Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupled Projections for Semi-supervised Adaptation of Dictionaries

Data-driven dictionaries have produced state-of-theart results in various classification tasks. However, when the target data has a different distribution than the source data, the learned sparse representation may not be optimal. In this paper, we investigate if it is possible to optimally represent both source and target by a common dictionary. Specifically, we describe a technique which jointly learns projections of data in the two domains, and a latent dictionary which can succinctly represent both the domains in the projected low-dimensional space. The algorithm is modified to learn a common discriminative dictionary, which can be further used for classification. The algorithm can be use for adaptation across multiple domains and is extensible to non-linear feature space. The proposed approach does not require any explicit correspondence between the source and target domains, and shows good results even when there are only a few labels available in the target domain. Further, it can also be used for heterogenous domain adaptation, where different features are extracted for different domains. Various recognition experiments show that the method performs on par or better than competitive state-of-the-art methods.
Glycan Receptor for Influenza Virus

Influenza viruses are found in wide range of animals, including humans, in nature. When avian and human viruses simultaneously infect an intermediate host, such as pigs, genetic recombination can occur between these viruses. There is concern regarding interspecies transmission, both initial animal-to-animal infection and outbreaks of pandemic viruses in the human population. Hemagglutinin (HA) is a trimeric protein expressed on the influenza virus membrane. The globular head domain of the HA contains a receptor-binding site (RBS) that mediates virus attachment to host cells. Sialic acid (SA)-containing glycans, termed sialoglycans expressed on the host cell surface, are considered to serve as influenza virus receptors in both interspecies transmission and epidemics in a specific host. Influenza virus HAs recognize specific linkages of sialic acids in the receptors. Recently, histochemical studies using lectins specific for sialic acid linkages demonstrated that the characteristic distribution of sialoglycans is associated with interspecies viral transmission. To understand interspecies transmission of influenza viruses, it is essential to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the interaction between influenza virus HAs and sialoglycan receptors expressed on different host cells. This review article focuses on the structure and distribution of receptors for human and other animal influenza viruses, and on molecular mechanisms underlying influenza virus recognition with specific glycan structures. This review also introduces synthetic glycopolymers carrying multivalent sialylated carbohydrates, which have been applied not only to address the molecular mechanisms of virus host cell interaction, but also inhibition of influenza virus infection.
Rheological investigations on the dispersions of sodium alginate and guar gum mixtures at different temperatures

This article reports the rheological properties of the aqueous dispersions of sodium alginate, guar gum, and their blends measured by Brookfield rheometer at 298.15, 303.15, and 308.15K. The blend properties have been measured for five different compositions, in order to understand their compatibility in solution (at lower polymer concentrations, i.e., up to 0.8% (w/w)) as well as in the gel form (at higher polymer concentrations, i.e., up to 3% (w/w) where they can form gels). The solution miscibility of blends was confirmed by calculating the polymer–polymer interaction parameter using the Krigbaum and Wall equation. Rheological properties have been analyzed by using the equations of Bingham, Casson, Power-Law, and IPC Paste Analysis. Gibbs free energy of activation for enthalpy and entropy has also been calculated. Experimental and calculated results have been discussed in terms of the mixing characteristics of the polymers. The data presented here can be useful in pre-formulation studies to develop the controlled release devices for pesticides or drugs.
Ten Low-Mass Companions from the Keck Precision Velocity Survey

Ten new companions have emerged from the Keck precision Doppler velocity survey, with minimum (M sin i) masses ranging from 0.8 MJUP to 0.34 M☉. Five of these are planet candidates with M sin i < 12 MJUP, two are brown dwarf candidates with M sin i ~ 30 MJUP, and three are low-mass stellar companions. Hipparcos astrometry reveals the orbital inclinations and masses for three of the (more massive) companions, and it provides upper limits to the masses for the rest. A new class of extrasolar planet is emerging, characterized by nearly circular orbits and orbital radii greater than 1 AU. The planet HD 4208b appears to be a member of this new class. The mass distribution of extrasolar planets continues to exhibit a rapid rise from 10 MJUP toward the lowest detectable masses near 1 MSAT.
The Life-Changing Impact of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: An Analysis of Online Postings

BackgroundPeripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a form of acute heart failure, is a life-altering condition affecting thousands of pregnant or postpartum women. Little is known about the overall impact of PPCM on women's lives. PurposeTo describe the contents of postings made on the My Space® PPCM support group Web site by women diagnosed with PPCM. MethodsA mixed methods design. Two hundred and forty-seven postings made by 156 people from 2005 to 2008 were copied from the Web site. Key words and phrases were sorted into categories, quantified, and then arranged into themes using the five interacting variables of the Neuman Systems Model: physiological, psychological, sociocultural, spiritual, and developmental. ResultsSix themes identified in the postings were discussion of symptomology, exchange of advice, interactions with healthcare providers, uncertainty about subsequent pregnancies, expressions of spirituality, and recovery from heart failure. Clinical ImplicationsMisdiagnosis and subsequent pregnancies were major stressors that have implications for nursing practice and future research. Nurses can help women with PPCM and their families reconstitute their lives to a new normal by providing reliable information and counseling on treatment, prognosis, and family planning.
Moving together: in the body or the mind?

When people move together, as they dance, march or flirt, it increases affiliation between them. But what about ‘moving together’ produces affiliation: the movements themselves, or the social context of moving ‘together’? We instructed pairs of participants to listen to music and move their arms or legs according to shapes appearing on screen. They either carried out the same movements, or when one moved their arms the other moved their legs. They either saw shapes on one laptop, or each had their own laptop. Surprisingly, participants did not like each other more if they carried out the same movements, but affiliation did increase if they danced looking at the same screen. Rather than their movements, instructions, intentions or perceptual experiences, here it is the social context of the actions that produces affiliation, a surprising finding that is not easily accounted for by the dominant theories of mimicry and behavioural synchrony.
Performance Analysis of Different Optical Switching Architectures

Problem statement: Optical Packet Switching (OPS) and transmission networks based on Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) have been increasingly deployed in the Internet infrastructure over the last decade in order to meet the huge increasing demand for bandwidth. Several different technologies have been developed for optical packet switching such as space switches, broadcast-and-select, input buffered switches and output buffered switches. These architectures vary based on several parameters such as the way of optical buffering, the placement of optical buffers, the way of solving the external blocking inherited from switching technologies in general and the components used to implement WDM. Approach: This study surveys most of the exiting optical packet switching architectures. A simulation-based comparison of input buffered and output buffered architectures were presented. Results: The performance analysis of the selected two architectures derived using simulation program and compared at different scenarios. We found that the output buffered architectures give better performance than input buffered architectures. Conclusion: The simulation results shows that the-broadcast-and-select architecture is attractive in terms that it has lees number of components compared to other switches.
Biomechanical properties of concussions in high school football.

INTRODUCTION Sport concussion represents the majority of brain injuries occurring in the United States with 1.6–3.8 million cases annually. Understanding the biomechanical properties of this injury will support the development of better diagnostics and preventative techniques. METHODS We monitored all football related head impacts in 78 high school athletes (mean age = 16.7 yr) from 2005 to 2008 to better understand the biomechanical characteristics of concussive impacts. RESULTS Using the Head Impact Telemetry System, a total of 54,247 impacts were recorded, and 13 concussive episodes were captured for analysis. A classification and regression tree analysis of impacts indicated that rotational acceleration (95582.3 rad·s−²), linear acceleration (996.1g), and impact location (front, top, and back) yielded the highest predictive value of concussion. CONCLUSIONS These threshold values are nearly identical with those reported at the collegiate and professional level. If the Head Impact Telemetry System were implemented for medical use, sideline personnel can expect to diagnose one of every five athletes with a concussion when the impact exceeds these tolerance levels. Why all athletes did not sustain a concussion when the impacts generated variables in excess of our threshold criteria is not entirely clear, although individual differences between participants may play a role. A similar threshold to concussion in adolescent athletes compared with their collegiate and professional counterparts suggests an equal concussion risk at all levels of play.
Properties and optimal manufacturing conditions of chicken feathers thermoplastic biocomposites

The aim of this study was the analysis and characterization of composites based on thermoplastics (ethylene vinyl acetate, polypropilene and high-density polyethylene) and chicken feathers. Several composite samples with a content of 20% v/v of chicken feathers have been studied to determine the optimal manufacturing conditions of temperature, mixing time, and mixing speed to achieve the best tensile properties. The results have shown that the addition of micronized chicken feather (20% v/v) to thermoplastic matrices increases stiffness and provides a more brittle behavior. Ethylene vinyl acetate matrix also shows an ability to participate in second-order intermolecular interactions with chicken feathers, providing better tensile properties (tensile strength and toughness) than polypropilene and high-density polyethylene. Optimal manufacturing conditions were found for a mixing time of around 5 min; a mixing speed of 50 r min−1; and temperature values of 160℃ in case of high-density polyethylene, 120℃ for ethylene vinyl acetate, and 170℃ for polypropilene. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy analysis have been performed in order to provide further understanding of the compatibility and microstructural features that support the tensile properties of the materials.
Causal Modeling to Estimate Sensitivity and Specificity of a Test when Prevalence Changes

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate, by causal modeling, whether the sensitivity and specificity of a test are constant, or whether they change with prevalence. I use three assumptions, diagnostic, predictive, and correlational, in three sets of mathematical models. A diagnostic test measures an outcome of a disease and is based on the assumption that the “gold standard” result indicates a disease state that causes a test result. A predictive test measures a risk factor for a disease and is based on the assumption that the test result indicates a risk factor that causes a disease state. A correlational test measures a condition which is an outcome of an underlying causal risk factor for a disease and is based on the assumption that the disease and the test result are noncausally related. I find that sensitivity and specificity are constant for diagnostic tests but change with prevalence for predictive and correlational tests. I present equations to show the effects on various test performance indices when prevalence changes. Different equations must be used to estimate the sensitivity, specificity, and other test performance indicators for various types of tests that are under different causal assumptions.
A Generalized Strategy Eliminability Criterion and Computational Methods for Applying It

We define a generalized strategy eliminability criterion for bimatrix games that considers whether a given strategy is eliminable relative to given dominator & eliminee subsets of the players' strategies. We show that this definition spans a spectrum of eliminability criteria from strict dominance (when the sets are as small as possible) to Nash equilibrium (when the sets are as large as possible). We show that checking whether a strategy is eliminable according to this criterion is coNP-complete (both when all the sets are as large as possible and when the dominator sets each have size 1). We then give an alternative definition of the eliminability criterion and show that it is equivalent using the Minimax Theorem. We show how this alternative definition can be translated into a mixed integer program of polynomial size with a number of (binary) integer variables equal to the sum of the sizes of the eliminee sets, implying that checking whether a strategy is eliminable according to the criterion can be done in polynomial time, given that the eliminee sets are small. Finally, we study using the criterion for iterated elimination of strategies.
Breakfast Skipping, Anxiety, Exercise, and Soda Consumption are Associated with Diet Quality in Mexican College Students

ABSTEACT Despite the reported poor dietary habits and risk of weight gain in college students, they remain understudied in Mexico. Mexican college students are in a rapidly changing economic environment; a shift from a traditional, homemade cuisine to a diet more heavily influenced by an industrialized culture seems to be occurring, potentially affecting the quality of their dietary intake. A health and nutrition survey was conducted among 450 Mexican college students to study the relationship between sociodemographic factors and diet quality. Dietary data were used to build macro- and micronutrient scores, dichotomized as low and normal quality. Adjusted odds (OR [95% CI]) were computed to determine the probability of low dietary quality. Breakfast skipping (5.3 [1.2, 22.7]) and risk of anxiety (2.3 [1.3, 4.4]) were associated with a greater risk of low macronutrient quality, and caloric intake < 1,800 kcal (5.8 [3.5, 9.7]), breakfast skipping (3.7 [1.4, 10.3]), vigorous exercise ≤ 1 h/wk (2.6 [1.3, 5.2]), and soda consumption > 250 mL/d (2.0 [1.2, 3.3]) with low micronutrient quality.
A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Childhood Leukemia and Parental Occupational Pesticide Exposure

Objectives We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of childhood leukemia and parental occupational pesticide exposure. Data sources Searches of MEDLINE (1950–2009) and other electronic databases yielded 31 included studies. Data extraction Two authors independently abstracted data and assessed the quality of each study. Data synthesis Random effects models were used to obtain summary odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). There was no overall association between childhood leukemia and any paternal occupational pesticide exposure (OR = 1.09; 95% CI, 0.88–1.34); there were slightly elevated risks in subgroups of studies with low total-quality scores (OR = 1.39; 95% CI, 0.99–1.95), ill-defined exposure time windows (OR = 1.36; 95% CI, 1.00–1.85), and exposure information collected after offspring leukemia diagnosis (OR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.05–1.70). Childhood leukemia was associated with prenatal maternal occupational pesticide exposure (OR = 2.09; 95% CI, 1.51–2.88); this association was slightly stronger for studies with high exposure-measurement-quality scores (OR = 2.45; 95% CI, 1.68–3.58), higher confounder control scores (OR = 2.38; 95% CI, 1.56–3.62), and farm-related exposures (OR = 2.44; 95% CI, 1.53–3.89). Childhood leukemia risk was also elevated for prenatal maternal occupational exposure to insecticides (OR = 2.72; 95% CI, 1.47–5.04) and herbicides (OR = 3.62; 95% CI, 1.28–10.3). Conclusions Childhood leukemia was associated with prenatal maternal occupational pesticide exposure in analyses of all studies combined and in several subgroups. Associations with paternal occupational pesticide exposure were weaker and less consistent. Research needs include improved pesticide exposure indices, continued follow-up of existing cohorts, genetic susceptibility assessment, and basic research on childhood leukemia initiation and progression.
Interactive humanoids and androids as ideal interfaces for humans

Many robotics researchers are exploring new possibilities of intelligent robots in our everyday life. Humanoid and androids, which have various modalities, can communicate with humans as new information media. In this talk, we argue how to develop the interactive robots and how to evaluate them as introducing several robots developed in ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communications Laboratories and Department of Adaptive Machine Systems, Osaka University. Especially, we focus on a constructive approach to developing the interactive robots, cognitive studies using the humanoids and androids for evaluating the interactions, and long-term field experiments in an elementary school.The talk consists of two parts. There are two relationships between robots and humans: one is inter-personal and the other is social. In the inter-personal relationships, the appearance of the robot is a new and important research issues. In the social relationships, a function to recognize human relationships through interactions is needed for robots of the next generation. These two issues explore new possibilities of robots.In these issues, the appearance problem bridges between science and engineering. In the development of humanoids, both the appearance and behavior of the robots are significant issues. However, designing the robot's appearance, especially to give it a humanoid one, was always a role of the industrial designer. To tackle the problem of appearance and behavior, two approaches are necessary: one from robotics and the other from cognitive science. The approach from robotics tries to build very humanlike robots based on knowledge from cognitive science. The approach from cognitive science uses the robot for verifying hypotheses for understanding humans. We call this cross-interdisciplinary framework android science (www.androidscience.com). The speaker hopes that attendees catch new waves in robotics and media research and our feature life.
Regulation and Political Costs in the Oil and Gas Industry: An Investigation of Discretion in Reporting Earnings and Oil and Gas Reserves Estimates

This study investigates the use of discretion by oil and gas companies in reporting financial performance and oil and gas reserve estimates during times of high political scrutiny resulting from increases in energy prices. Hypotheses tested in prior literature state that companies facing the risk of increasing taxes or new regulations reduce reported earnings to reduce this risk. This study uses a measure of high profitability (rank order of return on assets relative to industry peers) to identify oil and gas companies more likely to manage earnings during the period from 2002 to 2008. Two measures of discretionary accruals (total and current discretionary accruals), and a measure of discretionary depreciation, depletion, and amortization (DDA) were used as indicators of discretion exercised in reporting earnings. Data on oil and gas reserve disclosures was also hand-collected from Forms 10-K to investigate whether managers use reserve estimate revisions to reduce reported earnings through increasing the annual depletion expense. Results suggest that both oil and gas refining and producing firms use negative discretionary accruals to reduce reported earnings. Results also indicate that profitability is an important determinant of the use of negative discretionary accruals by these companies regardless of the time period examined. There is also evidence that oil and gas producing firms opportunistically revise their oil and gas reserve estimates to increase depreciation, depletion, and amortization expense during periods of high oil prices.
Numerical and spatial intuitions: a role for posterior parietal cortex?

Historically, many mathematical advances have been developed through the use of conceptual mappings between numbers and space. From the most elementary aspects of mathematics, such as the notion of measurement, all the way up to the concepts of the real number line, Cartesian coordinates, the complex plane, and even the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, metaphors by which numbers are made to correspond to spatial positions permeate mathematical thinking (Dehaene 1997; Singh 1997). The evolution of these culturally defined representations of number has been critical to the development of mathematics. In this chapter, we review and update our previous models (Dehaene et al. 2003; Hubbard et al. 2005) discussing the neural mechanisms that might underpin these cultural achievements. We begin by reviewing recent behavioral, patient, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) data showing that certain aspects of numerical understanding depend on spatial representations (for reviews of the behavioral literature, see also Fias and Fischer 2005; Gevers and Lammertyn 2005). We then turn to neuroimaging data in humans that suggest how the deep connection between numbers and space may be mediated by circuitry in the parietal lobe. Drawing on recent work in monkey physiology and human neuroimaging studies establishing tentative homologies, we then present a refined hypothesis concerning specific neural regions in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) involved in these numerical and spatial processes, including the human homologues of the lateral intraparietal (hLIP) and ventral intraparietal (hVIP) regions. To date, these two lines of research have been largely independent, as most studies of numerical cognition have been conducted in humans using functional imaging, while the most detailed studies of spatial processing have been conducted in monkeys, using single-unit electrophysiology. However, this division is breaking down, as single-unit data have revealed “number neurons” in the macaque IPS, while many recent human neuroimaging studies have focused on establishing humanmonkey homologies in the parietal lobe. We conclude by discussing the development of numerical-spatial interactions within the context of the “neuronal recycling” hypothesis (Dehaene 2005; Dehaene and Cohen 2007). Numerical and Spatial Intuitions: A Role for Posterior Parietal Cortex?