Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of Conditionals in Spoken Utterances

State-of-the-art intelligent assistant systems such as Siri & Co. struggle with conditionals. They reliably react to ordinary commands. However, their architectures are not designed to cope with complex conditional queries. We propose a system to overcome these limitations. Our approach models if-then-else constructs in spoken utterances explicitly. The model bridges the gap between linguistic and programmatic semantics. To proof our concept, we apply a rule-based approach to extract conditionals. For our prototype we use part-of-speech and chunk tags provided by NLP tools. We make use of coreference information to determine the reference frame of a condition. The explicit modeling of conditionals allows us to evaluate the accuracy of our approach independently from other language understanding tasks. The prototype works well in the domain of humanoid robotics. In a user study we achieve F1 scores of 0.783 (automatic speech recognition) up to 0.898 (manual transcripts) on unrestricted utterances.
The matricellular protein TSP1 promotes human and mouse endothelial cell senescence through CD47 and Nox1

Endothelial cell senescence induced by TSP1 and its receptor CD47 is mediated by Nox1-dependent oxidative stress. Keeping endothelial cells young Aging causes once-proliferating cells to undergo cell cycle arrest and become senescent, thus impairing tissue and organ function. Meijles et al. delineated a pathway that induced senescence in mouse and human endothelial cells. Binding of the matricellular protein TSP1 to its receptor CD47 activated the enzyme Nox1, which generates reactive oxygen species. The subsequent oxidative stress triggered a p53-dependent DNA damage response pathway that resulted in cell cycle arrest. These results suggest that targeting TSP1, CD47, or Nox1 could delay or reverse cellular senescence in the endothelium, which could help improve the quality of life for the growing aging population. Senescent cells withdraw from the cell cycle and do not proliferate. The prevalence of senescent compared to normally functioning parenchymal cells increases with age, impairing tissue and organ homeostasis. A contentious principle governing this process has been the redox theory of aging. We linked matricellular protein thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) and its receptor CD47 to the activation of NADPH oxidase 1 (Nox1), but not of the other closely related Nox isoforms, and associated oxidative stress, and to senescence in human cells and aged tissue. In human endothelial cells, TSP1 promoted senescence and attenuated cell cycle progression and proliferation. At the molecular level, TSP1 increased Nox1-dependent generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to the increased abundance of the transcription factor p53. p53 mediated a DNA damage response that led to senescence through Rb and p21cip, both of which inhibit cell cycle progression. Nox1 inhibition blocked the ability of TSP1 to increase p53 nuclear localization and p21cip abundance and its ability to promote senescence. Mice lacking TSP1 showed decreases in ROS production, p21cip expression, p53 activity, and aging-induced senescence. Conversely, lung tissue from aging humans displayed increases in the abundance of vascular TSP1, Nox1, p53, and p21cip. Finally, genetic ablation or pharmacological blockade of Nox1 in human endothelial cells attenuated TSP1-mediated ROS generation, restored cell cycle progression, and protected against senescence. Together, our results provide insights into the functional interplay between TSP1 and Nox1 in the regulation of endothelial senescence and suggest potential targets for controlling the aging process at the molecular level.
Multiple Scales of Control on the Structure and Spatial Distribution of Woody Vegetation in African Savanna Watersheds

Factors controlling savanna woody vegetation structure vary at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and as a consequence, unraveling their combined effects has proven to be a classic challenge in savanna ecology. We used airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to map three-dimensional woody vegetation structure throughout four savanna watersheds, each contrasting in geologic substrate and climate, in Kruger National Park, South Africa. By comparison of the four watersheds, we found that geologic substrate had a stronger effect than climate in determining watershed-scale differences in vegetation structural properties, including cover, height and crown density. Generalized Linear Models were used to assess the spatial distribution of woody vegetation structural properties, including cover, height and crown density, in relation to mapped hydrologic, topographic and fire history traits. For each substrate and climate combination, models incorporating topography, hydrology and fire history explained up to 30% of the remaining variation in woody canopy structure, but inclusion of a spatial autocovariate term further improved model performance. Both crown density and the cover of shorter woody canopies were determined more by unknown factors likely to be changing on smaller spatial scales, such as soil texture, herbivore abundance or fire behavior, than by our mapped regional-scale changes in topography and hydrology. We also detected patterns in spatial covariance at distances up to 50–450 m, depending on watershed and structural metric. Our results suggest that large-scale environmental factors play a smaller role than is often attributed to them in determining woody vegetation structure in southern African savannas. This highlights the need for more spatially-explicit, wide-area analyses using high resolution remote sensing techniques.
3D face recognition on low-cost depth sensors

This paper deals with the biometric recognition of 3D faces with the emphasis on the low-cost depth sensors; such are Microsoft Kinect and SoftKinetic DS325. The presented approach is based on the score-level fusion of individual recognition units. Each unit processes the input face mesh and produces a curvature, depth, or texture representation. This image representation is further processed by specific Gabor or Gauss-Laguerre complex filter. The absolute response is then projected to lower-dimension representations and the feature vector is thus extracted. Comparison scores of individual recognition units are combined using transformation-based, classifier-based, or density-based score-level fusion. The results suggest that even poor quality low-resolution scans containing holes and noise might be successfully used for recognition in relatively small databases.
Men Who Have Sex With Men in Peru: Acceptability of Medication-Assisted Therapy for Treating Alcohol Use Disorders

In Peru, the HIV epidemic is concentrated in men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW). Multiple studies correlate alcohol use disorders (AUDs) with risky sexual behaviors among Peruvian MSM. Qualitative research was used to inform a clinical trial on the acceptability of medication-assisted therapies to assist management of AUDs and improve antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among MSM/TGW in Peru. Three focus groups involving HIV-infected or HIV-uninfected MSM/TGW (n = 26) with AUDs (AUDIT ≥ 8) were transcribed, translated from Spanish into English, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Despite having an AUD, participants considered themselves “social” drinkers, minimized their drinking behaviors, and differed about whether or not alcohol problems could be treated. Participants expressed skepticism about medication for treating AUDs. Three concepts emerged as necessary components of a treatment program for alcohol problems: cost, family support, and the potential to drink less alcohol without attaining total abstinence. This study reveals important areas of education to increase potential acceptability of a medication for treating AUDs among MSM/TGW. Given the social conditions and knowledge base of the participants, medication-assisted therapies using naltrexone may be a beneficial strategy for MSM with AUDs.
Shopping Context and the Impulsive and Compulsive Buyer

Impulsive and compulsive buying are behaviors with unique antecedents and consequences. Each has been studied at length but not in the duel context of offline and online retail environments. This current research examines the interaction of shopping context (online or offline) in relation to impulsive and compulsive buying behaviors. We find evidence that compulsive buying tendency is positively associated with online shopping, while impulse buying tendency is positively associated with offline shopping. The implications of this research suggest that purchasing as a result of compulsive and impulsive buying tendencies vary as a result of the shopping context which includes physical proximity to product and store atmospherics. This study reports the behavior of 353 young adults who provide a survey and shopping diary data over a two-week period during the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.
Dynamics of Biofilm Regrowth in Drinking Water Distribution Systems

ABSTRACT The majority of biomass within water distribution systems is in the form of attached biofilm. This is known to be central to drinking water quality degradation following treatment, yet little understanding of the dynamics of these highly heterogeneous communities exists. This paper presents original information on such dynamics, with findings demonstrating patterns of material accumulation, seasonality, and influential factors. Rigorous flushing operations repeated over a 1-year period on an operational chlorinated system in the United Kingdom are presented here. Intensive monitoring and sampling were undertaken, including time-series turbidity and detailed microbial analysis using 16S rRNA Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The results show that bacterial dynamics were influenced by differences in the supplied water and by the material remaining attached to the pipe wall following flushing. Turbidity, metals, and phosphate were the main factors correlated with the distribution of bacteria in the samples. Coupled with the lack of inhibition of biofilm development due to residual chlorine, this suggests that limiting inorganic nutrients, rather than organic carbon, might be a viable component in treatment strategies to manage biofilms. The research also showed that repeat flushing exerted beneficial selective pressure, giving another reason for flushing being a viable advantageous biofilm management option. This work advances our understanding of microbiological processes in drinking water distribution systems and helps inform strategies to optimize asset performance. IMPORTANCE This research provides novel information regarding the dynamics of biofilm formation in real drinking water distribution systems made of different materials. This new knowledge on microbiological process in water supply systems can be used to optimize the performance of the distribution network and to guarantee safe and good-quality drinking water to consumers.
Inclusion clusters in the archetype-blending continuum theory

In this chapter, we will present a contemporary review of the hitherto numerical characterization of nanowires (NWs). The bulk of the research reported in the literatures concern metallic NWs including Al, Cu, Au, Ag, Ni, and their alloys NWs. Research has also been reported for the investigation of some nonmetallic NWs, such as ZnO, GaN, SiC, SiO2. A plenty of researches have been conducted regarding the numerical investigation of NWs. Issues analyzed include structural changes under different loading situations, the formation and propagation of dislocations, and the effect of the magnitude of applied loading on deformation mechanics. Efforts have also been made to correlate simulation results with experimental measurements. However, direct comparisons are difficult since most simulations are carried out under conditions of extremely high strain/loading rates and small simulation samples due to computational limitations. Despite of the immense numerical studies of NWs, a significant work still lies ahead in terms of problem formulation, interpretation of results, identification and delineation of deformation mechanisms, and constitutive characterization of behavior. In this chapter, we present an introduction of the commonly adopted experimental and numerical approaches in studies of the deformation of NWs in Section 1. An overview of findings concerning perfect NWs under different loading situations, such as tension, compression, torsion, and bending are presented in Section 2. In Section 3, we will detail some recent results from the authors’ own work with an emphasis on the study of influences from different pre-existing defect on NWs. Some thoughts on future directions of the computational mechanics of NWs together with Conclusions will be given in the last section.
American College of Physicians diabetes guidelines attempt to turn back the clock, conflating good HbA1c with hypoglycemia

The Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians (ACP) recently released the following Guidance Statements, "Clinicians should aim to achieve anHbA1c level between 7% and 8% in most patients with type 2diabetes," and "Clinicians should consider deintensifying pharmacologic therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes whoachieve HbA1c levels less than 6.5%"(1 ).
Data processing and compact representation of measured isotropic spectral BRDF

This paper presents the methods for both data processing and compact representation of measured isotropic spectral BRDF. For the data processing, we develop a numerical method for filtering the noises, re-sampling the data from non-uniform sampling to uniform sampling, and interpolation. For the compact representation, we propose a method to represent the spectral BRDF in both the spectral and spatial domains. In spectral domain, for each pair of the incident and outgoing directions, we represent the spectral BRDF with Fourier coefficients. In spatial domain, for all the outgoing directions of a given incident direction, we represent the same-order Fourier coefficients either directly using a linear combination of spherical harmonics or a linear combination of spherical harmonics and a Gaussian, depending on their angular dependencies. Three Gaussian expressions are presented. Numerical studies are given for a measured isotropic spectral BRDF.
Building a generic platform for big sensor data application

The drive toward smart cities alongside the rising adoption of personal sensors is leading to a torrent of sensor data. While systems exist for storing and managing sensor data, the real value of such data is the insight which can be generated from it. However there is currently no platform which enables sensor data to be taken from collection, through use in models to produce useful data products. The architecture of such a platform is a current research question in the field of Big Data and Smart Cities. In this paper we explore five key challenges in this field and provide a response through a sensor data platform “Concinnity” which can take sensor data from collection to final product via a data repository and workflow system. This will enable rapid development of applications built on sensor data using data fusion and the integration and composition of models to form novel workflows. We summarize the key features of our approach, exploring how it enables value to be derived from sensor data efficiently.
A Highly Thermostable Kanamycin Resistance Marker Expands the Tool Kit for Genetic Manipulation of Caldicellulosiruptor bescii

ABSTRACT Caldicellulosiruptor bescii, an anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium with an optimal growth temperature of 78°C, is the most thermophilic cellulose degrader known. It is of great biotechnological interest, as it efficiently deconstructs nonpretreated lignocellulosic plant biomass. Currently, its genetic manipulation relies on a mutant uracil auxotrophic background strain that contains a random deletion in the pyrF genome region. The pyrF gene serves as a genetic marker to select for uracil prototrophy, and it can also be counterselected for loss via resistance to the compound 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA). To expand the C. bescii genetic tool kit, kanamycin resistance was developed as a selection for genetic manipulation. A codon-optimized version of the highly thermostable kanamycin resistance gene (named Cbhtk) allowed the use of kanamycin selection to obtain transformants of either replicating or integrating vector constructs in C. bescii. These strains showed resistance to kanamycin at concentrations >50 μg · ml−1, whereas wild-type C. bescii was sensitive to kanamycin at 10 μg · ml−1. In addition, placement of the Cbhtk marker between homologous recombination regions in an integrating vector allowed direct selection of a chromosomal mutation using both kanamycin and 5-FOA. Furthermore, the use of kanamycin selection enabled the targeted deletion of the pyrE gene in wild-type C. bescii, generating a uracil auxotrophic genetic background strain resistant to 5-FOA. The pyrE gene functioned as a counterselectable marker, like pyrF, and was used together with Cbhtk in the ΔpyrE background strain to delete genes encoding lactate dehydrogenase and the CbeI restriction enzyme. IMPORTANCE Caldicellulosiruptor bescii is a thermophilic anaerobic bacterium with an optimal growth temperature of 78°C, and it has the ability to efficiently deconstruct nonpretreated lignocellulosic plant biomass. It is, therefore, of biotechnological interest for genetic engineering applications geared toward biofuel production. The current genetic system used with C. bescii is based upon only a single selection strategy, and this uses the gene involved in a primary biosynthetic pathway. There are many advantages with an additional genetic selection using an antibiotic. This presents a challenge for thermophilic microorganisms, as only a limited number of antibiotics are stable above 50°C, and a thermostable version of the enzyme conferring antibiotic resistance must be obtained. In this work, we have developed a selection system for C. bescii using the antibiotic kanamycin and have shown that, in combination with the biosynthetic gene marker, it can be used to efficiently delete genes in this organism.
Fault diagnosis of engine mission using modified Elman neural network

Based on the fault diagnosis system of engine mission and Elman neural network, it analyses the shortage diagnosis of Elman network, and puts forward the modified Elman network, and applied in fault diagnosis of engine mission. By using conventional “frequency domain” analysis method, modified Elman networks fault diagnosis of engine mission is carried out. It is proved that fault diagnosis of engine mission based on neural networks has upper precision and diagnosed engine mission, improved effectiveness and quality of diagnosis.
The comparative efficacy and safety of sugammadex and neostigmine in reversing neuromuscular blockade in adults. A Cochrane systematic review with meta‐analysis and trial sequential analysis

We compared the efficacy and safety of sugammadex and neostigmine in reversing neuromuscular blockade in adults. Our outcomes were: recovery time from second twitch to train‐of‐four ratio > 0.9; recovery time from post‐tetanic count 1–5 to train‐of‐four ratio > 0.9; and risk of composite adverse and serious adverse events. We searched for randomised clinical trials irrespective of publication status and date, blinding status, outcomes reported or language. We included 41 studies with 4206 participants. Time to reversal of neuromuscular blockade from second twitch to a train‐of‐four ratio > 0.9 was 2.0 min with sugammadex 2 mg.kg−1 and 12.9 min with neostigmine 0.05 mg.kg−1, with a mean difference (MD) (95%CI)) of 10.2 (8.5–12.0) (I2 = 84%, 10 studies, n = 835, Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE): moderate quality). Time to reversal of neuromuscular blockade from a post‐tetanic count of 1–5 to a train‐of‐four ratio > 0.9 was 2.9 min with sugammadex 4 mg.kg−1 and 48.8 min with neostigmine 0.07 mg.kg−1, with a MD (95%CI) of 45.8 (39.4–52.2) (I2 = 0%, 2 studies, n = 114, GRADE: low quality). There were significantly fewer composite adverse events in the sugammadex group compared with neostigmine, with a risk ratio (95%CI) of 0.60 (0.49–0.74) (I2 = 40%, 28 studies, n = 2298, number needed to treat (NNT): 8, GRADE: moderate quality). Specifically, the risk of bradycardia (RR (95%CI) 0.16 (0.07–0.34), n = 1218, NNT: 14, GRADE: moderate quality), postoperative nausea and vomiting (RR (95%CI) 0.52 (0.28–0.97), n = 389, NNT: 16, GRADE: low quality) and overall signs of postoperative residual paralysis (RR (95%CI) 0.40 (0.28–0.57), n = 1474, NNT: 13, GRADE: moderate quality) were all reduced. There was no significant difference regarding the risk of serious adverse events (RR 0.54, 95%CI 0.13–2.25, I2 = 0%, n = 959, GRADE: low quality). Sugammadex reverses neuromuscular blockade more rapidly than neostigmine and is associated with fewer adverse events.
Two Orangutan Species Have Evolved Different KIR Alleles and Haplotypes

The immune and reproductive functions of human NK cells are regulated by interactions of the C1 and C2 epitopes of HLA-C with C1-specific and C2-specific lineage III killer cell Ig-like receptors (KIR). This rapidly evolving and diverse system of ligands and receptors is restricted to humans and great apes. In this context, the orangutan has particular relevance because it represents an evolutionary intermediate, one having the C1 epitope and corresponding KIR but lacking the C2 epitope. Through a combination of direct sequencing, KIR genotyping, and data mining from the Great Ape Genome Project, we characterized the KIR alleles and haplotypes for panels of 10 Bornean orangutans and 19 Sumatran orangutans. The orangutan KIR haplotypes have between 5 and 10 KIR genes. The seven orangutan lineage III KIR genes all locate to the centromeric region of the KIR locus, whereas their human counterparts also populate the telomeric region. One lineage III KIR gene is Bornean specific, one is Sumatran specific, and five are shared. Of 12 KIR gene–content haplotypes, 5 are Bornean specific, 5 are Sumatran specific, and 2 are shared. The haplotypes have different combinations of genes encoding activating and inhibitory C1 receptors that can be of higher or lower affinity. All haplotypes encode an inhibitory C1 receptor, but only some haplotypes encode an activating C1 receptor. Of 130 KIR alleles, 55 are Bornean specific, 65 are Sumatran specific, and 10 are shared.