Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic models for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in the rituximab era: a never-ending story.

BACKGROUND Improved treatment have modified survival outcome in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and altered the importance of previously recognized prognostic markers. DESIGN AND METHODS To evaluate International Prognostic Index (IPI) score before and after rituximab introduction and to validate the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC)/revised International Prognostic Index (R-IPI) model, we carried out a retrospective analysis on a total of 831 patients with DLBCL. RESULTS Our results show that IPI lost its discriminating power with the introduction of rituximab. The analysis of our second set allowed us to validate the ALC/R-IPI model. The R-IPI and ALC/R-IPI could still be used for designing clinical trials, but both have difficulty recognizing a high percentage of poor prognosis patients, though it remains an important goal of a good prognostic model considering the modest impact of salvage treatments on survival. CONCLUSIONS A new model on the basis of significant variables in the rituximab era and built on a large database of patients treated with rituximab is urgently needed. As prognostic models are changing with the efficacy and mechanisms of action of treatment utilized, looking for a new prognostic score is a never-ending story in which researchers are trying to hit a continuously moving target.
THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG ? A PROBABILISTIC

Why is it preferable to say salt and pepper over pepper and salt? Based on an analysis of 692 binomial tokens from online corpora, we show that a number of semantic, metrical, and frequency constraints contribute significantly to ordering preferences, overshadowing the phonological factors that have traditionally been considered important. The ordering of binomials exhibits a considerable amount of variation. For example, although principal and interest is the more frequent order, interest and principal also occurs. We consider three frameworks for analysis of this variation: traditional optimality theory, stochastic optimality theory, and logistic regression. Our best models—using logistic regression—predict 79.2% of the binomial tokens and 76.7% of types, and the remainder are predicted as less frequent—but not ungrammatical—variants. *
Ambient Park Assist: Supporting Reverse Parking Maneuvers with Ambient Light

Modern cars are developed to be more safe for occupants and consume less fuel. Hence, C-pillars became wider, resulting in a worse surround view in the back of the car. However, when reversing into a parking space, the rear of the car is important to the drivers: accident statistics show that accidents with personal damage occur most often when turning or reversing. The goal of our work is to assist drivers during reverse parking without raising his or her mental workload. Our approach is to use an in-vehicle light display to address peripheral vision and thus support drivers while reversing the car. The light cues lead his or her view to the rear of the car and the environment. We developed different designs for the light patterns and evaluated one in a real driving task, but controlled environment. Our first results show, that our system is easy to use and less frustrating compared to an off the shelf park distance control system. However, for best results, we might need to combine both in the future.
CMOS Silicon Physical Unclonable Functions Based on Intrinsic Process Variability

This paper presents an extreme-low-power mixed-signal CMOS integrated circuit for product identification and anti-counterfeiting, which implements a physical unclonable function operating with a challenge-response scheme. We devise a series of circuits and algorithmic solutions based on the use of a process monitor and on the prediction of the erratic response bits which allow to suppress the effects of temperature, voltage supply and process variations in order to obtain a robust and reliable behavior.
Analysis and visualization of complex phenomena

In this paper we study natural and man-made complex phenomena by means of signal processing and fractional calculus. The outputs of the complex phenomena are time series to be interpreted as manifestations of the system dynamics. In a first step we use the Jensen-Shannon divergence to compare real-world signals. We then adopt multidimensional scaling and visualization tools for data clustering and analysis. Classical and generalized (fractional) Jensen-Shannon divergence are tested. The generalized measures lead to a clear identification of patterns embedded in the data and contribute to better understand distinct phenomena.
A theory of the brain: localist representation is used widely in the brain

ON LOCALIST AND DISTRIBUTED REPRESENTATIONS In this article, I present the theory that localist representation is used widely in the brain starting from its earliest levels of processing. Page (2000) argued for localist representation and Bowers (2009) claimed that the brain uses grandmother cells to code for objects and concepts. However, neither Page (2000) nor Bowers (2009) claimed widespread use of localist representation in the brain. So this is a stronger position than that taken by either. To support the proposed theory, I present neurophysiological evidence, both old and new, and an analysis of localist and distributed representation definitions and models. “Meaning and interpretation” on a stand-alone basis is the fundamental character of a localist unit. In arguing for the proposed theory, I bring to the forefront the “meaning and interpretation” aspect of localist cells and the evidence for it in the brain. I also show that localist and distributed models are not different structurally. In fact, any kind of model can be built with localist units. However, localist representation has no claim on the resulting properties of such models or what they can do.
Trends in complementary feeding indicators in Nigeria, 2003–2013

Objective The study aimed to examine secular trends and determinants of changes in complementary feeding indicators in Nigeria. Design, setting and participants Data on 79 953 children aged 6–23 months were obtained from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) for the period spanning 2003–2013. The surveys used a stratified two-stage cluster sample of eligible mothers aged 15–49 years from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Trends in complementary feeding indicators and socioeconomic, health service and individual characteristics including factors associated with complementary feeding indicators were examined using multilevel logistic regression analyses. Results Minimum dietary diversity for children aged 6–23 months worsened from 26% in 2003 to 16% in 2013. Minimum meal frequency improved from 43% in 2003 to 56% in 2013 and minimum acceptable diet worsened from 11% to 9%. Among educated mothers, there was a decreasing prevalence of the introduction of solid, semisolid and soft foods in infants aged 6–8 months (67% in 2003 to 57% in 2013); minimum dietary diversity (33% in 2003 to 24% in 2013) and minimum acceptable diet (13% in 2003 to 8% in 2013). Mothers with a higher education level and mothers who reported more health service contacts were more likely to meet the minimum dietary diversity. Similarly, the odds for minimum acceptable diet were higher among mothers from higher socioeconomic status groups and mothers who reported frequent health services use. Conclusions Complementary feeding practices in Nigeria declined over the study period and are below the expected levels required to ensure adequate growth and development of Nigerian children. National policies and programmes that ensure sustainability of projects post-MDGs and higher health service coverage for mothers, including community-based education initiatives, are proposed to improve complementary feeding practices among Nigerian mothers.
University Governance and Academic Tenure: A Property Rights Explanation

This paper provides an efficiency-based explanation for several features of university governance including academic tenure. In this model, tenure is part of a broader system of organizational governance where the non-profit status of the university requires faculty members to evaluate and monitor both university administrators and trustees. The nature of the employment contract provides the incentives for the faculty to behave as residual claimants. Tenure is necessary for faculty to be willing to assume the roles normally associated with ownership without fear or reprisal from trustees and administrators.
Preliminary study of reliable broadcast protocol on 802.11p public transport testbed

IEEE 802.11p is an approved amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard and adds enhancements to 802.11 to be suitable for vehicular networks. Several researchers have evaluated the 802.11p in term of transmission range and propagation loss model. In this paper, we study a performance of a complex reliable broadcasting protocol on IEEE 802.11p in real public transport testbed. DECA, the density-aware reliable broadcasting protocol, has been developed in our laboratory and it has been proven that it can outperform many other protocols. We implemented DECA protocol in the 802.11p devices and deployed the devices on shuttle buses of Chulalongkorn University (CU-Bus). The preliminary results have shown in the metrics of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and transmission delay of each transmission event. From the results, we found that this protocol can achieve PDR up to 100%. The results also indicate the deployment problems on real-world testbed.
Multi-terminal source code design based on slepian-Wolf coded quantization

Multiterminal (MT) source coding refers to separate lossy encoding and joint decoding of multiple correlated sources. This paper presents two practical MT coding schemes under the same general framework of Slepian-Wolf coded quantization (SWCQ) for both direct and indirect quadratic Gaussian MT source coding problems with two encoders. The first asymmetric SWCQ scheme relies on quantization and Wyner-Ziv coding, where a quantized source is compressed using asymmetric Slepian-Wolf coding (with side information at the decoder). It is implemented via source splitting with one classical source coding component and two Wyner-Ziv coding components. In the second symmetric SWCQ scheme, the two quantized sources are compressed using symmetric Slepian-Wolf coding. We show that each scheme can potentially achieve any point on the inner bound of the rate region for both direct and indirect MT coding problems. Practical designs based on entropy-coded TCQ for classic source coding and LDPC code based asymmetric Slepian-Wolf coding of TCQ indices for Wyner-Ziv coding in the first scheme, and arithmetic code and turbo code based symmetric Slepian-Wolf coding of TCQ indices in the second scheme perform only 0.29 bit per sample away from the inner bound of the rate region. This work thus represents a major step towards limit-approaching MT code designs.
Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America

List of Tables and Figures ix Acknowledgments xi Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: The Politics of Immigration Control: Understanding the Rise and Fall of Policy Regimes 16 Chapter Three: Immigrant Voters in a Partisan Polity: European Settlers, Nativism, and American Immigration Policy, 1776-1896 46 Chapter Four: Chinese Exclusion and Precocious State-Building in the Nineteenth-Century American Polity 87 Chapter Five: Progressivism, War, and Scientific Policymaking: The Rise of the National Origins Quota System, 1900-1928 114 Chapter Six: Two-Tiered Implementation: Jewish Refugees, Mexican Guestworkers, and Administrative Politics 150 Chapter Seven: Strangers in Cold War America: The Modern Presidency, Committee Barons, and Postwar Immigration Politics 176 Chapter Eight: The Rebirth of American Immigration: The Rights Revolution, New Restrictionism, and Policy Deadlock 219 Chapter Nine: Two Faces of Expansion: The Contemporary Politics of Immigration Reform 242 Chapter Ten: Conclusion 289 Appendix: The Sample of Interviewees 297 Notes 299 Index 361
Model Predictive Direct Current Control: Formulation of the Stator Current Bounds and the Concept of the Switching Horizon

In this article, a model predictive current controller for multilevel inverters driving electrical machines is proposed. The inverter switch positions are directly set by the controller, thus avoiding the use of a modulator. Admissible switching sequences are enumerated, and a state-space model of the drive is used to predict the drive's response to each sequence. The predicted short-term switching losses are evaluated and minimized. The concept of extrapolation and the use of bounds achieve an effective prediction horizon of up to 100 time steps despite the short switching horizon.
Selection Using Probabilistic Sense Disambiguation

A probabilistic method is used for word sense disambiguation where the features taken are the surrounding six words. As their surface forms are used, no syntactic or semantic analysis is required. Despite its simplicity, this method is able to disambiguate the noun interest accurately. Using the common data set of (Bruce & Wiebe 94), we have obtained an average accuracy of 86.6% compared with their reported figure of 78%. This portable technique can be applied to the task of English article selection. This problem arises from machine translation of any source language without article to English. Using texts from the Wall Street Journal, we achieved an overall accuracy of 83.1% for the 1,500 most commonly used head nouns.
Dnmt2 is not required for de novo and maintenance methylation of viral DNA in embryonic stem cells.

We have shown previously that de novo methylation activities persist in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells homozygous for a null mutation of Dnmt1 that encodes the major DNA cytosine methyltransferase. In this study, we have cloned a putative mammalian DNA methyltransferase gene, termed Dnmt2 , that is homologous to pmt1 of fission yeast. Different from pmt1 in which the catalytic Pro-Pro-Cys (PPC) motif is 'mutated' to Pro-Ser-Cys, Dnmt2 contains all the conserved methyltransferase motifs, thus likely encoding a functional cytosine methyltransferase. However, baculovirus-expressed Dnmt2 protein failed to methylate DNA in vitro . To investigate whether Dnmt2 functions as a DNA methyltransferase in vivo , we inactivated the Dnmt2 gene by targeted deletion of the putative catalytic PPC motif in ES cells. We showed that endogenous virus was fully methylated in Dnmt2 -deficient mutant ES cells. Furthermore, newly integrated retrovirus DNA was methylated de novo in infected mutant ES cells as efficiently as in wild-type cells. These results indicate that Dnmt2 is not essential for global de novo or maintenance methylation of DNA in ES cells.
Design and implementation of an FPGA-based realtime face recognition system using spatial correlation function

This paper presents a simple and efficient design of a face recognition system, where feature extraction algorithm is employed based on the principle of spatial cross-correlation. In the feature extraction process, instead of processing the entire image at a time, only a pair of rows or columns of an image is considered which makes the algorithm very efficient and low-cost. Considering the cross-correlations between the pairs, a unique 1-D signature of a 2-D face image is obtained which represents the variation in the face geometry along the vertical or horizontal direction. It is shown that the resulting vertical and horizontal features provide high compactness within the class and separation between the classes. It is found that the proposed design can provide a satisfactory recognition performance for different standard databases. The results of hardware implementation in terms of resources used and processing speed have also been presented.
An ontology-based text processing approach for simplifying ambiguity of requirement specifications

In the last few years, several works in the literature of software engineering have addressed the problem of requirement management. A majority problem of software errors is introduced during the requirements phase because much of requirements specification is written in natural language format. As this, it is hard to identify consistencies because of too ambiguous for specification purpose. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a method for simplifying ambiguity of requirement specification documents through two concepts of ontology-based probabilistic text processing: Text classification and Text Filtering. Text classification is used to analyze and classify requirement specification having similar detail into the same class. This contributes to a better understanding of the impact of the requirements and to elaborate them. Meanwhile, text filters are used to leverage synopsis requirements in documents through probabilistic text classification technique. After testing by F-measure, the experimental results return a satisfactory accuracy. These demonstrate that our method may provide more effectiveness for simplifying ambiguity of requirement specifications.
Generation of Loop Invariants in Theorema by Combinatorial and Algebraic Methods

When generating verification conditions for a program, one is faced with one major task, namely with the situation when some additional assertions are needed (e.g. loop invariants). These assertions have the property that either they are invariant during execution of the program, or they depend on some other invariant properties. Therefore, automated formal verification is sensitive to the automated generation of invariants. In this paper, we present an alternative to expecting programmers to fully annotate code with invariants, namely a method for automatic generation of invariants from the program itself, using combinatorial algorithms and equational elimination, as well as an ongoing research work with some results based on applications of polynomial ideal theory. The implementation and the verification process is done in a prototype verification condition generator for imperative programs, which is part of the T oremasystem, a computer aided mathematical assistant that offers automated reasoning and computer algebra facilities for the working mathematician. The verification conditions for programs containing loops are generated fully automatically, in a form which can be immediately used by the automatic provers of Theoremain order to check whether they hold. We illustrate the effectiveness of our method by few examples.
Structural Intervention Time Series Analysis of Crime Rates: The Impact of Sentence Reform in Virginia

AbstractWe adopt a structural time series analysis to investigate the impact of parole abolitionand sentence reform in Virginia on reported crime rates. The Commonwealth of Virginiaabolished parole and reformed sentencing for all felony oﬀences committed on or afterJanuary 1, 1995. To examine the impact of Virginia’s change in legislation on reportedcrime rates from 1995 onwards, we perform an intervention time series analysis basedon structural time series models. We empirically ﬁnd that the change in legislation hassigniﬁcantly reduced the burglary rates and to a lesser extent the murder rates in Virginia.For other violent crimes such as rape and aggravated assault the evidence of a signiﬁcantreduction in crime rates is less evident or is not found. This empirical study for Virginiaalso provides an illustration of how an eﬀective intervention time series analysis can becarried out in crime studies.Keywords: Intervention time series analysis; Crime rates; Structural time series models;Unobserved components time series models.
Model Uncertainty and Empirical Policy Analysis in Economics: A Selective Review

This chapter is designed to outline how current methods in formal policy analysis have evolved to better respect limits to an analyst's knowledge. These limits are referred to as model uncertainty both in order to capture the idea that formal policy analysis is predicated on mathematically precise formulations that embody assumptions on the part of an analyst and because model uncertainty, which represents a recognition of the potential for these assumptions to produce unsound analyses, has been an active area of research in economics and statistics for the last 15 or so years. The argumentation in this chapter is not original and is admittedly selective. For Austrian economists, the paper will hopefully be of interest in indicating how empirical work is evolving in a way that better respects limits to a social scientist's knowledge. I certainly do not mean to suggest that these arguments should eliminate the objections that have been raised by some Austrian economists to formal empirical work. Rather, the intent of this chapter is to indicate the possibility of dialog and debate between Austrian and non-Austrian economists on the role of formal empirical work. In several contexts, I have introduced arguments concerning the limits of formal econometric analysis by Hayek and von Mises to both illustrate how the perspectives in this chapter relate to their views in order to suggest why, in my judgment, some of their skepticism is unwarranted.
An optimal algorithm for constructing the Delaunay triangulation of a set of line segments

In this paper, we first define a new Voronoi diagram for the endpoints of a set of line segments in the plane which do not intersect (except possibly at their endpoints), which is called a <italic>bounded Voronoi diagram</italic>. In this Voronoi diagram, the line segments themselves are regarded as obstacles. We present an optimal &THgr;(<italic>n log n</italic>) algorithm to construct it, where <italic>n</italic> is the number of input line segments. We then show that the straight-line dual of the bounded Voronoi diagram of a set of non-intersecting line segments is the Delaunay triangulation of that set. And the straight-line dual can be obtained in time proportional to the number of input line segments when the corresponding bounded Voronoi diagram is available. Consequently, we obtain an optimal &THgr;(<italic>n log n</italic>) algorithm to construct the Delaunay triangulation of a set of <italic>n</italic> non-intersecting line segments in the plane. Our algorithm improves the time bound <italic>&Ogr;</italic>(<italic>n</italic><supscrpt>2</supscrpt>) of the previous best algorithm.
Approximate Multiple Protein Structure Alignment Using the Sum-of-Pairs Distance

An algorithm is presented to compute a multiple structure alignment for a set of proteins and to generate a consensus (pseudo) protein for the set. The algorithm is a heuristic in that it computes an approximation to the optimal multiple structure alignment that minimizes the sum of the pairwise distances between the protein structures. The algorithm chooses an input protein as the initial consensus and computes a correspondence between the protein structures (which are represented as sets of unit vectors) using an approach analogous to the center-star method for multiple sequence alignment. From this correspondence, a set of rotation matrices (optimal for the given correspondence) is derived to align the structures and derive the new consensus. The process is iterated until the sum of pairwise distances converges. The computation of the optimal rotations is itself an iterative process that both makes use of the current consensus and generates simultaneously a new one. This approach is based on an interesting result that allows the sum of all pairwise distances to be represented compactly as distances to the consensus. Experimental results on several protein families are presented, showing that the algorithm converges quite rapidly.