Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupled Matrix Factorization with Sparse Factors to Identify Potential Biomarkers in Metabolomics

Metabolomics focuses on the detection of chemical substances in biological fluids such as urine and blood using a number of analytical techniques including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (LC-MS). Among the major challenges in analysis of metabolomics data are (i) joint analysis of data from multiple platforms and (ii) capturing easily interpretable underlying patterns, which could be further utilized for biomarker discovery. In order to address these challenges, we formulate joint analysis of data from multiple platforms as a coupled matrix factorization problem with sparsity constraints on the factor matrices. We develop an all-at-once optimization algorithm, called CMF-SPOPT (Coupled Matrix Factorization with SParse Optimization), which is a gradient-based optimization approach solving for all factor matrices simultaneously. Using numerical experiments on simulated data, we demonstrate that CMF-SPOPT can capture the underlying sparse patterns in data. Furthermore, on a real data set of blood samples collected from a group of rats, we use the proposed approach to jointly analyze metabolomic data sets and identify potential biomarkers for apple intake.
A condição familiar como elemento de vulnerabilidade da criança para agravos nutricionais/Family condition as an element of children’s vulnerability to nutrition disorders

Neste estudo o objetivo foi compreender a condição familiar como aspecto de vulnerabilidade da criança para agravos nutricionais. Trata-se de pesquisa descritiva, qualitativa, realizada em uma capital do Sul do Brasil, de março a dezembro de 2015. Participaram 21 nutricionistas dos Núcleos de Apoio a Saúde da Família, mediante entrevistas semiestruturadas. A interpretação dos discursos ocorreu pela hermenêutica dialética, com suporte do software livre Interface de R pour Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires. Emergiram três categorias empíricas como elementos de vulnerabilidade da criança para agravos nutricionais, a saber, “A condição de vida das famílias”, “Da doença materna à expectativa social do ser mãe”, “Da organização do serviço de saúde aos desafios da condição materna”. Conclui-se que o reconhecimento dos elementos de vulnerabilidade relativo à mãe e à família, por parte do serviço de saúde, possibilitaria a atuação pautada na compreensão da condição da criança como ser social de direitos e dependente dos cuidados que caracterizam esse período da vida. O cuidado alimentar e nutricional infantil é responsabilidade da família, do Estado e da sociedade em geral, e não responsabilidade exclusivamente materna.
Tightness-Looseness in the United States: Ecological Predictors and State Level Outcomes

Title of Thesis: TIGHTNESS-LOOSENESS IN THE UNITED STATES: ECOLOGICAL PREDICTORS AND STATE LEVEL OUTCOMES Jesse R. Harrington, Master of Science, 2014 Thesis Directed by: Professor Michele J. Gelfand Department of Psychology This research demonstrates wide variation in tightness–looseness (strength of punishment and degree of permissiveness) at the state level in the United States, and its association with various ecological and historical factors, psychological characteristics, and state-level outcomes. Consistent with theory and past research, ecological and manmade threats—more natural disasters, greater disease prevalence, fewer natural resources, and greater external threat—predict increased tightness at the state level. Tightness is also associated with higher trait conscientiousness and lower trait openness. Compared with loose states, tight states have more social stability, indicated by lowered drug and alcohol use, lower rates of homelessness, and lower social disorganization. However, tight states also have relatively higher incarceration rates, greater discrimination and inequality, lower creativity, and lower happiness. In all, tightness–looseness provides a parsimonious explanation of the wide variation seen across the 50 states of the United States of America. TIGHTNESS-LOOSENESS IN THE UNITED STATES: ECOLOGICAL PREDICTORS AND STATE LEVEL OUTCOMES by Jesse R. Harrington Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science. 2014 Advisory Committee: Professor Michele J. Gelfand, Chair Professor Arie W. Kruglanski Professor Paul J. Hanges © Copyright by Jesse R. Harrington 2014
A Routing Mechanism by Distance-weighted Bloom Filter *

Bloom filters are used for resource routing and distance-weighted Bloom filters (dwBFs) are used as a concise representation of routing information for scattered resources in overlay networks. Today's DHT-based P2P lookups are always influenced by unnecessarily long routers in the underlay network. The reason is that the false positives appearing in DHT lookup can lead to incorrect direction. To apply dwBFs to scattered resources in overlay network can form a routing correcting mechanism. It can reduce the possibilities of incorrect direction under cases of false positives. To use dwBFs also can resolve another problem with DHT, its ineffectiveness in replica-handle. This paper describes a routing algorithm based on dwBFs and shows the results of simulation experiment.
European efficiency improvement in photovoltaic applications by means of parallel connection of power converters

European efficiency definition demonstrates that photovoltaic generators operate in average between 30% and 100% of its rated power 80% of its working time. Nowadays, converters are designed with a maximal efficiency working point, but often, this point does not fit with the correct power range. This paper presents a structure with a parallel connection of n converters to obtain higher conversion efficiency for the power range between 30% and 100% of the rated power. The European efficiency has been improved and higher energy production has been achieved with this new structure.
Tied-State Mixture Language Model for WFST-based Speech Recognition

This paper describes a language model combination method for automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems based on Weighted Finite-State Transducers (WFSTs). The performance of ASR in real applications often degrades when an input utterance is out of the domain of the prepared language models. To cover a wide range of domains, it is possible to utilize a combination of multiple language models. To do this, we propose a language model combination method with a two-step approach; it ﬁrst uses a union operation to incorporate all components into a single transducer and then merges states of the transducer to mix n -grams included in multiple models and to retain unique n -grams in each model simultaneously. The method has been evaluated on speech recognition experiments on travel conversation tasks and has demonstrated improvements in recognition performance.
Simvastatin and atorvastatin attenuate VCAM-1 and uPAR expression on human endothelial cells and platelet surface expression of CD40 ligand.

BACKGROUND In addition to their cholesterol lowering ability, statins have proven pleiotropic effects in the cardiovascular system. Chronic inflammation with interactions between platelets and endothelial cells leads to an upregulation of activity markers of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of simvastatin and atorvastatin on platelets and endothelial cells in an in vitro endothelial cell model. METHODS AND RESULTS After a 24 h incubation period with either simvastatin or atorvastatin (1 μmol/L), human umbilical vein endothelial cells were stimulated for 1 h with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and were then incubated in direct contact with activated platelets. Platelet surface expression of CD40L and CD62P and expression of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, uPAR and MT1-MMP on endothelial cells were measured by flow cytometry. Supernatants were analyzed by ELISA for soluble MMP-1. The increased expression of VCAM-1 and uPAR on endothelial cells by stimulation with LPS and by direct contact with activated platelets was significantly reduced to a similar extent through pre-incubation with both atorvastatin and simvastatin (p < 0.05). Platelets without endothelial cell contact, but in direct contact with either statin, showed similar significant reductions in surface expression of CD40L (p < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS These effects may explain the ability of statins to reduce the progression of atherosclerosis in addition to their cholesterol-lowering properties.
Self-Occlusions and Disocclusions in Causal Video Object Segmentation

We propose a method to detect disocclusion in video sequences of three-dimensional scenes and to partition the disoccluded regions into objects, defined by coherent deformation corresponding to surfaces in the scene. Our method infers deformation fields that are piecewise smooth by construction without the need for an explicit regularizer and the associated choice of weight. It then partitions the disoccluded region and groups its components with objects by leveraging on the complementarity of motion and appearance cues: Where appearance changes within an object, motion can usually be reliably inferred and used for grouping. Where appearance is close to constant, it can be used for grouping directly. We integrate both cues in an energy minimization framework, incorporate prior assumptions explicitly into the energy, and propose a numerical scheme.
Supporting Decision Makers with Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

OVERVIEW: Fuzzy Cognitive Maps are fuzzy graph structures that represent causal reasoning. This article proposes a means of building and using such maps to support the managers as well as analysts of R&D portfolios by making prediction comparisons between the research projects under evaluation. The proposal considers the factors within the decision environment and their relationships. With this methodology it becomes possible for analysts to automate (or support, at least) their decision processes.
Analysis of ‘goat’ within user population of an offline signature biometrics

Intra - user variability inherent in human handwritten signatures remains one of the main challenges for a robust biometrics signature based authentication system. The existence of a subset of users classified as ‘goats’ in the Doddington's menagerie whose signature samples are highly inconsistent and often rejected by the biometrics system may degrade the system accuracy by contributing a large portion to the False Rejection Rate (FRR). However, little is known on the level of the intra user variability and percentage of the ‘goats’ in the overall user population, which in turns remains the prime focus of this paper. An HMM-based computational approach is used to build the reference model and verify the authenticity of an input sample based on a series of a local feature extracted from signature images. Here, four different goat populations are identified for offline signature biometric system which is based on four different local features ( namely pixel density, centre of gravity, angle, and distance) and are analysed for their co-relationship. The overall analysis is carried out on Sigma database which is compiled to reflect the signatures of a target user population.
Service Time and Price Decisions under Port Competition and Cooperation

In this paper, we develop the models for ports to select the best price and service time guarantee to maximize their operating profit under port competition and cooperation. We first analyze the optimization problem for the individual ports and then study the equilibrium solution in a multiple-port competition and the optimal solution in a multiple-port cooperation. Using a numerical study, we further examine the competitive advantage of a dominant port and perform comparison analysis between port competition and cooperation. Our results suggest that, whether the ports compete or cooperate, the dominant port has the largest profit and demand and does not necessarily offer the best service time guarantee. Furthermore, the price of each port chosen under competition is always lower than that chosen under port cooperation, whereas the service time guarantee of each port chosen under competition is always shorter than that chose under port cooperation. The demand difference and profit difference among all ports under port cooperation are smaller than those under port competition. Both the total demand and total profit under port cooperation are greater than those under port competition.
The Multi-layer Imbrication for Data Leakage Prevention from Mobile Devices

The convergence of mobile and online social network technologies has led to the emergence of mobile social applications available through stores for mobile devices. Nowadays, one can observe the proliferation of mobile social networks and the diversity of digital profiles for a unique person. In this work, we propose to model the multiple facets of one digital life from the data available on his smartphone. More specifically, we investigate the interactions and connections that may exist between the multiple digital faces of an individual. We provide a set of indicators that measure the level of imbrication of a contact that belongs to the egocentric social network of a smartphone user. We prove the efficiency of these features for the detection of illegitimate contacts by link prediction on a case study of Facebook. This application shows that local information stored on mobile devices can participate to the prevention of data leakage on online social networks.
1.25 Å resolution structure of an RNA 20-mer that binds to the TREX2 complex

The 1.25 Å resolution crystal structure of a 20 nt ribonucleotide that binds to the TREX2 complex with high affinity shows a double-stranded RNA duplex that contains C–A, U–U and C–C noncanonical base pairings together with canonical Watson–Crick A–U and G–C pairs and a G–U wobble.
Measurement of narcissism: From classical applications to modern approaches

Different conceptions of narcissism exist within the literature such as grandiose, vulnerable, pathological, collective, and communal, each of which can be measured using self-report measures. Within the current paper, we review and discuss most of the existing measures of these different trait (i.e., non-clinical) narcissism constructs. This includes an examination of their underlying theoretical foundations and an evaluation of the scale construction process. We start our review from the one-dimensional measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism such as the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen, the Short Dark Triad, the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale, the Narcissistic Vulnerability Scale, and the Single Item Narcissism Scale. Then, we introduce the multidimensional measures to study narcissism such as the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. The r view concludes by presenting measures of understudied narcissistic constructs such as the Communal Narcissism Inventory and the Collective Narcissism Scale. In general, using one-dimensional scales might provide important insights into the general underpinnings of narcissistic personality, however assessment via multi-dimensional tools better reflects its complex nature.
A realtime multimodal system for analyzing group meetings by combining face pose tracking and speaker diarization

This paper presents a realtime system for analyzing group meetings that uses a novel omnidirectional camera-microphone system. The goal is to automatically discover the visual focus of attention (VFOA), i.e. "who is looking at whom", in addition to speaker diarization, i.e. "who is speaking and when". First, a novel tabletop sensing device for round-table meetings is presented; it consists of two cameras with two fisheye lenses and a triangular microphone array. Second, from high-resolution omnidirectional images captured with the cameras, the position and pose of people's faces are estimated by STCTracker (Sparse Template Condensation Tracker); it realizes realtime robust tracking of multiple faces by utilizing GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). The face position/pose data output by the face tracker is used to estimate the focus of attention in the group. Using the microphone array, robust speaker diarization is carried out by a VAD (Voice Activity Detection) and a DOA (Direction of Arrival) estimation followed by sound source clustering. This paper also presents new 3-D visualization schemes for meeting scenes and the results of an analysis. Using two PCs, one for vision and one for audio processing, the system runs at about 20 frames per second for 5-person meetings.
The use of control systems analysis in the neurophysiology of eye movements.

When we ask how the brain works, the question is perceived quite differently by people working at the many levels of the nervous system. Certainly it is necessary to know how the hardware of the nervous system works-how transmitters affect membranes, how myelin is formed, how action potentials are conducted--but we all recognize that the solutions to these problems are not an end in themselves. They are the means that will enable us to understand how the brain processes information, which, we assume, is the substrate for behavior. If our knowledge of the connections between . nerve cells and the signals that they carry were adequate, many theoreticians would be at work using the techniques of information theory, signal theory, and automatic control theory to explain the bases of such things as perception, recognition, and memory because these mathematical techniques are the tools of those who must deal with information-processing systems, of which the brain is by far and away the most complex and powerful. The fact that such theoreticians are remarkable for their scarcity simply reminds us that our knowledge of signals and connections in neural networks is, in most cases, so fragmented that such progress is impossible. Our knowledge of signals and connections in the oculomotor system is still at a stage where much more information is needed, but, thanks to recent advances in tracing nerve cell processes and recording from cells in alert animals, coupled with certain simplifying features of the eye movement
Machine learning approach for argument extraction of bio-molecular events

The main goal of Biomedical Natural Language Processing (BioNLP) is to capture biomedical phenomena from textual data by extracting relevant entities and information or relations between biomedical entities such as proteins and genes. Previous research was focussed on extracting only binary relations, but in recent times the focus is shifted towards extracting more complex relations in the form of bio-molecular events that may include several entities or other relations. In this paper we propose a machine learning approach based on Conditional Random Field (CRF) to extract the arguments of bio-molecular events. The overall task involves identification of event triggers from texts, classification of them into some predefined categories and determining the arguments of these events. We identify and implement a set of features in the forms of statistical and linguistic features that represent various morphological, syntactic and contextual information. Experiments on the benchmark setup of BioNLP 2009 shared task show the recall, precision and F-measure values of 45.75%, 78.93% and 57.91%, respectively.
The ecce Partial Deduction System

We present the fully automatic partial deduction system ecce, which can be used to specialise and optimise logic programs. We describe the underlying principles of ecce and illustrate some of the potential application areas. Interesting possibilites of crossfertilisation with other elds such as reachability analysis of concurrent systems and inductive theorem proving are highlighted and substantiated.
Terminal Field and Firing Selectivity of Cholecystokinin-Expressing Interneurons in the Hippocampal CA3 Area

Hippocampal oscillations reflect coordinated neuronal activity on many timescales. Distinct types of GABAergic interneuron participate in the coordination of pyramidal cells over different oscillatory cycle phases. In the CA3 area, which generates sharp waves and gamma oscillations, the contribution of identified GABAergic neurons remains to be defined. We have examined the firing of a family of cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons during network oscillations in urethane-anesthetized rats and compared them with firing of CA3 pyramidal cells. The position of the terminals of individual visualized interneurons was highly diverse, selective, and often spatially coaligned with either the entorhinal or the associational inputs to area CA3. The spike timing in relation to theta and gamma oscillations and sharp waves was correlated with the innervated pyramidal cell domain. Basket and dendritic-layer-innervating interneurons receive entorhinal and associational inputs and preferentially fire on the ascending theta phase, when pyramidal cell assemblies emerge. Perforant-path-associated cells, driven by recurrent collaterals of pyramidal cells fire on theta troughs, when established pyramidal cell assemblies are most active. In the CA3 area, slow and fast gamma oscillations occurred on opposite theta oscillation phases. Perforant-path-associated and some COUP-TFII-positive interneurons are strongly coupled to both fast and slow gamma oscillations, but basket and dendritic-layer-innervating cells are weakly coupled to fast gamma oscillations only. During sharp waves, different interneuron types are activated, inhibited, or remain unaffected. We suggest that specialization in pyramidal cell domain and glutamatergic input-specific operations, reflected in the position of GABAergic terminals, is the evolutionary drive underlying the diversity of cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons.
Effects of Regulation on Utility Financing: Theory and Evidence

This paper examines the financing decisions of regulated public utilities. It is argued that the regulatory process affects utility financing choices both by conditioning the environment in which these choices are made and by creating opportunities for firms to influence the regulated price through strategic financing behavior. The nature of this regulatory effect continually changes, however, as economic conditions change and as regulators, firms and consumers adapt to one another's decisions. The direction of the impact on utility financing, therefore, may differ both over time and across regulatory jurisdictions. This theory of regulatory influence is tested by examining several episodes in the financing experience of U.S. electric utilities from 1912 to 1979. Evidence of a regulatory effect on utility financing is found particularly for the early years of state commission regulation. Examples of an adaptive response pattern on the part of regulators, firms and consumers are also cited.
Outlier Document Filtering Applied to the Extractive Summarization

— Summarization requires selection of the more informative sentences within a set of documents. Generally, process assumes the document set includes related topics to a subject. However, some of the documents may be outlier and the effect of an outlier document might affect the success of extractive summary. Research is focused on filtering documents at the extraction stage these are outlier. Extraction finds the outlier documents far distance from representative document set word vector (DSWV). DUC 2006 data set is used for tests. System summaries are compared with the systems generated by DUC participants. Results points out that filtering outlier documents overwhelm all the systems fairly.