Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incorporation of WordNet Features to n-gram Features in a Language Modeler

n-gram language modeling is a popular technique used to improve performance of various NLP applications. However, it still faces the “curse of dimensionality” issue wherein word sequences on which the model will be tested are likely to be different from those seen during training (Bengio et al., 2003). An approach that incorporates WordNet to a trigram language modeler has been developed to address this issue. WordNet was used to generate proxy trigrams that may be used to reinforce the fluency of the given trigrams. Evaluation results reported a significant decrease in model perplexity showing that the new method, evaluated using the English language in the business news domain, is capable of addressing the issue. The modeler was also used as a tool to rank parallel translations produced by multiple Machine Translation systems. Results showed a 6-7% improvement over the base approach (Callison-Burch and Flournoy, 2001) in correctly ranking parallel translations.
Refinement of Protein NMR Structure under Membrane-like Environments with an Implicit Solvent Model

Refinement of NMR structures by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with a solvent model has improved the structural quality. In this study, we applied MD refinement with the generalized Born (GB) implicit solvent model to protein structure determined under membrane-like environments. Despite popularity of the GB model, its applications to the refinement of NMR structures of hydrophobic proteins, in which detergents or organic solvents enclose proteins, are limited, and there is little information on the use of another GB parameter for these cases. We carried out MD refinement of crambin NMR structure in dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles (Ahn et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 4398-4404) with GB/Surface area model and two different surface tension coefficients, one for aquatic and the other for hydrophobic conditions. Our data show that, of two structures by MD refinement with GB model, the one refined with the parameter to consider hydrophobic condition had the better qualities in terms of precision and solvent accessibility.
Intratemporal Hemangiomas Involving the Facial Nerve: Diagnosis and Management

Intratemporal vascular tumors involving the facial nerve are rare benign lesions. Because of their variable clinical features, they are often misdiagnosed preoperatively. This study presents a series of 21 patients with such lesions managed from 1977 to 1994. Facial nerve dysfunction was the most common complaint, present in 60% of the cases, followed by hearing loss, present in 40% of cases. High-resolution computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging with gadolinium, and a high index of clinical suspicion is required for preoperative diagnosis of these lesions. Early surgical resection of these tumors permits acceptable return of facial nerve function in many patients.
Sarcoidosis mimicking metastatic progression of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor

Rationale: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) account for less than 5% of all pancreatic tumors. PNETs develop from pancreatic endocrine islet cells and have a variable range of malignant potential. These neoplasms tend to have a slower growth rate than exocrine tumors and may remain undetectable for years. Achieving a correct diagnosis and staging is of key importance for the optimal management of the disease and requires experience with the disease, an accurate clinical status evaluation and a critical interpretation of the radiological findings derived from morphological and functional imaging techniques as well as an integrated multidisciplinary approach. The possibility that some clinical data and radiological findings encountered during the diagnostic and staging procedures may not be related to PNETs but to concomitant clinical conditions should always be taken into consideration. This is mandatory as an incorrect stadiation may lead to patients’ mis-management. Patient concerns: We report the case of a 34-year-old female, with a past medical history of idiopathic acute pancreatitis, presenting with a severe upper abdominal pain, steady and radiating to the back. Diagnoses: Initial investigations incidentally detected a nonfunctioning pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (NF-PNET) of intermediate grade G2. Subsequent investigations aimed at determining a correct tumor staging showed a negative indium-111- OctreoScan but an increased 18F-labeled fluorodesossiglucose (18F-FDG) uptake in multiple bilateral nodules in the lungs and in 1 nodular lesion located in the right gluteal subcutaneous tissue. An early tumor progression of a G2 NF-PNET that had to be treated with chemotherapy was suspected. Interventions: The histological examination of the gluteal subcutaneous nodule showed noncaseating granulomas, disproving the initial clinical suspect and allowing the diagnosis of active sarcoidosis in the G2 NF-PNET patient. Lessons: A misdiagnosis and a consequent therapeutic mismanagement were avoided with the support of an integrated multidisciplinary team.
Timing-driven logic bi-decomposition

An approach for logic decomposition that produces circuits with reduced logic depth is presented. It combines two strategies: logic bi-decomposition of Boolean functions and tree-height reduction of Boolean expressions. It is a technology-independent approach that enables one to find tree-like expressions with smaller depths than the ones obtained by state-of-the-art techniques. The approach can also be combined with technology mapping techniques aiming at timing optimization. Experimental results show that new points in the area/delay space can be explored, with tangible delay improvements when compared to existing techniques.
Podcast in Higher Education: Students' Experience and Assessment

At German universities, podcasting is still a relatively new method of teaching and learning, on which only few studies are available so far. The present report aims to describe students’ usage behaviour and their assessment of podcasting. The findings are based on a survey of students at the University of Flensburg, who took part in lectures recorded and made available as podcasts during the 2007 summer term and 2007/08 winter term. A total of 148 students took part at the two survey sessions. The majority of the surveyed students are inexperienced in the use of podcasts, as the descriptive results show. For most of the re- spondents, lecture podcasts were their first contact with this medium. Mainly a notebook is used to listen – at home – to the podcast of the recorded lecture. The focus in this regard is on playing back or catching up on the lecture at a later point in time. The main purpose for the students is to systematically prepare ahead of written tests and examinations. Slightly more than half of the respondents consider the opportunity to use podcasts to be no substitute for attending lectures. A clear factor in the success of lecture podcasts is that they are available with no cost involved. Another important factor is that the students can reuse and replay the recorded lecture. Podcasts are considered a possibility to assimilate the contents of lectures better and more efficiently. Students who do not use lecture podcasts justify this by stating that they have difficulties in learning with a computer.
Biofilters Used to Reduce Emissions from Livestock Housing – A Literature Review

R.E. Nicolai and R.M. Lefers South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota Abstract This paper reviews the literature on the development of biofilters for use on confined livestock facilities. More specifically the paper addresses the history, current and accepted design parameters, and status of research. Biofilters offer one potential solution to reduce nuisance odors and pollutants emitted from confined livestock housing. Typical biofilters used in agriculture consist of an organic media mixture of wood chips and compost. Barn exhaust air is blown through this media, allowing the microorganisms contained within the media to break down the gaseous compounds. Biofilters have been used in agriculture in Europe since the 1970’s and in the United States since the 1990’s. Much advancement has been made in terms of biofilter design since their introduction to agriculture. Design parameters have been established to minimize cost and maximize effectiveness. Some of these design parameters include bed thickness, media type, empty bed contact time, moisture control, and media bed orientation. These design parameters also influence factors such as pressure drop, microbial ecology, air channeling, foot print size, and gas/odor removal efficiency. Overall, properly designed biofilters used in agriculture have been shown to reduce hydrogen sulfide emissions by up to 95% and ammonia emissions by up to 65%. Biofilters are an effective air pollution control option for agriculture.
Mechanisms of telomere loss and their consequences for chromosome instability

The ends of chromosomes in mammals, called telomeres, are composed of a 6-bp repeat sequence, TTAGGG, which is added on by the enzyme telomerase. In combination with a protein complex called shelterin, these telomeric repeat sequences form a cap that protects the ends of chromosomes. Due to insufficient telomerase expression, telomeres shorten gradually with each cell division in human somatic cells, which limits the number of times they can divide. The extensive cell division involved in cancer cell progression therefore requires that cancer cells must acquire the ability to maintain telomeres, either through expression of telomerase, or through an alternative mechanism involving recombination. It is commonly thought that the source of many chromosome rearrangements in cancer cells is a result of the extensive telomere shortening that occurs prior to the expression of telomerase. However, despite the expression of telomerase, tumor cells can continue to show chromosome instability due to telomere loss. Dysfunctional telomeres in cancer cells can result from oncogene-induced replication stress, which results in double-strand breaks (DSBs) at fragile sites, including telomeres. DSBs near telomeres are especially prone to chromosome rearrangements, because telomeric regions are deficient in DSB repair. The deficiency in DSB repair near telomeres is also an important mechanism for ionizing radiation-induced replicative senescence in normal human cells. In addition, DSBs near telomeres can result in chromosome instability in mouse embryonic stem cells, suggesting that telomere loss can contribute to heritable chromosome rearrangements. Consistent with this possibility, telomeric regions in humans are highly heterogeneous, and chromosome rearrangements near telomeres are commonly involved in human genetic disease. Understanding the mechanisms of telomere loss will therefore provide important insights into both human cancer and genetic disease.
150X_Initial Reports Supplement

5 The following, who are listed in alphabetic order, are responsible for the given section: SUMMARY The Cape May site was the third borehole drilled as part of the New Jersey coastal plain drilling project (Leg 150X). It focused on middle Miocene to upper Eocene sequences. Recovery was good (75% mean, 85% median), and gamma and neutron logs were obtained to a total depth (TD) of 1500 ft (457 m). This location is the most downdip onshore location in New Jersey, and the Miocene section is the thickest (823 ft; 251 m) of the three Leg 150X boreholes, with numerous shells suitable for Sr-isotopic age measurements. Un-conformities are revealed by erosional surfaces, gamma-ray peaks, lithologic breaks, biofacies shifts, shell beds, indurated zones, and hiatuses determined by Sr-isotopic stratigraphy and biostratigraphy. Good recovery of sands and clays in the top 357 ft (109 m) provide excellent examples of fluvial-estuarine and marginal marine environments , although age control on this section is poor. The top 90 ft (27 m) of the borehole recovered alternating organic-rich clays and shelly sands deposited in an inlet-marsh environment similar to the modern setting. These Pleistocene to Holocene strata are assigned to the Cape May Formation. Clays from 90 to 140 ft (27−43 m) are tentatively assigned to the Cape May Formation (? Pleistocene). The restricted marine diatom flora and benthic foraminiferal fauna indicate a lower estuarine environment. This unit overlies a thick (140−357 ft; 43−109 m) unit of poorly fossiliferous estuarine sands and clays. Based on stratigraphic studies of the nearby Cape May airport borehole , we tentatively correlate this thick section with a Pliocene unit mapped in the Cape May peninsula (Owens et al., 1995). Four middle Miocene sequences representing 258 ft (77 m) were recovered, including the youngest fossiliferous middle Miocene sequence sampled in New Jersey (ca. 11−12 Ma). We are uncertain if this upper unit (the Kirkwood-Cohansey sequence) correlates with the poorly dated Cohansey Formation or older middle Miocene sequences. Three additional middle Miocene sequences were recovered , including the probable equivalent of the Kirkwood 3 sequence of Sugarman et al. Ma sequence requires verification. The thick lower Miocene section (565 ft; 172 m) represents at least five well-developed sequences. The Kirkwood 2a sequence (650−715 ft; 198−218 m) of Sugarman et al. (1993) is thinner than at Atlantic City where it is well dated (ca. 17.0−18.1 Ma). This sequence is a classic coarsening-upward " …
Adhesion of C. albicans to Acrylic Resin Containing Fluoridated Apatite-Coated TiO2

Purpose: This study investigated the inhibitory effect of acrylic resin incorporating FAp-TiO2 against the adhesion of C. albicans.Materials and methods: FAp-TiO2 was added at 1, 5, 10 wt% to acrylic resin to form specimen disks of 7 mm diameter, and the surface roughness was measured. Then, C. albicans was cultured aerobically at 37 °C for 24 hours in glucose peptone yeast extract (GPY) broth, and adjusted to OD=1 at 550 nm with a KCl-buffer. The disks were immersed in the C. albicans suspension for 2 hours at 37 °C with UVA from a black light source. After the incubation, the disks were washed gently with phosphate buffer saline (PBS), and the luminescent signal derived from the viable cells on the disks was determined using a bioluminescence adenosine triphosphate (ATP) assay.Results: In the measurement of surface roughness, no significant difference was observed between any of the specimens. The adhesion assay of C. albicans revealed that a statistically significant decrease was observed in FAp-TiO2 when compared with the control (p‹0.01). Conclusion: We suggest that acrylic resin incorporating FAp-TiO2 prevents the adhesion of C. albicans, indicating a wide range of possibilities for the practical use of new photocatalysts in acrylic resin.
T9+HUD: Physical Keypad and HUD can Improve Driving Performance while Typing and Driving

We introduce T9+HUD, a text entry method designed to decrease visual distraction while driving and typing. T9+HUD combines a physical 3x4 keypad on the steering wheel with a head-up-display (HUD) for projecting output on the windshield. Previous work suggests this may be a visually less demanding way to type while driving than the popular case which requires shifts of visual attention away from the road. We present a prototype design and report first results from a controlled evaluation in a driving simulator. While driving, the T9+HUD text entry rate was equal compared to a dashboard-mounted touchscreen device, but it reduced lane deviations by 70%. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between T9+HUD and baseline driving in lane-keeping performance. T9+HUD decreased glance time off road by 64% in comparison to the touchscreen QWERTY. We conclude that the data are favorable and warrant more research on attention-reducing text input methods for driving.
Confirmatory and competitive evaluation of alternative gene-environment interaction hypotheses.

BACKGROUND Most gene-environment interaction (GXE) research, though based on clear, vulnerability-oriented hypotheses, is carried out using exploratory rather than hypothesis-informed statistical tests, limiting power and making formal evaluation of competing GXE propositions difficult. METHOD We present and illustrate a new regression technique which affords direct testing of theory-derived predictions, as well as competitive evaluation of alternative diathesis-stress and differential-susceptibility propositions, using data on the moderating effect of DRD4 with regard to the effect of childcare quality on children's social functioning. RESULTS Results show that (a) the new approach detects interactions that the traditional one does not; (b) the discerned GXE fit the differential-susceptibility model better than the diathesis-stress one; and (c) a strong rather than weak version of differential susceptibility is empirically supported. CONCLUSION The new method better fits the theoretical 'glove' to the empirical 'hand,' raising the prospect that some failures to replicate GXE results may derive from standard statistical approaches being less than ideal.
Video atlas of lateralising and localising seizure phenomena

The detailed analysis of seizure semiology is an essential tool for diagnosing epileptic patients and is particularly important in the evaluation of patients considered for epilepsy surgery. The meticulous clinical observation of epileptic seizures provides information about the localisation and lateralisation of the symptomatogenic zone. Here, we present a video atlas showing a variety of ictal and postictal localising and lateralising phenomena.
A One-Layer Recurrent Neural Network for Real-Time Portfolio Optimization With Probability Criterion

This paper presents a decision-making model described by a recurrent neural network for dynamic portfolio optimization. The portfolio-optimization problem is first converted into a constrained fractional programming problem. Since the objective function in the programming problem is not convex, the traditional optimization techniques are no longer applicable for solving this problem. Fortunately, the objective function in the fractional programming is pseudoconvex on the feasible region. It leads to a one-layer recurrent neural network modeled by means of a discontinuous dynamic system. To ensure the optimal solutions for portfolio optimization, the convergence of the proposed neural network is analyzed and proved. In fact, the neural network guarantees to get the optimal solutions for portfolio-investment advice if some mild conditions are satisfied. A numerical example with simulation results substantiates the effectiveness and illustrates the characteristics of the proposed neural network.
Characterization of relaxation phenomena and permeation behaviors in sodium alginate membrane during pervaporation separation of ethanol–water mixture

The pervaporation separation of a concentrated ethanol–water mixture with 90 wt % of ethanol content through a sodium alginate (SA) membrane was carried out to investigate both the relaxation process and permeation behavior of the membrane in pervaporation. From the swelling measurement of the membrane in 90 wt % of ethanol content of the aqueous solution, it was observed that SA has an excellent permselectivity toward water and a high solubility of water: about 1000 of sorption selectivity and 21 wt % of water content in the swollen membrane at 40°C. Its excellent sorption properties could result in the outstanding pervaporation performance for the aqueous solution; higher than 10,000 of separation factors and 120–290 g/(m2h) of fluxes, depending on the operating temperature. However, a serious flux decline took place with operating time due to the occurrence of a significant relaxation process in SA. The flux decline was remarkable at the beginning stage and then mitigated with operating time. The fluxes were reduced by about 40–50% because of the relaxation process during the measurement. To analyze these phenomena in more detail, the hysteresis behavior of membrane performance along with an operation temperature cycle was investigated. During the heating process in the cycle, the relaxation process was important to affect membrane performance while the formation of excess stress in the membrane might be a crucial factor during the cooling process. It was postulated from the experimental observations that in the heating process an increase in flux with temperature is restricted by a more rapid relaxation process at a higher operation temperature, while in the cooling process, the excess stresses in the membrane are formed and accumulated in and near the transition zone and near the area in the membrane because of slower relaxational consolidation in unequilibrium cooling than in relaxational dilation in the heating process, resulting in flux more sensitive to temperature than in the heating process. These phenomena were found diminished as the relaxation time increased with aging time. The relaxation phenomena were discussed through an analysis on permeation activation energy data obtained from the pervaporation experiments. A qualitative model was established to describe the relaxation phenomena in the membrane material during the pervaporation process by using the basic principles of polymeric relaxation and the experimental observations obtained in this study. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ONTOMETRIC: A Method to Choose the Appropriate Ontology

In the last years, the development of ontology-based applications has increased considerably, mainly related to the semantic web. Users currently looking for ontologies in order to incorporate them into their systems, just use their experience and intuition. This makes it difficult for them to justify their choices. Mainly, this is due to the lack of methods that help the user to determine which are the most appropriate ontologies for the new system. To solve this deficiency, the present work proposes a method, ONTOMETRIC, which allows the users to measure the suitability of existing ontologies, regarding the requirements of their systems.
From paley graphs to deterministic sensing matrices with real-valued Gramians

The performance guarantees in recovery of a sparse vector in a compressed sensing scenario, besides the reconstruction technique, depends on the choice of the sensing matrix. The so-called restricted isometry property (RIP) is one of the well-used tools to determine and compare the performance of various sensing matrices. It is a standard result that random (Gaussian) matrices satisfy RIP with high probability. However, the design of deterministic matrices that satisfy RIP has been a great challenge for many years now. The common design technique is through the coherence value (maximum modulus correlation between the columns). In this paper, based on the Paley graphs, we introduce deterministic matrices of size q+1/2 × q with q a prime power, such that the corresponding Gram matrix is real-valued. We show that the coherence of these matrices are less than twice the Welch bound, which is a lower bound valid for general matrices. It should be mentioned that the introduced matrix differs from the equiangular tight frame (ETF) of size q-1/2 × q arising from the Paley difference set.