Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical implications of benign multiple sclerosis: A 20‐year population‐based follow‐up study

In 2001, we followed up all patients from the 1991 Olmsted County Multiple Sclerosis (MS) prevalence cohort. We found that the longer the duration of MS and the lower the disability, the more likely a patient is to remain stable and not progress. This is particularly powerful for patients with benign MS with Expanded Disability Status Scale score of 2 or lower for 10 years or longer who have a greater than 90% chance of remaining stable. This is important because these patients represent 17% of the entire prevalence cohort. These data should assist in the shared therapeutic decision‐making process of whether to start immunomodulatory medications. Ann Neurol 2004;56:303–306
Automatic differentiation of quadrature

We analyse the application of automatic differentiation (AD) to the quadrature (numerical integration) of a function integrand to determine the sensitivities of the integral to variations in the limits of integration. We derive an expression for the truncation errors of such AD-derived sensitivities and relate them to the truncation error of the original, and a closely related, function quadrature. Our results hold provided the integrand is one degree higher continuously differentiable than that sufficient for convergence of its quadrature. Numerical results validate our analysis. However, utilization of algebraic expressions for such sensitivities, instead of directly applying AD, results in an approach that proves more efficient for the tetrachoric correlation estimation example we considered using our Matlab AD framework.
Global Integrated Supply Chain Implementation: The Challenges of E-Procurement

Supply chain functions must operate in an integrated manner in order to optimize performance. However, the dynamics of the organization and the market make this challenging. In particular, the procurement function is a crucial link between the sources of supply and the organization. With most organizations spending at least one-third of their overall budget to purchase goods and services, procurement holds significant business value. Emerging technologies, especially e-procurement, are promising to change the picture of traditional procurement processes. However, the implementation of e-procurement is facing significant reengineering and change management challenges. This study identifies four main challenges in e-procurement implementation: business process integration, technological issues, value creation, and change management. The major challenge among them is change management. Critically, leadership is one of the primary requirements to make the change successfully. IntroductIon The supply chain is a network of suppliers, factories, warehouses, distribution centers, and retailers through which raw materials are acquired, transformed, and delivered to the customers. Supply chain management is the strategic, tactical, and operational level decision making that optimizes supply chain performance. The strategic level defines the supply chain network (i.e., selection of suppliers, transportation routes, manufacturing facilities, production levels, warehouses, etc.). The tactical level plans and schedules the supply chain to meet actual demand. The operational level executes plans. Tactical and operational level decision-making functions are distributed across the supply chain. In order to optimize performance, supply chain functions must operate in an integrated manner. However, the dynamics of the organization and the market make this challenging; materials do not arrive on time, production facilities fail, workers are ill, customers change or cancel orders, and
Virtual humans and photorealism: The effect of photorealism of interactive virtual humans in clinical virtual environment on affective responses

Chaturvedi, Himanshu, "Virtual humans and Photorealism: The effect of photorealism of interactive virtual humans in clinical virtual environment on affective responses" (2015). ABSTRACT The ability of realistic vs stylized representations of virtual characters to elicit emotions in users has been an open question for researchers and artists alike. We designed and performed a between subjects experiment using a medical virtual reality simulation to study the differences in the emotions aroused in participants while interacting with realistic and stylized virtual characters. The experiment included three conditions each of which presented a different representation of the virtual character namely; photo-realistic, non-photorealistic cartoon-shaded and non-photorealistic charcoal-sketch. The simulation used for the experiment, called the Rapid Response Training System was developed to train nurses to identify symptoms of rapid deterioration in patients. The emotional impact of interacting with the simulation on the participants was measured via both subjective and objective metrics. Quantitative objective measures were gathered using skin Electrodermal Activity (EDA) sensors, and quantitative subjective measures included Differential Emotion Survey (DES IV), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the co-presence or social presence questionnaire. The emotional state of the participants was analyzed across four distinct time steps during which the medical condition of the virtual patient deteriorated, and was contrasted to a baseline affective state. The data from the EDA sensors indicated that the mean level of arousal was highest in the charcoal-sketch condition, lowest in the realistic condition, with responses in the cartoon-shaded condition was in the middle. Mean arousal responses also seemed to be consistent in both the cartoon-shaded and charcoal-sketch conditions across all time steps, while the mean arousal response of participants in iii the realistic condition showed a significant drop from time step 1 through time step 2, corresponding to the deterioration of the virtual patient. Mean scores of participants in the DES survey seems to suggest that participants in the realistic condition elicited a higher emotional response than participants in both non-realistic conditions. Within the non-realistic conditions, participants in the cartoon-shaded condition seemed to elicit a higher emotional response than those in the charcoal-sketch condition. iv DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this to my parents who have always believed in me. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Dr. Sabarish Babu, who has immensely supported me throughout this project. My amazing experience of working in the Virtual Environments group and doing great research would not …
Appearance of Human Plasma Cells Following Differentiation of Human B Cells in NOD/SCID Mouse Spleen

Relatively little is known for the differentiation and maturation process of human B cells to plasma cells. This is particularly important in reconstitution work involving transfer of autoantibodies. To address this issue, we transplanted human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) directly into the spleen of irradiated NOD/SCID mice depleted of natural killer cell activity. Within 6 weeks, naïve B cells differentiated into memory B cells and, importantly, the numbers of human CD138+ plasma cells in spleen increased by 100 fold after transplantation. Plasma cell numbers correlated with the detection of human IgM and IgG in serum, indicating that human B cells had differentiated into mature plasma cells in the murine spleen. In addition to CD19+ plasma cells, a distinct CD19- plasma cell population was detected, suggesting that downregulation of CD19 associated with maturation of plasma cells occurred. When purified human B cells were transplanted, those findings were not observed. Our results indicate that differentiation and maturation of human B cells and plasma cells can be investigated by transplantation of human PBMC into the spleen of NOD/SCID mice. The model will be useful for studying the differentiation of human B cells and generation of plasma cells.
Characterising Sustainability Requirements: A New Species Red Herring or Just an Odd Fish?

Requirements articulating the needs of stakeholdersare critical to successful system development and key to influencingtheir long-term effects. As the concept of sustainabilityhas entered the discourse of a number of software-relatedcomputing fields, so has the term 'sustainability requirement'. However, it is unclear whether sustainability requirements areand should be different from how we already understand softwarerequirements. This paper presents the results of a corpusassisteddiscourse analysis study that explored the concept ofsustainability requirements in order to understand how theterm is being used in software and requirements engineeringand related fields. The results of this study reveal that theterm 'sustainability requirement' is generally used ambiguouslyand reveals significant segmentation across different fields. Ourdetailed analysis of selected influential papers highlights thesegmented use of the term and suggests key focus questionsthat need to be addressed to establish a shared operativeunderstanding of the term.
An Intelligent Hybrid Data Mining Method for Car-Parking Management

This paper presents using of intelligent data driven methods for developing of car parking systems. Finding a suitable, with the lowest traffic and cost, by considering people priority for parking place is presented. The Learning progress from previous behavior of the system is done. To obtain these goals first, a preprocessing phase by association rule mining method is performed. Rules by using support and confidence algorithms are selected. Then with applying these rules in the fuzzy resuming system, the system presents optimized park places. Finally experimental results present the benefits of using intelligent model in human systems against todays systems.
Detection of event related optical signal (EROS) in episodic memory retrieval task using ICA-based Kalman filter

We investigate the noise reduction performance for event related optical signal (EROS) measured from 5-channel near-infrared spectroscopy to reduce noise by using grand average and independent component analysis (ICA)-based Kalman filter. Episodic memory retrieval task was performed and expected to show brain activity around 500 ms from right prefrontal cortex. We verified that positive deviation in response to old word occurred around 500 ms using grand average for three subjects. After applying ICA-based Kalman filter on data from each subject, the clear positive deviation was shown graphically. Also, the ratio of positively deviated epoch in response to old word increased by 14 % after ICA-based Kalman filtering.
Facial resemblance enhances trust

Organisms are expected to be sensitive to cues of genetic relatedness when making decisions about social behaviour. Relatedness can be assessed in several ways, one of which is phenotype matching: the assessment of similarity between others' traits and either one's own traits or those of known relatives. One candidate cue of relatedness in humans is facial resemblance. Here, I report the effects of an experimental manipulation of facial resemblance in a two–person sequential trust game. Subjects were shown faces of ostensible playing partners manipulated to resemble either themselves or an unknown person. Resemblance to the subject's own face raised the incidence of trusting a partner, but had no effect on the incidence of selfish betrayals of the partner's trust. Control subjects playing with identical pictures failed to show such an effect. In a second experiment, resemblance of the playing partner to a familiar (famous) person had no effect on either trusting or betrayals of trust.
Radio that listens to me: Y!Music web radio

A study of listening to Y! Music revealed the extent to which it was an interactive experience. The auto-ethnography was conducted as a capture of the music stream and a journal of interactions with the station. The music that was played was then analysed to determine the effect of judgements on the selections. The listening state was identified through involvement in the optional activities provided: accessing additional information, shopping for music and music related products, and communicating with other fans. The study revealed that the music-rating algorithm used by Y! Music is complex and it takes time to work out the implications of particular interactions. Y! Music may have been listening to me, but it took time and energy to make our communications effective. This effort, combined with the range of activities that accompanied listening, meant that web radio was a more engaging experience than the usual experience of broadcast radio.
Multi-sensors people detection system for heavy machines

In this paper, we propose a multi-sensors system to detect people in the context of construction sites using heavy machines. The system includes a LIght Detection And Ranging (Lidar) sensor and a fisheye camera. We present an effective method to determine regions of interest (ROI) on fisheye images using Lidar data, which can be used with different sensors configurations. A Deformable Part Model (DPM) approach is adapted and used as the main people detector on image. We also present a specific dataset built using the multi-sensor system mounted on a heavy machine for evaluation.
Production of Diploid Male Gametes in Arabidopsis by Cold-Induced Destabilization of Postmeiotic Radial Microtubule Arrays1[C][W][OA]

Whole-genome duplication through the formation of diploid gametes is a major route for polyploidization, speciation, and diversification in plants. The prevalence of polyploids in adverse climates led us to hypothesize that abiotic stress conditions can induce or stimulate diploid gamete production. In this study, we show that short periods of cold stress induce the production of diploid and polyploid pollen in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Using a combination of cytological and genetic analyses, we demonstrate that cold stress alters the formation of radial microtubule arrays at telophase II and consequently leads to defects in postmeiotic cytokinesis and cell wall formation. As a result, cold-stressed male meiosis generates triads, dyads, and monads that contain binuclear and polynuclear microspores. Fusion of nuclei in binuclear and polynuclear microspores occurs spontaneously before pollen mitosis I and eventually leads to the formation of diploid and polyploid pollen grains. Using segregation analyses, we also found that the majority of cold-induced dyads and triads are genetically equivalent to a second division restitution and produce diploid gametes that are highly homozygous. In a broader perspective, these findings offer insights into the fundamental mechanisms that regulate male gametogenesis in plants and demonstrate that their sensitivity to environmental stress has evolutionary significance and agronomic relevance in terms of polyploidization.
Phylojava : a Generic Client-Server Tool for Phylogenetic Tree Reconstruction - Application to Grid Computing

Phylojava is a graphic user interface devoted to edit and calculate phylogenetic trees. It is programmed in Java to allow portage on a wide-range systems and is based on a client-server architecture. Phylogenetic trees are computed on the remote server, and are sent via internet to the client that allows the user to handle alignments and phylogenetic trees. New phylogenetic methods can be easily added to the server and will be automatically displayed by the client. Besides phylojava server is a node of the european DATAGRID project that has allowed us to parallelize bootstrap process with fastDNAml method. A five fold acceleration factor has been raised using the grid compared to a standalone computer and demonstrates the future potential of the grid for bioinformatics.
Online pattern recognition for Portuguese phonemes using Multi-layer Perceptron combined with recurrent non-linear autoregressive Neural Networks with exogenous inputs

Off-line pattern recognition in speech signals is a complex task. Yet, this task becomes harder when the recognition result is required online. The present work proposes an online identification of the Portuguese language phonemes using an nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs, commonly called NARX. The process first extracts the frequency characteristics of the input speech signals and pre-classifies them into one of the ten possible groups of phonemes, as available in the Portuguese language. This pre-classification is done using a multilayer perceptron network (MLP) with a supervised learning. Subsequently, the MLP output vector, together with the vector that carries the input frequencies, feeds a NARX neural network by means of a temporal delay of four times and feed-backward recurrent links that encompass the results of all hidden layers of the network. As a result of this process, the proposed phoneme recognition process improves the accuracy of the online identification of the Portuguese spoken phonemes during a natural conversation.
Availability of on-site acute vascular interventional radiology techniques performed by trained acute care specialists: A single–emergency center experience

INTRODUCTION Comprehensive treatment of a patient in acute medicine and surgery requires the use of both surgical techniques and other treatment methods. Recently, acute vascular interventional radiology techniques (AVIRTs) have become increasingly popular, enabling adequately trained in-house experts to improve the quality of on-site care. METHODS After obtaining approval from our institutional ethics committee, we conducted a retrospective study of AVIRT procedures performed by acute care specialists trained in acute medicine and surgery over a 1-year period, including those conducted out of hours. Trained acute care specialists were required to be certified by the Japanese Association of Acute Medicine and to have completed at least 1 year of training as a member of the endovascular team in the radiology department of another university hospital. The study was designed to ensure that at least one of the physicians was available to perform AVIRT within 1 h of a request at any time. Femoral sheath insertion was usually performed by the resident physicians under the guidance of trained acute care specialists. RESULTS The study sample comprised 77 endovascular procedures for therapeutic AVIRT (trauma, n = 29, and nontrauma, n = 48) among 62 patients (mean age, 64 years; range, 9–88 years), of which 55% were male. Of the procedures, 47% were performed out of hours (trauma, 52%; and nontrauma, 44%). Three patients underwent resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta in the emergency room. No major device-related complications were encountered, and the overall mortality rate within 60 days was 8%. The recorded causes of death included exsanguination (n = 2), pneumonia (n = 2), sepsis (n = 1), and brain death (n = 1). CONCLUSION When performed by trained acute care specialists, AVIRT seems to be advantageous for acute on-site care and provides good technical success. Therefore, a standard training program should be established for acute care specialists or trauma surgeons to make these techniques a part of the standard regimen. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapy/care management study, level V.
HST color-magnitude diagrams of 74 galactic globular clusters in the HST F439W and F555W bands ⋆

We present the complete photometric database and the color-magnitude diagrams for 74 Galactic globular clusters observed with the HST/WFPC2 camera in the F439W and F555W bands. A detailed discussion of the various reduction steps is also presented, and of the procedures to transform instrumental magnitudes into both the HST F439W and F555W flight system and the standard Johnson B and V systems. We also describe the artificial star experiments which have been performed to derive the star count completeness in all the relevant branches of the color magnitude diagram. The entire photometric database and the completeness function will be made available on the Web immediately after the publication of the present paper.
Practical Application in Organizational Communication

Practical application in organizational communication is evident in translational and engaged scholarship, consulting activities, leadership in disciplinewide service positions, and case studies used in teaching and scholarship. Despite this history of excellence, efforts have focused primarily on organizational problems, and the field continues to elevate epistemological and conceptual issues above expertise in craft practice. One partial solution is to further focus on concrete experience, improvisation, and practical wisdom.
Thermal variance-aware application mapping for mesh based network-on-chip design using Kernighan-Lin partitioning

This paper presents a Kernighan-Lin bi-partitioning based approach to perform mapping the core graph of an application onto a mesh-based Network-on-Chip (NoC) architecture. It aims at optimizing both communication cost and thermal variance of the resulting solution. Experimental results show that the approach could obtain significant reduction in mean temperature of the die and its standard deviation, compared to many of the recently reported application mapping strategies such as NMAP [1], LMAP [2] and DPSO [3]. All these reported approaches attempt to obtained a communication aware mapping, without any concern about temperature profile of the die. Our proposed approach outperforms all these reported approaches except DPSO, in-terms of communication cost, whereas, in-terms of temperature profile, it outperforms all these approaches. Tradeoff between the communication cost and temperature profile could also be achieved.
Effect of Dillenia suffruticosa extract on dengue virus type 2 replication

Drugs of plant origin can have easy acceptability as they are non-toxic and inexpensive. Dillenia suffruticosa (D.suffruticosa), also known as Simpoh air in Malaysia, has antibacterial and antifungal activity, but no reported antiviral activity. This led the investigation of this plant against dengue virus type 2 (DV2) replication. Two type of samples: DV2-infected C6/36 cells and uninfected C6/36 cells were prepared. D.suffruticosa extract was prepared in water. The plant extract, D.suffruticosa, was subjected to C6/36 cells with following concentrations, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 mg/ml and incubated for 2 hours before infected by DV2. Immobilized non-linear pH gradient strips, pH 3-10 were used in isoelectric focusing, and 10% homogeneous gels were used in sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The results were stained by silver staining for visualization. It was found that NS1 protein expression on infected C6/36 cells was down regulated in intensity of concentrations 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1 mg/ml. However, when higher concentration of D.suffruticosa extract were used (0.2 and 0.4 mg/ml), the cells exhibited slightly reduced NS1 protein spots, when compared to the above concentrations (0.025, 0.05, 0.1 mg/ml). D.suffruticosa extract has an inhibitory effect on the replication of DV2. Non-structural NS1 could be used as a diagnostic marker and/or as a parameter to evaluate the effect of antiviral agents for dengue type 2 virus infection/replication.