Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Musical Motif Discovery in Non-musical Media

Musical Motif Discovery in Non-Musical Media Daniel S. Johnson Department of Computer Science, BYU Master of Science Many music composition algorithms attempt to compose music in a particular style. The resulting music is often impressive and indistinguishable from the style of the training data, but it tends to lack significant innovation. In an effort to increase innovation in the selection of pitches and rhythms, we present a system that discovers musical motifs by coupling machine learning techniques with an inspirational component. The inspirational component allows for the discovery of musical motifs that are unlikely to be produced by a generative model, while the machine learning component harnesses innovation. Candidate motifs are extracted from non-musical media such as images and audio. Machine learning algorithms select the motifs that best comply with patterns learned from training data. This process is validated by extracting motifs from real music scores, identifying themes in the piece according to a theme database, and measuring the probability of discovering thematic motifs verses non-thematic motifs. We examine the information content of the discovered motifs by comparing the entropy of the discovered motifs, candidate motifs, and training data. We measure innovation by comparing the probability of the training data and the probability of the discovered motifs given the model. We also compare the probabilities of media-inspired motifs with random motifs and find that media inspiration is more efficient than random generation.
Irradiated and Preserved Leukocytes in Mixed Leukocyte Cultures.∗

Summary and conclusions When leukocytes received 1,5-00 r or more in vitro, they were rendered incapable of DNA synthesis and mitosis in mixed leukocyte cultures, but did not lose their ability to stimulate the blastogenesis of allogeneic intact leukocytes. The sum of the “one-way” (Ax + B) and (A -f- Bx) reactions was approximately equal to the “two-way” (A + B) reaction. Therefore, irradiated leukocytes can be used for unidirectional quantitation of the mixed leukocyte reaction. When leukocytes were irradiated with less than 6,000 r and cultured with PHA, some transformation to blasts occurred. Leukocytes stored at —70°C for 2 weeks retained their capacity for blast transformation when cultured in the presence of X-irradiated allogeneic cells. Frozen storage of irradiated leukocytes reduced their blas-togenic effect variably up to 30% of that of fresh controls.
Quality of care in sickle cell disease

AbstractDocumented deficiencies in adult sickle cell disease (SCD) care include poor access to knowledgeable providers and inadequate treatment in emergency departments (EDs). The aim of this study was to create patient-reported outcome measures of the quality of ambulatory and ED care for adults with SCD.We developed and pilot tested SCD quality of care questions consistent with Consumer Assessments of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys. We applied psychometric methods to develop scores and evaluate reliability and validity.The participants of this study were adults with SCD (n = 556)—63% aged 18 to 34 years; 64% female; 64% SCD-SS—at 7 US sites.The measure used was Adult Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measurement information system Quality of Care survey.Most participants (90%) reported at least 1 severe pain episode (pain intensity 7.8 ± 2.3, 0–10 scale) in the past year. Most (81%) chose to manage pain at home rather than the ED, citing negative ED experiences (83%). Using factor analysis, we identified Access, Provider Interaction, and ED Care composites with reliable scores (Cronbach &agr; 0.70–0.83) and construct validity (r = 0.32–0.83 correlations with global care ratings). Compared to general adult Consumer Assessments of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores, adults with SCD had worse care, adjusted for age, education, and general health.Results were consistent with other research reflecting deficiencies in ED care for adults with SCD. The Adult Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measurement Quality of Care measure is a useful self-report measure for documenting and tracking disparities in quality of SCD care.
Real-time Multi-object Tracking with Few Particles - A Parallel Extension of MCMC Algorithm

This paper addresses real-time automatic tracking and labeling of a variable number of generic objects, using one or more static cameras. The multi-object configuration is tracked through a Markov Chain Monte-Carlo Particle Filter (MCMC PF) method. As this method sequentially processes particles, it cannot be speeded up by parallel computing allowed by multi-core processing units. As a main contribution, we propose in this paper an extended MCMC PF algorithm, benefiting from parallel computing, and we show that this strategy improves tracking operation. This paper also addresses object tracking involving occlusions, deep scale and appearance changes: we propose a global observation function allowing to fairly track far objects as well as close objects. Experiment results are shown and discussed on pedestrian and on vehicle tracking sequences.
Towards Quantitative Visual Analytics with Structured Brushing and Linked Statistics

Until now a lot of visual analytics predominantly delivers qualitative results—based, for example, on a continuous color map or a detailed spatial encoding. Important target applications, however, such as medical diagnosis and decision making, clearly benefit from quantitative analysis results. In this paper we propose several specific extensions to the well‐established concept of linking&brushing in order to make the analysis results more quantitative. We structure the brushing space in order to improve the reproducibility of the brushing operation, e.g., by introducing the percentile grid. We also enhance the linked visualization with overlaid descriptive statistics to enable a more quantitative reading of the resulting focus+context visualization. Additionally, we introduce two novel brushing techniques: the percentile brush and the Mahalanobis brush. Both use the underlying data to support statistically meaningful interactions with the data. We illustrate the use of the new techniques in the context of two case studies, one based on meteorological data and the other one focused on data from the automotive industry where we evaluate a shaft design in the context of mechanical power transmission in cars.
Complexity Reduction for the Optimization of Linear Precoders Over Random MIMO Channels

Precoder optimization with full channel state information for finite alphabet signals over multiple-input multiple-output random channels is investigated in this paper. The precoder is represented by a product of power allocation matrix and constellation-forming matrix. There was an optimal algorithm introduced in the literature to globally maximize the channel mutual information by iteratively optimizing these two matrices. However, the computational complexity of the optimal algorithm is painfully high, especially when it is used with the high-order modulation and the high-data stream number. In this paper, we propose a novel sub-optimal low-complexity precoding algorithm and compare it with the optimal one. The new algorithm proceeds in two steps. First, the constellation-forming matrix is fixed in order to maximize the minimum Euclidean distance between the received symbols, which ensures high channel mutual information. Then, given the constellation-forming matrix, an iterative algorithm searches for the power allocation matrix that maximizes the channel mutual information. Since optimizing only one matrix instead of two, the new algorithm not only achieves a lower computational complexity but also avoids the use of initial values, which must be carefully selected for each channel and signal-to-noise ratio for fast convergence. Another advantage of the new algorithm is that the resulting precoder has a fixed form of received constellation thanks to the fixed constellation-forming matrix. This allows us to optimize the symbol mapping on the received constellation. Simulation results show that the proposed low-complexity precoder achieves error-rate performance that is close to performance of the optimal one when the conventional mapping is used. In addition, the new precoder used with optimized mapping at received constellation shows significant error-rate performance improvement.
Workload-aware live storage migration for clouds

The emerging open cloud computing model will provide users with great freedom to dynamically migrate virtualized computing services to, from, and between clouds over the wide-area. While this freedom leads to many potential benefits, the running services must be minimally disrupted by the migration. Unfortunately, current solutions for wide-area migration incur too much disruption as they will significantly slow down storage I/O operations during migration. The resulting increase in service latency could be very costly to a business. This paper presents a novel storage migration scheduling algorithm that can greatly improve storage I/O performance during wide-area migration. Our algorithm is unique in that it considers individual virtual machine's storage I/O workload such as temporal locality, spatial locality and popularity characteristics to compute an efficient data transfer schedule. Using a fully implemented system on KVM and a trace-driven framework, we show that our algorithm provides large performance benefits across a wide range of popular virtual machine workloads.
The Practical Design of Constructing Data Transition Interface with ZigBee WSN and RS-485 Wired Interface - Example with Small-scaled Wind-power Electricity Generator System

The purpose of this study was to explore the related practical techniques of monitoring and controlling system in designing renewable energy system, especially for Small-scaled wind-power generator. Recently, the whole world was actively developing replaced energy to solve the economic development and daily-life necessities problems resulting from gradually lacking of oil. Taiwan government was progressively planning to develop small-scaled wind-power generators under authority of Energy Bureau of Economy Minister. The real-time running parameters of wind-power generator is very essential for designing the power-generating system, in this paper, a data transition system including how to construct ZigBee Non-Beacon-Enable-Network, communication techniques, data coding, and its interface for collecting running parameters in wind-power generator was designed with both ZigBee wireless-sensor-networks (WSN) module and wired RS- 422 Interface to double check the precision of transmitting data. The final result of this study has successfully implemented in a practical small-scaled wind-power generator system which was part of integrated-project of Teaching Superior Projects authorized by Taiwan Education Minister – Constructing Monitoring and Controlling Interface in Small-scaled Wind-power Generator System, and the validity and stability of the system has been proved efficient and successful.
Composition, Diversity and Abundance of Gut Microbiome in Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

Association between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and compositional changes in the gut micro biota is established, however little is known about the dysbiosis in early stages of Prediabetes (preDM). The purpose of this investigation is to elucidate the characteristics of the gut micro biome in preDM and T2DM, compared to Non-Diabetic (nonDM) subjects. Forty nine subjects were recruited for this study, 15 nonDM, 20 preDM and 14 T2DM. Bacterial community composition and diversity were investigated in fecal DNA samples using Illumina sequencing of the V4 region within the 16S rRNA gene. The five most abundant phyla identified were: Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Actinobacteria. Class Chloracido bacteria was increased in preDM compared to T2DM (p = 0.04). An unknown genus from family Pseudonocardiaceae was significantly present in preDM group compared to the others (p = 0.04). Genus Collinsella, and an unknown genus belonging to family Enterobacteriaceae were both found to be significantly increased in T2DM compared to the other groups (Collinsella, and p = 0.03, Enterobacteriaceae genus p = 0.02). PERMANOVA and Mantel tests performed did not reveal a relationship between overall composition and diagnosis group or HbA1C level. This study identified dysbiosis associated with both preDM and T2DM, specifically at the class and genus levels suggesting that earlier treatment in preDM could possibly have an impact on the intestinal micro flora transitioning to T2DM.
Final Stretch Model of Ductile Fracture

The differential equations defining the material resistance developed during the early stages of a ductile fracture process are derived from the concept of "final stretch. " The model suggests a certain near-tip distribution of displacements associated with a quasi-static Mode I crack such that the resulting strains are logarithmically singular at the crack tip. The final results, which are illustrated by the diagrams of J-resistance curves, are equivalent to analogous data obtained by other researchers on the basis of the incremental plasticity theory. Similarities between the present results and the solutions due to Paris and co-workers as well as the most recent data obtained by Shih and co-workers are pointed out.
Isolation of 5-Hydroxytryptamine from the Venom of the Indian Red Scorpion (Mesobuthus tamulus)

The present study was undertaken to isolate 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) from crude Indian red scorpion (Mesobuthus tamulus; MBT) venom as it has not been reported yet. Therefore, with the help of bioassay (using gastric fundus contractions) and fluorimetric assay methods, the 5-HT content of crude MBT venom (CV) was determined. The concentration of 5-HT in CV by either of the methods was different (117 times). Further, a 5-HT antagonist methysergide partially blocked the CV-induced gastric fundus contractions. Hence, for isolation and determination of 5-HT in crude MBT venom, CV was subjected to Sephadex gel (G 75-125) filtration chromatography. The eluates were screened for op- tical density (OD) at 280 nm, lethality and gastric fundus contractions. Two peaks of enhanced gastric fundus contractions were observed between 26-70 ml and 90 -110 ml of eluate volumes. As the first peak (between 26-70 ml) eluates exhib- ited high OD and lethality, further analysis was not undertaken. The second peak (between 90-110 ml) eluates exhibited very low OD and were non-lethal. On bioassay, the 5-HT content of pooled eluates of second peak was 0.0398 ± 0.008 � g/ml and by fluorimetric assay it was 0.0396 ± 0.007 � g/ml. The 5-HT concentration of crude MBT venom per unit mass was 0.0175 ± 0.0035 �g/mg by bioassay and 0.0174 ± 0.0031 �g/mg by fluorimetric assay. Further, the gastric fundus contractions elicited by second peak eluates were blocked by methysergide (1.0 �M). Thus, the second peak eluates of crude MBT venom contain 5-HT and its concentration was about 0.0174 � g/mg.
Scalable Discovery of Time-Series Shapelets

Time-series classification is an important problem for the data mining community due to the wide range of application domains involving time-series data. A recent paradigm, called shapelets, represents patterns that are highly predictive for the target variable. Shapelets are discovered by measuring the prediction accuracy of a set of potential (shapelet) candidates. The candidates typically consist of all the segments of a dataset, therefore, the discovery of shapelets is computationally expensive. This paper proposes a novel method that avoids measuring the prediction accuracy of similar candidates in Euclidean distance space, through an online clustering pruning technique. In addition, our algorithm incorporates a supervised shapelet selection that filters out only those candidates that improve classification accuracy. Empirical evidence on 45 datasets from the UCR collection demonstrate that our method is 3-4 orders of magnitudes faster than the fastest existing shapelet-discovery method, while providing better prediction accuracy.
Cost-sharing and adherence to antihypertensives for low and high adherers.

OBJECTIVE To examine how the influence of cost-sharing on adherence to antihypertensive drugs varies across adherence levels. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study using medical and pharmacy claims and benefits data on 83,893 commercially insured patients with hypertension from the 2000-2001 Medstat MarketScan Database. METHODS We measured drug adherence using the medication possession ratio (MPR) for antihypertensive drugs over 9 months. Drug cost-sharing was measured as either copayments or coinsurance. Other patient characteristics included age, sex, comorbidity, health plan type, and county-level sociodemographics. We compared adherence for different cost-sharing categories with a bivariate test of equal medians and simultaneous quantile regressions predicting different percentiles of drug adherence. RESULTS Median MPR was high (>80%) across all cost-sharing categories. Among the poorest adherers, the regression-adjusted MPR was 8 to 9 points lower among patients with the highest drug cost-sharing compared with patients with the lowest cost-sharing (copayment $5 or less). The effects of cost-sharing were smaller at the median (2-3 points lower) and nonsignificant at higher levels of adherence. Other significant factors influencing adherence at low adherence levels were drug class and comorbidity. CONCLUSION Cost-sharing had a substantial negative association with adherence among low adherers and little association at higher adherence levels. At a clinical level, physicians should closely monitor adherence to antihypertensive drugs, particularly for patients with multiple comorbidities and those taking multiple drugs. At a health system level, current benefit designs should encourage adherence while limiting the cost burden of drugs for patients with multiple chronic conditions taking multiple drugs.
Efficient High Performance Computing on Heterogeneous Platforms

Heterogeneous platforms are mixes of different processing units in a compute node (e.g., CPUs+GPUs, CPU+MICs) or a chip package (e.g., APUs). This type of platforms keeps gaining popularity in various computer systems ranging from supercomputers to mobile devices. In this context, improving their efficiency and usability has become increasingly important. In this thesis, we develop systematic methods for a large variety of data parallel applications to efficiently utilize heterogeneous platforms. Specifically, (1) we evaluate the suitability of OpenCL as a unified programming model for heterogeneous computing and improve OpenCL's efficiency for programming heterogenous platforms; (2) we develop a workload partitioning framework to accelerate imbalanced applications on heterogeneous platforms, where we match the heterogeneity of the platform with the imbalance of the workload; (3) we propose a model-based prediction method to correctly and quickly predict the optimal workload partitioning, maximizing the performance gain while speeding up the partitioning process; (4) we generalize a systematic workload partitioning approach which improves performance for both balanced and imbalanced applications, for applications with different datasets and execution scenarios, and for platforms with different hardware mixes; (5) we design an application analyzer that analyzes application kernel structures and enables different partitioning strategies accordingly to obtain both high performance and wide applicability for workload partitioning on heterogeneous platforms. To summarize, this thesis demonstrates that heterogeneous platforms are the right solution, performance-wise, for many classes of data parallel applications, and shows how high performance can be achieved systematically.
Effect of chain extension on the properties of PLA/TPS blends

Multifunctional Epoxy-based copolymers can be used as chain-extender (CE) to increase the molecular weight and create branching in polylactides (PLA). In this study, the effect of a multifunctional epoxy-acrylic-styrene copolymer on the properties of PLA/Thermoplastic Starch (PLA/TPS) blends was investigated. The PLA/TPS blends were prepared by twin-screw extrusion. The dry-starch and plasticizers were mixed together in the first half of the extruder to complete starch gelatinization. Water was removed by devolatilization at midex-truder and the PLA matrix was mixed with the water-free TPS in the latter portion of the compounding process. The standard blends comprised 27% TPS in the PLA matrix. The TPS phase itself comprised 36% plasticizer in the form of glycerol or sorbitol. A maleic anhydride grafted PLA (PLAg) was also used in selected blends to examine the effect of interfacial modification on the morphology of chain-extended blends. The blends were injection molded into standard test bars and their tensile properties were measured. Differential scanning calorimetry was carried out to examine the effect of chain extension on PLA's ability to crystallize. Oscillatory-shear rheology was used to monitor changes in blend viscosity. Finally, scanning electron microscopy on microtomed and acid-etched samples was carried out to assess the blend morphology. It was found that the combination of interfacial modification and chain-extension strategies led to greatly improved ductility. The viscosity of the PLA/TPS blends was also dramatically increased by adding a small amount of epoxy-based chain extender. This is of great interest for polymer processing techniques (such as foaming or film blowing) that require high melt strength. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011
Cognitive assessment in the elderly: a review of clinical methods.

Doctors are poor at predicting patients’ cognitive function based on a routine, non-cognitive evaluation alone.1,,2 Cognitive assessment is a valuable clinical skill. It facilitates the diagnosis of disorders that impair thinking, and allows for more accurate estimates of functional ability to be made. Cognition also predicts mortality during hospital admissions.3 These benefits are clearly of practical value, and cognitive assessment may also be a skill that could be used in the Directly Observed Procedural Skills (DOPS) framework for on-going evaluation of training geriatricians and neurologists. As people age, changes occur within the brain that lead to differences in thinking and behaviour.4 Distinguishing these from the early stages of an abnormal (disease) process is fairly arbitrary; definitions usually depend upon an impact on social, functional or occupational activities. To further cloud the picture, there is a diagnosis of ‘cognitive impairment not dementia’ (CIND) also available to the clinician, which sits somewhere between normal ageing and dementia. Dementia rises in prevalence from 65 years, and to ∼33% of those aged >85 years.5–8 CIND is even more common, with an estimated prevalence of around 17% in people aged >65 years.9 Of course, changes in cognition are not specific to either CIND or dementia: other common causes in the elderly include delirium and depression. Two or more of these are frequently found within a single patient. Other, psychiatric (or ‘non-organic’), cognitive disorders (e.g. schizophrenia) are beyond the scope of this text. Cognitive assessment is commonly used for the following reasons: (i) screening for cognitive impairment; (ii) differential diagnosis of cause; (iii) rating of severity of disorder, or monitoring disease progression. These three factors form the basis of the structure of this review. A wide … Address correspondence to Dr H. Woodford, Department of Medicine for the Elderly, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle CA2 7HY. email: henry.woodford{at}ncumbria-acute.nhs. uk