Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel joint parameter estimation method of single-channel and time-frequency overlapped multi-component signal

In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed, which focus on estimating the period of independent source and the source number of the multi-component signal that recorded by single antenna and overlapped both in time and frequency domain. The method adopts the technique of changing single-channel recording vector into virtual multi-channel measurement matrix, and then using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method decompose this matrix. By changing the virtual multi-channel measure matrix, singular value ratio (SVR) spectrum can be got. By searching the peaks of the SVR, the period of the independent components can be estimated effectively, and based on the correlation coefficient between each estimated components obtain useful SVD, then the number of original source will be got. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm. What is more, the high estimated accuracy of this method under low signal-noise-ratio (SNR) condition also illustrated by the simulation.
On the application of network coding with diversity to opportunistic scheduling

In this correspondence, we study the application of network coding to opportunistic scheduling for wireless uplink channels. An important observation is that existing scheduling protocols occasionally have to allow the users which do not have the largest channel gain to be scheduled, which can maintain the fairness but reduce the throughput. The key idea proposed in this paper is to always schedule the user with best channel gain for transmission, and meantime the use of network coding encourages the scheduled users to help the ones which have not been served previously. Analytical and numerical results have been developed to show that the proposed network coding schedulers can achieve better tradeoff of fairness and system throughput than comparable schemes.
Queuing and Elections: Long Lines, DREs and Paper Ballots

Computerized touchscreen "Direct Recording Electronic" (DRE) voting systems have been used by over 1/3 of American voters in recent elections. In many places, insufficient DRE numbers, in combination with lengthy ballots and high voter traffic, have caused long lines and disenfranchised voters who left without voting. We have applied computer queuing simulation to the voting process and conclude that far more DREs, at great expense, would be needed to keep waiting times low. Alternatively, paper ballot-optical scan systems can be easily and economically scaled to prevent long lines and meet unexpected contingencies. We have developed a heuristic "Queue Stop Rule" that can be applied to prevent long lines at voting stations. We have also carried out queuing simulations of other parts of the voting process, for example, voter check-in and ballot scanning. Our results can be used to help plan cost-effective election systems that will produce expeditious elections.
Retinal ganglion cell topography in teleosts: A comparison between nissl‐stained material and retrograde labelling from the optic nerve

The retinal topography of cells within the ganglion cell layer of three teleost species is examined in Nissl‐stained material in which all neuronal elements containing Nissl substance in the cytoplasm are counted. A topographic comparison is made with retrogradely labelled ganglion cells to differentiate the proportion of nonganglion cells not possessing an axon joining the optic nerve. In the three species studied 92%, 80%, and 66% were found to be the maximum proportion of true ganglion cells in the area centralis, horizontal streak, and periphery, respectively. The proportion of nonganglion cells in the total population of cells counted was 24%. The major contribution to this discrepancy is from peripheral nonspecialized regions of the retina. There is little difference in both topography and peak densities of retinal ganglion cells between the two techniques. The soma areas of both populations are analysed, with the homogeneous nonganglion cell population possessing cells between 5 and 15 μm2 and the heterogeneous ganglion cell soma between 5 and 68 μm2, increasing in size with eccentricity.
Autoantibodies linked to autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I are prevalent in Down syndrome

Background: Patients with Down syndrome are prone to autoimmune diseases which also occur in the recessive disease autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS I). Since this disease is caused by mutations in the gene AIRE on chromosome 21, one might speculate that altered expression of AIRE contributes to autoimmune disease in Down syndrome. Aim: To study the prevalence of 11 well‐defined autoantibodies, five of which are specific for APS I, associated with various manifestations of APS I in patients with Down syndrome. Methods: Sera from 48 patients with Down syndrome were analysed. Autoantibodies against 21‐hydroxylase, 17α‐hydroxylase, side‐chain cleavage enzyme, aromatic L‐amino acid decarboxylase, cytochrome P4501A2, tyrosine hydroxylase, tryptophan hydroxylase, glutamic acid decarboxylase 65, tyrosine phosphatase IA‐2 and transglutaminase were analysed using an immunoprecipitation assay, and thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies were measured using a haemagglutination assay. Results: Seven of 48 patients had elevated titres of autoantibodies: one against 21‐hydroxylase, three against aromatic L‐amino acid decarboxylase, one against cytochrome P4501A2, one against glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 and one against tyrosine phosphatase IA‐2. None of the patients had clinical or laboratory signs of disease coupled to the respective autoantibody.
Quantifying the Impact of Badges on User Engagement in Online Q&A Communities

Among the myriads of online communities, questions-and-answers sites have a special place because of their contribution to knowledge creation. Since users participate in these communities voluntarily, it is utmost important to incentivize users to maintain consistent engagement. Gamification seems to be a solution to alleviate the incentive problem. This paper examines the value of badges on user activities in an online Q&A community, namely StackOverflow.com. We find that quite a number of badges seem to motivate users to contribute more in all types of activities. Surprisingly, we find that activities that are not specified in the requirements of earning a badge are also affected by the status of getting the badge. Furthermore, we find that even earning the negative badge (i.e., posting many unpopular questions) is correlated with more user activities.
Neuropsychological assessment for management of patients with deep brain stimulation

The inclusion of cognitive and behavioural criteria has been recommended for the management of patients with deep brain stimulation. A neuropsychological assessment may contribute to different issues: (1) selection of the best candidates for surgery, (2) evaluation of the consequences of surgery, (3) research of the best electrode implantation. Recent neuropsychological studies indicate that (1) with appropriate inclusion criteria, the effects of surgery on cognitive functions are limited; (2) an aggravation of behavioural disorders might be related to subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation and depend on electrode location; (3) subthalamic nucleus stimulation, but not the internal globus pallidus stimulation, improves psychomotor efficiency and working memory. These results would suggest that the implanted electrodes are not solely targeting the motor circuit and that the cognitive and motor circuits are not completely segregated. © 2002 Movement Disorder Society
Josephson current through interacting double quantum dots with spin–orbit coupling

We study the effect of Rashba spin–orbit interaction on the Josephson current through a double quantum dot in the presence of Coulomb repulsion. In particular, we describe the characteristic effects on the magnetic field-induced singlet–triplet transition in the molecular regime. Exploring the whole parameter space, we analyze the effects of the device asymmetry, the orientation of the applied magnetic field with respect to the spin–orbit interaction, and finite temperatures. We find that at finite temperatures the orthogonal component of the spin–orbit interaction exhibits a similar effect to the Coulomb interaction inducing the occurrence of a π-phase at particle–hole symmetry. This provides a new route to the experimental observability of the π-phase in multi-level quantum dots.
Sarcopenic Obesity: Correlation with Clinical, Functional, and Psychological Status in a Rehabilitation Setting

Obesity and sarcopenia combination, appropriately defined as sarcopenic obesity (SO), due to disproportionally reduced/low lean body mass compared to excess fat mass, may lead to disability. Aims: The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship among sarcopenic obesity, physical performance, disability, and quality of life in a rehabilitation setting. Methods: Participants were recruited among obese patients (BMI > 30 kg/m2) admitted to the rehabilitation facility at the Department of Experimental Medicine, Medical Physiopatology, Food Science and Endocrinology Section during a 1-year period. A multidimensional evaluation was performed through bioelectrical impedance analysis and anthropometry, handgrip strength test, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), 6-minute walk test (6MWT) and blood chemistry parameters. Psychological status (SCL-90 questionnaire), quality of life, and comorbidity (Charlson comorbidity index score) were also evaluated. Obesity was diagnosed as increased fat mass by 35% in women and by 25% in men. Sarcopenia was defined if lean body mass (LBM) was <90% of the subject’s ideal LBM. Results: 79 patients (48 women and 31 men; mean age: 60.1 ± 11.5 years, and 58.6 ± 10.8 years, respectively) were enrolled. Results showed a high prevalence of SO (54.4%) in our samples of obese subjects. Sarcopenia was present not only among older obese adults but also among younger obese subjects, and was related to reduced functional performance, to inflammatory status and to worse psychological status and quality of life.
Improved Orchard-Elliott pattern synthesis algorithm by pseudo-inverse technique and genetic algorithm

This paper describes a procedure to improve the Orchard-Elliott (1985) synthesis algorithm for shaped radiation patterns. By far this algorithm results in the best performance for shaping radiation patterns. However, its iterative procedure occasionally suffers from singularity problems throughout the matrix inversion embedded in the algorithm. This deficiency can be overcome by using a pseudo-inverse technique. Further improvement, which reduces the dynamic range of the array current distribution, is achieved using a genetic algorithm. The improved algorithm performance is demonstrated on the synthesis of a linear array with a symmetric flat-topped radiation pattern.
A CI feature-based pulmonary nodule segmentation using three-domain mean shift clustering

A novel and more effective algorithm used for segmenting pulmonary nodules in thoracic spiral CT images was presented. The algorithm is based on mean shift clustering method and CI (Convergence Index) features, which can represent the multiple Gaussian model of pulmonary nodules both for solid and sub-solid, substantially. The algorithm has the following steps: (1) calculating the CI features of all pixels in the region of interest (ROI), (2) combining the CI features with the intensity range and the spatial position of the pixels to form a feature vector set, (3) grouping the feature vector set to clusters with mean shift clustering algorithm. Owing to our algorithm can represent the multiple Gaussian model both for solid and sub-solid nodules, it can be used in any user interested nodule regions, especially suitable for the segmentation of sub-solid nodules. Experiments demonstrated that our algorithm can figure out the outline of pulmonary nodules of different forms more precisely.
Empirical comparison between the Nelson-Aalen Estimator and the Naive Local Constant Estimator

The Nelson-Aalen estimator is widely used in biostatistics as a non-parametric estimator of the cumulative hazard function based on a right censored sample. A number of alternative estimators can be mentioned, namely, the naive local constant estimator (Guill ´en, Nielsen and P´erez-Mar´ýn, 2007) which provides improved bias versus variance properties compared to the traditional Nelson-Aalen estimator. Nevertheless, an empirical comparison of these two estimators has never been carried out. In this paper the efficiency performance of these two estimators when applied to real survival data are compared. Our results suggest that the efficiency improvement introduced by the naive local constant estimator is highly remarkable for all distribution quantiles, especially for low quantiles.
The binaural auditory pathway: excitatory amino acid receptors mediate dual timecourse excitatory postsynaptic currents in the rat medial nucleus of the trapezoid body

We show here that synaptic transmission to the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) is mediated principally by excitatory amino acid receptors and has two components. A fast excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) is mediated by non-NMDA receptors and a slow EPSC is mediated by NMDA receptors. Each neuron receives a large synaptic input (calyx of Held) which produces an EPSC with a mean peak conductance of 37 nS. The somatic location of this synapse gives good resolution of the EPSC timecourse with the fast EPSC decaying with a time constant of 1.1 ms (at 25 °C). The slow EPSC exhibits a double exponential decay with time constants of 41 ms and 106 ms and is voltage dependent in the presence of extracellular magnesium. Other smaller EPSCS mediated by NMDA and non-NMDA receptors, and a strychnine-sensitive synaptic current, are also present. Although the intrinsic membrane properties of MNTB neurons (Forsythe & Barnes-Davies (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 251, 143 (1993)), preceding paper) promote high-fidelity transmission, we show that voltage-dependent modulation of synaptic transmission can occur. Given the specialization of the calyx of Held, it seems that the NMDA—receptor ion channel complex is not primarily serving to potentiate a subthreshold input, but may be involved in the development and maintenance of this exuberant somatic synapse.
Bacillus subtilis: characterisation and role of autogenous modulation of sacB-levB-yveA levansucrase operon by levB transcript

Silencing of levB, the second structural gene of the tricistronic levansucrase operon encoding the endolevanase LevB, decreases the level of levansucrase expression. Conversely, independent expression of levB greatly stimulates operon expression. This autogenous effect is mediated by the levB transcript, which carries an internal sequence (5’-AAAGCAGGCAA-3’) involved in the enhancing effect. In vitro, the levB transcript displays an affinity to the N-terminal fragment of SacY, the regulatory protein that prevents transcription termination of levansucrase operon, (KD = 0.2 μM). Simulation of the dynamics of operon expression showed that this positive feedback loop increases the capacity of Bacillus subtilis to produce the three proteins encoded by the operon when bacteria are grown in the presence of high concentrations of sucrose. Under such conditions, extracellular levan synthesized by the fructosyl polymerase activity of levansucrase can be degraded mainly into levanbiose by the action of LevB. Levanbiose is neither taken up nor metabolized by the bacteria. This work modifies the present view of the status of levansucrase in B. subtilis physiology.
Schur complement preconditioning for elliptic systems of partial differential equations

One successful approach in the design of solution methods for saddle‐point problems requires the efficient solution of the associated Schur complement problem. In the case of problems arising from partial differential equations the factorization of the symbol of the operator can often suggest useful approximations for this problem. In this work we examine examples of preconditioners for regular elliptic systems of partial differential equations based on the Schur complement of the symbol of the operator and highlight the possibilities and some of the difficulties one may encounter with this approach. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
THz spectroscopy and source characterization by optoelectronic interferometry

We demonstrate a new type of THz optoelectronic interferometer, by fully characterizing a recently developed THz source to beyond 6 THz, and by measuring the absorption coefficient of high‐resistivity GaAs from 1 to 5 THz. The two source THz interferometer is driven with two 4 mW beams of 60 fs dye‐laser pulses and produces interferograms with exceptional signal‐to‐noise ratios.
Hereditary corticosteroid‐binding globulin deficiency due to a missense mutation (Asp367Asn, CBG Lyon) in a Brazilian kindred

objective Abnormal corticosteroid‐binding globulin (CBG) is an extremely rare condition and only three mutations have been described in four families. The molecular basis of an abnormal CBG in a Brazilian family was studied and correlations between genotype and serum cortisol, cortisol binding capacity (CBC) and CBG levels were determined.
Factors influencing consumers ’ choice of retail stores for fresh meat in Malaysia

This research explores the preferred place for Malaysian consumers to purchase fresh meat using focus group discussions conducted in the Klan g Valley. Participants indicated that their decision to purchase fresh meat from either a moder n r tail outlet or the traditional market was influenced by eight themes. The themes identifi d were the perceptions of freshness, Halal assurance, having good relationships with ret ailers, good quality meat, competitive price, convenience, varieties of products to choose from and retail outlets that have a good and pleasant environment for shoppers. Despite the incr ased number of supermarkets and hypermarkets, not only are the traditional markets able to coexist with modern retail formats, but they remain the preferred place to buy fresh me at.
Association of breast carcinoma and multiple intraductal papillomas: an histological and immunohistochemical investigation

To identify histological preneoplastic lesions and early neoplastic foci, a histological and immunohistochemical study has been conducted on a series of 18 cases with the rare association of multiple intraductal papillomas and in situ breast carcinoma. The pathological and clinical data of these cases have been collated.
Chromotin binding, nuclear localization and phosphorylation of Xenopus cdc21 are cell‐cycle dependent and associated with the control of initiation of DNA replication.

A Xenopus homologue of Schizosaccharomyces pombe cdc21 has been characterized as a new member of the MCM family of proteins. The cdc21 protein exhibits cell‐cycle dependent chromatin binding and phosphorylation in association with S‐phase control. Cdc21 binds to decondensing chromatin at the end of mitosis, localizing to numerous foci which form prior to reconstitution of the nuclear membrane. The association of cdc21 with chromatin occurs in membrane‐free high speed extracts and is resistant to detergent extraction. The spatial organization of the cdc21 foci resembles that of pre‐replication centres though no co‐localization with RP‐A was observed. Cdc21 remains bound to chromatin during the initiation of DNA replication and is displaced as the DNA replication forks progress. These subnuclear changes in localization correlate with cell‐cycle‐regulated changes in phosphorylation. Cdc21 binds to chromatin in an underphosphorylated state, but in early S phase the nuclear localized cdc21 is partially phosphorylated before it is displaced from the chromatin. Cytoplasmic cdc21 remains underphosphorylated but at the beginning of mitosis the entire pool of cdc21 is hyperphosphorylated, possibly by the cdc2/cyclin B kinase. These properties identify Xenopus cdc21 as a possible component of the DNA licensing factor.
Intrauterine infections - challenges in the perinatal period (literature review).

The purpose of the study is to summarize the literature data on the state of intrauterine infections that cause antenatal fetal abnormalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS This article presents the assessment of 25 world literature sources from 2000 to 2016, which discuss the etiology of infectious agents acting on the fetus and causing a variety of pathological conditions. RESULTS During gestation many researchers refer to the infection as one of the causes of antenatal fetal abnormalities. The etiology of intrauterine infection is diverse and differs between countries with different economic conditions. Detection of an infectious agent makes it possible to promptly carry out preventive measures, to improve hygiene standards in order to reduce the rate of infection transmission from mother to fetus. CONCLUSION Timely detection of the etiology of intrauterine infections promotes the identification of high-risk groups giving a possibility to provide treatment in order to prevent the transmission of an infectious agent having direct economic benefits, especially in resource-poor countries with low and middle income.
Specific measurement of PTH (1-84) in various forms of renal osteodystrophy (ROD) as assessed by bone histomorphometry.

BACKGROUND Parathyroid hormone (PTH) measurements serve as a noninvasive, diagnostic tool for the assessment of renal osteodystrophy (ROD). Their value has been questioned following reports indicating that all commercially available intact PTH (I-PTH) assays cross-react with amino terminally truncated PTH fragments. Because these fragments can account for 50% of total PTH, their detection will overestimate the true PTH concentration and may lead to diagnostic inaccuracies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the specific Bio-Intact PTH (1-84) Assay (BI-PTH) in patients with various types of ROD confirmed by bone biopsy. METHODS Bone biopsies were taken from 132 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 3 to 5, and quantitative bone histomorphometry was done. Plasma PTH levels were measured using both the BI-PTH and I-PTH assays on an automated analyzer. RESULTS Patients with CKD stages 3/4 and low turnover skeletal lesions had BI-PTH values (pg/mL, mean +/- SD) of 35 (+/-34) and I-PTH values of 59 (+/- 63). Corresponding values for BI-PTH and I-PTH in those with high turnover lesions were 141 (+/-60) and 221 (+/-106). Patients with CKD stage 5 and low turnover skeletal lesions had BI-PTH and I-PTH levels of 51 (+/-38) and 90 (+/-60), respectively, whereas the corresponding results for BI-PTH and I-PTH in those with high turnover lesions were 237 (+/-214) and 461 (+/-437). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for distinguishing low turnover from high turnover lesions were 0.94 for BI-PTH and 0.91 for I-PTH in CKD stages 3/4 and 0.86 for BI-PTH and 0.85 for I-PTH in CKD stage 5. Among all patients, BI-PTH levels are approximately 50% lower than I-PTH levels, but the results of the two assays are correlated highly (R2 = 0.92). CONCLUSION Plasma PTH measurements using either the BI-PTH or I-PTH assay effectively identify patients with reduced bone turnover and serve to distinguish this subgroup from those with high turnover lesions of renal bone disease. Both assays provide better diagnostic discrimination for this purpose than calculated values for the ratio of PTH (1-84)/amino terminally truncated PTH fragments.