Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An activity catalogue of southern stars

We have acquired high-resolution echelle spectra of 225 F6-M5 type stars in the southern hemisphere. The stars are targets or candidates to be targets for the AngloAustralian Planet Search. CaII HK line cores were used to derive activity indices for all of these objects. The indices were converted to the Mt. Wilson system of measurements .
Using Density Matrices in a Compositional Distributional Model of Meaning

In this dissertation I present a framework for using density matrices instead of vectors in a distributional model of meaning. I present an asymmetric similarity measure between two density matrix representations based on relative entropy and show that this measure can be used for hyponymy-hypernymy relations. It is possible to compose density matrix representations of words to get a density matrix representation of a sentence. This map respects the generality of individual words in a sentence, taking sentences with more general words to more general sentence representations.
Chemoprevention of Rat Mammary Carcinogenesis by Apiaceae Spices

Scientific evidence suggests that many herbs and spices have medicinal properties that alleviate symptoms or prevent disease. In this study, we examined the chemopreventive effects of the Apiaceae spices, anise, caraway, and celery seeds against 17β-estrogen (E2)-mediated mammary tumorigenesis in an ACI (August-Copenhagen Irish) rat model. Female ACI rats were given either control diet (AIN 93M) or diet supplemented with 7.5% (w/w) of anise, caraway, or celery seed powder. Two weeks later, one half of the animals in each group received subcutaneous silastic implants of E2. Diet intake and body weight were recorded weekly, and animals were euthanized after 3 and 12 weeks. E2-treatment showed significantly (2.1- and 3.4-fold) enhanced growth of pituitary gland at 3 and 12 weeks, respectively. All test spices significantly offset the pituitary growth by 12 weeks, except celery which was effective as early as three weeks. Immunohistochemical analysis for proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in mammary tissues showed significant reduction in E2-mediated mammary cell proliferation. Test spices reduced the circulating levels of both E2 and prolactin at three weeks. This protection was more pronounced at 12 weeks, with celery eliciting the highest effect. RT-PCR and western blot analysis were performed to determine the potential molecular targets of the spices. Anise and caraway diets significantly offset estrogen-mediated overexpression of both cyclin D1 and estrogen receptor α (ERα). The effect of anise was modest. Likewise, expression of CYP1B1 and CYP1A1 was inhibited by all test spices. Based on short-term molecular markers, caraway was selected over other spices based on its enhanced effect on estrogen-associated pathway. Therefore, a tumor-end point study in ACI rats was conducted with dietary caraway. Tumor palpation from 12 weeks onwards revealed tumor latency of 29 days in caraway-treated animals compared with first tumor appearance at 92 days in control group. At the end of the study (25 weeks), the tumor incidence was 96% in the control group compared with only 70% in the caraway group. A significant reduction in tumor volume (661 ± 123 vs. 313 ± 81 mm3) and tumor multiplicity (4.2 ± 0.4 vs. 2.5 ± 0.5 tumors/animal) was also observed in the caraway group compared with the control group. Together, our data show dietary caraway can significantly delay and prevent the hormonal mammary tumorigenesis by modulating different cellular and molecular targets.
A case series of acquired haemophilia in a Malaysian hospital: unpredictably rare medical emergency

Acquired haemophilia (AH) is a rare bleeding disorder characterized by the presence of acquired inhibitors against Factor VIII causing disruption of coagulation cascade. It has no known genetic inheritance, and diagnosis remains a challenge. The peculiar presentations are later age of onset as acute pain in weight-bearing joints and spontaneous muscle haematoma with isolated prolonged activated partial thrombin time (APTT). Prevalence is 1 per million per year affecting both genders equally where blood product transfusion is seen in almost 87% of cases. The direct cause of AH is still unknown, and autoimmune dysregulation has been postulated, which predisposes to the development of the factor inhibitors. Being extremely rare, we are reporting two consecutive patients diagnosed by unusual bleeding episodes with isolated prolonged APTT due to Factor VIII inhibitors. AH deserves a special mention as high index of suspicion is required. More studies are required to provide better guidance in diagnosis and management of this condition.
Unsupervised Pre-training With Seq2Seq Reconstruction Loss for Deep Relation Extraction Models

Relation extraction models based on deep learning have been attracting a lot of attention recently. Little research is carried out to reduce their need of labeled training data. In this work, we propose an unsupervised pre-training method based on the sequence-to-sequence model for deep relation extraction models. The pre-trained models need only half or even less training data to achieve equivalent performance as the same models without pre-training
Using Active Video Games for Physical Activity Promotion

This systematic review evaluates interventions using active video games (AVGs) to increase physical activity and summarizes laboratory studies quantifying intensity of AVG play among children and adults. Databases (Cochrane Library, PsychInfo, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science) and forward citation and reference list searches were used to identify peer-reviewed journal articles in English through March 2011. Studies that used off-the-shelf AVGs to increase physical activity with quantitative outcomes or studies that quantified intensity of AVG play were included. Information on sample characteristics, AVGs employed, study design and conditions, outcome measures, results, and conclusions was extracted by two researchers. Intervention studies were ranked on design quality. Thirteen interventions and 28 laboratory studies were identified. All laboratory studies demonstrated that AVGs are capable of providing light-to-moderate intensity physical activity. However, only three interventions supported AVGs as an effective tool to significantly increase physical activity or exercise attendance. As AVGs are becoming more popular, additional research is needed to determine how to capitalize on the potential of AVGs to increase physical activity.
in Machine Learning and Algorithmic Game Theory Fall semester , 2011 / 12 Lecture 8 :

Consider a game of drawing balls from a bucket. The game manager tosses a secret coin. If the outcome is heads, the manager places 3 red balls and 2 white balls, and vice versa if the outcome is tails. Each player in his turn draws a ball from the bucket, secretly and at random, and has to announce (to all other players) his guess of the outcome of the original toss. Now, suppose that the rst few players saw red balls and declared 'heads'. The rst player to see a white ball, will attribute it to chance, and, given the short sequence of red balls before her draw, she will continue to declare 'heads'. The next player has no indication that any white balls were drawn, and thus even if he too will draw a white ball he will surely declare 'heads', and so on. We see that even if that vast majority of players draw white balls, they will all beleive that there is a majority of red balls, because of a small number of draws at the beginning of the game.
Adaptive Switched Linear Systems with Average Dwell Time to Compensate External Disturbances

Given a linear switched system composed of both Hurtwiz stable and unstable subsystems, and with additive unknown constant disturbance, a switch- ing law with average dwell time between Hurwitz stable and unstable subsystems is proposed, together with an adaptive algorithm to compensate the unknown addi- tive disturbance. Using Lyapunov theory, exponential stability of a desired degree of the plant state is assured and bounded-ness of the adaptive dynamic too.
Automatic classification of eclipsing binaries light curves using neural networks

In this work we present a system for the automatic classification of the light curves of eclipsing binaries. This system is based on a classification scheme that aims to separate eclipsing binary systems according to their geometrical configuration in a modified version of the traditional classification scheme. The classification is performed by a Bayesian ensemble of neural networks trained with Hipparcos data of seven different categories including eccentric binary systems and two types of pulsating light curve morphologies.
Primary Hyperoxaluria Type 1 in Japan

Background/Aims: Current status of primary hyperoxaluria (PH) has not been surveyed in Japan. Methods: Japanese patients with PH were reviewed in the published literature. Results: Fifty-nine patients were diagnosed as PH from 1962 to 2003. The median ages both at diagnosis and at the onset of initial symptoms were 17 (range: 0.02–63) and 13 (range: 0–58) years, respectively. Twenty-nine (49%) patients were older than 20 years at diagnosis, among whom 26 (90%) already presented end-stage renal failure (ESRF) or soon evolved into ESRF. Among 30 (51%) diagnosed as PH under 20 years old, only 13 (43%) were already in a terminal stage of renal insufficiency. Ten patients were diagnosed as PH1 by liver biopsy. We identified two types of enzymatic phenotypes in 3 of those patients examined. In 1 case, immunoreactive SPT/AGT protein level was very low due to accelerated proteolysis, while in other 2 cases, the immunoreactivity was detected on mitochondria due to mistargeting. Of 9 cases having been subjected to kidney transplantation at a median age of 20 years (range 7.3–40.0), it was only 2 cases that were reported to be successful, while the median survival time of the kidney grafts being 1.4 years (range 0–7). Of 4 patients having undergone combined liver/kidney transplantations (at the ages of 1.3, 1.4, 9 and 41 years, respectively), the surgery was successful in 3 cases; in the remaining one case, however, rejection required removal of the transplanted kidney was observed. The overall survival ratio of all the 59 PH cases accounted for 77, 71 and 55% at 5, 10 and 20 years, respectively. Conclusion: Assuming that the majority of the 59 patients with PH reported was classified as PH1, it is postulated that morbidity of violent infantile PH1 in Japan might be less than those in the USA and Europe, and symptoms of elderly Japanese PH1 patients seem to be milder than those of Western patients. Establishment of an early detection system of PH1 and more popular application of combined liver/kidney transplantation deserve further study.
Maximum carotid artery wall thickness and risk factors in a young primary prevention population

Maximum carotid artery wall thickness was utilized in a primary prevention population and compared with baseline risk factors. Carotid wall thickness was measured between the blood–intima and media–adventitia interfaces by B‐mode ultrasonography using software calipers at points of protrusion. Long‐axis measures were confirmed by short‐axis assessment. The maximum carotid wall thickness for each subject was divided by age in years to yield an annual accretion rate (called carotid intima–media thickness accretion rate [CIMTAR]). The entire study population was then divided by median CIMTAR to investigate the association with baseline variables used in standard risk assessments with the bifurcated groups. Traditional risk factors such as age, diabetes, smoking, hyperlipidemia, and obesity were not associated with greater than median CIMTAR. Only male gender (P = 0.02) and systolic blood pressure (P = 0.002) in baseline variables were associated with an elevated CIMTAR for the entire population. Among those not taking lipid‐lowering therapy at baseline, only systolic blood pressure remained significant (P = 0.0002). Correlations between low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level and maximum carotid wall thickness/CIMTAR were weak for the entire population (r = −0.17/r = −0.12, respectively). Measure of maximum carotid wall thickness may select patients earlier for treatment than traditional risk factors. The addition of CIMTAR to risk algorithms may permit a single‐point assignation of subsequent vascular risk that is more efficacious than traditional risk factors.
Contralateral eye-to-eye comparison of intravitreal ranibizumab and a sustained-release dexamethasone intravitreal implant in recalcitrant diabetic macular edema

Objective To compare the effects of intravitreal ranibizumab (RZB) or dexamethasone (DEX) intravitreal implant in cases of recalcitrant diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods Retrospective, interventional study examining patients with symmetric bilateral, center-involved DME recalcitrant to treatment with RZB, who received DEX in one eye while the contralateral eye continued to receive RZB every 4–5 weeks for a study period of 3 months. Results Eleven patients (22 eyes) were included: mean logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution (logMAR) visual acuity (VA) for the DEX arm improved from 0.415 (standard deviation [SD] ±0.16) to 0.261 (SD ±0.18) at final evaluation, and mean central macular thickness (CMT) improved from 461 µm (SD ±156) to 356 µm (SD ±110; net decrease: 105 µm, P=0.01). Mean logMAR VA for the RZB arm improved from 0.394 (SD ±0.31) to 0.269 (SD ±0.19) at final evaluation. Mean CMT improved from 421 µm (SD ±147) to 373 µm (SD ±129; net decrease: 48 µm, P=0.26). Conclusion A subset of recalcitrant DME patients demonstrated significant CMT reduction and VA improvement after a single DEX injection.
The nuclear events guiding successful nerve regeneration

Peripheral nervous system (PNS) neurons survive and regenerate after nerve injury, whereas central nervous system (CNS) neurons lack the capacity to do so. The inability of the CNS to regenerate presumably results from a lack of intrinsic growth activity and a permissive environment. To achieve CNS regeneration, we can learn from successful nerve regeneration in the PNS. Neurons in the PNS elicit dynamic changes in gene expression in response to permissive environmental cues following nerve injury. To switch gene expression on and off in injured neurons, transcription factors and their networks should be carefully orchestrated according to the regeneration program. This is the so-called “intrinsic power of axonal growth. ” There is an increasing repertoire of candidate transcription factors induced by nerve injury. Some of them potentiate the survival and axonal regeneration of damaged neurons in vivo; however, our knowledge of transcriptional events in injured neurons is still limited. How do these transcription factors communicate with each other? How does the transcriptional machinery regulate the wide variety of regeneration-associated genes (RAGs) in the properly coordinated manner? In this review, we describe our current understanding of the injury-inducible transcriptional factors that enhance the intrinsic growth capacity, and propose a potential role for specificity protein 1 (Sp1), which provides a platform to recruit injury-inducible transcription factors, in simultaneous gene regulation. Finally, we discuss an additional mechanism that is involved in epigenetic modifications in damaged neurons. A comprehensive understanding of the nuclear events in injured neurons will provide clues to clinical interventions for successful nerve regeneration.
A Nonlocal Variational Formulation for the Improvement of Tone Mapped Images

Due to technical limitations, common display devices can only reproduce images having a low range of intensity values (dynamic range). As a consequence, the dynamic range of images encoding real world scenes, which is large, has to be compressed in order for them to be reproduced on a common display, and this technique is called tone mapping. Because there is no ground truth to compare with, evaluation of a tone mapped image has to be done by comparing with the original high dynamic range image. As standard metrics based on pixelwise comparisons are not suitable for comparing images of different dynamic range, nonlocal perceptual based metrics are commonly used. We propose a general method for optimizing tone mapped images with respect to a given nonlocal metric. In particular, if the metric is perceptual, i.e., it involves perceptual concepts, we provide an adequate minimization strategy. Experiments on a particular perceptual metric tested with different tone mapped images provided by several tone mappi.
The Hipparcos observations and the mass of sub-stellar objects ?

The Hipparcos Intermediate Astrometric Data have been used lately to estimate the inclination of the orbital plane of candidate extrasolar planets. Whereas most of these investigations derive almost face-on orbits, we show that the astrometric data are seldom precise enough to undertake such studies and that the \face-on" result might be just a spurious eect of the method.
Energy Economical Resolution for Heavy Computation Using Cloud

In spite of the dramatic growth inside the variability of excellent phones in recent years, the challenge of restricted energy capability of these devices has not been resolved satisfactorily. However, inside the age of cloud computing, the limitation on energy capability is mitigated off in a cheap manner by offloading vital tasks to the cloud. It is a necessity permanently phone and cloud computing developers to possess insights into the energy worth of excellent phone applications before implementing the offloading techniques. In this paper, we tend to tend to live the energy worth of transmission applications on sensible phones that square measure connected to Energy as a Service Cloud (EaaSC). We have conducted Associate in nursing comprehensive set of experiments to measure the energy costs to analysis whether or not or not or not sensible phones save energy by victimization EaaSC services. Specifically, we tend to tend to perform all the massive or vital computations on cloud rather than on sensible phone. Energy consumption comparison was performed by victimization protocol and FTP web protocols with 3G and Wi-Fi network interfaces. All the experiments were conducted on Associate in nursing automaton based totally HTC Nexus One sensible phone. Our results show that EaaSC provides the sensible, great & nice phones with easy transmission usefulness and saves good phone energy up to 60% to 90%. All huge computations square measure performed in EaaS Cloud therefore sensible phones needn’t need to be compelled to try and do the computation regionally. By that it scales back the battery drain of excellent phone. Keywords— Energy as a service, energy consumption,
Teaching time-varying stability theory using autonomous partial stability theory

We present partial stability results; that is, stability with respect to part of the system's state, for nonlinear dynamical systems. Using these results we provide a rigorous unification between partial stability theory for autonomous systems and stability theory for nonlinear time-varying systems. This unification allows for time-varying stability theory to be presented as a special case of autonomous partial stability theory in a first course on nonlinear systems.
Tact: Design and performance of an open-source, affordable, myoelectric prosthetic hand

This paper presents the Tact hand-an anthropomorphic, open-source, myoelectric prosthetic hand that was designed for use by people with transradial amputations in developing countries. This hand matches or exceeds the performance of other state-of-the-art myoelectric prosthetic hands, but costs two orders of magnitude less ($250) and is easy to manufacture with a 3D printer and off-the-shelf parts. We describe our design process, evaluate the Tact hand with both qualitative and quantitative measures of performance, and show examples of using this hand to grasp household objects.
A Coding Scheme for Write Time Improvement of Phase Change Memory (PCM) Systems

This paper presents new codes (and the related encoder/decoder scheme) to address the significant drawback of a phase change memory (PCM), namely that its write latency is significantly longer than the read latency. The proposed scheme improves over existing schemes by reducing the average write latency and the number of SET operations in a PCM. A new code, referred to as the write time speed-up (WTS) code is introduced; WTS improves over existing schemes previously employed for this operation, i.e., the flip-N-write and the write-once-memory (WOM) code. In the proposed WTS code, multiple codewords correspond to every information word; the codewords are selected to reduce the number of SET operations (each requiring a longer time than the RESET operation in a PCM). The proposed scheme targets a reduction in SET operations, by executing them only when required, i.e., so making the SET operations to occur irregularly with the write operations. Simulation results are provided using an embedded benchmark suite; they show that the proposed scheme incurs in a shorter average write time than the flip-N-write scheme as well as the existing scheme with the WOM code when parallel data is provided. Encoding and decoding times for the proposed scheme are significantly shorter than the read and write latencies of a PCM. Moreover, the hardware overhead (in the area for LUT-based implementations) for the encoder and decoder of of WTS code is significantly smaller than the PCM system size, thus making the proposed design viable for implementation.
Effects of Temperature and Carbon-Nitrogen (C/N) Ratio on the Performance of Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Dairy Manure, Chicken Manure and Rice Straw: Focusing on Ammonia Inhibition

Anaerobic digestion is a promising alternative to disposal organic waste and co-digestion of mixed organic wastes has recently attracted more interest. This study investigated the effects of temperature and carbon-nitrogen (C/N) ratio on the performance of anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manure (DM), chicken manure (CM) and rice straw (RS). We found that increased temperature improved the methane potential, but the rate was reduced from mesophilic (30∼40°C) to thermophilic conditions (50∼60°C), due to the accumulation of ammonium nitrogen and free ammonia and the occurrence of ammonia inhibition. Significant ammonia inhibition was observed with a C/N ratio of 15 at 35°C and at a C/N ratio of 20 at 55°C. The increase of C/N ratios reduced the negative effects of ammonia and maximum methane potentials were achieved with C/N ratios of 25 and 30 at 35°C and 55°C, respectively. When temperature increased, an increase was required in the feed C/N ratio, in order to reduce the risk of ammonia inhibition. Our results revealed an interactive effect between temperature and C/N on digestion performance.
Shear force reconstruction in a vertically oriented probe microscope using a super-twisting observer

In this paper, a scheme employing a super-twisting sliding mode observer is proposed to reconstruct the unknown shear forces at the tip of the vertically oriented cantilever (VOC) which is the key component of Bristol University's Vertically Oriented Probe Microscope (VOPM). The VOPM is unique in the sense that the distance of the VOC tip from the specimen can be measured using the known amplitude of the horizontal excitation of the cantilever. This amplitude is directly influenced by the interaction of the VOC with the fluid layer above the biological specimen. The shear forces caused by the fluid interaction increase with the proximity of the tip to the specimen. Thus, knowledge of the shear forces is another important measure of the closeness of the VOC tip to the specimen. Simulation examples show the feasibility of its eventual real-time application.