative searching space using Global Positioning System. This efficient database reduction method of building recognition using Global Positioning System can help to find urban area information through building name and information. And proposed system is suitable for mobile handheld device, so we can use anytime, anywhere we want.
Sequence-Level Mechanisms of Human Epigenome Evolution

DNA methylation and chromatin states play key roles in development and disease. However, the extent of recent evolutionary divergence in the human epigenome and the influential factors that have shaped it are poorly understood. To determine the links between genome sequence and human epigenome evolution, we examined the divergence of DNA methylation and chromatin states following segmental duplication events in the human lineage. Chromatin and DNA methylation states were found to have been generally well conserved following a duplication event, with the evolution of the epigenome largely uncoupled from the total number of genetic changes in the surrounding DNA sequence. However, the epigenome at tissue-specific, distal regulatory regions was observed to be unusually prone to diverge following duplication, with particular sequence differences, altering known sequence motifs, found to be associated with divergence in patterns of DNA methylation and chromatin. Alu elements were found to have played a particularly prominent role in shaping human epigenome evolution, and we show that human-specific AluY insertion events are strongly linked to the evolution of the DNA methylation landscape and gene expression levels, including at key neurological genes in the human brain. Studying paralogous regions within the same sample enables the study of the links between genome and epigenome evolution while controlling for biological and technical variation. We show DNA methylation and chromatin divergence between duplicated regions are linked to the divergence of particular genetic motifs, with Alu elements having played a disproportionate role in the evolution of the epigenome in the human lineage.
Memory Confidentiality and Integrity Protection Method Based on Variable Length Counter

Focusing on the problem of high overhead and frequent overflow of the counter mode encryption, this paper proposed an efficient scheme to protect data confidentiality and integrity. Based on the local characteristic of data accessing, the scheme set different counter length for memory area according to different accessing frequencies and the counter length can be dynamically adjusted. The analysis and the simulation results indicated that compared with the counter mode encryption, the scheme can decrease memory space overhead and the number of overflow. The proposed scheme can be applied to other schemes of protecting confidentiality and integrity based on counters and can satisfy performance requirements for most applications.
Complex stellar populations in massive clusters: trapping stars of a dwarf disc galaxy in a newborn stellar supercluster

Some of the most-massive globular clusters of our Milky Way, such as, for example, ω Centauri, show a mixture of stellar populations spanning a few Gyr in age and 1.5 dex in metallicities. In contrast, standard formation scenarios predict that globular and open clusters form in one single starburst event of duration ≲10 Myr and therefore should exhibit only one age and one metallicity in its stars. Here, we investigate the possibility that a massive stellar supercluster may trap older galactic field stars during its formation process that are later detectable in the cluster as an apparent population of stars with a very different age and metallicity. With a set of numerical N-body simulations, we are able to show that, if the mass of the stellar supercluster is high enough and the stellar velocity dispersion in the cluster is comparable to the dispersion of the surrounding disc stars in the host galaxy, then up to about 40 per cent of its initial mass can be additionally gained from trapped disc stars. We also suggest that a supercluster may capture in excess of its own mass under certain conditions.
Expanding pulse production in Mozambique : identifying constraints and new strategies

Pulses (common beans and cowpeas) provide a major alternative source of protein, and the rapid rise in food prices has led to an increase in the consumption of inexpensive pulses. The slow growth in pulse production has, however, led to a decline in availability. Thus, to overcome this decline in production, this study concern in expanding pulse production in Mozambique by using the agricultural research survey known as TIA. In addition, this study identified and analysed the critical drivers influencing production, as well as constraints and opportunities to expand pulse production in Mozambique. In studying the participation of smallholder farmers in pulse markets, the Heckman two-step approach was applied to avoid sample selection bias. In the first step a Probit model was estimated to capture the household’s decision of whether or not to participate in the market. The second step comprised of an OLS estimation to determine the significance of variables that contribute to the level of pulse sold.
Rationale of Class and Feature size on Face Recognition

Multidimensional problems associated with face recognition needs to be analyzed in debris form. In this paper, an efficient algorithm is proposed using Basic Local Phase Quantization (BLPQ), Scaled Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (SGLCM) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) with two mask processing techniques. Preprocessing crops faces from input images using a face detection method. One hundred features each of BLPQ histogram; SGLCM and SVD are fused to obtain final significant features. Euclidean Distance (ED) measure is used for computing the results. Performance of the proposed algorithm on CMU-PIE face dataset outperforms for different cases considered.
Comparing ALS and Image-Based Point Cloud Metrics and Modelled Forest Inventory Attributes in a Complex Coastal Forest Environment

Digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) is emerging as an alternate data source to airborne laser scanning (ALS) data for three-dimensional characterization of forest structure. In this study we compare point cloud metrics and plot-level model estimates derived from ALS data and an image-based point cloud generated using semi-global matching (SGM) for a complex, coastal forest in western Canada. Plot-level estimates of Lorey's mean height (H), basal area (G), and gross volume (V) were modelled using an area-based approach. Metrics and model outcomes were evaluated across a series of strata defined by slope and canopy cover, as well as by image acquisition date. We found statistically significant differences between ALS and SGM metrics for all strata for five of the eight metrics we used for model development. We also found that the similarity between metrics from the two data sources generally increased with increasing canopy cover, particularly for upper canopy metrics, whereas trends across slope classes were less consistent. Model outcomes from ALS and SGM were comparable. We found the greatest
Growing Fitted Textures

Introduction Adding texture to the surface of a polygonal model can profoundly enhance its visual richness. Given a texture pattern and a surface model, the historical challenge has been to determine how to apply the pattern to the surface in an appropriate manner, minimizing the visual impact of seams and projective distortion while orienting the pattern so that it flows over the shape in a desirable way.
Ethics and Usability Mentoring – an Exploratory Study

It is still difficult to achieve the ideas of user centred systems design in organisations, and we have seen that usability is given low priority in in-house systems development. In this context, usability mentoring has the potential of being a powerful method for achieving user-centred systems design. However, when applying a method such as usability mentoring one has to consider the ethical considerations that it might imply. This exploratory study on ethics and usability mentoring was carried out in an action research setting in a large government organisation in Sweden. Nine mentées were given the opportunity to discuss usability activities related to their work situation. The mentée were people with key positions within the organisation. The mentoring program has run for six months, and on averaged each mentée have had the possibility to meet the mentor every three weeks. Our findings indicate that the mentoring program made mentées work more actively with usability activities; hence the mentoring program had a visible effect on their actions. However, during the mentoring program several ethical issues occurred that are described and discussed in this paper. Examples of such ethical problems are personal conflicts between the mentees, a project leader asking for information from the mentoring sessions and mentees with hidden agendas that might influence the structure and strategic goals of the organisation. In the discussion part of the paper possible methods to handle such ethical problems are discussed. Finally, some suggestions of future work are explored.
Improving the Sipp Approach for Staffing Service Systems That Have Cyclic Demands

This paper evaluates the practice of determining staffing requirements in service systems with random cyclic demands by using a series of stationary queueing models. We consider Markovian models with sinusoidal arrival rates and use numerical methods to show that the commonly used "stationary independent period by period" (SIPP) approach to setting staffing requirements is inaccurate for parameter values corresponding to many real situations. Specifically, using the SIPP approach can result in staffing levels that do not meet specified period by period probability of delay targets during a significant fraction of the cycle. We determine the manner in which the various system parameters affect SIPP reliability and identify domains for which SIPP will be accurate. After exploring several alternatives, we propose two simple modifications of SIPP that will produce reliable staffing levels in models whose parameters span a broad range of practical situations. Our conclusions from the sinusoidal model are tested against some empirical data.
A fingernail clam (Sphaerium sp.) shows higher reproductive success in hypoxic waters

Low dissolved O2, or hypoxia, is becoming increasingly prevalent in aquatic habitats and is considered to be stressful for aerobic organisms. However, hypoxia also can be beneficial by decreasing cellular stress, particularly that related to free radicals. Therefore, an animal’s ideal habitat may have the minimum O2 necessary to sustain aerobic metabolism, with excess O2 increasing the need to scavenge free radicals and repair free radical damage. Here we show that a natural population of small (<9 mm shell length) freshwater clams (genus Sphaerium Scopoli, 1777) lives along a dissolved O2 gradient from extreme hypoxia to moderate hypoxia. We tested the hypothesis that clams living in extreme hypoxia would have higher reproductive success than clams that live in moderate hypoxia. Clam abundance was highest in water with very low dissolved O2, conditions previously demonstrated to decrease cellular stress. The internally brooding clams reproduced year-round and had higher reproductive output in extreme hyp.
Generalized Theorem of The Alternatives-Based Approach to Lyapunov Stability Analysis for LTI Systems

Theorem of the alternatives for linear matrix inequality based on the separation theorems are proposed to provide systematic and unified proofs of necessary and sufficient conditions for solvability of Lyapunov inequality on �� . As an application of the Theorem of the alternatives, we investigate the con- ditions for the existence of feasible solutions to Lyapunov inequality on �� and obtain a restatement of the celebrated Lyapunov stability theorem for linear time-invariant systems. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by a numerical example.
Effect assessment of Parkinson disease on default mode network of the brain with ICA and SCA methods in Resting State FMRI data

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder characterized by tremor, rigidity, and slowness of movements. Determining changes of spontaneous activity and connectivity of the brain is a critical step towards treatment of PD patients. Resting State functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (RS-fMRI) is a non-invasive method that we use in this work to investigate changes of default mode network of the brain in PD. To this end, we apply two methods, Seed Correlation Analysis (SCA) and probabilistic independent Component Analysis (PICA). The results of advanced statistical group analysis on SCA values show that there is negative significant correlation between motor cortex and cerebellum in healthy, while this connection in PD is positive and not significant. This result implies the disturbance of equilibrium function of the brain in resting. Moreover, in both groups, there is significant positive correlation between areas located in basal ganglia. The results show that in healthy, there is not significant correlation between motor areas and basal ganglia, while in PD there are significant negative correlations between motor cortex and cerebellum with areas located in basal ganglia. The comparison of five ICs extracted by PICA showed lower DMN activation in basal ganglia. Finally, The result of our study show that the functional correlations between ROIs are more affected in PD than pattern maps of activity by PICA.