Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bird-like propagating brain activity in anesthetized Nile crocodiles

Study Objectives The changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) activity that characterize sleep and its sub-states-slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep-are similar in mammals and birds. SWS is characterized by EEG slow waves resulting from the synchronous alternation of neuronal membrane potentials between hyperpolarized down-states with neuronal quiescence and depolarized up-states associated with action potentials. By contrast, studies of non-avian reptiles report the presence of high-voltage sharp waves (HShW) during sleep. How HShW relate to EEG phenomena occurring during mammalian and avian sleep is unclear. We investigated the spatiotemporal patterns of electrophysiological phenomena in Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) anesthetized with isoflurane to determine whether they share similar spatiotemporal patterns to mammalian and avian slow waves. Methods Recordings of anesthetized crocodiles were made using 64-channel penetrating arrays with electrodes arranged in an 8 × 8 equally spaced grid. The arrays were placed in the dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR), a region implicated in the genesis of HShW. Various aspects of the spatiotemporal distribution of recorded signals were investigated. Results Recorded signals revealed the presence of HShW resembling those reported in earlier studies of naturally sleeping reptiles. HShW propagated in complex and variable patterns across the DVR. Conclusions We demonstrate that HShW within the DVR propagate in complex patterns similar to those observed for avian slow waves recorded from homologous brain regions. Consequently, sleep with HShW may represent an ancestral form of SWS, characterized by up-states occurring less often and for a shorter duration than in mammals and birds.
PAU SUBMISSION OF NIST 2018 SPEAKER RECOGNITION EVALUATION

This report describes the systems submitted by the PAU team, which is composed of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and VoiceAI, China. The submitted systems are the fusion of a GMM i-vector system and five DNN x-vector systems. Specifically, we have two x-vector systems trained on 16kHz speech data for VAST data, and the other three x-vector systems were trained on 8kHz speech utterances. In one of the 8kHz x-vector systems, we incorporated a self-attention layer into the x-vector extractor. The most up-to-date description can be found in the URL above.
Multimorbidity among Aboriginal people in New South Wales contributes significantly to their higher mortality

OBJECTIVES To compare the prevalence of multimorbidity and its impact on mortality among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians who had been hospitalised in New South Wales in the previous 10 years. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Cohort study analysis of linked NSW hospital (Admitted Patient Data Collection) and mortality data for 5 437 018 New South Wales residents with an admission to a NSW hospital between 1 March 2003 and 1 March 2013, and alive at 1 March 2013. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Admissions for 30 morbidities during the 10-year study period were identified. The primary outcome was the presence or absence of multimorbidity during the 10-year lookback period; the secondary outcome was mortality in the 12 months from 1 March 2013 to 1 March 2014. RESULTS 31.5% of Aboriginal patients had at least one morbidity and 16.1% had two or more, compared with 25.0% and 12.1% of non-Aboriginal patients. After adjusting for age, sex, and socio-economic status, the prevalence of multimorbidity among Aboriginal people was 2.59 times that for non-Aboriginal people (95% CI, 2.55-2.62). The prevalence of multimorbidity was higher among Aboriginal people in all age groups, in younger age groups because of the higher prevalence of mental morbidities, and from age 60 because of physical morbidities. The age-, sex- and socio-economic status-adjusted hazard of one-year mortality (Aboriginal v non-Aboriginal Australians) was 2.43 (95% CI, 2.24-2.62), and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.39-1.63) after also adjusting for morbidity count. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of multimorbidity was higher among Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal patients, and this difference accounted for much of the difference in mortality between the two groups. Evidence-based interventions for reducing multimorbidity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians must be a priority.
Wild tomato endosperm transcriptomes reveal common roles of genomic imprinting in both nuclear and cellular endosperm

Genomic imprinting is a conspicuous feature of the endosperm, a triploid tissue nurturing the embryo and synchronizing angiosperm seed development. An unknown subset of imprinted genes (IGs) is critical for successful seed development and should have highly conserved functions. Recent genome-wide studies have found limited conservation of IGs among distantly related species, but there is a paucity of data from closely related lineages. Moreover, most studies focused on model plants with nuclear endosperm development, and comparisons with properties of IGs in cellular-type endosperm development are lacking. Using laser-assisted microdissection, we characterized parent-specific expression in the cellular endosperm of three wild tomato lineages (Solanum section Lycopersicon). We identified 1025 candidate IGs and 167 with putative homologs previously identified as imprinted in distantly related taxa with nuclear-type endosperm. Forty-two maternally expressed genes (MEGs) and 17 paternally expressed genes (PEGs) exhibited conserved imprinting status across all three lineages, but differences in power to assess imprinted expression imply that the actual degree of conservation might be higher than that directly estimated (20.7% for PEGs and 10.4% for MEGs). Regardless, the level of shared imprinting status was higher for PEGs than for MEGs, indicating dissimilar evolutionary trajectories. Expression-level data suggest distinct epigenetic modulation of MEGs and PEGs, and gene ontology analyses revealed MEGs and PEGs to be enriched for different functions. Importantly, our data provide evidence that MEGs and PEGs interact in modulating both gene expression and the endosperm cell cycle, and uncovered conserved cellular functions of IGs uniting taxa with cellular- and nuclear-type endosperm.
Controlling software quality

In this paper a number of methods for controlling quality are introduced and discussed. Chief among these is a model called the quality cycle. The model is used to illustrate requirements selection and specification, reviewing procedures, life cycle development and change control. It is also a basis for balancing quality with budget and time scale constraints on a project. The paper concludes with a discussion of quality management and of quality support activities: standards, training and staff motivation.
A realist qualitative study to explore how low‐income pregnant women use Healthy Start food vouchers

Healthy Start is the UK government's food voucher programme for low-income pregnant women and young children. It was introduced in 2006, but the impact of the programme on nutritional outcomes remains understudied. This study sought to explore potential outcomes of the Healthy Start programme (including intended and unintended outcomes) and develop explanations for how and why these outcomes might occur. A realist review preceded this study, in which programme theories were developed and tested using existing evidence. This qualitative study aimed to further refine and consolidate the programme theories from the realist review while remaining open to new and emerging theories (or hypotheses) about how low-income pregnant women use Healthy Start vouchers. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 low-income women from North West England, who received Healthy Start vouchers during pregnancy. A realist logic of analysis was applied to generate clear and transparent linkages between outcomes and explanations. The findings suggested that some women used the vouchers to improve their diets during pregnancy (intended outcome), whereas some women were diverted towards alternative or unintended outcomes. Women's circumstances, values, beliefs, and motivations influenced how they perceived and responded to the vouchers. This paper presents four evidence-based programme theories to explain four contrasting (and potentially overlapping) outcomes: dietary improvements (theory refined from review), shared benefits (new theory), financial assistance (theory refined from review), and stockpiling formula (new theory). It considers how the Healthy Start programme could be improved, to increase the possibilities for low-income women to experience the intended outcome of dietary improvements.
Multi-types Court E-File Classification System

When handling cases, the courts spend a lot of time and effort on the classification of electronic files. This paper discusses a classification system that intelligently classifies scanned images for uploading. We have proposed corresponding solutions to the various effects of scanning on E-File for lots of reasons. Then we designed two sets of different algorithms to achieve the classification by the features that were classified into two categories of documents and pictures. In reality, using this system shows the classification accuracy is 92%, greatly improving the efficiency of staff to reduce their burden.
Computer Vision in Digital Humanities

Although the majority of Digital Humanities scholars still focus on textual analysis, we see an increasing number of studies using digitised visual sources and taking the first steps in the field of ‘Visual Big Data’ (Ordelman et al, 2014). Scholars have increasingly used both large-scale digitised visual datasets as well as computational methods to analyse these datasets in new ways, see for example the work of Lev Manovich on Manga comics (2012), Time covers, and selfies (Manovich & Tifentale 2015) or the recent work of Lenardo et al (2016) on visual pattern discovery in large databases of paintings as presented at the DH 2016 conference. Others focus on the identification of finding recurring images in visual collections. Terras & Kirton (2013) analyse the reuse of digital images of cultural and heritage material on the internet while Resig (2014) and Reside (2015) follow a similar approach using a closed dataset. A similar trend can be observed at the ADHO Digital Humanities Conferences. In 2014 the special Interest group Audiovisual Materials in Digital Humanities was founded and at the 2015 and 2016 conferences, several papers were presented using (audio) visual sources (see e.g. Kleppe 2015, Lenardo et al. 2016, Lincoln 2016). Based on an analysis of the submissions for the 2017 conference, Scott Weingart observes that an increasing number of papers are based on research concerning non-textual sources (Weingart 2017). The use of non-textual sources challenges established research practices of Digital Humanities, leading to new research questions and the need for transformation of existing approaches, and the development of new methodologies. For example, how can we analyse the characteristics of images in large visual datasets? Some of these questions have also been raised in the analogue era. See, for example, the work of Barry Salt (1974) on the characteristics of opening shots of twentieth-century films, Scott McCloud (1994) on the visual language of Japanese manga and comics, or Peter Burke’s take on using visual materials as historical evidence (2001). Due to the digital turn, we now see the application of new techniques to answer similar and new types of research questions. One of the dominant techniques to analyse large-scale visual datasets is computer vision: a field that deals with how computers can generate a high-level of understanding of visual material (Smeulders 2000). This field has been seeing unprecedented improvements as part of the “Deep Learning Revolution” since the first deep Convolutional Neural Network (Krizhevsky 2012), unleashing new possibilities. This workshop will focus on how computer vision can be applied within the realm of Audiovisual Materials in Digital Humanities. During the workshop, attendees will both present (ongoing) work on applying computer vision and experiment with computer vision in their own work in a hands-on session. Possible questions include:
Test‐retest reliability of clitoral blood flow measurements using color Doppler ultrasonography at rest and after a pelvic floor contraction task in healthy adult women

Test‐retest reliability assessment of the dorsal clitoral artery's blood flow at rest and after muscle activation has never been documented. If this outcome measure is to be used in conditions impeding vascularity, it requires a psychometric evaluation. The aim of this study was to assess the inter‐session test‐retest reliability of clitoral blood flow in healthy women using color Doppler ultrasonography at rest and after a pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contraction task.
Osteoblast Cell Response to Naturally Derived Calcium Phosphate-Based Materials

The demand of calcium phosphate bioceramics for biomedical applications is constantly increasing. Efficient and cost-effective production can be achieved using naturally derived materials. In this work, calcium phosphate powders, obtained from dolomitic marble and Mytilus galloprovincialis seashells by a previously reported and improved Rathje method were used to fabricate microporous pellets through cold isostatic pressing followed by sintering at 1200 °C. The interaction of the developed materials with MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts was explored in terms of cell adhesion, morphology, viability, proliferation, and differentiation to evaluate their potential for bone regeneration. Results showed appropriate cell adhesion and high viability without distinguishable differences in the morphological features. Likewise, the pre-osteoblast proliferation overtime on both naturally derived calcium phosphate materials showed a statistically significant increase comparable to that of commercial hydroxyapatite, used as reference material. Furthermore, evaluation of the intracellular alkaline phosphatase activity and collagen synthesis and deposition, used as markers of the osteogenic ability of these bioceramics, revealed that all samples promoted pre-osteoblast differentiation. However, a seashell-derived ceramic demonstrated a higher efficacy in inducing cell differentiation, almost equivalent to that of the commercial hydroxyapatite. Therefore, data obtained demonstrate that this naturally sourced calcium-phosphate material holds promise for applications in bone tissue regeneration.
Conditional arabic light stemmer: condlight

Arabic language has a complex morphological structure, which makes it hard to select index terms for an IR system. The complexity of the Arabic morphology caused by multimode terms, using diacritics, letters have different forms according to its location in the word and affixes can be added at all locations in a word. Several methods were proposed to overcome these problems; such as root extraction and light stemming. Light stemming show better retrieval efficiency, Light10 is the best stemmer among a series of light stemmers, it simply removes suffixes and prefixes if it is listed in a predefined table. Light10 has no restrictions on the affixes, so it is possible to have two different terms having the same token while they have different meanings. This paper proposes CondLight stemmer which adds new prefixes and suffixes to the table of Light10, and imposes a set of conditions on removing these affixes. The implementation and testing of the proposed method show that CondLight gains 38% precision, while Light10 stemmer gains average precision of 36.7%. Moreover CondLight show better average precision either when imposing all conditions or part of them.
Impact of Very Early Physical Therapy During Septic Shock on Skeletal Muscle: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives: As the catabolic state induced by septic shock together with the physical inactivity of patients lead to the rapid loss of muscle mass and impaired function, the purpose of this study was to test whether an early physical therapy during the onset of septic shock regulates catabolic signals and preserves skeletal muscle mass. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Tertiary mixed ICU. Patients: Adult patients admitted for septic shock within the first 72 hours. Interventions: Patients were assigned randomly into two groups. The control group benefited from manual mobilization once a day. The intervention group had twice daily sessions of both manual mobilization and 30-minute passive/active cycling therapy. Measurements and Main Results: Skeletal muscle biopsies and electrophysiology testing were performed at day 1 and day 7. Muscle biopsies were analyzed for histology and molecular components of signaling pathways regulating protein synthesis and degradation as well as inflammation markers. Hemodynamic values and patient perception were collected during each session. Twenty-one patients were included. Three died before the second muscle biopsy. Ten patients in the control and eight in the intervention group were analyzed. Markers of the catabolic ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, muscle atrophy F-box and muscle ring finger-1 messenger RNA, were reduced at day 7 only in the intervention group, but without difference between groups (muscle atrophy F-box: –7.3% ± 138.4% in control vs –56.4% ± 37.4% in intervention group; p = 0.23 and muscle ring finger-1: –30.8% ± 66.9% in control vs –62.7% ± 45.5% in intervention group; p = 0.15). Muscle fiber cross-sectional area (µm2) was preserved by exercise (–25.8% ± 21.6% in control vs 12.4% ± 22.5% in intervention group; p = 0.005). Molecular regulations suggest that the excessive activation of autophagy due to septic shock was lower in the intervention group, without being suppressed. Markers of anabolism and inflammation were not modified by the intervention, which was well tolerated by the patients. Conclusions: Early physical therapy during the first week of septic shock is safe and preserves muscle fiber cross-sectional area.
The Sun Solutions Intervention for Operating Engineers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Because Operating Engineers (heavy equipment operators) are outdoor workers at risk for skin cancer, interventions are needed to promote sun safety. The objectives were to determine changes in sunscreen use and sunburning among Operating Engineers randomized to four conditions in the Sun Solutions study: (i) education only; (ii) education and text message reminders; (ii) education and mailed sunscreen; and (iv) education, text message reminders, and mailed sunscreen. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, Operating Engineers (N = 357) were recruited at required safety training sessions throughout Michigan during winter/spring of 2012 to 2013 and provided baseline surveys. The four interventions were delivered over the summer. Postintervention surveys were collected in the fall (82.1% follow-up). Results: Sunscreen use improved significantly from baseline to follow-up in all four conditions (P < 0.05), except sunscreen use among those receiving education and text message reminders was only marginally significant (P = 0.07). There were significantly greater increases in sunscreen use in the two conditions that were mailed sunscreen (P < 0.001). There was a significant decrease in the number of reported sunburns from baseline to follow-up in all four conditions (P < 0.001), but there were no significant differences in sunburns among the groups. Participant evaluated the interventions highly with those who received mailed sunscreen rating the intervention the highest. Conclusions: Providing proper sun-safety education and minimizing barriers to sunscreen use can increase sunscreen use and decrease reported sunburns. Impact: The implementation of the Sun Solutions intervention may be an effective method to modify skin cancer–related behaviors. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(8); 864–73. ©2018 AACR.
Functional Brain Alterations Associated With Cognitive Control in Blast-Related Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Objectives: Research on the cognitive sequelae of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) suggests that, despite generally rapid recovery, difficulties may persist in the domain of cognitive control. The goal of this study was to examine whether individuals with chronic blast-related mTBI show behavioral or neural alterations associated with cognitive control. Methods: We collected event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during a flanker task in 17 individuals with blast-related mTBI and 16 individuals with blast-exposure without TBI (control). Results: Groups did not significantly differ in behavioral measures of cognitive control. Relative to the control group, the mTBI group showed greater deactivation of regions associated with the default mode network during the processing of errors. Additionally, error processing in the mTBI group was associated with enhanced negative coupling between the default mode network and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex as well as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, regions of the salience and central executive networks that are associated with cognitive control. Conclusions: These results suggest that deactivation of default mode network regions and associated enhancements of connectivity with cognitive control regions may act as a compensatory mechanism for successful cognitive control task performance in mTBI. (JINS, 2018, 24, 1–11)
SIGNATURE VERIFICATION USING WEIGHTED FRACTIONAL DISTANCE CLASSIFICATION

Signatures are one of the behavioural biometric traits, which are widely used as a means of personal verification. Therefore, they require efficient and accurate methods of authenticating users. The use of a single distance-based classification technique normally results in a lower accuracy compared to supervised learning techniques. This paper investigates the use of a combination of multiple distance-based classification techniques, namely individually optimized resampling, weighted Euclidean distance, fractional distance and weighted fractional distance. Results are compared to a similar system that uses support vector machines. It is shown that competitive levels of accuracy can be obtained using distance-based classification. The best accuracy obtained is 89.2%.