Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generalized Learning with Reservoir Computing

We investigate how machine learning schemes known as a Reservoir Computers (RCs) learn concepts such as ‘similar’ and ‘different’,and other relationships between pairs of inputs and generalize these concepts to previously unseen types of data. RCs work by feeding input data into a highdimensional dynamical system of neuron-like units called a ’reservoir’ and using regression to train ’output weights’ to produce the desired response. We study two RC architectures, that broadly resemble neural dynamics. We show that an RC that is trained to identify relationships between imagepairs drawn from a subset of handwritten digits (0-5) from the MNIST database generalizes the learned relationships to images of handwritten digits (6-9) unseen during training. We consider simple relationships between the input image pair such as: same digits (digits from the same class), same digits but one is rotated 90◦, same digits but one is blurred, different digits, etc. In this dataset, digits that are marked the ’same’ may have substantial variation because they come from different handwriting samples. Additionally, using a database of depth maps of images taken from a moving camera, we show that an RC trained to learn relationships such as ‘similar’ (e.g., same scene, different camera perspectives) and ‘different’ (different scenes) is able to generalize its learning to visual scenes that are very different from those used in training. RC being a dynamical system, lends itself to easy interpretation through clustering and analysis of the underlying dynamics that allows for generalization. We show that in response to different inputs, the high-dimensional reservoir state can reach different attractors (i.e. patterns), with different attractors representative of corresponding input-pair relationships. We investigate the attractor structure by clustering the high dimensional reservoir states using dimensionality reduction techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Thus, as opposed to training for the entire high dimensional
Is maternal serum relaxin associated with preterm delivery in Chinese pregnant women? A meta-analysis

Abstract Objective: A meta-analysis was performed to study the relationship between serum relaxin and preterm delivery in women with singleton pregnancies without estrogen stimulation. Methods: Cohort and case-control studies were identified through searching databases (PubMed, Embase, Ovid, CBM, Wan fang, VIP, and CNKI). We carried out a continuous variable meta-analysis. The outcome was preterm delivery (gestation age <37 weeks). Results: Fifteen studies were included, involving 1607 women with a singleton pregnancy. The pooled standard mean deviation (SMD) of 15 studies was 0.559 (95%CI: 0.002–1.196) and the heterogeneity was 96.6%. To reduce the heterogeneity, we chose random effects model and made subgroup analysis according to gestational age at sample testing (<18 weeks and ≥18 weeks) and race of included pregnant women. The pooled SMD of gestational age at sample testing ≥18 weeks and Chinese were 1.19 (95%CI: 0.63–1.75) and 1.61 (95%CI: 0.82–2.41) and the heterogeneity values (measured by I2) were 93.5% and 76.5%, respectively. Conclusions: Elevated maternal serum relaxin of later than 18 weeks of gestational age is associated with singleton preterm birth in Chinese women. It might be an important information to prevent singleton preterm delivery in Chinese women. What’s already known about this topic? Previous reports reveal that there is a relationship between elevated maternal serum relaxin and preterm birth. However, the included articles contained twin pregnancies and estrogen stimulation, which obviously resulted in higher relaxin concentrations. What does this study add?
Gemtuzumab ozogamicin for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia

ABSTRACT Introduction: Gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) is an antibody-drug conjugate consisting of a monoclonal antibody targeting CD33 linked to a cytotoxic derivative of calicheamicin. Despite the known clinical efficacy in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), GO was withdrawn from the market in 2010 due to increased early deaths witnessed in newly diagnosed AML patients receiving GO + intensive chemotherapy. In 2017, new data on the clinical efficacy and safety of GO administered on a fractionated-dosing schedule led to re-approval for newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory AML. Areas covered: Addition of fractionated GO to chemotherapy significantly improved event-free survival of newly diagnosed AML patients with favorable and intermediate cytogenetic-risk disease. GO monotherapy also prolonged survival in newly diagnosed unfit patients and relapse-free survival in relapsed/refractory AML. This new dosing schedule was associated with decreased incidence of hepatotoxicity, veno-occlusive disease, and early mortality. Expert commentary: GO represents the first drug-antibody conjugate approved (twice) in the United States for AML. Its re-emergence adds a valuable agent back into the armamentarium for AML. The approval of GO as well as three other agents for AML in 2017 highlights the need for rapid cytogenetic and molecular characterization of AML and incorporation into new treatment algorithms.
Climatological Estimates of Local Daily Tornado Probability for the United States

Abstract An estimate is made of the probability of an occurrence of a tornado day near any location in the contiguous 48 states for any time during the year. Gaussian smoothers in space and time have been applied to the observed record of tornado days from 1980 to 1999 to produce daily maps and annual cycles at any point on an 80 km × 80 km grid. Many aspects of this climatological estimate have been identified in previous work, but the method allows one to consider the record in several new ways. The two regions of maximum tornado days in the United States are northeastern Colorado and peninsular Florida, but there is a large region between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains that has at least 1 day on which a tornado touches down on the grid. The annual cycle of tornado days is of particular interest. The southeastern United States, outside of Florida, faces its maximum threat in April. Farther west and north, the threat is later in the year, with the northern United States and New England facing its ma.
Toonsynth

We present a new example-based approach for synthesizing hand-colored cartoon animations. Our method produces results that preserve the specific visual appearance and stylized motion of manually authored animations without requiring artists to draw every frame from scratch. In our framework, the artist first stylizes a limited set of known source skeletal animations from which we extract a style-aware puppet that encodes the appearance and motion characteristics of the artwork. Given a new target skeletal motion, our method automatically transfers the style from the source examples to create a hand-colored target animation. Compared to previous work, our technique is the first to preserve both the detailed visual appearance and stylized motion of the original hand-drawn content. Our approach has numerous practical applications including traditional animation production and content creation for games.
Engineering of Magnetic Properties of Co- and Fe-Rich Microwires

We present our experimental results on optimization of the magnetic softness, domain wall (DW) dynamics, and giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect of Fe- and Co-rich microwires. It is found that the as-prepared Co-rich microwires possess much higher GMI effects and linear hysteresis loop. On the other hand, the magnetic softness and GMI effect of Fe-rich microwires can be improved by stress annealing. In addition, the DW velocity of the microwires can be considerably improved by annealing. The single DW propagation can also be observed in properly annealed Co-rich microwires. These observed dependencies can be attributed to the relaxation of internal stresses after annealing and the interplay of compressive stresses and axial internal stresses after stress annealing.
Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Profiles of Commonly Used Human Ocular Surface Cell Lines

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this study is to establish the short tandem repeat (STR) profiles of several human cell lines commonly used in ocular surface research. Materials and Methods: Independently DNA was extracted from multiple passages of three human corneal epithelial cell lines, two human conjunctival epithelial cell lines and one meibomian gland cell line, from different laboratories actively involved in ocular surface research. The samples were then subjected to STR analysis on a fee-for-service basis in an academic setting and the data compared against that in available databases. Results: The STR profiles for the human corneal epithelial cells were different among the three cell lines studied and for each line the profiles were identical across the samples provided by three laboratories. Profiles for the human conjunctival epithelial cells were different among the two cell lines studied. Profiles for the meibomian gland cell line were identical across the samples provided by three laboratories. No samples were contaminated by elements of other cell lines such as HeLa. Conclusions: This comprehensive study provides verification of STR profiles for commonly used human ocular surface cell lines that can now be used as a reference by others in the field to authenticate the cell lines in use in their own laboratories.
New approaches for assessing squid fin motions: coupling proper orthogonal decomposition with volumetric particle tracking velocimetry

ABSTRACT Squid, which swim using a coupled fin/jet system powered by muscular hydrostats, pose unique challenges for the study of locomotion. The high flexibility of the fins and complex flow fields generated by distinct propulsion systems require innovative techniques for locomotive assessment. For this study, we used proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to decouple components of the fin motions and defocusing digital particle tracking velocimetry (DDPTV) to quantify the resultant 3D flow fields. Kinematic footage and DDPTV data were collected from brief squid, Lolliguncula brevis [3.1–6.5 cm dorsal mantle length (DML)], swimming freely in a water tunnel at speeds of 0.39–7.20 DML s−1. Both flap and wave components were present in all fin motions, but the relative importance of the wave components was higher for arms-first swimming than for tail-first swimming and for slower versus higher speed swimming. When prominent wave components were present, more complex interconnected vortex ring wakes were observed, while fin movements dominated by flapping resulted in more spatially separated vortex ring patterns. Although the jet often produced the majority of the thrust for steady rectilinear swimming, our results demonstrated that the fins can contribute more thrust than the jet at times, consistently produce comparable levels of lift to the jet during arms-first swimming, and can boost overall propulsive efficiency. By producing significant drag signatures, the fins can also aid in stabilization and maneuvering. Clearly, fins play multiple roles in squid locomotion, and when coupled with the jet, allow squid to perform a range of swimming behaviors integral to their ecological success. Summary: Fin activity changes with swimming speed and orientation in squid, resulting in the production of different vortex wake flows.
Acute Caffeinated Coffee Consumption Does not Improve Time Trial Performance in an 800-m Run: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Crossover, Placebo-Controlled Study

Introduction: Studies evaluating caffeinated coffee (CAF) can reveal ergogenic effects; however, studies on the effects of caffeinated coffee on running are scarce and controversial. Aim: To investigate the effects of CAF consumption compared to decaffeinated coffee (DEC) consumption on time trial performances in an 800-m run in overnight-fasting runners. Methods: A randomly counterbalanced, double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study was conducted with 12 healthy adult males with experience in amateur endurance running. Participants conducted two trials on two different occasions, one day with either CAF or DEC, with a one-week washout. After arriving at the data collection site, participants consumed the soluble CAF (5.5 mg/kg of caffeine) or DEC and after 60 min the run was started. Before and after the 800-m race, blood pressure and lactate and glucose concentrations were measured. At the end of the run, the ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) scale was applied. Results: The runners were light consumers of habitual caffeine, with an average ingestion of 91.3 mg (range 6–420 mg/day). Time trial performances did not change between trials (DEF: 2.38 + 0.10 vs. CAF: 2.39 + 0.09 min, p = 0.336), nor did the RPE (DEC: 16.5 + 2.68 vs. CAF: 17.0 + 2.66, p = 0.326). No difference between the trials was observed for glucose and lactate concentrations, or for systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. Conclusion: CAF consumption failed to enhance the time trial performance of an 800-m run in overnight-fasting runners, when compared with DEC ingestion. In addition, no change was found in RPE, blood pressure levels, or blood glucose and lactate concentrations between the two trials.
Synthesis target structures for alkaline earth oxide clusters

Knowing the possible structures of individual clusters in nanostructured materials is an important first step in their design. With previous structure prediction data for BaO nanoclusters as a basis, data mining techniques were used to investigate candidate structures for magnesium oxide, calcium oxide and strontium oxide clusters. The lowest-energy structures and analysis of some of their structural properties are presented here. Clusters that are predicted to be ideal targets for synthesis, based on being both the only thermally accessible minimum for their size, and a size that is thermally accessible with respect to neighbouring sizes, include global minima for: sizes n = 9 , 15 , 16 , 18 and 24 for (MgO) n ; sizes n = 8 , 9 , 12 , 16 , 18 and 24 for (CaO) n ; the greatest number of sizes of (SrO) n clusters ( n = 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 18 and 24); and for (BaO) n sizes of n = 8 , 10 and 16.
TAC KBP 2016 Cold Start Slot Filling and Slot Filler Validation Systems by IRT SystemX

This paper describes the participation of IRT SystemX at TAC KBP 2016, for the two tracks, CSSF and SFV (filtering and ensemble). We have submitted 4 runs for each track of SFV which are our first submission and this submissions are applicable for only cold start monolingual English SF/KB runs (for both filtering and ensemble). The classifier models we use for SFV track are the same for both filtering and ensemble task.
Usefulness of multiple electrode aggregometry as a screening tool for bleeding disorders in a pediatric hospital

Abstract Platelet function testing is a cornerstone in the diagnostic investigation of patients with a bleeding history. Multiple electrode aggregometry (MEA) has been shown to detect von Willebrand disease (VWD), platelet function disorders, and drug-induced bleeding disorders. However, there are few studies supporting its successful use in children. We have implemented and used MEA over 3 years in our hemostasis laboratory in order to study its usefulness to supplement and expedite diagnosis. This is a retrospective, single-center, cohort study of 109 hospitalized children who underwent a laboratory investigation of hemostasis and either had a reported bleeding history or an abnormal bleeding episode. Plasmatic coagulation testing, blood counts, plasmatic von Willebrand testing, platelet function analyzer (PFA-100), and impedance aggregometry (MEA) were performed in all children. Light transmission aggregometry testing was performed as needed. In 41 cases (37.6%), a working diagnosis was made; a primary hemostatic disorder was detected in 35 children (VWD (n = 16), platelet disorder (n = 15), and valproic acid therapy-induced bleeding disorder (n = 3), acetylsalicylic acid-related bleeding (n = 1). In patients diagnosed with VWD, MEA ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation test (RISTO) high test revealed abnormally low aggregation in six patients (43.8%); whereas in patients diagnosed with a platelet function disorder, abnormally low values were found by MEA in only three children (20%). Three of the four children with laboratory evidence of drug-induced platelet dysfunction had abnormalities on MEA. There were no cases in which an abnormal MEA result was used to make a previously undetermined diagnosis. Retrospectively, MEA has demonstrated limited additional diagnostic value beyond standard laboratory testing for detecting defects of primary hemostasis in children.
Learning to Optimize via Wasserstein Deep Inverse Optimal Control

We study the inverse optimal control problem in social sciences: we aim at learning a user's true cost function from the observed temporal behavior. In contrast to traditional phenomenological works that aim to learn a generative model to fit the behavioral data, we propose a novel variational principle and treat user as a reinforcement learning algorithm, which acts by optimizing his cost function. We first propose a unified KL framework that generalizes existing maximum entropy inverse optimal control methods. We further propose a two-step Wasserstein inverse optimal control framework. In the first step, we compute the optimal measure with a novel mass transport equation. In the second step, we formulate the learning problem as a generative adversarial network. In two real world experiments - recommender systems and social networks, we show that our framework obtains significant performance gains over both existing inverse optimal control methods and point process based generative models.
Proline Fingerprint in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

NMR spectroscopy is one of the main techniques used for high‐resolution studies of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), permitting mapping of the structural and dynamic features of all the amino acids constituting the polypeptide at atomic resolution. Only proline residues are less straightforward to characterize because they lack any amide proton, thus rendering them not directly visible in the commonly used 2D 1H,15N correlation experiments. However, proline residues are highly abundant in IDPs and can mediate important functions. In this work we present an easy and effective way to obtain fingerprints of proline residues in IDPs at high resolution.
A novel method to solve sustainable economic power loading dispatch problem

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the economic requirements of power system loading dispatch and reduce the fuel cost of generation units. In order to optimize the scheduling of power load, an improved chicken swarm optimization (ICSO) is proposed to be adopted, for solving economic load dispatch (ELD) problem. ,The ICSO increased the self-foraging factor to the chicks whose activities were the highest. And the evolutionary operations of chicks capturing the rooster food were increased. Therefore, these helped the ICSO to jump out of the local extreme traps and obtain the global optimal solution. In this study, the generation capacity of the generation unit is regarded as a variable, and the fuel cost is regarded as the objective function. The particle swarm optimization (PSO), chicken swarm optimization (CSO), and ICSO were used to optimize the fuel cost of three different test systems. ,The result showed that the convergence speed, global search ability, and total fuel cost of the ICSO were better than those of PSO and CSO under different test systems. The non-linearity of the input and output of the generating unit satisfied the equality constraints; the average ratio of the optimal solution obtained by PSO, CSO, and ICSO was 1:0.999994:0.999988. The result also presented the equality and inequality constraints; the average ratio of the optimal solution was 1:0.997200:0.996033. The third test system took the non-linearity of the input and output of the generating unit that satisfied both equality and inequality constraints; the average ratio was 1:0.995968:0.993564. ,This study realizes the whole fuel cost minimization in which various types of intelligent algorithms have been applied to the field of load economic scheduling. With the continuous evolution of intelligent algorithms, they save a lot of fuel cost for the ELD problem. ,The ICSO is applied to solve the ELD problem. The quality of the optimal solution and the convergence speed of ICSO are better than that of CSO and PSO. Compared with PSO and CSO, ICSO can dispatch the generator more reasonably, thus saving the fuel cost. This will help the power sector to achieve greater economic benefits. Hence, the ICSO has good performance and significant effectiveness in solving the ELD problem.
CMU-LTI at KBP 2016 Event Nugget Track

In this paper, we describe the CMU LTI team’s participation in TAC KBP 2016 event nugget track. This year, we extend our feature based event detection and coreference systems to process also Chinese documents. We also conduct experiments using Neural Network based models for English event nugget detection, which can enable us building models that can be easily transfer to different languages. Our feature based English Nugget Detection and Coreference systems both rank number 2 among all the participants. The Chinese counterpart ranks first in English Nugget Detection and second in English Coreference.
Atlas based automatic identification of abdominal organs

Due to intensity inhomogeneities, partial volume effects, as well as organ shape variations, automatic segmentation of abdominal organs has always been a high challenging task. To conquer these difficulties, we employ a pre-labeled atlas (VIP-Man) to supplement anatomical knowledge to the segmentation process. First, an atlas-subject registration is carried out to establish the proper correspondence between the atlas and the subject. The registration consists of two steps. In the global registration step, a similarity transformation is found to eliminate the stature differences. In the organ registration step, organs of interest are registered respectively to achieve better alignments. Second, we utilize the fuzzy connectedness framework to segment abdominal organs of interest from the subject image. Under the guidance of the registered atlas, the seeds and intensity parameters of organs are specified in an auto-adaptive way. Further more, the anatomical knowledge contained in the atlas is blended into the frame work, to make the segmentation result more reliable. To remove possible jags on boundary, a level set smooth method which implements fuzzy connectedness as external speed forces, is utilized on the segmentation result. Our purpose is to accomplish the segmentation task like how anatomy experts do. So far, this approach has been applied to segment organs, including liver, spleen and kidneys, in the female MRI T1 data set from the VHP. All organs of interest are identified correctly, and delineated with considerable precision.