Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of different anthropometric measures and indices with coronary atherosclerotic burden.

BACKGROUND The association between anthropometric parameters and atherosclerotic burden is not well established and few studies have addressed this issue. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of different anthropometric parameters with the coronary atherosclerotic burden. METHODS Adult patients undergoing coronary angiography were enrolled in the study. Sociodemographic characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors were collected through a standardized questionnaire. Weight, height, waist circumference (WC), abdominal circumference (AbC), hip circumference (HC) and neck circumference (NC) were measured and body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), abdominal circumference-hip ratio (AbCHR) and waist-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. The atherosclerotic burden at the coronary angiography was measured through Friesinger score (FS). Significant atherosclerosis was considered when FS ≥ 5. RESULTS The sample consisted of 337 patients, of whom 213 were men (63.2%). The mean age was 60.1 ± 10 years. Only WHR (r = 0.159 and p = 0.003) showed a significant linear correlation with the coronary atherosclerotic burden as measured by FS. When the sample was stratified by gender, we found a significant correlation between women's AbCHR (r = 0.238 and p = 0.008) and WHR (r = 0.198 and p = 0.028) with FS. Men showed no correlation between anthropometric parameters and FS. After adjusting for gender, age, hypertension, smoking and DM, no anthropometric parameter was associated with coronary atherosclerotic burden as measured by FS in the total sample or when separated by gender. CONCLUSION No anthropometric parameter was an independent risk factor for coronary atherosclerotic burden.
Rigorous verification of formal chaos produced by one-dimensional discrete dynamical system with use of interval arithmetic

Definitions of chaos and its observability for 1D mapping systems are briefly reviewed. This paper provides a theorem guaranteeing that formal chaos exists in 1D mapping system based on one dimensional horseshoe map geometrical structure, and also provides algorithms verifying the conditions in the theorem with the use of interval arithmetic. Further this paper discusses the effectiveness of the approach through an example of a transmission line circuit with nonlinear boundary conditions.
Trajectory Planning of Unicycle Mobile Robots With a Trapezoidal-Velocity Constraint

We propose an efficient stochastic scheme for minimum-time trajectory planning of a nonholonomic unicycle mobile robot under constraints on path curvature, velocities, and torques. This problem, which is known to be complex, often requires important runtimes, particularly if obstacles are present and if full dynamics is considered. The proposed technique is a fast variant of the random-profile approach recently applied to wheeled-mobile robots. It incorporates a trapezoidal-velocity-profile constraint that helps reduce the number of unknown parameters and that speeds up the calculation steps. Results are presented for two- and three-wheel mobile robots in free/constrained workspaces. A comparison with reference solutions, which were obtained independently, shows that the proposed variant is able to achieve almost the same quality of calculated trajectories while reducing the runtime considerably.
Augmented motion models for constrained position tracking with Kalman filters

Accurate position tracking is a crucial task in many applications ranging from car navigation over robot control to sports analysis. In order to improve the accuracy of position tracking, we introduce a novel method for constraining Kalman filters by incorporating prior knowledge in an augmented motion model. In contrast to previously reported methods, our approach does not require cumbersome tuning of additional filter parameters and causes less computational overhead. We demonstrate our method in the context of sports analysis in athletics. Using 34 data sets recorded during 400m and 800m runs, we compare our approach to unconstrained and pseudo-measurement filters. The presented augmented motion model in conjunction with an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) reduced the root mean square error of the filtered output by 60% compared to unconstrained filtering and by 50% compared to a pseudo-measurement EKF.
An accurate distributed rage free localization algorithm for WSN

Since there is no priorly knowledge about the locations of most of the sensors which scattered randomly in an area, wireless sensor network localization methods try to find out where sensors are located. A new distributed range-free localization algorithm is proposed in this paper. The method first uses convex optimization techniques to find bounding boxes that contain target nodes locations estimation, and then nodes cooperate with each other in finite number of iterations to enhance the accuracy of whole network location estimation. As well as, results of the algorithm have been compared with five range-free based methods like DV-hop, APIT and Amorphous and the proposed method provides more accurate results in mean error metric.
A non-intrusive portable fault injection framework to assess reliability of FPGA-based designs

This paper proposes a full-featured fault injection framework to assess reliability of FPGA-based designs. The framework provides non-intrusiveness, portability, flexibility and performance in reliability evaluation of FPGA-based designs against adverse effects of SEUs. It works in a non-intrusive manner, allowing the reliability of ready-to-be-released designs to be assessed independently, without any intrusion into their place and route characteristics. We have studied implications of framework's intrusiveness into design under test by comparing proposed non-intrusive framework with previous intrusive methods; up to 5% deviation in the number of effective faults is observed in intrusive methods. Providing portability, the framework can be applied for a wide variety of FPGAs. Allowing the user to define desired parameters for different fault injection strategies confirms framework's flexibility. Finally, the framework performs the process of injecting faults, evaluating design and removing faults in about 17ms, on average.
Theil index for aggregation of software metrics values

We propose a new approach to aggregating software metrics from the micro-level of individual artifacts (e.g., methods, classes and packages) to the macro-level of the entire software system. The approach, Theil index, is a well-known econometric measure of inequality. The Theil index allows to study the impact of different categorizations of the artifacts, e.g., based on the development technology or developers' teams, on the inequality of the metrics values measured. We apply the Theil index in a series of experiments. We have observed that the Theil index and the related notions provide valuable insights in organization and evolution of software systems, as well as in sources of inequality.
Revision of Partulidae (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora) of Palau, with description of a new genus for an unusual ground-dwelling species

Abstract We describe a new stylommatophoran land snail of the family Partulidae from Palau. The new species has a combination of morphological and ecological characters that do not allow its placement in any existing partulid genus, so we describe a new genus for it. The new genus is characterized by a large (18–23 mm) obese-pupoid shell; smooth protoconch; teleoconch with weak and inconsistent, progressively stronger, striae; last half of body whorl not extending beyond the penultimate whorl; widely expanded and reflexed peristome; relatively long penis, with longitudinal pilasters that fuse apically into a fleshy ridge that divides the main chamber from a small apical chamber; and vas deferens entering and penial-retractor muscle attaching at the apex of the penis. Unlike all other partulids, the new species is strictly associated with rocks in contact with the ground. Comparing the other three Palauan species – currently assigned to Partula – to our new genus and to other partulids makes it clear that they require their own genus because their morphology is quite different from that of true Partula and from that of all other genera. Hence, we resurrect the name Palaopartula Pilsbry for these snails.
Support of TCP in wireless mesh with unstable packet forwarding capacity

Opportunistic forwarding and network coding utilize the broadcasting nature of wireless transmission and fluctuation of link quality for enhanced performance in multi-hop wireless networks. However, TCP is not well supported because of the way they operate. The frequent occurrences of dropped packets and out-of-order arrival of them in opportunistic forwarding and decoding delay in network coding overthrow TCP's congestion control. We propose a mechanism, dubbed TCPFender, for TCP to function over the network layer that uses opportunistic data forwarding and network coding, to properly conduct congestion control in TCP and provide reliable data transport. Our experiment shows that TCPFender achieves significantly higher throughput compared to TCP over IP in a simulated wireless mesh.
Semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation exploiting gene-environment independence in case-control studies

We consider the problem of maximum-likelihood estimation in case-control studies of gene-environment associations with disease when genetic and environmental exposures can be assumed to be independent in the underlying population. Traditional logistic regression analysis may not be efficient in this setting. We study the semiparametric maximum likelihood estimates of logistic regression parameters that exploit the gene-environment independence assumption and leave the distribution of the environmental exposures to be nonparametric. We use a profile-likelihood technique to derive a simple algorithm for obtaining the estimator and we study the asymptotic theory. The results are extended to situations where genetic and environmental factors are independent conditional on some other factors. Simulation studies investigate small-sample properties. The method is illustrated using data from a case-control study designed to investigate the interplay of BRCA1s2 mutations and oral contraceptive use in the aetiology of ovarian cancer. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Genetic Relatedness of Levofloxacin-Nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae Isolates from North America

ABSTRACT We characterized 32 levofloxacin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae (LNSP) isolates obtained from a broad geographic region of North America over a 5-year period by using capsular serotypes, antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, BOX-PCR, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Sixteen international clones identified by the Pneumococcal Molecular Epidemiology Network also were included for comparison. Fifteen serotypes were represented, with serogroups 6, 9, 14, 19, and 23 accounting for 63% of isolates. Among isolates whose quinolone resistance-determining regions were sequenced, all contained gyrA and parC point mutations. Sixty-three percent were penicillin susceptible, and 84% were erythromycin susceptible. BOX-PCR analysis identified 39 different band patterns among 32 LNSP and 16 international clones and grouped 16 isolates, including 2 international clones, into seven unrelated groups of 2 to 4 isolates each. PFGE analysis identified 35 different band patterns among 32 LNSP and 16 international clones and grouped 21 isolates, including 3 international clones, into eight unrelated groups of 2 to 6 isolates each. MLST performed on 10 isolates identified five allelic profiles and separated 9 isolates into four groups of 2 to 3 isolates each. Overall, each typing method indicated that the LNSP were heterogeneous and that resistance to fluoroquinolones was not closely associated with a particular serotype or with coresistance to other antimicrobial classes and suggests that LNSP have likely arisen through independent mutational events as a result of selective pressure. However, seven LNSP were found to be related to three international clones by PFGE.
Model-based Monitoring, Diagnosis and Control

Given a model of a physical process and a sequence of commands and observations received over time, the task of an autonomous controller is to determine the likely states of the process and the actions required to move the process to a desired configuration. We introduce a representation and algorithms for incrementally generating approximate belief states for a restricted but relevant class of partially observable Markov decision processes with very large state spaces. The algorithm incrementally generates, rather than revises, an approximate belief state at any point by abstracting and summarizing segments of the likely trajectories of the process. This enables applications to efficiently maintain a partial belief state when it remains consistent with observations and revisit past assumptions about the process’s evolution when the belief state is ruled out. The system presented has been implemented and results on examples from the domain of spacecraft control are presented.
Radio Environment Map Estimation Based on Communication Cost Modeling for Heterogeneous Networks

Radio environment maps can be a powerful tool for achieving efficient context-aware resource allocation in 5G heterogeneous networks. In this paper, we consider an heterogeneous network formed by a traditional cellular network and a wireless sensor network. The role of the wireless sensor network is to estimate the radio environment map of the cell using a geostatistical interpolation technique named Kriging. A distributed clustering algorithm was proposed in a previous work in order to decrease the complexity of the estimation. In our contribution, the clustering formation process is modified to include the communication cost as a metric to determine which nodes are included in each cluster. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm improves the estimation quality for sparse wireless sensor networks, and preserves the network lifetime by forming clusters with an average of 5 nodes.
A Comprehensive Performance Study of IEEE 802 . 15 . 4

IEEE 802.15. 4 is a new standard uniquely designed for low rate wireless personal area networks (LRWPANs). It targets low data rate, low power consumption and low cost wireless networking, and offers device level wireless connectivity. We develop an NS2 simulator for IEEE 802.15. 4 and conduct several sets of experiments to study its various features, including: (1) beacon enabled mode and non-beacon enabled mode; (2) association, tree formation and network auto-configuration; (3) orphaning and coordinator relocation; (4) carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA-CA), both unslotted and slotted; and (5) direct, indirect and guaranteed time slot (GTS) data transmissions. In non-beacon enabled mode and under moderate data rate, the new IEEE 802.15. 4 standard, compared with IEEE 802.11, is more efficient in terms of overhead and resource consumption. It also enjoys a low hop delay (normalized by channel capacity) on average. In beacon enabled mode, an LR-WPAN can be flexibly configured to meet different needs, such as link failure self-recovery and low duty cycle. In both beacon enabled mode and non-beacon enabled mode, association and tree formation proceed smoothly and the network can shape up efficiently by itself. We also discuss some issues that could degrade the network performance if not handled properly.
Hgc1 Mediates Dynamic Candida albicans-Endothelium Adhesion Events during Circulation

ABSTRACT Common iatrogenic procedures can result in translocation of the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans from mucosal surfaces to the bloodstream. Subsequent disseminated candidiasis and infection of deep-seated organs may occur if the fungus is not eliminated by blood cells. In these cases, fungal cells adhere to the endothelial cells of blood vessels, penetrate through endothelial layers, and invade deeper tissue. In this scenario, endothelial adhesion events must occur during circulation under conditions of physiological blood pressure. To investigate the fungal and host factors which contribute to this essential step of disseminated candidiasis, we have developed an in vitro circulatory C. albicans-endothelium interaction model. We demonstrate that both C. albicans yeast and hyphae can adhere under flow at a pressure similar to capillary blood pressure. Serum factors significantly enhanced the adhesion potential of viable but not killed C. albicans cells to endothelial cells. During circulation, C. albicans cells produced hyphae and the adhesion potential first increased, then decreased with time. We provide evidence that a specific temporal event in the yeast-to-hyphal transition, regulated by the G1 cyclin Hgc1, is critical for C. albicans-endothelium adhesion during circulation.
The variability and causes of organic carbon retention ability of different agricultural straw types returned to soil

ABSTRACT Retaining the organic carbon (C) content of agricultural straw when returned to soil is restricted by rapid decomposition. In order to clarify the difference in returned straw decomposition and the causes, and to develop a straw returning mode with high-efficiency of organic C accumulation, the decomposition processes of corn, soybean, rice and wheat straws were systematically studied in fields. When returned in situ (the original planting area), the C in soybean straw was decomposed most quickly with a decomposition constant of 0.00542 d–1, but wheat straw showed a longer retention in soil with 0.00303 d–1. However, for ex situ return of all straw in one area away from in situ return, soybean straw was decomposed most slowly (0.00452 d–1) and wheat straw more quickly (0.00652 d–1). The sequence of C decomposition rate in 270 d was soybean > corn > rice > wheat (in situ) and corn > wheat > rice > soybean (ex situ). Both surrounding soil and straw nature were important factors influencing the decomposition rate. The farmland with rice and wheat rotation retained more C from returned straws due to its high moisture and low nitrogen (N) content, while the soybean field was a contrast. Soybean straw had a low decomposition rate after ex situ return due to its low N content and high C/N ratio. The farmland of wheat–rice rotation combined with soybean straw ex situ return may develop into a field of higher C retention ability.
An Algorithmic Framework for Strategic Fair Division

We study the paradigmatic fair division problem of fairly allocating a divisible good among agents with heterogeneous preferences, commonly known as cake cutting. Classic cake cutting protocols are susceptible to manipulation. Do their strategic outcomes still guarantee fairness? To address this question we adopt a novel algorithmic approach, proposing a concrete computational model and reasoning about the game-theoretic properties of algorithms that operate in this model. Specifically, we show that each protocol in the class of generalized cut and choose (GCC) protocols --- which includes the most important discrete cake cutting protocols --- is guaranteed to have approximate subgame perfect Nash equilibria, or even exact equilibria if the protocol's tie-breaking rule is flexible. We further observe that the (approximate) equilibria of proportional protocols --- which guarantee each of the n agents a 1/n-fraction of the cake --- must be (approximately) proportional, thereby answering the above question in the positive (at least for one common notion of fairness).
Efficient Structured Matrix Rank Minimization

We study the problem of finding structured low-rank matrices using nuclear norm regularization where the structure is encoded by a linear map. In contrast to most known approaches for linearly structured rank minimization, we do not (a) use the full SVD, nor (b) resort to augmented Lagrangian techniques, nor (c) solve linear systems per iteration. Instead, we formulate the problem differently so that it is amenable to a generalized conditional gradient method, which results in a practical improvement with low per iteration computational cost. Numerical results show that our approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art competitors in terms of running time, while effectively recovering low rank solutions in stochastic system realization and spectral compressed sensing problems.
Intelligent control in space exploration: interval computations are needed

This paper is a short overview of our NASA-supported research into the necessity of using interval-based intelligent control techniques for space exploration. This is a reasonably new application area for interval computations, and we hope that the overviewed results and problems will be of some interest to the numerical computations community.This paper is a short version of our detailed report presented to NASA.
Automatic location of facial landmarks for plastic surgery procedures

Plastic surgeons need to collect a great amount of data to perform preoperative analysis before taking any decisions about the appropriate surgical procedures. There are several metrics, based on soft-tissue facial landmarks, to define which procedures should be taken into account when planning a plastic surgery. This work proposes a novel automatic method to locate and identify facial points in profile images via analysis based on the feature of each point, aiming to help collecting data for planning plastic surgery procedures. The method was tested and the results show that the automatic location could be used to provide data to aesthetic analysis.
Trends and Characteristics of Self-reported Case Presentation of Diabetes Diagnosis Among Youth From 2002 to 2010: Findings From the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study

Diagnosis of diabetes in youth is increasing in the U.S. (1,2). It is not known how much of this change is due to an increase in diabetes and how much is due to improved case detection, especially for type 2 diabetes. Some researchers have hypothesized that part of the explanation for the increase in diabetes diagnosis in youth is increased screening, resulting in a higher percentage of cases being identified. The objective of this study was to assess whether the change in diabetes could be explained by changes in case identification by examining trends from 2002 to 2010 in self-reported case presentation of diabetes. Briefly, there were 9,054 youth aged <20 years with newly diagnosed diabetes between 2002 and 2010 in the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study (3). Participants were asked, “How did you find out you had diabetes? ” Responses were grouped into symptoms, checkup, community screening, or other. Self-reported case presentation patterns were examined in 3-year blocks to assess change over time, reported by diabetes type. We explored trends in self-reported modes of diabetes diagnosis (i.e., symptoms, checkup, screening, and other …