Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measurement of Eardrum Vibrations for the optimized Fitting of Vibrant Soundbridge Middle-Ear Implants

Middle ear implants (MEI) are for the medical rehabilitation of the hearing function in case of sound conduction hearing losses as well as cochlear hearing losses and their combinations. In this case the Floating Mass Transducer (FMT), an electromagnetic device mounted at components of the middle or inner ear, is studied in patients suffering from middle or inner ear hearing loss. It is a special problem to fit them in case of uncooperative or disabled patients. In (Karkas et al., 2011) the measurement of the reverse transfer function (RTF) of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) middle ear implant (MEI) is already an objective method to evaluate the function of the VSB and can be used to adjust the Connexx value required to reach the optimal VSB gain during fitting sessions for patients with intact ossicular chain and FMT coupled to the long process of the incus. Due to acoustic noise and standing waves in the ear canal at high frequencies it is difficult to establish norm values for optimum adapted middle ear implants. Laser-Doppler-Vibrometry is in comparison a more reliable method to identify the vibrations at a specific place of the eardrum (umbo) to fit a MEI in cooperative and incooperative patients.
GPU-based Fast Motion Synthesis of Large Crowds Using Adaptive Multi-Joint Models

This paper introduces a GPU (graphics processing unit)-based fast motion synthesis algorithm for a large crowd. The main parts of the algorithms were selecting the most appropriate joint model given adaptive screen-space occupancy of each character and synthesizing motions for the joint model with one or two input motion capture data. The different joint models had a character range from fine-detailed and fully-articulated ones to the most simplified ones. The motion synthesizer, running on a GPU, performed a series of motion blending for each joint of the characters in parallel. For better performance of the motion synthesizer, the GPU maintained a novel cache structure for given speed parameters. Using the high computation power of GPUs, the motion synthesizer could generate arbitrary speeds and orientations for the motions of a vast number of characters. Experiments showed that the proposed algorithm could animate more than 5000 characters in real-time on modest graphics acceleration cards.
Isolation and Characterization of the cDNA for an A-like Cyclin in Adiantum capillus-veneris

We have isolated and characterized the cDNA for a homolog of a cyclin from the fern Adiantum capillusveneris L. Three fragments of cDNAs for cyclin homologs were amplifiied by the PCR from the cDNA of germinating spores with degenerate primers that encoded the highly conserved region in the so-called cyclin box. We isolated a fulllength cDNA for cyclin from a AZAPII-cDNA library that has been derived from spores using an amplifiied fragment as a probe. The cDNA insert (CycAcl) in one positive clone was 2.0 kb in length, having an open reading frame of 1,599 bp that encoded 532 amino acids. The putative CycAcl protein had a cyclin box and a destruction motif, and it was homologous to A-type cyclins. Northern blot analysis was performed to study the expression of CycAcl during the first cell cycle in the haploid generation of the fern. CycAcl mRNA was not detectable in dormant spores, during the first Gl phase, and at the onset of the S phase in imbibed spores after breaking of dormancy. This mRNA became detectable after the termination of the S phase, and it accumulated during the second Gl phase. Although CycAcl was classified as an A-like cyclin, the failure to detect CycAcl mRNA at the onset of the S phase suggests that CycAcl might not play a role in the replication of DNA during the S phase.
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How Does Retirement Affect Health? This paper investigates the effects of retirement on various health outcomes. Data stem from the first three waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). With this informative data, non-parametric matching methods can be applied to identify causal effects. It is found that retirement significantly increases the risk of being diagnosed with a chronic condition. In particular, it raises the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease and being diagnosed with cancer. Estimates also indicate that retirement has quite diverse effects for different individuals. JEL Classification: I10, J14, J26
3 D Reconstruction and Visualization of Microstructure Surfaces from 2 D Images

This paper describes a stereophotogrammetry method that reconstructs 3D microstructure surfaces from Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images. The microstructure surfaces are represented as 3D meshes with texture. The method’s algorithm is based on the following stages: a) computing 3D points from 2D matched points; b) triangulating the 3D points into a 3D mesh; and c) mapping a 2D image as a texture on the surface. The textured 3D surface exhibits very realistic 3D microstructure surfaces for 3D visualization and engineering analysis. The performance of the proposed method has been analyzed and demonstrated on a variety of materials and complex geometries.
Type III-A CRISPR-associated protein Csm6 degrades cyclic hexa-adenylate activator using both CARF and HEPN domains

Abstract The type III CRISPR–Cas systems provide immunity against invading nucleic acids through the coordinated transcription-dependent DNA targeting and cyclic adenylate (cAn)-activated RNA degradation. Here, we show that both these pathways contribute to the Streptococcus thermophilus (St) type III-A CRISPR–Cas immunity. HPLC-MS analysis revealed that in the heterologous Escherichia coli host the StCsm effector complex predominantly produces cA5 and cA6. cA6 acts as a signaling molecule that binds to the CARF domain of StCsm6 to activate non-specific RNA degradation by the HEPN domain. By dissecting StCsm6 domains we demonstrate that both CARF and HEPN domains act as ring nucleases that degrade cAns to switch signaling off. CARF ring nuclease converts cA6 to linear A6>p and to the final A3>p product. HEPN domain, which typically degrades RNA, also shows ring nuclease activity and indiscriminately degrades cA6 or other cAns down to A>p. We propose that concerted action of both ring nucleases enables self-regulation of the RNase activity in the HEPN domain and eliminates all cAn secondary messengers in the cell when viral infection is combated by a coordinated action of Csm effector and the cA6-activated Csm6 ribonuclease.
Efficient Noisy Sound-Event Mixture Classification Using Adaptive-Sparse Complex-Valued Matrix Factorization and OvsO SVM

This paper proposes a solution for events classification from a sole noisy mixture that consist of two major steps: a sound-event separation and a sound-event classification. The traditional complex nonnegative matrix factorization (CMF) is extended by cooperation with the optimal adaptive L1 sparsity to decompose a noisy single-channel mixture. The proposed adaptive L1 sparsity CMF algorithm encodes the spectra pattern and estimates the phase of the original signals in time-frequency representation. Their features enhance the temporal decomposition process efficiently. The support vector machine (SVM) based one versus one (OvsO) strategy was applied with a mean supervector to categorize the demixed sound into the matching sound-event class. The first step of the multi-class MSVM method is to segment the separated signal into blocks by sliding demixed signals, then encoding the three features of each block. Mel frequency cepstral coefficients, short-time energy, and short-time zero-crossing rate are learned with multi sound-event classes by the SVM based OvsO method. The mean supervector is encoded from the obtained features. The proposed method has been evaluated with both separation and classification scenarios using real-world single recorded signals and compared with the state-of-the-art separation method. Experimental results confirmed that the proposed method outperformed the state-of-the-art methods.
The effect of micronized corn fiber on body weight, glycemia, and lipid metabolism in rats fed cafeteria diet

During corn industrial dry milling, a residue rich in dietary fibers is generated. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of micronized corn fiber (MCF) as part of a cafeteria diet in the macronutrient metabolism and body weight. Wistar male rats, with initial body weight of 249 ± 14 g (n = 13), received AON-93M diet (Group 1) or cafeteria diet (Groups 2, 3 and 4), composed of commercial ration, cookies, fried potato sticks, milk chocolate, bacon and chicken liver pâté. Groups 3 and 4 received MCF to replace 100 and 50% of the cellulose from the AON-93M diet, respectively. After 35 days, blood, tissues and feces were collected. Data were analyzed by ANDVA followed by Tukey test (p < 0.10). The weight gain of the animals increased by 25.9%, 20.8% and 22.0%, when fed cafeteria diet or 100 and 50% of MCF respectively, compared to the control group, although food consumption did not differ between them. Body weight and food efficiency ratio did not differ between the groups fed cafeteria diet with or without MCF. The addition of MCF to the cafeteria diet did not alter the animal lipid profile and glycemia, however, the accumulation of lipids in their livers was similar to the control group. The intake of 100% MCF resulted in higher fecal weight and fecal excretion of lipids, and lower fecal nitrogen, lipid absorption and lipid deposition in the liver than the cafeteria diet. On conclusion, MCF has a potential to improve intestinal transit and lipid excretion, but showed no benefit on blood lipid and glucose levels.
The Effects of Uncertainty and Capital Source on Cooperative Firm Leverage

The organizational structure of cooperatives generates a complex link between member equity and overall corporate capital structure. This link is further complicated by macroeconomic and firm-based risks. This paper presents a model of optimal debt ratio, subject to cooperative financial characteristics and capital requirements. We test the proposition that macroeconomic and idiosyncratic uncertainty tend to decrease the optimal debt to total asset ratio. We find that macroeconomic and idiosyncratic risk negatively affect optimal borrowing in cooperatives with sales of $25 million or less. Conversely, no clear relationship exists between these types of risk and cooperatives with greater sales. These findings suggest an important relationship between firm operations and member equity as small cooperatives contemplate entry into world markets.
Deep structure of the earth's crust along the SVEKA profile and its extention to the north-east

A new integrated seismic and density model along the SVEKA profile in Finland is presented. The model has been obtained as a result of application of non-traditional approach to gravity data inversion that uses non-linear relationship between rock density, compressional and shear seismic wave velocity. The distribution of P-wave velocity and S-wave velocity along the SVEKA profile was obtained due to reinterpretation of the original SVEKA’81 experiment data and new DSS data from the continuation of the SVEKA profile to the north-east. This seismic model and the new map of gravity field in Fennoscandia (1996) were used as a base for gravity modeling. The non-linear relationship between P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity and density was obtained as an inverse gravity problem solution and then used to calculate the density model along the SVEKA profile. Satisfactory fitting of observed and calculated model gravity field has been reached. It proves that using non-linear relationship between density, Vp and Vs for the purpose of gravity modeling can increase the quality of gravity inversion results. The new density model of the SVEKA profile explains the origin of some gravity field anomalies along the profile and reveals new details of the deep lithospheric structure of Fennoscandia.
Climate Sensitive Tree Growth Functions and the Role of Transformations

The aim of this study is to develop climate-sensitive single-tree growth models, to be used in stand based prediction systems of managed forest in Switzerland. Long-term observations from experimental forest management trials were used, together with retrospective climate information from 1904 up to 2012. A special focus is given to the role of transformation of modelling basal area increment, helping to normalize the random error distribution. A nonlinear model formulation was used to describe the basic relation between basal area increment and diameter at breast height. This formulation was widely expanded by groups of explanatory variables, describing competition, stand development, site, stand density, thinning, mixture, and climate. The models are species-specific and contain different explanatory variables per group, being able to explain a high amount of variance (on the original scale, up to 80% in the case of Quercus spec.). Different transformations of the nonlinear relation where tested and based on the mean squared error, the square root transformation performed best. Although the residuals were homoscedastic, they were still long-tailed and not normal distributed, making robust statistics the preferred method for statistical inference. Climate is included as a nonlinear and interacting effect of temperature, precipitation and moisture, with a biological meaningful interpretation per tree species, e.g., showing better growth for Abies alba in warm and wet climates and good growing conditions for Picea abies in colder and dryer climates, being less sensitive on temperature. Furthermore, a linear increase in growth was found to be present since the 1940s. Potentially this is an effect of the increased atmospheric CO2 concentration or changed management in terms of reduced nutrient subtractions from forest ground, since industrialization lowered the demand of residue and slash uptake.
Development of lung metastases in mouse models of tongue squamous cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) represents 3-4% of all cancers. Despite the increasing incidence of OSCC distant metastasis and poor prognosis, few animal models of OSCC distant metastasis have been reported. In this study, we established mouse models of OSCC lung metastasis by orthotopic and tail vein injection of new OSCC cell lines. METHODS For the tail vein model, we used a novel cell line isolated from lung metastases reproduced in vivo after intravenous injection of HSC-3 GFP/luciferase cells and sorted for GFP expression (HSC-3 M1 GFP/luciferase). Lung metastases were assessed by imaging techniques and further confirmed by histology. For the orthotopic model, HSC-3 GFP/luciferase cells were injected into the tongue of athymic nude mice. The primary tumor and metastases were assessed by in vivo imaging, histology, and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS The orthotopic model presented spontaneous lung metastases in 50% of the animals and lymph node metastases were present in 83% of cases. In the tail vein model, a lung metastasis rate of 60% was observed. CONCLUSIONS Lung metastases were successfully reproduced by orthotopic and tail vein injection. Since lymph node metastases were present, the orthotopic model with HSC-3 GFP/luciferase cells may be suitable to investigate metastatic dissemination in OSCC.
Determinant Factor of Firm ’ s Value on Manufacturing Company in Indonesian Stock Exchange Suparno

This study aims to analyze and provide empirical evidence that the independent variable Dividend Policy, Manager Share-Owned, Board Size and Profitability, both partially and simultaneously influence the Value of the Firm. Based on agency theory and the theory of dividend policy, in line with the phenomenon that increasing Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) of the firm's manufacturing sector was still below the average stock index of all listed companies, and manufacturing companies that pay dividends are still below the average of all listed companies. That is a gap, because the firm's manufacturing sector is expected to have a strong financial performance, in order to make a major contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Indonesia. This study uses a quantitative approach, with a sample of 110 companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) during the years 2009-2014, with a sample of all manufacturing companies (purposive sampling method). Then the data analysis done by statistical tests using multiple linear regression. The results showed variable declared Dividend Policy and Profitability significantly affect the Firm's Value, while variable Manager Share-Owned and Size of Board of Commissioners declared not affect the value of the Firm. However, Firm Value simultaneously influenced by all the independent variables. This finding is interesting, that the success of increasing the value of the firm depends on the firm's ability to optimally empower resources, as well as in implementing firm policies are already set, not by a factor of the incentive manager. Keywords—Firm’s Value, Dividend Policies, Manager ShareOwned, Board Size, Profitabilit,Mmanufacturing Company
Confounded by obesity and modulated by urinary uric acid excretion, sleep‐disordered breathing indirectly relates to hyperuricaemia in males: A structural equation model

Sleep‐disordered breathing (SDB) causes hypoxic stress and can trigger uric acid (UA) overproduction. We comprehensively investigated whether SDB, interacting with components of metabolic syndrome, hepatic and renal dysfunctions, low physical fitness, sedentary lifestyle, disrupted sleep, and chronic systemic inflammation (CSI), is directly associated with hyperuricaemia. In 528 community‐based males (mean [SD] age 46.2 [7.4] years), we cross‐sectionally analysed measures of anthropometry; self‐reported lifestyle habits; overnight sleep polysomnography data; cardiopulmonary exercise tests; and biomarkers of cardiometabolic, hepatic, and renal functions; and CSI, using structural equation modelling. Objective disrupted sleep, C‐reactive protein, low physical fitness, and sedentary lifestyle were not related to UA levels in univariate analysis and were excluded. The latent variables (with corresponding manifest variables) obesity (body mass index, waist–hip ratio), hypertension (post‐sleep systolic, diastolic blood pressure), dyslipidaemia (total cholesterol, triglyceride/high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol), hepatic dysfunction (alanine aminotransferase, aspartate transaminase), and renal dysfunction (blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine) were positively; and hyperglycaemia (fasting glucose, glycated haemoglobin) was negatively associated with hyperuricaemia (serum UA), except for SDB (Apnea–Hypopnea Index, percentage of oxygen saturation <90% period against total sleep time, oxygen desaturation index) in the one‐stage influence model. In the two‐stage model, SDB, closely interacting with obesity, was positively indirectly associated with hyperuricaemia through directly linked renal dysfunction and obesity‐linked hypertension, inverse hyperglycaemia, dyslipidaemia, and hepatic dysfunction. In conclusion, structural equation modelling reveals that SDB closely interacts with obesity and is positively but indirectly related to hyperuricaemia in males. This suggests that urinary UA excretion modulates and obesity confounds the SDB–hyperuricaemia relationship.
Improving IoT Data Quality in Mobile Crowd Sensing: A Cross Validation Approach

Data quality, or sometimes referred to as data credibility, is a critical issue in mobile crowd sensing (MCS) and more generally Internet of Things (IoT). While candidate solutions, such as incentive mechanisms and data mining have been well explored in the literature, the power of crowds has been largely overlooked or under-exploited. In this paper, we propose a cross validation approach which seeks a validating crowd to ratify the contributing crowd in terms of the sensor data contributed by the latter, and uses the validation result to reshape data into a more credible posterior belief of the ground truth. This approach consists of a framework and a mechanism, where the framework outlines a four-step procedure and the mechanism implements it with specific technical components, including a weighted random oversampling (WRoS) technique and a privacy-aware trust-oriented probabilistic push (PATOP2) algorithm. Unlike most prior work, our proposed approach augments rather than redesigning existing MCS systems, and requires minimal effort from the crowd, making it conducive to practical adoption. We evaluate our proposed mechanism using a real-world MCS IoT dataset and demonstrate remarkable (up to 475%) improvement of data quality. In particular, it offers a unified solution to reconciling two disparate needs: reinforcing obscure (weakly recognizable) ground truths and discovering hidden (unrecognized) ground truths.
Systematic Exploration and Uncertainty Dominate Young Children's Choices.

Organisms need to constantly balance the competing demands of gathering information and using previously acquired information to obtain rewarding outcomes (i.e., the "exploration-exploitation" dilemma). Exploration is critical to obtain information to discover how the world works, which should be particularly important for young children. While studies have shown that young children explore in response to surprising events, little is known about how they balance exploration and exploitation across multiple decisions or about how this process changes with development. In this study we compare decision-making patterns of children and adults and evaluate the relative influences of reward-seeking, random exploration, and systematic switching (which approximates uncertainty-directed exploration). In a second experiment we directly test the effect of uncertainty on children's choices. Influential models of decision-making generally describe systematic exploration as a computationally refined capacity that relies on top-down cognitive control. We demonstrate that (1) systematic patterns dominate young children's behavior (facilitating exploration), despite protracted development of cognitive control, and (2) that uncertainty plays a major, but complicated, role in determining children's choices. We conclude that while young children's immature top-down control should hinder adult-like systematic exploration, other mechanisms may pick up the slack, facilitating broad information gathering in a systematic fashion to build a foundation of knowledge for use later in life.