Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lloyd-Max quantization-based priority index assignment for the scalable extension of H.264/AVC

A fast priority index (PID) assignment algorithm is developed for the MGS (Medium Grain Scalability) packets in the scalable extension of the H.264/AVC. The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, we formulate the index assignment problem as the quantization of the rate-distortion (R-D) slopes of MGS packets, and use the Lloyd-Max algorithm to find the optimal solution. The slope quantization index of a packet is used as its PID. The complexity of our method is much lower than existing method. Secondly, the quantization-based PIDs facilitate the comparisons of packets from different video streams. Video multiplexing results show that the overall PSNR can be improved up to 1 dB. Finally, we propose some real-time and adaptive implementations of the proposed method, which have the same performance as the offline method.
CD4 cell-guided scheduled treatment interruptions in HIV-infected patients with sustained immunologic response to HAART.

OBJECTIVE To compare continuous HAART with a CD4 cell-driven scheduled treatment interruption (STI) strategy. METHODS LOng Term Treatment Interruption study is a randomized, controlled, prospective trial. Patients with CD4 cell counts more than 700 cells/microl were eligible, and the immunologic threshold to resume HAART was 350 cells/microl. The primary end point was the development of an opportunistic disease, death from any cause or the occurrence of diseases, other than opportunistic, requiring hospital admission. Secondary end points were major adverse effects, virologic failures and therapeutic costs. RESULTS Three hundred and twenty-nine patients were randomized 1: 1. Total follow-up was 1388 person-years (mean 4.2 years). Patients in the STI group stopped therapy for a total of 241 STI cycles, their mean off-therapy period was 65.3% of the follow-up. The primary end point occurred in 12.1% of patients on STI and in 11.6% of controls [odds ratio 1.05; 95% confidence interval 0.54-2.05]. A higher proportion of patients in the STI arm were diagnosed with pneumonia (P = 0.037), whereas clinical events influencing the cardiovascular risk of patients were significantly (P < 0.0001) more frequent among controls. Eight patients (4.8%) in the STI group and 11 (6.7%) controls developed viral resistance [odds ratio 0.79, 95% confidence interval 0.27-1.81]. The mean daily therapeutic cost was 20.29 euro for controls and dropped to 9.07 euro in the STI arm (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION The two strategies may be considered clinically equivalent. CD4 cell-guided STIs seem a possible alternative for chronically infected individuals responding to HAART provided that CD4 cell decrements would be steadily maintained above a safe threshold.
Personal Visualization and Personal Visual Analytics

Data surrounds each and every one of us in our daily lives, ranging from exercise logs, to archives of our interactions with others on social media, to online resources pertaining to our hobbies. There is enormous potential for us to use these data to understand ourselves better and make positive changes in our lives. Visualization (Vis) and visual analytics (VA) offer substantial opportunities to help individuals gain insights about themselves, their communities and their interests; however, designing tools to support data analysis in non-professional life brings a unique set of research and design challenges. We investigate the requirements and research directions required to take full advantage of Vis and VA in a personal context. We develop a taxonomy of design dimensions to provide a coherent vocabulary for discussing personal visualization and personal visual analytics. By identifying and exploring clusters in the design space, we discuss challenges and share perspectives on future research. This work brings together research that was previously scattered across disciplines. Our goal is to call research attention to this space and engage researchers to explore the enabling techniques and technology that will support people to better understand data relevant to their personal lives, interests, and needs.
Comparison between Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion and Conventional Open Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion: An Updated Meta-analysis

Background:The previous studies agree that minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) has better function outcomes, less blood loss, and shorter hospital stay, when compared to open-TLIF. However, there are no significance differences on operative time, complication, and reoperation rate between the two procedures. This could be from less relative literatures and lower grade evidence. The further meta-analysis is needed with more and higher grade evidences to compare the above two TLIF procedures. Methods:Prospective and retrospective studies that compared open-TLIF and MIS-TLIF were identified by searching the Medline, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and VIP database (the literature search comprised Medical Subject Heading terms and key words or Emtree term). The retrieval time ranged from the date when the database was founded to January 2015. Pooled risk ratios (RRs) and weighted mean differences (WMDs) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the clinical outcomes and perioperative data. Results:Twenty-four studies (n = 1967 patients) were included in this review (n = 951, open-TLIF, n = 1016, MIS-TLIF). MIS-TLIF was associated with a significant decrease in the visual analog score (VAS)-back pain score (WMD = −0.44; P = 0.001), Oswestry Disabilities Index (WMD = −1.57; P = 0.005), early ambulation (WMD = −1.77; P = 0.0001), less blood loss (WMD = −265.59; P < 0.00001), and a shorter hospital stay (WMD = −1.89; P < 0.0001). However, there were no significant differences in the fusion rate (RR = 0.99; P = 0.34), VAS-leg pain (WMD = −0.10; P = 0.26), complication rate (RR = 0.84; P = 0.35), operation time (WMD = −5.23; P = 0.82), or reoperation rate (RR = 0.73; P = 0.32). Conclusions:MIS-TLIF resulted in a similar fusion rate with better functional outcome, less blood loss, shorter ambulation, and hospital stay; furthermore, it did not increase the complication or reoperation rate based on the existing evidence.
Cosuppression of a Plasma Membrane H+-ATPase Isoform Impairs Sucrose Translocation, Stomatal Opening, Plant Growth, and Male Fertility

The plasma membrane H+-ATPase builds up a pH and potential gradient across the plasma membrane, thus activating a series of secondary ion and metabolite transporters. pma4 (for plasma membrane H+-ATPase 4), the most widely expressed H+-ATPase isogene in Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, was overexpressed in tobacco. Plants that overexpressed PMA4 showed no major changes in plant growth under normal conditions. However, two transformants were identified by their stunted growth, slow leaf initiation, delayed stem bolting and flowering, and male sterility. Protein gel blot analysis showed that expression of the endogenous and transgenic pma4 was cosuppressed. Cosuppression was developmentally regulated because PMA4 was still present in developing leaves but was not detected in mature leaves. The glucose and fructose content increased threefold, whereas the sucrose content remained unchanged. The rate of sucrose exudation from mature leaves was reduced threefold and the sugar content of apical buds was reduced twofold, suggesting failure of sucrose loading and translocation to the sink tissues. Cosuppression of PMA4 also affected the guard cells, stomatal opening, and photosynthesis in mature leaves. These results show that a single H+-ATPase isoform plays a major role in several transport-dependent physiological processes.
Ten Year Trends in Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Introduction: Results of routine health statistics show that in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBIH) are the leading causes of death of population are diseases of circulatory system (53% in 2012) namely, cardiomyopathy, heart failure and acute myocardial infarction. This data are red alert for immediate and imminent action. Methods: Two cross-sectional population surveys were conducted in 2002 and 2012 in the FBIH among adult population aged 25-64 years for assessment and distribution of major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), preferably hypertension, obesity and smoking. Results: Overall prevalence of hypertension among adult population in the FBIH in year 2012 was 41%, similar as in 2002. Prevalence of obesity in 2012 among men was higher compared to 2002, stood at 20.3%, while for women it was 24.1%. Total of 61.3% of men and 35.9% of women said they were daily smokers, while the percentage in 2002 was 49.3% among men and 29.8% among women and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusions: Distributions of the major risk factors for CVD are worsening in the adult population in the FBIH, especially in middle age men, what can result in serious deterioration of health and increased rates of chronic diseases, especially CVD.
A survey of legs of insects and spiders from a kinematic perspective

As a first step in analyzing arthropod leg designs for pertinence to walking machine legs the authors examine segment length relationships and mobility of the body-leg system. All spiders have a single, highly conserved leg design, whereas insect legs are more specialized. This specialization has resulted in less system mobility than for spiders so that insects require position control for fewer joints. <<ETX>>
Love to Win or Hate to Lose? Asymmetry of Dopamine D2 Receptor Binding Predicts Sensitivity to Reward versus Punishment

Humans show consistent differences in the extent to which their behavior reflects a bias toward appetitive approach-related behavior or avoidance of aversive stimuli [Elliot, A. J. Approach and avoidance motivation. In A. J. Elliot (Ed.), Handbook of approach and avoidance motivation (pp. 3–14). New York: Psychology Press, 2008]. We examined the hypothesis that in healthy participants this motivational bias (assessed by self-report and by a probabilistic learning task that allows direct comparison of the relative sensitivity to reward and punishment) reflects lateralization of dopamine signaling. Using [F-18]fallypride to measure D2/D3 binding, we found that self-reported motivational bias was predicted by the asymmetry of frontal D2 binding. Similarly, striatal and frontal asymmetries in D2 dopamine receptor binding, rather than absolute binding levels, predicted individual differences in learning from reward versus punishment. These results suggest that normal variation in asymmetry of dopamine signaling may, in part, underlie human personality and cognition.
Regularization of context-dependent deep neural networks with context-independent multi-task training

The use of context-dependent targets has become standard in hybrid DNN systems for automatic speech recognition. However, we argue that despite the use of state-tying, optimising to context-dependent targets can lead to over-fitting, and that discriminating between arbitrary tied context-dependent targets may not be optimal. We propose a multitask learning method where the network jointly predicts context-dependent and monophone targets. We evaluate the method on a large-vocabulary lecture recognition task and show that it yields relative improvements of 3-10% over baseline systems.
R‐Type Calcium Channel Involved in Endothelin‐1-Induced Contraction of Rabbit Aorta

Summary: The mechanism of Ca2 + mobilization induced by endothelin-1 (ET-1) and the receptor subtype responsible for this effect were examined in the rabbit aorta. We have used preparations with intact and denuded endothelium. Experiments were designed to measure both Fura-2-[Ca]1 fluorescence and contractile tension simultaneously. In both preparations, ET-1 (10-10to 10-7 M) induced contractions and increases of the fluorescence ratio in a concentration-dependent manner. ET-1-induced contractions and elevations of [Ca]i were blocked by the dual L- and R-type calcium-channel blocker (-)PN200 110 (10-6 M), whereas nifedipine (10-6 M) affected only the latter parameter. BQ-123, a selective ETA receptor antagonist, almost totally blocked the ET-1-induced contraction and elevation of [Ca]i. Our results illustrate the activation of the R-type calcium channel by ET-1 on the smooth muscle and on the endothelium rabbit aorta. This effect of ET-1 on the R-type calcium channel is mediated by ETA and ETB receptor stimulation.
A Multicountry Evaluation of careHPV Testing, Visual Inspection With Acetic Acid, and Papanicolaou Testing for the Detection of Cervical Cancer

Objective This study evaluates the feasibility and performance of careHPV, a novel human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test, when used for screening women for cervical cancer in low-resource settings. Methods and Materials Clinician-collected (cervical) and self-collected (vaginal) careHPV specimens, visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), and Papanicolaou test were evaluated among 16,951 eligible women in India, Nicaragua, and Uganda. Women with positive screening results received colposcopy and histologic follow-up as indicated. The positivity of each screening method was calculated overall, by site, and age. In addition, the clinical performance of each screening test was determined for detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 2 (CIN2+) and CIN grade 3. Results Moderate or severe dysplasia or cancer (taken together as CIN2+) was diagnosed in 286 women. The positivity rate ranged between 2.4% to 19.6% for vaginal careHPV, 2.9% to 20.2% for cervical careHPV, 5.5% to 34.4% for VIA, and 2.8% to 51.8% for Papanicolaou test. Cervical careHPV was the most sensitive for CIN2+ (81.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 76.5–85.8) and CIN grade 3 (85.3%; 95% CI, 78.6–90.6) at all sites, followed by vaginal careHPV (69.6% and 71.3%, respectively). The sensitivity of VIA ranged from 21.9% to 73.6% and Papanicolaou test from 40.7% to 73.7%. The pooled specificities of cervical careHPV, vaginal careHPV, VIA, and Papanicolaou test were 91.6%, 90.6%, 84.2%, and 87.7%, respectively. Conclusions careHPV performed well in large multicountry demonstration studies conducted in resource-limited settings that have not previously been conducted this type of testing; its sensitivity using cervical samples or vaginal self-collected samples was better than VIA or Papanicolaou test. The feasibility of using careHPV in self-collected vaginal samples opens the possibility of increasing coverage and early detection in resource-constrained areas.
Convex approximation techniques for joint multiuser downlink beamforming and admission control

Multiuser downlink beamforming under quality of service (QoS) constraints has attracted considerable interest in years, because it is particularly appealing from a network operator's perspective (e.g., UMTS, 802.16e). When there are many co-channel users and/or the service constraints are stringent, the problem becomes infeasible and some form of admission control is necessary. We advocate a cross-layer approach to joint multiuser transmit beamforming and admission control, aiming to maximize the number of users that can be served at their desired QoS. It is shown that the core problem is NP-hard, yet amenable to convex approximation tools. Two computationally efficient convex approximation algorithms are proposed: one is based on semidefinite relaxation of an equivalent problem reformulation; the other takes a penalized second-order cone approach. Their performance is assessed in a range of experiments, using both simulated and measured channel data. In all experiments considered, the proposed algorithms work remarkably well in terms of the attained performance-complexity trade-off, consistently exhibiting close to optimal performance at an affordable computational complexity.
Idiotypic Profile of Natural Autoantibodies in Newborn and Young Adult BALB/c Mice

Idiotypic profiles of autoreactive monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) were evaluated by their reactivity with a panel of alkaline phosphatase (AP)‐coupled detector MoAb derived from the same fusions. Attention was given to the question of whether differences exist between MoAb derived from spleen cells (SC) or thymocytes (TC) and whether ID profiles would change during post‐natal development.
On the Gaussian MIMO Wiretap Channel

Wyner's wiretap channel is generalized to the case when the sender, the receiver and the eavesdropper have multiple antennas. We consider two cases: the deterministic case and the fading case. In the deterministic case, the channel matrices of the intended receiver and the eavesdropper are fixed and known to all the nodes. In the fading case, the channel matrices experience block fading and the sender has only the intended receiver's channel state information (CSI) and statistical knowledge of the eavesdropper's channel. For the deterministic case, a scheme based on the generalized-singular-value-decomposition (GSVD) of the channel matrices is proposed and shown to achieve the secrecy capacity in the high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) limit. When the intended receiver has only one antenna (MISO case) the secrecy-capacity is characterized for any SNR. Next, a suboptimal "artificial noise" based scheme is considered. Its performance is characterized and observed to be nearly optimal in the high SNR regime for the MISO case. This scheme extends naturally to the fading case and results are reported for the MISO case. For the independent Rayleigh fading distribution as we simultaneously increase the number of antennas at the sender and the eavesdropper, the secrecy capacity approaches zero if and only if the ratio of the number of eavesdropper antennas to transmitter antennas is at least two.
Influence of graphene oxide and graphene nanosheet on the properties of polyvinylidene fluoride nanocomposites

In this study, graphene oxide (GO) and graphene nanosheets (GN) were prepared using natural graphite as a reinforcing agent, and different filler contents (1, 2, 3, and 4 wt%) were used to produce nanocomposites based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). In particular, a melt-blending method was used as a 10 wt% masterbatch was prepared and then diluted to get the final samples via compression molding. A complete characterization in terms of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed that GO and GN were of high structural quality. Then, the nanocomposites were characterized in terms of thermal, rheological, electrical, and mechanical performances. The thermal stability of neat PVDF (400°C) was found to increase with both fillers addition reaching at 3 wt% 445 and 463°C for GO and GN, respectively. For the same concentration, the PVDF Young's modulus was found to increase by 32% for GN, while only a 7% gain was observed for GO. Similarly, the rheological and electrical resistivity results showed that GN was more effective than GO in improving the performances of these nanocomposites, with an optimum ∼3 wt% for the conditions tested. POLYM. COMPOS. , 2017. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers
Resistive Touch Screen Based Home Automation System Design

Human and computer interaction has been developed into a wide and sophisticated field. Earlier automating electrical devices were completely mechanical. But with the invention of computer system, many computer researchers have tried to create computer based intelligent systems to accomplish many of their functionalities. Touch screen controlled home automation system is one of them. These fascinating efforts to create intelligent systems is to provide human being a more convenient & comfortable life. Moreover, it would accelerate the working speed of users. This paper concentrates primarily on experimental experiences on home automation system with a low-cost [resistive] touchscreen technology. The proposed system provide an environment in which user can give commands by touching desired position on the touchscreen to automate the control of electrical devices. The interfacing circuit is designed using electronic components available in local market to keep the cost at low level.
A Novel Support Vector Machine with Class-dependent Features for Biomedical Data

In this paper we propose a novel support vector machine (SVM) with class-dependent features. According to an importance measure, e.g., the RELIEF weight measure or class separability measure, we rank the features importance for each class against the rest of classes. For each class we select an optimal feature subset using a classifier, e.g., the support vector machine (SVM). For the classification on these class-dependent feature subsets, we propose to construct a novel SVM using "one-against-all" in 2 processes: (1) construct one model for each class by training the classifier with the class's optimal feature subset; (2) during testing, each test pattern is tested on all models and the model with the maximum output decides the class of the test pattern. The method's performance is evaluated on two benchmark datasets. Our results indicate that our novel SVM classifier can effectively realize the classification of class-dependent feature subsets found by our wrapper approach which can remove irrelevant features for each class and at the same time maintain or even improve the classification accuracy in comparison with other feature selection methods.
The interaction of maturational constraints and intrinsic motivations in active motor development

This paper studies computational models of the coupling of intrinsic motivations and physiological maturational constraints, and argues that both mechanisms may have complex bidirectional interactions allowing the active control of the growth of complexity in motor development which directs an efficient learning and exploration process. First, we outline the Self-Adaptive Goal Generation - Robust Intelligent Adaptive Curiosity algorithm (SAGG-RIAC) that instantiates an intrinsically motivated goal exploration mechanism for motor learning of inverse models. Then, we introduce a functional model of maturational constraints inspired by the myelination process in humans, and show how it can be coupled with the SAGG-RIAC algorithm, forming a new system called McSAGG-RIAC2. We then present experiments to evaluate qualitative and, more importantly, quantitative properties of these systems when applied to a 12DOF quadruped controlled with 24 dimensions motor synergies.
Regulatory T Cells and Human Disease

The main function of our immune system is to protect us from invading pathogens and microorganisms by destroying infected cells, while minimizing collateral damage to tissues. In order to maintain this balance between immunity and tolerance, current understanding of the immune system attributes a major role to regulatory T cells (Tregs) in controlling both immunity and tolerance. Various subsets of Tregs have been identified based on their expression of cell surface markers, production of cytokines, and mechanisms of action. In brief, naturally occurring thymic-derived CD4+CD25+ Tregs are characterized by constitutive expression of the transcription factor FOXP3, while antigen-induced or adaptive Tregs are mainly identified by expression of immunosuppressive cytokines (interleukin-10 (IL-10) and/or transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)). While Tregs in normal conditions regulate ongoing immune responses and prevent autoimmunity, imbalanced function or number of these Tregs, either enhanced or decreased, might lead, respectively, to decreased immunity (e.g., with tumor development or infections) or autoimmunity (e.g., multiple sclerosis). This review will discuss recent research towards a better understanding of the biology of Tregs, their interaction with other immune effector cells, such as dendritic cells, and possible interventions in human disease.