Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Markov Chain Monte Carlo Multiple Imputation Using Bayesian Networks for Incomplete Intelligent Transportation Systems Data

The rich data on intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are a precious resource for transportation researchers and practitioners. However, the usability of this resource is greatly limited by missing data. Many imputation methods have been proposed in the past decade. However, some issues are still not addressed or are not sufficiently addressed, for example, the missing of entire records, temporal correlation in observations, natural characteristics in raw data, and unbiased estimates for missing values. This paper proposes an advanced imputation method based on recent development in other disciplines, especially applied statistics. The method uses a Bayesian network to learn from the raw data and a Markov chain Monte Carlo technique to sample from the probability distributions learned by the Bayesian network. It imputes the missing data multiple times and makes statistical inferences about the result. In addition, the method incorporates a time series model so that it allows data missing in entire rows–-an unfavorable missing pattern frequently seen in ITS data. Empirical study shows that the proposed method is robust and accurate. It is ideal for use as a high-quality imputation method for off-line application.
High copy amplification of the aurora-A gene is associated with chromosomal instability phenotype in human colorectal cancers

Chromosomal instability (CIN) is a common but not universal feature of colorectal cancer (CRC); however, the molecular basis for CIN is controversial and poorly understood. Among the many plausible mechanisms proposed for CIN include disruption of G1/S and G2/M checkpoint regulation, and alterations in the spindle checkpoint genes. However, mutations in individual growth regulatory genes are not commonly observed in CRC. Therefore, a more comprehensive analysis of the genes involved in each cell cycle checkpoint regulatory pathway might be required to evaluate a possible role for involvement in CIN. We investigated the presence of high copy amplification of the cyclin E, Aurora-A, Skp2 genes, mutation of ubiquitin ligase CDC4 and promoter methylation of Mad2L1, as well as the expression of the gene products in a panel of 11 human CRC cell lines as well as 48 human CRC specimens. In the cell lines with CIN, we found amplification of the Aurora-A, cyclin E and Skp2 genes, and a mutation in the CDC4 gene, all of which resulted in altered expression of the cognate proteins. In the human CRC tissues, amplification of Aurora-A was frequent (29%), while alterations were rarely observed in cyclin E, Skp2 or CDC4. Aurora-A amplification was strongly associated with a high fractional allelic loss score (p=0.0001), but not with microsatellite instability, nor with the promoter methylation phenotype in these tumors. Our data confirm involvement in the CDC4-cyclin E pathway in the development of the CIN phenotype in human CRC, and find that amplification of the Aurora-A is a common target for disruption of this pathway.
Effect of adalimumab on joint disease: features of patients with psoriatic arthritis detected by magnetic resonance imaging

Background: Bone marrow oedema (BMO), synovitis, effusion and joint erosion on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be used as outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Objective: To assess the impact of adalimumab on BMO, synovitis, effusion and erosions in PsA, as measured by MRI. Methods: Fifteen patients with active PsA (⩾3 tender and ⩾3 swollen joints) were enrolled in an open-label pilot study. Each received adalimumab subcutaneously every other week for 24 weeks. MRI was obtained at baseline and 24 weeks. Results: MRI was available for 11 patients, pre and post-therapy. BMO and effusion scores improved markedly after 24 weeks of adalimumab, while no significant change was noted in erosion score. An unanticipated finding, however, was the lack of improvement in the MRI synovitis score. Conclusions: Improvement in BMO and unchanged erosion scores may explain the “anti-erosive” effects of adalimumab in PsA. Persistence of BMO and synovitis on MRI suggests ongoing disease activity and supports the continuation of long-term anti-TNF therapy.
Phoneme Segmentation Based on Wavelet Spectra Analysis

A phoneme segmentation method based on the analysis of discrete wavelet transform spectra is described. The localization of phoneme boundaries is particularly useful in speech recognition. It enables one to use more accurate acoustic models since the length of phonemes provide more information for parametrization. Our method relies on the values of power envelopes and their first derivatives for six frequency subbands. Specific scenarios that are typical for phoneme boundaries are searched for. Discrete times with such events are noted and graded using a distribution-like event function, which represent the change of the energy distribution in the frequency domain. The exact definition of this method is described in the paper. The final decision on localization of boundaries is taken by analysis of the event function. Boundaries are, therefore, extracted using information from all subbands. The method was developed on a small set of Polish hand segmented words and tested on another large corpus containing 16 425 utterances. A recall and precision measure specifically designed to measure the quality of speech segmentation was adapted by using fuzzy sets. From this, results with F-score equal to 72.49% were obtained.
Religiosity and Islamic Banking in Uganda

Purpose: The objective of this paper was to examine the extent to which religiosity matters in explaining existing bank customers’ propensity to patronise Islamic banking in the context of a predominantly non-Islamic country freshly adopting Islamic Finance and Banking. Methodology: Underpinned by the Theory of Reasoned Action we use pre-existing scales for attitudes of customers and subjective norms and integrate religiosity in the model to predict propensity to patronise Islamic banking. We collected data from 382 existing commercial bank customers and carried out a factor analysis to examine the scales validity and reliability. We answer the main question of whether religiosity matters using two approaches: we test for mediation effects of religiosity and also use a hierarchical regression analysis to determine the additive effect of religiosity in explaining propensity to Patronise Islamic Banking (PIB) in a predominantly non-Islamic country. Findings: Results of the Sobel, Aroian and Goodman tests show that religiosity mediates the predictive potential Behavioural Intentions (BI) of existing bank customers’ propensity to patronise Islamic banking. Hierarchical regression analysis also showed that after controlling for the variance accounted for by control variables, namely religion, age and education; religiosity had a significant additive effect in the model and positively relates with PIB. In the final model religiosity together with subjective norm and attitude predict 71% of the variance in Patronising Islamic Banking. Our study therefore shows religiosity is important and does matter in patronising Islamic banking. Originality/Value: This empirical study answers the pertinent question of whether religiosity matters in the propensity to use and patronise Islamic banking. It contributes to a better understanding of the factors that ought to be taken into account when a country is adopting Islamic banking principles. In particular the findings will be useful to commercial banks in Uganda when designing and marketing Islamic banking products to their existing and potential customers.
An Alternative Method for the Comparative Study of Coronary Vessels: Repletion and Diaphanization Experience in Seven Animal Models

Coronary arteries establish a complex blood vessel system, right and left coronary arteries commonly originate from the aortic sinuses and divide into multiple branches that supply the heart with several important variations between speci es. Diaphanization is a preservative technique which allows internal structures visualization, maintaining the three-dimensionality of the specimen. In this study, human ( Homo sapiens ), goat (Capra aegagrus hircus ), bovine (Bos Taurus ), equine ( Equus caballus ), porcine (Sus scrofa domesticus ), canine ( Canis lupus familiaris ) and feline ( Felis silvestris catus ) coronary arteries were injected with selfcuring methyl-methacrylate and posteriorly diaphanized. The coronary vasculature was adequately observed in all models while ke eping the three-dimensional relation with surrounding cardiac structures, except for septal arteries which were not visualized. As in cidental findings, anatomical variations in canine and human hearts were observed. Repletion-diaphanization is a useful blended method t o visualize the morphology of superficial coronary arteries. It could be a valuable tool in anatomical teaching and research, but further research needs to be done to prove its effectiveness in different vessel systems.
On the design of IIR bandpass filters with an adjustable bandwidth and centre frequency

This paper considers digital, IIR bandpass filters with adjustable bandwidth and centre frequency obtained from a lowpass prototype filter through lowpass-to-bandpass frequency transformations. Starting with a set of filter specifications, including requirements on passband and stopband edges as well as on passband and stopband ripples, it is shown how to select a lowpass prototype filter and how to perform the frequency transformations so as to ensure that all specifications are satisfied. Traditionally, only the passband (stopband) edges are controlled whereas one accepts the resulting stopband (passband) edges after the transformation, regardless their values.
Exponential stability of switched nonlinear cascade systems with time-delay

The exponential stability of switched nonlinear cascade systems with time-delay is studied in this paper. By using the average dwell-time method and piecewise Lyapunov function approach, the sufficient conditions that make the switched systems exponentially stable are obtained. And the switching law is designed, which included the average dwell-time of the switched systems. Meanwhile, systems with uncertainties are also considered. The result can be described in the form of LMI, which can be evaluated easily. Finally, a simulation example is given to illustrate the validity of the result.
A Systematic Review of Insulin Adherence Measures in Patients with Diabetes

BACKGROUND: Diabetes care is associated with a considerable burden to the health care system in the United States, and measuring the quality of health care is an important development goal of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Diabetes is a priority disease within the National Quality Strategy and should therefore remain a focus in the measurement of health care quality. Despite the importance of measuring quality in diabetes care management, no quality measure is currently associated with adherence to insulin treatment, and measuring adherence to insulin is known to be complicated. OBJECTIVES: To (a) identify methods to measure insulin adherence in patients with diabetes and (b) evaluate whether identified methods could be considered for testing as a quality measure. METHODS: Systematic searches were conducted in the online electronic databases Embase, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library, supplemented with additional manual searches to identify publications on insulin adherence from the year 2000 onward. Identified citations were screened for relevance against predefined eligibility criteria, and methods to measure adherence to insulin were extracted from relevant studies into data extraction tables. Methods were critiqued on the feasibility for consideration as a quality measure. RESULTS: Seventy-eight publications met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Included studies reported various indirect methods to measure adherence to insulin, using prescription claims or self-report questionnaires. Commonly reported methods included the (adjusted) medication possession ratio, proportion of days covered, persistence, daily average consumption, and the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. All types of identified methods were associated with measuring challenges varying from accuracy of estimated adherence, complexity of data collection, absence of validated threshold for good adherence, and reliability of adherence outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Without additional research, none of the identified methods are appropriate for use as a quality measure for insulin adherence. We suggest patient involvement in future research and additional quality measure development.
MONOCYTES , MACROPHAGES AND DENDRITIC CELLS Monocytes

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in several countries. The underlying process is atherosclerosis, a slowly progressing chronic disorder that can lead to intravascular thrombosis. There is overwhelming evidence for the underlying importance of our immune system in atherosclerosis. Monocytes, which comprise part of the innate immune system, can be recruited to inflamed endothelium and this recruitment has been shown to be proportional to the extent of atherosclerotic disease. Monocytes undergo migration into the vasculature, they differentiate into macrophage phenotypes, which are highly phagocytic and can scavenge modified lipids, leading to foam cell formation and development of the lipid-rich atheroma core. This increased influx leads to a highly inflammatory environment and along with other immune cells can increase the risk in the development of the unstable atherosclerotic plaque phenotype. The present review provides an overview and description of the immunological aspect of innate and adaptive immune cell subsets in atherosclerosis, by defining their interaction with the vascular environment, modified lipids and other cellular exchanges. There is a particular focus on monocytes and macrophages, but shorter descriptions of dendritic cells, lymphocyte populations, neutrophils, mast cells and platelets are also included.
Low-cost Thin-film Transistor-based Microcantilever for Measuring Deflection

This study utilizes thin-film transistor (TFT) as a sensing transducer to convert induced stress of a microcantilever (MCL) into an electric signal. The TFT-based MCL was made by micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) fabrication technology. The mobility of polysilicon TFT fabricated in this work was measured to be 25.11 ± 1.72cm 2 /Vs. This study has proven to a significant increase in drain current of released MCLs in comparison with the un-released devices. It was also found that the TFT drain current sensitivity of the chip was measured to be 31nA/μm. We also verified that the reproducible change in drain current confirms the feasibility of TFT-based MCLs for measuring deflection. This study pioneered in design and fabrication of poly-Si TFT onto a suspended MCL. The fabrication incorporated the MOS and POST-MEMS technology, which are both CMOS compatible. As a result, the miniaturized and integrated MCL for bio/chemicalsensors is highly anticipated to be implemented in the future.
Bioinspired vision-only UAV attitude rate estimation using machine learning

This paper presents a bioinspired system for attitude rate estimation using visual sensors for aerial vehicles. The sensorial system consists of three small low-resolution cameras (10×8 pixels), and is based on insect ocelli, a set of three simple eyes related to flight stabilization. Most previous approaches inspired by the ocellar system use model-based techniques and consider different assumptions, like known light source direction. Here, a learning approach is employed, using Artificial Neural Networks, in which the system is trained to recover the angular rates in different illumination scenarios with unknown light source direction. We present a study using real data in an indoor setting, in which we evaluate different network architectures and inputs.
Fast response one cycle control strategy for APF

This work proposes a Fast Response One Cycle Control (OCC) strategy for Active Power Filters (FOCC-APF). Moreover, a comprehensive study of the OCC technique, exploiting their features and inherent drawbacks to provide a better understanding of this technique is presented. Finally, simulation results of the active power filter with the conventional and proposed strategies are shown to evaluate APF performance for harmonics and power factor compensation. Preliminary experimental results are carried out and compared with the theoretical prediction.
Prevention of experimental haemorrhagic septicaemia with a live vaccine

Pasteurella multocida serotype B:3,4 isolated from a fallow deer in England was used as a vaccine to prevent haemorrhagic septicaemia. The deer strain was less virulent for calves than typical serotype B:2 of haemorrhagic septicaemia strains. It elicited antibodies in cattle that protected mice against serotype B:2 infection. The live deer vaccine containing 2 X 10(7) viable organisms per dose was used to immunise calves. Six months after vaccination, five of six calves were protected against serotype B:2 challenge. Two calves challenged nine months after vaccination survived the same challenge. The live vaccine was more efficacious than an alum precipitated vaccine in protecting calves against B:2 challenge.
The static parallel distribution algorithms for hybrid density-functional calculations in HONPAS package

Hybrid density-functional calculation is one of the most commonly adopted electronic structure theories in computational chemistry and materials science because of its balance between accuracy and computational cost. Recently, we have developed a novel scheme called NAO2GTO to achieve linear scaling (Order-N) calculations for hybrid density-functionals. In our scheme, the most time-consuming step is the calculation of the electron repulsion integrals (ERIs) part, so creating an even distribution of these ERIs in parallel implementation is an issue of particular importance. Here, we present two static scalable distributed algorithms for the ERIs computation. Firstly, the ERIs are distributed over ERIs shell pairs. Secondly, the ERIs are distributed over ERIs shell quartets. In both algorithms, the calculation of ERIs is independent of each other, so the communication time is minimized. We show our speedup results to demonstrate the performance of these static parallel distributed algorithms in the Hefei Order-N packages for ab initio simulations.
Detection of Insider Selective Forwarding Attack Based on Monitor Node and Trust Mechanism in WSN

The security problems of wireless sensor networks (WSN) have attracted people’s wide attention. In this paper, after we have summarized the existing security problems and solutions in WSN, we find that the insider attack to WSN is hard to solve. Insider attack is different from outsider attack, because it can’t be solved by the traditional encryption and message authentication. Therefore, a reliable secure routing protocol should be proposed in order to defense the insider attack. In this paper, we focus on insider selective forwarding attack. The existing detection mechanisms, such as watchdog, multipath retreat, neighbor-based monitoring and so on, have both advantages and disadvantages. According to their characteristics, we proposed a secure routing protocol based on monitor node and trust mechanism. The reputation value is made up with packet forwarding rate and node’s residual energy. So this detection and routing mechanism is universal because it can take account of both the safety and lifetime of network. Finally, we use OPNET simulation to verify the performance of our algorithm.
Determinants of axial and peripheral bone mass in Chinese adolescents

OBJECTIVE To determine the relation of puberty, physical activity, physical fitness, and calcium intake with bone mineral content (BMC) of the distal radius, and on bone mineral density (BMD) of the L2 to L4 vertebrae in a group of healthy Chinese adolescents. DESIGN Cross sectional survey. SUBJECTS A group of 179 healthy Chinese adolescents (92 boys and 87 girls) aged 12 to 13 years enrolled in the first year of the Tii Junior High School in Shatin, Hong Kong. Ninety four of the pupils enrolled were in the physical education major class (PE), and the other 85 were in the art major class (ARTS). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Correlation of BMC of the distal radius and BMD of the L2 to L4 vertebrae with level of physical activity, physical fitness (isometric and isokinetic), muscle strength of the upper and lower limb, and calcium intake. RESULTS BMC of the distal radius and BMD of the L2 to L4 vertebrae were significantly positively correlated. Univariate and regression analysis showed that age, pubertal staging, physical fitness, and muscle strength were significantly associated with bone mass in a positive way. Calcium intake and type of sport practised did not exert a significant influence on BMC of the distal radius and BMD of the L2 to L4 vertebrae in boys. The results for the BMD of the L2 to L4 vertebrae were similar in girls and boys; however, in girls, the BMC of the distal radius had a negative correlation with calcium intake. Physical fitness was a significant positive predictor of BMD of the L2 to L4 vertebrae. CONCLUSIONS Among Chinese adolescents bone mass was positively influenced by certain measures of physical fitness as well as by age, weight, and pubertal stage.
A general method for conditional regulation of protein stability in living animals.

The ability to rapidly and reversibly perturb protein levels in living animals is a powerful tool for researchersto determine protein function in complex systems. We recently designed a small protein domain based onthe 12-kDa FKBP (FK506 binding protein) that can be fused at either the carboxyl or amino terminus of aprotein of interest. This destabilization domain (DD) confers instability to fusion protein partners, allowingtargeted degradation of the protein of interest. A small molecule called Shield-1 binds to the DD and protectsthe fusion protein from degradation. Small-molecule-mediated post-translational regulation of proteinstability affords this system rapid, reversible, and tunable control of protein levels and functions in a varietyof model systems. Theoretically, a number of transgene delivery methods (e.g., viral, liposomal, or stem cell)can be used for the analysis of a DD fusion protein in an animal model. This protocol uses tumor xenograftsin mice as one such mechanism for delivering the fusion protein and presents a method for deliveringShield-1 to regulate the fusion proteins in vivo.