Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new type of micromanipulator and microforge.

The need for instruments which can be used for the manipulation of microscopically small objects has led to the invention of several micromanipulators. The more refined of these are research tools, the high cost of which matches their precision and mitigates against their general use, particularly by undergraduate students. With more attention being paid to genetics and the study of microcolony development in bacteria and unicellular algae, a greater interest has developed in the separation of single cells from microcolonies and in the selection of microcolonies themselves to prevent overgrowth by a more dominant population. This has increased the need for a simple form of micromanipulator and microforge. The author possesses the hydraulically operated de Fonbrun micromanipulator and microforge and also a Zeiss Jena micromanipulator. Both of these are excellent instruments but their design, apart from cost, makes difficult the handling of tools within the confines of the normal Petri dish. A new type of micromanipulator and microforge has therefore been designed which makes use of the optical systems normally available in the modern laboratory. Patent rights have been applied for in most leading countries. THE MICROMANIPULATOR This instrument was designed for use with the Reichert low-power (x 10) objective but can be used with suitable modification with any low-power objective with a working distance of about 7 mm. or greater. It can be used with a normal light-field objective but a phase-contrast objective is to be preferred. It consists of two parts. One, for convenience, is called the lens collar (Fig. I) and the other the magnetic toolcarrier (Fig. 2). The assembled micromanipulator is shown in section in Fig. 3. The lens collar This consists simply of a non-ferrous metal (preferably brass) collar A with a centre hole B machined to fit closely but not too tightly to the outer casing of the low-power objective and secured to the objective casing with a non-metal screw C. A plastic liner (not shown) improves the fit. Attached to the side of the collar are two steel slides D machined parallel and perfectly flat on the under surface. These slides are spaced equally on either side of the centre axis of the collar on the side opposite the retaining screw C. The width of the slides is determined by the width of the small magnet H (Fig. 2) and the tool-carrying tube J. The inter-slide spacing E should be not less than 3 times the outer diameter of the tool-carrying tube J, to permit adequate
Improving named entity recognition with prosodic features

In natural language processing (NLP) the problem of named entity (NE) recognition in speech is well known, yet remains a challenge where performance is dependent on automatic speech recognition (ASR) system error rates. NEs are often foreign or out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words, leaving conventional ASR systems unable to recognize them. In our research, we improve a CRF-based NE recognition system by incorporating two styles of prosodic features, hypothesized ToBI labels and unsupervised clusters of acoustic features. ToBI-based features improve NE recognition by 6% absolute (F1:0.39 v.s. F1: 0.45) on automatically recognized spontaneous speech from ACE’05.
&agr;-Synuclein S129 Phosphorylation Mutants Do Not Alter Nigrostriatal Toxicity in a Rat Model of Parkinson Disease

Lewy bodies are found in Parkinson disease and related disorders and are extensively phosphorylated at Ser-129 (S129), but whether S129 phosphorylation mediates &agr;-synuclein aggregation and neurotoxicity has been controversial. We used recombinant adeno-associated virus to overexpress &agr;-synuclein in the rat nigrostriatal system. Rats were injected with recombinant adeno-associated virus 2/8 expressing either human wild-type (wt) or mutant &agr;-synuclein with S129 replaced by alanine (S129A) or aspartate (S129D). Contralateral substantia nigra injections containing empty vector served as controls. Both wt and S129 mutants resulted in significant dopaminergic cell loss in the recipients by 6 weeks, but there were only small decreases in nigrostriatal terminal density and tyrosine hydroxylase expression. There were no significant differences in dopaminergic cell loss, nigrostriatal terminal density, or tyrosine hydroxylase expression among the wt and S129 mutants. Furthermore, we did not observe any differences in &agr;-synuclein aggregate formation or distribution among wt and either S129 mutant. These findings contrast with those from previous studies and suggest that injections of both S129 phosphorylation mutants result in dopaminergic neurotoxicity similar to wt injections. Further study is needed to clarify the effects of these S129 mutants and &agr;-synuclein phosphorylation in mammalian systems.
A Compiler-Based Tool for Array Analysis in HPC Applications

Array region analysis plays a significant role in various optimizations at compile time. Displaying array access information efficiently in HPC applications has been a vital challenge for scientists and developers for the past few years. Dragon array region analysis tool is a powerful and interactive tool that was built on top of the Open UH compiler, an open source C/C++/Fortran compiler, that supports OpenMP and CAF programming models. We have extended the linear-based Region analysis method and the high level IR (WHIRL) of Open UH to visualize the static and interprocedural array region accesses, the frequency of these accesses per access mode, the access mode in which the array is processed, the number of dimensions, the size of each dimension, the total size in bytes allocated to this array statically, and the memory location. We have also defined the access density term which illustrates the frequency of accesses per bytes allocated to these arrays. The information provided enables users to efficiently develop and optimize HPC applications by understanding procedure side effects and finding inefficiencies in defining arrays, which guides to a better memory allocation and cache usage. Moreover, we demonstrate the access density of the portions of arrays that have been accessed, which is crucial to reduce data transfers between host and device when using directive-based GPU programming models.
Life on the Edge: Unraveling Policies into Configurations

Current frameworks for network programming assume that the network contains a collection of homogenous devices that can be rapidly reconfigured in response to changing policies and network conditions. Unfortunately, these assumptions are incompatible with the realities of modern networks, which contain legacy devices that offer diverse functionality and can only be reconfigured slowly. Additionally, network service providers need to walk a fine line between providing flexibility to users, and maintaining the integrity and reliability of their core networks. These issues are particularly evident in optical networks which are used by ISPs and WANs and provide high bandwidth at the cost of limited flexibility and long reconfiguration times. This paper presents a different approach to implementing high-level policies, by pushing functionality to the edge and using the core merely for transit. Building on the NetKAT framework and leveraging linear programming problem solvers, we develop techniques for analyzing and transforming policies into configurations that can be installed at the edge of the network. Furthermore, our approach is extensible to include constraints crucial to optical networks such as path constraints and fault tolerance. We develop a working implementation using off-the-shelf solvers and evaluate our approach on a set of large-scale optical topologies.
Sabbath day home automation: "it's like mixing technology and religion"

We present a qualitative study of 20 American Orthodox Jewish families' use of home automation for religious purposes. These lead users offer insight into real-life, long-term experience with home automation technologies. We discuss how automation was seen by participants to contribute to spiritual experience and how participants oriented to the use of automation as a religious custom. We also discuss the relationship of home automation to family life. We draw design implications for the broader population, including surrender of control as a design resource, home technologies that support long-term goals and lifestyle choices, and respite from technology.
Comparison between Tagged Corpora for the Named Entity Task

We present two measures for comparing corpora based on information theory statistics such as gain ratio as well as simple term-class frequency counts. We tested the predictions made by these measures about corpus difficulty in two domains --- news and molecular biology --- using the result of two well-used paradigms for NE, decision trees and HMMs and found that gain ratio was the more reliable predictor.
Predictors of Uncontrolled Hypertension in Ambulatory Patients

Hypertension remains poorly controlled in the United States. Improvement of its management will require an understanding of the patient characteristics and treatment factors associated with uncontrolled hypertension. We studied antihypertensive medication use, comorbidity, and blood pressure measurements for 525 hypertensive patients in 3 different healthcare systems over a 1-year period. We concomitantly conducted comprehensive patient interviews covering demographic factors, knowledge of hypertension and its treatment, and medication side effects. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with poor blood pressure control. Mean age of the patients was 65±11 years. Mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 143±15 mm Hg; and mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP), 80±9 mm Hg. Only 39% (203/525) of patients had mean blood pressure <140/90 mm Hg during the study period; about half (257/525) had stage 1 hypertension (mean SBP 140 to 159 mm Hg and/or mean DBP 90 to 99 mm Hg), and 12% (65/525) had stage 2 or greater hypertension (SBP >160 mm Hgand/or DBP >100 mm Hg). Multivariate analysis revealed several independent predictors of poor control: older age, multi-drug regimens, lack of knowledge by the patient of their target SBP, and a report of antihypertensive drug side effects. Patients with angina had a higher likelihood of adequate blood pressure control. Fewer than 40% of the treated patients studied had a mean blood pressure ≤140/90 mm Hg, and specific patient-related factors appear to predict poor control. Some of these may be amenable to modification. Further identification of patients at risk of poor control can lead to targeted interventions to improve management.
Deicing Strains and Stresses of Iced Substrates

Abstract The performance of low ice adhesion or icephobic coatings might be improved by adding a mechanical energy component via an underlying low powered electro-deformable substrate. The strain could be generated with many types of smart actuators consisting of piezoelectric devices, shape memory alloys (SMAs), conductive polymers, or ionic membrane polymer composites (IMPCs). An important step in designing a new electromechanical deicing system would consist of measuring the level of strain needed within an iced substrate to break and shed ice at the interface. In this paper are presented the results of an experimental investigation, in which new set-ups were built and used to simulate the behaviour of an active iced electromechanical substrate generating three types of strains: tensile, torsion, and bending. A total of 174 icing/deicing tests were conducted with aluminum and polyamide test specimens covered with hard rime ice deposits 2, 5 and 10 mm thick and stressed at −10°C at various strain rates in the brittle ice regime. Real time strains and forces were precisely monitored using strain gages and load cells. The stress was calculated from the deicing strain ϵ deicing and force measured at time of deicing corresponding to an interfacial failure between ice and substrate and/or cohesive failure of ice. Under test conditions used, strains were found to be very similar in torsion and in tension but about ten times lower in bending. Moreover, stresses and strains at deicing were found to increase with increasing substrate roughness and decrease with increasing ice thickness.
Utility of the Physical Examination in Detecting Pulmonary Hypertension. A Mixed Methods Study

Introduction Patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) often present with a variety of physical findings reflecting a volume or pressure overloaded right ventricle (RV). However, there is no consensus regarding the diagnostic utility of the physical examination in PH. Methods We conducted a systematic review of publications that evaluated the clinical examination and diagnosis of PH using MEDLINE (1946–2013) and EMBASE (1947–2013). We also prospectively evaluated the diagnostic utility of the physical examination findings. Patients who underwent right cardiac catheterization for any reason were recruited. After informed consent, participants were examined by 6 physicians (3 “specialists” and 3 “generalists”) who were unaware of the results of the patient's hemodynamics. Each examiner independently assessed patients for the presence of a RV lift, loud P2, jugular venous distension (JVD), tricuspid insufficiency murmur and right-sided 4th heart sound at rest and during a slow inspiration. A global rating (scale of 1–5) of the likelihood that the patient had pulmonary hypertension was provided by each examiner. Results 31 articles that assessed the physical examination in PH were included in the final analysis. There was heterogeneity amongst the studies and many did not include control data. The sign most associated with PH in the literature was a loud pulmonic component of the second heart sound (P2). In our prospective study physical examination was performed on 52 subjects (25 met criteria for PH; mPAP ≥25 mmHg). The physical sign with the highest likelihood ratio (LR) was a loud P2 on inspiration with a LR +ve 1.9, 95% CrI [1.2, 3.1] when data from all examiners was analyzed together. Results from the specialist examiners had higher diagnostic utility; a loud P2 on inspiration was associated with a positive LR of 3.2, 95% CrI [1.5, 6.2] and a right sided S4 on inspiration had a LR +ve 4.7, 95% CI [1.0, 15.6]. No aspect of the physical exam, could consistently rule out PH (negative LRs 0.7–1.3). Conclusions The presence of a loud P2 or audible right-sided 4th heart sound are associated with PH. However the physical examination is unreliable for determining the presence of PH.
Evolutionary Support Vector Regression based on Multi-Scale Radial Basis Function Kernel

(RBF) kernel is a Mercer's kernel that has been widely used in many problems. However, it still has the restriction in some complex problems. In order to obtain a more flexible kernel function, the multi-scale RBF kernels are combined by non-negative weighting linear combination. This proposed kernel is proved to be a Mercer's kernel. Then, the evolutionary strategy (ES) is applied for adjusting the parameters of SVR and kernel function. Moreover, subsets cross-validation is used for evaluating these parameters. The optimum values of these parameters are searched by (5+10)-ES. The experimental results show the ability of the proposed method that outperforms the statistical techniques.
TWORZENIE REKOMENDACJI Z WYKORZYSTANIEM KONTEKSTOWYCH PREFERENCJI WARUNKOWYCH: STUDIUM

Recommendation engines aim to propose users items they are interested in by looking at the user interaction with a system. However, individual interests may be drastically influenced by the context in which decisions are taken. We present an attempt to model user interests via a set of contextual conditional preferences. We show that usage of proposed preferences gives reasonable values of the accuracy and the precision even when the dataset is quite small.
Health and Quality of Life

Background: The results of using status measures to identify any changes in treatment satisfaction strongly suggest a need for specific change instruments designed to overcome the ceiling effects frequently observed at baseline. Status measures may leave little room to show improvement in situations where baseline ceiling effects are observed. A change version of the DTSQ (DTSQc) is compared here with the original status (now called DTSQs) version to test the instruments' comparative ability to demonstrate change. Methods: Two multinational, openlabel, randomised-controlled trials (one for patients with type 1 diabetes, the other for type 2) compared new, longer-acting insulin glargine with standard NPH basal insulin. The DTSQs was completed at baseline and the DTSQs and DTSQc at final visit by 351 Englishand German-speaking patients. DTSQc scores were compared with change from baseline for the DTSQs, using 3-way analysis of variance, to examine Questionnaire, Treatment and Ceiling effects (i.e. baseline scores at/near ceiling). Results and discussion: Significant Questionnaire effects and a Questionnaire × Ceiling interaction (p < 0.001) in both trial datasets showed that the DTSQc detected more improvement in Treatment Satisfaction than the DTSQs, especially when patients had DTSQs scores at/near ceiling at baseline. Additionally, significant Treatment effects favouring insulin glargine (p < 0.001) and a Treatment × Questionnaire interaction (p < 0.019), with the DTSQc showing more benefits, were found in the type 1 trial. Results for Perceived Hyperand Hypoglycaemia also demonstrated important differences between the questionnaires in the detection of treatment effects. Tests of effect sizes showed these differences in response to change to be significantly in favour of the DTSQc. Conclusion: The DTSQc, used in conjunction with the DTSQs, overcomes the problem of ceiling effects encountered when only the status measure is used and provides a means for new treatments to show greater value than is possible with the DTSQs alone. Published: 10 October 2007 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2007, 5:57 doi:10.1186/1477-7525-5-57 Received: 15 July 2003 Accepted: 10 October 2007 This article is available from: http://www.hqlo. com/content/5/1/57 © 2007 Bradley et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Comparametric HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging for digital eye glass, wearable cameras, and sousveillance

Wearable computing can be used to both extend the range of human perception, and to share sensory experiences with others. For this objective to be made practical, engineering considerations such as form factor, computational power, and power consumption are critical concerns. In this work, we consider the design of a low-power visual seeing aid, and how to implement computationally-intensive computational photography algorithms in a small form factor with low power consumption. We present realtime an FPGA-based HDR (High Dynamic Range) video processing and filtering by integrating tonal and spatial information obtained from multiple different exposures of the same subject matter. In this embodiment the system captures, in rapid succession, sets of three exposures, “dark”, “medium”, and “light”, over and over again, e.g. “dark”, “medium”, “light”, “dark”, “medium”, “light”, and so on, at 60 frames per second. These exposures are used to determine an estimate of the photoquantity every 1/60th of a second (each time a frame comes in, an estimate goes out). This allows us to build a seeing aid that helps people see better in high contrast scenes, for example, while welding, or in outdoor scenes, or scenes where a bright light is shining directly into the eyes of the wearer. Our system is suitable for being built into eyeglasses or small camera-based, lifeglogging, or gesture-sensing pendants, and other miniature wearable devices, with low-power and compact circuits that can be easily mounted on the body.
CAD-directed Inspection Planning for Laser Guided Measurement Robot

A miniature laser guided measurement robot (LGMR) has been developed based on a new theory "laser beam moving and spherically mounted retro-reflector (SMR) tracking" instead of the traditional method "SMR moving and laser beam tracking". A systematic algorithm of generating optimal inspection planning based on CAD-directed model is proposed for LGMR to inspect free-form surfaces. The method integrated techniques from feature extraction, inspection path planning to generate the movement orientation, position and optimal distance for LGMR. Also, it automatically generates a consistent and efficient inspection process that can avoid the unnecessary trials in manual operations and reduce inaccuracy and inconsistency due to different operators. A free-form surface of automotive body is used to test the CAD-directed inspection planning which is generated from the proposed methods. The experiment has demonstrated that the inspection planning can be integrated to the LGMR and generated automated scanning process under automaticity and accuracy constraints.
Determinants of Knowledge and Technology Transfer Activities between Firms and Science Institutions in Switzerland: An Analysis Based on Firm Data

This study explores the factors determining the propensity of Swiss firms to interact with public science institutions in Switzerland (universities and other research institution), i.e. to get involved in knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities in order to gain new tacit and/or codified scientific knowledge in research fields which are relevant for their own innovation activities. We are especially interested in the different forms of this interaction, not only through joint research projects but also through training, recruitment of qualified R&D personnel, jointly supervised master theses and PhDs, consulting and so on. The data used in this study were collected in the course of a survey among Swiss enterprises. The new elements that this paper adds to empirical literature are, first, the analysis of a wide spectrum of KTT activities covering not only research co-operation agreements between firms and science institutions but also general informational and educational activities (transfer of "tacit" knowledge), joint use of technical infrastructure and consulting. Although such additional activities seem to be an important part of KTT activities, they have been neglected in most studies. Second, a further important element is the explicit consideration of a series of relevant motives and obstacles as determinants of KTT which contribute significantly to the econometric explanation of firms' propensity to overall KTT activities as well as to several forms of KTT activities. Third, some insights are gained with respect to the differences between manufacturing and service firms in transacting with science institutions. This is the first Swiss firm-level study on this matter.
Conch: A Cyclic MapReduce Model for Iterative Applications

MapReduce programming model is a popular model to simplify but speed up data parallel applications. However, it is not efficient for iterative applications because of its repeated data transmission with HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System). Conch, a cyclic MapReduce model, is designed for efficient processing of iterative applications. In order to minimize network overhead, shared data is cached locally and a "map-shuffle" phase is presented with a combined transmission mechanism. Meanwhile, a prediction scheduler for iterative applications is brought out to achieve better data locality in terms of runtime information. The experiments show that Conch can support iterative applications transparently and efficiently. Compared with Hadoop and HaLoop in single-job environment, Conch can achieve 13%-17% improvements on K-Means and fuzzy C-Means. Especially in multi-job environment, 63.6% and 28.6% improvements can be obtained compared with Hadoop and HaLoop.