Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computational Trade-offs in Statistical Learning

The last several years have seen the emergence of datasets of an unprecedented scale, and solving various inference problems on such datasets has received much focus in the modern machine learning and statistics literature. Understanding the statistical and computational aspects of learning from these large and high-dimensional datasets is the key focus of this thesis. One source of such data is the virtually unbounded amounts of unstructured information on the internet, which can often be compiled into large datasets for training machine learning algorithms using automated techniques, computer vision, natural language tasks, and web search and ranking being prime examples. Computational biology, computational astronomy and collaborative filtering are some other examples of problem domains where vast amounts of training data for learning algorithms are often readily available. It might be expected that the large number of samples make the statistical problem easier, and subsampling a smaller dataset should be an effective computational strategy. However, this is not always the case. With access to more and more data, the goal is often to understand higher order dependencies in the data, leading to an explosion in the number of parameters to be estimated. Indeed a large body of literature in modern machine learning and statistics is focusing on problems where the number of parameters grows with, and is often larger than the number of samples. While the number of training samples and parameters seems to grow almost unboundedly, computation is struggling to keep up. The last few years have seen a clear tapering off in the rate of growth of computational power on individual cores. As a result, the algorithmic focus in machine learning has shifted to online and stochastic optimization algorithms, budgeted learning algorithms and parallel and distributed algorithms fit for multicore, cluster or cloud environments. Though it might seem that computation is the main bottleneck for such massive data problems, it is not appropriate to consider these problems as purely computational and ignore the underlying statistical structure. In fact, in many cases the statistical nature of the data can make the computational problem easier, and make the goals of computation simpler than needed without this structure. As a result, a fundamental question in modern statistics and machine learning is to understand the error of statistical estimators, as a function of the sample size, number of parameters and the computational budget available. The goal of this thesis is to study these trade-offs between the computational and statistical aspects of learning problems. This line of research results in several natural questions, some of which are partially addressed in this thesis and others present interesting challenges for future work.
Mortality risk associated with low-trauma osteoporotic fracture and subsequent fracture in men and women.

CONTEXT There are few data on long-term mortality following osteoporotic fracture and fewer following subsequent fracture. OBJECTIVES To examine long-term mortality risk in women and men following all osteoporotic fractures and to assess the association of subsequent fracture with that risk. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective cohort from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study of community-dwelling women and men aged 60 years and older from Dubbo, Australia, who sustained a fracture between April 1989 and May 2007. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Age- and sex-specific standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) compared with the overall Dubbo population for hip, vertebral, major, and minor fractures. RESULTS In women, there were 952 low-trauma fractures followed by 461 deaths, and in men, 343 fractures were followed by 197 deaths. Age-adjusted SMRs were increased following hip fractures (SMRs, 2.43 [95% confidence interval [CI], 2.02-2.93] and 3.51 [95% CI, 2.65-4.66]), vertebral fractures (SMRs, 1.82 [95% CI, 1.52-2.17] and 2.12 [95% CI, 1.66-2.72]), major fractures (SMRs, 1.65 [95% CI, 1.31-2.08] and 1.70 [95% CI, 1.23-2.36]), and minor fractures (SMRs, 1.42 [95% CI, 1.19-1.70] and 1.33 [95% CI, 0.99-1.80]) for both women and men, respectively. Mortality was increased for all ages for all fractures except minor fractures for which increased mortality was only apparent for those older than 75 years. Increased mortality risk persisted for 5 years for all fractures and up to 10 years for hip fractures. Increases in absolute mortality that were above expected, for 5 years after fracture, ranged from 1.3 to 13.2 per 100 person-years in women and from 2.7 to 22.3 per 100 person-years in men, depending on fracture type. Subsequent fracture was associated with an increased mortality hazard ratio of 1.91 (95% CI, 1.54-2.37) in women and 2.99 (95% CI, 2.11-4.24) in men. Mortality risk following a subsequent fracture then declined but beyond 5 years still remained higher than in the general population (SMR, 1.41 [95% CI, 1.01-1.97] and SMR, 1.78 [95% CI, 0.96-3.31] for women and men, respectively). Predictors of mortality after any fragility fracture for both men and women included age, quadriceps weakness, and subsequent fracture but not comorbidities. Low bone mineral density, having smoked, and sway were also predictors for women and less physical activity for men. CONCLUSIONS In a sample of older women and men, all low-trauma fractures were associated with increased mortality risk for 5 to 10 years. Subsequent fracture was associated with increased mortality risk for an additional 5 years.
Acute effects of cocaine on prolactin and gonadotropins in female rhesus monkey during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle.

The acute effects of i.v. cocaine on basal levels of prolactin (PRL), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone were examined in nine female rhesus monkeys during the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle (days 4-7). Integrated plasma samples were collected at 10-min intervals for 40 min before and 110 min after administration of cocaine (0.4 and 0.8 mg/kg i.v.). Cocaine plasma levels averaged 105 +/- 19 and 157 +/- 23 ng/ml after low- and high-dose administration. PRL decreased significantly (P less than .01) after cocaine administration and reached a nadir within 60 to 70 min. Inasmuch as cocaine blocks dopamine reuptake, PRL suppression is consistent with dopaminergic inhibitory control of PRL release from the pituitary. However, cocaine's effects on PRL were biphasic in 10 of 18 studies. PRL increased within 90 to 110 min post-cocaine and sometimes exceeded base-line levels by over 100%. The duration of PRL suppression (80 min) and the time of onset of the subsequent rebound PRL increase corresponds to the estimated half-life of i.v. cocaine in monkey plasma. PRL suppression followed by a rebound elevation also is consistent with clinical reports of hyperprolactinemia in chronic cocaine abusers. LH increased significantly (P less than .01) within 20 min after cocaine administration and remained above base-line for 40 to 50 min. Follicle-stimulating hormone did not change significantly after cocaine administration. Cocaine's stimulation of LH is consistent with cocaine's alleged enhancement of sexual arousal. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Advanced Query Processing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

At the early stage of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) research, most studies focused on routing protocols to support communications among mobile nodes connected to each other by one-hop/multi-hop links. However, in many MANET applications, mobile nodes share data with each other and access data held by other mobile nodes. Typical examples are collaborative rescue operations at a disaster site, military operations, sensor networks, and exchange of word-of-mouth information in a shopping mall. For such applications, preventing the deterioration of data availability at the point of network partitioning is a very significant issue. Data replication is the most promising solution to this potential problem [2, 4]. In our previous research, we designed effective data replication techniques in MANETs: replica relocation [2], consistency management [3], and data lookup and transmission [5]. In this research, we assume that every data request directly specifies the identifier of the target data item. However, there are many MANET applications that require more flexible and advanced queries for accessing data, such as keyword search, top-k search, and k-nearest neighbor search. Each of these advanced queries has particular features in terms of query processing.
Pathophysiology of CD4+ T-Cell Depletion in HIV-1 and HIV-2 Infections

The hall mark of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a gradual loss of CD4+ T-cells and imbalance in CD4+ T-cell homeostasis, with progressive impairment of immunity that leads ultimately to death. HIV infection in humans is caused by two related yet distinct viruses: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-2 is typically less virulent than HIV-1 and permits the host to mount a more effective and sustained T-cell immunity. Although both infections manifest the same clinical spectrum, the much lower rate of CD4+ T-cell decline and slower progression of disease in HIV-2 infected individuals have grabbed the attention of several researchers. Here, we review the most recent findings on the differential rate of decline of CD4+ T-cell in HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections and provide plausible reasons for the observed differences between the two groups.
Correlating 2D histological slice with 3D MRI image volume using smart phone as an interactive tool for muscle study

In muscle dystrophy studies, registration of histological image with MRI image volume enables cross validation of MRI biomarkers using pathological result. However, correlation of 2D histology slice with 3D MRI volume is technically challenging due to the potentially non-orthogonal slice plane and incomplete or distorted histological slice. This paper presents an efficient method to directly perform the 2D-3D registration. The method is unique in that it uses smart phone as a navigation tool for initial alignment followed by an overlap invariant mutual information-based refinement. Experimental results using animal muscle samples images from a 3T MRI and HE stained histological images show that the proposed method is capable of aligning the histological slice with an oblique slice in MR volume.
A Fast Harmonic Phasor Measurement Method for Smart Grid Applications

System-wide monitoring and reliable identification of power quality (PQ) events and their source is one of the critical requirements of smart grid implementation. The concept of phasor measurement has tremendously helped in fast and reliable state estimation and wide area monitoring of power system. This paper proposes a fast and reliable method for estimation of harmonic phasors that is considered as the most serious PQ problem in the emerging scenario with growing proportion of power electronics based devices in the power system. In the absence of a dedicated standard for harmonic phasor measurement, the IEEE Std. C37.118. 1 for a fundamental synchrophasor measurement has been followed as the reference for formulation and evaluation of the proposed method. The performance of the proposed method has been investigated on the variety of simulated and actual power system signals for steady-state and dynamic conditions.
Sero-prevalence of Hepatitis B and C virus among patients attending Dental clinics in Kashmir Valley

Introduction: Hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) infections are considered an occupational risk for dental professionals and other health care workers. It is a risk that includes the possibility of dental personnel getting HBV or HCV infection from an infected patient and the potential transmission of HBV to susceptible patients from infected dental personnel. There is dearth of consensus prevalence data on HBV & HCV infections among patients attending dental clinics in Kashmir Valley, and no prevalence study is available. The aim of this study to detect the presence of HBsAg and HCV antigen, and the relation of it‘s presence with other factors such as gender, age, social status, history of surgical operation and blood transfusion among patients attending dental clinics in Kashmir Valley. Materials and methods: Serum from 2000 patients who attended Government Dental College and Hospital, Srinagar was screened for detection HBV surface Ag and HCV Ag using the Rapid Card Diagnostic Test (SD Bioline rapid immunochromatographic test for antibody IgG). All rapid test positive samples were further tested at SMHS Hospital, Kaksarai, Srinagar by a third-generation Enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). Data was analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Science) software program version 16 and the prevalence and percentage of all variables were calculated. Chi-square test was applied to see difference by gender. Results: The overall sero-prevalence of HBV and HCV among dental patients was 4.4% and 4.3 % respectively. There was no statistical significant difference in prevalence of HCV and HBV in male and females. A high sero-positivity was prevalent in the age group of 51-60 years (12% for HBV and HCV respectively). Most of positive results were observed from District Anantnag especially villages Suhail Latoo, Mohammad Shafi, Humaira Nazir. Sero-prevalence of Hepatitis B and C virus among patients attending Dental clinics in Kashmir Valley. IAIM, 2017; 4(2): 53-59. Page 54 of Kokernag (77.3 % of total no. of serologically HBV positive cases and 82.6% of total no. of serologically HCV positive cases). There was a significantly high prevalence of dental procedures among cases as compared to controls (p < 0.001) for both HBV and HCV results. Conclusion: The sero frequency of hepatitis B and C is high among Kashmiri patients especially from rural population of South Kashmir attending Government Dental College and Hospital, Srinagar, dental malpractice being major source of cross infection.
Contemporary clinical profile and outcome of prosthetic valve endocarditis.

CONTEXT Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is associated with significant mortality and morbidity. The contemporary clinical profile and outcome of PVE are not well defined. OBJECTIVES To describe the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and outcome of PVE, with attention to health care-associated infection, and to determine prognostic factors associated with in-hospital mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective, observational cohort study conducted at 61 medical centers in 28 countries, including 556 patients with definite PVE as defined by Duke University diagnostic criteria who were enrolled in the International Collaboration on Endocarditis-Prospective Cohort Study from June 2000 to August 2005. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE In-hospital mortality. RESULTS Definite PVE was present in 556 (20.1%) of 2670 patients with infective endocarditis. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common causative organism (128 patients [23.0%]), followed by coagulase-negative staphylococci (94 patients [16.9%]). Health care-associated PVE was present in 203 (36.5%) of the overall cohort. Seventy-one percent of health care-associated PVE occurred within the first year of valve implantation, and the majority of cases were diagnosed after the early (60-day) period. Surgery was performed in 272 (48.9%) patients during the index hospitalization. In-hospital death occurred in 127 (22.8%) patients and was predicted by older age, health care-associated infection (62/203 [30.5%]; adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-2.44; P = .02), S aureus infection (44/128 [34.4%]; adjusted OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.01-2.95; P = .05), and complications of PVE, including heart failure (60/183 [32.8%]; adjusted OR, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.62-3.34; P<.001), stroke (34/101 [33.7%]; adjusted OR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.25-4.03; P = .007), intracardiac abscess (47/144 [32.6%]; adjusted OR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.10-3.15; P = .02), and persistent bacteremia (27/49 [55.1%]; adjusted OR, 4.29; 95% CI, 1.99-9.22; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Prosthetic valve endocarditis accounts for a high percentage of all cases of infective endocarditis in many regions of the world. Staphylococcus aureus is now the leading cause of PVE. Health care-associated infection significantly influences the clinical characteristics and outcome of PVE. Complications of PVE strongly predict in-hospital mortality, which remains high despite prompt diagnosis and the frequent use of surgical intervention.
Transcriptional Compensation for Loss of an Allele of the Ini1 Tumor Suppressor*

The gene encoding INI1, a component of the mammalian SWI/SNF ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling enzymes, has been classified as a tumor suppressor in humans. Gene-targeting experiments confirmed that Ini1 also functions as a tumor suppressor in mice. Although Ini1-null mice are embryonic lethal, 15–30% of mice heterozygous for Ini1 presented with poorly differentiated tumors with variable rhabdoid features. All tumors examined showed loss of heterozygosity at the Ini1 locus. We report here that cells and tissues heterozygous for the Ini1 tumor suppressor express levels of Ini1 protein and message roughly equivalent to the levels observed in wild type counterparts. Compensation of Ini1 is mediated by an increase in the rate of transcription from the Ini1 promoter. Moreover, when Ini1 is expressed exogenously, transcription from the endogenous promoter is reduced, suggesting that Ini1 levels are tightly regulated. This is the first report describing transcriptional compensation for haploinsufficiency of a tumor suppressor gene.
Moving data in DTNs with HTTP and MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) provide a simple way to describe the type of data sent and its use. Email and the web use MIME extensively to carry different files. The Hypertext Transfer protocol (HTTP) is universally recognized as a straightforward method to carry MIME objects as binary streams. Taking MIME and HTTP as a starting point, and adopting the well-understood need for different ‘convergence layers’ to carry HTTP in different challenged environments where TCP may not be suitable, this paper outlines work in progress to run HTTP over different transports, and how this can be used to create a simple, yet powerful, approach to relaying content in delay- and disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs).
Patterns of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Workers in Palm Plantation Occupation

This study investigated the patterns of ongoing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs) and exposure risk to musculoskeletal injuries for various body regions among palm plantation workers. Standard Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (SNMQ) was used to assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders symptoms. The Quick Exposure check (QEC) was used to assess the exposure risk of farmers to WRMDs. The common pattern of WRMDs was back pain (40%), followed by shoulder pain (19%). The QEC revealed high exposure risk for neck (56%), followed by back (45.6%). The results from the SNMQ showed that 58% reported pain in 1 region, followed by 2 regions (10.7%) and 3 regions (3.6%). Back pain and shoulder pain were found to be common among workers in palm plantation occupation. Nevertheless, the neck region appeared to have the highest risk of exposure to injuries.
Word Order Does NOT Differ Significantly Between Chinese and Japanese

We propose a pre-reordering approach for Japanese-to-Chinese statistical machine translation (SMT). The approach uses dependency structure and manually designed reordering rules to arrange morphemes of Japanese sentences into Chinese-like word order, before a baseline phrase-based (PB) SMT system applied. Experimental results on the ASPEC-JC data show that the improvement of the proposed pre-reordering approach is slight on BLEU and mediocre on RIBES, compared with the organizer’s baseline PB SMT system. The approach also shows improvement in human evaluation. We observe the word order does not differ much in the two languages, though Japanese is a subject-object-verb (SOV) language and Chinese is an SVO language.
PAOLA: A Tool for Topological Optimization of Large PLAs

This paper presents a tool, called PAOLA, for optimizing the layout of large PLAs used as decoders in VLSI systems. The optimization techniques it uses are heuristic. They involve compacting the AND/OR matrices by cutting and reorganizing the input/output lines in order to reduce the number of columns in these matrices. They also allow the lengthening of the shape of the PLA and the lateral access to the input/output segments. This eases the topological adaptation of different blocks in order to reduce the surface of the interconnection network between them. The layout of the PLA uses internal topological conflicts and ground refresh lines positions to improve accessibility to the input/output segments created inside the AND/OR matrices. This system has been tested on several examples including industrial PLAs. It gives an area reduction of the OR matrix of up to 50% on PLAs having 3000 to 5000 positions in the OR matrix with a computing time of 4 to 5 minutes on a main frame HB-68 computer running with the MULTICS operating system.
Perception of Impending Collision in 3-to & Week-Old Human Infants

The ability of 3to 6-week-old infants to distinguish between shadow-cast stimuli specifying the presence or absence of optical collision was tested under the following experimental conditions: (a) rapid versus slow visual display expansion and contraction: (b) figure-ground contrast reversal of the display; (c) rapid change in illumination without display expansion or contraction. Rapid and slow expansions of a dark display on a light background elicited significantly more defensive behavior (blinking and backward head movements) than their contractions. This was not the case for expansion versus contraction of a display lighter than its background. A sudden brightening of the screen did not elicit differences in blinking or backward head movements relative to a sudden darkening. Infants as young as 3 to 6 weeks of age perceive optical collision and respond defensively if the exbanding display is darker than its background.
Racial/Ethnic Differences in Combat- and Non-Combat-Associated Traumatic Brain Injury Severity in the Veterans Health Administration: 2004-2010.

OBJECTIVES We examined the association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity and combat exposure by race/ethnicity. METHODS We estimated logit models of the fully adjusted association of combat exposure with TBI severity in separate race/ethnicity models for a national cohort of 132 995 veterans with TBI between 2004 and 2010. RESULTS Of veterans with TBI, 25.8% had served in a combat zone. Mild TBI increased from 11.5% to 40.3%, whereas moderate or severe TBI decreased from 88.5% to 59.7%. Moderate or severe TBI was higher in non-Hispanic Blacks (80.0%) and Hispanics (89.4%) than in non-Hispanic Whites (71.9%). In the fully adjusted all-race/ethnicity model, non-Hispanic Blacks (1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.37, 1.52) and Hispanics (1.47; 95% CI = 1.26, 1.72) had higher odds of moderate or severe TBI than did non-Hispanic Whites. However, combat exposure was associated with higher odds of mild TBI in non-Hispanic Blacks (2.48; 95% CI = 2.22, 2.76) and Hispanics (3.42; 95% CI = 1.84, 6.35) than in non-Hispanic Whites (2.17; 95% CI = 2.09, 2.26). CONCLUSIONS Research is needed to understand racial differences in the effect of combat exposure on mild TBI and on interventions to prevent TBI across severity levels.