Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Early Evidence of Atherosclerotic Changes on Early Treatment in Children With Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) is the most common genetic metabolic disorder and is an important cause of premature atherosclerosis, particularly coronary artery disease. This is because of lifelong elevated plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) that result in deposition of LDL-C in tissues (xanthelasmas, xanthomas, and particularly tendinous xanthomas and corneal arcus), most importantly in arteries, forming atherosclerotic plaques. The affected subjects typically have LDL-C about at least double that of their unaffected siblings, and therefore clinically HeFH is most often recognized by finding very high LDL-C.1 It is well known that in patients with HeFH, high plasma LDL-C levels are present from birth, and because there are few other causes of increased LDL-C in childhood, such a finding is virtually diagnostic in children (unlike in adults), particularly if family history of premature cardiovascular disease is positive. In children with HeFH, clinical signs such as xanthomas and corneal arcus are not pathognomonic because they appear later in life. Because children in families where ≥1 member has FH are likely to be on a particular lipid-lowering diet and thus have lower LDL-C than expected, all children from such families should be checked by identification of the causative mutation in the LDL receptor, apolipoprotein B, or PCSK9 genes, which provides definitive diagnosis. Recently, a high-resolution melting method for mutation detection in patients with HeFH has been developed as a sensitive, rapid, and robust technique that could significantly reduce the time and cost of screening.2 This method was successfully used in screening of some populations that were previously underdiagnosed.3 Article, see p 307 Different screening strategies are currently suggested to identify children with FH. European guidelines are not recommending universal screening of children by either LDL-C measurement or some other approach.1 Although such a screening has often been …
Proof of Concept of an Altimeter-Based River Forecasting System for Transboundary Flow Inside Bangladesh

Recent work by Biancamaria (Geophysical Research Letters, 2011) has demonstrated the potential of satellite altimetry to forecast incoming transboundary flow for downstream nations by detecting river levels at locations in upstream nations. Using the Ganges-Brahmaputra (GB) basin as an example, we assessed the operational feasibility of using JASON-2 satellite altimetry for forecasting such transboundary flow at locations further inside the downstream nation of Bangladesh by propagating forecasts derived from upstream (Indian) locations through a hydrodynamic river model. The 5-day forecast of river levels at upstream boundary points inside Bangladesh were used to initialize daily simulation of the hydrodynamic river model and yield the 5-day forecast river level further downstream inside Bangladesh. The forecast river levels were then compared with the 5-day-later “nowcast” simulation by the river model based on in-situ river level at the upstream boundary points in Bangladesh. Results show that JASON-2 retains good fidelity at 5-day lead forecast with an average RMSE (relative to nowcast) ranging from 0.5 m to 1.5 m and a mean bias (underestimation) of 0.25 m to 1.25 m in river water level estimation. Based on the proof-of-concept feasibility, a 4 month-long capacity building of the Bangladesh flood forecasting agency was undertaken. This facilitated a 20-day JASON-2 based forecasting of flooding during Aug 1, 2012 to Aug 20, 2012 up to a 5 day lead time in a real-time operational environment. Comparison against observed water levels at select river stations revealed an average error of forecast ranging from -0.4 m to 0.4 m and an RMSE ranging from 0.2 m to 0.7 m. In general, this study shows that satellite altimeter such as JASON-2 can indeed be an efficient and practical tool for building a robust forecasting system for transboundary flow.
A new control scheme for non-affine nonlinear discrete-time systems

In this paper, a new nonlinear control method is developed for a class of single input single output (SISO) non-affine nonlinear discrete-time system. The key strategy is to decompose the un-modeled dynamics into the sum of a known function depending on the data from the previous one time step and an unknown increment. The former is used to compensate for the un-modeled dynamics approximately. A new nonlinear controller is proposed to achieve stability meanwhile improving the performance of the closed-loop systems, which is different from those switching-based methods in the literature. Finally, through simulation based comparative studies, the effectiveness of the proposed method are justified.
Cultures and nations of Central and Eastern Europe : essays in honor of Roman Szporluk

Written in honor of one of the foremost observers of nationalism and culture in Central and Eastern Europe, this volume brings together 35 eminent scholars from the United States, Canada, Ukraine, and Poland. Supplemented by a bibliography of the work of Roman Szporluk, these fresh, urgent essays mirror Szporluk's broad and comparativist approach. Topics range from the rise of Ukrainian national consciousness in Galicia, to nationalism in contemporary Serbia; from the rise of private property in the Russia of Catherine II, to contemporary Russian attitudes toward Ukrainian nation building. Other essays explore the impact of theories of nationalism on the discipline of history and critique Ernest Gellner's "constructivist" theory of the nation.
Single phase cascaded multilevel photovoltaic sources for power balanced operation

Recent developments and researches on cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters (MLI) have led to its application for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) micro inverters feeding isolated loads. The topology provides transformer less operation where separate DC links at each bridge are fed from individual PV units. The traditional control techniques using battery supported PV panels lead to non uniform operation and utilization of each H-bridge, where some bridges are under high stress as compared to others. This paper presents control techniques which will levels the utilization and storage of power generated by PV panels of same capacity and same size of battery connected at each level. The control method utilizes rotation policy for operation of each bridge at each level in three fundamental cycles, to enhance both the life time of battery, H-bridges and PV panels used. PV units are integrated with incremental conductance (IC) based MPPT charge controllers to extract maximum power at all time of operation. A MATLAB based simulation has been carried out and various waveforms are analyzed. The presented results shows the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in power balanced operation of each panel, battery and the hardware for proper resource utilization with enhanced efficiency.
Working to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases – Summary.

introduction Neglected tropical diseases are a group of communicable diseases that thrive in impoverished settings and blight the lives of around 1 billion people worldwide, while threatening the health of millions more. Of the world’s poorest, 2.7 billion people (defined as those who live on <US$ 2.00 a day), >1 billion are affected by at least 1 neglected tropical disease. These diseases survive and spread in conditions of poverty exacerbating and perpetuating the poverty of affected communities.
Evaluating tor modified switching algorithm in the emulation environment

The Tor network is an open network that helps its users to defend against adversaries who performed traffic analysis and threatens the personal privacy and confidential security. Tor protects its users by preventing the sites they visit from revealing their physical location. As the number of Tor user increases, the performance of Tor degrades badly due to Tor's scheduler is not fairly distributing the traffic in Tor. In this paper, we highlight the problems in Tor performance due to scheduling design of Tor, which degrades the web and bulk traffic performances that multiplexes on a single TCP connection. To solve these problems, this paper emphasis on applying a simple method of active circuit switching on Tor application level, in order to distribute the bulk and web traffics on different TCP connections when congestion is detected in the Tor network. We evaluate our modified switching algorithm with the other default schedulers in Tor, such as vanilla Tor and priority EWMA scheduler in a shadow wide deployment network emulator. The experimental results show that our switching technique considerably offers stable improvement of traffic performance for all the web and bulk traffics.
Four Essays on the Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on the French Labor Market

Cette these a pour objectif d'analyser et d'identifier les effets des investissements directs etrangers (IDE) sur le marche du travail francais. Le premier chapitre dresse un etat des lieux de la litterature recente sur cette question. Les autres chapitres analysent empiriquement et theoriquement l'effet des IDE sur le marche du travail. A l'aide de donnees recentes et detaillees sur les firmes et les employes francais, plusieurs aspects du marche du travail sont abordes. Dans un premier temps, la these analyse l'effet des IDE sur l'emploi (chapitre 2), puis s'interesse a leurs effets sur les salaires francais (chapitre 3). Le chapitre 4 quant a lui, identifie un canal potentiel par lequel l'IDE affecterait le marche du travail. Ce canal est le changement organisationnel au sein de la maison mere. Enfin, le chapitre 5 identifie les consequences du changement organisationnel en terme de mobilite de la main d’œuvre au sein des firmes multinationales. Les resultats montrent un effet selectif de l'IDE sur l'emploi et les salaires. Seuls les IDE vers un pays a bas salaires affectent le marche du travail et seuls les cadres sont impactes positivement par les strategies d'implantation a l'etranger des firmes. L'emploi semble etre la variable d'ajustement en marge extensive, alors que les salaires s'ajustent en marge intensive. Les IDE sont egalement responsables d'un changement organisationnel au sein de la maison-mere, provoquant d'une part, un deplacement de l'autorite du chef d'entreprise vers les cadres et d'autre part, une augmentation de la mobilite des travailleurs qualifies au sein de la firme.
A Toolchain for Dynamic Function Off-load on CPU-FPGA Platforms

This new toolchain for accelerating application on CPU-FPGA platforms, called Courier-FPGA, extracts runtime information from a running target binary, and re-constructs the function call graph including input-output data. Then, it synthesizes hardware modules on the FPGA and makes software functions on CPU by using Pipeline Generator. The Pipeline Generator also builds a pipeline control program by using Intel Threading Building Block (Intel TBB) to run both hardware modules and software functions in parallel. Finally, Courier-FPGA’s Function Off-loader dynamically replaces and off-loads the original functions in the binary by using the built pipeline. Courier-FPGA performs the off-loading without user intervention, source code tweaks or re-compilations of the binary. In our case studies, Courier-FPGA was used to accelerate a histogram-of-gradients (HOG) feature detection program on the Zynq platform. A series of functions were off-loaded, and the program was sped up 3.98 times by using the built pipeline.
Automatic Schema-Independent Linked Data Instance Matching System

The goal of linked data instance matching is to detect all instances that co-refer to the same objects in two linked data repositories, the source and the target. Since the amount of linked data is rapidly growing, it is important to automate this task. However, the difference between the schemata of source and target repositories remains a challenging barrier. This barrier reduces the portability, accuracy, and scalability of many proposed approaches. The authors present automatic schema-independent interlinking (ASL), which is a schema-independent system that performs instance matching on repositories with different schemata, without prior knowledge about the schemata. The key improvements of ASL compared to previous systems are the detection of useful attribute pairs for comparing instances, an attribute-driven token-based blocking scheme, and an effective modification of existing string similarities. To verify the performance of ASL, the authors conducted experiments on a large dataset containing 246 subsets with different schemata. The results show that ASL obtains high accuracy and significantly improves the quality of discovered coreferences against recently proposed complex systems.
The role of BPR in the implementation of ERP systems

Purpose – The role of business process re‐engineering (BPR) in implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is of paramount importance. A variety of approaches are used for such re‐engineering as the best‐fitting ERP solution can only give a maximum of 80 percent fit with the existing workflow of the organization in which ERP is being implemented. The aim of this paper is to focus on the issues involved. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents some sample ERP installations to come out with various types of business BPR, ranging from small‐r to big‐R, practised while implementing ERP. Findings – Based on the literature review, it could be found that all organizations implementing ERP have chosen their own approach based on organizational constraints and the needs. The importance of BPR in ERP implementation is highlighted in earlier studies. Research limitations/implications – The recursive relationship between BPR and information technology has only resulted in the rapid evolution of ERP systems. ERP integration with supply chain management and its web readiness are major agenda for ERP developers. Many re‐engineering possibilities are yet to evolve based on research in knowledge, artificial intelligence and expert database systems. A suitable approach to implement the same in an organization can only be done using the most suitable approach and hence the importance of the BPR approaches presented here along with their advantages and disadvantages. Practical implications – As the various BPR approaches are categorized based on implementation followed by major corporations, it is definitely a forerunner for any ERP‐implementing organization under study. Also the common problems encountered during re‐engineering for ERP implementation and the suggested remedial measures are presented based on earlier work. Originality/value – An attempt has been made to identify BPR problems, causes and approaches used in implementing ERP solutions. It is only aimed at synthesis of technical and general issues using the literature.
Adaptive Control Design and Experiments for LAAS "Helicopter" Benchmark

Application of the passification-based adaptive control technique for control of Quanser/LAAS ‘‘Helicopter’’ laboratory setup is presented. Two adaptive control laws for pitch angle control are designed and experimentally tested. The MATLAB/Simulink and WinCon software environment is used for adaptive control laws implementation and the real-world experiments. The experimental results demonstrate high closed loop system performance and robustness of the suggested control laws with respect to parametric uncertainties and unmodeled plant dynamics and actuator faults.
Shape reconstruction from shadows and reflections

Measuring automatically the shape of physical objects in order to obtain corresponding digital models has become a useful, often indispensable, tool in design, engineering, art conservation, computer graphics, medicine and science. Machine vision has proven to be more appealing than competing technologies. Ideally, we would like to be able to acquire digital models of generic objects by simply walking around the scene, while filming with a handheld camcorder. Thus, one of the main challenges in modern machine vision is to develop algorithms that: i) are inexpensive, fast and accurate; ii) can handle objects with arbitrary appearance properties and shape; and iii) need little or no user intervention. In this thesis, we address both issues. In the first part, we present a novel 3D reconstruction technique which makes use of minimal and inexpensive equipment. We call this technique "shadow carving". We explore the information contained in the shadows that an object casts upon itself. An algorithm is provided that makes use of this information. The algorithm iteratively recovers an estimate of the object which i) approximates the object’s shape more and more closely; and ii) is provably an upper bound to the object's shape. Shadow carving is the first technique to incorporate "shadow" information in a multi-view shape recovery framework. We have implemented our approach in a simple table-top system and validated our algorithm by recovering the shape of real objects. It is well known that vision-based 3D scanning systems handle specular or highly reflective surfaces only poorly. The cause of this deficiency is most likely not intrinsic, but rather due to our lack of understanding of the relevant cues. In the second part of this thesis, we focus on how to promote mirror reflections from "noise" to "signal". We first present a geometrical and algebraic characterization of how a patch of the scene is mapped into an image by a mirror surface of given shape. We then develop solutions to the inverse problem of deriving surface shape from mirror reflections in a single image. We validate our theoretical results with both numerical simulations and experiments with real surfaces. A third goal of this thesis is advancing our understanding of human perception of shape from reflections. Although the idea of perception of shape from different visual cues (e.g., shading, texture, etc.) has been extensively discussed in the past, little is known to what extent highlights and specular reflections carry useful information for shape perception. We use psychophysics to study this capability. Our goal is to provide a benchmark, as well as inspire possible technical approaches, for our computational work. We find that surprisingly, humans are very poor at judging the shape of mirror surfaces when additional visual cues (i.e., contour, shading, stereo, texture) are not visible.
Real-Time Tracking via Deformable Structure Regression Learning

Visual object tracking is a challenging task because designing an effective and efficient appearance model is difficult. Current online tracking algorithms treat tracking as a classification task and use labeled samples to update appearance model. However, it is not clear to evaluate instance confidence belong to the object. In this paper, we propose a simple and efficient tracking algorithm with a deformable structure appearance. In our method, model updates with continuous labeled samples which are dense sampling. In order to improve the accuracy, we introduce a couple-layer regression model which prevents negative background from impacting on the model learning rather than traditional classification. The proposed DSR tracker runs in real-time and performs favorably against state-of-the-art trackers on various challenging sequences.
Recognition of rapid speech by blind and sighted older adults.

PURPOSE To determine whether older blind participants recognize time-compressed speech better than older sighted participants. METHOD Three groups of adults with normal hearing participated (n = 10/group): (a) older sighted, (b) older blind, and (c) younger sighted listeners. Low-predictability sentences that were uncompressed (0% time compression ratio [TCR]) and compressed at 3 rates (40%, 50%, and 60% TCR) were presented to listeners in quiet and noise. RESULTS Older blind listeners recognized all time-compressed speech stimuli significantly better than did older sighted listeners in quiet. In noise, the older blind adults recognized the uncompressed and 40% TCR speech stimuli better than did the older sighted adults. Performance differences between the younger sighted adults and older blind adults were not observed. CONCLUSIONS The findings support the notion that older blind adults recognize time-compressed speech considerably better than older sighted adults in quiet and noise. Their performance levels are similar to those of younger adults, suggesting that age-related difficulty in understanding time-compressed speech is not an inevitable consequence of aging. Instead, frequent listening to speech at rapid rates, which was highly correlated with performance of the older blind adults, may be a useful technique to minimize age-related slowing in speech understanding.
Automatic Recognition of Non-Acted Affective Postures

The conveyance and recognition of affect and emotion partially determine how people interact with others and how they carry out and perform in their day-to-day activities. Hence, it is becoming necessary to endow technology with the ability to recognize users' affective states to increase the technologies' effectiveness. This paper makes three contributions to this research area. First, we demonstrate recognition models that automatically recognize affective states and affective dimensions from non-acted body postures instead of acted postures. The scenario selected for the training and testing of the automatic recognition models is a body-movement-based video game. Second, when attributing affective labels and dimension levels to the postures represented as faceless avatars, the level of agreement for observers was above chance level. Finally, with the use of the labels and affective dimension levels assigned by the observers as ground truth and the observers' level of agreement as base rate, automatic recognition models grounded on low-level posture descriptions were built and tested for their ability to generalize to new observers and postures using random repeated subsampling validation. The automatic recognition models achieve recognition percentages comparable to the human base rates as hypothesized.
Trabajo en equipo durante la reanimación

Caso 1 Una mujer de 26 anos embarazada de su primer hijo se presenta de parto en el hospital de su comunidad, y el personal encargado informa a su obstetrico de que ha sido ingresada. Su parto es dificil, pero eventualmente aparece la cabeza fetal. Sin embargo, el cuello y la cabeza del nino parecen retraerse a pesar de que la mujer intenta pujar con mas fuerza. La cabeza fetal parece pletorica y el trazado del corazon fetal presenta una alteracion creciente. Al diagnosticar una distocia de hombro, el obstetrico solicita al personal de enfermeria obstetrica que avise al pediatra para que este presente en el momento del parto. Siguiendo las indicaciones, el personal de enfermeria se comunica a la secretaria de la unidad, que a su vez llama al pediatra de guardia. El obstetrico tambien solicita la presencia de otro enfermero, que aplica una presion en el utero para desplazar el hombro anterior del feto de la sinfisis del pubis materna. La frecuencia cardiaca fetal continua bajando y las manipulaciones que se realizan fallan: rotacion del brazo posterior del feto a una posicion por debajo de la rama del pubis (maniobra de sacacorchos), intento de sacar el brazo posterior del feto e hiperflexion de las piernas maternas (maniobra de McRoberts).