Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conditions for parallel execution of functions in data mining algorithm

The paper describes necessary and sufficient conditions for parallel execution of functions in data mining algorithms. The said conditions take into account data connections between functions based on a variety of usable and modifiable mining model's elements. We determine the conditions for parallel execution in computing environments with distributed and shared memory. As an example, we describe the determination of the conditions for parallel execution of Naïve Bayes classifier functions.
Forecasting Methods in Finance

Our review highlights some of the key challenges in financial forecasting problems and opportunities arising from the unique features of financial data. We analyze the difficulty of establishing predictability in an environment with a low signal-to-noise ratio, persistent predictors, and instability in predictive relations arising from competitive pressures and investors’ learning. We discuss approaches for forecasting the mean, variance, and probability distribution of asset returns. Finally, we discuss how to evaluate financial forecasts while accounting for the possibility that numerous forecasting models may have been considered, leading to concerns of data mining.
A Digital Multigate Doppler Method for High Frequency Ultrasound

Noninvasive visualization of blood flow with high frequency Doppler ultrasound has been extensively used to assess the morphology and hemodynamics of the microcirculation. A completely digital implementation of multigate pulsed-wave (PW) Doppler method was proposed in this paper for high frequency ultrasound applications. Analog mixer was eliminated by a digital demodulator and the same data acquisition path was shared with traditional B-mode imaging which made the design compact and flexible. Hilbert transform based quadrature demodulation scheme was employed to achieve the multigate Doppler acquisition. A programmable high frequency ultrasound platform was also proposed to facilitate the multigate flow visualization. Experimental results showed good performance of the proposed method. Parabolic velocity gradient inside the vessel and velocity profile with different time slots were acquired to demonstrate the functionality of the multigate Doppler. Slow wall motion was also recorded by the proposed method.
Disruption of the Gut Microbiota With Antibiotics Exacerbates Acute Vascular Rejection

Background The gut microbiota influences many immunological processes but how its disruption affects transplant rejection is poorly understood. Methods Interposition grafting of aortic segments was used to examine vascular rejection. The gut microbiota was disrupted in graft recipients using an antibiotic cocktail (ampicillin, vancomycin, metronidazole, neomycin sulfate) in their drinking water. Results Treatment of mice with antibiotics severely reduced total bacterial content in the intestine and disrupted the bacterial composition. Short-term treatment of mice for only the first 3 weeks of life resulted in the population of the intestine in mature mice with bacterial communities that were mildly different from untreated mice, containing slightly more Clostridia and less Bacteroides. Antibiotic disruption of the gut microbiota of graft recipients, either for their entire life or only during the first 3 weeks of life, resulted in increased medial injury of allograft arteries that is reflective of acute vascular rejection but did not affect intimal thickening reflective of transplant arteriosclerosis. Exacerbated vascular rejection resulting from disruption of the gut microbiota was related to increased infiltration of allograft arteries by neutrophils. Conclusions Disruption of the gut microbiota early in life results in exacerbation of immune responses that cause acute vascular rejection.
Assessment of Variation in Bacterial Composition among Microhabitats in a Mangrove Environment Using DGGE Fingerprints and Barcoded Pyrosequencing

Here, we use DGGE fingerprinting and barcoded pyrosequencing data, at six cut-off levels (85–100%), of all bacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria to assess composition in the rhizosphere of nursery plants and nursery-raised transplants, native plants and bulk sediment in a mangrove habitat. When comparing compositional data based on DGGE fingerprinting and barcoded pyrosequencing at different cut-off levels, all revealed highly significant differences in composition among microhabitats. Procrustes superimposition revealed that ordination results using cut-off levels from 85–100% and DGGE fingerprint data were highly congruent with the standard 97% cut-off level. The various approaches revealed a primary gradient in composition from nursery to mangrove samples. The affinity between the nursery and transplants was greatest when using Betaproteobacteria followed by Alphaproteobacteria data. There was a distinct secondary gradient in composition from transplants to bulk sediment with native plants intermediate, which was most prevalent using all bacteria at intermediate cut-off levels (92–97%). Our results show that PCR-DGGE provides a robust and cost effective exploratory approach and is effective in distinguishing among a priori defined groups.
On the Properties of One-Dimensional Infrastructure-Based Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

Many wireless multi-hop networks are deployed with some infrastructure support. Existing results on ad-hoc networks are inadequate to fully understand the properties of those networks. In this paper, we study the properties of 1-D infrastructure-based multi-hop networks. Specifically, we consider networks with two types of nodes, i.e. ordinary nodes and powerful nodes. Ordinary nodes are i.i. d. and Poissonly distributed in a unit interval. Powerful nodes are arbitrarily distributed within the same unit interval. These powerful nodes are inter-connected via some backbone infrastructure. The network is said to be connected if each ordinary node is connected (possibly through a multi-hop path) to at least one of the powerful nodes. We obtain analytical results for the connectivity probability and the average number of clusters in the network. We also prove for the first time that the optimum powerful node distribution that minimizes the average number of clusters, and maximizes the asymptotic connectivity probability, is to deploy these powerful nodes in an equi-distant fashion. These results are important for the design and deployment of 1-D infrastructure-based networks.
Efficient simulation of QC LDPC decoding on GPU platform by CUDA

An efficient parallel simulation scheme of quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoding is proposed to improve the simulation efficiency greatly. It employs multi-threads with the multi-processors of a graphic processing unit (GPU) to perform the simulation of LDPC decoding in parallel. Other than full hardware based LDPC decoding, it obtains good features of low cost, easy programming complexity by using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) techniques. The CUDA also provides parallel computing by the GPU with efficient multi-thread computation and very high memory bandwidth. Based on the proposed scheme, all bit nodes or check nodes can be updated in an LDPC decoding iteration simultaneously. Therefore, it provides an efficient and fast approach of QC LDPC decoding.
Directional Microphone Contralateral Routing of Signals in Cochlear Implant Users: A Within-Subjects Comparison

Objectives: For medical or financial reasons, bilateral cochlear implantation is not always possible in bilaterally deafened patients. In such cases, a contralateral routing of signals (CROS) device could complement the monaural implant. The goal of our study was to compare the benefit of three different conditions: (1) unilateral cochlear implant (CI) alone, (2) unilateral CI complemented with a directional CROS microphone, and (3) bilateral CIs. Design: Twelve bilateral experienced CI users were tested. Speech reception in noise and sound localization were measured in the three above-mentioned conditions. Patients evaluated which condition they presumed to be activated and the subjective benefit on a hearing scale. Results: Compared with the unilateral CI condition, the additional CROS device provided significantly better speech intelligibility in noise when speech signals came from the front or side of the CROS microphone. Only small subjective improvement was observed. Bilateral-activated CIs further improved the hearing performance. This was the only condition where sound localization was possible. Subjective evaluation showed a clear preference for the bilateral CI treatment. Conclusions: In bilateral deafened patients, bilateral implantation is the most preferable form of treatment. However, patients with one implant only could benefit from an additional directional microphone CROS device.
TOUSE: A Fair User Selection Mechanism Based on Dynamic Time Warping for MU-MIMO Networks

Multi-user Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) has potential for prominently enhancing the capacity of wireless network by simultaneously transmitting to multiple users. User selection is an unavoidable problem which bottlenecks the gain of MU-MIMO to a great extent. Major state-of-the-art works are focusing on improving network throughput by using Channel State Information (CSI), however, the overhead of CSI feedback becomes unacceptable when the number of users is large. Some work does well in balancing tradeoff between complexity and achievable throughput but is lack of consideration of fairness. Current works universally ignore the rational utilizing of time resources, which may lead the improvements of network throughput to a standstill. In this paper, we propose TOUSE, a scalable and fair user selection scheme for MU-MIMO. The core design is dynamic-time-warping-based user selection mechanism for downlink MU-MIMO, which could make full use of concurrent transmitting time. TOUSE also presents a novel data-rate estimation method without any CSI feedback, providing supports for user selections. Simulation result shows that TOUSE significantly outperforms traditional contention-based user selection schemes in both throughput and fairness in an indoor condition.
Subclones in B-lymphoma cell lines: isogenic models for the study of gene regulation

Genetic heterogeneity though common in tumors has been rarely documented in cell lines. To examine how often B-lymphoma cell lines are comprised of subclones, we performed immunoglobulin (IG) heavy chain hypermutation analysis. Revealing that subclones are not rare in B-cell lymphoma cell lines, 6/49 IG hypermutated cell lines (12%) consisted of subclones with individual IG mutations. Subclones were also identified in 2/284 leukemia/lymphoma cell lines exhibiting bimodal CD marker expression. We successfully isolated 10 subclones from four cell lines (HG3, SU-DHL-5, TMD-8, U-2932). Whole exome sequencing was performed to molecularly characterize these subclones. We describe in detail the clonal structure of cell line HG3, derived from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. HG3 consists of three subclones each bearing clone-specific aberrations, gene expression and DNA methylation patterns. While donor patient leukemic cells were CD5+, two of three HG3 subclones had independently lost this marker. CD5 on HG3 cells was regulated by epigenetic/transcriptional mechanisms rather than by alternative splicing as reported hitherto. In conclusion, we show that the presence of subclones in cell lines carrying individual mutations and characterized by sets of differentially expressed genes is not uncommon. We show also that these subclones can be useful isogenic models for regulatory and functional studies.
Portable Functional Neuroimaging as an Environmental Epidemiology Tool: A How-To Guide for the Use of fNIRS in Field Studies

Summary: The widespread application of functional neuroimaging within the field of environmental epidemiology has the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of how environmental toxicants affect brain function. Because many epidemiological studies take place in remote and frequently changing environments, it is necessary that the primary neuroimaging approach adopted by the epidemiology community be robust to many environments, easy to use, and, preferably, mobile. Here, we outline our use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to collect functional brain imaging data from Costa Rican farm workers enrolled in an epidemiological study on the health effects of chronic pesticide exposure. While couched in this perspective, we focus on the methodological considerations that are necessary to conduct a mobile fNIRS study in a diverse range of environments. Thus, this guide is intended to be generalizable to all research scenarios and projects in which fNIRS may be used to collect functional brain imaging data in epidemiological field surveys. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2049
Approach to automatic identification of terrorist and radical content in social networks messages

Terrorist and radical groups of people use instant messengers and accounts on social networks to publish propaganda messages. Blocking such accounts is one of the most effective methods of countering them. To do this, analysts need to read and process a huge amount of information. In this paper we propose an approach based on machine learning that will automate the process of processing and classifying messages into radical and non-radical messages.
Cross-season vehicle localization using bag of local 3D features

This paper addresses the problem of bag-of-words (BoW)-based vehicle self-localization from a novel 3D point cloud data perspective. In this novel problem domain, a major limitation of BoW scene models is lack of spatial information: BoW methods ignore the spatial layout information for the features, and hence, they have severely limited descriptive ability. We address this issue by explicitly modeling the input point cloud from a unique viewpoint; the pose of the local feature is defined with respect to this unique viewpoint, and can be viewed as an additional invariant feature for discriminative scene retrieval. Experimental results from a challenging cross-season vehicle localization scenario verify the efficacy of the proposed approach.
Process Modeling of Next-Generation Liquid Fuel Production - Commercial Hydrocracking Process and Biodiesel Manufacturing

This dissertation includes two process modeling studies – (1) predictive modeling of large-scale integrated refinery reaction and fractionation systems from plant data – hydrocracking process; and (2) integrated process modeling and product design of biodiesel manufacturing. 1. Predictive Modeling of Large-Scale Integrated Refinery Reaction and Fractionation Systems from Plant Data – Hydrocracking Processes: This work represents a workflow to develop, validate and apply a predictive model for rating and optimization of large-scale integrated refinery reaction and fractionation systems from plant data. We demonstrate the workflow with two commercial processes – medium-pressure hydrocracking unit with a feed capacity of 1 million ton per year and high-pressure hydrocracking unit with a feed capacity of 2 million ton per year in the Asia Pacific. This work represents the detailed procedure for data acquisition to ensure accurate mass balances, and for implementing the workflow using Excel spreadsheets and a commercial software tool, Aspen HYSYS from Aspen Technology, Inc. The workflow includes special tools to facilitate an accurate transition from lumped kinetic components used in reactor modeling to the boiling point based pseudo-components required in the rigorous tray-by-tray distillation simulation. Two to three months of plant data are used to validate models’ predictability. The resulting models accurately predict unit performance, product yields, and fuel properties from the corresponding operating conditions. 2. Integrated Process Modeling and Product Design of Biodiesel Manufacturing: This work
Optimum Screw Configuration for the Fixation of Sanders Type IIC Tongue-Type Fractures? A Biomechanical Study.

BACKGROUND The minimally invasive technique (percutaneous screw fixation) is one of the options for treating tongue-type IIC fractures successfully. The aim of this study was to assess the biomechanics of four different screw configurations used for the fixation of tongue-type IIC calcaneal fractures. METHODS Identical osteotomies, recapitulating a type IIC injury, were created in synthetic calcaneus specimens using a saw. The specimens were randomly assigned to one of the four fixation groups (n = 7 per group): two divergent screws, two parallel screws, two parallel screws plus one screw axially oriented toward the sustentaculum tali, and three parallel screws. A load test was performed on all of the groups, and the specimens were then tested using offset axial loading until 2, 4, and 5 mm of fracture displacement occurred. RESULTS Mean force values for the three-parallel screw construct at 2-, 4-, and 5-mm fracture displacements were found to be significantly higher compared with those for the other groups. CONCLUSIONS The use of a three-parallel screw construct seems to provide more stability in the treatment of tongue-type IIC fractures.
A multinational study on motor function in early-onset FSHD

Objectives To investigate motor function associations with age, sex, and D4Z4 repeats among participants with early-onset facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) type 1 as defined by weakness onset before 10 years of age. Methods We collected standardized motor assessments, including manual muscle testing (MMT), quantitative muscle testing, functional motor evaluations, and clinical severity scores (CSSs), at 12 Cooperative International Neuromuscular Research Group centers. To measure associations, we used linear regression models adjusted for sex, evaluation age, age at onset of weakness, and D4Z4 repeats. Results Among 52 participants (60% female, mean age 22.9 ± 14.7 years), weakness was most pronounced in the shoulder and abdominal musculature. Older enrollment age was associated with greater CSSs (p = 0.003). When adjusted for enrollment age, sex, and D4Z4 repeats, younger age at onset of facial weakness was associated with greater CSSs, slower velocities in timed function tests, and lower MMT scores (p < 0.05). Conclusion Significant clinical variability was observed in early-onset FSHD. Earlier age at onset of facial weakness was associated with greater disease severity. Longitudinal assessments are needed to determine the rate of disease progression in this population.
Structure of traffic information related to suddenly occurring events on expressway

Expressways in Japan, some of the graphical symbols on VMS are difficult to comprehend. To design easy-to-understand symbols for drivers, the referents of the symbols should appropriate. The referents must be understandable and be equipped concrete elements that can be drawn as the pictures. Therefore, to investigate the understandability of traffic events that are current referents and whether these could be replaced by more concrete words, we analyzed the images related to traffic events that were analogized by drivers. From these results, we concluded that the causal relationships of the information related to traffic event should be grasped structurally for the establishment of the referent.
Imitation learning for vision-based lane keeping assistance

This paper aims to investigate direct imitation learning from human drivers for the task of lane keeping assistance in highway and country roads using grayscale images from a single front view camera. The employed method utilizes convolutional neural networks (CNN) to act as a policy that is driving a vehicle. The policy is successfully learned via imitation learning using real-world data collected from human drivers and is evaluated in closed-loop simulated environments, demonstrating good driving behaviour and a robustness for domain changes. Evaluation is based on two proposed performance metrics measuring how well the vehicle is positioned in a lane and the smoothness of the driven trajectory.
Therapeutic Potentials of BDNF/TrkB in Breast Cancer; Current Status and Perspectives

Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a potent neurotrophic factor that has been shown to stimulate breast cancer cell growth and metastasis via tyrosine kinase receptors TrkA, TrkB, and the p75NTR death receptor. The aberrant activation of BDNF/TrkB pathways can modulate several signaling pathways, including Akt/PI3K, Jak/STAT, NF‐kB, UPAR/UPA, Wnt/β‐catenin, and VEGF pathways as well as the ER receptor. Several microRNAs have been identified that are involved in the modulation of BDNF/TrkB pathways. These include miR‐206, miR‐204, MiR‐200a/c, MiR‐210, MiR‐134, and MiR‐191; and these may be of value as prognostic and predictive biomarkers for detecting patients at high risk of developing breast cancer. It has been also been demonstrated that a high expression of genes involved in the BDNF pathway in breast cancer is associated with poor clinical outcome and reduced survival of patients. Several approaches have been developed for targeting this pathway, for example TKr inhibitors (AZD6918, CEP‐701) and RNA interference. The aim of the current review was to provide an overview of the role of BDNF/TrkB pathways in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and its value as a potential therapeutic target. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 2502–2515, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Primary intracranial angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma: a case report and literature review

Abstract Angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma (AFH) is a tumour primarily occurring in the extremities which can very rarely occur as an isolated intracranial lesion. We report a case of a 22-year-old woman presenting with generalized seizure and visual field deficit due to an occipital mass, which immunohistochemistry showed to be an AFH.
Comparison of nutrient intake in adolescents and adults with and without food allergies

BACKGROUND Exclusion diets for the management of food allergy pose a risk of nutritional deficiencies and inadequate growth in children, yet less is known about their effect in adolescents and adults. The present study aimed to compare the dietary intake of adolescents and adults with food allergies with that of a control group. METHODS A food allergic and a control group were recruited from Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in the UK. Participants were recruited from a food allergy charity, allergy clinics, a local school and university, and previous research studies. Macro and micronutrient intake data were obtained using a 4-day estimated food diary. Sociodemographic and anthropometric data was collected via a constructed questionnaire. RESULTS This cross-sectional study included 81 adolescents (48 food allergic and 33 controls) aged 11-18 years and 70 adults aged 19-65 years (23 food allergic and 47 controls). Overall, 19 (22.8%) adolescents and 19 (27.1%) adults took dietary supplements, with no difference according to food allergic status. Adolescents with food allergy had higher intakes of niacin and selenium than adolescents without (P < 0.05). This difference persisted when dietary supplements were removed from the analysis. Adults with food allergies had higher intakes of folate and zinc than those without (P < 0.05); however, this difference did not persist when dietary supplements were removed from the analysis. Across all participants, the intake of several micronutrients was suboptimal. There was no difference in protein or energy intake, or body mass index, according to food allergic status. CONCLUSIONS The dietary intake of food allergic participants was broadly similar and, in some cases, better than that of control participants. However, suboptimal intakes of several micronutrients were observed across all participants, suggesting poor food choices.