Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On some properties of k-ary n-cubes

The k-ary n-cube has been used as the underlying topology for most practical multicomputers, and has been extensively studied in the past. We investigate some properties of this network. In particular, we study the problem of finding the number of nodes located i hops away from a given node (surface area) and the number of nodes located within i hops away from a given node (volume) in both the unidirectional and bidirectional k-ary n-cube, and have derived exact expressions calculating these numbers. These results are very useful when studying, for example, the spanning tree structure of the k-ary n-cube and the problem of resource placement in this network.
Useful Visual Field in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Choice Reaction Time Study

This study examined the size of the useful visual field in patients (9 men, 6 women) with schizophrenia. A choice reaction task was conducted, and performances at 2.5, 5, 7, 10, and 25° in both visual fields were measured. Three key findings were shown. First, patients had slower choice reaction times (choice RTs) than normal controls. Second, patients had slower choice RTs in the right visual field than in the left visual field. Third, patients and normal controls showed the same U-shaped choice RT pattern. The first and second findings were consistent with those of other studies. The third finding was a clear indication of the patients' performance in peripheral vision, and a comparison with normal controls suggested that there was no difference in the size of the useful visual field, at least within 25°.
Neuropsychological abnormalities in first degree relatives of patients with familial Parkinson’s disease

OBJECTIVE To investigate the cognitive profile of first degree relatives of patients with familial Parkinson’s disease to determine whether these subjects presented signs of neuropsychological dysfunction compared with healthy controls. Results of recent genetic and neuroimaging studies suggest a genetic contribution to the aetiology of Parkinson’s disease and underline the interest in identifying preclinical signs of the disease. METHODS A battery of tests evaluating executive function was administered to 41 first degree relatives of patients with well documented familial Parkinson’s disease and 39 healthy controls. A factorial discriminant analysis allowed isolation of a subgroup of 15 first degree relatives who could be considered as impaired compared with the healthy controls. Among these 15 “deviant” relatives, nine performed globally worse than the control subjects on all tasks. The six other subjects had mean or even high scores on all task variables, except on those highly correlated with the discriminant score of the factorial discriminant analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Among the first degree relatives of patients with familial Parkinson’s disease, some manifested executive dysfunction comparable with that typically associated with the disease. Such impairment could represent a preclinical form of Parkinson’s disease.
Formant frequency tracking using Gaussian mixtures with maximum a posteriori adaptation

We present a novel method for estimating formant frequencies by ﬁtting Gaussian mixtures to discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) magnitude spectra. The method ﬁrst estimates the Gaussian parameters for a sequence of wideband spectra using the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. It then reﬁnes the parameters by using maximum a posteriori (MAP) adaptation. The work was evaluated using manually labeled ground truth data with 516 utterances and comparing results both with PRAAT’s formant tracking algorithm in various noisy environments and one other state-of-the-art method. We obtained statistically signiﬁcant improvements in the relative errors for the ﬁrst three formants over all phonetic classes.
Comparative effects of group metacognitive therapy versus behavioural activation in moderately depressed students

Abstract Background: The high incidence and prevalence rates of depression among students identify them as a vulnerable population and make the case for the development of cost-effective treatments. Aims: We aimed to examine the comparative effects of brief group metacognitive therapy (MCT) versus behavioural activation (BA) treatments for depression, anxiety, and emotion regulation in university students. Method: All participants (25 women, 16 men; age range: 18–30 years) fulfilled criteria for major depression and were randomly assigned to MCT (n = 15), BA (n = 15), or a wait-list control group (n = 15). The treatment groups received 8 weekly MCT or BA sessions. Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used as outcome measures. Results: This pilot study showed that both treatments were equally effective for depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, therapeutic techniques differed with regards to their effects on specific facets of emotion regulation, such as Positive Reappraisal and Catastrophizing, with MCT being more effective compared to BA. BA also showed a stronger relapse at follow-up with regards to Acceptance and Refocus on Planning. Conclusions: Results suggest that groups MCT and BA may be implemented as cost-effective treatments for students with moderate depression.
Frame synchronization in frequency uncertainty

This paper addresses the problem of robust frame synchronization for TDM/TDMA systems in the presence of frequency errors, accomplished through data-aided recognition of the Unique Word (UW) preamble in the transmission flow. Robust detection design is performed applying, through approximations, the Maximum Likelihood (ML) criterion coupled to Post Detection Integration (PDI), to obtain a novel detector identified as Balanced-GPDI (B-GPDI). This new approach considerably outperforms other schemes available in the literature, at the cost of a moderate complexity increase. This is possible thanks to an optimized use of coherent accumulation, which enhances the correlation term in the decision variable, along with highly accurate modeling of the energy correction factor. To limit complexity increase and memory requirements, several approximations of the exact B-GPDI are proposed and discussed in the paper, to provide the designer with practical solutions that are still able to outperform other approaches in specific application scenarios. In particular, approximations for low and high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) are presented. Different application scenarios are considered in the paper for numerical analysis. In particular, the cases of forward link Continuous Transmission (CTX) and return link Burst Transmission (BTX) are addressed.
Prevention of red cell alloimmunization by CD25 regulatory T cells in mouse models

Transfusion therapy is currently an effective therapeutic intervention in a number of diseases, including sickle cell disease. However, its use is complicated by a high incidence of red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunization in the transfusion recipients. The identification of T regulatory cells (Tregs) among the CD4+ CD25+ T cell subset as key regulators of peripheral tolerance in mice as well as humans has opened an exciting era in the prevention and treatment of autoimmune disease and for improving organ transplantation. However, their potential in inducing transfusion tolerance remains to be explored. We used red cells from mice transgenic for human glycophorin A blood group antigen as donor cells and transfused wild‐type mice to induce alloantibodies, as an experimental system to study RBC alloimmunization. We found that depletion with anti‐CD25 enhanced the alloantibody production, indicating that CD25 Tregs play an important role in regulation of alloantibody responses. More importantly, adoptive transfer of purified population of CD4+CD25+ but not CD4+CD25− cells from naïve mice prevented the induction of IgG and IgM alloantibody production in transfusion recipients, with a concomitant reduction in activated splenic B cells and macrophages. Similarly, adoptive transfer of purified populations of CD4+CD25+ cells from naïve mice into naïve syngeneic recipients inhibited the anti‐Ig response to rat RBCs in the recipients but transfer of control CD4+CD25− cells did not. Altogether, our results demonstrate that Tregs participate in the control of transfusion‐associated RBC alloantibody responses, opening up the possibility that Treg immunotherapy may be exploited for suppressing transfusion immunization events. Am. J. Hematol. , 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Oral Anticoagulation in Elderly Adults with Atrial Fibrillation: Integrating New Options with Old Concepts

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and the second most common cardiovascular condition in adults in the United States. It is prevalent in the elderly population and is an important risk factor for stroke. Oral anticoagulation offers significant protection against AF‐related thromboembolic events, but several complex issues that contribute to its underuse in elderly adults surround it. To aid clinicians in their approach to these problems, a comprehensive PubMed‐based search of the literature published in English from 1990 through July 2012 was conducted using the following terms or combination of terms: atrial fibrillation, elderly, antiplatelet, anticoagulation, stroke, bleeding, hemorrhage, and falls. Additional references were identified in a manual search of bibliographies in retrieved articles. The data were then synthesized to address the most relevant questions regarding anticoagulation in elderly adults, including fall risk, responsiveness to warfarin, physician perception of risks, and other barriers to the prescription of anticoagulants. Recently proposed risk‐stratification schemes for stroke and hemorrhage that could refine the selection of antithrombotic therapy for AF are highlighted. Finally, available data on the use of antiplatelet therapy, warfarin, and new oral anticoagulants (direct thrombin inhibitor and factor Xa inhibitors) in AF are summarized.
Distributed Execution of Recovery Blocks: An Approach for Uniform Treatment of Hardware and Software Faults in Real-Time Applications

The concept of distributed execution of recovery blocks is examined as an approach for uniform treatment of hardware and software faults. A useful characteristic of the approach is the relatively small time cost it requires. The approach is thus suitable for incorporation into real-time computer systems. A specific formulation of the approach that is aimed at minimizing the recovery time is presented, called the distributed recovery blocks scheme. The DRB scheme is capable of effecting forward recovery while handling both hardware and software faults in a uniform manner. An approach to incorporating the capability for distributed execution of recovery blocks into a load-sharing multiprocessing scheme is also discussed. Two experiments aimed at testing the execution efficiency of the scheme in real-time applications have been conducted on two different multimicrocomputer networks. The results clearly indicate the feasibility of achieving tolerance of hardware and software faults. >
Identification of Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria: 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Analysis vs. Conventional Methods

In a retrospective study, 45 clinical isolates of non-tuberculous mycobacteria were identified to the species level by biochemical profile, gas liquid chromatography and partial sequence analysis of 16S rRNA, and were found to represent 13 different species. The results of sequence analysis showed 100% identity with conventional tests for 34 isolates (76%) and could identify species such as M. bohemicum which are difficult to charaacterise with conventional methods. Most of the discrepant results for the remaining 11 isolates resulted in species of the same group of mycobacteria. Based on these findings, we concluded that direct sequence analysis of amplified 16S rRNA gene is a promising rapid and accurate method for species determination of non-tuberculous mycobacteria.
Photoreceptor glucose metabolism determines normal retinal vascular growth

The neural cells and factors determining normal vascular growth are not well defined even though vision‐threatening neovessel growth, a major cause of blindness in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (and diabetic retinopathy), is driven by delayed normal vascular growth. We here examined whether hyperglycemia and low adiponectin (APN) levels delayed normal retinal vascularization, driven primarily by dysregulated photoreceptor metabolism. In premature infants, low APN levels correlated with hyperglycemia and delayed retinal vascular formation. Experimentally in a neonatal mouse model of postnatal hyperglycemia modeling early ROP, hyperglycemia caused photoreceptor dysfunction and delayed neurovascular maturation associated with changes in the APN pathway; recombinant mouse APN or APN receptor agonist AdipoRon treatment normalized vascular growth. APN deficiency decreased retinal mitochondrial metabolic enzyme levels particularly in photoreceptors, suppressed retinal vascular development, and decreased photoreceptor platelet‐derived growth factor (Pdgfb). APN pathway activation reversed these effects. Blockade of mitochondrial respiration abolished AdipoRon‐induced Pdgfb increase in photoreceptors. Photoreceptor knockdown of Pdgfb delayed retinal vascular formation. Stimulation of the APN pathway might prevent hyperglycemia‐associated retinal abnormalities and suppress phase I ROP in premature infants.
Control of Cu Conductive Filament in Complementary Atom Switch for Cross-Point Selector Device Application

We present a novel approach to realize bidirectional/bipolar current-voltage characteristics for cross-point selector device application. These utilize the instability of Cu ions in filament state for switch elements. The conductive filament instability was controlled by the compliance current with which the filament was formed. For in-situ control of the device, a complementary atom switch concept was implemented. The proposed device presents another attractive selector among the field of bidirectional selectors with the unique attributes such as the extremely low leakage current and the exponentially increased conduction behavior.
Comparison of the SphygmoCor and Omron devices in the estimation of pressure amplification against the invasive catheter measurement

Background: We previously tested the accuracy of the SphygmoCor and Omron HEM-9000AI devices in the estimation of central blood pressure. In the present study, we investigated these two devices in the estimation of central-to-brachial pressure amplification against the invasive catheter measurement. Methods: In 33 individuals undergoing cardiac catheterization, we measured central blood pressure simultaneously by the invasive catheter and each of the two noninvasive devices and brachial blood pressure by the invasive catheter and an automated oscillometric blood pressure monitor of the Omron device. Pressure amplification was calculated as central-to-brachial systolic pressure difference and pulse pressure difference and ratio. The agreement between each of these two noninvasive devices and the invasive catheter was evaluated using the Student's t-test, intraclass correlation analysis, and the Bland–Altman method. Results: The mean central-to-brachial systolic pressure difference and pulse pressure difference and ratio estimated by Omron were significantly lower than those measured by the catheter (P < 0.001), whereas no difference was observed for SphygmoCor (P ≥ 0.07). Nonetheless, the intraclass correlation coefficients for systolic pressure difference and pulse pressure difference and ratio between the noninvasive and invasive catheter measurements were similar for the two devices, being 0.11 (P = 0.56), 0.38 (P = 0.03), and 0.40 (P = 0.02), respectively, for SphygmoCor, and 0.15 (P = 0.41), 0.23 (P = 0.20), and 0.53 (P = 0.002), respectively, for Omron. Conclusion: If the invasive catheter measurement would be considered as standard, the two noninvasive devices have similar accuracy in the estimation of pressure amplification, but apparently require device-specific criteria for diagnosis. Pulse pressure ratio seems to be a more consistent measure of central-to-brachial pressure amplification.
Subspace Modeling of Discrete Features for Language Recognition

This thesis addresses the language recognition problem with a special focus on phonotactic language recognition. A full description of different steps in a language recognition system is provided. We study state-of-the-art speech modeling techniques in language recognition that comprise phonotactic, acoustic and prosodic language modeling. A brief understanding of the state-of-the-art subspace modeling technique known as the iVector model for continuous features is given. Using recent proposals on training the iVector model for continuous features, we explain our recipe for extracting iVectors for acoustic and prosodic features that results in similar language recognition performance as the state-of-the-art results reported in the recent literature. In the next step, inspired by the intuition behind the iVector model for continuous features, we propose our iVector model for discrete features. After a general explanation of the model, adaption of the proposed model to the n-gram model that is used to extract iVectors representing the language phonotactics is given. Finally a regularized iVector extraction model for discrete features that is robust to model overfitting is proposed. The full theoretical derivation of the proposed iVector model for discrete features is given. We also explain use of discriminative and generative classifiers for training language models based on the different extracted iVectors. Effects of the iVector normalizations for binary and multi-class formulation of the used classifiers is also studied.We report performances of our iVector model on NIST language recognition evaluation LRE2009, LRE2011 and RATS language recognition as the most recent and challenging language recognition task. Using our phonotactic iVector model, we obtain a significant improvement over our phonotactic baseline system which was a state-of-the-art system at the time of starting this thesis. Our results on NIST LRE09, NIST LRE2011 and RATS confirms superior advantage of our iVector model for discrete features compared to the other state-of-the-art phonotactic system.
Factors Influencing Tourists’ Perception towards Bangladeshi Foods

Identification of tourists’ perception regarding the foods of a destination and the pivotal factors those outline and influence their perceptions can help the Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and related stakeholders to shape market driven offerings and to augment positive brand image of that destination. Notwithstanding having great potential of food tourism, there is no study exists in Bangladesh that exclusively attempted to cover this area. Moreover, none of the study in Bangladesh principally tried yet to discover tourists’ perception towards Bangladeshi foods (BF). Consequently, this study was a step to fulfill the recognized gaps as well as, an initiative to append empirical findings in the existing literature of food tourism. Both exploratory (desk research and literature review) and descriptive (survey method) research designs were utilized to conduct the current study. Probabilistic Stratified Random Sampling (SRS) technique was used to gather the primary data from 520 sample respondents and the data were collected from 7 popular tourist destinations located at the 4 different regions of Bangladesh. Descriptive statistics (Frequency distribution) and multivariate interdependence data analysis technique (factor analysis) were used to analyze the collected data. Although, this study found that tourists have positive perception towards BF however, the present study clarified and recommends that scope are still available to enhance it further. This study also discovered that tourists’ perception regarding BF is formed and influenced by the 4 principal factors labeled as Food diversity representing Bangladeshi culture, Image of the Bangladeshi foods, Unique characteristics of the Bangladeshi foods, and Good value for money. DMOs and related stakeholders can use this study as a reference to develop food tourism in Bangladesh and to enhance the overall brand image of Bangladesh. Moreover, this study also contributes to the food tourism literature and minimizes the known literature gap for developing countries. Keywords: Food Tourism, Bangladeshi Foods, Perception, Food Culture, and Destination Brand Image
Insight on Effectiveness of Frequently Exercised PQ Classification Techniques

The growing demands of global consumer market in green energy system have opened the doors for many technologies as well as various sophisticated electrical devices for both commercial and domestic usage. However, with the increasing demands of energy and better quality of services, there is a significant increase in non-linearity in load distribution causing potential effect on the Power Quality (PQ). The harmful effects on PQ are various events e.g. sag, swell, harmonics etc that causes significant amount of system degradation. Therefore, this paper discusses various significant research techniques pertaining to the PQ disturbance classification system introduced by the authors in the past and analyzes its effectiveness scale in terms of research gap. The paper discusses some of the frequently exercised PQ classification techniques from the most relevant literatures in order to have more insights of the techniques.
Preliminary validation of a German version of pain stages of change questionnaire

This study describes the development of the German questionnaire FF‐STABS (Freiburg Questionnaire‐Stages of Chronic Pain Management), which documents the willingness of chronic pain patients to use cognitive‐behavioural methods for pain management independently. The newly constructed assessment instrument, modified from a similar instrument developed by Kerns and his colleagues, was administered to a heterogeneous sample of 118 chronic pain patients. Item and factor analysis support the identification of four reliable scales: precontemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. All scales evidenced sufficient indices of reliability and discriminant validity. Deviations from the original American version and suggestions for future refinements in the new measure are discussed. © 2002 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain
Cloning of a repetitive DNA from the rickettsia-like organisms of tsetse flies (Glossina spp.)

Summary Three DNA fragments from the genome of the rickettsia-like organism (RLO) symbiotic in tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) have been cloned. One of these fragments represents a family of highly conserved repeats, which occurs in RLO from all species of tsetse examined and has been amplified in the original RLO culture from which the DNA is cloned. This fragment serves as a highly sensitive and specific probe for the detection of RLO in tsetse midguts. As few as 30 organisms were unequivocally identified by dot blot hybridization of homogenized midgut preparations. Since the presence of RLO within tsetse midguts is associated with susceptibility to trypanosome infection, this technique provides a rapid and reliable method of assessing the potential susceptibility of a tsetse population to Trypanosoma brucei s.l. and T. congolense infections.