Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the performance of AS-LMS based adaptive filter for reduction of motion artifacts from PPG signals

A Photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal is invariably corrupted with motion artifacts (MA) due to voluntary or involuntary movements of the patient. PPG is a non-invasive signal, used for the estimation of arterial blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), which helps the physician to know the hypoxic status of patient during clinical investigations. This paper presents an efficient Adaptive Step-size Least Mean Squares (AS-LMS) based adaptive filter for reducing the MA from corrupted PPG signals. The novelty of the proposed algorithm lies in the fact that a synthetic noise reference signal for adaptive filtering, representing MA noise, is generated internally from the MA corrupted PPG signal itself instead of using any additional hardware such as accelerometer or source-detector pair for acquiring noise reference signal. Convergence analysis, SNR calculations and Statistical analysis revealed that the proposed AS-LMS algorithm has a clear edge over the Time-Varying Step-size LMS (TVS-LMS) and Constant Step-size LMS (CS-LMS) based adaptive algorithms for MA reduction from PPG signals. Experimental results, for the PPG data recorded with different motion artifacts (Horizontal, Vertical and Bending motion of finger), demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed algorithm in MA reduction and thus making it best suitable for real-time pulse oximetry applications.
The MIPS mammalian protein?Cprotein interaction database

SUMMARY The MIPS mammalian protein-protein interaction database (MPPI) is a new resource of high-quality experimental protein interaction data in mammals. The content is based on published experimental evidence that has been processed by human expert curators. We provide the full dataset for download and a flexible and powerful web interface for users with various requirements.
Reinforcement learning in children with FASD.

BACKGROUND It is often said that children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) have difficulty learning from reinforcement. However, there is little empirical evidence to support or deny this claim. OBJECTIVES To examine reinforcement learning in children with FASD, specifically: (1) the rate of learning from reinforcement; and (2) the impact of concreteness of the reinforcer. METHODS Participants included 18 children with FASD (IQ ≥ 70), ages 11-17, and 18 age- and sex-matched controls. Participants each completed a novel reinforcement learning discrimination task that involved visual probabilistic learning (70% contingent feedback). The task was completed twice, once with tokens, and once with points (counterbalanced). RESULTS The control group demonstrated significantly stronger overall reinforcement learning, although rates of improvement and effect of concreteness of the reinforcer (tokens vs. points) were not different between groups. The FASD group's responses were more likely to be guided by the most recent information, rather than based on integration of reward status over multiple trials. CONCLUSIONS Reinforcement learning does not appear to occur in a functionally different manner in children with FASD, but does take longer, and is more impacted by recent reward than an integration of overall reinforcement information. Children with FASD without an intellectual disability may be able to learn from reinforcement given sufficient consistent repetition. However, other failures associated with learning difficulties such as the complexity of the material, transfer of learning, or impulsivity were not addressed in this study.
Quality of life for Korean patients with vitiligo: Skindex‐29 and its correlation with clinical profiles

Vitiligo considerably influences the psychological well‐being of patients. Disease‐induced disfigurement can cause patients to experience a high level of stigmatization, which can lead to psychosocial stresses and negative impacts on quality of life (QOL). This study aims to ascertain the QOL of vitiligo patients compared to patients with other mild skin disorders. We also attempt to study which clinical features of vitiligo are closely related to the patient's QOL. One hundred and thirty‐three vitiligo patients and 112 patients with mild skin disorders were analyzed. All participants were asked to fill out questionnaires covering comprehensive clinical profiles and the Korean version of Skindex‐29. Statistical correlation between Skindex‐29 and each clinical profile were analyzed. The symptom scale of Skindex‐29 was significantly lower in vitiligo patients than in controls, but the function scale and the emotion scale were significantly higher in the vitiligo group than in controls. However, the difference in function scales between groups was significant in female patients, but not in male patients. Several clinical profiles, such as duration of disease, severity scores and previous history of treatments, showed close correlations with the function scale. Family history of vitiligo, Köebner phenomenon, patients’ perspectives on disease prognosis, and discordance of the severity scores between physicians and patients also influenced the Skindex‐29 subscales differently. In conclusion, the present study suggests that patients with vitiligo were highly affected in the functional and emotional aspects of QOL, with some sex differences. Various clinical features may play an important role in the QOL of vitiligo patients.
A Wealth Management Perspective on Factor Premia and the Value of Downside Protection

In this article, the authors show the benefits of a factor premia overlay to an intertemporal wealth accumulation strategy that is fully invested in global equities. Their simulation results suggest that wealth accumulation is significantly enhanced by a time invariant, equal-weighted allocation to conventional factor premia. The enhancement is driven in part by the mean return of the premia but, more importantly, by their generally positive payoff in adverse market environments. The authors estimate the value of downside protection provided by premia in this context and show that it is economically important. Factor-premia-based strategies provide a challenge to skill-based asset allocation strategies that aim to tactically shift the portfolio’s exposure to market risk and highlight the multiperiod importance of style management.
A critical assessment of transcranial doppler screening rates in a large pediatric sickle cell center: Opportunities to improve healthcare quality

Transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) has been demonstrated to be a powerful predictor of stroke risk due to sickle cell disease (SCD) in pediatric populations. Little is known about how this healthcare innovation has disseminated into preventive care for SCD. The objective of this study was to determine TCD screening rates and modifiable patient barriers in children with SCD.
Assembling Flagella in Salmonella Mutant Strains Producing a Type III Export Apparatus without FliO

ABSTRACT The type III export apparatus of the Salmonella flagellum consists of six transmembrane proteins (FlhA, FlhB, FliO, FliP, FliQ, and FliR) and three soluble proteins (FliH, FliI, and FliJ). Deletion of the fliO gene creates a mutant strain that is poorly motile; however, suppressor mutations in the fliP gene can partially rescue motility. To further understand the mechanism of suppression of a fliO deletion mutation, we isolated new suppressor mutant strains with partially rescued motility. Whole-genome sequence analysis of these strains found a missense mutation that localized to the clpP gene [clpP(V20F)], which encodes the ClpP subunit of the ClpXP protease, and a synonymous mutation that localized to the fliA gene [fliA(+36T→C)], which encodes the flagellar sigma factor, σ28. Combining these suppressor mutations with mutations in the fliP gene additively rescued motility and biosynthesis of the flagella in fliO deletion mutant strains. Motility was also rescued by an flgM deletion mutation or by plasmids carrying either the flhDC or fliA gene. The fliA(+36T→C) mutation increased mRNA translation of a fliA′-lacZ gene fusion, and immunoblot analysis revealed that the mutation increased levels of σ28. Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR showed that either the clpP(V20F) or fliA(+36T→C) mutation rescued expression of class 3 flagellar and chemotaxis genes; still, the suppressor mutations in the fliP gene had a greater effect on bypassing the loss of fliO function. This suggests that the function of FliO is closely associated with regulation of FliP during assembly of the flagellum.
Modelling reveals endogenous osmotic adaptation of storage tissue water potential as an important driver determining different stem diameter variation patterns in the mangrove species Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa.

BACKGROUND Stem diameter variations are mainly determined by the radial water transport between xylem and storage tissues. This radial transport results from the water potential difference between these tissues, which is influenced by both hydraulic and carbon related processes. Measurements have shown that when subjected to the same environmental conditions, the co-occurring mangrove species Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa unexpectedly show a totally different pattern in daily stem diameter variation. METHODS Using in situ measurements of stem diameter variation, stem water potential and sap flow, a mechanistic flow and storage model based on the cohesion-tension theory was applied to assess the differences in osmotic storage water potential between Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa. KEY RESULTS Both species, subjected to the same environmental conditions, showed a resembling daily pattern in simulated osmotic storage water potential. However, the osmotic storage water potential of R. stylosa started to decrease slightly after that of A. marina in the morning and increased again slightly later in the evening. This small shift in osmotic storage water potential likely underlaid the marked differences in daily stem diameter variation pattern between the two species. CONCLUSIONS The results show that in addition to environmental dynamics, endogenous changes in the osmotic storage water potential must be taken into account in order to accurately predict stem diameter variations, and hence growth.
Amounts of viable anaerobes, methanogens, and bacterial fermentation products in feces of rats fed high-fiber or fiber-free diets

We investigated the impact of dietary fiber on the fecal output of microorganisms and microbial fermentation products of rats. Two groups of five male Wistar rats were fed high-fiber (HF) and fiber-free (FF) diets in the following order: (group 1) lab chow-->HF-->FF-->HF and (group 2) lab chow-->FF-->HF-->FF. Daily fecal output of total viable anaerobes was 71 times higher with the HF diet. Daily output of methanogens was 1.4 times higher for the HF diet than for the FF diet. Daily excretion of total fermentation acid products (acetate, propionate, butyrate, lactate, succinate, and formate) was 2.4 and 0.1 mmol for HF and FF diets, respectively. The ratios of acetate/propionate/butyrate were 69:21:10 for the HF diet and 92:7:1 for the FF diet. The results show that an HF diet significantly increases microbial growth in the colon and influences the proportions of organic acid products. The HF diet did not increase the ratio of methanogens to total anaerobes. We suggest that the contribution of host-derived substrates to colonic microbial growth and fermentation is insignificant.
Disrupted Functional Connectivity in Dorsal and Ventral Attention Networks During Attention Orienting in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Attention orienting is a cognitive process that facilitates the movement of attention focus from one location to another: this may be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dorsal and ventral attention networks (DAN and VAN) sub‐serve the process of attention orienting. This study investigated the functional connectivity of attention orienting in these networks in ASD using the Posner Cueing Task.
A 14-mW, 153.6-MHz clock-rate Δ∑ modulator for WCDMA with 77-dB SFDR using constant resistance CMOS input sampling switch

The performance of a switched-capacitor delta-sigma (DeltaSigma) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is greatly degraded by the linearity of the input sampling switch. This is especially so in older cheaper technologies where very-low threshold voltage devices are unavailable. To address the input switch sampling distortion issue, the use of an optimized bootstrapped CMOS switch is proposed in this paper, featuring a constant on- resistance over the entire input signal range. The dynamic range improvement with the proposed approach is validated with the design of a fourth-order, switched-capacitor DeltaSigma modulator for WCDMA in a 0.35-mum BiCMOS process technology. Measured spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 77 dB is achieved at a clock-rate of 153.6 MHz. The modulator dissipates 14 mW from a 2.7-V power supply and occupies an area of 0.2 mm2.
Effects of long‐term exposure to low levels of organophosphorous pesticides and their mixture on altered antioxidative defense mechanisms and lipid peroxidation in rat liver

Organophosphorous pesticides, commonly used in agriculture for achieving better quality products, are toxic substances that have harmful effects on human health. Recent research on pesticides, especially pesticide mixtures, has shown that they are one of the key environmental health issues. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether dichlorvos, acephate, dimethoate and phorate, either used separately or in combination, can induce oxidative damage in rat livers. The levels of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and lipid peroxidation products (malondialdehyde) were used as criteria. Low, middle and high doses of pesticides in drinking water were continuously administered orally to rats ad libitum for 24 weeks. Results show that the antioxidative defense mechanisms and lipid peroxidation in the rat livers display different responses, depending on the pesticide treatments and doses. The parameters for acephate, dichlorvos, phorate and dimethoate in the low‐dose group, and the corresponding low‐dose co‐treated group were not altered. The oxidative damage in rat livers showed different responses with increasing pesticide dose according to the different pesticide treatments. The combination group of dichlorvos, acephate, dimethoate and phorate displayed different responses compared with the single pesticide‐treated group. However, these responses did not constitute the sum of the response produced by each pesticide in the liver. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Predicting the severity of bug reports using classification algorithms

Bug triaging is the process of prioritizing the bug reports based on the severity and is driven by the business needs and available resources. Majority times, only few of the reported bugs are selected to be fixed. The selected bugs are prioritized (ordered) based on their severity (e.g. the bug inhibits an important feature of the product, the bug affects a large number of users) and then fixed according to their priority. If the severity is assigned incorrectly then time and resources may be wasted to fix that bug. Hence there is a need for new techniques to avoid this misuse of resources. In this paper, bagging ensemble method is used for predicting the severity of bug reports. Also, bagging ensemble method is compared with C4.5 classifier. The results have shown that bagging ensemble method gives better accuracy compared to C4.5 general classifier on the given dataset.
Efficient homologous recombination in fast-growing and slow-growing mycobacteria

Although homologous recombination is a major mechanism for DNA rearrangement in most living organisms, it has been difficult to detect in slowly growing mycobacteria by a classical suicide vector approach. Among the possible reasons for this are the low levels of transformation efficiency, the relatively high levels of illegitimate recombination, and the peculiar nature of the recA gene in slowly growing mycobacteria. In this report, we present an efficient homologous recombination system for these organisms based on the use of replicative plasmids which facilitates the detection of rare recombination events, because the proportions of recombined molecules increase over time. Intraplasmid homologous recombination in Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG was easily selected by the reconstitution of an interrupted kanamycin resistance gene. Chromosomal integration via homologous recombination was selected by the expression of the kanamycin resistance gene under the control of a chromosomal promoter that was not present in the plasmid before recombination. This technique was termed STORE (for selection technique of recombination events). All the clones selected by STORE had undergone homologous recombination, as evidenced by PCR analyses of the kanamycin-resistant clones. This technique should be applicable to all organisms for which homologous recombination has been difficult to achieve, provided the gene of interest is expressed.
Refined Multiscale Entropy: Application to 24-h Holter Recordings of Heart Period Variability in Healthy and Aortic Stenosis Subjects

Multiscale entropy (MSE) was proposed to characterize complexity as a function of the time-scale factor tau. Despite its broad use, this technique suffers from two limitations: (1) the artificial MSE reduction due to the coarse graining procedure and (2) the introduction of spurious MSE oscillations due to the suboptimal procedure for the elimination of the fast temporal scales. We propose a refined MSE (RMSE), and we apply it to simulations and to 24-h Holter recordings of heart rate variability (HRV) obtained from healthy and aortic stenosis (AS) groups. The study showed that the refinement relevant to the elimination of the fast temporal scales was more helpful at short scales (spanning the range of short-term HRV oscillations), while that relevant to the procedure of coarse graining was more useful at large scales. In healthy subjects, during daytime, RMSE was smaller at short scales (i.e., tau =1-2) and larger at longer scales (i.e., tau =4-20) than during nighttime. In AS population, RMSE was smaller during daytime both at short and long time scales (i.e., tau = 1 -11) than during nighttime. RMSE was larger in healthy group than in AS population during both daytime (i.e., tau = 2 -9) and nighttime (i.e., tau = 2). RMSE overcomes two limitations of MSE and confirms the complementary information that can be derived by observing complexity as a function of the temporal scale.
Analytical Method of Computing Stressed Value-at-Risk with Conditional Value-at-Risk

This paper develops an analytical form of stressed value-at-risk (analytical SVaR), one of the most important changes implemented by Basel II, using conditional value-at-risk (CoVaR). We also validate analytical SVaR empirically and theoretically. The proposed analytical risk measure can be readily applied to the existing risk-management framework. It is a computationally inexpensive tool for screening conditional portfolio risk, is reasonably accurate and has desirable statistical properties. It is suitable for use by any business that evaluates conditional financial risk with respect to market conditions. The theoretical result of this paper also suggests that CoVaR may fail to properly capture conditional risk when it is most pronounced.
Student Engagement in the Middle Years :Describing Influences and Possible Teacher Actions

This article proposes a model identifying some factors influencing student engagement in school, especially in middle years, and indicates possible foci for interventions to improve engagement and life opportunities. It argues that students’ needs inform their goals, which in turn direct their beliefs about their capacity to influence their own futures, which then determine their orientation to learning opportunities. Teachers, and others, can intervene productively at each point.
Expression of a Dominant Interfering Dynamin Mutant in 3T3L1 Adipocytes Inhibits GLUT4 Endocytosis without Affecting Insulin Signaling*

To examine the role of clathrin-coated vesicle endocytosis in insulin receptor signaling and GLUT4 trafficking, we used recombinant adenovirus to express a dominant interfering mutant of dynamin (K44A/dynamin) in 3T3L1 adipocytes. Functional expression of K44A/dynamin, as measured by inhibition of transferrin receptor internalization, did not affect insulin-stimulated insulin receptor autophosphorylation, Shc tyrosine phosphorylation, or mitogen-activated protein kinase activation. Although the tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 was slightly reduced, correlating with a 25% decrease in insulin receptor substrate-1-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity, insulin-stimulated Akt kinase activation was unaffected. In contrast, expression of K44A/dynamin resulted in the cell-surface accumulation of GLUT4 under basal conditions and an inhibition of GLUT4 endocytosis without affecting insulin-stimulated GLUT4 exocytosis. These data demonstrate that disruption of clathrin-mediated endocytosis does not significantly perturb insulin receptor signal transduction pathways. Furthermore, K44A/dynamin expression causes an accumulation of GLUT4 at the cell surface, suggesting that GLUT4 vesicles exist in at least two distinct intracellular compartments, one that undergoes continuous recycling and a second that is responsive to insulin.
A Bayesian determination of threshold for identifying differentially expressed genes in microarray experiments

The original definitions of false discovery rate (FDR) and false non‐discovery rate (FNR) can be understood as the frequentist risks of false rejections and false non‐rejections, respectively, conditional on the unknown parameter, while the Bayesian posterior FDR and posterior FNR are conditioned on the data. From a Bayesian point of view, it seems natural to take into account the uncertainties in both the parameter and the data. In this spirit, we propose averaging out the frequentist risks of false rejections and false non‐rejections with respect to some prior distribution of the parameters to obtain the average FDR (AFDR) and average FNR (AFNR), respectively. A linear combination of the AFDR and AFNR, called the average Bayes error rate (ABER), is considered as an overall risk. Some useful formulas for the AFDR, AFNR and ABER are developed for normal samples with hierarchical mixture priors. The idea of finding threshold values by minimizing the ABER or controlling the AFDR is illustrated using a gene expression data set. Simulation studies show that the proposed approaches are more powerful and robust than the widely used FDR method. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
101 Formulaic Alphas

We present explicit formulas - that are also computer code - for 101 real-life quantitative trading alphas. Their average holding period approximately ranges 0.6-6.4 days. The average pair-wise correlation of these alphas is low, 15.9%. The returns are strongly correlated with volatility, but have no significant dependence on turnover, directly confirming an earlier result based on a more indirect empirical analysis. We further find empirically that turnover has poor explanatory power for alpha correlations.