Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sequence Representation of Music Structure Using Higher-Order Similarity Matrix and Maximum-Likelihood Approach

In this paper, we present a novel method for the automatic estimation of the structure of music tracks using a sequence representation. A set of timbre-related (MFCC and Spectral Contrast) and pitch-related (Pitch Class Profile) features are first extracted from the signal leading to three similarity matrices which are then combined. We then introduce the use of higher-order (2nd and 3rd order) similarity matrices in order to reinforce the diagonals corresponding to common repetitions and reduce the background noise. Segments are then detected and a maximum-likelihood approach is proposed in order to derive simultaneously the underlying sequence representation of the music track and the most representative segment of each sequence. The proposed method is evaluated positively on the MPEG-7 “melody repetition” test set.
AN ADAPTIVE SYSTEM FOR MUSIC CLASSIFICATION AND TAGGING (MIREX 2009 SUBMISSION)

This extended abstract concerns one of the two systems submitted by IRCAM for participation in the MIREX 2009 classification and tagging tasks. The system is adaptive and can handle both single-label classification tasks (genre, mood, artist) and multilabel tasks (tagging). Adaptability is attained by means of automatic feature and model selection, which are both embedded in the multiple-instance binary relevance learning of a Support Vector Machine. We propose a criterion function for SVM parameter selection that takes into account unbalanced sets and the effects of overfitting. The same algorithm, without any manual parameter adaptation, was submitted to all classification tasks. However, it was evaluated in two different configurations (also in all classification tasks) related to two different temporal modeling methods: in the first mode (“file”) each track is represented by a single feature vector and in the second (“tw”) texture windows of fixed length are computed, with a later temporal decision fusion.
Oxidative stress in epilepsy

ABSTRACT Introduction: The brain is particularly susceptible to oxidative stress being the most aerobically active organ in the body due to its high metabolic demands. There is evidence that neuronal hyperexcitability and oxidative injury produced by an excessive production of free radicals may play a role in the initiation and progression of epilepsy. Understanding the role of oxidative stress in epileptogenesis is essential to delineate appropriate therapeutic strategies. Neuroprotectant or antioxidant compounds may exert positive effects when associated with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Areas covered: This review aims to outline the current state of knowledge on the relationship between oxidative stress and epilepsy. The role of neuroprotectants in the therapeutic strategy to prevent or treating epilepsy is also discussed. PubMed/Medline database was searched for relevant articles on the relation between oxidative stress and epilepsy and on antioxidant strategies for epilepsy management. Expert commentary: Therapeutic intervention with antioxidants may represent a key strategy to counteract the epilepsy-related neurodegenerative process. However, in spite of the incredible development of new drugs for epilepsy treatment, definitive evidence about the neuroprotective ability of the existing compounds is still lacking. Therefore, there is great need for clinical trials to evaluate new antioxidant compounds specifically on epileptic patients.
Fast sparse subband decomposition using FIRSP

This paper presents a new fast algorithm for generating sparse signal approximations within an overcomplete subband representation. While the current paper concentrates on sparsifying the Modulated Complex Lapped Transform the theory is applicable to representations composed of a general union of orthonormal bases. We illustrate our method on an audio signal and demonstrate the coding gain of such representations.
Outcomes of valve-sparing root replacement in acute Type A aortic dissection

OBJECTIVES To investigate the long-term durability of aortic valves, we reviewed the outcomes of patients who underwent valve-sparing root replacement with acute Type A aortic dissection. METHODS We included patients who underwent emergent aortic repair for acute Type A aortic dissection at our university hospital between 2000 and 2016. We identified patients who underwent valve-sparing root replacement from the included cohort and assessed their survival and long-term valve durability. RESULTS We identified 24 of 328 patients who underwent valve-sparing root replacement (age: mean ± SD 49 ± 11 years; 17 men). All patients underwent reimplantation procedures and 2 had concomitant cusp repairs (central plication). Prolapsed cusps caused by detached commissures in 12 cases were noted and reattached with buttress sutures with or without glue. There was no in-hospital mortality. Median follow-up period was 84 months (range 1-202 months) and survival was 100% at 5 and 10 years. Freedom from moderate or greater aortic insufficiency was 82% ± 10% at 5 years and 65% ± 13% at 10 years. Freedom from aortic valve reoperation was 83% ± 9% at 5 years and 69% ± 12% at 10 years. Valve reoperations were indicated for endocarditis in 1 patient, perforation of the aortic cusp in 1 patient and redetachment of commissures that had been attached with gelatin-resorcinol-formaldehyde glue at the initial operations in 3 patients. CONCLUSIONS The durability of valve-sparing root replacement in acute aortic dissection was suboptimal. The major cause of late failure was commissure detachment after primary repair with buttress sutures and glue. Gelatin-resorcinol-formaldehyde glue should be avoided for commissural resuspension in patients with acute aortic dissection.
Next generation sequencing of CLU , PICALM and CR 1 : pitfalls and potential solutions

CLU, PICALM and CR1 were identified as genetic risk factors for late onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in two large genome wide association studies (GWAS) published in 2009, but the variants that convey this alteration in disease risk, and how the genes relate to AD pathology is yet to be discovered. A next generation sequencing (NGS) project was conducted targeting CLU, CR1 and PICALM, in 96 AD samples (8 pools of 12), in an attempt to discover rare variants within these AD associated genes. Inclusion of repetitive regions in the design of the SureSelect capture lead to significant issues in alignment of the data, leading to poor specificity and a lower than expected depth of coverage. A strong positive correlation (0.964, p<0.001) was seen between NGS and 1000 genome project frequency estimates. Of the ~170 “novel” variants detected in the genes, seven SNPs, all of which were present in multiple sample pools, were selected for validation by Sanger sequencing. Two SNPs were successfully validated by this method, and shown to be genuine variants, while five failed validation. These spurious SNP calls occurred as a result of the presence of small indels and mononucleotide repeats, indicating such features should be regarded with caution, and validation via an independent method is important for NGS variant calls.
Minimizing the impact of orphan requests in e-commerce services

The most common problem of an overloaded electronic-commerce server is an increase in the response time perceived by customers, who may restart their requests hoping to get a faster response, or simply abort them, giving up on the store. Both behaviors generate "orphan" requests: although they were received by the server, they should not be answered because their requestors have already abandoned them. Orphan requests waste system resources, since the server becomes aware of their cancellation only when it tries to send a response and finds out that the connection was closed. In this paper we propose a new kernel service, the Connection Sentry, which keeps track of requests being performed and notify processes about an eventual cancellation. Once notified, a process can interrupt the execution of the request, saving system resources and bandwidth. We evaluated the gains by using our proposal in a virtual bookstore, where we observed that the Connection Sentry reduced service latency by up to 31% and increased the throughput by 27% in overloaded servers.
Evaluation of gait with trans-femoral prosthesis based on Riemannian distance

This paper presents a method to quantify the goodness of gait with a trans-femoral prosthesis in order to evaluate walking skill with the prosthesis and its application to its design. Advancements in the mechanism and the control method of trans-femoral prostheses have drastically improved the gait of amputees. However, realization of a natural gait has not been investigated in detail even though such smooth gait is important to increase the amputee's activities of daily living (ADL). Inertia of the prosthesis plays an important role in natural and smooth gaits during the swing phase. We suppose that goodness of gait or easiness of walking is strongly related to effective use of the prosthesis inertia. Recently, inertia-induced measure has been proposed as a measure to quantify inertia-induced motion of a multi-body system based on the Riemannian distance. In this paper, we will attempt to evaluate the goodness or easiness of walking with a prosthesis leg by quantifying the effective use of the prosthesis inertia based on the Riemannian distance. Gaits with several different inertia properties will be measured. The results will then demonstrate the strong relevance between subjective evaluation of easiness of walking and effective use of inertia evaluated based on the Riemannian distance.
Private Schooling in India: A New Educational Landscape

Private schooling in India has expanded rapidly in the past decade. However, few studies have looked at its implications for educational quality. Using data from the recently collected India Human Development Survey, this paper seeks to provide a description of private schooling in India and examine the effects of private school enrollment on educational quality. The results suggest that controlling for the endogeneity of school choice, children in private schools have higher reading and arithmetic skills than those in government schools. While overall gains are modest in size, about one fourth to one third of a standard deviation, the gains for students from lower economic strata are higher than those for upper income students. The paper explores this relationship by examining the treatment of students from different economic strata in government and private schools and finds that while students from lower economic strata are more likely to be physically punished in government schools than their better off peers, the relationship between parental economic status and physical punishment is negligible in private schools.
Lower Serum Testosterone Associated with Elevated Polychlorinated Biphenyl Concentrations in Native American Men

Background Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and chlorinated pesticides are endocrine disruptors, altering both thyroid and estrogen hormonal systems. Less is known of action on androgenic systems. Objective We studied the relationship between serum concentrations of testosterone in relation to levels of PCBs and three chlorinated pesticides in an adult Native American (Mohawk) population. Methods We collected fasting serum samples from 703 adult Mohawks (257 men and 436 women) and analyzed samples for 101 PCB congeners, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and mirex, as well as testosterone, cholesterol, and triglycerides. The associations between testosterone and tertiles of serum organochlorine levels (both wet weight and lipid adjusted) were assessed using a logistic regression model while controlling for age, body mass index (BMI), and other analytes, with the lowest tertile being considered the referent. Males and females were considered separately. Results Testosterone concentrations in males were inversely correlated with total PCB concentration, whether using wet-weight or lipid-adjusted values. The odds ratio (OR) of having a testosterone concentration above the median was 0.17 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.05–0.69] for total wet-weight PCBs (highest vs. lowest tertile) after adjustment for age, BMI, total serum lipids, and three pesticides. The OR for lipid-adjusted total PCB concentration was 0.23 (95% CI, 0.06–0.78) after adjustment for other analytes. Testosterone levels were significantly and inversely related to concentrations of PCBs 74, 99, 153, and 206, but not PCBs 52, 105, 118, 138, 170, 180, 201, or 203. Testosterone concentrations in females are much lower than in males, and not significantly related to serum PCBs. HCB, DDE, and mirex were not associated with testosterone concentration in either men or women. Conclusions Elevation in serum PCB levels is associated with a lower concentration of serum testosterone in Native American men.
Biased Interpretation of Ambiguous Social Scenarios in Anorexia Nervosa

Patients with anorexia nervosa experience increased sensitivity to the risk of social rejection. The aims of this study were to assess the interpretation of ambiguous social scenarios depicting the risk of rejection and to examine the relationship between interpretation biases and clinical symptoms. Thirty-five women with anorexia nervosa and 30 healthy eaters completed clinical questionnaires, alongside a sentence completion task. This task required participants to generate completions to ambiguous social scenarios and to endorse their best completion. Responses were rated as being negative, neutral or positive. Patients endorsed more negative interpretations and fewer neutral and positive interpretations compared with healthy eaters. The frequency of endorsed negative interpretations correlated with depression, anxiety and fear of weight gain and body disturbance. A negative interpretation bias towards social stimuli is present in women with anorexia nervosa and correlates with clinical symptoms. Interventions aimed at reducing this bias could improve illness prognosis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
Marketing research performance and strategy

Purpose – To investigate whether strategic orientation affects the evaluation of specific market research projects in for‐profit firms.Design/methodology/approach – A small‐scale follow‐up survey was conducted, building on qualitative and quantitative research among a sample of the top‐1,000 marketing managers in Australia. The study used an existing market research evaluation tool, the USER scale and items generated from the qualitative research, to investigate the firm's most recent market research project.Findings – Four market research performance factors were identified – market research as a knowledge enhancing (KE) function, the internal political use of market research, the misuse of market research and the generation of market understanding. The Miles and Snow strategy types were related to these factors, with Prospector types more likely to use market research rationally and less likely to use it for internal political purposes. Tactical projects were more likely to be misused than were those wi.
Determination of the Backbone Dihedral Angles φ in Human Ubiquitin from Reparametrized Empirical Karplus Equations

The backbone dihedral angle φ in polypeptides is characterized by four different J couplings: 3JHNHα, 3JHNC‘, 3JHNCβ, and 3JHαC‘. E.COSY and quantitative J correlation techniques have been used to measure these couplings in the protein human ubiquitin, uniformly enriched in 13C and 15N. Assuming that the dihedral backbone angles in solution are identical to those in the X-ray structure of this protein and that HN is located in the C‘−N−Cα plane, Karplus relations for 3JHNHα, 3JHαC‘, and 3JHNCβ, have been reparametrized. The root-mean-square (rms) difference between measured values of 3JHNHα, 3JHαC‘, 3JHNCβ, and 3JHNC‘ and their corresponding Karplus curves are 0.53, 0.25, 0.24, and 0.36 Hz, respectively, whereas the precision of these measurements is considerably better. For any given residue, the differences between the four measured J couplings and values predicted by their Karplus curves on the basis of the X-ray structure-derived φ angle are highly correlated with one another. On average, a root-mean.
Novel Locus FER Is Associated With Serum HMW Adiponectin Levels

OBJECTIVE High molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin is a predominant isoform of circulating adiponectin and has been related to type 2 diabetes. Previous linkage studies suggest that different genetic components might be involved in determining HMW and total adiponectin levels. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of serum HMW adiponectin levels in individuals of European ancestry drawn from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) (N = 1,591). The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in the GWAS analysis were replicated in an independent cohort of Europeans (N = 626). We examined the associations of the identified variations with diabetes risk and metabolic syndrome. RESULTS We identified a novel locus near the FER gene (5q21) at a genome-wide significance level, best represented by SNP rs10447248 (P = 4.69 × 10−8). We also confirmed that variations near the adiponectin-encoding ADIPOQ locus (3q27) were related to serum HMW adiponectin levels. In addition, we found that FER SNP rs10447248 was related to HDL cholesterol levels (P = 0.009); ADIPOQ variation was associated with fasting glucose (P = 0.04), HDL cholesterol (P = 0.04), and a metabolic syndrome score (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that different loci may be involved in regulation of circulating HMW adiponectin levels and provide novel insight into the mechanisms that affect HMW adiponectin homeostasis.
Iron(II)‐Derived Lewis Acid/Surfactant Combined Catalysis for the Enantioselective Mukaiyama Aldol Reaction in Pure Water

The catalytic asymmetric Mukaiyama aldol reaction in pure water was performed by using a combination of iron(II) dodecyl sulfate, a chiral bipyridine ligand, and benzoic acid. By using the obtained iron(II)‐derived Lewis acid/surfactant combined catalyst, the desired products were afforded in good yields with high diastereo‐ and enantioselectivities.
An Antimethanogenic Nutritional Intervention in Early Life of Ruminants Modifies Ruminal Colonization by Archaea

The aim of this work was to study whether feeding a methanogen inhibitor from birth of goat kids and their does has an impact on the archaeal population colonizing the rumen and to what extent the impact persists later in life. Sixteen goats giving birth to two kids were used. Eight does were treated (D+) with bromochloromethane after giving birth and over 2 months. The other 8 goats were not treated (D−). One kid per doe in both groups was treated with bromochloromethane (k+) for 3 months while the other was untreated (k−), resulting in four experimental groups: D+/k+, D+/k−, D−/k+, and D−/k−. Rumen samples were collected from kids at weaning and 1 and 4 months after (3 and 6 months after birth) and from does at the end of the treating period (2 months). Pyrosequencing analyses showed a modified archaeal community composition colonizing the rumen of kids, although such effect did not persist entirely 4 months after; however, some less abundant groups remained different in treated and control animals. The different response on the archaeal community composition observed between offspring and adult goats suggests that the competition occurring in the developing rumen to occupy different niches offer potential for intervention.
Communication Theoretic Data Analytics

Widespread use of the Internet and social networks invokes the generation of big data, which is proving to be useful in a number of applications. To deal with explosively growing amounts of data, data analytics has emerged as a critical technology related to computing, signal processing, and information networking. In this paper, a formalism is considered in which data are modeled as a generalized social network and communication theory and information theory are thereby extended to data analytics. First, the creation of an equalizer to optimize information transfer between two data variables is considered, and financial data are used to demonstrate the advantages of this approach. Then, an information coupling approach based on information geometry is applied for dimensionality reduction, with a pattern recognition example to illustrate the effectiveness of this formalism. These initial trials suggest the potential of communication theoretic data analytics for a wide range of applications.
Nerve terminal anchorage protein 1 (TAP-1) is a chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan: biochemical and electron microscopic characterization

The plasma membranes of the nerve terminal and the postsynaptic cell of electric organ are separated by a basal lamina. We have purified, biochemically characterized, and visualized in the electron microscope a macromolecule which appears to anchor the nerve terminal to this basal lamina. This molecule, terminal anchorage protein 1 (TAP-1) is associated with the nerve terminal membrane of electric organ, has the properties of an integral membrane protein, and is tightly bound to the extracellular matrix (Carlson, S.S., P. Caroni, and R.B. Kelly. 1986. J. Cell Biol. 103:509-520). TAP-1 can be solubilized from an electric organ extracellular matrix preparation with guanidine-HCl/3-[(3- cholamidopropyl)-dimethylammnio]-1-propane sulfonate and purified by a combination of permeation chromatography on Sephacryl S-1000, sedimentation velocity, and ion exchange chromatography on DEAE Sephacel. The total purification from electric organ is 91-fold and results in at least 86% purity. Digestion of the molecule with chondroitin ABC or AC lyase produces a large but similar shift in the molecular weight of the molecule on SDS-PAGE. The presence of chondroitin-4- or 6-sulfate is confirmed by identification of the isolated glycosaminoglycans with cellulose acetate electrophoresis. Gel filtration of the isolated chains indicates an average molecular weight of 42,000. Digestion of TAP-1 with other glycosaminoglycan lyases such as heparitinase indicates that only chondroitin sulfate is present. These results demonstrate that TAP-1 is a proteoglycan. Visualization of TAP-1 in the electron microscope reveals a "bottlebrush" structure expected for a proteoglycan. The molecule has an average total length of 345 +/- 17 nm with 20 +/- 2 side projections of 113 +/- 5 nm in length. These side projections are presumably the glycosaminoglycan side chains. From this structure, we predict that the TAP-1 glycosaminoglycan side chains should have a molecular weight of approximately 50,000, which is in close agreement with the biochemical studies. Both biochemical and morphologic data indicate that TAP-1 has a relative molecular weight of approximately 1.2 X 10(6). The large size of TAP-1 suggests that this molecule could span the synaptic cleft and make a significant contribution to the structure of the nerve terminal basal lamina of electric organ.