Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of acute renal failure on mortality. A cohort analysis.

OBJECTIVE To determine if the high mortality in acute renal failure is explained by underlying illnesses (comorbidity). DESIGN Cohort analytic study. SETTING An 826-bed general hospital providing primary, secondary, and tertiary care. PATIENTS From 16,248 inpatients undergoing radiocontrast procedures between 1987 and 1989, we identified 183 index subjects who developed contrast media-associated renal failure (defined as an increase in serum creatinine level of at least 25%, to at least 177 micromol/L [2 mg/dL], within 2 days of receiving contrast material) and 174 paired subjects, matched for age and baseline serum creatinine level, who underwent similar contrast procedures without developing renal failure. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Death during hospitalization. RESULTS The mortality rate in subjects without renal failure was 7%, compared with 34% in the corresponding index subjects with renal failure (odds ratio, 6.5; P<.001). After adjusting for differences in comorbidity, renal failure was associated with an odds ratio of dying of 5.5. Subjects who died after developing renal failure had complicated clinical courses characterized by sepsis, bleeding, delirium, and respiratory failure; most of these complications developed after the onset of renal failure. Deaths from renal causes were rare. CONCLUSIONS The high mortality rate in acute renal failure is not explained by the underlying conditions alone. Renal failure appears to increase the risk of developing severe nonrenal complications that lead to death and should not be regarded as a treatable complication of serious illness.
Yield enhancement by logi-thermal simulation based testing

This paper proposes a method for yield enhancement in digital integrated circuit manufacture using a temperature dependent logic simulation tool. In an industrial environment the time slot dedicated to the logic testing of a single integrated circuit needs to be as short as possible in order to boost production. During this short period thermally induced errors might remain hidden due to long thermal time constants. This paper introduces a methodology to determine the steady-state die temperature where a short logic test is able to reveal logic faults. The evolved die temperature is simulated with a logi-thermal simulator engine that performs logic simulation by taking self-heating into account. We propose that the testing should take place at an elevated temperature where the temperature dependent failures arise. This approach makes it possible to detect otherwise hidden defects while keeping testing times short.
Germination of the Active Lighting : An Introduction and Brief History of Our Research

We have been engaged in the researches on the active lighting techniques for twenty years. At first, we proposed a method to measure the 3-D shape of the object by projecting multiple patterns of structured light, because it is much faster than the method with scanning slit of light, and dense range image can be measured. For this purpose, we made a projector which consists of mechanicallychangeable masks, but it was soon replaced by a speciallymade liquid crystal panel with many slit segments. From the fact, we can proudly declare that the projector is not a diverted device but exclusively developed as a part of projector-camera systems, and the projection target is originally not a planar screen but a real scene with varied depth. Actually, this infant device was successful and commercially enough practical for 3-D shape measurement, but unfortunately we had to wait for the evolution of panel display technology more than a decade, to make a step to the studies which utilizes full duality between cameras and projectors. In the middle of 1990s, many researchers started using video projectors. Since we were computer vision researchers, we used the flexibility of video projector not for a interaction technique but improving performance of 3-D measurement such as motion tracking. But we were also aware of its advantage as a visualization tool in a real scene. Alike to the other research activities, we have confirmed that the projector can change the seen color, texture and specular of the real object. In addition, faked shade projected on the object make it possible to change our interpretation of its shape. Furthermore, the traditional shape measurement method we had developed is seamlessly combined with the visualization technique. Therefore, we have a common view to the possibility of intuitive interface systems with realistic visualization for communicating, training and designing works, so now is a good time to look-ing back on the history of projector-camera systems for our community. Of course you are already familiar with most researches in this field, but we regret our less presence if you are not aware of our research activities. Therefore, in this paper, we summarize the history and progress on light projection methodologies in our laboratory.
Design of Interference-Resilient Medium Access for High Throughput WLANs

The proliferation of wireless communications systems poses new challenges in terms of coexistence between heterogeneous devices operating within the same frequency bands. In fact, in case of high-density concentration of wireless devices, like indoor environments, the network performance is typically limited by the mutual interference among the devices themselves, such as for wireless local area networks (WLANs). In this paper, we analyze a protocol strategy for managing multiple access in wireless networks. A network of sensors colocated with the WLAN terminals forms a control layer for managing the medium access and scheduling resources in order to limit collisions and optimize the WLAN data traffic; this control layer is based on a low-power wideband technology characterized by interference robustness, like CDMA (code division multiple access) or UWB (ultra-wideband) for sensors. In this work, we perform an analytical and simulative performance study of the saturated throughput, showing numerical results for the UWB-IR (Impulse Radio) sensors case and highlighting the advantage that can be provided particularly in very high capacity systems, which constitute the necessary evolution of current WLAN versions.
Natural Communication about Uncertainties in Situated Interaction

Physically situated, multimodal interactive systems must often grapple with uncertainties about properties of the world, people, and their intentions and actions. We present methods for estimating and communicating about different uncertainties in situated interaction, leveraging the affordances of an embodied conversational agent. The approach harnesses a representation that captures both the magnitude and the sources of uncertainty, and a set of policies that select and coordinate the production of nonverbal and verbal behaviors to communicate the system's uncertainties to conversational participants. The methods are designed to enlist participants' help in a natural manner to resolve uncertainties arising during interactions. We report on a preliminary implementation of the proposed methods in a deployed system and illustrate the functionality with a trace from a sample interaction.
Landsat’s Enduring Legacy: Pioneering Global Land Observations from Space

After more than 15 years of research and writing, the Landsat Legacy Project Team, in collaboration with the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), published an account of monitoring the Earth’s lands for a half-century with Landsat. Born of technologies that evolved from the Second World War, Landsat not only pioneered global land monitoring but in the process, drove innovation in digital imaging technologies and encouraged the development of global imagery archives. Access to this imagery led to early breakthroughs in natural resources assessments, particularly for agriculture, forestry, and geology. The technical Landsat remote sensing revolution was not simple or straightforward. Early conflicts between civilian and defense satellite remote sensing users gave way to disagreements over whether the Landsat system should be a public service or a private enterprise. The failed attempts to privatize Landsat nearly led to its demise. Only the combined engagement of civilian and defense organizations ultimately saved the Landsat program from the brink of collapse. With the emergence of 21st century Earth system science research, the full value of the Landsat concept and its continuous 50-year global archive has been recognized and embraced. Discussion of Landsat’s future continues but its heritage will not be forgotten. This innovative satellite system’s vital history is captured in this notable volume on Landsat’s Enduring Legacy.
Near Real-time Seasonal Drought Forecasting and Retrospective Drought Analysis using Simulated Multi- layer Soil Moisture from Hydrological Models at Sub- Watershed Scales

This study proposes a stratified approach of drought severity assessment using multi-layer simulated soil moisture. SWAT (Soil & Water Assessment Tool) models are calibrated for 50 watersheds in the South-Atlantic Gulf region of the Southeastern US and a high-resolution daily soil moisture dataset is obtained at Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC-12) resolution for a period of January 1982 through December 2013. A near real-time hydrologic simulation framework by coupling the calibrated SWAT models with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) coupled forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) weather data is developed to forecast various water balance components including soil moisture (SM), actual evapotranspiration (ET), potential evapotranspiration ET (PET), and runoff (SURQ) for near-real time drought severity assessment, and drought forecasting for a lead of 9-months. A combination of the surface and total rooting depth soil moisture percentiles proves to be an effective increment over conventional drought assessment approaches in capturing both, transient and long-term drought impacts. The proposed real-time drought monitoring approach shows high accuracy in capturing drought onset and propagation and shows a high degree of similarity with the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), the long-term (PDSI, PHDI, SPI-9 and SPI-12), and the short-term (Palmer Z index, SPI-1 and SPI-6) drought indices. Near Real-time Seasonal Drought Forecasting and Retrospective Drought Analysis Using Simulated Multi-layer Soil Moisture from Hydrological Models at Sub-watershed Scales
Intensive Meditation Training Improves Perceptual Discrimination and Sustained Attention

The ability to focus one’s attention underlies success in many everyday tasks, but voluntary attention cannot be sustained for extended periods of time. In the laboratory, sustained-attention failure is manifest as a decline in perceptual sensitivity with increasing time on task, known as the vigilance decrement. We investigated improvements in sustained attention with training (~5 hr/day for 3 months), which consisted of meditation practice that involved sustained selective attention on a chosen stimulus (e.g., the participant’s breath). Participants were randomly assigned either to receive training first (n = 30) or to serve as waiting-list controls and receive training second (n = 30). Training produced improvements in visual discrimination that were linked to increases in perceptual sensitivity and improved vigilance during sustained visual attention. Consistent with the resource model of vigilance, these results suggest that perceptual improvements can reduce the resource demand imposed by target discrimination and thus make it easier to sustain voluntary attention.
Imagineering inauthentic legitimate peripheral participation: an instructional design approach for motivating computing education

Since its publication, Lave and Wenger's concept of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) [18] has become an important concept for understanding situated learning. LPP states that learning only occurs when students perceive that what's being taught is aligned with their goals (in LPP terms, with the students' perceived community of practice). This has implications for our traditional CS courses (e.g., are we teaching what the students perceive as being relevant for their future careers? ), but even greater implications for courses for non-CS majors. When computer science educators are asked to teach non-CS majors, we are often placed in the position of teaching in alignment with a community of practice that does not, or does not yet, exist. In that sense, our teaching is inauthentic---not aligned with a community of practice. However, there is the possibility that we can generate a perception of authenticity or alignment. We use the example of two classes at Georgia Tech that seem successful by several measures, yet suffer this inauthenticity. We propose that a useful tool for understanding how these classes work is the Disney Corporation's Imagineering---their process of story-telling in three-dimensions as used in their theme parks. However, in the end, we find that what students actually learn is not necessarily the story that we are telling them, which points toward future research.
Greenland blocking index daily series 1851–2015: Analysis of changes in extremes and links with North Atlantic and UK climate variability and change

We present a homogenized Greenland blocking index (GBI) daily record from 1851 to 2015, therefore significantly extending our previously published monthly/seasonal GBI analysis. This new time series is analysed for evidence of changes in extreme events, and we investigate the underlying thermodynamic and dynamic precursors. We compare occurrences and changes in extreme events between our GBI record and a recently published, temporally similar daily North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) series, and use this comparison to test dynamic meteorology hypotheses relating negative NAO to Greenland blocking. We also compare daily GBI changes and extreme events with long‐running indices of England and Wales temperature and precipitation, to assess potential downstream effects of Greenland blocking on UK extreme weather events and climate change. In this extended analysis we show that there have been sustained periods of positive GBI during 1870–1900 and from the late 1990s to present. A clustering of extreme high GBI events since 2000 is not consistently reflected by a similar grouping of extreme low NAO events. Case studies of North Atlantic atmospheric circulation changes linked with extreme high and low daily GBI episodes are used to shed light on potential linkages between Greenland blocking and jet‐stream changes. Particularly noteworthy is a clustering of extreme high GBI events during mid‐October in 4 out of 5 years during 2002–2006, which we investigate from both cryospheric and dynamic meteorology perspectives. Supporting evidence suggests that these autumn extreme GBI episodes may have been influenced by regional sea‐ice anomalies off west Greenland but were probably largely forced by increases in Rossby‐wave train activity originating from the tropical Pacific. However, more generally our results indicate that high GBI winter anomalies are co‐located with sea‐ice anomalies, while there seems to be minimal influence of sea‐ice anomalies on the recent significant increase in summer GBI.
Intron positions correlate with module boundaries in ancient proteins.

We analyze the three-dimensional structure of proteins by a computer program that finds regions of sequence that contain module boundaries, defining a module as a segment of polypeptide chain bounded in space by a specific given distance. The program defines a set of "linker regions" that have the property that if an intron were to be placed into each linker region, the protein would be dissected into a set of modules all less than the specified diameter. We test a set of 32 proteins, all of ancient origin, and a corresponding set of 570 intron positions, to ask if there is a statistically significant excess of intron positions within the linker regions. For 28-A modules, a standard size used historically, we find such an excess, with P < 0.003. This correlation is neither due to a compositional or sequence bias in the linker regions nor to a surface bias in intron positions. Furthermore, a subset of 20 introns, which can be putatively identified as old, lies even more explicitly within the linker regions, with P < 0.0003. Thus, there is a strong correlation between intron positions and three-dimensional structural elements of ancient proteins as expected by the introns-early approach. We then study a range of module diameters and show that, as the diameter varies, significant peaks of correlation appear for module diameters centered at 21.7, 27.6, and 32.9 A. These preferred module diameters roughly correspond to predicted exon sizes of 15, 22, and 30 residues. Thus, there are significant correlations between introns, modules, and a quantized pattern of the lengths of polypeptide chains, which is the prediction of the "Exon Theory of Genes. "
The Reinforcing Effects of Nicotine in Humans and Nonhuman Primates: A Review of Intravenous Self-Administration Evidence and Future Directions for Research.

INTRODUCTION Cigarette smoking is largely driven by the reinforcing properties of nicotine. Intravenous (IV) self-administration procedures are the gold standard for investigating the reinforcing effects of psychoactive drugs. The goal of this review was to examine the results of published investigations of the reinforcing effects of nicotine measured using IV self-administration procedures in humans and nonhuman primates. RESULTS The body of literature using nonhuman primate subjects indicates nicotine functions as a positive reinforcer when available for self-administration via IV catheters. However, it can also be difficult to establish IV nicotine self-administration in nonhuman primates and sometimes supplemental strategies have been required (e.g., priming injections or food deprivation) before subjects acquire the behavior. Although the body of literature using human subjects is limited, the evidence indicates nicotine functions as a reinforcer via the IV route of administration in adult cigarette smokers. Rates of nicotine self-injection can be variable across subjects and responding is sometimes inconsistent across sessions in both humans and nonhuman primates. CONCLUSIONS The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, enacted in 2009, gave the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products. Research examining the threshold reinforcing doses for initiation and maintenance of nicotine self-administration, comparisons of the reinforcing effects of nicotine in adolescent versus adult subjects, investigations of gender differences in the reinforcing effects of nicotine, and studies of the abuse liability of non-nicotine tobacco product constituents and their ability to alter the reinforcing effects of nicotine will inform potential tobacco regulatory actions.
Constructing constraint solvers using Monte Carlo Tree Search

Abstract: Constraint solvers are complex pieces of software that are capable of solving a wide variety of problems. Customisation and specialisation opportunities are usually very limited and require specialist knowledge. The Dominion [4] constraint solver synthesizer automatically creates problem-specific solvers. The configuration of a constraint solver is highly complex, especially if the aim is to achieve high performance. We demonstrate how Monte Carlo Tree Search can be employed to tackle this problem.
Efficient video face recognition by using Fisher Vector encoding of binary features

One of the main problems of recognizing faces in videos is to achieve accurate algorithms which can be used in real-time applications. Recently, Fisher Vector representation of local descriptors (e.g., SIFT) has gained widespread popularity, achieving good recognition rates. In this work, we propose to use Fisher Vector encoding of binary features for video face recognition, in order to speed up the computation time of the representation. The experimental evaluation was conducted on the challenging YouTube Faces database, showing that the proposed method is very efficient, and has an accuracy comparable with state-of-the-art methods.
Localization based audio source separation by sub-band beamforming

In this paper, a localization based approach of audio signal separation from binary mixtures is carried out. The audio sources are localized in the spatial domain (azimuth plane) using the delay and amplitude variation cues between two microphones' signals. A coherence based technique is introduced here to localize the audio sources in adverse acoustical environment. The mixture signals are decomposed into a desired number of sub-bands with empirical mode decomposition (EMD) which is a data adaptive filtering scheme suitable for nonlinear and non-stationary signals. Data independent minimum variance beamforming is employed to separate the component sources in underdetermined condition (more sources than sensors). The experimental results of the proposed algorithm show noticeable separation efficiency. It is also found that the sub-band implementation improves the performance compared with and full-band approach
Precoordination or not?: A new view of the old question

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss some long‐standing issues of the development of a subject heading language as pre‐ or postcoordinated.Design/methodology/approach – In a review of literature on pre‐ and postcoordination and user behaviour, 20 criteria originally discussed by Svenonius are considered.Findings – The advantages and disadvantages of pre‐ and postcoordinated systems are on a very similar level. Most subject heading languages developed recently are precoordinated. They all require investments in highly skilled intellectual work, and are therefore expensive and difficult to maintain. Postcoordinated systems seem to have more advantages for information providers, but less for users. However, most of these disadvantages could be overcome by known information retrieval models and techniques.Research limitations/implications – The criteria originally discussed by Svenonius are difficult to evaluate in an exact manner. Some of them are also irrelevant because of changes in information retrieval s.
Pseudoexfoliation syndrome and diabetes mellitus

Abstract The frequency of pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXF) was determined prospectively in 2 outpatient cohorts: a normal control group and a diabetic group with or without evidence of diabetic retinopathy. Four hundred and eighty‐nine normal patients over the age of 50 years (group A) were compared with 325 diabetic patients of comparable age (group B). Within the diabetic cohort 121 patients did not exhibit signs of diabetic retinopathy, whereas the rest were suffering from either background diabetic retinopathy (143), or proliferative diabetic retinopathy (61). Pseudoexfoliation syndrome was present in 23.7% of patients in group A and 11% of patients in group B. Within the latter group, PXF was significantly less prevalent in the subgroup consisting of patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (3.2%). Correlating well to the age, PXF was significantly less prevalent for the age group 60–70 and > 70 for these patients. These results indicate that PXF occurs less frequently in diabetics with background diabetic retinopathy and even less so in the presence of proliferative diabetic retinopathy.