Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electronic nutritional intake assessment in patients with urolithiasis: A decision impact analysis

Purpose To evaluate a physician's impression of a urinary stone patient's dietary intake and whether it was dependent on the medium through which the nutritional data were obtained. Furthermore, we sought to determine if using an electronic food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) impacted dietary recommendations for these patients. Materials and Methods Seventy-six patients attended the Stone Clinic over a period of 6 weeks. Seventy-five gave consent for enrollment in our study. Patients completed an office-based interview with a fellowship-trained endourologist, and a FFQ administered on an iPad. The FFQ assessed intake of various dietary components related to stone development, such as oxalate and calcium. The urologists were blinded to the identity of patients' FFQ results. Based on the office-based interview and the FFQ results, the urologists provided separate assessments of the impact of nutrition and hydration on the patient's stone disease (nutrition impact score and hydration impact score, respectively) and treatment recommendations. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to compare pre-FFQ data to post-FFQ data. Results Higher FFQ scores for sodium (odds ratio [OR], 1.02; p=0.02) and fluids (OR, 1.03, p=0.04) were associated with a higher nutritional impact score. None of the FFQ parameters impacted hydration impact score. A higher FFQ score for oxalate (OR, 1.07; p=0.02) was associated with the addition of at least one treatment recommendation. Conclusions Information derived from a FFQ can yield a significant impact on a physician's assessment of stone risks and decision for management of stone disease.
A Novel Approach for Modeling Near-Field Coupling With PCB Traces

This paper presents a novel modeling approach for predicting the response of a printed circuit board (PCB) trace excited by a nonuniform electromagnetic (EM) radiated field from complex electronic components. The proposed approach is analytic and it is based on transmission line model with distributed sources taking into account the effect of the effective relative permittivity εreff of the PCB surrounding medium. The modeling procedure is a two-step approach: three-dimensional radiated emission modeling of the electronic component, source of EM disturbance, and using a set of equivalent sources followed by the computation of the induced voltages in the trace terminals referring to analytic coupling formulations. Comparison between modeled, numerical, and measured results enables us to validate the proposed model.
Improved PSO-based Task Scheduling Algorithm in Cloud Computing

Job scheduling system problem is a core and challenging issue in cloud computing. How to use cloud computing resources efficiently and gain the maximum profits with job scheduling system is one of the cloud computing service providers’ ultimate goals. For characteristics of particle swarm optimization algorithm in solving the large-scale combination optimization problem easy to fall into the search speed slowly and partially the most superior, the global fast convergence of simulated annealing algorithm is utilized to combine particle swarm optimization algorithm in each iteration, which enhances the convergence rate and improves the efficiency. This paper proposed the improve particle swarm optimization algorithm in resources scheduling strategy of the cloud computing. Through experiments, the results show that this method can reduce the task average running time, and raises the rate availability of resources.
Perceptually motivated quasi-periodic signal selection for polyphonic music transcription

A multiple fundamental frequency estimator is a key building block in music transcription and indexing operations. However, systems trying to perform this task tend to be very complex [1]. Indeed, music transcription requires an analysis accounting for both physical and psycho-acoustical matters. In this work, we propose a physically-motivated audio signal analysis followed by an auditory-based selection. The audio signal model allows for a better time/frequency resolution tradeoff, while the auditory distance discards the redundant/non-relevant information. No prior information on the musical instrument, musical genre, and/or maximum polyphony are needed. Simulations show that the proposed technique achieves good transcription results for a variety of string and wind instruments. The proposed scheme is also shown to be robust in the presence of noise, percussive sounds and in unbalanced Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) situations.
Triggering Kindness: Mechanisms and Outcomes

Happy people seem to have it all--relatively stronger interpersonal relationships, higher incomes, better physical health, and even longer lives. But before dismissing happy people's success as plain good luck, researchers should investigate the mechanisms by which happiness might engender positive outcomes across multiple life domains. The current dissertation proposes that inducing positive emotions--the hallmark of happiness--at the beginning of a self-improvement endeavor can act as a trigger for promoting greater self-reported effort and persistence. Across two studies, I found that engaging in a positive writing task (i.e., a trigger) before beginning a self-improvement (i.e., kindness) intervention increased effort during the intervention, which then predicted greater well-being. Specifically, Study 1 examined the effect of writing about gratitude, optimism, or an intensely positive experience (versus a neutral topic) at the beginning of a 3-week kindness intervention on effort. I found that the positive writing tasks predicted greater effort toward performing kind acts, which in turn predicted greater well-being immediately following the intervention and at a 2-week follow-up. No significant differences emerged among the triggers. In Study 2, I explored the effects of the gratitude writing task in more detail, extended the intervention period to 6 weeks, and varied the deployment of the trigger to determine whether more frequent (i.e., weekly) engagement in the positive writing task predicted greater effort and persistence throughout. After writing a gratitude letter (versus writing about their week), individuals reported relatively greater elevation, which predicted greater effort throughout the intervention; in turn, replicating Study 1, greater effort predicted greater well-being immediately following the intervention. Importantly, writing a gratitude letter at baseline did not influence well-being as far as the 1-month follow-up time point. However, the group that wrote weekly gratitude letters (versus all other conditions) showed the highest levels of elevation and effort throughout the intervention, which predicted well-being following the intervention and 1 month later. Thus, engaging in a trigger before a self-improvement program can promote effort and persistence on the program, and performing weekly triggers might be especially motivating.
Trial of Multidisciplinary Observation at an Expandable Sub-Marine Cabled Station “Off-Hatsushima Island Observatory” in Sagami Bay, Japan

Sagami Bay is an active tectonic area in Japan. In 1993, a real-time deep sea floor observatory was deployed at 1,175 m depth about 7 km off Hatsushima Island, Sagami Bay to monitor seismic activities and other geophysical phenomena. Video cameras monitored biological activities associated with tectonic activities. The observation system was renovated completely in 2000. An ocean bottom electromagnetic meter (OBEM), an ocean bottom differential pressure gauge (DPG) system, and an ocean bottom gravity meter (OBG) were installed January 2005; operations began in February of that year. An earthquake (M5.4) in April 2006, generated a submarine landslide that reached the Hatsushima Observatory, moving some sensors. The video camera took movies of mudflows; OBEM and other sensors detected distinctive changes occurring with the mudflow. Although the DPG and OBG were recovered in January 2008, the OBEM continues to obtain data.
On the Forming of Orthogonal Beams by Planar Array Antennas

A general approach to determination of geometrical parameters of planar array antennas designed for forming of orthogonal beams steered in the nodes of a Cartesian periodic lattice specified in the space of direction cosines is proposed. The proof of orthogonality of the complex amplitude distributions and appropriate array factors for the arrays constructed according to the proposed approach is given. The role of the array element patterns in providing the beam pattern orthogonality is underlined. The issue of the number of the array elements necessary for forming of the specified number of beams is discussed. A few demonstrative examples of the beam clusters and appropriate configurations of the arrays where the number of the elements is equal to the specified number of the beams are considered.
Separation of Convective and Stratiform Precipitation Using Microwave Brightness Temperature

Abstract This paper presents a new scheme that classifies convective and stratiform (C/S) precipitation areas over oceans using microwave brightness temperature. In this scheme, data are first screened to eliminate nonraining pixels. For raining pixels, C/S indices are computed from brightness temperatures and their variability for emission (19 and 37 GHz) and scattering (85 GHz). Since lower-resolution satellite data generally contain mixtures of convective and stratiform precipitation, a probability matching method is employed to relate the C/S index to a convective fraction of precipitation area. The scheme has been applied on synthetic data generated from a dynamical cloud model and radiative transfer computations to simulate the frequencies and resolutions of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave (TMI) Imager as well as the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). The results from simulated TMI data during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Exper.
The Membrane QmoABC Complex Interacts Directly with the Dissimilatory Adenosine 5′-Phosphosulfate Reductase in Sulfate Reducing Bacteria

The adenosine 5′-phosphosulfate reductase (AprAB) is the enzyme responsible for the reduction of adenosine 5′-phosphosulfate (APS) to sulfite in the biological process of dissimilatory sulfate reduction, which is carried out by a ubiquitous group of sulfate reducing prokaryotes. The electron donor for AprAB has not been clearly identified, but was proposed to be the QmoABC membrane complex, since an aprBA–qmoABC gene cluster is found in many sulfate reducing and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. The QmoABC complex is essential for sulfate reduction, but electron transfer between QmoABC and AprAB has not been reported. In this work we provide the first direct evidence that QmoABC and AprAB interact in Desulfovibrio spp. , using co-immunoprecipitation, cross-linking Far-Western blot, tag-affinity purification, and surface plasmon resonance studies. This showed that the QmoABC–AprAB complex has a strong steady-state affinity (KD = 90 ± 3 nM), but has a transient character due to a fast dissociation rate. Far-Western blot identified QmoA as the Qmo subunit most involved in the interaction. Nevertheless, electron transfer from menaquinol analogs to APS through anaerobically purified QmoABC and AprAB could not be detected. We propose that this reaction requires the involvement of a third partner to allow electron flow driven by a reverse electron bifurcation process, i.e., electron confurcation. This process is deemed essential to allow coupling of APS reduction to chemiosmotic energy conservation.
Iterative reduced-complexity multiuser detection based on Chase decoding for synchronous turbo-coded CDMA system

The conventional multiuser detector (MUD) based on the a posteriori probability (APP) algorithm has an exponential computational complexity in terms of the number of users. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity iterative multiuser receiver for synchronous turbo-coded code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. The proposed receiver is based on the Chase decoding algorithm that was previously used to decode turbo product codes. Simulation results show that the proposed receiver can significantly reduce the computational complexity with slight performance degradation compared with the APP MUD over highly correlated channels. Moreover, in this paper, we develop a numerical approach to analyze the convergence behavior of iteratively decoded CDMA channels based on density evolution technique. Analytical results are presented and shown to provide a reasonable match with what is observed in simulation.
Face recognition with renewable and privacy preserving binary templates

This paper considers generating binary feature vectors from biometric face data such that their privacy can be protected using recently introduced helper data systems. We explain how the binary feature vectors can be derived and investigate their statistical properties. Experimental results for a subset of the FERET and Caltech databases show that there is only a slight degradation in classification results when using the binary rather than the real-valued feature vectors. Finally, the scheme to extract the binary vectors is combined with a helper data scheme leading to renewable and privacy preserving facial templates with acceptable classification results provided that the within-class variation is not too large.
Dynamic changes in the higher-level chromatin organization of specific sequences revealed by in situ hybridization to nuclear halos

A novel approach to study the higher level packaging of specific DNA sequences has been developed by coupling high-resolution fluorescence hybridization with biochemical fractionation to remove histones and distend DNA loops to form morphologically reproducible nuclear "halos. " Results demonstrate consistent differences in the organization of specific sequences, and further suggest a relationship to functional activity. Pulse-incorporated bromodeoxyuridine representing nascent replicating DNA localized with the base of the chromatin loops in discrete clustered patterns characteristic of intact cells, whereas at increasing chase times, the replicated DNA was consistently found further out on the extended region of the halo. Fluorescence hybridization to unique loci for four transcriptionally inactive sequences produced long strings of signal extending out onto the DNA halo or "loop," whereas four transcriptionally active sequences remained tightly condensed as single spots within the residual nucleus. In contrast, in non-extracted cells, all sequences studied typically remained condensed as single spots of fluorescence signal. Interestingly, two transcriptionally active, tandemly repeated gene clusters exhibited strikingly different packaging by this assay. Analysis of specific genes in single cells during the cell cycle revealed changes in packaging between S-phase and non S-phase cells, and further suggested a dramatic difference in the structural associations in mitotic and interphase chromatin. These results are consistent with and suggestive of a loop domain organization of chromatin packaging involving both stable and transient structural associations, and provide precedent for an approach whereby different biochemical fractionation methods may be used to unravel various aspects of the complex higher-level organization of the genome.
Analysis of QoS of VoIP Traffic through WiFi-UMTS Networks

Simulation of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) traffic through UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) and WiFi (IEEE 802.11x) alone and together are analysed for Quality of Service (QoS) performance. The average jitter of VoIP transiting the WiFi-UMTS network has been found to be lower than that of either solely through the WiFi and the UMTS networks. It is normally expected to be higher than traversing through the WiFi network only. Both the MOS (Mean Opinion Score) and the packet end-to-end delay were also found to be much lower than expected through the heterogeneous WiFi-UMTS network.
High-Technology Cultures and Management

This article extends the concept of corporate culture to the level of industry culture and examines regional influences on management practices in Silicon Valley and Route 128. In-depth interviews with CEOs and executives in mature electronics firms were conducted. Results from the data indicate that these high-technology cultures and related management practices differ significantly and are influenced by particular regional characteristics. Conceptual and consulting implications are discussed.
Histone Deacetylase Inhibition and Dietary Short-Chain Fatty Acids

Changes in diet can also have dramatic effects on the composition of gut microbiota. Commensal bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract are critical regulators of health and disease by protecting against pathogen encounter whilst also maintaining immune tolerance to certain allergens. Moreover, consumption of fibre and vegetables typical of a non-Western diet generates substantial quantities of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which have potent anti-inflammatory properties. Dietary interventions such as probiotic supplementation have been investigated for their pleiotropic effects on microbiota composition and immune function. Probiotics may restore intestinal dysbiosis and improve clinical disease through elevated SCFA levels in the intestine. Although the precise mechanisms by which such dietary factors mediate these effects, SCFA metabolites such as butyrate also function as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), that can act on the epigenome through chromatin remodeling changes. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of HDAC enzymes and to discuss the biological effects of HDACi. Further, we discuss the important relationship between diet and the balance between health and disease and how novel dietary interventions such as probiotics could be alternative approach for the prevention and/or treatment of chronic inflammatory disease through modulation of the intestinal microbiome.
Arabic OCR Based on Image Invariants

Optical character recognition (OCR) is an area of interest for converting hard copies of written information, as in faxed or scanned documents. In this paper, we compare two common image invariant methods in OCR, the invariant central moments (NCM) and the normalized Fourier descriptors (NFD) of the character. These methods are insensitive to image variances such as shifting, scaling, or rotation. To ensure the efficiency of the proposed algorithms, some examples and simulation are done. We also show by means of examples that when using the NCM the recognition rate decreases when the image coordinates ratio is changed
The phylogenetic position of Haasiella (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) and the relationships between H. venustissima and H. splendidissima

Based on a combined ITS-LSU rDNA analysis, the omphalinoid genus Haasiella is shown to be part of the Hygrophoroid clade and sister to Hygrophorus. H. venustissima and H. splendidissima are conspecific; H. splendidissima is the tetrasporic/clamped and heterothallic form of H. venustissima.
Advanced intermediate reflector layers for thin film silicon tandem solar cells

Tandem solar cells based on thin film silicon benefit from an intermediate reflector layer between the top and bottom cells since it enhances the absorption in the top cell. The top cell can thus be manufactured thinner and less prone to light induced degradation. Made from a thin layer of nanocrystalline silicon oxide, the interlayer provides a second functionality since it aids in the spatial separation of local shunts occurring in both sub-cells. Recently, the reflector morphology received attention since it can provide a third function; here, a substantial difference exists between the commonly used configurations, i.e. superstrate or substrate. In the former, the thin layer of nanocrystalline silicon oxide reproduces the morphology of the underlying top cell. Its surface may thus be too rough for the growth of the bottom cell. In the latter configuration, reflectors made from a thick layer of ZnO can yield an adequate texture for the top cell, but conductive ZnO loses the effect of shunt quenching. We present our recent progress with improved intermediate reflector layers in both cell types. For silicon oxide based interlayers, we introduce a smoothing lacquer layer with self-organized openings that allow current transport. For ZnO based interlayers, we demonstrate that a treatment in oxygen plasma is capable of tuning the in-plane resistivity.
Gesture detection system using smart watch based motion sensors

We are about to step into a world where we would be surrounded by a large number of extremely smart wearable devices. Most of them can be considered motion capture devices in disguise owing to the sheer number and quality of sensors they possess. These devices are capable of providing data like linear acceleration, angular velocity, gravitational acceleration, compass heading, pressure and temperature with an update rate that is just enough to be interesting and useful, yet cheap and easy to acquire. We are further seeing incredible innovation in motion tracking chips present in cell phone that provide better and always-on data with minimal impact on battery life. Innovations like the Motorola X8 architecture and the Apple M7 chip are now the torch-bearers for the next era in motion tracking. It would be a waste if all this real-time data is only used by the cellphone or the smart watch that generates it. There is a whole host of amazing applications that can be conceptualized if this data is used to interact and control our computers and other devices. This paper demonstrates one such project that aims to develop ways to conveniently send and process this data to create innovative controls for computers and other common devices. However, there are various challenges we have to deal with when using such sensors. These include: high level of noise in the sensor readings, time delay in sending sensor data to the computer, detecting and ignoring unintentional actions. As our work progresses, we aim to find practical solutions to these problems.
Location Leaks on the GSM Air Interface

Cellular phones have become a ubiquitous means of communications with over 5 billion users worldwide in 2010, of which 80% are GSM subscribers. Due to their use of the wireless medium and their mobile nature, those phones listen to broadcast communications that could reveal their physical location to a passive adversary. In this paper, we investigate techniques to test if a user is present within a small area, or absent from a large area by simply listening on the broadcast GSM channels. With a combination of readily available hardware and open source software, we demonstrate practical location test attacks that include circumventing the temporary identifier designed to protect the identity of the end user. Finally we propose solutions that would improve the location privacy of users with low system impact.
The logic of common sense

The Golden Age of logic came to an end in the sixties, with the solution of the remaining classical independence problems in set theory. It was the time for logicians to remember that logic is more than the study of mathematical proofs; it is the study of reasoning in general. For instance, proofs of program correctness are also in the realm of logic. Or, to put it differently, the theory of programming becomes a part of mathematics as soon as one has developed an axiomatic basis for it. The theory of commonsense reasoning occupies a similar place in the history of logic. It provides an axiomatic basis for reasoning about the world inhabited by “agents” like us—by agents who have beliefs and goals, who perform actions in order to reach these goals and, by doing so, change the state of the world. It can be seen as a step towards the aim of rationalist philosophy described by Descartes in Discourse on Method: