Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Importance of Screening for Mild Depression in Adults with Diabetes

Aim: While the impact of major depression on diabetes has gained increasing attention, the role of minor depression is less well investigated. This observational study compared three groups of adults with Type 1 (T1DM) or Type 2 (T2DM) diabetes mellitus: with me) no depressive symptoms (NODEP), ii) mild depressive symptoms (MILD) and iii) moderate-to-severe symptoms (MOD/SEVERE)-on diabetes distress, psychological distress, anxiety and somatic symptoms, quality of life and HbA1c levels. Methods: 245 outpatients attending two hospital diabetes services (27% with T1DM; 73% with T2DM) completed self-report measures including patient health questionnaire (PHQ), problem areas in diabetes (PAID) scale and short form health survey (SF12). Participants were interviewed by a psychiatrist and HbA1c levels recorded. Results: Half the sample reported depressive symptoms on the PHQ-9 (29% in the MILD group, 21% in MOD/ SEVERE and the remaining 50% in the NODEP group). Compared to the NODEP group, MILD group participants had significantly higher levels of diabetes distress, psychological distress, anxiety and somatic symptoms and significantly lower mental-health related quality of life. Participants in the MOD/SEVERE group had significantly higher levels of diabetes distress, psychological distress, anxiety, and somatic symptoms than either of the other two groups, and significantly lower quality of life. The groups did not differ significantly on HbA1c. Conclusions: Mild symptoms of depression in patients with diabetes are common and are associated with higher levels of diabetes distress, psychological distress, anxiety and somatic symptoms and lower quality of life. Addressing mild depression provides a potential avenue for preventing clinical depression in patients with diabetes.
Adaptive back-stepping control of a generic Near Space Vehicle

An adaptive back-stepping controller is designed and analyzed for the longitudinal dynamics of a generic Near Space Vehicle. This vehicle model is nonlinear, multivariable, and unstable including uncertain parameters. Back-stepping approaches utilize Lyapunov theory to guarantee stability of the closed system and the methods are inherently recursive. Simulation studies are conducted to demonstrate the proposed controller is robust with respect to parametric uncertainty and meets the performance requirements.
Paraoxonase-1 192 enzyme polymorphism in non-syndromic clefting: In patients and parents

Most orofacial clefts are nonsyndromic, isolated defects, and are classified into two groups: cleft lip (CL) with or without cleft palate and cleft palate (CP) only. Both are genetically complex traits, the genetic cause is stil elusive, it is genetically complex and enviromental factors are also responsible for the pathogenesis. Epithelial transformation to mesenchyme is an important event during the process of palatogenesis. Specifically, epithelial-mesenchymal transformation is thought to be critical for the disappearance of the seam and mesenchymal confluence. In palate formation, apoptosis is thought to facilitate adherence, or touching, of the opposing epithelium to form a seam. Apoptosis is important to sculpt the organelles in the body during development. We hypothesize that oxidative stress promotes epithelial cell apoptosis during palate formation. Oxidative stress occurs when the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including free radicals, exceeds the handling capability of intracellular antioxidant enzymes and extracellular antioxidant defenses. Excessive oxidative stress leads to peroxidative damage to cells, altered cellular function, and pathologic effects. Paraoxonase (PON) is a serum enzyme that is associated with antioxidant mechanism. We aim to determine the prevalance of the PON-1 192 polymorphisms in the patients and control groups. All cases included in this study are from the medical records of the Plastic, Reconstructive and Esthetic Clinic of Sisli Etfal Research and Training Hospital from August 2004 to January 2006. 50 nonsyndromic CL and CP cases and parent were analyzed. Blood specimens were collected in tubes containing EDTA, and DNA was prepared from leucoycte pellet by SDS lysis ammonium acetate extraction and ethanol precipitation. PON-1 genotypes were determined following PCR according to previously published protocols. Paraoxonase activities was measured according to Furlong et al. (1989). We evaluated the frequencies of polymorphisms of the PON1-192 gene in nonsyndromic cleft lip and cleft palate patients and in matched control subjects.
Multimodal Implicit Feedback for Recommender Systems

In this paper, we present an overview of our work towards utilization of multimodal implicit feedback in recommender systems for small e-commerce enterprises. We focus on deeper understanding of implicit user feedback as a rich source of heterogeneous information. We present a model of implicit feedback for e-commerce, discuss important contextual features affecting its values and describe ways to utilize it in the process of user preference learning and recommendation. We also briefly report on our previous experiments within this scope and describe a publicly available dataset containing such multimodal implicit feedback.
Demography of the California Condor: Implications for Reestablishment

Abstract: The remnant wild population of California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) of the 1980s exhibited a rapid population decline caused by high mortality rates among adult and immature birds. The most prominent mortality factor was lead poisoning resulting from ingestion of bullet fragments in carcasses. Successful captive breeding has allowed many birds to be released to the wild since 1992, based originally on an assumption that exposure to lead could be prevented by food subsidy. The mortality of released birds, however, has generally exceeded levels needed for population stability calculated from simple population models. Collision with overhead wires was the most frequent cause of death in releases before 1994. Lead poisoning again surfaced as a problem starting in 1997 as older birds began feeding on carcasses outside the subsidy program. Although poisonings have been treated successfully by chelation therapy in recaptured birds, food subsidy is proving an ineffective solution to lead exposure. The best long‐term solution appears to be either the creation of large reserves where hunting is prohibited or the restriction of hunting to nontoxic ammunition in release areas. Until sources of lead contamination are effectively countered, releases cannot be expected to result in viable populations. In addition, problems involving human‐oriented behavior have resulted in the permanent removal of many released birds from the wild. The most promising reduction in human‐oriented behavior has been achieved in one release of aversively conditioned, parent‐reared birds. Rigorous evaluation of the factors reducing attraction to humans and human structures has been hampered by confounding of techniques in releases. Behavioral problems could be more quickly overcome by adoption of a comprehensive experimental approach.
Broadband X-band circularly polarized microstrip antenna with elliptical patch ring-slotted for airborne sar system

A broadband circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antenna with elliptical patch ring-slotted is presented. The proposed antenna is unit element of microstrip array antenna for X-band circularly polarized synthetic aperture radar (CP-SAR) onboard airborne. The antenna is designed in double-stage substrate structure, low weight, low profile, and single feeding. Basically circularly polarized of the antenna is generated by conventional square patch which have diagonally circle-chamfered that printed in the middle layer of antenna structure. To increase the quality of axial ratio, elliptical patch with circle-slotted is placed on upper layer as a parasitic element. The measured 10-dB impedance bandwidth and 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth are obtained 1.9GHz or 20.5% (8.5–10.4 GHz) and 1.1 GHz or 11.2% (9.1–10.2 GHz), respectively.
Toll-Like Receptors Differentially Regulate CC and CXC Chemokines in Skeletal Muscle via NF-κB and Calcineurin

ABSTRACT Immunologically active molecules such as cytokines and chemokines have been implicated in skeletal muscle weakness during sepsis as well as recovery from muscle injury. In sepsis, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) act as key sentinel molecules of the innate immune system. Here we determined skeletal muscle cell responses of two prototypical CC and CXC chemokine genes (monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 [MCP-1] and KC, respectively), to stimulation with specific TLR ligands. In addition, we examined whether NF-κB and calcineurin signaling are involved in these responses. Differentiated myotubes and intact whole muscles expressed TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, and TLR9. Stimulation with ligands for TLR2 (peptidoglycan) or TLR4 (LPS) elicited robust and equivalent levels of MCP-1 and KC mRNA expression, whereas stimulation of TLR5 (by flagellin) required gamma interferon priming to induce similar effects. Although both TLR2 and TLR4 ligands activated the NF-κB pathway, NF-κB reporter activity was approximately 20-fold greater after TLR4 stimulation than after TLR2 stimulation. Inhibitory effects of NF-κB blockade on TLR-mediated chemokine gene expression, by either pharmacological (pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate) or molecular (IKKβ dominant-negative transfection) methods, were also more pronounced during TLR4 stimulation. In contrast, inhibitory effects on TLR-mediated chemokine expression of calcineurin blockade (by FK506) were greater for TLR2 than for TLR4 stimulation. MCP-1 and KC mRNA levels also demonstrated differential responses to NF-κB and calcineurin blockade during stimulation with specific TLR ligands. We conclude that skeletal muscle cells differentially utilize the NF-κB and calcineurin pathways in a TLR-specific manner to enable complex regulation of CC and CXC chemokine gene expression.
Chapter 1 SOLVING COMPLEX PROBLEMS IN HUMAN GENETICS USING GENETIC PROGRAMMING : THEIMPORTANCEOFTHEORIST-PRACTITIONER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

Genetic programming (GP) shows great promise for solving co mplex problems in human genetics. Unfortunately, many of these method s are not accessible to biologists. This is partly due to the complexity of t he algorithms that limit their ready adoption and integration into an analysis or modeling paradigm that might otherwise only use univariate statistical metho ds. This is also partly due to the lack of user-friendly, open-source, platform-in dependent, and freelyavailable software packages that are designed to be used by b iologists for routine analysis. It is our objective to develop, distribute and sup port a comprehensive software package that puts powerful GP methods for genetic a nalysis in the hands of geneticists. It is our working hypothesis that the most ef fective use of such a software package would result from interactive analysis b y both a biologist and a computer scientist (i.e. human-human-computer inter action). We present here the design and implementation of an open-source softwa re package called Symbolic Modeler (SyMod) that seeks to facilitate genetici s -bioinformaticistcomputer interactions for problem solving in human genetic s. We present and discuss the results of an application of SyMod to real data an d discuss the challenges associated with delivering a user-friendly GP-base d software package to the genetics community.
An artificial intelligence approach to concatenative sound synthesis

iii Content Overview v-vii List of Figures viii-x List of Tables xi-xii List of Abbreviations xiii-xiv Acknowledgments xv-xvi Author’s Declaration xvii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Motivation 1 1.2 Introduction 7 1.3 Objectives 14 1.4 Thesis Structure 18 CHAPTER 2: PRINCIPLES OF CONCATENATIVE SOUND SYNTHESIS 20 2.1 Sound Synthesis 20 2.1.1 Rule-based Model 23 2.1.2 Data-driven Model 27 2.2 Sub-Areas of Data-driven Concatenative Sound Synthesis 29 2.2.1 Concatenative Speech Synthesis 29 2.2.2 Concatenative Singing Voice Synthesis 32 2.2.3 Concatenative Synthesis for Music 33 2.3 Technical Overview of Concatenative Sound Synthesis 36 2.3. 1 Database 36 2.3. 2 Target Unit 37 2.3. 3 Segmentation 37 2.3. 4 Audio Feature Extraction 39 2.3. 5 Unit Selection 51 2.4 Summary 55
Multi-sensor analysis of convective activity in central Italy during the HyMeX SOP 1.1

Abstract. A multi-sensor analysis of convective precipitation events that occurred in central Italy in autumn 2012 during the HyMeX (Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean experiment) Special Observation Period (SOP) 1.1 is presented. Various microphysical properties of liquid and solid hydrometeors are examined to assess their relationship with lightning activity. The instrumentation used consisted of a C-band dual-polarization weather radar, a 2-D video disdrometer, and the LINET lightning network. Results of T-matrix simulation for graupel were used to (i) tune a fuzzy logic hydrometeor classification algorithm based on Liu and Chandrasekar (2000) for the detection of graupel from C-band dual-polarization radar measurements and (ii) to retrieve graupel ice water content. Graupel mass from radar measurements was related to lightning activity. Three significant case studies were analyzed and linear relations between the total mass of graupel and number of LINET strokes were found with different slopes depending on the nature of the convective event (such as updraft strength and freezing level height) and the radar observational geometry. A high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.856) and a slope in agreement with satellite measurements and model results for one of the case studies (15 October 2012) were found. Results confirm that one of the key features in the electrical charging of convective clouds is the ice content, although it is not the only one. Parameters of the gamma raindrop size distribution measured by a 2-D video disdrometer revealed the transition from a convective to a stratiform regime. The raindrop size spectra measured by a 2-D video disdrometer were used to partition rain into stratiform and convective classes. These results are further analyzed in relation to radar measurements and to the number of strokes. Lightning activity was not always recorded when the precipitation regime was classified as convective rain. High statistical scores were found for relationships relating lightning activity to graupel aloft.
Shewanella putrefaciens – a new opportunistic pathogen of freshwater fish

Abstract In recent years, Shewanella putrefaciens, commonly known as a halophilic bacteria, has been associated with serious health disorders in freshwater fish. Therefore, it has been described as a new aetiological agent of the disease, named shewanellosis. S. putrefaciens is a heterogeneous group of microorganisms, belonging to the Alteromonadaceae family. Based on different criteria, three biovars and biogroups as well as four genomic groups have been distinguished. The first infections of S. putrefaciens in fish were reported in rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus) and European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.). Outbreaks in farmed fish were reported in Poland for the first time in 2004. The disease causes skin disorders and haemorrhages in internal organs. It should be noted that S. putrefaciens could also be associated with different infections in humans, such as skin and tissue infections, bacteraemia, otitis. Investigations on pathogenic mechanisms of S. putrefaciens infections are very limited. Enzymatic activity, cytotoxin secretion, adhesion ability, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and the presence of siderophores are potential virulence factors of S. putrefaciens. Antimicrobial resistance of S. putrefaciens is different and depends on the isolates. In general, these bacteria are sensitive to antimicrobial drugs commonly used in aquaculture.
Wireless Mobile Telemedicine : En-Route Transmission With Dynamic Quality-of-Service Management

OVERVIEW For time-sensitive, critical-care scenarios requiring transport—such as stroke, high-risk pregnancy, trauma, and pediatric care—reducing the elapsed time between symptom onset and treatment can be of great benefit to the patient while reducing the health care costs to the individual, the hospital, and the public. With mobile telemedicine, valuable prehospital transport time can be used to diagnose and evaluate the patient en route. Heretofore, the usefulness of prehospital time has been limited to ensuring minimum life-support activities. The use of wireless communications linking prehospital providers with emergency care specialists can transform the prehospital phase of transport into a prehospital phase of treatment.
Examining the Safety, Mobility and Environmental Sustainability Co-Benefits and Tradeoffs of Intelligent Transportation Systems

In this whitepaper, the authors briefly describe the three major MOEs, followed by a categorization summary based on the most recent literature. Next, a number of typical CAV applications have been examined in depth, providing a detailed analysis of the different MOEs co-benefits and tradeoffs. Further, three representative CAV applications have been examined in detail in order to show the association between the application focus and tradeoffs/co-benefits of different performance measures. The CAV applications include High Speed Differential Warning (safety-focused), Lane Speed Monitoring (mobility-focused), and Eco-Speed Harmonization (environmental impacts-focused). The authors then highlight several future research directions, including the identification of key influential factors on system performance and how to obtain co-benefits across all key MOEs. The overall intent of this whitepaper is to inform practitioners and policy makers on the potential interactions between the safety, mobility, and environmental sustainability goals of implementing specific CAV applications as part of their ITS programs.
Harris feature and coherent point drift based remote sensing image registration

Non-rigid point-set registration based image registration is a technology frequently used in image retrieval, stereo matching and the analysis of satellite and medical images. In remote sense image analysis, Harris corner detection is often chosen as an ideal approach of feature extraction. The method we propose utilizes the feature metric produced by Harris corner detection, which is not employed in current methods, and integrate it into the Coherent Point Drift framework to enhance accuracy. We first construct a likelihood descriptor of point-to-point correspondence, then this likelihood value is used as a prior probability term in the Gaussian mixture model. Finally, we use the Expectation Maximization algorithm to iteratively match the points. Our contribution includes finding a way of normalizing the feature metric data and constructing a proper descriptor to incorporate the Harris feature metric and the Euclidean distance which can minimize the negative effects of the deviations in the feature metric values. Experiments are conducted upon remote sense images, compared against four state-of-the-art image registration algorithms, including two non-iterative methods and two iterative methods, where our method show the smallest error rate and the best registered image result.
Biomechanical Effect of Graded Facetectomy on Asymmetrical Finite Element Model of the Lumbar Spine

AIm: Facetectomy is a leading surgical method for stenosis treatment. The objective of this study was to investigate biomechanical effect of graded facetectomy on the lumbar spine using an asymmetrical finite element model. mATERIAl and mEThods: A validated 3-dimensional asymmetrical finite element model of lumbar L1-L5 was developed based on computerized tomography (CT) scans. All components were assigned material properties mimicking original spinal components. Graded facetectomy was performed by removing facet elements along with surrounding capsular ligaments. REsulTs: All three planes of motion were simulated and resulting range of motion at the index level, L4-L5, was compared with the intact model. Left unilateral facetectomy caused increase in range of motion by 14.6%, 87.4%, 94.5%, 10.5%, 6.3% and 8.8% for flexion, extension, left and right axial rotation, and left and right lateral bending, respectively. Total bilateral facetectomy resulted in an increase in motion by 33.6%, 238.7%, 120.4, 151.3%, 15.6% and 12.4% for flexion, extension, left and right axial rotation, and left and right lateral bending, respectively. CoNClusIoN: Extension and axial rotation were found to be affected by the facet removal whereas flexion and lateral bending were mildly affected. KEywoRds: Facetectomy, Lumbar spine, Finite element model
Estimation of Continuous-Time Models with an Application to Equity Volatility Dynamics

The treatment of this article renders closed-form density approximation feasible for univariate continuous-time models. Implementation methodology depends directly on the parametric-form of the drift and the diffusion of the primitive process and not on its transformation to a unit-variance process. Offering methodological convenience, the approximation method relies on numerically evaluating one-dimensional integrals and circumvents existing dependence on intractable multidimensional integrals. Density-based inferences can now be drawn for a broader set of models of equity volatility. Our empirical results provide insights on crucial outstanding issues related to the rank-ordering of continuous-time stochastic volatility models, the absence/presence of nonlinearities in the drift function of equity volatility, and the desirability of pursuing more flexible diffusion function specifications.
Free radical-scavenging capacity, antioxidant activity and phenolic content of Pouzolzia zeylanica

Pouzolzia zeylanica was extracted with different solvents (acetone, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether), using different protocols (cold-extraction and Soxhlet extraction). To evaluate the antiradical and antioxidant abilities of the extracts, four in vitro test systems were employed, i.e., DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radical scavenging assays and a reducing power assay. All extracts exhibited outstanding antioxidant activities that were superior to that of bu- tylated hydroxytoluene. The ethyl acetate extracts exhibited the most signifi- cant antioxidant activities, and cold-extraction under stirring seemed to be the more efficacious method for acquiring the predominant antioxidants. Further- more, the antioxidant activities and total phenolic (TP) content of different extracts followed the same order, i.e., there is a good correlation between an- tioxidant activities and TP content. The results showed that these extracts, especially the ethyl acetate extracts, could be considered as natural antioxidants and may be useful for curing diseases arising from oxidative deterioration.
A Speech Enhancement System Using Binary Mask Approach and Spectral Subtraction Method

In this paper, we proposed a speech enhancement system by combining the binary time-frequency mask and spectral subtraction method. It is constructed in Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) domain with feature extraction assistance. The binary mask approach and spectral subtraction techniques are also applied. Analysis is done on noisy speech signal corrupted by factory noise at -3dB, 0dB and 3dB SNR levels. Simulation and results are performed in MATLAB 7.14 (R2012a). With the output SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) analysis, we have obtained promising results in real experimental environment.