Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of data approximation and classification in measurement systems - comparison of “neural network” and “Least Squares” approximation

In measurement systems, environmental conditions are measured based on predefined scenarios. Measured data are then processed in either a decentralized or centralized manner. In advanced systems (especially for distributed data processing), taking artificial intelligence features into consideration could improve measurement performance and reliability. It is assumed as autonomy in measurement system which leads to distributed ldquointelligent data measurement and processingrdquo. In this paper, two different methodologies for ldquotemperature predictionrdquo are compared. A discussion concerning the classification of recorded data is then presented. Both a mathematical approach, the so-called ldquoleast squaresrdquo approach, and a model-free approach, called back-propagation, are applied and compared for temperature approximation. After approximation, the predicted temperature values are compared with real temperature records for classification purposes. The ldquoclassification mechanismrdquo includes signal processing features for improving performance.
Oral antihyperglycemic medication nonadherence and subsequent hospitalization among individuals with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE This study examines the association between oral antihyperglycemic medication nonadherence and subsequent hospitalization among individuals with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using administrative claims data (2000-2001) from a managed care organization in the Midwestern U.S., this study analyzed 900 enrollees, aged 18 years and over, with type 2 diabetes who were taking oral antihyperglycemic agents both years but who did not use insulin. Nonadherence was defined as a medication possession ratio (MPR) <80%. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed where hospitalization in 2001 was regressed on nonadherence to the oral antihyperglycemic drug regimen in 2000, while controlling for nonadherence to drugs for hypertension and dyslipidemia and for hospitalization in 2000, age, sex, intensity of the diabetes drug regimen, and comorbidities. RESULTS The proportion of enrollees who were nonadherent to the antihyperglycemic drug regimen in 2001 was 28.9%, whereas 18.8 and 26.9% were nonadherent to antihypertensive and lipid-modifying drugs, respectively. The increase in the hospitalization rate for 2001 was most apparent where the antihyperglycemic MPR for 2000 dropped to <80%. Enrollees who were nonadherent to oral diabetes medications in 2000 were at higher risk of hospitalization in 2001 (odds ratio 2.53; 95% CI 1.38-4.64), whereas nonadherence to drugs for hypertension and dyslipidemia were not significantly associated with hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS Patients with type 2 diabetes who do not obtain at least 80% of their oral antihyperglycemic medications across 1 year are at a higher risk of hospitalization in the following year.
Dept. for Speech, Music and Hearing Quarterly Progress and Status Report Vowel Perception: the Relative Perceptual Salience of Selected Acoustic Manipulations Sexjeied Acoustic Manipulations **

A set of 66 vaels acoustically similar to /ae/ have been synthesized by adding together sinusoidal harmonics of the appropriate frequencies, amplitudes, and phases. Subjects mre asked to estimate the psychophysical distance between each stimulus and a reference vael in a 300-trial randomized test. Normalized subjective distance scores have been computed for stimulus manipulations involving formant frequencies, formant bandwidths, spectral tilt, phase relations m n g hanmnics, vocal tract length, and filtering passband/stopband. The data can be used to develop better spectral measures of psychophysic-a1 similarity m n g-1s. In addition, large perceptual effects of phase manipulations (in particular, the observation that randan phase lead to a harsh "aperiodic" sensation) implicates temporal processing of neural spike information as the most likely mechanism for pitch estimation during speech perception.
Learning Low-order Models for Enforcing High-order Statistics

Models such as pairwise conditional random fields (CRFs) are extremely popular in computer vision and various other machine learning disciplines. However, they have limited expressive power and often cannot represent the posterior distribution correctly. While learning the parameters of such models which have insufficient expressivity, researchers use loss functions to penalize certain misrepresentations of the solution space. Till now, researchers have used only simplistic loss functions such as the Hamming loss, to enable efficient inference. The paper shows how sophisticated and useful higher order loss functions can be incorporated in the learning process. These loss functions ensure that the MAP solution does not deviate much from the ground truth in terms of certain higher order statistics. We propose a learning algorithm which uses the recently proposed lowerenvelop representation of higher order functions to transform them to pairwise functions, which allow efficient inference. We test the efficacy of our method on the problem of foreground-background image segmentation. Experimental results show that the incorporation of higher order loss functions in the learning formulation using our method leads to much better results compared to those obtained by using the traditional Hamming loss.
Arabidopsis Copper Transport Protein COPT2 Participates in the Cross Talk between Iron Deficiency Responses and Low-Phosphate Signaling1[C][W]

A copper transport protein affects copper, iron, and phosphate deficiency responses. Copper and iron are essential micronutrients for most living organisms because they participate as cofactors in biological processes, including respiration, photosynthesis, and oxidative stress protection. In many eukaryotic organisms, including yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and mammals, copper and iron homeostases are highly interconnected; yet, such interdependence is not well established in higher plants. Here, we propose that COPT2, a high-affinity copper transport protein, functions under copper and iron deficiencies in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). COPT2 is a plasma membrane protein that functions in copper acquisition and distribution. Characterization of the COPT2 expression pattern indicates a synergic response to copper and iron limitation in roots. We characterized a knockout of COPT2, copt2-1, that leads to increased resistance to simultaneous copper and iron deficiencies, measured as reduced leaf chlorosis and improved maintenance of the photosynthetic apparatus. We propose that COPT2 could play a dual role under iron deficiency. First, COPT2 participates in the attenuation of copper deficiency responses driven by iron limitation, possibly to minimize further iron consumption. Second, global expression analyses of copt2-1 versus wild-type Arabidopsis plants indicate that low-phosphate responses increase in the mutant. These results open up new biotechnological approaches to fight iron deficiency in crops.
Prey Behavior, Age‐Dependent Vulnerability, and Predation Rates

Variation in the temporal pattern of vulnerability can provide important insights into predator‐prey relationships and the evolution of antipredator behavior. We illustrate these points with a system that has coyotes (Canis latrans) as a predator and two species of congeneric deer (Odocoileus spp.) as prey. The deer employ different antipredator tactics (aggressive defense vs. flight) that result in contrasting patterns of age‐dependent vulnerability in their probability of being captured when encountered by coyotes. We use long‐term survival data and a simple mathematical model to show that (1) species differences in age‐dependent vulnerability are reflected in seasonal predation rates and (2) seasonal variation in prey vulnerability and predator hunt activity, which can be associated with the availability of alternative prey, interact to shape seasonal and annual predation rates for each prey species. Shifting hunt activity from summer to winter, or vice versa, alleviated annual mortality on one species and focused it on the other. Our results indicate that seasonal variation in prey vulnerability and hunt activity interact to influence the impact that a predator has on any particular type of prey. Furthermore, these results indicate that seasonal variation in predation pressure is an important selection pressure shaping prey defenses.
On the Automated Creation of Understandable Positive Security Models for Web Applications

Web applications pose new security-related challenges since attacks on web applications strongly differ from those on client-server applications. Traditional network-based firewall systems offer no protection against this kind of attacks since they occur on the application-level. The current solution is the manual definition of large sets of filtering rules which should prevent malicious attempts from being successful. We propose a new framework which should avoid this tedious work. The basic idea is the definition of a description language for positive security models taking the particularities of web applications into account. We then present adaptive techniques which employ this description language in order to describe the valid communication to a given web application. The simplicity of the description language allows the easy identification of unintentionally incorporated vulnerabilities. Experiments for several real- world web applications demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach.
In-vivo corneal nonlinear optical tomography based on second harmonic and multiphoton autofluorescence imaging induced by near-infrared femtosecond lasers with rabbits

The intratissue multiphoton autofluorescence imaging (MAI) and the second harmonic generation (SHG) based on nonlinear process of femtosecond nanojoule laser pulses at wave length of 750-850 nm emitted from solid-state Titanium: Sapphire Chameleon have been used as a highly precise non-destructive tool to realize the in-vivo differentiation of corneal layers with the assistance of intratissue optical tomography and to visualize the keratocyte structures and collagen lamellas with submicron resolution. Multiphoton nonlinear imaging occurs only with high light intensity on an order of MG-GW/cm2 and photon flux density of more than 1024 photons cm-2s-1 in a 0.1femtoliter intrastromal focus volume obtained by diffraction-limited focussing with high-numerical objectives. This technique, acting as a novel diagnostic tool, proved to be essential for femtosecond (fs) nanojoule (nJ) cornea surgery to determine the interest of region preoperation, to visualize and verify the outcomes immediately after the laser surgery and has potential to become a powerful tool in advancing understanding of corneal biomechnics and cellular reactions after laser induced lesion.
Efficacy of azathioprine on multiple sclerosis new brain lesions evaluated using magnetic resonance imaging.

BACKGROUND Azathioprine is an immunosuppressive agent that reduces relapse rates in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), but its efficacy in suppressing new brain lesions has never been evaluated. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of azathioprine therapy on new brain lesion suppression in MS. DESIGN Open-label treatment vs baseline study. SETTING Outpatient MS clinical center at a university hospital. PATIENTS Fourteen patients with relapsing-remitting MS of short duration and at least 3 gadolinium-enhancing (Gd+) brain lesions observed within 6 months before treatment. INTERVENTION Azathioprine, up to 3 mg/kg daily, individually adjusted according to blood lymphocyte number and the occurrence of adverse events. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Brain Gd+ lesions evaluated by monthly magnetic resonance imaging for 6 months before and 6 months during treatment and new T2 lesions evaluated during the same periods and after an additional 6 months. RESULTS The treatment reduced to 0 the median Gd+ lesion number and volume per magnetic resonance image (P<.001 for both), resulting in a Gd+ lesion number reduction of 50% or more in 12 of 14 patients (P<.01). An equivalent reduction in the new T2 lesion number was observed (P<.02); this activity also persisted during the additional treatment period evaluated using this outcome measure (P<.01). The median azathioprine dose administered (2.6-2.8 mg/kg daily) reduced the mean blood lymphocyte count to 57% of the baseline value. Adverse events were transient or reversible with dose adjustment. CONCLUSIONS This study indicates for the first time that azathioprine, administered at lymphocyte-suppressing doses, is effective in reducing MS new brain inflammatory lesions and is well tolerated.
Terminally Modified Oligodeoxynucleotides Directed Against p53 in an Orthotopic Xenograft Model: A Novel Adjuvant Treatment Strategy for Pancreatic Ductal Carcinoma

Objectives Investigation of a terminally modified oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) directed against p53 mRNA (p53-3′ polyethylene glycol–5′ tocopherol ODN as a novel drug for pancreatic ductal carcinoma therapy in vitro and in vivo. Methods The impact of lipophilic modifications at the 5′ end of p53-directed ODNs on cellular uptake was analyzed in vitro using proliferation assays, fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis, and confocal laser scanning microscopy. The in vivo effects of p53-PT-ODN on the growth of orthotopically xenografted human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cells (PancTuI) were studied in SCID beige mice. Distribution was examined in vitro and in vivo using Cy3-labeled ODNs. Results Terminally modified p53-PT-ODN showed excellent cellular uptake without using transfection reagents. Microscopically detectable levels of p53-PT-ODN were reached in vivo within 3 hours after intraperitoneal injection, even in extraperitoneal organs. At this time, Cy3-labeled p53-PT-ODN was found in solid tumor formations. We observed a significant inhibition of tumor growth (50%) in vivo at low doses of p53-PT-ODN, whereas at high doses, 2 of 9 animals had no detectable tumors at necropsy. When p53-PT-ODN was injected on the day of tumor cell inoculation, the growth inhibition of solid tumors was significantly stronger compared with that with delayed treatment. Conclusions p53-Directed modified ODNs might be of therapeutic value in pancreatic ductal carcinoma, particularly as adjuvant therapy after pancreatic tumor resection.
High speed and efficient selectively sensitive photodetectors

We report on the resonance cavity MSM-photodiode structures based on nanoscale metallic gratings which are used both as a tool for efficient light confinement and the photocarriers collection. The finger spacing of these detectors is less than the wavelength of incident light. Short collection path along with low diode capacitance (8 fF) allows theoretical cut-off frequencies as high as 500 GHz. Detector has record quantum efficiency of 46% and high selectivity (FWHM=17 nm) at wavelength 790 nm.
Fast Power-Peaks Estimator for Partially Shaded PV Systems

Model-based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques have been developed recently to improve the dynamic and steady-state performance of MPPT. Although they are successfully implemented in homogeneous photovoltaic (PV) systems, there is still no model-based MPPT for partially shaded PV systems, mainly because the available models are complex and time consuming. This paper develops a fast modeling approach for partially shaded PV systems. By utilizing three developed rules that govern the formation of power peaks in partially shaded PV systems, the proposed approach can quickly find the power peaks of these systems without simulating the entire power curve. The effectiveness of the proposed approach in finding the power peaks of PV systems quickly and accurately is verified using MATLAB-Simulink and real-time simulator in hardware in the loop application. Moreover, a model-based MPPT is developed utilizing the proposed modeling method. The developed MPPT successfully improves the dynamic performance of power extraction, guarantees the operation on the global maximum power peak, and eliminates oscillating steady-state power losses.
Implementation Brief: Design and Pilot Evaluation of an Internet Smoking Cessation Program

Relatively little is known about how to use the Internet to promote health behavioral change. This article describes a multiple-contact Internet smoking cessation program with an 8-week web-based course, online tools for self-monitoring of behaviors, and computer-tailored e-mail messages timed to enrollees' quit efforts. In a pilot study in 49 smokers, we found that enrollees returned to the website a median of 2 times and completed an average of 2 of 8 educational modules. In follow-up, respondents (n = 26) rated e-mail and web components of the intervention as equally valuable (5.9 vs. 5.5 of 10, p = 0.44). While site had potentially important effects on smoking behaviors (34% of enrollees either quit smoking or had a 50% reduction in cigarette use), we were not able hold the interest of the majority of enrollees over the intervention period. Problems with the design of the site are discussed.
Analysis on Crystal Structure of 7Å-Halloysite

Precise crystal structure determination of the Halloysite is extremely challenging because Halloysite naturally occurs as small cylinders and the ideal single crystal sample is unavailable. The up-to-date ICSD does not have the cystal structure data of Halloysite. With the development of computer science and technologies, the X-ray powder diffraction technologies have been commonly used in the crystal structure determination. This paper attempts to obtain the refined crystal structure of Halloysite by using the X-ray powder diffraction, on the assumption that the Halloysite and Kaolinite have a similar cystal structure, that is, the 1:1 phyllosilicates structure. The structure refinement program Rietica 2010 is used in this paper.
Effect of the Addition of Dietary Fiber on Satling of Cakes

A study was undertaken to examine the effect of the addition of dietary fiber on quality attributes of cakes during 12-days storage period at . Moisture content, degree of gelatinization and hardness determinations were carried out. Addition of dietary fiber increased water holding capacity and decreased hardness and staling rate. Crumb color and sensory quality of cakes with and without dietary fiber was not significantly different.
Fiction literature as linked open data - The BookSampo dataset

The BookSampo dataset provides information as linked data on fiction literature published in Finland going back to the 15th century, along with rich descriptions of both their content and context. The dataset contains data on nearly 400,000 subjects, including literary works, authors, book covers, reviews, awards, images, and movies, over 3 million triples in total. The data has been applied as the basis of the BookSampo portal in public use in Finland, and is aligned with the cross-domain cultural heritage contents and ontologies of CultureSampo, another in-use semantic portal. The data has been used to answer complex questions, such as what topics should one write about, if one wants to get a literary award based on statistics. The metadata was transformed into RDF from legacy library databases, then enriched manually by dozens of librarians in a Web 2.0 fashion in Finnish public libraries, and is constantly updated at a rate of some new 90,000 triples monthly.
Evaluation des granules de phosphate dicalcique di-hydraté-phosphate tricalcique B-gentamicine dans le traitement local de l'ostéite expérimentale à Staphylococcus aureus

Local antibiotic treatment of osteomyelitis is based on the use of gentamicin- (or tobramycin-) loaded polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). These two aminoglycosides are effective against most cultured orthopedic microorganisms, including Staphylococcus aureus, the most frequent cause of infection. The extensive use of PMMA as a Local Antibiotic Delivery System (LADS) has various disadvantages. Firstly, only a small proportion (about 5 to 17%) of the antibiotic is released by the cement (trapping effect). Secondly, the most significant problem is that PMMA is not resorbable and presents a physical obstacle to osteogenesis. A second surgical operation is therefore always required to remove the PMMA and to fill the cavity caused by bone loss with a bone graft or a synthetic substitute. Several absorbable synthetic substitutes, such as calcium phosphate ceramics, calcium sulfate, and polymers of polylactic-polyglycolic acids, have been investigated as antibiotic carriers. These synthetic substitutes are largely underused as LADS in clinical practice. Polymers are not perfectly biocompatible, and ceramics provide a burst release of antibiotics as a consequence of their manufacturing techniques (Antibiotic adsorption onto the carrier, after sintering of the carrier at high temperature, 1000-1200°C). We have developed a possible alternative to gentamicin loaded-PMMA for local treatment of osteomyelitis in the form of novel calcium phosphate cement (CPC): dicalcium phosphate dihydrate-β-tricalcium phosphate (DCPD-β-TCP). The biocompatibility of such a cement has been demonstrated experimentally and has been clinically confirmed for the treatment of burst fractures and for filling bone cavities in osteoporotic fractures. DCPD-s-TCP is made in granules from 2 to 3 mm in diameter to avoid the superficial ―creeping substitution‖ observed when DCPD-β-TCP is used as a cement block. [. ]
Brazilian sign language multimedia hangman game: a prototype of an educational and inclusive application

This paper presents a prototype of an educative and inclusive application: the Brazilian Sign Language Multimedia Hangman Game. This application aims to estimulate people, specially children, deaf or not, to learn a sign language and to help deaf people to improve their vocabulary in an oral language. The differential of this game is that its input consists of videos of the user performing signs from Brazilian Sign Language corresponding to Latin alphabet letters, recorded through the game graphical interface. These videos are processed by a computer vision module in order to recognize the letter to which the sign corresponds, using a recognition strategy based on primitives - hand configuration, movement and orientation, reaching 84.3% accuracy.
Structural and Functional Characterization of Sapovirus RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase

ABSTRACT Sapoviruses are one of the major agents of acute gastroenteritis in childhood. They form a tight genetic cluster (genus) in the Caliciviridae family that regroups both animal and human pathogenic strains. No permissive tissue culture has been developed for human sapovirus, limiting its characterization to surrogate systems. We report here on the first extensive characterization of the key enzyme of replication, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) associated with the 3Dpol-like protein. Enzymatically active sapovirus 3Dpol and its defective mutant were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. The overall structure of the sapovirus 3Dpol was determined by X-ray crystallography to 2.32-Å resolution. It revealed a right hand fold typical for template-dependent polynucleotide polymerases. The carboxyl terminus is located within the active site cleft, as observed in the RdRp of some (norovirus) but not other (lagovirus) caliciviruses. Sapovirus 3Dpol prefers Mn2+ over Mg2+ but may utilize either as a cofactor in vitro. In a synthetic RNA template-dependent reaction, sapovirus 3Dpol synthesizes a double-stranded RNA or labels the template 3′ terminus by terminal transferase activity. Initiation of RNA synthesis occurs de novo on heteropolymeric templates or in a primer-dependent manner on polyadenylated templates. Strikingly, this mode of initiation of RNA synthesis was also described for norovirus, but not for lagovirus, suggesting structural and functional homologies in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of human pathogenic caliciviruses. This first experimental evidence makes sapovirus 3Dpol an attractive target for developing drugs to control calicivirus infection in humans.