Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of binary models dealing with an extraneous effect relating to the main risk factor, but not relating to the outcome variable

In a binary model relating a response variable Y to a risk factor X, account may need to take of an extraneous effect Z that is related to X, but not Y. This is known as the association pattern Y−X−Z. The extraneous variable Z is commonly included in models as a covariate. This paper concerns binary models, and investigates the use of deviation from the group mean (D‐GM) and deviation from the fitted fractional polynomial value (D‐FP) for removing the extraneous effect of Z.
Clinical assessment of prognostic factors for long‐term pain and handicap after whiplash injury: a 1‐year prospective study

Background and purpose: Physical mechanisms are the possible factors involved in the development and maintenance of long‐term handicaps after acute whiplash injury. This study prospectively examined the role of active neck mobility, cervical and extra‐cervical pains, as well as non‐painful complaints after a whiplash injury as predictors for subsequent handicap.
Policy Reuse in Reinforcement Learning for Modular Agents

We present reusable policy method for modular reinforcement learning problem in continuous state space. Our method relies on two-layered learning architecture. The first layer partitions the agent’s problem space into n-folds sub-agents that are inter-connected with each other with dexterity identical to original problem. It further learns a local control policy for standalone 1-fold sub-agent. The second layer learns a global policy to reuse ‘already learnt’ standalone local policy over each n sub-agents by sampling local policy with global parameters for each sub-agent—parameterizing local policy independently to approximate non-linear interconnections between sub-agents. We demonstrate our method on simulation example of 12-DOF modular robot that learns maneuver pattern of snake-like gait. We also compare our proposed method against standard single-policy learning methods to benchmark optimality.
Adaptive Vehicle Detection for Real-time Autonomous Driving System

Modern cars are being equipped with powerful computational resources for autonomous driving systems (ADS) as one of their major parts to provide safer travels on roads. High accuracy and real-time requirements of ADS are addressed by HW/SW co-design methodology which helps in offloading the computationally intensive tasks to the hardware part. However, the limited hardware resources could be a limiting factor in complicated systems. This paper presents a dynamically reconfigurable system for ADS which is capable of real-time vehicle and pedestrian detection. Our approach employs different methods of vehicle detection in different lighting conditions to achieve better results. A novel deep learning method is presented for detection of vehicles in the dark condition where the road light is very limited or unavailable. We present a partial reconfiguration (PR) controller which accelerates the reconfiguration process on Zynq SoC for seamless detection in real-time applications. By partially reconfiguring the vehicle detection block on Zynq SoC, resource requirements is maintained low enough to allow for the existence of other functionalities of ADS on hardware which could complete their tasks without any interruption. Our presented system is capable of detecting pedestrian and vehicles in different lighting conditions at the rate of 50fps (frames per second) for HDTV (1080x1920) frame.
Dangerous Situations Determination by Smartphone in Vehicle Cabin: Classification and Algorithms

Nowadays smartphones are widely used in people daily life as they have a lot of sensors that can recognize physical conditions and people in their tasks. One of the task that a smartphone can be utilized is the driver face analysis in vehicle cabin. Together with the information from smartphone sensors such analysis allows to provide recommendations for a driver to prevent the emergency situations. The paper contains the classification of dangerous situations that can be determined by a smartphone as soon as algorithms that can be used for this determination.
A Vernier Over Sampling and Alignment technique for Gb/s Serial Communication

A new circuit technique of deserializing for Gb/s serial communication such as "digital visual interface" for PC and "high-definition multimedia interface" for CE application is proposed. Vernier over sampling and alignment technique can achieve both low power and low bit error rate at high frequency operation in DVI/HDCP digital graphic communication receiver. VOSA circuit is simple and mostly digitally controlled, therefore it is robust and portable. Demonstrating VOSA performance, the circuit was implemented to the DVI digital flat panel communication link receiver as an analog front-end (AFE) with the industry standard 0.25mum CMOS process
A Novel Single Front Camera Based Simpler Approach for Autonomous Taxi Navigation for Smart City Deployments

Intelligent public transport is an integral component of smart cities. In this paper, a simpler approach has been demonstrated for autonomous taxi navigation. A single front camera with 1920×1080 pixel resolution at 60 frames per second has been used for real-time object detection and path planning. The deep neural network has been fed with the driving input of a couple of hours. The duly trained network was then tested with 30 minutes of driving data, recorded and used separately. Two control parameters were derived viz. speed of the vehicle and the steering angle. An eight layered convolutional network with two gated recurrent and four dense layers was trained and tested on GPU based system. The factors like speed, inclination, mean squared error (MSE) were 1.79 and 2.69 percent, respectively, with 38 milli seconds of real-time response delay.
Timing Violation Induced Faults in Multi-Tenant FPGAs

FPGAs have made their way into the cloud, allowing users to gain remote access to the state-of-the-art reconfigurable fabric and implement their custom accelerators. Since FPGAs are large enough to accommodate multiple independent designs, the multi-tenant user scenario may soon be prevalent in cloud computing environments. However, shared use of an FPGA raises security concerns. Recently discovered hardware Trojans for use in multi-tenant FPGA settings target denial-of-service attacks, power side-channel attacks, and crosstalk side-channel attacks. In this work, we present an attack method for causing timing-constraints violation in the multi-tenant FPGA setting. This type of attack is very dangerous as the consequences of timing faults are temporary errors, which are often impossible to notice. We demonstrate the attack on a set of self-timed true random number generators (STRNGs), frequently used in cryptographic applications. When the attack is launched, the STRNG outputs become biased and fail randomness tests. However, after the attack, STRNGs recover and continue generating random bits.
Image Denoising of Printed Circuit Boards using Conditional Generative Adversarial Network

The objective of the paper is to detect whether a needle marker occurs in the pad area of a printed circuit board from images. Since there exist many irrelevant noises including other small circuit pads, it becomes difficult to find the pad area and detect the needle marker. In our proposed approach, we present a denoising method to find the pad area of a printed circuit board from images. The proposed method adopts a conditional generative adversarial network (CGAN) to denoise the images and has better results than traditional image processing techniques. The method proceeds in three steps: firstly, the input images are classified by “single pad” and “multiple pad” using a convolutional neural network (CNN). Secondly, the image with a single pad is denoised by a CGAN model. Thirdly, the image is cropped by the pad region and used to find the needle marker by pattern matching. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated with the experimental results and shows that the needle marker is accurately detected.
Estimating the Basic Reproductive Number for African Swine Fever Using the Ukrainian Historical Epidemic of 1977

In 1977, Ukraine experienced a local epidemic of African swine fever (ASF) in the Odessa region. A total of 20 settlements were affected during the course of the epidemic, including both large farms and backyard households. Thanks to timely interventions, the virus circulation was successfully eradicated within 6 months, leading to no additional outbreaks. Detailed report of the outbreak's investigation has been publically available from 2014. The report contains some quantitative data that allow studying the ASF-spread dynamics in the course of the epidemic. In our study, we used this historical epidemic to estimate the basic reproductive number of the ASF virus both within and between farms. The basic reproductive number (R0 ) represents the average number of secondary infections caused by one infectious unit during its infectious period in a susceptible population. Calculations were made under assumption of an exponential initial growth by fitting the approximating curve to the initial segments of the epidemic curves. The R0 both within farm and between farms was estimated at 7.46 (95% confidence interval: 5.68-9.21) and 1.65 (1.42-1.88), respectively. Corresponding daily transmission rates were estimated at 1.07 (0.81-1.32) and 0.09 (0.07-0.10). These estimations based on historical data are consistent with those using data generated by the recent epidemic currently affecting eastern Europe. Such results contribute to the published knowledge on the ASF transmission dynamics under natural conditions and could be used to model and predict the spread of ASF in affected and non-affected regions and to evaluate the effectiveness of different control measures.
Development of thyroglobulin antibodies after GVAX immunotherapy is associated with prolonged survival

Cancer immunotherapy induces a variety of autoinflammatory responses, including those against the thyroid gland, which can be exploited to predict clinical outcomes. Considering the paucity of information about thyroid autoimmunity in patients receiving cancer vaccines, we designed our study to assess the development of thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAbs) in patients treated with GVAX (vaccine made of a tumor cell type transfected with GM‐CSF) and/or ipilimumab and correlated seroconversion with survival. Using both in house and commercial ELISA assays, we measured TgAbs in patients with pancreatic (No. = 53), prostate (No. = 35) or colon (No. = 8) cancer, before and after treatment with GVAX only (No. = 34), GVAX plus ipilimumab (No. = 42) or ipilimumab (No. = 20), and correlated their levels with patient's survival, disease status and T‐cell surface markers. Antibodies to thyroperoxidase, myeloperoxidase, proteinase 3, insulin and actin were also measured. TgAbs specifically developed after GVAX, independent of the underlying cancer (81% in prostate, 75% colon cancer and 76% pancreatic cancer) and co‐administration of ipilimumab (75% in GVAX only and 78% in GVAX plus ipilimumab). This TgAbs seroconversion could be detected mainly by the in house assay, suggesting that the thyroglobulin epitopes recognized by the antibodies induced by GVAX are different from the epitopes seen in the classic form of Hashimoto thyroiditis. Notably, TgAbs seroconversion was associated with significantly prolonged survival (p = 0.01 for pancreas and p = 0.005 for prostate cancer). In conclusion, GVAX immunotherapy induces the appearance of TgAbs that recognize a unique antigenic repertoire and associate with prolonged survival.
Effect of heat and radiation on synchronous Chinese hamster cells: killing and repair.

GERWECK, L. E. , GILLETTE, E. L. , AND DEWEY, W. C. Effect of Heat and Radiation on Synchronous Chinese Hamster Cells: Killing and Repair. Radiat. Res. 64, 611-623 (1975). Synchronous Chinese hamster cells were heated to 45.500C before, during, or after Xirradiation. The lethal effects of heat and radiation treatment were determined by the capacity of single cells to form colonies. Heat treatment prior to irradiation during G, or S was more effective, in terms of cell killing than heat treatment during or after irradiation. The time interval between irradiation and subsequent heat treatment influenced survival. The half-time for maximal survival when heat followed irradiation was 20-30 min in both G1 and S phase cells. Survival of cells which were heated, and then irradiated after heat treatment, indicated an independent, additive or synergistic interaction between heat and radiation, depending on the time of heat treatment and the phase of the cell cycle treated. Nine minutes of heat treatment during G, or 7 min during S decreased the shoulder region and increased the slope of the radiation survival curves. But most important, 7 min of heat prior to irradiation radiosensitized the relatively radioresistant S phase cells more than the relatively radiosensitive G, cells, and thus virtually eliminated the differences in radiosensitivity normally observed between G1 and S. Repair of heat damage as determined by survival to subsequent irradiation, began approximately 6 hr after 9 min heat treatment during Gx, and approximately 12 hr after 7 min heat treatment during S. In both cases, heat damage was repaired in the absence of cell division; for heating in Gi, repair occurred during Gi, but for heating during S, repair may have been associated with movement into G2. Cells exposed to split heat treatments during S repaired heat damage while they were still in S phase, and maximum survival was attained when 6 hr elapsed between the heat treatments.
Covalent immobilization of tobacco‐etch‐virus NIa protease: a useful tool for cleavage of the histidine tag of recombinant proteins

Addition of tags [such as His (histidine) tags] is extremely helpful for the affinity purification of recombinant proteins. In several cases, these tags must be removed before performing functional and structural studies. The enzyme most frequently used to cleave tags of recombinant proteins is the TEV‐protease (tobacco‐etch‐virus NIa protease). The continuous production of this enzyme in soluble form is quite an expensive process and not easily accessible to many laboratories. Thus an interesting alternative is the use of TEV‐protease in an immobilized form, which may be reutilized several times. The main objective of the present study was to obtain a TEV‐protease in an immobilized form, by covalent immobilization on to solid supports through selective use of different amino acid residues, lysine or cysteine. High protein immobilization yields (75–97%) were obtained with both strategies. The TEV‐protease immobilized through its exposed cysteine thiol groups maintained its ability for cleaving a 20 kDa substrate. While the activity of the immobilized TEV‐protease maintained only 30% of the activity of the enzyme in soluble form, its stability at 4 °C was improved three times. Moreover, this enzyme could be reutilized in at least five cycles of cleavage without loss of performance. The present results indicate that the use of a TEV‐protease in an immobilized form is a potentially useful tool for the cleavage of His tags of recombinant proteins and may be useful for reducing the cost of the total process of cleavage.
Device Discovery and Wireless Power Transfer-Solving Algorithm with Resonant Coupling

Achieving the power efficiency performance among the smartphone to the wireless charging device on wireless power transfer (WPT) by computing and communicating a wide range of ubiquitous internet-of-things application. The wireless powering with device discovery method presents a robust, reliable approach for providing device-to-device energy to communicate based on proximity services (ProSe). This paper focus on determining the performance with a resonant coupling circuits on increasing wireless powering range energy efficiency at the system level. WPT-solving algorithm is made to find the way out to avoid an issue happened on the charging performance of the smartphone to the wireless charging device. The main problem for WPT is to maintain the performance itself which is investigated in this paper. A simple WPT application will be used to evaluated by examining the performance and the result shows that the WPT application can control the performance of the smartphone to the wireless charging device wirelessly.
Should we assess cardiovascular risk in young adults born preterm?

Purpose of review Eleven percent of infants are born preterm worldwide. Preterm infants continue their development and growth in a substantially different environment than in uterus. The prenatal and postnatal period have long-lasting effects on a child's health. Previous studies have shown that adults born preterm with very low birth weight show enhancement of cardiometabolic risk factors such as elevated blood pressure and impaired glucose regulation compared with their peers born at term. Recent findings Recent studies have more often included individuals born less preterm, as over 70% of premature infants are born late preterm (in 34–36 gestational weeks). Adults born preterm have elevated levels of cardiometabolic-risk factors concerning several aspects such as body size and composition, energy metabolism, blood pressure, vascular structure, glucose and lipid metabolism, lifestyle, and some emerging cardiometabolic-risk factors. Summary Most of the cardiometabolic-risk factors related to preterm birth are modifiable. Favorable early-life circumstances of premature infants, such as optimal nutrition and growth, might reduce the risk of later cardiometabolic disorders. In addition, adults born preterm might particularly benefit from screening of risk factors and promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
Interferon-induced gene expression is a stronger predictor of treatment response than IL28B genotype in patients with hepatitis C.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The host immune response during the chronic phase of hepatitis C virus infection varies among individuals; some patients have a no interferon (IFN) response in the liver, whereas others have full activation of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). Preactivation of this endogenous IFN system is associated with nonresponse to pegylated IFN-α (pegIFN-α) and ribavirin. Genome-wide association studies have associated allelic variants near the IL28B (IFNλ3) gene with treatment response. We investigated whether IL28B genotype determines the constitutive expression of ISGs in the liver and compared the abilities of ISG levels and IL28B genotype to predict treatment outcome. METHODS We genotyped 109 patients with chronic hepatitis C for IL28B allelic variants and quantified the hepatic expression of ISGs and of IL28B. Decision tree ensembles, in the form of a random forest classifier, were used to calculate the relative predictive power of these different variables in a multivariate analysis. RESULTS The minor IL28B allele was significantly associated with increased expression of ISG. However, stratification of the patients according to treatment response revealed increased ISG expression in nonresponders, irrespective of IL28B genotype. Multivariate analysis of ISG expression, IL28B genotype, and several other factors associated with response to therapy identified ISG expression as the best predictor of treatment response. CONCLUSIONS IL28B genotype and hepatic expression of ISGs are independent predictors of response to treatment with pegIFN-α and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C. The most accurate prediction of response was obtained with a 4-gene classifier comprising IFI27, ISG15, RSAD2, and HTATIP2.
Improved Video Coding Techniques for Next Generation Video Coding Standard

This paper describes a video coding scheme submitted in response to the joint call for proposals (CfP) on video compression for capability beyond HEVC issued by ITU-T SG16 Q.6 (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11(MPEG) in October 2017. It includes video coding techniques for the standard dynamic range (SDR) and high dynamic range (HDR) categories. Design of the core SDR codec in the response is based on the joint exploration model (JEM) reference software developed by the joint video exploration team (JVET). Some of key coding tools in the JEM are significantly simplified to reduce both average and worst-case complexity for hardware design with negligible coding performance loss. Furthermore, two additional coding technologies, namely multi-type tree (MTT) and decoder-side intra mode derivation (DIMD), are used to further improve coding efficiency. For the HDR category, besides the tools used in SDR category, two additional coding tools: an in-loop reshaper and a luma-based QP prediction method are used to further improve HDR coding efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate the high coding efficiency achieved by the proposed video codec at the expense of moderate coding complexity over HEVC. For random access configuration, it achieves average bit rate savings of 35.7% and 4.00% over the HM and JEM anchors with decoding time of 263% and 33%, respectively, for the SDR sequences. For the HDR sequences, the proposed in-loop reshaper is configured to maximize HDR objective metrics, it achieves average bit rate savings of 31.3% and 4.6% over the HM and JEM for wPSNRY metrics for the HDR PQ content.
HCFTL: A Locality-Aware Page-Level Flash Translation Layer

The increasing capacity of SSDs requires a large amount of built-in DRAM to hold the mapping information of logical-to-physical address translation. Due to the limited size of DRAM, existing FTL schemes selectively keep some active mapping entries in a Cached Mapping Table (CMT) in DRAM, while storing the entire mapping table on flash. To improve the CMT hit ratio with limited cache space on SSDs, in this paper, we propose a novel FTL, a hot-clusterity FTL (HCFTL) that clusters mapping entries recently evicted from the cache into dynamic translation pages (DTPs). Given the temporal localities that those hot entries are likely to be visited in near future, loading DTPs will increase the CMT hit ratio and thus improve the FTL performance. Furthermore, we introduce an index structure to speedup the lookup of mapping entries in DTPs. Our experiments show that HCFTL can improve the CMT hit ratio by up to 41.1% and decrease the system response time by up to 33.3%, compared to state-of-the-art FTL schemes.
Sentiment Classifier: Logistic Regression for Arabic Services’ Reviews in Lebanon

This paper proposes a logistic regression approach paired with term and inverse document frequency (TF*IDF) for Arabic sentiment classification on services’ reviews in Lebanon country. Reviews are about public services, including hotels, restaurants, shops, and others. We collected manually from Google reviews and Zomato, which have reached to 3916 reviews. Experiments show three core findings: 1) The classifier is confident when used to predict positive reviews. 2) The model is biased on predicting reviews with negative sentiment. Finally, the low percentage of negative reviews in the corpus contributes to the diffidence of logistic regression model.