Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Kernel Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm with Spatial Constraint Based on Improved Expectation Maximization for Image Segmentation

In this paper, an unsupervised image segmentation algorithm is proposed, which combines spatial constraints with a kernel fuzzy c-means (KFCM) clustering algorithm. Conventional KFCM clustering segmentation algorithm does not incorporate the spatial context information of image, which makes it sensitive to the noise and intensity variations. In order to overcome the shortcomings, the contents of image is characterized by Gaussian mixture model, and the parameters of model are estimated by modified expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, which overcomes the classical EM algorithm drawbacks that easily trap in local maxima and be susceptible to initial value. According to the maximum a posterior theorem, we can get the pixel maximum posterior pobability. We redefine the objective function of the KFCM algorithm which incorporates the pixel maximum posteriori pobability, by minimizing the fuzzy objective function, the fuzzy segmentation algorithm is derived. The experimental results on a synthetic image and a real magnetic resonance image show that the proposed algorithm is more effective than the conventional FCM algorithm without local spatial constraints.
Contribution of hydrophobicity to hemagglutination reactions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Several strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibited the ability to hemagglutinate erythrocytes. Hydrophobic bond-breaking agents, but not sugars and saccharides, were effective inhibitors of hemagglutination. The results suggest the involvement of hydrophobic bonds in hemagglutination reactions of P. aeruginosa.
Retrospective: Monsoon: an explicit token-store architecture

Certainly much has changed over the decade since we first prototyped Monsoon. Over that time, dynamic out-of-order instruction execution constrained only by data dependences, with firing rules far more complex than anything we considered practical, became commonplace in microprocessor design. Threads became standard at the operating systems level and incorporated as an intrinsic part of new programming languages. Surely, it would be nice to think of this paper as essential to it all, just ahead of its time. Besides being inaccurate, such a view fails to capture the ideas in this paper that may still have future importance. Clearly, this paper did not establish dataflow as the dominant principle in instruction set design, nor place functional languages at the center of modern programming. If anything, it was the beginning of the end of dataflow, as it demystified the approach. The Explicit Token Store model established a simple correspondence between dataflow graphs and the spectrum of conventional instruction sets. It provided a clear separation of what should occur above the instruction set level (storage management) and what could occur below it (dynamic instruction scheduling). The Monsoon machine demonstrated that the dataflow firing rule was captured by a simple mechanism: state-dependent instruction completion. In doing so it placed the body of thought associated with dataflow models into a familiar context where its ideas could be more readily harvested. We decided to structure this retrospective around what we saw to be the four big ideas for the future lurking between the lines. These are outlined in the following sections. Don’t be afraid to build
The impact of cognitive bias in skull sexing

The present research examined whether the innominate acted as contextual information which resulted in a skewed scoring of skull morphological sex traits and pairs overall (both innominate and skull). Survey participants first assessed the sex of an innominate, then assessed the sex of a skull, using methods standard in the field. The sex of ten skulls and associated innominates, which served as contextual elements to introduce bias, were assessed in two surveys by 22 participants total. Male and female innominates and skulls were mixed and matched to test bias, though it was implied to participants that the paired elements were from the same individual. No significant bias was seen on the level of the skull. However, significant shifts in scores were seen on the level of the overall pair in three out of the five studied, indicating that the sex of the innominate was privileged over that of the skull. This is considered standard procedure in the field as the innominate is more reliable for sex estimation; thus, the findings of the present study are inconsistent with cognitive bias. However, the present study raises questions about the utility of the skull in the estimation of sex in human skeletal remains. While the innominate may be more reliable in sex estimation when both elements are present, this may lead to inattention to valuable information presented by the skull in particular contexts such as commingled burials.
Dealing with Sign Language Morphemes in Statistical Machine Translation

The aim of this research is to establish the role of linguistic information in data-scarce statistical machine translation for sign languages using freely available tools. The main challenge in statistical machine translation is the scarcity of suitable data, and this problem becomes more pronounced in sign languages. The available corpora are small, usually not domain-specific, and their annotation conventions can vary considerably. Elaborating our own corpus is a very time-consuming task and the amount of data that we can obtain is even more reduced. Under these conditions, morpho-syntactic information helps to improve statistical machine translation results, but there are not linguistic processing tools for sign languages. We have managed to improve translations from Catalan to Catalan Sign Language by using factored models in an open source translation system with basic linguistic information such as the lemma or an annotation tier tag. Furthermore, this allows us to deal with sign language morphemes in a more systematic way.
Scalable robotic biofabrication of tissue spheroids

Development of methods for scalable biofabrication of uniformly sized tissue spheroids is essential for tissue spheroid-based bioprinting of large size tissue and organ constructs. The most recent scalable technique for tissue spheroid fabrication employs a micromolded recessed template prepared in a non-adhesive hydrogel, wherein the cells loaded into the template self-assemble into tissue spheroids due to gravitational force. In this study, we present an improved version of this technique. A new mold was designed to enable generation of 61 microrecessions in each well of a 96-well plate. The microrecessions were seeded with cells using an EpMotion 5070 automated pipetting machine. After 48 h of incubation, tissue spheroids formed at the bottom of each microrecession. To assess the quality of constructs generated using this technology, 600 tissue spheroids made by this method were compared with 600 spheroids generated by the conventional hanging drop method. These analyses showed that tissue spheroids fabricated by the micromolded method are more uniform in diameter. Thus, use of micromolded recessions in a non-adhesive hydrogel, combined with automated cell seeding, is a reliable method for scalable robotic fabrication of uniform-sized tissue spheroids.
A failover mechanism for peer-to-peer streaming over multiple multicast trees

Peer-to-peer streaming is a fundamental approach for the delivery of real-time video content. Although self-scalable, peer-to-peer networks suffer from peer dynamics like unpredictable arrivals and departures. In tree-based overlays, these phenomena lead in frequent disconnections or network partitioning. In the present work, a failover mechanism for multiple-multicast-tree-based overlays is presented. The proposed mechanism alleviates the impact of connection failures and achieves higher efficiency than the one offered by tree-diversity alone. The effectiveness of the mechanism is validated through simulation.
Energy efficient unequal clustering and routing algorithms for wireless sensor networks

The sensor nodes deployed in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are strictly energy constrained. Thus energy conservation for maximizing lifetime of the network is central to the design of WSNs. In many applications, the nodes nearer to the sink are overburdened by means of huge traffic load as the data from the entire region are forwarded through them to reach to the sink. As a result, their energy is shaded rapidly and the network is partitioned. This is commonly known as hot spot problem. On the other hand the equal size clusters waste energy according to the network density. This problem is called equal size clustering problem. In this paper, we address both the hot spot and equal clustering problems and present unequal size clustering and routing algorithms by considering the energy efficiency of the WSN. The algorithms are tested with various scenarios of WSN. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithms perform better than the existing ones in terms of life time of the network, average energy consumption of a node and number of active sensor nodes.
Endoglin (CD105) up-regulation in pulmonary microvasculature of ventilated preterm infants.

RATIONALE Preterm infants exposed to mechanical ventilation and oxygen are at risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a multifactorial chronic lung disorder characterized by arrested alveolar development. Studies have described disruption of microvascular development in BPD, characterized by primitive angioarchitectural patterns reminiscent of the canalicular/saccular stages of lung development. The molecular regulation of this BPD-associated dysangiogenesis remains undetermined. OBJECTIVES Endoglin (CD105), a hypoxia-inducible transforming growth factor-beta coreceptor, has been implicated as an important regulator of angiogenesis in various neoplastic and nonneoplastic conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of endoglin and other angiogenesis-related factors in ventilated preterm human lungs. METHODS We have studied endoglin protein and mRNA expression in postmortem lungs of short-term and long-term ventilated preterm infants. Control subjects were age-matched infants who had lived for less than 1 hour. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Lungs of short-term ventilated preterm infants showed significant upregulation of endoglin mRNA and protein levels, immunolocalized to the microvasculature. Similar but more variable endoglin upregulation was noted in lungs of long-term ventilated infants with BPD. The mRNA levels of vascular endothelial growth factor, angiopoietin-1, and their respective receptors were significantly lower in ventilated lungs than in age-matched nonventilated control lungs. CONCLUSIONS BPD is associated with a shift from traditional angiogenic growth factors (vascular endothelial growth factor, angiopoietin-1) to alternative regulators such as endoglin, which may contribute to BPD-associated microvascular dysangiogenesis.
Towards A Composite Classification of Workspaces in Urban Environments

In this paper we present an overview of an appearance-based method for augmenting maps of outdoor urban environments with higher-order, semantic labels. Our motivation is to increase the value and utility of the typically low-level representations built by contemporary SLAM algorithms. A supervised learning scheme is employed to train a set of classifiers to respond to common scene attributes given a mixture of geometric and visual scene information. The union of classifier responses yields a composite description of the local workspace. We apply our method to three large data sets.
Towards the Use of Word Stems and Suffixes for Statistical Machine Translation

In this paper we present methods for improving the quality of translation from an inflected language into English by making use of part-of-speech tags and word stems and suffixes in the source language. Results for translations from Spanish and Catalan into English are presented on the LC-STAR trilingual corpus which consists of spontaneously spoken dialogues in the domain of travelling and appointment scheduling. Results for translation from Serbian into English are presented on the Assimil language course, the bilingual corpus from unrestricted domain. We achieve up to 5% relative reduction of error rates for Spanish and Catalan and about 8% for Serbian.
Rapid spread of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses with a new set of specific mutations in the internal genes in the beginning of 2015/2016 epidemic season in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (Russian Federation)

A dramatic increase of influenza activity in Russia since week 3 of 2016 significantly differs from previous seasons in terms of the incidence of influenza and acute respiratory infection (ARI) and in number of lethal cases. We performed antigenic analysis of 108 and whole‐genome sequencing of 77 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses from Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Most of the viruses were antigenically related to the vaccine strain. Whole‐genome analysis revealed a composition of specific mutations in the internal genes (D2E and M83I in NEP, E125D in NS1, M105T in NP, Q208K in M1, and N204S in PA‐X) that probably emerged before the beginning of 2015/2016 epidemic season.
Healthcare-associated Pneumonia: Clinical Features and Retrospective Analysis Over 10 Years

Background: Healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) is associated with drug-resistant pathogens and high mortality, and there is no clear evidence that this is due to inappropriate antibiotic therapy. This study was to elucidate the clinical features, pathogens, therapy, and outcomes of HCAP, and to clarify the risk factors for drug-resistant pathogens and prognosis. Methods: Retrospective observational study among hospitalized patients with HCAP over 10 years. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause hospital mortality after admission. Demographics (age, gender, clinical features, and comorbidities), dates of admission, discharge and/or death, hospitalization costs, microbiological results, chest imaging studies, and CURB-65 were analyzed. Antibiotics, admission to Intensive Care Unit (ICU), mechanical ventilation, and pneumonia prognosis were recorded. Patients were dichotomized based on CURB-65 (low- vs. high-risk). Results: Among 612 patients (mean age of 70.7 years), 88.4% had at least one comorbidity. Commonly detected pathogens were Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and coagulase-negative staphylococci. Initial monotherapy with &bgr;-lactam antibiotics was the most common initial therapy (50%). Mean age, length of stay, hospitalization expenses, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation use, malignancies, and detection rate for P. aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus were higher in the high-risk group compared with the low-risk group. CURB-65 ≥3, malignancies, and mechanical ventilation were associated with an increased mortality. Logistic regression analysis showed that cerebrovascular diseases and being bedridden were independent risk factors for HCAP. Conclusion: Initial treatment of HCAP with broad-spectrum antibiotics could be an appropriate approach. CURB-65 ≥3, malignancies, and mechanical ventilation may result in an increased mortality.
Passive or Active: Understanding Consumers' Behavioral Responses to Online Advertising

Approach and avoidance are two major types of behavioral responses when consumers encounter interferences caused by online advertising. This paper argues that approach-avoidance is not the only dimension from which researchers can examine behavioral responses toward online advertising. The inclusion of the active-passive behaviors dimension enriches the understanding of consumers’ coping strategies. Active and passive behaviors differ from each other by the intensity of coping efforts. Active behavioral responses imply that consumers act upon online ads and make efforts to approach or avoid them. Passive behavioral responses indicate that consumers make little efforts to change the current status, and would rather approach or avoid in a passive way. Data was collected through an online survey by asking participants to recall their experiences with online ads and their behavioral responses. We found that the effects of ad design characteristics (content, form, and behavior) on consumers’ behavioral responses differ across two-dimensions: Approach-Avoidance and Active-Passive. In addition, these effects also vary when consumers have different views (negative vs. positive) of the online ads. The contribution of this study lies in suggesting the two-dimensional view of studying consumers’ responses toward online ads and in deepening our understanding of consumer behavior in dealing with digital artefacts in general.
Classification of walking patterns in Parkinson's disease patients based on inertial sensor data

The gait disturbances in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients occur occasionally and intermittently, appearing in a random, inexplicable manner. These disturbances include festinations, shuffling, and complete freezing of gait (FOG). Alternation of walking pattern decreases the quality of life and may result in falls. In order to recognize disturbances during walking in PD patients, we recorded gait kinematics with wireless inertial measurement system and designed an algorithm for automatic recognition and classification of walking patterns. The algorithm combines a perceptron neural network with simple signal processing and rule-based classification. In parallel, gait was recorded with video camera. Medical experts identified FOG episodes from videos and their results were used for comparison and validation of this method. The summary result shows that the error in recognition and classification of walking patterns is up to 16%.
Answer Extraction by Recursive Parse Tree Descent

We develop a recursive neural network (RNN) to extract answers to arbitrary natural language questions from supporting sentences, by training on a crowdsourced data set (to be released upon presentation). The RNN defines feature representations at every node of the parse trees of questions and supporting sentences, when applied recursively, starting with token vectors from a neural probabilistic language model. In contrast to prior work, we fix neither the types of the questions nor the forms of the answers; the system classifies tokens to match a substring chosen by the question’s author. Our classifier decides to follow each parse tree node of a support sentence or not, by classifying its RNN embedding together with those of its siblings and the root node of the question, until reaching the tokens it selects as the answer. A novel co-training task for the RNN, on subtree recognition, boosts performance, along with a scheme to consistently handle words that are not well-represented in the language model. On our data set, we surpass an open source system epitomizing a classic “pattern bootstrapping” approach to question answering.
Inhibition of laminin self-assembly and interaction with type IV collagen by antibodies to the terminal domain of the long arm

Laminin is a major glycoprotein of the basement membrane. Although its precise localization and orientation within this structure is unknown, it is presumably anchored to other macromolecules such as type IV collagen or proteoheparan sulfate. In vitro, laminin has the ability to self-assemble and to bind to type IV collagen molecules at distinct sites. To identify more precisely the domains of the complex, cross- shaped laminin molecule that are involved in these interactions, images of laminin-laminin dimers and laminin-type IV collagen complexes obtained by the rotary shadowing method were analyzed. We observed that the complex domain at the end of the long arm of laminin is predominantly involved in these interactions. By using Fab fragments of antibodies specific for a peptide fragment derived from this complex domain, it is shown that laminin self-assembly is inhibited in their presence, as measured by turbidity and by electron microscopy. In addition, these antibodies inhibit the specific interaction of laminin with type IV collagen. These data suggest that the complex domain at the end of the long arm of laminin contains binding sites of potential importance for the assembly of basement membranes.
Typology and Universals Second

published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Croft, William. Typology and universals / William Croft. – 2nd edn. p. cm. – (Cambridge textbooks in linguistics) Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents List of figures page xii List of tables xiii Preface to the second edition xv Preface to the first edition xvii List of abbreviations xix List of symbols xxiv 1 Introduction 1 1.1 What is typology? 1 1.2 Typology, universals and generative grammar 4 1.3 Cross-linguistic comparison 6 1.4 The problem of cross-linguistic comparability 13 1.5 Language sampling for cross-linguistic research 19 1.6 Data sources 28 2 Typological classification 31 2.1 A cross-linguistically valid description of morphosyntactic structures 31 2.1.1 Simple strategies 32 2.1.2 Relational strategies 33 2.1.3 Indexical strategies 34 2.1.4 Classifiers: indexical or relational? 37 2.1.5 More grammaticalized strategies 38 2.1.6 Summary 40 2.2 What is being classified? 42 2.3 Morphological typology 45 3 Implicational universals and competing motivations 49 3.1 Restrictions on possible language types 49 3.2 Unrestricted and implicational universals 52 3.3 Competing motivations 59 3.4 Deeper explanations for word order and affix order universals 69 3.5 Typology, universals and generative grammar revisited 80 3.6 Conclusion 86 ix x List of contents 4 Grammatical categories: typological markedness, economy and iconicity 87 4.1 Typological markedness 87 4.1.1 Structural coding 91 4.1.2 Behavioral potential 95 4.1.3 Neutral value: not a criterion for typological markedness 100 4.2 Economy and iconicity 101 4.2.1 Structural coding, economy and syntagmatic isomorphism 102 4.2.2 Economy, paradigmatic isomorphism and polysemy 104 4.3 Frequency and deeper explanations for economy and iconicity 110 4.4 Typological asymmetries in word order and phonology 117 4.5 Conclusion 120 5 Grammatical hierarchies and the semantic map model 122 5.1 Grammatical hierarchies and implicational universals 122 5.2 The animacy and definiteness hierarchies 128 5.3 A deeper explanation for hierarchies and categories: the semantic map model 133 5.4 Conceptual spaces, structural coding and behavioral potential 140 5.5 The grammatical relations hierarchies 142 5.5.1 The external definition of grammatical relations 142 5.5.2 Subject and object, ergative and absolutive 144 5.5.3 Objects: direct and indirect, primary and …