Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of TGF-β1 genotypes in Egyptian smokers; association with FEV1 in COPD patients

Introduction TGF-β1 is a cytokine with many different effects on cell proliferation, differentiation and inflammation and can protect against the development of COPD. This work aims to study the association between COPD and the TGF-β1 gene genotypes. Material and methods The study included 70 males: 25 smokers with COPD, 25 resistant smokers, and 20 normal non-smokers as the control. They were subjected to spirometry pre- and post-bronchodilator (FEV1, FEV1/FVC), estimation of serum level of TGF-β1 gene by PCR and RFLP. Results The percent of Pro-Leu was 28% in the COPD group, 84% in the resistant smokers group and 85% in the control group. There was a highly significant statistical difference in FEV1% of predicted associated with the distribution of TGF-β1 gene genotypes: 56.9 ±8.4% with Pro-Leu genotype and 35.5 ±8.8% with Leu-Leu genotype in COPD patients, 93.2 ±6.2% with Pro-Leu genotype and 86.7 ±0.9% with Leu-Leu genotype in the resistant smokers group. Conclusions The Pro-allele genotype is associated with increased production of TGF-β1, which has a protective role against the development of COPD and is important in preserving the decline of FEV1 in COPD patients.
Educational Interpreters’ Salaries: Correlations with Demographic and Employment Characteristics

Recruitment and retention of highly competent sign language interpreters in educational (primary through secondary school) settings is a documented challenge, and some professionals suggest this is due to salaries that are incomparable to community interpreters’ earning potential. This project used existing survey data collected from educational interpreters working in a southeastern U.S. state during the 2007-2008 academic year. The analysis reveals that interpreters’ salaries are comparable to pro-rated salaries of community interpreters and are correlated with years of service, job title, and credential status; however, interpreters’ salaries are not correlated with interpreters’ educational attainment. While comparable salaries existed, the earning potential of educational interpreters may not be comparable to community interpreters within this state due to licensure
Dance of designing: Rethinking position, relation and movement in service design

Despite the recognised need for service design (SD) to understand the complexity in which it intervenes, we are concerned with its desire to fix dynamic configurations through a dominant instrumentalized worldview. We critique the journey map - an iconic method in SD - as one illustration of this fixing tendency in order to highlight how nuanced details are sometimes designed out and argue why such omission is ethical and political. In contrast, following feminist theory, we ground our accounts of practice to argue that service ecologies are situated and continually emergent, constituted by the changing configuration of various things. Instead of fixing to make static or finalise, we use freezing as a temporary state to trace and orientate our movements in a co-design workshop. The similarity of and tension between notions of fixing and freezing is used to call out nuanced differences and attend to the intrinsic, dynamic and temporal nature of service design.
Modified Joint Probability Data Association Algorithm Controlling Track Coalescence

Joint Probabilistic Data Association has been proven to be effective in tracking multiple targets from measurements amidst clutter and missed detections. But the traditional Joint Probabilistic Data Association algorithm will cause track coalescence when the targets are parallel neighboring or small-angle crossing. To avoid track coalescence, a modified Joint Probabilistic Data Association algorithm is proposed in this paper. An exclusive measurement is defined for every target in the new algorithm, and an arbitrary positive scaling factor will be employed to multiply the maximum probabilities of every target associated with measurements. At last, the Entropy Value Method will be used twice to give weights to the association probabilities of every measurement. The simulation results show that the new algorithm can effectively avoid track coalescence in all kinds of scenarios and its performance is better than the track performance when the Entropy Value Method is used only one time.
A rateless coding and modulation scheme for unknown Gaussian channels

We consider the problem of reliable transmission of information over unknown AWGN channels using rateless codes and non-uniform modulation techniques. We show that Raptor codes and a form of non-uniform, high-order modulation allow for reliable communication at low SNR, with the ability to automatically adapt rate as the SNR increases. Simulation results are presented showing throughput performance and design parameter tradeoffs.
A homogeneous agent architecture for robot navigation

A homogeneous agent architecture consists of agents having the same or similar structures in one system. The design introduces the advantage of reducing the development time. In this architecture, the engineer would only design one or few templates for agents, and every agent is constructed by one of these templates. Two categories of agents in the proposed system are the primitive agent and the behavioral agent. The behavioral agents play the role of leaders, so that they can produce output signals through combining the signals of those primitive agents. Hence, we could increase new capability of the whole system flexibly through adding new primitive agents with different capability and adding new behavioral agents to process their opinions. In this paper, we use this homogeneous agent architecture to control a autonomous mobile robot, and it performs well in simulation.
Anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations in maternal serum during pregnancy.

BACKGROUND In females, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is expressed only by the ovary. AMH is secreted by the granulosa cells of ovarian follicles and appears to regulate early follicle development. AMH is detected in serum from women of reproductive age and its levels vary slightly with the menstrual cycle, reaching the peak value in the late follicular phase. This study investigated serum AMH levels throughout gestation and after delivery in healthy pregnant women. METHODS This cross-sectional study recruited pregnant women and healthy non-pregnant women, 84 in total. AMH, FSH and E2 were measured in the follicular phase, in the three trimesters of pregnancy and in early puerperium. RESULTS Estradiol and FSH levels followed the expected patterns during gestation. During the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle AMH levels were 1.9 +/- 0.5 ng/ml. In the three trimesters of pregnancy and in early puerperium AMH levels were: 2.1 +/- 0.56, 2.4 +/- 0.64, 1.95 +/- 0.6 and 2.05 +/- 0.55 ng/ml respectively. No significant modifications were found in AMH levels during pregnancy and in the early puerperium. CONCLUSIONS This study has obtained information on AMH and on the possible relationship with FSH. We hypothesize that the profile of the new marker of ovarian activity AMH may indicate that initial non-cyclic ovarian follicular activity during pregnancy is not abolished. Moreover FSH, does not seem to play a direct role on AMH synthesis and secretion.
Atomically detailed potentials to recognize native and approximate protein structures

Atomically detailed potentials for recognition of protein folds are presented. The potentials consist of pair interactions between atoms. One or three distance steps are used to describe the range of interactions between a pair. Training is carried out with the mathematical programming approach on the decoy sets of Baker, Levitt, and some of our own design. Recognition is required not only for decoy–native structural pairs but also for pairs of decoy and homologous structures. Performance is tested on the targets of CASP5 using templates from the Protein Data Bank, on two test ab initio decoy sets from Skolnick's laboratory, and on decoy sets from Moult's laboratory. We conclude that the newly derived potentials have significant recognition capacity, comparable to the best models derived from other techniques. The new potentials require a significantly smaller number of parameters. The enhanced recognition capacity extends primarily to the identification of structures generated by ab initio simulation and less to the recognition of approximate shapes created by homology. Proteins 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evidence for an Attentional Component of the Perceptual Misalignment between Moving and Flashing Stimuli

If a pair of dots, diametrically opposed to each other, is flashed in perfect alignment with another pair of dots rotating about the visual fixation point, most observers perceive the rotating dots as being ahead of the flashing dots (flash-lag effect). This psychophysical effect was first interpreted as the result of a perceptual extrapolation of the position of the moving dots. Also, it has been conceived as the result of differential visual latencies between flashing and moving stimuli, arising from purely sensory factors and/or expressing the contribution of attentional mechanisms as well. In a series of two experiments, we had observers judge the relative position between rotating and static dots at the moment a temporal marker was presented in the visual field. In experiment 1 we manipulated the nature of the temporal marker used to prompt the alignment judgment. This resulted in three main findings: (i) the flash-lag effect was observed to depend on the visual eccentricity of the flashing dots; (ii) the magnitude of the flash-lag effect was not dependent on the offset of the flashing dot; and (iii) the moving stimulus, when suddenly turned off, was perceived as lagging behind its disappearance location. Taken altogether, these results suggest that neither visible persistence nor motion extrapolation can account for the perceptual flash-lag phenomenon. The participation of attentional mechanisms was investigated in experiment 2, where the magnitude of the flash-lag effect was measured under both higher and lower predictability of the location of the flashing dot. Since the magnitude of the flash-lag effect significantly increased with decreasing predictability, we conclude that the observer's attentional set can modulate the differential latencies determining this perceptual effect. The flash-lag phenomenon can thus be conceived as arising from differential visual latencies which are determined not only by the physical attributes of the stimulus, such as its luminance or eccentricity, but also by attentional mechanisms influencing the delays involved in the perceptual processing.
Stationary Consensus of Asynchronous Discrete-Time Second-Order Multi-Agent Systems Under Switching Topology

This paper is concerned with the asynchronous consensus problem of discrete-time second-order multi-agent system under dynamically changing communication topology, in which the asynchrony means that each agent detects the neighbors' state information to update its state information by its own clock. It is not assumed that the agents' clocks are synchronized. Nor is it assumed that the time sequence over which each agent update its state information is evenly spaced. By using tools from graph theory and nonnegative matrix theory, particularly the product properties of row-stochastic matrices from an infinite set, we finally show that essentially the same result as that for the synchronous discrete-time system holds in the face of asynchronous setting. This generalizes the existing result to a very general case.
Regulation of the seed to seedling developmental phase transition by the LAFL and VAL transcription factor networks

In the seed, a fundamental transition between embryo and vegetative phases of plant development is coordinated by the interaction between the AFL and VAL sub‐clades of the plant specific B3 domain transcription factor family. The AFL B3 factors together with LEC1‐type HAP3 transcription factors promote embryo maturation; whereas the VAL B3 factors repress the LEC1/AFL (LAFL) network during seed germination. Recent advances reveal that genes in key developmental programs and hormone signaling pathways are downstream targets of the LAFL network highlighting the central role of the LAFL network in integration of intrinsic developmental and hormonal signals during plant development. The VAL B3 proteins are proposed to mediate repression by recruiting a histone deacetylase complex (HDAC) to LAFL genes that contain the Sph/RY cis‐element recognized by AFL and VAL B3‐DNA‐binding domains. In addition to VAL B3 factors, epigenetic mechanisms are implicated in maintaining repression of LAFL network during vegetative development. WIREs Dev Biol 2014, 3:135–145. doi: 10.1002/wdev.126
Exploring the influence of scale on artist attribution

Previous work has shown that the artist of an artwork can be identified by use of computational methods that analyse digital images. However, the digitised artworks are often investigated at a coarse scale discarding many of the important details that may define an artist's style. In recent years high resolution images of artworks have become available, which, combined with increased processing power and new computational techniques, allow us to analyse digital images of artworks at a very fine scale. In this work we train and evaluate a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on the task of artist attribution using artwork images of varying resolutions. To this end, we combine two existing methods to enable the application of high resolution images to CNNs. By comparing the attribution performances obtained at different scales, we find that in most cases finer scales are beneficial to the attribution performance, whereas for a minority of the artists, coarser scales appear to be preferable. We conclude that artist attribution would benefit from a multi-scale CNN approach which vastly expands the possibilities for computational art forensics.
Advances in Planning and Scheduling of Remote Sensing Instruments for Fleets of Earth Orbiting Satellites

This paper describes a system for planning and scheduling science observations for fleets of Earth observing satellites. Input requests for imaging time on an Earth observing satellite are specified in terms of the type of data desired, the location to be observed, and an objective priority of satisfying the request. The problem is to find a sequence of start times for observations and supporting activities such as instrument slewing and enforcement of instrument thermal duty cycles, that satisfy a set of temporal and resource constraints describing the physical operation of the spacecraft. We assume that there are more requests that can possibly be serviced over a given scheduling window, and that images may vary in their scientific utility, leading to an optmization problem. This paper presents an approach to solve this problem employing 1) a formal declarative model of the problem, 2) stochastic sampling methods to find plans, and 3) special purpose heuristics based on a generalized contention measure.
Lossless Wideband Speech Coding

This paper investigates lossless coding of wideband speech by adding a lossless enhancement layer to the lossy baselayer produced by a standardised wideband speech coder. Both the ITU-T G.722 and G.722. 2 speech coders are examined. Entropy results show that potential compression rates are dependent on the type and bit rate of the baselayer coder as well as the symbol size used by the lossless coder. Higher compression rates were obtained by adding a decorrelation stage prior to lossless encoding. The resulting lossless speech coder operates at a bit rate that is approximately 58% of the bit rate of original digitised wideband speech signal.
Attention and tool-use in the evolution of language

It is argued that the capacity to focus attention is crucial for intentional communication. Intentional communication is goal-intended; directed at changing mental states and as a consequence behaviour; about a referential object common to sender and recipient; and about objects that may be context-and referent-independent. Three different kinds of attention is discerned: scanning, attention attraction, and attention-focusing. The focus of attention can, depending on the abilities of the subject, be on objects or subjects that either are contextual or stable, and it can be individual or shared. For language use, subject-subject focusing along with shared attention are necessary. This does not require Gricean metarepresentations, but basically only attention contact between the subjects and behavioral co-ordination. Language use can be compared with tool use to bring out the characteristics that distinguish informational from intentional communication. The capacities required for tool use are in several cases similar to those required for language use. A basic similarity is that both activities are used as means to an end. (Less)
Predictive factors of glycemic control: a comparison of decision tree and neural networks

Way back in the past decade, we are confronted with the sharply increasing diabetes patients who have become one of the most important issues of public health. Accompanied with different complications, there is overwhelming evidence that threatens the patient's life. The complications of diabetes can be slow or even prevented by glycemic control in advance. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, from the comparison standpoint, decision tree and back-propagation neural networks were adopted to pursue the underlying characteristics of the glycemic control of the achieving target, or in risk control level, so as to provide guidelines for physicians and diabetes educators. Second, for the cross validity purpose, 512 patients, enrolled in Diabetes Healthcare Quality Improvement Program, were divided into estimated data and holdout data in a teaching hospital in Taiwan. Armed with the comparison, the finding revealed that back-propagation neural networks is more precision than C5.0 and C4.5 with the classification rate 74.5%, 68.6% and 60.8%, respectively. We concluded that age, years of diabetes onset, patient-physician relationship, medical department to visit, family history of diabetes, body mass index, during of enrollment in Diabetes Healthcare Quality Improvement Program, and education status are most important attributes influence the glycemic control.
Parameterized complexity for the database theorist

Parameterized complexity theory provides a framework for a fine-grain complexity analysis of algorithmic problems that are intractable in general. In recent years, ideas from parameterized complexity theory have found their way into various areas of computer science, such as artificial intelligence [15], computational biology [1, 21], and, last but not least, database theory [16, 19]. This short paper is a gentle introduction to the theory, focusing on the results most relevant for database theory. Interested readers are referred to Downey and Fellow’s monograph [6] to learn more about parameterized complexity theory. The paper is organised as follows: In Section 2 we describe two simple fixed-parameter tractable algorithms in an informal way. Section 3 presents the formal framework of parameterized complexity theory. Section 4 is a brief survey of the parameterized complexity of database query evaluation.
Ectopic Expression of AID in a Non-B Cell Line Triggers A∶T and G:C Point Mutations in Non-Replicating Episomal Vectors

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) of immunoglobulin genes is currently viewed as a two step process initiated by the deamination of deoxycytidine (C) to deoxyuridine (U), catalysed by the activation induced deaminase (AID). Phase 1 mutations arise from DNA replication across the uracil residue or the abasic site, generated by the uracil-DNA glycosylase, yielding transitions or transversions at G:C pairs. Phase 2 mutations result from the recognition of the U∶G mismatch by the Msh2/Msh6 complex (MutS Homologue), followed by the excision of the mismatched nucleotide and the repair, by the low fidelity DNA polymerase η, of the gap generated by the exonuclease I. These mutations are mainly focused at A∶T pairs. Whereas in activated B cells both G:C and A∶T pairs are equally targeted, ectopic expression of AID was shown to trigger only G:C mutations on a stably integrated reporter gene. Here we show that when using non-replicative episomal vectors containing a GFP gene, inactivated by the introduction of stop codons at various positions, a high level of EGFP positive cells was obtained after transient expression in Jurkat cells constitutively expressing AID. We show that mutations at G:C and A∶T pairs are produced. EGFP positive cells are obtained in the absence of vector replication demonstrating that the mutations are dependent only on the mismatch repair (MMR) pathway. This implies that the generation of phase 1 mutations is not a prerequisite for the expression of phase 2 mutations.
Do they fit out of sample

This study compares the out-of-sample forecasting accuracy of various structural and time series exchange rate models. We find that a random walk model performs as well as any estimated model at one to twelve month horizons for the dollar/pound, dollar/mark, dollar/yen and tradeweighted dollar exchange rates. The candidate structural models include the flexible-price (FrenkelBilson) and sticky-price (Dornbusch-Frankel) monetary models, and a sticky-price model which incorporates the current account (Hooper-Morton). The structural models perform poorly despite the fact that we base their forecasts on actual realized values of future explanatory variables.
Towards a Framework for Agile Management Based on Chaos and Complex System Theories

The necessity of a paradigm shift in software project management, particularly with advent of agile methods, nowadays is an interesting and challenging issue. The values and principles that have centrality in agile thought need new approaches in relation to project management. The main causes of this needed paradigm shift are unpredictability and dynamicity of software processes, and inefficiency of traditional approaches. With respect to these factors, and increasing growth of applying chaos and complex system theories in organizational study and strategic management, this research attempts to design a framework for managing agile projects based on these two theories. Concepts of these theories will be a lens to investigate software project management and propose new practices. Our analyses indicate that chaos theory can further shape strategic decisions in comparison to complex system concepts that can further help designing an appropriate agile team in the level of people interaction.