Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversity and Novelty: Measurement, Learning and Optimization

Title of dissertation: Diversity and Novelty: Measurement, Learning and Optimization Faez Ahmed Doctor of Philosophy, 2019 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Mark Fuge Department of Mechanical Engineering The primary objective of this dissertation is to investigate research methods to answer the question: “How (and why) does one measure, learn and optimize novelty and diversity of a set of items? ” The computational models we develop to answer this question also provide foundational mathematical techniques to throw light on the following three questions: 1. How does one reliably measure the creativity of ideas? 2. How does one form teams to evaluate design ideas? 3. How does one filter good ideas out of hundreds of submissions? Solutions to these questions are key to enable the effective processing of a large collection of design ideas generated in a design contest. In the first part of the dissertation, we discuss key qualities needed in design metrics and propose new diversity and novelty metrics for judging design products. We show that the proposed metrics have higher accuracy and sensitivity compared to existing alternatives in literature. To measure the novelty of a design item, we propose learning from human subjective responses to derive low dimensional triplet embeddings. To measure diversity, we propose an entropy-based diversity metric, which is more accurate and sensitive than benchmarks. In the second part of the dissertation, we introduce the bipartite b-matching problem and argue the need for incorporating diversity in the objective function for matching problems. We propose new submodular and supermodular objective functions to measure diversity and develop multiple matching algorithms for diverse team formation in offline and online cases. Finally, in the third part, we demonstrate filtering and ranking of ideas using diversity metrics based on Determinantal Point Processes as well as submodular functions. In real-world crowd experiments, we demonstrate that such ranking enables increased efficiency in filtering high-quality ideas compared to traditionally used majority voting. Diversity and Novelty: Measurement, Learning and Optimization
Estimating Turbulent Fluxes in the Tropical Andes

The correct estimation of Sensible Heat Flux (H) and Latent Heat Flux (LE) (i.e., turbulent fluxes) is vital in the understanding of exchange of energy and mass among hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere in an ecosystem. One of the most popular methods to measure these fluxes is the Eddy Covariance (EC) technique; however, there are a number of setbacks to its application, especially in remote and topographically complex terrain such as the higher altitudes of the Andes. Efforts have been made by the scientific community to parameterise these fluxes based on other more commonly measured variables. One of the most widespread methods is the so-called bulk method, which relates average temperature, humidity, and wind vertical profiles to the turbulent fluxes. Another approach to estimate LE is the Penman-Monteith (PM) equation which uses meteorological measurements at a single level. The objective of this study was to validate these methods for the first time in the Tropical Andes in Southern Ecuador (in the páramo ecosystem at 3780 m a.s.l.) using EC and meteorological measurements. It was determined that the bulk method was the best to estimate H, although some adjustments had to be made to the typical assumptions used to estimate surface meteorological values. On the other hand, the PM equation yielded the best LE estimations. For both fluxes, the error in the estimations was within the uncertainty range of the EC measurements. It can be concluded that it is possible to accurately estimate H and LE using the methods described in this paper in this ecosystem when no direct measurements are available.
Sharp Wave-Ripples in Human Amygdala and Their Coordination with Hippocampus during NREM Sleep

Cooperative interactions between the amygdala and hippocampus are widely regarded as critical for overnight emotional processing of waking experiences, but direct support from the human brain for such a dialog is absent. Using intracranial recordings in four pre-surgical epilepsy patients (two male, two female), we discovered ripples within human amygdala during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Like hippocampal ripples, amygdala ripples are strongly associated with sharp waves, are linked to sleep spindles, and tend to co-occur with their hippocampal counterparts. Moreover, sharp waves and ripples are temporally linked across the two brain structures, with amygdala ripples occurring during hippocampal sharp waves and vice versa. Combined with further evidence of interregional sharp wave and spindle synchronization, these findings offer a potential physiological substrate for the NREM-sleep-dependent consolidation and regulation of emotional experiences.
Intelligent Thermal Comfort Controlling System for Buildings Based on IoT and AI

With the improvement of technologies, people’s demand for intelligent devices of indoor and outdoor living environments keeps increasing. However, the traditional control system only adjusts living parameters mechanically, which cannot better meet the requirements of human comfort intelligently. This article proposes a building intelligent thermal comfort control system based on the Internet of Things and intelligent artificial intelligence. Through the literature review, various algorithms and prediction methods are analyzed and compared. The system can automatically complete a series of operations through IoT hardware devices which are located at multiple locations in the building with key modules. The code is developed and debugged by Python to establish a model for energy consumption prediction with environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, radiant temperature, and air velocity on thermal comfort indicators. By using the simulation experiments, 1700 data sets are used for training. Then, the output PMV predicted values are compared with the real figure. The results show that the performance of this system is superior to traditional control on energy-saving and comfort.
Myocardial deformation imaging and prognostication in acute heart failure

s & Poster Presentation J. Stewart, O. Lazariashvili, A. Baltabaeva. Right ventricular function is a strong predictor of outcome in acute heart failure. Poster presented at Heart Failure 2018, European Society of Cardiology; Vienna; Sunday 27 May 2018; Poster number 1136. J. Stewart, O. Lazariashvili, A. Baltabaeva. Mitral Regurgitation worsens prognosis in acute heart failure. Poster presented at Heart Failure 2018, European Society of Cardiology; Vienna; Monday 28 May 2018; Poster number 1834. J. Stewart, O. Lazariashvili, A. Baltabaeva. Precipitant of hospitalization predicts mortality in acute heart failure. Poster presented at Heart Failure 2018, European Society of Cardiology; Vienna; Monday 28 May 2018; Poster number 1835. J. Stewart, O. Lazariashvili, A. Baltabaeva, I. Beeton, D. Fluck. Significant mitral regurgitation in acute heart failure is associated with adverse ventricular geometry, function and prognosis. Poster accepted for presentation at EuroEcho-Imaging 2018, European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging; Milan; Thursday 6 December 2018; Poster Number 303. Podium Presentations Optimisation of medical therapy in community heart failure patients – Lessons learned from the MRAHF study. Oral presentation made at the North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group and Surrey Community Educational Provider Meeting, St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, April 2018
Are Low-Cost Private Schools Worth the Investment? Evidence on Literacy and Mathematics Gains in Nairobi Primary Schools

Background/Context Low-cost private schools (LCPSs) represent a large and growing share of schools in many low- and middle-income countries, including Kenya. In some Nairobi neighborhoods, more than half of children attend LCPSs, despite policies providing free access to public education. Parents generally choose LCPSs because they believe they are higher quality, although there is little conclusive evidence supporting this belief. Objective In this study, we aim to add to the evidence available on the comparison between LCPSs and public schools by using student gains over time as our outcome, thus controlling for the initial level of achievement and instead examining improvement. Participants The randomly selected longitudinal sample was composed of 326 children attending 47 LCPSs and government schools in several of Nairobi's geographic zones. These children's literacy and numeracy outcomes were tracked over two academic years to determine their learning gains over time. Research Design We used residual gain scores—as opposed to cross-sectional measures—in English and Kiswahili literacy and mathematics, to compare the outcomes of students attending LCPSs and public primary schools across the first and second grades. We discuss how these schools impacted achievement over time. Findings/Results We found that these LCPSs did not produce significantly higher student growth than public schools under the status quo condition. However, among schools participating in an instructional improvement intervention supported by the United States Agency for International Development, LCPSs increased performance more than public schools in English, Kiswahili, and mathematics, with the largest differences in English. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings offer a cautionary note to the rapid expansion of LCPSs in low-resource settings. The fees paid to LCPSs by low-income households are often burdensome for families and, in some contexts, may not be worth the trade-offs that families make to afford them. On the other hand, the findings also suggest that low-cost private school teachers may respond more effectively than public school teachers to project-based support.
Changing with the time: New ventures’ quest for innovation

New ventures are often based on new ideas and innovation. For creating and improving the innovation new ventures can draw on internal and external resources, to which they often have limited access. Our study analyses how new ventures can improve their innovation search by entering collaborative workspaces, so-called co-working spaces. In our qualitative study, we use participative observation and analyze 8 cases of new ventures operating in a coworking-space. Key findings are that forms of innovation search differ with respect to the venture’s life cycle. The new ventures search focus alternates between internal and external search, depending on the current stage of the venture. In general, the co-location of ventures in collaborative workspaces offers rich opportunities for social interactions, information exchange, and collaboration which are especially important for early-stage ventures.
Bridges to bilingualism: Teachers

The Peace Accords of 1996 aimed to bring significant changes for Indigenous people of Guatemala by promoting new educational opportunities centering on the recognition that culture and language are critical components of education. Bilingual intercultural programs have been created and attention to the detrimental effects of language loss and cultural identity have gained attention as Guatemala portrays itself to the rest of the world as a proud multiethnic and multilingual nation. As teachers are essential in the implementation of educational programs, this study explores the perspectives of 13 Indigenous bilingual teachers from multiple communities and their role in implementing programs that promote bilingualism, biliteracy, and intercultural education in their respective communities. Teachers proudly accepted the responsibility of bridging school and home languages and recognized that educational progress had taken place, but expressed the need for continued improvements, as there are still many unmet goals both at the national and individual community levels.
ASEAN Economic Community: the shift from absolute to relative poverty, and the rise of the middle class

In 2015 ASEAN has become a community which rests on three pillars: political-security, economic and social-cultural (Jetin and Mikic, 2016). The underlying assumption is that economic development will be fostered by a regional integration deepening, namely a “single market and single production base” which should lead to a convergence of social-cultural development thanks to a catching up process of the late-comers and poorest member states vis-à-vis the more advanced ASEAN Member States (AMS) (Jetin, B. 2016a). This implies a convergence of living standards and a strong decline of poverty. The purpose of this paper is precisely to verify the existence of such a process of convergence among AMS and the nature of this convergence. Which countries are converging? How did poverty evolve and what is the social dynamics implied? Section 1 checks if the existence of ASEAN has favoured a process of convergence of living standards or in other terms a reduction of inequality between countries. In section 2, we show that in several ASEAN countries, absolute poverty has receded but has been replaced by relative, poverty which creates its own set of expectations and potential frustrations. Finally, in section 3, we focus on the emergence of the middle classes and their potential effect on the socio-economic dynamic of ASEAN countries.
5G New Radio Prototype Implementation Based on SDR

The fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR) has been developed to provide significant improvements in scalability, flexibility, and efficiency in terms of power usage and spectrum as well. To meet the 5G vision, service and performance requirements, various candidate technologies have been proposed in 5G new radio; some are extensions of 4G and, some are developed explicitly for 5G. These candidate technologies include non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), and Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) channel coding. In addition, deploying software defined radio (SDR) instead of traditional hardware modules. In this paper we build an open source SDR-based platform to realize the transceiver of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of 5G NR according to Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard. We provide a prototype for pairing between two 5G users using NOMA technique. In addition, a suitable design for LDPC channel coding is performed. The intermediate stage of segmentation, rate matching and interleaving are also carried out in order to realize a standard NR frame. Finally, experiments are carried out in both simulation and real time scenario on the designed 5G NR for the purpose of system performance evaluation, and to demonstrate its potential in meeting future 5G mobile network challenges.
Transition Engagement of African American Youth With Disabilities: A Serial Mediation Model

The purpose of this study was to draw from self-determination and self-efficacy theories to evaluate psychological constructs (autonomous motivation, competency, and outcome expectancy) as mediators of the relationship between working alliance and engagement in transition–vocational rehabilitation (VR) services among African American students with disabilities. A serial multiple mediation analysis was computed to evaluate the mediators of transition-VR service engagement in a sample of 88 African American high school students with disabilities. We found that working alliance was positively associated with active engagement in transition-VR services (total effect), whereas the direct effect of working alliance on engagement was not significant after controlling for the effects of autonomous motivation, competency, and outcome expectancy, supporting significant mediation effects. Findings suggest that a strong working alliance between students and rehabilitation counselors and transition specialists can foster autonomous motivation, competency, and outcome expectancy, resulting in higher levels of engagement in transition-VR services.
Spontaneously occluded left atrial appendage in a patient with atrial fibrillation and stroke: a case report

Abstract Background The left atrial appendage (LAA) is the main source of thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation (AF). Transcatheter closure is non-inferior to warfarin therapy in preventing stroke. Case summary A patient with two consecutive strokes associated with AF was referred for transcatheter LAA occlusion (LAAO). Preprocedural cardiac CT and transoesophageal echocardiography demonstrated a spontaneously occluded LAA with a smooth left atrial surface, with stationary results at 6- and 12-month imaging follow-up. Warfarin was discontinued, and life-long aspirin instigated. Discussion Left atrial appendage occlusion has shown non-inferiority to warfarin for prevention of stroke, cardiovascular death, and all-cause mortality. No benefits from anticoagulation have been demonstrated in patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source. In the present case, we observed that the LAA was occluded and, therefore, treated with aspirin monotherapy assuming similar efficacy as transcatheter LAAO.
Flower pollination algorithm‐based energy‐efficient stable clustering approach for WSNs

The advances in the size, cost of deployment, and user‐friendly interface of wireless sensor devices have given rise to many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. WSNs need to use protocols for transmitting data samples from event regions to sink through minimum cost links. Clustering is a commonly used method of data aggregation in which nodes are organized into groups to reduce energy consumption. Nonetheless, cluster head (CH) has to bear an additional load in clustering protocols to organize different activities within the cluster. Proper CH selection and load balancing using efficient routing protocol is therefore a critical aspect for WSN's long‐term operation. In this paper, a threshold‐sensitive energy‐efficient cluster‐based routing protocol based on flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is proposed to extend the network's stability period. Using FPA, multihop communication between CHs and base station is used to achieve optimal link costs for load balancing distant CHs and energy minimization. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms competitive clustering algorithms in terms of energy consumption, stability period, and system lifetime.
Closed Kinetic Chain Assessment Following Inversion Ankle Sprain

The purpose of this study was to compare the injured versus noninjured lower extremity on three single-leg hop tests following inversion ankle sprain. Twenty-two subjects with a history of unilateral inversion ankle sprain participated in this study. Subjects performed the three single-leg hop tests (hop for distance, hop for time, and agility hop). An independent t test was used to compare extremities. No significant differences existed on any hop test for the 22 subjects. In 8 of the 22 subjects who reported pain with activities of daily living and/or sports activities, an independent t test revealed no significant difference on hop test performance between extremities. We conclude that these three single-leg hop tests lack sensitivity (validity) in detecting lower extremity performance deficits as reported by the subjects following inversion ankle sprain.
Automatic Method for Bone Segmentation in Cone Beam Computed Tomography Data Set

Due to technical aspects of Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT), the automatic methods for bone segmentation are not widely used in the clinical practice of endodontics, orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate method’s accuracy for bone segmentation in CBCT data sets. The sliding three dimensional (3D) window, histogram filter and Otsu’s method were used to implement the automatic segmentation. The results of automatic segmentation were compared with the results of segmentation performed by an experienced oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Twenty patients and their forty CBCT data sets were used in this study (20 preoperative and 20 postoperative). Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were calculated to prove the reliability of surgeon segmentations. ICC was 0.958 with 95% confidence interval [0.896 . 0.983] in preoperative data sets and 0.931 with 95% confidence interval [0.836 . 0.972] in postoperative data sets. Three basic metrics were used in order to evaluate the accuracy of the automatic method—Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Root Mean Square (RMS), Average Distance Error (ADE) of surfaces mismatch and additional metric in order to evaluate computation time of segmentation was used. The mean value of preoperative DSC was 0.921, postoperative—0.911, the mean value of preoperative RMS was 0.559 mm, postoperative—0.647 mm, the ADE value of preoperative cases was 0.043 mm, postoperative—0.057 mm, the mean computational time to perform the segmentation was 46 s. The automatic method showed clinically acceptable accuracy results and thus can be used as a new tool for automatic bone segmentation in CBCT data. It can be applied in oral and maxillofacial surgery for performance of 3D Virtual Surgical Plan (VSP) or for postoperative follow-up.
Surface Modification With Gelatin For Polyurethane Vascular Grafts: A Review

The means for developing synthetic vascular grafts to replace blood vessels is increasing extensively because of the limited supply of autologous vessels. Synthetic polymers as the alternatives still suffer from restenosis and thrombus formation. Natural polymers, on the other hand, are commonly biocompatible and biodegradable, compliment the synthetic ones. Blending, grafting and coating of natural polymers have been proposed to improve surface properties of synthetic polymers. Gelatin is a promising candidate to help improving synthetic vascular grafts surface owing to its ability to promote cell adhesion without promoting platelet aggregation at its surface. In this review, several techniques to incorporate gelatin onto synthetic polymers, mainly polyurethane, for vascular grafts application are summarized, together with the recent updates and potential development in the future.
A Network Pharmacology Study on the Mechanisms of the Herbal Extract, Christina Loosestrife, for the Treatment of Nephrolithiasis

Background This study aimed to undertake a network pharmacology analysis to identify the active compounds of the herbal extract Christina Loosestrife, or Lysimachia Christinae (Jin Qian Cao), in the treatment of nephrolithiasis. Material/Methods The active components of Christina Loosestrife were identified from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database and analysis platform and the online Taiwan TCM database. The potentially active compounds were screened based on their parenteral bioavailability identified from the TCMSP database. The PharmMapper integrated pharmacophore matching platform was used for target identification of active compounds in nephrolithiasis. The identified active compounds were validated by molecular docking using the systemsDock network pharmacology website. Biological functions and pathway outcomes of effective targets were analyzed using the Metascape gene annotation resource. The results were used to construct the pharmacological networks, which were visualized and integrated using Cytoscape software. Results There were 16 active compounds of Christina Loosestrife and 11 nephrolithiasis-associated targets that were obtained. Functional enrichment analysis showed that Christina Loosestrife might exert its therapeutic effects by regulating pathways that included purine salvage, interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 signaling, and neutrophil degranulation. Conclusions Network pharmacology analysis of the herbal extract, Christina Loosestrife, identified multiple active compounds, targets, and pathways involved in the effects on nephrolithiasis.