Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aerobic and resistance exercises in Parkinson's disease: a narrative review

Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia, and postural instability. Although dopaminergic therapies ameliorate many of the parkinsonian symptoms, especially in the early stages of the disease, as the disease progresses, efficacy of pharmacological therapy is diminished. Therefore, treatment of these symptoms continues to be a challenge. As a result, a significant number of rehabilitation strategies have been explored in order to improve the functional capability in this population. In the last two decades an interest in the role of physical exercise in the treatment of PD has emerged. In the current review we examine two modalities of exercise that have shown beneficial effects in improving motor action, balance, and gait in patients: aerobic training and resistance training. We conclude that although there are promising results suggesting the use of both modalities of exercises for the motor improvement in PD patients, the mechanism underlying these improvements are unknown and more studies with more defined designs and outcome measures are needed to further explore the impact of these two modalities of exercise on PD.
Simulation of hot mudflow disaster with cell automaton and verification with satellite imagery data

Minimization differences on Cellular Automata approach to predict new inundated area of hot mudflow on LUSI mud eruption disaster which occurred in Sidoarjo area is proposed. There are three characteristics of hot mudflow that is unique such as sur face material changes rapidly, surface temperature changes quickly and dike is constructed to avoid spill over. There are penetrations of hot mudflow through the dike and some landscape data on surrounding area of predicted cells. The proposed approach is powerful to simulate hot mudflow on this disaster. Simulation results are compared to SPOT/HRV imagery data as well as ASTER/VNIR and ASTER derived digital elevation model and also compared to the actual measured data acquired from local government. It is found that the influence due to lattice size is clarified together with validation of simulation methods used.
User-Centered Incremental Data Exploration and Visualization

In this paper we present Paged Graph Visualization (PGV), a new user-centered, semi-autonomous visualization tool for RDF data exploration, validation and examination. PGV consists of two main components: the PGV visualizer, which is the front-end of PGV, and the BRAHMS data-store, which is our high performance main-memory RDF storage system. Unlike the existing graph visualization techniques which attempt to display the entire graph, PGV has been designed for the incremental, semantics-driven exploration of very large RDF ontologies. A novel, Ferris-Wheel-like visualization technique is used to explore the so called hot spots in the graph, i.e. nodes with large numbers (hundreds) of immediate neighbors. In response to the user-controlled, semantics-driven direction of the exploration, the PGV visualizer obtains the necessary sub-graphs from BRAHMS and enables their incremental visualization without having to rearrange the previously laid out subgraphs. PGV and BRAHMS communicate via the HTTP protocol and to provide the necessary on-line response times, BRAHMS is connected to the Web server via the Fast-CGI interface which eliminates the need of restarting the BRAHMS process at every request. Additionally, PGV has been enhanced with a speech recognizer and a speech synthesizer.
DDM - A Cache-Only Memory Architecture

The Data Diffusion Machine (DDM), a cache-only memory architecture (COMA) that relies on a hierarchical network structure, is described. The key ideas behind DDM are introduced by describing a small machine, which could be a COMA on its own or a subsystem of a larger COMA, and its protocol. A large machine with hundreds of processors is also described. The DDM prototype project is discussed, and simulated performance results are presented. >
Free-radical crosslinking of specific proteins alters the function of the egg extracellular matrix at fertilization

All animal embryos begin development by modifying the egg extracellular matrix. This protein-rich matrix protects against polyspermy, microbes and mechanical stress via enzyme-dependent transformations that alter the organization of its constituents. Using the sea urchin fertilization envelope, a well-defined extracellular structure formed within minutes of fertilization, we examine the mechanisms whereby limited permeability is established within this matrix. We find that the fertilization envelope acquires a barrier filtration of 40,000 daltons within minutes of insemination via a peroxidase-dependent mechanism, with dynamics that parallel requisite production of hydrogen peroxide by the zygote. To identify the molecular targets of this free-radical modification, we developed an in vivo technique to label and isolate the modified matrix components for mass spectrometry. This method revealed that four of the six major extracellular matrix components are selectively crosslinked, discriminating even sibling proteins from the same gene. Thus, specific free-radical chemistry is essential for establishing the embryonic microenvironment of early development.
Subspace identification of Hammerstein systems using least squares support vector machines

This paper presents a method for the identification of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Hammerstein systems for the goal of prediction. The method extends the numerical algorithms for subspace state space system identification (N4SID), mainly by rewriting the oblique projection in the N4SID algorithm as a set of componentwise least squares support vector machines (LS-SVMs) regression problems. The linear model and static nonlinearities follow from a low-rank approximation of a matrix obtained from this regression problem.
Role of the Bordetella Pertussis P.69lpertactin Protein and the P.69/pertactin Rgd Motif in the Adherence to and Invasion of Mammalian Cells

The role of the Bodetella pertussis P.69lpertactin protein in mammalian cell adhesion and invasion was investigated. Salmonella strains expressing surface-associated P.69lpertactin from a chromosomally located pm gene were significantly more invasive than isogenic parental strains. This effect was most pronounced in the poorly invasive, semi-rough S. typhimurium strain LB5010. Escherichia coli K-12 strain HBlOl harbouring the plasmid p41869D, which encodes the full-length pm gene under the control of the tac promoter on the broad-host-range plasmid pMMB66EH, was significantly more adhesive to HEp-2 and Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells growing in culture than E. coli HBlOl(pMMB66EH). However, the ability of E. coli to invade mammalian cells was not affected by P.69lpertactin expression. P.69lpertactin-mediated adhesiveness of HBlOl to HEp-2 and CHO cells was not influenced by the viability of the bacterial cells. However, adherence was markedly reduced when assays were performed for less than 3 h, at 4 "C or in the presence of cycloheximide, suggesting the active participation of the eukaryotic cell in bacterial adhesion. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to mutate Asp to Glu in an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD-+ RGE) sequence present in mature P.69lpertactin and the mutated gene was cloned in the same broad-host-range vector (plasmid p41869E). This mutation had no detectable influence on the ability of P.69lpertactin to mediate adhesion of HBlOl to HEp-2 or CHO cells. Plasmids p41869D and p41869E were introduced into the bvg-negative B. pertussis strain BP347. Expression of P.69RGD or P.69RGE did not enhance the adhesiveness of BP347 for epithelial (HEp-2 and CHO) cells.
Energy modeling in carbon nano tube based wireless sensor networks

We have analyzed the effect of innovations in Nanotechnology on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and have modeled Carbon Nanotube (CNT) based system. We have shown the integration of CNT in WSN and formulated a Nano routing system. A proposition is put forward by us on the changes needed in the existing sensor node structure to improve its efficiency and to facilitate and enhance the assimilation of CNT based devices in a WSN. We have shown the functioning of CNT based Nano devices in WSN technology. Finally we have commented on the challenges that exist in this technology and described the important factors that need to be kept under consideration for the calculation of the energy of CNT based WSN.
Non-motor vs motor symptoms : how much does each matter to health status in Parkinson ’ s disease ?

Evidence suggest that both motor and non-motor symptoms contribute to health status (HS) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Less clear is how much change in HS can be expected if these clinical variables change. In addition, anxiety, separate from depression, has rarely been examined as a predictor of HS. We used hierarchical multiple regression analysis and standardized beta coefficients in a prevalent cohort of 462 patients with Parkinson’s disease to explore the relative impact on health status (measured using the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire) of 5 well-recognized symptom domains in Parkinson’s disease: motor signs, depression, anxiety, cognition, and other nonmotor symptoms. In the health status scores, 19.6% of variance was explained by age, number of comorbidities, disease duration, and levodopa equivalent dose. Younger age predicted worse health status. A full regression model containing baseline variables and all 5 symptom domains explained 56% of the variance in health status. The standardized beta coefficient for depression was 2.1, 1.6, and 1.3 times that of motor signs, anxiety, and other nonmotor symptoms, respectively. Our findings provide a ranking order of clinical variables for their relative impact on health status in Parkinson’s disease and show that depression has more than twice the impact of motor signs on health status. Anxiety and other nonmotor symptoms are also important separate determinants of poor health status in Parkinson’s disease. Our results will help to guide the development of individual care and service planning for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Evolutionary approach for building efficient Paraphrase Recognizers

Paraphrasing involves the restatement of a given text to convey the same intent. Paraphrase Recognition systems typically rely on lexical, syntactic and semantic features extracted from the candidate texts to identify equivalence. Though several Paraphrase Recognition systems exist, the performance of these systems has scope for further improvement. This paper reports the work done in designing an efficient Paraphrase Recognition system by using a Support Vector Machine Classifier coupled with Genetic Algorithm based Feature Selection. The developed paraphrase recognizer has exhibited comparable accuracy to the original approach by using only half the number of features.
DRBTS: Distributed Reputation-based Beacon Trust System

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have critical applications in diverse domains like environmental monitoring and military operations where accurate location of sensors is vital. One common method of location discovery uses a set of specialty nodes known as beacon nodes (BNs) that assist other sensor nodes (SNs) to determine their location. This paper proposes a novel reputation-based scheme called distributed reputation-based beacon trust system (DRBTS) for excluding malicious BNs that provide false location information. To the best of our knowledge, DRBTS is the first model to use the concept of reputation for excluding BNs. In DRBTS, every BN monitors its 1-hop neighborhood for misbehaving BNs and accordingly updates the reputation of the corresponding BN in the neighbor-reputation-table (NRT). The BNs then publish their NRT in their 1-hop neighborhood. BNs use this second-hand information published in NRT for updating the reputation of their neighbors after it qualifies a deviation test. On the other hand, the SNs use the NRT information to determine whether or not to use a given beacon's location information, based on a simple majority voting scheme
Phase offset reduction strategy for OFDMA based WiMAX system using Raised Cosine Filter

In this paper, a Raised Cosine Filter (RCF) based novel OFDM system is presented for a conventional WiMAX network. Detailed practical design considerations followed by mathematical derivations have been included that show the methodology to incorporate RCF within WiMAX Transceiver (TxRx) set up. Compared to conventional Fixed Cyclic Prefix (FCP) and more recent Adaptive Cyclic Prefix (ACP) methods, RCFACP succeeds in delivering a much better performance analysis by reducing Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) to larger extent of the system. Exhaustive simulation results performed using Vector Signal Analyzer (VSA) show that under severely poor channel condition, RCFACP improves 90% error offset when compared to FCP for QPSK (3/4) modulation scheme. Moreover, when RCFACP is used for higher order modulation and coding (64-QAM (3/4)) an impressive 42% better error correction can be obtained in contrast to ACP. The superiority of RCFACP is further assured by the fact that neither Raw Data Rate (RDR) nor Spectral Efficiency (SE) is compromised using RCFACP in comparison to conventional WiMAX System, thereby providing a fair Quality of Service (QoS) to the end user.
Iron 60 Evidence for Early Injection and Efficient Mixing of Stellar Debris in the Protosolar Nebula

Among extinct radioactivities present in meteorites,60Fe (t1/2 = 1.49 Myr) plays a key role as a high-resolution chronometer, a heat source in planetesimals, and a fingerprint of the astrophysical setting of solar system formation. A critical issue with 60Fe is that it could have been heterogeneously distributed in the protoplanetary disk, calling into question the efficiency of mixing in the solar nebula or the timing of 60Fe injection relative to planetesimal formation. If this were the case, one would expect meteorites that did not incorporate 60Fe (either because of late injection or incomplete mixing) to show 60Ni deficits (from lack of 60Fe decay) and collateral effects on other neutron-rich isotopes of Fe and Ni (coproduced with 60Fe in core-collapse supernovae and AGB stars). Here, we show that measured iron meteorites and chondrites have Fe and Ni isotopic compositions identical to Earth. This demonstrates that 60Fe must have been injected into the protosolar nebula and mixed to less than 10% heterogeneity before formation of planetary bodies.
Iodine Supplementation in the Newborn

Iodine deficiency can be defined as the world’s greatest single cause of preventable brain damage. Fetal and neonatal hypothyroidism, caused by iodine deficiency can be prevented prior to conception and then during pregnancy and lactation when an adequate iodine supplementation is ensured. Extremely low birth weight preterm babies risk having a negative iodine balance status in the first weeks of life, exacerbating the hypothyroxinaemia of the prematurity. It is important to ensure that these babies are provided with an adequate iodine intake from the first days of life. Mothers and newborns should avoid environmental iodine excess during pregnancy or lactation.
A new fault generator suitable for reliability analysis of digital circuits

This paper deals with fault injection issues for reliability analysis. We propose a fault generator IP suitable for hardware emulation of single and multiple simultaneous faults occurence. The proposed IP is based on a very useful approach that allows the designer to control complexity and completness of the fault injection process. We provide models for cost and performance estimation of the IP. Also, synthesis results of its implementation on FPGA are given.
Going into depth: Evaluating 2D and 3D cues for object classification on a new, large-scale object dataset

Categorization of objects solely based on shape and appearance is still a largely unresolved issue. With the advent of new sensor technologies, such as consumer-level range sensors, new possibilities for shape processing have become available for a range of new application domains. In the first part of this paper, we introduce a novel, large dataset containing 18 categories of objects found in typical household and office environments—we envision this dataset to be useful in many applications ranging from robotics to computer vision. The second part of the paper presents computational experiments on object categorization with classifiers exploiting both two-dimensional and three-dimensional information. We evaluate categorization performance for both modalities in separate and combined representations and demonstrate the advantages of using range data for object and shape processing skills.
The simplest evolution/learning hybrid: LEM with KNN

The learnable evolution model (LEM) was introduced by Michalski in 2000, and involves interleaved bouts of evolution and learning. Here we investigate LEM in (we think) its simplest form, using k-nearest neighbour as the dasialearningpsila mechanism. The essence of the hybridisation is that candidate children are filtered, before evaluation, based on predictions from the learning mechanism (which learns based on previous populations). We test the resulting dasiaKNNGApsila on the same set of problems that were used in the original LEM paper. We find that KNNGA provides very significant advantages in both solution speed and quality over the unadorned GA. This is in keeping with the original LEM paperpsilas results, in which the learning mechanism was AQ and the evolution/learning interface was more sophisticated. It is surprising and interesting to see such beneficial improvement in the GA after such a simple learning-based intervention. Since the only application-specific demand of KNN is a suitable distance measure (in that way it is more generally applicable than many other learning mechanisms), LEM methods using KNN are clearly recommended to explore for large-scale optimization tasks in which savings in evaluation time are necessary.
A Changes of Loudness Growth as a Function of Hearing Threshold Level inAdults with Normal and Sensorineural Hearing Loss

A Changes of Loudness Growth as a Function of Hearing Threshold Level in Adults with Normal and Sensorineural Hearing Loss Yoo Jin Park and Kyoung Won Lee Pundang Jesaeng General Hospital, Sungnam City, Kyunggi-do, Korea Department of Audiology, Hallym University of Graduate Studies, Seoul, Korea The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the most comfortable level (MCL) and the uncomfortable level (UCL) depending on hearing threshold level (HTL) by investigating loudness growth among persons with normal hearing (NH) and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) at 500 Hz and 3,000 Hz. Based on the results, this study intended to provide useful data to calculate gain or frequency response curve and SSPL90 or OSPL90 of hearing aid that was used by Koreans with hearing loss. The NH group consisted of 17 persons (17 ears) in total who had the pure tone threshold average of 20 dB HL or less and who were 23-33 years old (average: 27.9 years, SD: 4.0 years). The SNHL group consisted of 117 persons (161 ears) in total who had the HTL of 40-75 dB HL at 500 Hz or 3,000 Hz and who were 19-78 years old (average: 55.1 years, SD: 15.4 years). As for presented tone, 5% frequency-modulated tone was used at 500 Hz and 3,000 Hz. Based on the results of study by Allen (1990), loudness category (LC) for loudness growth test was divided to 7 LCs before the HTL of 40-75 dB for NH and SNHL was divided by 5 dB interval at 500 Hz and 3,000 Hz. The results of this study were as follows. First, at 500 Hz and 3,000 Hz, the MCL of NH was 51.5 and 56.8 dB HL while the UCL was 88.5 dB HL and 88.7 dB HL. Consequently, the MCL at 3,000 Hz was found to be higher by 5.3 dB (p < .05). Second, the MCL and the UCL of SNHL persons increased as a function of the HTL. However, slope of regression equation was low in the order of the HTL, the MCL and the UCL. Therefore, it was confirmed that dynamic range became narrow according to increase in the HTL. Third, the MCL showed the higher correlation with the HTL than the UCL. This study was meaningful in that the study intended to measure loudness growth of Koreans with NH and SNHL. The results of this study are expected to have influences on development of hearing aid fitting formula for Koreans with hearing loss.
Lower Bounding Klondike Solitaire with Monte-Carlo Planning

Despite its ubiquitous presence, very little is known about the odds of winning the simple card game of Klondike Solitaire. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the use of probabilistic planning to shed light on this issue. Unfortunatley, most probabilistic planning techniques are not well suited for Klondike due to the difficulties of representing the domain in standard planning languages and the complexity of the required search. Klondike thus serves as an interesting addition to the complement of probabilistic planning domains. In this paper, we study Klondike using several sampling-based planning approaches including UCT, hindsight optimization, and sparse sampling, and establish lower bounds on their performance. We also introduce novel combinations of these approaches and evaluate them in Klondike. We provide a theoretical bound on the sample complexity of a method that naturally combines sparse sampling and UCT. Our results demonstrate that there is a policy that within tight confidence intervals wins over 35% of Klondike games. This result is the first reported lower bound of an optimal Klondike policy.
Motherhood Experiences and Expectations

This phenomenological study explored the perceptions of motherhood among mothers of toddlers (N = 13). Four themes emerged from the data: (a) uncertainty of motherhood, (b) mother as a juggler, (c) social context of motherhood, and (d) maternal struggles. The authors discuss implications for family counselors and recommendations for future research.
Paraphyly in Tribe Onagreae: Insights into Phylogenetic Relationships of Onagraceae Based on Nuclear and Chloroplast Sequence Data

Abstract Onagraceae are a family of 17 genera in seven tribes, with the majority of species in tribes Onagreae and Epilobieae. Despite the species-richness of these two tribes, to date no phylogenetic study has been done with sufficient taxon sampling to examine relationships between and within these tribes. In this study, we used DNA sequence data from one nuclear region (ITS) and two chloroplast regions (trnL-trnF and rps16) to infer phylogenetic relationships among 93 taxa across the family, with concentrated sampling in the large tribe Onagreae. Results strongly suggest that tribe Gongylocarpeae is sister to tribes Epilobieae + Onagreae, both of which are monophyletic. Within Onagreae, Camissonia seems to be broadly paraphyletic, and Oenothera is also paraphyletic. In Oenothera there appear to be two lineages, one of which has Gaura + Stenosiphon nested within it. At the base of the Onagraceae phylogeny, we have clarified previous confusion regarding conflicting placements of Hauya and Lopezia based on nuclear versus chloroplast data. Results of these analyses are supported by morphology and suggest the need for new taxonomic delimitations, which are forthcoming.
Pedestrian Agent Navigation Approach in Virtual Passenger Transfer Hub

Crowd simulation for virtual environment can offer useful information to the optimal planning and design process of passenger transfer hub or other public facilities. In this paper we present an integrated navigation approach to control the movements of agents in virtual environment that mimics crowd dynamics in transfer hub. Virtual pedestrian facility model and agent’s perception knowledge model, finite state machine activity model, locomotion model for the agent navigation in virtual transfer hub were proposed. The method has been implemented in a real transfer hub Simulation and has been tested in peak-time.