Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast and unsupervised methods for multilingual cognate clustering

In this paper we explore the use of unsupervised methods for detecting cognates in multilingual word lists. We use online EM to train sound segment similarity weights for computing similarity between two words. We tested our online systems on geographically spread sixteen different language groups of the world and show that the Online PMI system (Pointwise Mutual Information) outperforms a HMM based system and two linguistically motivated systems: LexStat and ALINE. Our results suggest that a PMI system trained in an online fashion can be used by historical linguists for fast and accurate identification of cognates in not so well-studied language families.
Serum enolase-2, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and serum cholesterol in smear-positive drug-naïve pulmonary tuberculosis

Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The present study determined the serum human enolase-2 (ENO-2), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and serum cholesterol levels as biological marker of disease activity and treatment response in smear-positive drug-naïve PTB. Materials and Methods: This case–control study was done in the Department of Medicine, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro/Hyderabad, Sindh, from January 2015 to April 2016. Thirty-five sputum smear-positive drug-naïve PTB patients and thirty controls were studied. MTB culture and drug sensitivity were performed at the Diagnostic and Research Laboratory of LUMHS. Serum ENO-2, hs-CRP, and serum cholesterol were estimated at baseline, 3rd and 6th month of antituberculosis (TB) therapy. Results: Serum ENO-2 and hs-CRP were found raised in PTB compared to controls and showed decrease of 13% and 21.55%, 19.6% and 31.5% at 3rd and 6th month, respectively (P = 0.0001). Serum ENO-2 revealed positive correlation with hs-CRP (r = 0.734, P = 0.0001), and serum cholesterol revealed negative correlation with ENO-2 and hs-CRP (r = −0.509, P = 0.0001) and (r = −0.566, P = 0.0001), respectively. Conclusion: The present study reports the baseline ENO-2 and hs-CRP were raised, and serum cholesterol was low in smear-positive PTB patients and the ENO-2 and hs-CRP were reduced by anti-TB drug therapy.
A generic serializer for mobile devices

In this paper we describe a serializer component completely realized in . NET managed code, able to run on a stripped versions of the . NET platform (e.g., COMPACT FRAMEWORK) and still generic enough to be used on . NET or other CLI compatible frameworks. Such a component is not normally provided with stock libraries in their compact version, since its implementation is quite tricky when relying on reduced reflection services. However, this component makes easier the development of distributed applications involving mobile devices and desktop computers or mainframes. Our implementation faced several problems ranging from lack of features in the base classes to the inter-framework portability problem, since the same object could have different implementation. The resulting product shows satisfactory performance figures and has a modular and flexible architecture.
IIIT at SemEval-2016 Task 11: Complex Word Identification using Nearest Centroid Classification

This paper describes the system that was submitted to SemEval2016 Task 11: Complex Word Identiﬁcation. It presents a preliminary investigation into exploring word difﬁculty for non-native English speakers. We developed two systems using Nearest Centroid Classiﬁ-cation technique to distinguish complex words from simple words. Optimized over G-score, the presented solution obtained a G-score of 0.67, while the winner achieved a G-score of 0.77 and the average G-score of all the submitted systems in the task was 0.56.
A Unified Use-Misuse Case Model for Capturing and Analysing Safety and Security Requirements

This paper proposes an enhanced use-misuse case model that allows both safety and security requirements to be captured during requirements elicitation. The proposed model extends the concept of misuse case by incorporating vulnerable use case and abuse case notations and relations that allows understanding and modeling different attackers and abusers behaviors during early stage of system development life cycle and finishes with a practical consistent combined model for engineering safety and security requirements.The model was successfully applied using health care information system gathered through the university of Kansas HISPC project. The authors were able to capture both security and safety requirements necessary for effective functioning of the system. In order to enhance the integration of the proposed model into risk analysis, the authors give both textual and detailed description of the model. The authors compare the proposed approach with other existing methods that identify and analyze safety and security requirements and discovered that it captures more security and safety threats.
Upk3b Is Dispensable for Development and Integrity of Urothelium and Mesothelium

The mesothelium, the lining of the coelomic cavities, and the urothelium, the inner lining of the urinary drainage system, are highly specialized epithelia that protect the underlying tissues from mechanical stress and seal them from the overlying fluid space. The development of these epithelia from simple precursors and the molecular characteristics of the mature tissues are poorly analyzed. Here, we show that uroplakin 3B (Upk3b), which encodes an integral membrane protein of the tetraspanin superfamily, is specifically expressed both in development as well as under homeostatic conditions in adult mice in the mesothelia of the body cavities, i.e., the epicardium and pericardium, the pleura and the peritoneum, and in the urothelium of the urinary tract. To analyze Upk3b function, we generated a creERT2 knock-in allele by homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells. We show that Upk3bcreERT2 represents a null allele despite the lack of creERT2 expression from the mutated locus. Morphological, histological and molecular analyses of Upk3b-deficient mice did not detect changes in differentiation or integrity of the urothelium and the mesothelia that cover internal organs. Upk3b is coexpressed with the closely related Upk3a gene in the urothelium but not in the mesothelium, leaving the possibility of a functional redundancy between the two genes in the urothelium only.
Fully Deniable Message Authentication Protocols Preserving Confidentiality

Although the objective of secure communication can be achieved by using cryptographic tools, the undeniability that results from cryptographic properties may create a potential threat to the sender of the message. Unfortunately, most existing deniable protocols only provide 1-out-of-2 deniability. When both parties (the sender and the receiver) are allowed to deny generating the message, a dispute might occur between these two parties. The 1-out-of-2 deniable protocol can result in an unfair resolution of the dispute. Therefore, we propose a new model of deniability, called 1-out-of-∞ deniability, that can provide full deniability. The 1-out-of-∞ deniability protocol allows the originator of the message to deny that he or she generated the message, since there are an infinite number of possible message generators; at the same time, all transmitted messages can be protected and authenticated between the sender and the intended receiver. Our design can be implemented by using any public-key cryptography technique. We also analyze the correctness of the proposed protocols based on logical rules, and two practical examples are given to illustrate our design.
Integration of QoS facilities into component container architectures

Component-based infrastructures provide support for the development and execution of component-based systems. However they have limitations in their application in real-time and reliable systems, because they do not integrate facilities to support these types of problems and include limitations of predictability and dependability. These infrastructures are designed to provide support to financial and e-commerce applications; they integrate as basic services the transaction, persistence, security and events. These are useful services in real-time and telecom applications, but these applications require other types of services to provide predictability and reliability. We introduce some practical solutions to integrate QoS (Quality of Service) services in the component infrastructures and the results that their business components can expect.
Strategic uncertainty and the ex post Nash property in large games

This paper elucidates the conceptual role that independent randomization plays in non-cooperative game theory. In the context of large (atomless) games in normal form, we present precise formalizations of the notions of a mixed strategy equilibrium (MSE) and of a randomized strategy equilibrium in distributional form (RSED). We offer a resolution of two longstanding open problems and show that (i) any MSE induces a RSED and any RSED can be lifted to a MSE, and (ii) a mixed strategy profile is a MSE if and only if it has the ex post Nash property. Our substantive results are a direct consequence of an exact law of large numbers that can be formalized in the analytic framework of a Fubini extension. We discuss how the “measurability” problem associated with a MSE of a large game is automatically resolved in such a framework. We also present an approximate result pertaining to a sequence of large but finite games.
A Time Tree for Scheduling and Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a scheduling and topology control scheme for wireless sensor networks. It uses time trees for sending data from the sensor node to the base station. For an energy efficient operation of the sensor networks in a distributed manner, time trees are built in order to reduce the collision probability and to minimize the total energy required to send data to the base station. A time tree is a data gathering tree where the base station is the root and each sensor node is either a relaying or a leaf node of the tree. Each tree operates in a different time schedule with possible different activation rate. Through the simulation, It is found that the proposed scheme that uses time trees shows better characteristics than the previous scheme in energy and data arrival rate to the burst traffic.
Randomized preprocessing of configuration space for path planning: articulated robots

This paper describes the application of a recent approach to path planning for robots with many degrees of freedom (DOF) to articulated robots moving in two or three dimensional static environments. The planning approach, which itself is not restricted to articulated robots, consists of a preprocessing and a planning stage. The preprocessing is done only once for a given environment and generates a connected network of randomly, but properly selected, collision-free configurations (nodes). The planning then connects any given initial and final configurations of the robot to two nodes of the network and computes a path through the network between these two nodes. We show that after paying the preprocessing cost, planning is extremely fast for many difficult examples involving 7-DOF and 12-DOF robots. The approach is particularly attractive for many-DOF robots which have to perform many successive point-to-point motions in the same environment. <<ETX>>
Distributed Policy Evaluation Under Multiple Behavior Strategies

We apply diffusion strategies to develop a fully-distributed cooperative reinforcement learning algorithm in which agents in a network communicate only with their immediate neighbors to improve predictions about their environment. The algorithm can also be applied to off-policy learning, meaning that the agents can predict the response to a behavior different from the actual policies they are following. The proposed distributed strategy is efficient, with linear complexity in both computation time and memory footprint. We provide a mean-square-error performance analysis and establish convergence under constant step-size updates, which endow the network with continuous learning capabilities. The results show a clear gain from cooperation: when the individual agents can estimate the solution, cooperation increases stability and reduces bias and variance of the prediction error; but, more importantly, the network is able to approach the optimal solution even when none of the individual agents can (e.g., when the individual behavior policies restrict each agent to sample a small portion of the state space).
Discriminative Transformation for Multi-Dimensional Temporal Sequences

Feature space transformation techniques have been widely studied for dimensionality reduction in vector-based feature space. However, these techniques are inapplicable to sequence data because the features in the same sequence are not independent. In this paper, we propose a method called max–min inter-sequence distance analysis (MMSDA) to transform features in sequences into a low-dimensional subspace such that different sequence classes are holistically separated. To utilize the temporal dependencies, MMSDA first aligns features in sequences from the same class to an adapted number of temporal states, and then, constructs the sequence class separability based on the statistics of these ordered states. To learn the transformation, MMSDA formulates the objective of maximizing the minimal pairwise separability in the latent subspace as a semi-definite programming problem and provides a new tractable and effective solution with theoretical proofs by constraints unfolding and pruning, convex relaxation, and within-class scatter compression. Extensive experiments on different tasks have demonstrated the effectiveness of MMSDA.
A 2.4~6GHz CMOS Broadband High-Gain Differential LNA for UWB and WLAN Receiver

A 2.4-6 GHz broadband CMOS differential LNA for WLAN and UWB receiver is presented. The LNA is fabricated with the 0.18 mum 1P6M standard CMOS process. Measurement of the chip is performed on a FR-4 PCB test fixture. In the UWB low-band (3 to 5.15GHz), the broadband LNA exhibit a gain of 17.5-18.2 dB, noise figure of 3.4-5dB, input/output return loss better than 10 dB, and input P1dB of -17 dBm, respectively. In the band from 2.4 to 3GHz (covering an 802.11b/g band), the LNA exhibit a gain of 17.5-18dB and noise figure less than 3.5dB. From 5.2 to 6GHz, the noise figure of the LNA becomes higher than 5 dB. The gain also decreases to about 15 dB. The DC supply is 1.8V
Purification and Characterization of an α-Glucosidase from Rhizobium sp. (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) Strain USDA 4280

ABSTRACT A novel α-glucosidase with an apparent subunit mass of 59 ± 0.5 kDa was purified from protein extracts of Rhizobium sp. strain USDA 4280, a nodulating strain of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L), and characterized. After purification to homogeneity (475-fold; yield, 18%) by ammonium sulfate precipitation, cation-exchange chromatography, hydrophobic chromatography, dye chromatography, and gel filtration, this enzyme had a pI of 4.75 ± 0.05. The enzyme activity was optimal at pH 6.0 to 6.5 and 35°C. The activity increased in the presence of NH4+and K+ ions but was inhibited by Cu2+, Ag+, Hg+, and Fe2+ ions and by various phenyl, phenol, and flavonoid derivatives. Native enzyme activity was revealed by native gel electrophoresis and isoelectrofocusing-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with fluorescence detection in which 4-methylumbelliferyl α-glucoside was the fluorogenic substrate. The enzyme was more active with α-glucosides substituted with aromatic aglycones than with oligosaccharides. This α-glucosidase exhibited Michaelis-Menten kinetics with 4-methylumbelliferyl α-d-glucopyranoside (Km, 0.141 μM; Vmax, 6.79 μmol min−1 mg−1) and withp-nitrophenyl α-d-glucopyranoside (Km, 0.037 μM; Vmax, 2.92 μmol min−1 mg−1). Maltose, trehalose, and sucrose were also hydrolyzed by this enzyme.
Impacts of Migration on Marriage Arrangement: A Comparison of Turkish Families in Turkey and Western Europe

This study addresses parental involvement in spousal choice and the impacts of migration. Individual and parental characteristics are analyzed as determinants of arranged versus couple-initiated marriages in Turkish families in Turkey and abroad. Analyses are based on the 2000 Families study “Migration Histories of Turks in Europe” and indicate a strong decline of arranged marriages over the past four decades. Arranged marriages are less frequent among migrants in Western Europe than among stayers in Turkey. The difference is largest for second-generation children. This pattern can only partly be explained by their higher educational attainment. Moreover, lower-educated parents are more involved in spousal choice, whereas parental religiosity does not make any difference. Parents strongly transmit their own marriage patterns to their children, but transmission is weaker in migration. Results suggest migration-specific intergenerational adaptation processes in times of general global social and cultural change.
Early Surgical Complications after Primary Cleft Lip Repair: A Report of 3108 Consecutive Cases

Objective To analyze short term surgical complications after primary cleft lip repair. Patients and Design A total of 3108 consecutive lip repairs with 2062 follow-ups were reviewed retrospectively through medical records. Patients were aged 3 months to 75 years at the time of surgery, with a median of 7 years. Setting Guwahati Comprehensive Cleft Care Center, Assam, India. Intervention Primary cleft lip repair. Main Outcome Measures Documented complications in terms of dehiscence, necrosis, infection, and suture granuloma were compiled. Logistic regression was used with dehiscence (yes/no) or infection (yes/no) as binary dependant variables. Age, cleft type, and surgeon (visiting/long term) were used as covariates. Results Among the 2062 patients who returned for early follow-up, 90 (4.4%) had one or more complications. Dehiscence (3.2%) and infection (1.1%) were the most common types of complication. Visiting surgeon, complete cleft, and bilateral cleft were significantly associated with wound dehiscence, and complete cleft was associated with wound infection according to the logistic regression analysis. Of patients with bilateral complete clefts, 6.9% suffered from some degree of wound dehiscence. Conclusion In a setting where presurgical molding is unavailable and patients present at all ages, lip wound dehiscence is a relatively common complication in patients with bilateral complete clefts. The risk of dehiscence, however, is reduced when these cases are assigned to surgeons with experience with these types of clefts. We also found that the incidence of wound infection can be kept relatively low, even without the use of postoperative antibiotics.
Disability, Caring and Marriage: The Experience of Younger Couples when a Partner is Disabled after Marriage

SUMMARY Despite a large literature on marriage and growing ones on disability and on caring there is little which specifically examines the experience of disability and caring within marriage. This paper draws on evidence from a small-scale qualitative study of couples under pensionable age where one partner had become disabled since marriage. Partners were interviewed both together and separately allowing exploration of 'both sides' of the relationship. The paper first examines the couple's sexual relationship and the ways in which impairment and caring affected it. Both partners' views about the nature and meaning of marriage and how this related to their continuing relationship are then explored. Finally, by comparing different marriages, and by comparing the same marriages at different points in time, factors which might predispose marriages to break up after one of the partners becomes disabled are discussed. The research shows that married couples are left virtually unsupported, either practically or emotion ally, at times when their relationship may be under considerable strain. Sexual relation ships may falter or cease because of lack of knowledge, embarrassment or not knowing whom to approach for help. Other couples may be left in an empty shell of a marriage because no practical alternatives to their situation are offered.
Extensive Genetic Diversity in the Plasmodium falciparum Na+/H+ Exchanger 1 Transporter Protein Implicated in Quinine Resistance

ABSTRACT The Plasmodium falciparum Na+/H+ exchanger (Pfnhe-1) locus at chromosome 13 and another locus at chromosome 9 have recently been proposed to influence quinine resistance. Here, we sequenced the ms4760 locus of the Pfnhe-1 gene from 244 P. falciparum isolates collected from five different regions of India. A total of 16 different ms4760 alleles (with one to five DNNND repeats) were observed among these isolates. Interestingly, areas with a high prevalence of chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance showed more Pfnhe-1 DNNND repeats compared to low drug resistance areas. The extent of genetic diversity at the ms4760 locus also varied from one region to another, with expected heterozygosity values ranging from 0.47 to 0.88.
Dietary Magnesium and Incident Frailty in Older People at Risk for Knee Osteoarthritis: An Eight-Year Longitudinal Study

Inadequate magnesium (Mg) intake is associated with lower physical performance, but the relationship with frailty in older people is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether higher dietary Mg intake is associated with a lower risk of frailty in a large cohort of North American individuals. Details regarding Mg intake were recorded through a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and categorized as greater than/equal to Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) vs. lower. Frailty was defined using the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures index. Multivariable Cox’s regression analyses, calculating hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were undertaken by sex. In total, 4421 individuals with knee osteoarthritis or who were at high risk without frailty at baseline (mean age: 61.3, females = 58.0%) were followed for 8 years. After adjusting for 11 potential baseline confounders, reaching the RDA for Mg lowered risk of frailty among men (total n = 1857, HR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.26–0.93), whilst no significant associations were found in women (total n = 2564). Each 100 mg of dietary Mg intake at baseline corresponded to a 22% reduction in men (HR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.62–0.97; p = 0.03), but not in women (HR = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.89–1.23). In conclusion, higher dietary Mg intake appears to reduce the risk of frailty in men, but not in women.
Watching inside the Screen

We investigate to what extent it is possible to infer a user’s work tasks by digital activity monitoring and use the task models for proactive information retrieval. Ten participants volunteered for the study, in which their computer screen was monitored and related logs were recorded for 14 days. Corresponding diary entries were collected to provide ground truth to the task detection method. We report two experiments using this data. The unsupervised task detection experiment was conducted to detect tasks using unsupervised topic modeling. The results show an average task detection accuracy of more than 70% by using rich screen monitoring data. The single-trial task detection and retrieval experiment utilized unseen user inputs in order to detect related work tasks and retrieve task-relevant information on-line. We report an average task detection accuracy of 95%, and the corresponding model-based document retrieval with Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain of 98%. We discuss and provide insights regarding the types of digital tasks occurring in the data, the accuracy of task detection on different task types, and the role of using different data input such as application names, extracted keywords, and bag-of-words representations in the task detection process. We also discuss the implications of our results for ubiquitous user modeling and privacy.