Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tempo Extraction using Beat Histograms

This abstract describes the tempo extraction algorithm used for the University of Victoria submission to the MIREX (Music Information Retrieval Exchange) 2005. The algorithm is mostly based on self-similarity rather than onset detection. However, an onset detection component is used to calculate the phase of the dominant periodicities. Multiple frequency bands are calculated using a Discrete Wavelet Transform. Subsequently the envelope of each band is extracted and autocorrelation is used to find the dominant periodicities of the audio signal. These dominant periodicities are accumulated into a Beat Histogramwhich is used to detect the primary and secondary tempo and their relative strength.
Socioeconomic status as a risk factor for dementia death: individual participant meta-analysis of 86 508 men and women from the UK

Background Life-course socioeconomic factors may have a role in dementia aetiology but there is a current paucity of studies. Meta-analyses of individual participant data would considerably strengthen this evidence base. Aims To examine the association between socioeconomic status in early life and adulthood with later dementia death. Method Individual participant meta-analysis of 11 prospective cohort studies (1994–2004, n = 86508). Results Leaving full-time education at an earlier age was associated with an increased risk of dementia death in women (fully adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for age ⩽14 v. age ⩾16: HR = 1.76, 95% Cl 1.23–2.53) but not men. Occupational social class was not statistically significantly associated with dementia death in men or women. Conclusions Lower educational attainment in women was associated with an increased risk of dementia-related death independently of common risk behaviours and comorbidities.
Lack of complete correlation between emetic and T-cell-stimulatory activities of staphylococcal enterotoxins

This study examined the emetic activity of several staphylococcal enterotoxin type A and B (SEA and SEB, respectively) mutants that had either one or two amino acid residue substitutions. New sea gene mutations were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis; gene products were obtained with glycine residues at position 25, 47, 48, 81, 85, or 86 of mature SEA. Culture supernatants from Staphylococcus aureus RN4220, or derivatives containing either sea or a sea mutation, were analyzed for the ability to stimulate proliferation of murine splenocytes, as determined by incorporation of [3H]thymidine. Culture supernatants containing SEA-N25G (a SEA mutant with a substitution of glycine for the asparagine residue at position 25), SEA-F47G, or SEA-L48G did not stimulate T-cell proliferation, unlike supernatants containing the other substitution mutants. Purified preparations of SEA-N25G had weak activity and those of SEA-F47G and SEA-L48G had essentially no activity in the T-cell proliferation assay. All mutants except SEA-V85G, which was degraded by monkey stomach lavage fluid in vitro, were tested for emetic activity. SEA-C106A and two SEB mutants, SEB-D9N/N23D and SEB-F44S (previously referred to as BR-257 and BR-358, respectively), whose construction and altered immunological properties have been reported previously, were also tested in the emetic assay. Each mutant was initially administered intragastrically at doses of 75 to 100 micrograms per animal; if none of the animals responded, the dose was increased four-to fivefold. SEA-F47G, SEA-C106A, and SEB-D9N/N23D were the only mutants that did not induce vomiting at either dose tested; these three mutants had reduced immunological activity. However, there was not a perfect correlation between immunological and emetic activities; SEA-L48G and SEB-F44S retained emetic activity, although they had essentially no T-cell-stimulatory activity. These studies suggest that these two activities can be dissociated.
Performance evaluation of embedded color QR codes on logos

Nowadays, QR (quick response) codes are widely used for recording the trace and ID verification. Eventually, many industries practices QR code and image (logo) for the safety drives. Therefore, it needs more space and hence biggest piece of paper in turn damage occurs. So, there is need for reducing the paper size, which includes the embedding technique of QR codes on color logos. This paper aims at developing an efficient technique for embedding the color QR codes on the logos. Originally, a pattern is created from the text using tonal mask and errors are corrected through RS code. Then, the pattern is converted into RGB color model using pseudo coloring. Then DWT is performed on the logo and using proper embedding technique, QR codes are watermarked into the equivalent components of the logo. Finally, these RGB components are joined into an embedded image. In this work, then the efficiency is analyzed and compared with that of input images.
Personal health records: evaluation of functionality and utility.

OBJECTIVES Web-based applications have been developed that allow patients to enter their own information into secure personal health records. These applications are being promoted as a means of providing patients and providers with universal access to updated medical information. The authors evaluated the functionality and utility of a selection of personal health records. DESIGN A targeted search strategy was used to identify eleven Web sites promoting different personal health records. Specific criteria related to the entry and display of data elements were developed to evaluate the functionality of each PHR. Information abstracted from an actual case was used to create a series of representative PHRs. Output generated for review was evaluated to assess the accuracy and completeness of clinical information related to the diagnosis and treatment of specific disorders. RESULTS The PHRs selected for review employed data entry methods that limited the range and content of patient-entered information related to medical history, medications, laboratory tests, diagnostic studies, and immunizations. Representative PHRs created with information abstracted from an actual case displayed varying amounts of information at basic and comprehensive levels of representation. CONCLUSIONS Currently available PHRs demonstrate limited functionality. The data entry, validation, and information display methods they employ may limit their utility as representations of medical information.
Antibody-dependent cellular protection against herpes simplex virus dissemination as revealed by viral plauqe and infectivity assays

Mouse nonimmune peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) plus antibody to herpes simplex virus inhibited virus dissemination in herpes simplex virus-infected 3T3 cell culture as revealed by development of viral plaque, size of immunofluorescent foci, appearance of polycaryocytes, and viral infectivity appearing in the culture. These nonimmune PBL did not act alone in inibiting virus dissemination, but did act synergistically in combination with antibody. The ratio of PBL to target monolayer cells needed to produce this effect was 20. Splenic lymphocytes had weak activity, whereas thymocytes were without effect, even in the presence of antibody. Neither interferon nor lymphotoxin was detected in this lymphocyte-mediated response. These findings support previous observations, based on cytotoxicity assays, that antibody-dependent cellular immune processes could be important in control of and recovery from herpesvirus infection.
On optimal hierarchy of load-bearing biological materials

Load-bearing biological materials such as shell, mineralized tendon and bone exhibit two to seven levels of structural hierarchy based on constituent materials (biominerals and proteins) of relatively poor mechanical properties. A key question that remains unanswered is what determines the number of hierarchical levels in these materials. Here we develop a quasi-self-similar hierarchical model to show that, depending on the mineral content, there exists an optimal level of structural hierarchy for maximal toughness of biocomposites. The predicted optimal levels of hierarchy and cooperative deformation across multiple structural levels are in excellent agreement with experimental observations.
Ethics-related selection and reduced ethical conflict as drivers of positive work attitudes : Delivering on employees’ expectations for an ethical workplace

Purpose – There is reason to believe that an ethically minded approach to hiring and the development of an ethical context should be associated with incremental decreases in employees’ perceptions of ethical conflict. It is also likely that the selection of ethical employees, and the reduced ethical conflict that follows, are positively related to employees’ positive work attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to test these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – Using a self-report questionnaire, information was collected from 187 employees working for a medium-sized financial services organization with offices located primarily in the Midwestern USA. Findings – Results of structural equation modeling indicated that employees’ perceptions of ethics-related selection were negatively related to perceived ethical conflict, and that reduced ethical conflict and enhanced ethics-related selection were associated with an increased positive work attitude, which was comprised of job satisfaction, an intenti.
Analysis of an hp-Nonconforming Discontinuous Galerkin Spectral Element Method for Wave Propagation

We analyze the consistency, stability, and convergence of an $hp$ discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method of Kopriva [J. Comput. Phys., 128 (1996), pp. 475--488] and Kopriva, Woodruff, and Hussaini [Internat. J. Numer. Methods Engrg. , 53 (2002), pp. 105--122]. The analysis is carried out simultaneously for acoustic, elastic, coupled elastic-acoustic, and electromagnetic wave propagation. Our analytical results are developed for both conforming and nonconforming approximations on hexahedral meshes using either exact integration with Legendre--Gauss quadrature or inexact integration with Legendre--Gauss--Lobatto quadrature. A mortar-based nonconforming approximation is developed to treat both $h$- and $p$-nonconforming meshes simultaneously. The mortar approach is constructed in such a way that consistency, stability, and convergence analyses for nonconforming approximations follow the conforming counterparts with minimal modifications. In particular, it casts $hp$-nonconforming interfaces into equiv.
Historical data-driven nurse flexible scheduling problem

The nurse scheduling problem (NSP) is a complex combinatorial optimization problem, we aim is to use the nurse resource reasonably. In this paper, firstly, with the method of time series analysis, an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model is established to forecast the number of patients, which is used as input to calculate the volumes of nurse for scheduling by queuing theory. In the aspect of NSP, a comprehensive integer programming model considering nurse's levels and their preferences to different shifts is established, with a series of labor regulations. Finally, in order to get a near-optimal scheduling, a heuristic algorithm combined with a series of transformation rules is designed. The contribution in this paper is threefold. Firstly, it satisfies all the constraints and obtains a near-optimal scheduling. Secondly, it can control patient waiting time validly. Thirdly, it can adjust the number of nurses to the shift dynamically.
Identification of Arabidopsis Ethylene-Responsive Element Binding Factors with Distinct Induction Kinetics after Pathogen Infection1,212

Ethylene-responsive element binding factors (ERF) proteins are plant-specific transcription factors, many of which have been linked to stress responses. We have identified four Arabidopsis ERF genes whose expression was specifically induced by avirulent and virulent strains of the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato, with overlapping but distinct induction kinetics. However, a delay in ERFmRNA accumulation after infection with the virulent strain was observed when compared with the avirulent strain. The induction ofERF gene expression in most cases preceded the mRNA accumulation of a basic chitinase gene, a potential downstream target for one or more of these ERFs. The expression of the ERFgenes was examined among different Arabidopsis tissues, in response to the signaling molecules ethylene, methyl jasmonate, and salicylic acid (SA), and in Arabidopsis mutants with decreased or enhanced susceptibility to pathogens, and significant differences were observed. For example, in seedlings, some of the ERF genes were not induced by SA in the wild-type but were SA responsive in thepad4-1 mutant, suggesting that PAD4-1, which acts upstream of SA accumulation, is also involved in repressing the SA-induced expression of specific ERF genes. The four ERF proteins were shown to contain transcriptional activation domains. These results suggest that transcriptional activation cascades involving ERF proteins may be important for plant defense to pathogen attack and that some ERF family members could be involved in the cross-talk between SA- and jasmonic acid-signaling pathways.
A review of echocardiography in anaesthetic and peri‐operative practice. Part 1: impact and utility

Echocardiography is migrating rapidly across speciality boundaries and clinical demand is expanding. Echocardiography shows promise for evolving applications in the peri‐operative assessment and therapeutic management of patients undergoing non‐cardiac surgery, whether it be elective or emergency. Although evidence is limited with regard to significant impact on outcomes from anaesthesia and surgery, there is little doubt about the validity and power of two‐dimensional real‐time viewing of cardiac anatomy and function. Echocardiography can be used to assist in decision‐making along the entire peri‐operative pathway, and is increasingly delivered by the previously referring physicians. The discussion around more widespread incorporation of cardiac ultrasound into anaesthetic practice must take into account competency, training and governance. Failure to do so adequately may mean that the use of echocardiography is poorly applied and costly.
Design Considerations for Robotic Needle Steering

Many medical procedures involve the use of needles, but targeting accuracy can be limited due to obstacles in the needle’s path, shifts in target position caused by tissue deformation, and undesired bending of the needle after insertion. In order to address these limitations, we have developed robotic systems that actively steer a needle in soft tissue. A bevel (asymmetric) tip causes the needle to bend during insertion, and steering is enhanced when the needle is very flexible. An experimental needle steering robot was designed that includes force/torque sensing, horizontal needle insertion, stereo image data acquisition, and controlled actuation of needle rotation and translation. Experiments were performed with a phantom tissue to determine the effects of insertion velocity and bevel tip angle on the needle path, as well as the forces acting on the needle during insertion. Results indicate that needle steering inside tissue does not depend on insertion velocity, but does depend on bevel tip angle. In addition, the forces acting on the needle are directly related to the insertion velocity.
Mechanized metatheory model-checking

The problem of mechanically formalizing and proving metatheoretic properties of programming language calculi, type systems, operational semantics, and related formal systems has received considerable attention recently. However, the dual problem of searching for errors in such formalizations has received comparatively little attention. In this paper, we consider the problem of bounded model-checking for metatheoretic properties of formal systems specified using nominal logic. In contrast to the current state of the art for metatheory verification, our approach is fully automatic, does not require expertise in theorem proving on the part of the user, and produces counterexamples in the case that a flaw is detected. We present two implementations of this technique, one based on negation-as-failure and one based on negation elimination, along with experimental results showing that these techniques are fast enough to be used interactively to debug systems as they are developed.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in Human Pregnancy: To Treat or Not to Treat?

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are increasingly prescribed during pregnancy. The purpose of the present paper is to summarize and evaluate the current evidence for the risk/benefit analysis of SSRI use in human pregnancy. The literature has been inconsistent. Although most studies have not shown an increase in the overall risk of major malformations, several studies have suggested that SSRIs may be associated with a small increased risk for cardiovascular malformations. Others have noted associations between SSRIs and specific types of rare major malformations. In some studies, there appears to be a small increased risk for miscarriages, which may be associated with the underlying maternal condition. Neonatal effects have been described in up to 30% of neonates exposed to SSRIs late in pregnancy. Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn has also been described with an absolute risk of <1%. The risk associated with treatment discontinuation, for example, higher frequency of relapse and increased risk of preterm delivery, should also be considered. The overall benefit of treatment seems to outweigh the potential risks.
Acoustic modeling for spoken dialogue systems based on unsupervised utterance-based selective training

The construction of high-performance acoustic models for certain speech recognition tasks is very costly and time-consuming, since it most often requires the collection and transcription of large amounts of task-specific speech data. In this paper acoustic modeling for spoken dialogue systems based on unsupervised selective training is examined. The main idea is to select those training utterances from an (untranscribed) speech data pool, so that the likelihood of a separate small (transcribed) development speech data set is maximized. If only the selected data are employed to retrain the initial acoustic models, a better performance is achieved than when retraining with all collected data. Using the proposed approach it is also possible to considerably reduce the costs for human-labeling of the speech data without compromising the performance. Furthermore, the method provides means for automatic task-adaptation of acoustic models, e.g. to adult or children speech. This is important, since detailed information about each automatically collected utterance is usually not available. Index Terms: speech recognition, acoustic model, unsupervised training, utterance-based selection, spoken dialogue system
Automated data analysis techniques for a modern silicon debug environment

With the growing size of modern designs and more strict time-to-market constraints, design errors unavoidably escape pre-silicon verification and reside in silicon prototypes. As a result, silicon debug has become a necessary step in the digital integrated circuit design flow. Although embedded hardware blocks, such as scan chains and trace buffers, provide a means to acquire data of internal signals in real time for debugging, there is a relative shortage in methodologies to efficiently analyze this vast data to identify root-causes. This paper presents an automated software solution that attempts to fill-in the gap. The presented techniques automate the configuration process for trace-buffer based hardware in order to acquire helpful information for debugging the failure, and detect suspects of the failure in both the spatial and temporal domain.
Pharmacologic profile of ropinirole

The use of dopamine agonists as monotherapy or in combination with levodopa in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) allows for reduction or limitation of the levodopa dose, potentially delaying the onset or reducing the severity of late motor complications. Ropinirole is a new nonergoline dopamine agonist that binds specifically to D2-like receptors with a selectivity similar to that of dopamine (D3 > D2 > D4). The chemical structure of ropinirole has the potential to maintain a structure-activity relationship similar to that of dopamine and other effective dopamine agonists without producing ergot-related adverse effects. Ropinirole has demonstrated efficacy in two standard preclinical models of PD and has shown a very low propensity to induce dyskinesia in these studies. This latter property is of potential clinical importance for pharmacotherapy of early PD. This article will present the importance of pharmacologic specificity of dopamine agonists along with the basic pharmacologic characteristics of ropinirole that may contribute to its efficacy in the treatment of PD.
The Creation of a Software Testing Meta Framework; The Test Object Model

Typically an organization’s testing environment consists of a collection of, not only, hardware, but software tools, solutions, customizations, policies and procedures. This paper proposes that testing organizations benefit from the creation of a Test Object Model (TOM) which is a representation of the organization’s environment and provides a set of more complete and customized definitions of terms for the organization. Ideally, these definitions are consistent with industry standards, but in reality that is not always practical. All test organizations are unique and the TOM of each organization will likely differ, sometimes significantly. This proposal does not prescribe any particular format for the representation of the TOM but recommends a minimum level of detail that the TOM should include. By performing a level of object-oriented analysis upon themselves, testing organizations are better able to select vendor tools, create homegrown solutions, and design and implement frameworks for both manual and automated testing.
Febrile Convulsions Followed by Nonfebrile Convulsions. A Clinical, Electroencephalographic and Follow-Up Study

103 patients with febrile convulsions followed by nonfebrile convulsions and 512 patients with febrile convulsions only (FC group) under 5 years of age at the first examination were analyzed from many aspects. A trimodal curve in distribution by age at onset of nonfebrile convulsions was seen: 2--3 years of age with occasional grand mal, 5--6 years of age with absence, and 12 years of age with awakening grand mal. Specific EEG abnormality was observed in 40% at the first examination (29% in FC group). Typical or atypical spike-and-wave complex, polyspikes, or continuous EEG abnormality were characteristic (slow wave burst with spike for FC group). Development from febrile convulsions into nonfebrile convulsions was detected in 17% among male and female patients. To identify an effective sign for the prediction of this development, the ratio between correct and incorrect prediction rates was analyzed. Specific paroxysmal EEG abnormality was increased over 3 years of age. EEG change due to aging and the significance of EEG reexamination were indicated.