Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Spoken Dialog System to Access a NewspaperWeb Site

In this paper we present a spoken dialog system which provides speech ac- cess to the information stored in a newspaper web site. The user is allowed to access the contents by query and browse mechanisms. The system is based on an Interaction Model and on an Information Model. The interaction model describes how the inter- action with the user is carried out. The information which supports that interaction is described by means of an Information Model. A decision tree and inverted indexes are used depending on the interaction modality chosen by the user.
Influences of Reading and Discussion on the Attitudes of Fifth Graders Toward American Indians

AbstractThe attitude change caused by reading selections from children’s literature was determined by means of an attitude scale constructed for this purpose. In this study 437 fifth-grade children participated. Each of the eighteen classrooms was randomly designated a control group, a reading group or a reading plus discussion group so that there were two of each of the treatment groups in each of three racial-socio-economic areas. Attitude change between the pretest and posttest was the dependent variable.he attitude change of the reading group toward American Indians was significantly greater than that of the control group (p > .05), and reading plus discussion changed the attitude more than reading alone (p > .05). No significant relationship was found between IQ and attitude change nor between reading achievement and attitude change. The significant change took place mainly in racially integrated classrooms located in the middle socio-economic area. In these classrooms the favorable attitude change o.
Sterile Alpha Motif Containing 7 (Samd7) Is a Novel Crx-Regulated Transcriptional Repressor in the Retina

Inherited retinal diseases are mainly caused by mutations in genes that are highly expressed in photoreceptors of the retina. The majority of these genes is under the control of the transcription factor Cone rod homeobox (Crx), that acts as a master transcription factor in photoreceptors. Using a genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation dataset that highlights all potential in vivo targets of Crx, we have identified a novel sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain containing protein, Samd7. mRNA Expression of Samd7 was confined to the late postnatal and adult mouse retina as well as the pineal gland. Using immunohistochemistry and Western blot, we could detect Samd7 protein in the outer nuclear layer of adult mouse retina. Ectopic over-expression in HEK293 cells demonstrated that Samd7 resides in the cytoplasm as well as the nucleus. In vitro electroporation of fluorescent reporters into living mouse retinal cultures revealed that transcription of the Samd7 gene depends on evolutionary conserved Crx motifs located in the first intron enhancer. Moreover, Crx knock-down with shRNA strongly reduced Samd7 reporter activity and endogenous Samd7 protein, indicating that Crx is required for retinal expression of Samd7. Finally, using co-transfections in luciferase reporter assays we found that Samd7 interferes with Crx-dependent transcription. Samd7 suppressed luciferase activity from a reporter plasmid with five Crx consensus repeats in a dose dependent manner and reduced Crx-mediated transactivation of regulatory sequences in the retinoschisin gene and the Samd7 gene itself. Taken together, we have identified a novel retinal SAM domain protein, Samd7, which could act as a transcriptional repressor involved in fine-tuning of Crx-regulated gene expression.
Does CEO optimism affect strategic process

Purpose – Although management researchers have long recognized that cognitive and behavioral constructs can influence strategic process, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies exploring their actual influence. More specifically, there have been no reported findings examining how an executive's general tendency to expect positive outcomes (i.e. optimism) shapes their strategic process. The purpose of this paper is to examine if optimism serves as a cognitive bias that short‐circuits the strategic process, or more specifically results in a greater use of incrementalism versus a comprehensive rational process.Design/methodology/approach – This is an initial study to explore the relationships between optimism and strategic process. The authors opted for a large cross‐sectional sample of chief executive officers (CEOs) in the for‐profit sector of the US healthcare industry, distributed 810 surveys, and received a 21 percent response rate. The authors' methods incorporated the well‐established Life .
Who Learns from Service Learning?

This article examines service learning in the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. The authors show that students who complete their two courses—Poverty, Homelessness, and the Urban Underclass as well as Field Experience—make significant contributions to the community service organizations they serve. Not only do their students learn, but the organizations benefit from the knowledge the students bring. Furthermore, through service learning, many of the students develop a long-term commitment to social justice and continue to work for social change years after leaving the university.
Paranoid delusions and hallucinations and bright light therapy in Alzheimer's disease

Bright light therapy (BLT) is becoming increasingly popular as an adjunct in the treatment of non‐SAD depression and circadian rhythm disturbances in demented patients. Although the rate of side‐effects is low, special attention should be paid when treating new groups of patients. We present the case of an 80‐year‐old woman suffering from dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT).
Guidelines for the prevention, detection and management of people with chronic heart failure in Australia 2006

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is found in 1.5%–2.0% of Australians. Considered rare in people aged less than 45 years, its prevalence increases to over 10% in people aged ≥ 65 years. CHF is one of the most common reasons for hospital admission and general practitioner consultation in the elderly (≥ 70 years). Common causes of CHF are ischaemic heart disease (present in > 50% of new cases), hypertension (about two‐thirds of cases) and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (around 5%–10% of cases). Diagnosis is based on clinical features, chest x‐ray and objective measurement of ventricular function (eg, echocardiography). Plasma levels of B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP) may have a role in diagnosis, primarily as a test for exclusion. Diagnosis may be strengthened by a beneficial clinical response to treatment(s) directed towards amelioration of symptoms. Management involves prevention, early detection, amelioration of disease progression, relief of symptoms, minimisation of exacerbations, and prolongation of survival.
Interpolated markov chains for eukaryotic promoter recognition

MOTIVATION We describe a new content-based approach for the detection of promoter regions of eukaryotic protein encoding genes. Our system is based on three interpolated Markov chains (IMCs) of different order which are trained on coding, non-coding and promoter sequences. It was recently shown that the interpolation of Markov chains leads to stable parameters and improves on the results in microbial gene finding (Salzberg et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 26, 544-548, 1998). Here, we present new methods for an automated estimation of optimal interpolation parameters and show how the IMCs can be applied to detect promoters in contiguous DNA sequences. Our interpolation approach can also be employed to obtain a reliable scoring function for human coding DNA regions, and the trained models can easily be incorporated in the general framework for gene recognition systems. RESULTS A 5-fold cross-validation evaluation of our IMC approach on a representative sequence set yielded a mean correlation coefficient of 0.84 (promoter versus coding sequences) and 0.53 (promoter versus non-coding sequences). Applied to the task of eukaryotic promoter region identification in genomic DNA sequences, our classifier identifies 50% of the promoter regions in the sequences used in the most recent review and comparison by Fickett and Hatzigeorgiou ( Genome Res., 7, 861-878, 1997), while having a false-positive rate of 1/849 bp.
COCKTAIL: An RF-Based Hybrid Approach for Indoor Localization

Traditional RF-based indoor positioning approaches use only Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) to locate the target object. But RSSI suffers significantly from the multi-path phenomenon and other environmental factors. Hence, the localization accuracy drops dramatically in a large tracking field. To solve this problem, this paper introduces one more resource, the dynamic of RSSI, which is the variance of signal strength caused by the target object and is more robust to environment changes. By combining these two resources, we are able to greatly improve the accuracy and scalability of current RF-based approaches. We call such hybrid approach COCKTAIL. It employs both the technologies of active RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Sensors use the dynamic of RSSI to figure out a cluster of reference tags as candidates. The final target location is estimated by using the RSSI relationships between the target tag and candidate reference tags. Experiments show that COCKTAIL can reach a remarkable high degree of localization accuracy to 0:45m, which outperforms significantly to most of the pure RF-based localization approaches.
Optimal use of photomultipliers for chemiluminescence and bioluminescence applications.

Photomultipliers are the preferred detectors for quantifying weak or short-lived light emissions. The quality of signal recovery has an upper limit imposed by the statistical nature of light detection. It is shown that the photon counting method can provide performance close to ideal, whereas performance in the current measuring method is degraded by noise in the multiplier gain process and by the nature of the dark current. Performance variations because of changes in temperature, shock, vibration and magnetic field effects are significantly reduced when using the photon counting method. The effects of dead-time can be corrected making photon counting superior to current measuring with regard to dynamic range. The benefits of using photon counting packages are presented.
Prepared to eat: How immediate affective and motivational responses to food cues are influenced by food deprivation.

Three studies examined how food deprivation influences the immediate valence of food stimuli as well as spontaneous motivational tendencies toward them. We assumed that immediate reactions towards food stimuli should be tuned to the basic needs of the organism. In Study 1, the immediate valence of food names as a function of need state was assessed using an Implicit Association Test (IAT) in a quasi-experimental design. Food deprivation led to a more positive immediate valence of food items. In Study 2, these results were replicated using the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task. In Study 3, immediate motivational reactions toward pictorial food stimuli were assessed. As hypothesized, approach reactions were facilitated for participants tested before as compared to after lunch, even in a sample with eating disorders. We thus conclude that the immediate valence of edible objects partially reflects regulation in the service of need fulfillment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in Filipina-American women : a high-risk nonobese population.

OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and features of the metabolic syndrome among Filipina and Caucasian women in San Diego County, California. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data on several chronic diseases were collected between 1992 and 1999 from community-dwelling Filipina (n=294) and Caucasian (n=379) women aged 50-69 years. RESULTS Filipina and Caucasian women did not differ in mean age (59.7 vs. 60 years, respectively), BMI (25.6 vs. 25.4 kg/m(2)), percentage of body fat (33.5 vs. 34.2%), or waist-to-hip ratio (0.84 vs. 0.83), although Filipinas had larger waist circumferences and higher percentages of truncal fat. Compared with Caucasians, Filipinas were less likely to be obese (BMI > or = 30 kg/m(2), 8.8 vs. 14%, P=0.04) and less likely to smoke, consume alcohol, or take postmenopausal estrogen; Filipinas also had lower levels of HDL cholesterol. Compared with Caucasians, Filipinas had higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes by oral glucose tolerance test criteria (36 vs. 9%) and the metabolic syndrome (34 vs. 13%). These differences persisted after adjusting for age, body size, fat distribution, percentage of body fat, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, and estrogen therapy. CONCLUSIONS A total of 10% of Filipinas with diabetes were obese, compared with one third of Caucasians with diabetes. The finding of a high prevalence of diabetes in an unstudied nonobese ethnic group reinforces the importance of expanding the study of diabetes to diverse populations. The high prevalence of diabetes in populations who are not of Northern European ancestry may be missed when they are not obese by Western standards.
Automatic Data Clustering Using Parameter Adaptive Harmony Search Algorithm and Its Application to Image Segmentation

Abstract In this paper, the problem of automatic data clustering is treated as the searching of optimal number of clusters so that the obtained partitions should be optimized. The automatic data clustering technique utilizes a recently developed parameter adaptive harmony search (PAHS) as an underlying optimization strategy. It uses real-coded variable length harmony vector, which is able to detect the number of clusters automatically. The newly developed concepts regarding “threshold setting” and “cutoff” are used to refine the optimization strategy. The assignment of data points to different cluster centers is done based on the newly developed weighted Euclidean distance instead of Euclidean distance. The developed approach is able to detect any type of cluster irrespective of their geometric shape. It is compared with four well-established clustering techniques. It is further applied for automatic segmentation of grayscale and color images, and its performance is compared with other existing techniques. For real-life datasets, statistical analysis is done. The technique shows its effectiveness and the usefulness.
Nucleotide-binding Oligomerization Domain-1 and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor

Host-pathogen interactions that allow Helicobacter pylori to survive and persist in the stomach of susceptible individuals remain unclear. Human β-defensins (hBDs), epithelial-derived antimicrobial peptides are critical components of host-defense at mucosal surfaces. The role of H. pylori-mediated NF-κB and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation on β-defensin expression was investigated. Transient transfection studies utilizing β-defensin promoter constructs were conducted in gastric cells with contribution of individual signaling events evaluated by the addition of specific inhibitors, small interference nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1) RNA or plasmids encoding Vaccinia virus proteins that interrupt interleukin-1 and Toll-like receptor signaling. The role of individual MAPK pathways was further delineated in HEK-293 cells expressing conditional MAPK mutants. We found hBD2 expression exclusively dependent on the presence of the bacterial cag pathogenicity island, with NOD1 a critical host sensor. Impairment of murineβ-defensin 4 (an orthologue of hBD2) expression in NOD1-deficient mice 7-days post-infection further confirmed the role of this cytoplasmic pattern-recognition receptor in eliciting host innate immunity. In contrast to hBD2, hBD3 expression was NOD1-independent but EGFR and ERK pathway-dependent. Importantly, Toll-like receptor signaling was not implicated in H. pylori-mediated hBD2 and hBD3 gene expression. The divergent signaling events governing hBD2 and hBD3 expression suggest temporal functional variation, such that hBD2 may contribute to antimicrobial barrier function during the inflammatory phase with hBD3 playing a greater role during the repair, wound healing phase of infection.
Accurate and safe mediastinal restaging by combined endobronchial and endoscopic ultrasound-guided needle aspiration performed by single ultrasound bronchoscope.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this prospective trial was to assess the diagnostic utility of combined endobronchial (EBUS) and endoscopic (EUS) ultrasound-guided needle aspiration by use of a single ultrasound bronchoscope (CUSb-NA) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) restaging in patients after induction therapy. METHODS In a consecutive group of NSCLC patients with pathologically confirmed N2 disease (clinical stage IIIa and IIIb) who underwent induction chemotherapy, CUSb-NA was performed. All of the patients with negative or suspected for metastases (uncertain) diagnosed by endoscopy underwent subsequently transcervical extended mediastinal lymphadenectomy (TEMLA) as a confirmatory test. RESULTS From January 2009 to December 2012, 106 patients met the inclusion criteria and underwent restaging CUSb-NA under mild sedation, in whom 286 (mean 2.7, range 2-5) lymph node stations were biopsied, 127 (mean 1.2, range 1-3) by EBUS-transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) and 159 (mean 1.5, range 1-4) by EUS-fine needle aspiration (FNA). The CUSb-NA revealed metastatic lymph node involvement in 37/106 patients (34.9%). In 69 (65.1%) patients with negative and uncertain CUSb-NA in 4 (3.8%) out of them, who underwent subsequent TEMLA metastatic nodes were found in 18 patients (17.0%) and there were single lymph nodes found only in one mediastinal station (minimal N2) in 10 (9.4%) out of them. False-positive results were found in 2 (1.9%) patients. In 9 (8.5%) patients CUSb-NA occurred to be false negative in Stations 2R and 4R (only accessible for EBUS), exclusively in small nodes and in 4 (3.8%) patients in Station 5-not accessible for CUSb-NA. The prevalence of mediastinal lymph node metastases in the present study was 51.9%. Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, total accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value (NPV) of the restaging CUSb-NA were 67.3% (95% CI [confidence interval]-53-79), 96.0% (95% CI-86-99), 81.0% (95% CI-73-87), 95.0% (95% CI-83-99) and 73.0% (95% CI-61-83), respectively. The sensitivity, accuracy and NPV of CUSb-NA were higher compared with EBUS-TBNA and EUS-FNA alone. No complications of CUSb-NA were observed. CONCLUSIONS The CUSb-NA is a reasonable and safe technique in mediastinal restaging in NSCLC patients after induction therapy. Following our data, in patients with negative result of CUSb-NA, a surgical restaging of the mediastinum should be considered.
Performance Study on Audio Codec and Session Transfer of Open Source VoIP applications

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application or commonly known as softphone has been developing an increasingly large market in today’s telecommunication world and the trend is expected to continue with the enhancement of additional features. This includes leveraging on the existing presence services, location and contextual information to enable more ubiquitous and seamless communications. In this paper, we discuss the concept of seamless session transfer for real-time application such as VoIP and IPTV, and our prototype implementation of such concept on a selected open source VoIP application. The first part of this paper is about conducting performance evaluation and assessments across some commonly found open source VoIP applications that are Ekiga, Kphone, Linphone and Twinkle so as to identify one of them for implementing our design of seamless session transfer. Subjective testing has been carried out to evaluate the audio performance on these VoIP applications and rank them according to their Mean Opinion Score (MOS) results. The second part of this paper is to discuss on the performance evaluations of our prototype implementation of session transfer using Linphone. Keywords—audio codec, softphone, session transfer.
The Human Connectome: A Structural Description of the Human Brain

ABSTRACT The connection matrix of the human brain (the human “connectome”) represents an indispensable foundation for basic and applied neurobiological research. However, the network of anatomical connections linking the neuronal elements of the human brain is still largely unknown. While some databases or collations of large-scale anatomical connection patterns exist for other mammalian species, there is currently no connection matrix of the human brain, nor is there a coordinated research effort to collect, archive, and disseminate this important information. We propose a research strategy to achieve this goal, and discuss its potential impact.
Phosphorylation of FADD by the kinase CK1α promotes KRASG12D-induced lung cancer

Mutant KRAS promotes mitosis by stimulating phosphorylation of the adaptor protein FADD. Conversion of a death adaptor to a proliferation mediator Activating mutations in the protein RAS drive cell proliferation and tumor growth. Although best known for mediating cell death signaling through its death domain, when phosphorylated, the adaptor protein FADD promotes cell survival and proliferation. Bowman et al. found that, compared with KRAS mutant mice, KRAS mutant mice engineered to lack FADD or its upstream kinase CK1α developed fewer lung tumors. Lung tissue and cells from KRAS mutant mice had increased abundance of CK1α, phosphorylated FADD, and proliferative markers. In lung tumor samples from patients, expression of FADD was greater in tumors that had mutant KRAS. A CK1α inhibitor prevented FADD from physically interacting with mitotic kinases and suppressed cell proliferation in culture. Thus, blocking the phosphorylation of FADD may be a new strategy for patients with KRAS mutant lung tumors. Genomic amplification of the gene encoding and phosphorylation of the protein FADD (Fas-associated death domain) is associated with poor clinical outcome in lung cancer and in head and neck cancer. Activating mutations in the guanosine triphosphatase RAS promotes cell proliferation in various cancers. Increased abundance of phosphorylated FADD in patient-derived tumor samples predicts poor clinical outcome. Using immunohistochemistry analysis and in vivo imaging of conditional mouse models of KRASG12D-driven lung cancer, we found that the deletion of the gene encoding FADD suppressed tumor growth, reduced the proliferative index of cells, and decreased the activation of downstream effectors of the RAS–MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway that promote the cell cycle, including retinoblastoma (RB) and cyclin D1. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts, the induction of mitosis upon activation of KRAS required FADD and the phosphorylation of FADD by CK1α (casein kinase 1α). Deleting the gene encoding CK1α in KRAS mutant mice abrogated the phosphorylation of FADD and suppressed lung cancer development. Phosphorylated FADD was most abundant during the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, and mass spectrometry revealed that phosphorylated FADD interacted with kinases that mediate the G2/M transition, including PLK1 (Polo-like kinase 1), AURKA (Aurora kinase A), and BUB1 (budding uninhibited by benzimidazoles 1). This interaction was decreased in cells treated with a CKI-7, a CK1α inhibitor. Therefore, as the kinase that phosphorylates FADD downstream of RAS, CK1α may be a therapeutic target for KRAS-driven lung cancer.