Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Escala de Calidad de Vida en Usuarios de Drogas Inyectadas (IDUQoL): Valoración psicométrica de la versión española

Antecedentes: La valoracion de la calidad de vida se ha convertido en el area de la investigacion clinica en uno de los mas utilizados indicadores de resultados. Para ello, se precisa de instrumentos adaptados y validados al contexto donde han de utilizarse. Objetivo: Analizar las caracteristicas psicometricas del IDUQoL (Injection Drug User Quality of Life Scale) en su adaptacion a poblacion espanola. Metodo: Participan en el estudio 100 personas diagnosticadas de adiccion a opiaceos incluidas en un programa de mantenimiento con metadona, quienes responden al IDUQoL –en su version de 21 dominios– y otros dos instrumentos de calidad de vida –el SF-36 y EQ-5D–. Resultados: Se obtienen datos de fiabilidad optimos (alpha de Cronbach de 0,92 y coeficiente de correlacion Intraclase para el test-retest de 0,79). Analisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios y el analisis de la matriz de correlaciones semi-parciales concluyen la unidimensionalidad del constructo con una varianza explicada del 43,8% e indices de ajuste adecuados (GFI= 0,92; CFI= 0,97; RMSEA= 0,044). Asimismo, se obtienen datos de validez convergente y de criterio muy adecuados (coeficientes de correlacion con el SF-36 y EQ-5D entre 0,34 y 0,61, y con otras variables criterio entre 0,23 y 0,39; p
Space Vector PWM for a Five-Phase VSI Supplying Two Five-Phase Series-Connected Machines

A five-phase two-motor drive system with series connection of stator windings and decoupled dynamic control has been introduced recently. The two-motor drive system is supplied from a single five-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) and controlled using vector control scheme. If current control is to be implemented in the rotating reference frame, a PWM method for the five-phase VSI is required to generate required voltages. This paper proposes a scheme to generate inverter output voltages using space vector PWM, in such a way that independent control of two five-phase series-connected machines is achieved with a minimum interaction between the two machines. The method generates output voltages that contain only two low-frequency fundamentals at operating frequencies required by the two machines. The concept is verified by simulation.
Acoustic event classification using Cauchy Non-negative matrix factorization and fuzzy rule-based classifier

Identification of presence of target acoustic sound or event from a single channel mixture is a challenging task of automatic sound recognition system. In presence of background noise, the detection and classification of target acoustic event becomes more difficult. Various methods have been proposed that extract features from spectrogram of sound and then the extracted features are used with traditional non negative matrix factorization for separation of overlapping sound. In his paper, we propose an approach to separate and classify single channel acoustic events. The method combines Common Fate Transformation and Cauchy Non-negative Matrix Factorization for feature extraction and finally fuzzy rule-based classifier is developed for classification. The proposed method, when applied to real data, gave high true positive rate. The method also gave better results in terms of true positive rate when compared to widely used support vector machine using the same real data. Moreover, the proposed approach is fast and can be used for the efficient separation of acoustic events from overlapping sounds.
Minimax sampling with arbitrary spaces [signal sampling and reconstruction]

We consider non-ideal sampling and reconstruction schemes in which the sampling and reconstruction spaces as well as the input signal can be arbitrary. To obtain a good reconstruction of the signal in the reconstruction space, from arbitrary samples, we suggest processing the samples prior to reconstruction with a linear transformation that is designed to minimize the worst-case squared-norm error between the reconstructed signal, and the best possible (but usually unattainable) approximation of the signal in the reconstruction space. We show both theoretically and through a simulation that if the input signal does not lie in the reconstruction space, then this method can outperform the consistent reconstruction method previously proposed for this problem.
Why Question Answering using Sentiment Analysis and Word Classes

In this paper we explore the utility of sentiment analysis and semantic word classes for improving why-question answering on a large-scale web corpus. Our work is motivated by the observation that a why-question and its answer often follow the pattern that if something undesirable happens, the reason is also often something undesirable, and if something desirable happens, the reason is also often something desirable. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that introduces sentiment analysis to non-factoid question answering. We combine this simple idea with semantic word classes for ranking answers to why-questions and show that on a set of 850 why-questions our method gains 15.2% improvement in precision at the top-1 answer over a baseline state-of-the-art QA system that achieved the best performance in a shared task of Japanese non-factoid QA in NTCIR-6.
Stereotypical Verbal and Nonverbal Responses While Deceiving Others

This experiment examined the impact of public self-consciousness and acting ability on processes and stereotypical responses during deception. Seventy-three nursing students were videotaped while (a) telling the truth and (b) lying about a theft they had observed. A variety of cues were coded, including criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) and reality monitoring (RM), in which high scores indicated honest responding. Compared with truth tellers, liars waited longer before giving an answer, spoke faster, made more speech hesitations, showed fewer illustrators, and showed lower CBCA and RM scores. Public self-consciousness was positively correlated with trying to control behavior but negatively correlated with RM scores. Ability to act was negatively correlated with RM scores, with showing stereotypical deceptive facial behavior (gaze aversion and smiling), with having to think hard while lying, and with being nervous while lying.
Music recommendation and query-by-content using Self-Organizing Maps

The ever-increasing density of computer storage devices has allowed the average user to store enormous quantities of multimedia content, and a large amount of this content is usually music. Current search techniques for musical content rely on meta-data tags which describe artist, album, year, genre, etc. Query-by-content systems allow users to search based upon the acoustical content of the songs. Recent systems have mainly depended upon textual representations of the queries and targets in order to apply common string-matching algorithms. However, these methods lose much of the information content of the song and limit the ways in which a user may search. We have created a music recommendation system that uses Self-Organizing Maps to find similarities between songs while preserving more of the original acoustical content. We build on the design of the recommendation system to create a musical query-by-content system. We discuss the weaknesses of the naïve solution and then implement a quasi-supervised design and discuss some preliminary results.
Cloning of a gene cluster encoding biphenyl and chlorobiphenyl degradation in Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes

A gene cluster encoding biphenyl- and chlorobiphenyl-degrading enzymes was cloned from a soil pseudomonad into Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1161. Chromosomal DNA from polychlorinated biphenyl-degrading Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes KF707 was digested with restriction endonuclease XhoI and cloned into the unique XhoI site of broad-host-range plasmid pKF330. Of 8,000 transformants tested, only 1, containing the chimeric plasmid pMFB1, rendered the host cell able to convert biphenyls and chlorobiphenyls to ring meta cleavage compounds via dihydrodiols and dihydroxy compounds. The chimeric plasmid contained a 7.9-kilobase XhoI insert. Subcloning experiments revealed that the genes bphA (encoding biphenyl dioxygenase), bphB (encoding dihydrodiol dehydrogenase), and bphC (encoding 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase) were coded for by the 7.9-kilobase fragment. The gene order was bphA-bphB-bphC. The hydrolase activity, which converted the intermediate meta cleavage compounds to the final product, chlorobenzoic acids, and was encoded by a putative bphD gene, was missing from the cloned 7.9-kilobase fragment.
Salient object detection in videos by optimal spatio-temporal path discovery

Many consumer videos focus on and follow salient objects in a scene. Detecting such salient objects is thus of great interests to video analytics and search. Instead of detecting salient object in individual frames separately, we propose to detect and track salient object simultaneously by finding a spatio-temporal path of the highest saliency density in the video. As salient video objects usually appear in consecutive frames, leveraging the motion coherence of videos can detect salient object more robustly. Without any prior knowledge of the salient objects, our method can automatically detect the salient objects of different shapes and sizes, and is able to handle noisy saliency maps and moving cameras. Experimental results on two public datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on salient video object detection.
Nanoliter high throughput quantitative PCR

Understanding biological complexity arising from patterns of gene expression requires accurate and precise measurement of RNA levels across large numbers of genes simultaneously. Real time PCR (RT-PCR) in a microtiter plate is the preferred method for quantitative transcriptional analysis but scaling RT-PCR to higher throughputs in this fluidic format is intrinsically limited by cost and logistic considerations. Hybridization microarrays measure the transcription of many thousands of genes simultaneously yet are limited by low sensitivity, dynamic range, accuracy and sample throughput. The hybrid approach described here combines the superior accuracy, precision and dynamic range of RT-PCR with the parallelism of a microarray in an array of 3072 real time, 33 nl polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCRs) the size of a microscope slide. RT-PCR is demonstrated with an accuracy and precision equivalent to the same assay in a 384-well microplate but in a 64-fold smaller reaction volume, a 24-fold higher analytical throughput and a workflow compatible with standard microplate protocols.
Interactions with infrastructure as windows into social worlds: A method for critical urban studies: Introduction

T his collection of papers offers a critical look at the social work that infrastructure does. We argue that small-scale interactions with infrastructure are, literally, foundations of larger scale social forms, including patterns of social integration and fragmentation, uneven geographical development and collective social imaginaries. The shared project of the papers, across very different places and times, is to use a ‘micro’ unit of analysis to draw ‘macro’ conclusions, by taking encounters between people and infrastructure as units of analysis and connecting them to illuminate how infrastructure shapes the social world. The majority of the papers are products of an ongoing discussion about infrastructure and social organization that has taken place at Humboldt University in Berlin since 2012, led by Craig Calhoun and supported by the Einstein Foundation. The project builds on work by Calhoun (1992) on ‘the infrastructure of modernity’, where he argues that the large-scale social relationships characteristic of the modern era are, in a large part, made possible by infrastructure. The others are by international scholars who have participated in seminars and conference sessions we have organized on this topic. Fran Tonkiss and AbdouMaliq Simone took on the task of responding to the papers and laying out potential directions for future research. Contributors’ shared motivating interest is in how material infrastructures influence social organization, and the shared empirical focus is on those that help constitute and sustain urban life.
Impacts of metal detector use in schools: insights from 15 years of research.

BACKGROUND Multiple approaches exist, both in theory and in practice, to reduce young people's risk of violent victimization when they are in school. Among these approaches, a growing number of school districts are choosing to install metal detectors. We sought to review the literature available on the impacts of metal detectors on school violence and perceptions about school violence. METHODS We conducted an extensive literature search, including databases for the medical, public health, sociology, and political science literature. Of 128 papers that met our search criteria, 7 studies met inclusion criteria for the literature review. RESULTS Each of the papers reviewed utilized data that originated from self-report surveys. Four of the studies consisted of secondary analyses of national databases, with the other 3 utilizing local surveys. The studies varied as to the outcome, ranging from student/staff perceptions of safety at school to student self-reports of weapon carrying and/or victimization, and showed mixed results. Several studies suggested potential detrimental effects of metal detectors on student perceptions of safety. One study showed a significant beneficial effect, linking metal detector use to a decrease in the likelihood that students reported carrying a weapon while in school (7.8% vs 13.8%), without a change in weapon carrying in other settings or a decline in participation in physical fights. CONCLUSION There is insufficient data in the literature to determine whether the presence of metal detectors in schools reduces the risk of violent behavior among students, and some research suggests that the presence of metal detectors may detrimentally impact student perceptions of safety.
Scattering of electromagnetic waves by rough interfaces and inhomogeneous layers

We consider a two-dimensional problem of scattering of a time-harmonic electromagnetic plane wave by an infinite inhomogeneous conducting or dielectric layer at the interface between semi-infinite homogeneous dielectric half-spaces. The magnetic permeability is assumed to be a fixed positive constant. The material properties of the media are characterized completely by an index of refraction, which is a bounded measurable function in the layer and takes positive constant values above and below the layer, corresponding to the homogeneous dielectric media. In this paper, we examine only the transverse magnetic (TM) polarization case. A radiation condition appropriate for scattering by infinite rough surfaces is introduced, a generalization of the Rayleigh expansion condition for diffraction gratings. With the help of the radiation condition the problem is reformulated as an equivalent mixed system of boundary and domain integral equations, consisting of second-kind integral equations over the layer and inte.
Immunocytochemical demonstration of peptidergic and serotoninergic components in the enteric nervous system of the roundworm, Ascaris suum (Nematoda, Ascaroidea)

SUMMARY The localization and distribution of neuropeptides and an indoleamine (serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine) in the enteric nervous system (ENS) of the pig roundworm, Ascaris suum, have been determined by the application of an indirect immunofluorescence technique in conjunction with confocal scanning laser microscopy. Whole-mount preparations of pharyngeal, intestinal and rectal regions were screened with antisera to 23 vertebrate peptides, 2 invertebrate peptides and serotonin (= 5-HT). Positive immunoreactivity (IR) was obtained with antisera to pancreatic polypeptide (PP), peptide YY (PYY), FMRFamide, gastrin and serotonin. The only IR observed in the ENS was that evident in the nerve supply to the pharynx and rectal region; no IR was associated with any region of the intestine. The most extensive patterns of IR occurred with antisera to PYY, FMRFamide and serotonin. In the pharyngeal component of the ENS, IR was evident in the lateral and dorsal longitudinal pharyngeal nerves, pharyngeal commissures, nerve plexus, and associated nerve cells and fibres. In contrast, the distribution of IR to the PP and gastrin antisera was more restricted and displayed a lower intensity of immunostaining. The other component of the ENS, the rectal enteric system, only yielded immunostaining to FMRFamide. The possible role of neuropeptides and serotonin in the nutritional biology of nematodes is discussed.
Relating to Insect Vectors from 1995 to 2004 Laboratory and Field Evaluation of Novaluron a New Acylurea Insect Growth Regulator against Aedes aegypti ( Diptera : Culicidae ) *

Novaluron, a new chitin synthesis inhibitor type of insect growth regulator, was evaluated in the laboratory and field against larvae of the mosquito Aedes aegypti (L.). In the laboratory, the technical material showed a high level of activity against 2nd and 4th instar larvae. The inhibition of emergence (IE) was 100% at concentrations of 0.25 to 1.0 μg/L. Second instars were slightly more susceptible than fourth instars. At the high concentration (1 ppb), most of the mortality occurred in the larvae, but at sublethal concentrations (for larvae) mortality also occurred in pupae and adults (incomplete eclosion). An EC10 (emulsifiable concentrate containing 10% active ingredient) formulation of novaluron was evaluated against Ae. aegypti in waterstorage containers in the field in Thailand. Two tests at high (0.05 to 1 mg/L) and low (1 to 20 μg/L) concentrations were carried out in clay jars (200 L) and plastic pails (75 L). At high concentrations in clay jars, we obtained 86-96% inhibition of emergence (IE) for about 190 d, but the mortality declined at low concentrations after 190 d. At much lower concentrations, in jars and plastic pails in the second experiment, the IE was 80-100% for 2 mo. The highest concentrations of this series (10 μg/L in jars and 20 μg/L in pails) were active for 75 and 68 d respectively, losing efficacy by 82 d post-treatment. In the experiment using low concentrations, all treatments in jars and plastic pails failed to provide adequate control 90 d after treatment. These studies show * These studies were carried out in collaboration with WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES). Mention of specific companies or products does not imply that they are recommended or endorsed by WHO or the University of California, Riverside, in preference over others that are not mentioned.
Position and Velocity Estimation Via Bearing Observations

The problem of performing target motion analysis using noisy bearing measurements derived from multiple observation platforms or from a single moving observer is addressed. For the latter case, the properties of an estimator based on a Cartesian model of the process are detailed. Methods of providing estimates both before an observer maneuver, when the process is unobservable, and following an observer maneuver are developed. The results of an experimental study are presented.
A Normalizer for UGC in Brazilian Portuguese

User-generated contents (UGC) represent an important source of information for governments, companies, political candidates and consumers. However, most of the Natural Language Processing tools and techniques are developed from and for texts of standard language, and UGC is a type of text especially full of creativity and idiosyncrasies, which represents noise for NLP purposes. This paper presents UGCNormal, a lexicon-based tool for UGC normalization. It encompasses a tokenizer, a sentence segmentation tool, a phonetic-based speller and some lexicons, which were originated from a deep analysis of a corpus of product reviews in Brazilian Portuguese. The normalizer was evaluated in two different data sets and carried out from 31% to 89% of the appropriate corrections, depending on the type of text noise. The use of UGCNormal was also validated in a task of POS tagging, which improved from 91.35% to 93.15% in accuracy and in a task of opinion classification, which improved the average of F1-score measures (F1-score positive and F1-score negative) from 0.736 to 0.758.
In silico Mechano-Chemical Model of Bone Healing for the Regeneration of Critical Defects: The Effect of BMP-2

The healing of bone defects is a challenge for both tissue engineering and modern orthopaedics. This problem has been addressed through the study of scaffold constructs combined with mechanoregulatory theories, disregarding the influence of chemical factors and their respective delivery devices. Of the chemical factors involved in the bone healing process, bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) has been identified as one of the most powerful osteoinductive proteins. The aim of this work is to develop and validate a mechano-chemical regulatory model to study the effect of BMP-2 on the healing of large bone defects in silico. We first collected a range of quantitative experimental data from the literature concerning the effects of BMP-2 on cellular activity, specifically proliferation, migration, differentiation, maturation and extracellular matrix production. These data were then used to define a model governed by mechano-chemical stimuli to simulate the healing of large bone defects under the following conditions: natural healing, an empty hydrogel implanted in the defect and a hydrogel soaked with BMP-2 implanted in the defect. For the latter condition, successful defect healing was predicted, in agreement with previous in vivo experiments. Further in vivo comparisons showed the potential of the model, which accurately predicted bone tissue formation during healing, bone tissue distribution across the defect and the quantity of bone inside the defect. The proposed mechano-chemical model also estimated the effect of BMP-2 on cells and the evolution of healing in large bone defects. This novel in silico tool provides valuable insight for bone tissue regeneration strategies.
Neuromodulation of Reactive Sensorimotor Mappings as a Short-Term Memory Mechanism in Delayed Response Tasks

This article addresses the relation between memory, representation, and adaptive behavior. More specifically, it demonstrates and discusses the use of synaptic plasticity, realized through neuromodulation of sensorimotor mappings, as a short-term memory mechanism in delayed response tasks. A number of experiments with extended sequential cascaded networks, that is, higher-order recurrent neural nets, controlling simple robotic agents in six different delayed response tasks are presented. The focus of the analysis is on how short-term memory is realized in such control networks through the dynamic modulation of sensorimotor mappings (rather than through feedback of neuronal activation, as in conventional recurrent nets), and how these internal dynamics interact with environmental/behavioral dynamics. In particular, it is demonstrated in the analysis of the last experimental scenario how this type of network can make very selective use of feedback/memory, while as far as possible limiting itself to the use of reactive sensorimotor mechanisms and occasional switches between them.