Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Graph constrained label propagation on water supply networks

In many real-world applications we have at our disposal a limited number of inputs in a theoretical database with full information, and another part of experimental data with incomplete knowledge for some of their features. These are cases that can be addressed by a label propagation process. It is a widely studied approach that may acquire complexity if new constraints in the new unlabeled data that should be taken into account are found. A kernel embedding process together with a simple label propagation algorithm will be the main tools to propagate labels by the use of all types of available information. An experimental study of biofilm development in drinking water pipes propagated through pipes belonging to a complete water supply network is approached. As a result, the proposal is a suitable and efficient way to deal with practical data, based on previous theoretical studies by the constrained label propagation process introduced. © 2013 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
On the Use of the Rhythmogram for Automatic Syllabic Prominence Detection

In this paper we will investigate the usefulness of the rhythmo-gram, a speech rhythm representation based on the Auditory Primal Sketch model, for the automatic detection of prominent syllables. This representation was compared to other features usually used for this task and it showed a higher performance in the identiﬁcation of prominent/non-prominent syllables. A new prominence detection algorithm is proposed, combining the rhythmogram and pitch features and tested on two corpora of Italian and French. The results obtained showed signiﬁcant detection improvements with respect to other systems in the literature, 0.9% and 2.5% accuracy increase respectively
A Knowledge Based System for the Selection of Muscles for Gait Phase Detection using EMGs

Purpose: This paper presents the development of a knowledge based system for the detection of gait phases based on EMGs from muscles of the lower limb. Methods: An empirical analysis of the EMG characteristics for the most representative muscle of every muscle group concerning their suitability for the gait phase detection is presented. The same approach is applied to every lower limb muscle where an EMG could be received. The entities and the decision-making mechanism of the knowledge based system is presented in a formal way. Results: A knowledge based system is built upon the knowledge acquired from this analysis. Finally, an example is presented where the developed knowledge based system is used to support the conceptual design of a drop foot correction system. Conclusions: The knowledge based system can be used in the conceptual design of any rehabilitation system for lower limb disabilities using EMG signals from the lower limbs.
7 Lower Extremity Peripheral Arterial Disease

Eight to 12 million people in United States have PAD (Allison et al. 2007). Only ~10% of patients with PAD have classic intermittent claudication (IC), ~50% have atypical leg symptoms and ~40% are asymptomatic (Hiatt 2001). Its prevalence significantly increases with age; 12 – 20% of those above the age of 65 years suffer from PAD (Ostchega al. 2007). The prevalence of PAD is similar in men and women; however men are more likely to have symptomatic disease (Ness et al. 2000; Aronow et al. 2002; Selvin and Erlinger 2004; Ostchega et al. 2007).
The Challenge of Quality in Social Computation

Interactive web technologies now enable a host of so-called social computations, which can address challenges that are beyond the capabilities of machines alone. Notable examples of such social computation systems include Galaxy Zoo,1 BeeWatch,2 and Ushahidi,3 operating in fields as diverse as classification of newly discovered galaxies, monitoring of bee populations, and disaster management. A system for earthquake prediction using social media [Sakaki et al. 2010] illustrates how such computations can also emerge on social networking platforms. Social computations can be modeled as a complex collection of structured activities (i.e. workflows) that represent a blend of human and machine tasks, with associated objectives and reward mechanisms. In our previous work [Markovic et al. 2013; Markovic 2016] we argued that recording provenance of social computation workflows would enhance decision-making support for all associated stakeholders; these include initiators, participants, and beneficiaries of such computations. In the next section, we will briefly introduce the key characteristics of complex social computation systems before discussing why quality assessments in such a context are challenging.
Is post-stroke hyperglycemia a marker of stroke severity and prognosis : A pilot study

Background: Various physiological parameters like blood pressure, temperature, blood sugar after onset of stroke have been proposed as possible marker of stroke prognosis. Objective: To study the glycaemic status after acute stroke and assess the role of glycaemic status along with other clinical parameters in influencing stroke outcome. Method: Forty-two confirmed stroke patients attending hospital within 6 hours of onset of stroke onset were included in the study. The time lag for hospitalization, blood pressure, blood sugar, HbA1c, stroke severity according to Toronto Scale, demographic factors, stroke onset type, type of stroke, past history of stroke, diabetes, and hypertension were recorded. The outcome was whether patient survived at the end of forth week. Results: Twenty-one percent of patients who were not known diabetic found to be hyperglycemic though their HBA1C level was normal. Eighty-nine percent of such patients died. This rate was significantly higher than patients known to be diabetic with raised sugar and HBA1c level (26% patients, 12% mortality). There was strong and significant association between stroke severity and poor outcome. Strong and significant association was also found between stroke severity and blood sugar level. Modeling of stroke outcome using decision tree analysis (QUEST) found stroke severity as most important and significant predictor especially for severe stroke cases. In mild and moderately severe stroke, high sugar level was found to be a predictor, though not statistically significant. Conclusion: This study suggests that stroke severity is the most important predictor of stroke outcome, with high sugar level as a marker of stroke severity. Neurology Asia 2007; 12 : 13 – 19
Costate approximation from direct methods for switched systems with state jumps

This paper demonstrates, how an approximation of the costate trajectory can be obtained for switched systems with state jumps, when an optimal control problem with fixed switching sequence is solved using a direct method, i.e. direct shooting or collocation. The obtained trajectories include the jump conditions for the costate given by necessary conditions for optimal control of switched systems.
On the Superresolution of Microwave Scanning Radiometer Measurements

Microwave radiometer measurements are exploited to extract important geophysical information. Although it is beneficial to merge different frequency channels, it requires extra effort to refer all measurements to a common spatial resolution. Therefore, the capability to enhance the spatial resolution of a single channel is of special interest. In this study, a new numerical procedure to get superresolution microwave scanning radiometer measurements is presented. The approach is physically based on the occurrence of multiple partially correlated measurements. Mathematically, the approach is equivalent to a linear inversion problem, and its solution is pursued by means of a superresolution numerical procedure based on the Tikhonov regularization method. A set of numerical examples illustrates the results of the study in which hypothetical scanning microwave radiometer sensor configuration and reference test cases have been considered.
Typologies of Altruistic and Financial Motivations for Research Participation

Questions arise concerning participants’ motives in risky studies, such as HIV vaccine trials (HVTs). We interviewed in-depth 20 gay/bisexual men. Participants described both altruistic and nonaltruistic motives. Altruistic motivations emerged primarily, with nine typologies: (a) cultural, (b) community related, (c) familial, (d) religious, (e) professional, (f) political (e.g., HIV activism), (g) moral (e.g., making up for past wrongs), (h) existential (e.g., providing sense of meaning), and (i) other psychological (e.g., emotional gratification). Views of compensation varied: not a factor (55%), added incentive (25%), main motivator, but in conjunction with altruism (15%), and primary motivator (5%). HVT participants thus often have both altruistic and financial motives, and related typologies emerged. These findings have critical implications for studies on HIV, other conditions, and research ethics.
Sodium quantification in the spinal cord at 3T

Sodium channels are involved in neuronal function and therefore methods to assess tissue sodium concentration in vivo are exceptionally appealing. Recently there has been a renewed interest for brain sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), thanks to higher magnetic field strength scanners. However, sodium measures in the spinal cord are lacking due to major technical challenges. Here we propose for the first time a clinically feasible non‐invasive method for quantifying sodium in the spine using magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Generating american sign language classifier predicates for english-to-asl machine translation

A majority of deaf 18-year-olds in the United States have an English reading level below that of a typical 10-year-old student, and so machine translation (MT) software that could translate English text into American Sign Language (ASL) animations could significantly improve these individuals' access to information, communication, and services. Previous English-to-ASL MT projects have made limited progress by restricting their output to subsets of ASL phenomena---thus avoiding important linguistic and animation issues. None of these systems have shown how to generate classifier predicates (CPs), a phenomenon in which signers use special hand movements to indicate the location and movement of invisible objects (representing entities under discussion) in space around their bodies. CPs are frequent in ASL and are necessary for conveying many concepts. This project has created an English-to-ASL MT design capable of producing classifier predicates. The classifier predicate generator inside this design has a planning-based architecture that uses a 3D "visualization" model of the arrangement of objects in a scene discussed by the English input text. This generator would be one pathway in a multi-path English-to-ASL MT design; a separate processing pathway would be used to generate classifier predicates, to generate other ASL sentences, and to generate animations of Signed English (if the system lacked lexical resources for some input). Instead of representing the ASL animation as a string (of individual signs to perform), this system encodes the multimodal language signal as multiple channels that are hierarchically structured and coordinated over time. While this design feature and others have been prompted by the unique requirements of generating a sign language, these technologies have applications for the machine translation of written languages, the representation of other multimodal language signals, and the production of meaningful gestures by other animated virtual human characters. To evaluate the functionality and scalability of the most novel portion of this English-to-ASL MT design, this project has implemented a prototype-version of the planning-based classifier predicate generator. The classifier predicate animations produced by the system have been shown to native ASL signers to evaluate the output.
Paracetamol metabolism following overdosage: application of high performance liquid chromatography

There has been renewed interest in the metabolism of paracetamol since Mitchell, Thorgeirsson & others (1974) described the mechanisms of hepatic necrosis aduced by this drug. In particular, the significance of fie cysteine and mercapturic acid conjugates has been established in relation to the formation of a hepatotoxic intermediate metabolite (Mitchell & others, 1974; Mdrews, Bond & others, 1976; Davis, Simmons & 1976). Sulphydryl donors such as cysteamine a d L-methionine protect against severe liver damage following overdosage (Prescott, Park & others, 1976), but the mechanisms involved are unknown. The urinary excretion of paracetamol and its conjuBates (as measured by high performance liquid chromatography, h.p.1.c.) was studied in 5 males and 5 females admitted to the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre, Edinburgh, following severe paracetamol poisoning. Their ages ranged from 19-54 years (mean 30.4). The mean plasma paracetamol concentration 4 h after ingestion was 371 pg ml-' and the mean total urinary recovery of paracetamol ranged from 11.8-24.2 g (mean 18.3 g). Serial blood samples were taken and urine collected for 3-5 days for estimation of paracetamol and its metabolites. Blood was also taken daily for 5 days for estimation of aspartate and alanine aminotransferases, bilirubin and prothrombin time ratio to obtain a composite 'liver damage score' as described previously (normal value < 2.4) (Prescott & others, 1976). Four patients were treated with L-methionine, 3 with cysteamine, 1 with L-cysteine and 2 with supportive therapy only. Treatment was begun in all within 10 h of ingestion (Prescott & others, 1976). Severe liver damage hinotransferases > lo00 i.u. litre-l) occurred in 3 Patients given L-methionine and the two receiving supPortive therapy, one of whom died in hepatic failure. None of the patients developed renal failure. The pattern of urinary excretion of paracetamol metabolites did not appear to be influenced by the treatment given, but was related to the severity of liver damage (Table 1) . The proportion of the total excreted as the sulphate conjugate was significantly less in the Patients with severe liver damage than in those without,
Title T-IDBA: A de novo Iterative de Bruijn Graph Assembler for Transcriptome

RNA sequencing based on next-generation sequencing technology is useful for analyzing transcriptomes, discovering novel genes and studying exon/intron structures. Similar to genome assembly, de novo transcriptome assembly does not rely on a reference genome and additional annotated information. Most, if not all, existing de novo transcriptome assemblers rely heavily on de novo genome assembly techniques without fully utilizing the properties of transcriptomes and may result in short contigs because of the splicing nature (shared exons) of the genes and the repeats that exist in different genes. In this paper, we analyze the properties of the mammalian transcriptome and propose an algorithm to reconstruct expressed isoforms without a reference genome. We extend the iterative de Bruijn graph approach (IDBA) by using pair-end information to solve the problem of long repeats in different genes and the problem of branching in the same gene due to alternative splicing. The graph will be decomposed into small components, each of which corresponds to a few, if not single, genes. The most possible isoforms with sufficient support from the pair-end reads will be found heuristically by depth-first search. In practice, our de novo transcriptome assembler, T-IDBA, outperforms Abyss (one of the newest de novo transcriptome assembler) substantially in terms of sensitivity and precision for both simulated and real data. The experimental results also match with our theoretical analysis of the performance of T-IDBA, which guarantees most isoforms can be reconstructed as long as their coverage exceeds a certain threshold. Availability: T-IDBA is available at http://www.cs. hku.hk/~alse/idba/
NRAS destines tumor cells to the lungs

The lungs are frequently affected by cancer metastasis. Although NRAS mutations have been associated with metastatic potential, their exact role in lung homing is incompletely understood. We cross‐examined the genotype of various tumor cells with their ability for automatic pulmonary dissemination, modulated NRAS expression using RNA interference and NRAS overexpression, identified NRAS signaling partners by microarray, and validated them using Cxcr1‐ and Cxcr2‐deficient mice. Mouse models of spontaneous lung metastasis revealed that mutant or overexpressed NRAS promotes lung colonization by regulating interleukin‐8‐related chemokine expression, thereby initiating interactions between tumor cells, the pulmonary vasculature, and myeloid cells. Our results support a model where NRAS‐mutant, chemokine‐expressing circulating tumor cells target the CXCR1‐expressing lung vasculature and recruit CXCR2‐expressing myeloid cells to initiate metastasis. We further describe a clinically relevant approach to prevent NRAS‐driven pulmonary metastasis by inhibiting chemokine signaling. In conclusion, NRAS promotes the colonization of the lungs by various tumor types in mouse models. IL‐8‐related chemokines, NRAS signaling partners in this process, may constitute an important therapeutic target against pulmonary involvement by cancers of other organs.
Spinal muscular atrophy astrocytes exhibit abnormal calcium regulation and reduced growth factor production

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic disorder caused by the deletion of the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene that leads to loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord. Although motor neurons are selectively lost during SMA pathology, selective replacement of SMN in motor neurons does not lead to full rescue in mouse models. Due to the ubiquitous expression of SMN, it is likely that other cell types besides motor neurons are affected by its disruption and therefore may contribute to disease pathology. Here we show that astrocytes in SMAΔ7 mouse spinal cord and from SMA‐induced pluripotent stem cells exhibit morphological and cellular changes indicative of activation before overt motor neuron loss. Furthermore, our in vitro studies show mis‐regulation of basal calcium and decreased response to adenosine triphosphate stimulation indicating abnormal astrocyte function. Together, for the first time, these data show early disruptions in astrocytes that may contribute to SMA disease pathology.
Disturbance Attenuation for Surface-Mounted PMSM Drives Using Nonlinear Disturbance Observer-Based Sliding Mode Control

This paper proposes a nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO)-based sliding mode speed controller (SMSC) to guarantee the superior control performance in terms of robustness, fast transient response, and small steady-state error for a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) drive. Generally, the control performance of the SPMSM drives can be degraded by disturbances, so an NDO with a proper disturbance rejection capability is proposed to appropriately improve the tracking performance of the SMSC designed for the SPMSM drives. Unlike the linear disturbance observers (LDOs), the proposed NDO can efficiently estimate the lumped disturbance such as uncertainties parameters and unmodeled dynamics by using the nonlinear design function. The proposed NDO rejects the complex disturbances as well as self-regulates the observer gains to increase the convergence rate. The feasibility of the proposed NDO-based SMSC is verified by using a MATLAB/Simulink software program and a prototype SPMSM drive system with a TI TMS320F28335 digital signal processor (DSP). The comparative results with a conventional LDO-based SMSC are analyzed under load torque disturbances and model uncertainties to prove the excellent performance of the proposed NDO-based SMSC.
From artefact to effect: the organising effects of artefacts on teams.

PURPOSE Earlier studies have identified artefacts, but have only to a lesser degree looked at their effects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how artefacts contribute to organisation. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH A trauma team at a university hospital has been observed and its members interviewed. FINDINGS The trauma team showed itself to be rich on artefacts since it had strong internal driving forces, high legitimacy, and tried to live up to high expectations from the outside. Its members were motivated to be in the forefront of trauma care. Through renewal, the team succeeded in maintaining demarcation. It also succeeded in systemising internal work tasks and made for itself a position in relation to the outside. The team's capacity, however, came to be limited by internal conflicts and battles for prestige. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The study shows that informal logic has a strong influence on teams. Teamwork contributed to the development of organisational structure and motivation for the personnel. ORIGINALITY/VALUE Earlier studies advocate the important role of artefacts in order to communicate, collaborate, negotiate or coordinate activities. The conclusion is that artefacts also have an organising and developing effect on teams in a fragmented and differentiated healthcare.
Nucleotide sequence of a cloned rice genomic DNA fragment that encodes a 10 kDa prolamin polypeptide.

The rice prolamin fraction contains 10, 13 and 16 kDa polypeptides (1). cDNA sequences that encode 10 and 13 kDa prolamin polypeptides have been reported recently (2, 3). Here we report the sequence of a rice genomic DNA fragment that encodes the 10 kDa prolamin polypeptide. This genomic DNA clone was isolated from a rice XEMBL phage library from Clontech Laboratories Inc. by probing with a 10 kDa rice prolamin cDNA. The nucleotide sequence (1547 bp) of the genomic clone and the inferred amino acid sequence (134 residues) of 10 kDa prolamin polypeptide are shown below. The nucleotide sequence exactly matches the cDNA sequence (2) in the transcribed region. Putative TATA Box and polyadenylation sites are underlined.
Parametric Joint-Coding of Audio Sources

The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing stereo, multi-channel surround, wavefield synthesis, or binaural signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of source signals, properties of mixing techniques, and spatial perception. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties which determine the spatial cues at the mixer output. Informal subjective evaluation indicates that the proposed scheme achieves high audio quality.
A Novel Analytical Model for Asynchronous Multi-Packet Reception MAC Protocol

The multi-packet reception (MPR) technique enables access points to correctly receive simultaneously transmitted packets. Therefore, the network saturation throughput can be significantly improved by introducing MPR into wireless local area networks (WLANs). In this letter, we develop a novel analytical model to evaluate the saturation throughput of a WLAN with MPR. In contrast to previous models, we adopt the stationary distribution of backoff counter value after a generic overlapping transmission process to characterize the behavior of a contending station. Then, we derive the saturation throughput based on this distribution. Comparisons with simulation results show that our analytical model provides a close evaluation of the saturation throughput. Moreover, the impacts of several parameters on the saturation throughput are also investigated using the proposed model.