Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personal location based services on place-enhanced blog

This paper proposes personal location based services on blog to make users recall past memories and things to do by displaying their personal records like diary, schedule and to-do list depending on the positions of the users. A lot of Internet users are recording their personal experiences and knowledge as texts and other digital media on the network. These users' created content is called "User Generated Content" (UGC). One of the reasons that users record their experiences and knowledge is not only informing other users about author's opinions but also retrieving them as needed. Although users can retrieve these records easily through their personal computer, it is difficult to retrieve them at the right place because most UGC systems do not have features to deal with some place attributes, on the other hand current commercial LBS do not support to deal with personal records. Our proposed tool provides users with an environment to store personal records with related place attributes, and to retrieve these personal records at the right place. There are two applications on this tool, a place enhanced blog and a place reminder on a mobile phone. A place enhanced blog provide users with blog interfaces for inputting place information. The place reminder is a browser for spatial data on the place enhanced blog. Users can generate place information by writing personal records on their blog. Furthermore, using the place reminder, other users can retrieve all users' permitted personal records on the spots. Also, the place reminder can serve as a simple navigation system using both GPS and non-GPS navigation methods
Robust and Adaptive Approach for Human Action Recognition Based on Weighted Enhanced Dynamic Time Warping

New applications of Human Action Recognition (HAR) require quicker and adaptive methods that resolves user actions, accommodates multiple users and learns new action/actor. This paper proposes a robust and adaptive approach for HAR using Weighted Enhanced Dynamic Time Warping (WEDTW) that allows up to two users/actors to interact with the system. For this, a kinematic model of the actor is constructed from the video input and key poses are found using a suitable clustering method and saved into the repository. The poses thus found are tested for any affected joints and their positions are recovered by probabilistic estimation, if found to be defective. Actual HAR in a given video is done in two phases. In the first phase, poses are weighted and WEDTW finds two measures bagwise similarity and posewise similarity between key poses from new input and those in the trained repository. Bagwise similarities are then tested for confidence. Based on which the existing action label is given as output or the second phase is invoked. Adaptation runs in the second phase to resolve anomalies and learn the new actor/action. Thus making it applicable to dynamic needs of applications such as Gaming and Human Computer Interaction.
A petrological and fluid inclusion study of calc-silicate–charnockite associations from southern Kerala, India: implications for CO2 influx

Recent discovery of wollastonite-bearing calc-silicate assemblages adjacent to gneiss–charnockite horizons in the supracrustal terrain of the Kerala Khondalite Belt, southern India, provides an opportunity to evaluate the carbonic fluid infiltration model proposed for charnockite formation. Petrological and fluid inclusion studies across these horizons in three representative localities are presented in this study. The calc-silicate assemblages define peak metamorphic conditions of ∼800°C at 5 kbar and define a low aCO2. Adjacent charnockite assemblages developed through dehydration involving the breakdown of garnet, biotite and quartz to produce orthopyroxene under low aH2O conditions. Retrograde reactions preserved in the calc-silicate rocks, such as scapolite–quartz symplectites, and the partial breakdown of wollastonite previously has been attributed to a near isothermal decompression during which infiltration of CO2-rich fluids occurred. Fluid inclusion studies indicate that the earliest generation of fluids preserved in the calc-silicate assemblages are aqueous (with salinity ∼8 wt% NaCl equivalent), consistent with mineral phase equilibria defining low aCO2. The estimation of NaCl content in brines coexisting with scapolite, based on the Cl content of the scapolite, indicates the presence of up to 20 wt % NaCl during the formation of scapolite consistent with the saline primary fluid inclusions. Primary carbonic inclusions occur within the retrogressed calcite+quartz assemblage after wollastonite, and are considered to represent the post-peak metamorphic carbonic fluid infiltration event, synchronous with the development of charnockites in the adjacent gneisses. These inclusions have identical characteristics to those in the charnockites. We envisage that the Kerala Khondalite Belt fluid regime was largely internally buffered during the prograde path, and that CO2 infiltration post-dated peak metamorphism. Influx of CO2 was mostly structurally controlled, and occurred along a near-isothermal uplift path. Graphite-bearing pegmatitic dykes with abundant CO2-rich inclusions in these localities attest to the transfer of carbonic fluids through magmatic conduits.
Explorer Polygenic Risk for Schizophrenia Is Associated with Cognitive Change Between Childhood and Old Age

General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac. uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown a polygenic component to the risk of schizophrenia. The disorder is associated with impairments in general cognitive ability that also have a substantial genetic contribution. No study has determined whether cognitive impairments can be attributed to schizophrenia's polygenic architecture using data from GWAS.
A Traditional Mediterranean Diet Decreases Endogenous Estrogens in Healthy Postmenopausal Women

Abstract: Breast cancer incidence and mortality rates are markedly lower in the south than in the north of Europe. This has been ascribed to differences in lifestyle and, notably, dietary habits across European countries. However, little information exists on the influence of different dietary regimens on estrogens and, hence, on breast cancer risk. Here we report results of our MeDiet Project, a randomized, dietary intervention study aimed to assess the effect of a Mediterranean diet on the profiles of endogenous estrogens in healthy postmenopausal women. Out of the 230 women who initially volunteered to participate in the study, 115 were found to be eligible and were enrolled. Women were then randomly assigned into an intervention (n = 58) and a control (n = 57) group. Women in the intervention group adhered to a traditional, restricted Mediterranean diet for 6 mo, whereas women in the control group continued to follow their regular diet. Women in the intervention group changed their dietary regimen substantially, and this eventually led to a shift from a prevalent intake of animal fat and proteins to a prevalent intake of vegetable fat and proteins. Regarding urinary estrogens, no significant difference was observed between the intervention and control groups at baseline. After 6 mo, however, control women did not show any major change but women in the intervention group exhibited a significant decrease (over 40%) of total estrogen levels (P < 0.02). The largest part of this modification was based on a marked decrease of specific estrogen metabolites, including hydroxyand keto-derivatives of estradiol or estrone. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that a traditional Mediterranean diet significantly reduces endogenous estrogen. This may eventually lead to identify selected dietary components that more effectively decrease estrogens levels and, hence, provide a basis to develop dietary preventive measures for breast cancer.
Another Dam Development Project? Development-forced displacement and resettlement in Nepal

In Nepal, dams have been targeted as the most viable means of energy generation. However, dam projects often necessitate the relocation and resettlement of people to make way for reservoirs; processes that may pose great challenges for affected people, given that their homes, land, and livelihoods are lost to some extent. This thesis analyzes the challenges facing the Nepali state in ensuring that hydropower development projects become instrumental in bringing about social justice and development for all, including displaced populations. Secondly, it contributes to ongoing research debates on development-forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) through a critical discussion of the applicability of DFDR research in countries like Nepal, characterized by weak state regulatory capacity and social disparities. By reviewing academic studies and conducting interviews with Nepali civil society activists, government-connected people, and water resource specialists, it was found that DFDR research has had very little influence on resettlement practices in Nepal. The reason may be that DFDR mechanisms are too dependent on functioning state institutions, and on entrenched Western democratic ideals such as inclusiveness, participation, recognition, and justice. The findings suggest that DFDR research may need to pay closer attention to specific socio-political issues such as social exclusion and state capacity, and perhaps it might even be useful to question how “development” can be achieved differently. (Less)
Landscape openness and pollen records: a simulation approach

Quantitative reconstruction of the area cleared of forest in the past is essential to assess the possible indirect anthropogenic impacts on the past environment of Europe, including past climate. We apply a simul ation model of pollen dispersal and deposition (1) to re-examine the relationship between pollen and landscape openness, often uncritically inferred from non-arboreal pollen (NAP) percentages alone, and (2) to predict the relevant source area of pollen, the smallest spatial scale of vegetation that can be reconstructed from pollen records. The simulations use landscapes simplified from the modern open agricultural and semi-open forested regions in southern Sweden where traditional cultural landscapes still remain. The model is appropriate, because the simulated pollen assemblages resemble the pollen assemblages observed in each of the two landscape types, and because the simulated relationships between NAP percentages and percentage cover of open land within 1000 m agree with the empirical relationships. The simulated relevant source area of pollen is the area within 800–1000 m from both small hollows and 3-ha ponds. NAP percentages give only a rough first approximation of the percentage cover of open land. More comprehensive methods will be required to obtain quantitative estimates of open land from fossil pollen.
Effects of a temperature‐dependent rheology on large‐scale continental extension

The influence of a temperature-dependent rheology on large-scale continental extension is investigated using a thin viscous sheet model. A vertically averaged rheology is used that is consistent with laboratory experiments on power law creep of olivine and that depends exponentially on temperature. The behavior of the model depends principally on two parameters: the Peclet number, which describes the relative rates of advection and diffusion of heat, and a dimensionless activation energy, which controls the temperature dependence of the rheology. Numerical calculations of such a thin sheet subjected to an extensional boundary condition show the following results: At short times following the beginning of extension, deformation occurs with negligible change in temperature, so that only small changes in lithospheric strength occur due to attenuation of the lithosphere, and maximum rates of deformation are located close to the extensional boundary. However, after a certain time interval, thermal diffusion results in lowered temperatures in the lithosphere, strongly increasing lithospheric strength and slowing the rate of extension. This critical time depends principally on the Peclet number and is short compared with the thermal time constant of the lithosphere. The changes in strength cause the locus of high extensional strain rates to shift with time from regions of high strain to regions of low strain. Results of the calculations are compared with observations from the Aegean, where maximum extensional strains are found in the south, near Crete, but the largest present-day extensional strain rates occur about 300 km further north. The comparisons support the hypothesis that the observed separation of the loci of maximum strain and maximum present-day strain rates in the Aegean may be the consequence of changes in lithospheric strength arising from the temperature-dependent mechanical properties of lithospheric materials.
Natural history of coarctation of the aorta

With the increasing number of subjects with coarctation of the aorta having operations, its natural history becomes more difficult to determine. The expectation of life has been calculated by two quite independent methods: (1) from 304 reported necropsies, and (2) from 22 deaths among 161 subjects followed for 716 patient-years. These were mostly patients rather than unselected school-children, but many were quite free from symptoms and were sent only because a murmur was heard on examination. Knowing how long they had been under observation, mortality rates could be calculated for each decade. They rise gradually but not very regularly, from 1.6 per cent in the first two decades to 6.7 per cent per annum in the sixth and later decades. The two methods give results in close agreement, closer than could be expected considering the relatively small numbers of patients and patient-years. The percentages of deaths at the end of each decade found by the two methods never differ by more than ±4 per cent and are often much closer. Of those surviving the serious hazards of the first one or two years, 25 per cent die before they reach 20, 50 per cent by 32, 75 per cent by 46, and 90 per cent by 58 years. The arithmetical mean of the ages of death is 34 years instead of 71 years as normally. These means, however, hide a very wide range, with standard deviations of at least ±15 per cent. For coarctation the median is 31 years and the mode is widely spread through the second to fifth decades rather than closely clustered round a point. This poor outlook makes an operative mortality in the region of 5 per cent a small price to pay for the greatly increased security afterwards. We do not yet know how much the risk of bacterial endocarditis or of intracranial haemorrhage will be reduced in the long run because there may be bicuspid aortic valves or intracranial berry aneurysms. The exact incidence of subacute bacterial endocarditis is uncertain, somewhere between 0.6 (from necropsy series) and 1.3 per cent per annum in clinical series. The range was similar for persistent ductus arteriosus, but paradoxically 1.5 for the necropsy series and 0.5 for the clinical series. Clearly the incidence is high in all the four malformations shown in Table 5, about 0.9±0.4 per cent per annum.
A probabilistic sensor for the perception of activities

This paper presents a new technique for the perception of activities using a statistical description of spatio-temporal properties. With this approach, the probability of an activity in a spatio-temporal image sequence is computed by applying a Bayes rule to the joint statistics of the responses of motion energy receptive fields. A set of motion energy receptive fields is designed in order to sample the power spectrum of a moving texture. Their structure relates to the spatio-temporal energy models of Adelson and Bergen where measures of local visual motion information are extracted comparing the outputs of triad of Gabor energy filters. Then the probability density function required for the Bayes rule is estimated for each class of activity by computing multi-dimensional histograms from the outputs from the set of receptive fields. The perception of activities is achieved according to the Bayes rule. The result at a given time is the map of the conditional probabilities that each pixel belongs to an activity of the training set. The approach is validated with experiments in the perception of activities of walking persons in a visual surveillance scenario. Results are robust to changes in illumination conditions, to occlusions and to changes in texture.
Footprint tracker: supporting diary studies with lifelogging

As HCI shifts "to the wild", in-situ methods such as Diary Methods and the Experience Sampling Method are gaining momentum. However, researchers have acknowledged the intrusiveness and lack of realism in these methods and have proposed solutions, notably through lightweight and rich media capture. In this paper we explore the concept of lifelogging as an alternative solution to these two challenges. We describe Footprint Tracker, a tool that allows the review of lifelogs with the aim to support recall and reflection over daily activities and experiences. In a field trial, we study how four different types of cues, namely visual, location, temporal and social context, trigger memories of recent events and associated emotions. We conclude with a number of implications for the design of lifelogging systems that support recall and reflection upon recent events as well as ones lying further in our past.
SELF: Semantically Enriched Line simpliFication

Linear features are represented on paper or digital maps with polyline geometries. Sampling, discretization, and generalization processes result in polylines of a length smaller than that of the actual features. In addition, semantics associated to the original line features may be lost. This becomes more significant for coarse sampling and/or high degree of generalization. This paper introduces a data structure that can alleviate this problem, by preserving the attributes and semantic characteristics associated to the original features in cartographic representation. The structure can handle both linear features and polygon outlines. Various compression methods have been examined. The structure has been implemented and tested with both synthetic and real datasets. Extensions to spatiotemporal features, like trajectories, have also been considered.
Effects of Germinated Brown Rice and Its Bioactive Compounds on the Expression of the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Gene

Dysregulated metabolism is implicated in obesity and other disease conditions like type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases, which are linked to abnormalities of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). PPARγ has been the focus of much research aimed at managing these diseases. Also, germinated brown rice (GBR) is known to possess antidiabetic, antiobesity and hypocholesterolemic effects. We hypothesized that GBR bioactive compounds may mediate some of the improvements in metabolic indices through PPARγ modulation. Cultured HEP-G2 cells were treated with 50 ppm and 100 ppm of extracts from GBR (GABA, ASG and oryzanol) after determination of cell viabilities using MTT assays. Results showed that all extracts upregulated the expression of the PPARγ. However, combination of all three extracts showed downregulation of the gene, suggesting that, in combination, the effects of these bioactives differ from their individual effects likely mediated through competitive inhibition of the gene. Upregulation of the gene may have therapeutic potential in diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases, while its downregulation likely contributes to GBR’s antiobesity effects. These potentials are worth studying further.
Long-term Outcomes of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: Eight-Year Results of the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT)

Study Design. Randomized trial with a concurrent observational cohort study. Objective. To compare 8-year outcomes of surgery with nonoperative care for symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis. Summary of Background Data. Surgery for spinal stenosis has been shown to be more effective than nonoperative treatment during 4 years, but longer-term data are less clear. Methods. Surgical candidates from 13 centers in 11 US states with at least 12 weeks of symptoms and confirmatory imaging were enrolled in a randomized cohort or observational cohort. Treatment was standard, decompressive laminectomy versus standard nonoperative care. Primary outcomes were SF-36 (MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey) Bodily Pain and Physical Function scales and the modified Oswestry Disability Index assessed at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and yearly up to 8 years. Results. Data were obtained for 55% of participants in the randomized group and 52% of participants in the observational group at the 8-year follow-up. Intent-to-treat analyses showed no differences between randomized cohorts; however, 70% of those randomized to surgery and 52% of those randomized to nonoperative had undergone surgery by 8 years. As-treated analyses in the randomized group showed that the early benefit for surgery out to 4 years converged over time, with no significant treatment effect of surgery seen in years 6 to 8 for any of the primary outcomes. In contrast, the observational group showed a stable advantage for surgery in all outcomes between years 5 and 8. Patients who were lost to follow-up were older, less well-educated, sicker, and had worse outcomes during the first 2 years in both surgical and nonoperative arms. Conclusion. Patients with symptomatic spinal stenosis show diminishing benefits of surgery in as-treated analyses of the randomized group between 4 and 8 years, whereas outcomes in the observational group remained stable. Loss to follow-up of patients with worse early outcomes in both treatment groups could lead to overestimates of long-term outcomes but likely not bias treatment effect estimates. Level of Evidence: 1
University of Sheffield: Description of the LaSIE-II System as Used for MUC-7

The University of She eld NLP group took part in MUC-7 using the LaSIE-II system, an evolution of the LaSIE (Large Scale Information Extraction) system rst created for participation in MUC-6 [9] and part of a larger research e ort into information extraction underway in our group. LaSIE-II was used to carry out all ve of the MUC-7 tasks and was, in fact, the only system to take part in all of the MUC-7 tasks.