Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Caloric Intake 25 or 30 kcal/kg/day on the Glycemic Control in Obese Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Background The recommended total dietary energy intake prescribed medical nutrition therapy for obese or overweight patients with type 2 diabetes in Japan is often set at 25 kcal/kg ideal body weight (IBW)/day. This study was conducted to determine the impact of the total dietary energy intake (25 or 30 kcal/kg IBW/day) on the glycemic control, lipid profile, and satisfaction level in overweight patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods We performed interview and a designed prospective, randomized, controlled, multicenter study trial. Recruitment for interview for doctors and hospitalization of the obese or overweight patients with type 2 diabetes began from September 2008 and continued until June 2010. The subjects were randomly assigned to 25 kcal/kg IBW/day group (25 kcal group) or 30 kcal/kg IBW/day group (30 kcal group). The primary endpoint was the body weight of the subjects at the time of hospitalization, at the time of discharge from the hospital, and at 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge from the hospital. Results The glycemic control, lipid control and body weight were similar between the 25 and 30 kcal groups during the 12-month follow-up, and the degree of satisfaction in respect of the medical treatment was significantly higher in the 30 kcal group than in the 25 kcal group at 1 year after discharge. Conclusions It is considered to be preferable for the caloric intake to be set at 30kcal/kg IBW/day rather than at 25 kcal/kg IBW/day for obese or overweight patients with type 2 diabetes.
Genome Sequences of 19 Novel Erwinia amylovora Bacteriophages

ABSTRACT Erwinia amylovora is the causal agent of fire blight, a devastating disease affecting some plants of the Rosaceae family. We isolated bacteriophages from samples collected from infected apple and pear trees along the Wasatch Front in Utah. We announce 19 high-quality complete genome sequences of E. amylovora bacteriophages.
Performance analysis of a selective decode-and-forward cooperative system with SFBC and BICM-OFDM

In this paper, we analyze the bit error rate (BER) performance of selective decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative communications incorporating space-frequency block coding (SF-BC), bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). For the classical 3-node cooperation model, a tight upper bound of BER for the coded system under Rayleigh fading channels is derived. By uniting the analysis for multi-antenna cooperative schemes and the analysis for BICM under a common framework, the upper bound is proved valid for moderate SNR regime. With reasonable simplifications in the analysis, an asymptotic PEP expression that takes into account the effect of space-frequency coding, channel coding and the channel parameters is also derived, and gives insights on the diversity gain of the system. The results are validated by simulations under various settings.
The intonational phonology of Swabian and Upper Saxon

The study employs an autosegmental-metrical model of intonation to propose an intonational grammar of Swabian and Upper Saxon German, respectively. The analysis is guided by the assumption that each dialect exhibits a specific distinct intonation. The phonological analysis is comparative in nature: the implementation of accents are compared between the dialects in terms of tonal alignment and excursion. In fact, the phonetic data present evidence for the phonological analysis in that the individual tonal categories differ significantly from each other.In addition, a functional analysis of the intonation contours provides further evidence for the phonological analysis. Based on the assumption that nuclear contours convey intonational meaning, these meanings are analysed and compared. A certain meaning can be attributed to intonation contours that differ phonologically between the two dialects. However, the general shape of contours and its association with meaning has been proved to be identical in the two dialects and compared to a similar analysis of intonational meaning of British English. This comprehensive study of dialect intonation contributes to improve our understanding of intonational phonology.
Augmenting User Experience in Virtual Environments Through Haptic Feedback

User immersion inside an unfamiliar Virtual Environment can be significantly increased by exploring the possibilities of haptic technology. Claim: bidirectional physical interaction-where both, the user and the system, play an active role-could be the most efficient way to assist and engage the user. This paper consists in a comparison between three assistance methods that complete the tactile feedback: two visual approaches and one based on force attraction. In order to evaluate the influence of these methods over user performance a testing application has been implemented. The purpose was to study the user response to the force-attraction based method, and the efficiency of this method. Visual methods increased the users' feeling of presence and cognition, allowing a better perception of the 3D space. Thus, they were very efficient in the navigation part. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the method based on haptic feedback was confirmed especially in the interaction part, since it allowed the user to focus on the virtual object.
EUROASPIRE IV: A European Society of Cardiology survey on the lifestyle, risk factor and therapeutic management of coronary patients from 24 European countries

Aims To determine whether the Joint European Societies guidelines on cardiovascular prevention are being followed in everyday clinical practice of secondary prevention and to describe the lifestyle, risk factor and therapeutic management of coronary patients across Europe. Methods and results EUROASPIRE IV was a cross-sectional study undertaken at 78 centres from 24 European countries. Patients <80 years with coronary disease who had coronary artery bypass graft, percutaneous coronary intervention or an acute coronary syndrome were identified from hospital records and interviewed and examined ≥ 6 months later. A total of 16,426 medical records were reviewed and 7998 patients (24.4% females) interviewed. At interview, 16.0% of patients smoked cigarettes, and 48.6% of those smoking at the time of the event were persistent smokers. Little or no physical activity was reported by 59.9%; 37.6% were obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and 58.2% centrally obese (waist circumference ≥ 102 cm in men or ≥88 cm in women); 42.7% had blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmHg (≥140/80 in people with diabetes); 80.5% had low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ≥ 1.8 mmol/l and 26.8% reported having diabetes. Cardioprotective medication was: anti-platelets 93.8%; beta-blockers 82.6%; angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers 75.1%; and statins 85.7%. Of the patients 50.7% were advised to participate in a cardiac rehabilitation programme and 81.3% of those advised attended at least one-half of the sessions. Conclusion A large majority of coronary patients do not achieve the guideline standards for secondary prevention with high prevalences of persistent smoking, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and consequently most patients are overweight or obese with a high prevalence of diabetes. Risk factor control is inadequate despite high reported use of medications and there are large variations in secondary prevention practice between centres. Less than one-half of the coronary patients access cardiac prevention and rehabilitation programmes. All coronary and vascular patients require a modern preventive cardiology programme, appropriately adapted to medical and cultural settings in each country, to achieve healthier lifestyles, better risk factor control and adherence with cardioprotective medications.
RNAssess—a web server for quality assessment of RNA 3D structures

Nowadays, various methodologies can be applied to model RNA 3D structure. Thus, the plausible quality assessment of 3D models has a fundamental impact on the progress of structural bioinformatics. Here, we present RNAssess server, a novel tool dedicated to visual evaluation of RNA 3D models in the context of the known reference structure for a wide range of accuracy levels (from atomic to the whole molecule perspective). The proposed server is based on the concept of local neighborhood, defined as a set of atoms observed within a sphere localized around a central atom of a particular residue. A distinctive feature of our server is the ability to perform simultaneous visual analysis of the model-reference structure coherence. RNAssess supports the quality assessment through delivering both static and interactive visualizations that allows an easy identification of native-like models and/or chosen structural regions of the analyzed molecule. A combination of results provided by RNAssess allows us to rank analyzed models. RNAssess offers new route to a fast and efficient 3D model evaluation suitable for the RNA-Puzzles challenge. The proposed automated tool is implemented as a free and open to all users web server with an user-friendly interface and can be accessed at: http://rnassess.cs. put.poznan. pl/
Is MELD really the definitive score for liver allocation?

The best system for organ allocation is still a controversial issue. The aim of this study was to study the accuracy of four different scores to predict mortality on the waiting list and, thus, their usefulness to determine organ allocation. We retrospectively compared two groups of patients, those who died on waiting list (group D) and those who successfully underwent transplantation (group T) during the same time period. Four scores, at the time of entering the waiting list and just before liver transplantation or death, were evaluated. The evaluated scores were as follows: (1) the Child‐Pugh classification; (2) the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score; (3) the Freeman scale; and (4) the Guardiola et al index. The mortality rate on waiting list was 15.9%. All studied scores, except Freeman scale, were higher in group D at the time of entrance on waiting list (MELD, 17.4 ± 8 v 12.3 ± 6, P = .02; Child, 9.9 ± 2 v 7.7 ± 2, P = .002; Freeman, 9.7 ± 4 v 7.3 ± 3.9, P = .09; Guardiola, 2.6 ± 0.9 v 1.7 ± 0.7, P = .001). C‐statistics of all scores were similar and in all cases lower than 0.8 (MELD, 0.75; Child, 0.78; Freeman, 0.65; Guardiola, 0.79). None of the studied scores have an excellent accuracy to predict prognosis of patients on waiting list, mainly in case of populations with high proportion of hepatocellular carcinoma. Although the MELD score is rapidly available, standardized, and objective, it does not reflect the severity of patients with cancer or metabolic disorders.
Analysis of Stromal Cell Secretomes Reveals a Critical Role for Stromal Cell–Derived Hepatocyte Growth Factor and Fibronectin in Angiogenesis

Objective—Angiogenesis requires tightly coordinated crosstalk between endothelial cells (ECs) and stromal cells, such as fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. The specific molecular mechanisms moderating this process are still poorly understood. Methods and Results—Stromal cell–derived factors are essential for EC sprouting and lumen formation. We therefore compared the abilities of 2 primary fibroblast isolates and a primary smooth muscle cell isolate to promote in vitro angiogenesis, and analyzed their secretomes using a combination of nano liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry, quantitative PCR, and ELISA. Each isolate exhibited a different level of angiogenic ability. Using quantitative MS, we then compared the secretomes of a fibroblast isolate exhibiting low angiogenic activity, a fibroblast isolate exhibiting high angiogenic activity, and human umbilical vein ECs. High angiogenic fibroblast supernatants exhibited an overabundance of proteins associated with extracellular matrix constituents compared with low angiogenic fibroblasts or ECs. Finally, small interfering RNA technology and purified protein were used to confirm a role for stromal cell–derived hepatocyte growth factor and fibronectin in inducing EC sprouting. Conclusion—Differences in stromal cell ability to induce angiogenesis are a result of differences in the secreted proteomes of both extracellular matrix proteins and proangiogenic growth factors.
Modeling Cardiopulmonary Interactions in Trauma

Injuries in trauma aaect anatomical structures and indirectly aaect physiological systems through mechanical behavior and physical proximity. This paper presents our methods and models for simulation cardiopulmonary anatomy and physiology. We demonstrate our system that simulates normal, quiet breathing, and a tension pneumoth-orax. Our goal is to enable students of anatomy and physiology to explore, with the greatest degree of freedom possible , some of the causes and eeects of normal and pathological behaviors in trauma, in a 3D interactive, virtual environment. We propose to accomplish this by integrating visually-plausible, physics-based deformable anatomical models with mathematical models of physiological processes. In this pursuit, we are developing unique models and confronting issues in making anatomy in virtual environments both look and behave realistically.
A maximum likelihood prosody recognizer

Automatic prosody recognition (APR) is of fundamental importance for automatic speech understanding. In this paper, we propose a maximum likelihood prosody recognizer consisting of a GMM-based acoustic model that models the distribution of the phone-level acoustic-prosodic observations (pitch, duration and energy) and an ANN-based language model that models the word-level stochastic dependence between prosody and syntax. Our experiments on the Radio News Corpus show that our recognizer is able to achieve 84% pitch accent recognition accuracy and 93% intonational phrase boundary (IPB) recognition accuracy in a leave-one-speaker-out task which has exceeded previous reported results on the same corpus. The same recognizer is tested on a subset of Switchboard corpus. The accuracies are degraded but still significantly better than the chance levels.
Interface and interaction design for group and social recommender systems

Group and social recommender systems aim to recommend items of interest to a group or a community of people. The user issues in such systems cannot be addressed by examining the satisfaction of their members as individuals. Rather, group satisfaction should be studied as a result of the interaction and interface methods that support group dynamics and interaction. In this paper, we survey the state-of-the-art in user experience design of group and social recommender systems. We further apply the techniques used in the current recommender systems to GroupFun, a music social group recommender system. After presenting the interface and interaction characteristics of GroupFun, we further analyze the design space and propose areas for future research in pursuit of an affective recommender.
Query responsive awareness software: inventory control case study

Query Responsive Awareness Software (QRAS) is proposed in this paper as a run-time software representable model that incorporates semantic attributes into the software. Specifically QRAS: (a) provides for the representation of properties of the software and its application environment, (b) is compatible for distributed systems and in particular, smart collaborative object systems, and (c) provides human and/or automated query and query-responsiveness. QRAS is based on the Geometric Representation of Programs (GRP) model. A case study based on a simplified inventory control system together with a simulation of various queries concludes a feasibility study of the proposed approach.
Communication-Minimal Tiling of Uniform Dependence Loops

Tiling is a loop transformation that the compiler uses to create automatically blocked algorithms in order to improve the benefits of the memory hierarchy and reduce the communication overhead between processors. Motivated by existing results, this paper presents a conceptually simple approach to finding tilings with a minimal amount of communication between tiles. The development of all results is based primarily on the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means, except for Lemma 8 whose proof relies on the concept of extremal rays of convex cones. The key insight is mat a tiling that is communication-minimal must induce the same amount of communication through all faces of a tile, which restricts the search space for optimal tilings to those tiling matrices whose rows are all extremal rays in a cone. For nested loops with several special forms of dependences, closed-form optimal tilings are derived. In the general case, a procedure is given that always returns optimal tilings. A detailed comparison of this work with some existing results is provided.
Scaffolding Chinese teaching and learning

linguistic points. The morpheme “星期” was meant to be understandable. 星期一 Monday 星期二 Tuesday 星期三 Wednesday 星期四 Thursday 星期五 Friday 星期六 Saturday 星期日 Sunday Please move this picture Figure 6.1: The PowerPoint slide for students to find the same pattern in English 星期一 Monday 星期二 Tuesday 星期三 Wednesday 星期四 Thursday 星期五 Friday 星期六 Saturday 星期日 Sunday Figure 6.2: The PowerPoint slide for students to find the same pattern in Chinese 6.3. 2 Morpheme-pattern-based scaffolding in action This section presents primary evidence about how I put morpheme-pattern-based scaffolding into practice. Below is evidence from my reflection journal. Today, I divided the lesson into different steps: 1) Encouraged students to say “1”to “10” in Chinese. Asked some students to write “一” to “十” (“1”to “10”) on whiteboard. Their performance showed they learned them very well.
Human Instance Segmentation from Video using Detector-based Conditional Random Fields

In this work, we propose a method for instance based human segmentation in images and videos, extending the recent detector-based conditional random field model of Ladicky et.al. Instance based human segmentation involves pixel level labeling of an image, partitioning it into distinct human instances and background. To achieve our goal, we add three new components to their framework. First, we include human partsbased detection potentials to take advantage of the structure present in human instances. Further, in order to generate a consistent segmentation from different human parts, we incorporate shape prior information, which biases the segmentation to characteristic overall human shapes. Also, we enhance the representative power of the energy function by adopting exemplar instance based matching terms, which helps our method to adapt easily to different human sizes and poses. Finally, we extensively evaluate our proposed method on the Buffy dataset with our new segmented ground truth images, and show a substantial improvement over existing CRF methods. These new annotations will be made available for future use as well.
Long-term prediction of time series using a parsimonious set of inputs and LS-SVM

Time series prediction is an important problem in many areas of science and engineering. We investigate the use of a parsimonious set of autoregressive variables in the long-term prediction task using the direct prediction approach. We use a fast input selection algorithm on a large set of autoregressive variables for different direct predictors, and train nonlinear models (LS-SVM and a committee of LS-SVM) on the parsimonious set of non-contiguous set of autoregressive variables. Results will be shown for the time series competition task.
Contractual Incompleteness as a Signal of Trust

This paper shows how the fear of signaling distrust can endogenously lead to incomplete contractual agreements. We consider a principal agent relationship where the agent may be trustworthy (dedicated to the project) or not. The principal may trust the agent (i.e. have a high belief of facing a trustworthy agent), or distrust him. The proposal of a complete contract, including fines and other explicit incentives, is shown to signal distrust. When trust is important in some non-contractible part of the relationship, a principal may prefer to leave the contract incomplete rather than to signal distrust by proposing a complete contract. Contractual incompleteness arises endogenously due to asymmetric information about how much one partner trusts the other side.
THE ABDUS SALAM INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS COMPACT SUPERSYMMETRIC SOLUTIONS OF THE HETEROTIC EQUATIONS OF MOTION IN DIMENSIONS 7 AND 8

We construct explicit compact solutions with non-zero field strength, non-flat instanton and constant dilaton to the heterotic string equations in dimensions seven and eight. We present a quadratic condition on the curvature which is necessary and sufficient the heterotic supersymmetry and the anomaly cancellation to imply the heterotic equations of motion in dimensions seven and eight. We show that some of our examples are compact supersymmetric solutions of the heterotic equations of motion in dimensions seven and eight. MIRAMARE – TRIESTE December 2008 marisa.fernandez@ehu.es Senior Associate of ICTP. ivanovsp@fmi.uni-sofia.bg ugarte@unizar.es raquelvg@unizar.es
Analysis for Enhanced Live Business Intelligence

An important task in Business Intelligence (BI) applicatio ns is to gather and analyze scattered opinions about an entit y such as a product, a brand or a company. Thanks to Web 2.0 techn ology which has enabled more and more people to freely express their opinions in real time, the Web has now be come an extremely valuable source for analyzing people’s opinions. However, since the opinions are usually expresse d a unstructured text scattered in different sources, with the current technologies, it is still difficult for analysts to i ntegrate and digest all opinions relevant to a specific topic . In this project, we propose to develop a novel application sy stem for Live BI that can automatically integrate opinions from different kinds of sources and support comparative sen timent analysis and real-time tracking of the opinions. The system would allow a user to register topics or entities to be monitored and compared and “watch” how the opinions evolve over time in a similar way to what people can do with the stock index. “triggers” will be supported which would generate an alert when special event happens, such as the amo unt of positive opinions about a competitor’s product has significantly exceeded one’s own product. Three main techni cal challenges fundamental to such a novel system include opinion integration, sentiment tagging, and online compar ative opinion analysis. We will address these challenges generally with probabilistic approaches that can be applied to multiple domainsfor facilitating multiple kinds of business decisionmaking, such as for customer relationship management, mark eting research, and competitive intelligence.
Exponential Separation of Information and Communication

We show an exponential gap between communication complexity and information complexity, by giving an explicit example for a communication task (relation), with information complexity ≤ O(k), and distributional communication complexity ≥2k. This shows that a communication protocol cannot always be compressed to its internal information. By a result of Braverman [1], our gap is the largest possible. By a result of Braverman and Rao [2], our example shows a gap between communication complexity and amortized communication complexity, implying that a tight direct sum result for distributional communication complexity cannot hold.