Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bayesian estimation of transition probabilities in hybrid systems via convex optimization

In practice, the transition probability matrix (TPM) in the approach to track a maneuvering target is often unknown. We propose a new method to estimate the optimal TPM according to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) or maximum likelihood (ML) criterion via convex optimization. We apply the proposed method to the nonlinear/non- Gaussian cases, where the interacting multiple model (IMM) particle filter (IMMPF) is employed to estimate the corresponding base state. Simulation results of tracking a maneuvering target show the efficacy of the proposed method with improved performance.
Enabling improved speaker recognition by voice quality estimation

Presented is a method to mitigate noise and interference in automated speaker identification (SID). This process uses the MIT/LL SID module without modifications. In this process, speaker models are built for a lattice of signal to noise ratio (SNR) levels. The SNR of the received signal is estimated by first applying speech activity detection to identify portions of the signal that actually contain speech. A voice quality estimation process is then applied to estimate the SNR of the received signal. The speaker models representing the SNR of the received signal are dynamically loaded, and conventional SID is applied. In training, the SNR of each training signal is estimated, and the signal is modified by adding noise to create a signal at the desired SNR. Using this process, each signal may be used to train models at any SNR level less than or equal to the SNR of the original signal. The process has been fully implemented and is completely automated.
Timeline to operative intervention for solid organ injuries in children.

BACKGROUND Nonoperative management of solid organ injuries (SOI) in children is now the standard of care. Little is know regarding the time to failure for those children requiring operative intervention. We sought to delineate this timeline to operative intervention for the subset of single solid organ injured patients requiring laparotomy. METHODS The National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) was queried for the period 1991 to 2003 for all children (age <15) with a single abdominal SOI (kidney, liver, spleen). Children with significant associated head injury (Abbreviated Injury Score; AIS >2) were excluded. Data abstracted included age, organ injury and severity (ICD-9, AIS), and operative procedures. Survival analysis methods were used to evaluate equality of hazard rates (indicating rate of operative intervention by hour). RESULTS For the period of review, the NTDB contained 2,013 children with a single SOI including 1,813 eligible for review. The mean age was 9.2 +/- 3.8 years with a mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 8.6 +/- 6.3. The study population included 224 (12.4%) kidney injuries, 488 (26.9%) liver injuries, and 1,101 (60.7%) splenic injuries. A total of 120 (6.6%) of the patients required an operation for their solid organ injury. The median time to operation was 2.4 hours with 61.7% undergoing surgery within 3 hours of arrival, 79.4% within 6 hours, and 89.7% within 24 hours. The operative intervention rate was greatest for splenic injuries (8.7%) followed by liver (3.5%) and kidney (3.1%) injuries. Hazard rates varied significantly by organ injured (p < 0.001) and peaked at 1.5 hours for liver, 2 hours for spleen, and 4.5 hours for kidney. Hazard rates varied significantly by injury severity (p < 0.001) with a peak time to surgery for all severity at 2 hours postadmission. CONCLUSION Although the patterns for peak time to operative intervention varied for the specific organs injured and injury severity, the need for operative intervention for children with an SOI is established for the vast majority of children within 24 hours of admission.
Macrophage microbicidal activity. Correlation between phagocytosis-associated oxidative metabolism and the killing of candida by macrophages

The mechanisms by which macrophages kill ingested microorganisms were explored using Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis. The results indicate that efficient macrophage candidacidal activity depends upon the generation of oxygen metabolites by the phagocytic cell: (a) peritoneal macrophages from mice infected with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) or injected intraperitoneally with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) released more superoxide anion (0(2)(-)) during phagocytosis of candida and killed candida better than did resident macrophages; (b) cells of the macrophage-like line J774.1, which released negligible amounts of O(2)(-), could ingest the candida normally but not kill them; (c) killing of candida by resident, LPS- elicited, and BCG-activated macrophages was inhibited by agents that scavenge O(2)(-), hydrogen peroxide (H(2)0(2)), hydroxyl radical (x OH), and singlet oxygen; and (d) all three macrophage types killed C. parapsilosis more effectively than C. albicans, and (7. parapsilosis stimulated a more prompt and vigorous burst of macrophage oxygen consumption and 0(2)(-) release than did C. albicans. Macrophages ingested C. parapsilosis slightly more quickly than C. albicans, but phagocytosis of both strains was equivalent by 60 min of incubation. Although C. albicans contained higher concentrations of the oxygen-metabolite scavengers superoxide dismutase and catalase, neither fungal species scavenged 0(2)(-) or H(2)0(2) effectively; and C. albicans was killed more easily than C. parapsilosis by a xanthine oxidase system that generates primarily H(2)O(2) at pH 7, or 0(2)(-) and x OH at pH 10. Thus, the decreased killing of C. albicans appears to result primarily from the capability of this species to elicit less vigorous stimulation of macrophage oxidative metabolism. This capability may have general relevance to the pathogenicity of microorganisms.
Reducing the synchronization overhead in parallel nonsymmetric Krylov algorithms on MIMD machines

By considering electromagnetic scattering problems as examples, a study of the performance and scalability of the conjugate gradient squared (CGS) algorithm on two MIMD machines is presented. A modified CGS (MCGS) algorithm, where the synchronization overhead is effectively reduced by a factor of two, is proposed in this paper. This is achieved by changing the computation sequence in the CGS algorithm. Both experimental and theoretical analyses were performed to investigate the impact of this modification on the overall execution time.
Experimental results of bispectral invariants discriminative power

One of the main tools in shape matching and pattern recognition are invariants. For three-dimensional data, rotation invariants comprise of two main kinds: moments and spherical harmonic magnitudes. Both are well examined and both suffer from certain limitations. In search for better performance, a new kind of spherical-harmonic invariants have been proposed recently, called bispectral invariants. They are well-established from theoretical point of view. They posses numerous beneficial properties and advantages over other invariants, include the ability to distinguish rotation from reflection, and the sensitivity to phase. However, insufficient research has been conducted to check their behavior in practice. In this paper, results are presented pertaining to the discriminative power of bispectral invariants. Objects from Princeton Shape Benchmark database are used for evaluation. It is shown that the bispectral invariants outperform power spectral invariants, but perform worse than other descriptors proposed in the literature such as SHELLS and SHD. The difference in performance is attributable to the implicit filtering used to compute the invariants.
intracerebral hemorrhage: evidence from the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study (NEMESIS)

Background: People suffering different types of stroke have differing demographic characteristics and survival. However, current estimates of disease burden are based on the same underlying assumptions irrespective of stroke type. We hypothesized that average Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost from stroke would be different for ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Methods: We used 1 and 5-year data collected from patients with first-ever stroke participating in the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study (NEMESIS). We calculated case fatality rates, health-adjusted life expectancy, and quality-of-life (QoL) weights specific to each age and gender category. Lifetime 'health loss' for first-ever ischemic stroke and ICH surviving 28-days for the 2004 Australian population cohort was then estimated. Multivariable uncertainty analyses and sensitivity analyses (SA) were used to assess the impact of varying input parameters e.g. case fatality and QoL weights. Results: Paired QoL data at 1 and 5 years were available for 237 NEMESIS participants. Extrapolating NEMESIS rates, 31,539 first-ever strokes were expected for Australia in 2004. Average discounted (3%) QALYs lost per first-ever stroke were estimated to be 5.09 (SD 0.20; SA 5.49) for ischemic stroke (n = 27,660) and 6.17 (SD 0.26; SA 6.45) for ICH (n = 4,291; p < 0.001). QALYs lost also differed according to gender for both subtypes (ischemic stroke: males 4.69 SD 0.38, females 5.51 SD 0.46; ICH: males 5.82 SD 0.67, females 6.50 SD 0.40). Discussion: People with ICH incurred greater loss of health over a lifetime than people with ischemic stroke. This is explained by greater stroke related case fatality at a younger age, but longer life expectancy with disability after the first 12 months for people with ICH. Thus, studies of disease burden in stroke should account for these differences between subtype and gender. Otherwise, in countries where ICH is more common, health loss for stroke may be underestimated. Similar to other studies of this type, the generalisability of the results may be limited. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were used to provide a plausible range of variation for Australia. In countries with demographic and life expectancy characteristics comparable to Australia, our QoL weights may be reasonably applicable.
Molecular and Therapeutic Characterization of Anti-ectodysplasin A Receptor (EDAR) Agonist Monoclonal Antibodies*

The TNF family ligand ectodysplasin A (EDA) and its receptor EDAR are required for proper development of skin appendages such as hair, teeth, and eccrine sweat glands. Loss of function mutations in the Eda gene cause X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED), a condition that can be ameliorated in mice and dogs by timely administration of recombinant EDA. In this study, several agonist anti-EDAR monoclonal antibodies were generated that cross-react with the extracellular domains of human, dog, rat, mouse, and chicken EDAR. Their half-life in adult mice was about 11 days. They induced tail hair and sweat gland formation when administered to newborn EDA-deficient Tabby mice, with an EC50 of 0.1 to 0.7 mg/kg. Divalency was necessary and sufficient for this therapeutic activity. Only some antibodies were also agonists in an in vitro surrogate activity assay based on the activation of the apoptotic Fas pathway. Activity in this assay correlated with small dissociation constants. When administered in utero in mice or at birth in dogs, agonist antibodies reverted several ectodermal dysplasia features, including tooth morphology. These antibodies are therefore predicted to efficiently trigger EDAR signaling in many vertebrate species and will be particularly suited for long term treatments.
College binge drinking still on the rise.

DESPITE EFFORTS AT PREVENtion, the prevalence of binge drinking among college students is continuing to rise, and so are the harms associated with it. Researchers with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) said the proportion of college students aged 18 to 24 years who engaged in binge drinking (defined as having 5 or more drinks on an occasion in the previous 30 days) increased from 41.7% in 1998 to 44.7% in 2005. At the same time, the number of deaths from unintentional alcoholrelated injury increased from 1440 in 1998 to 1825 in 2005, or 18.5 to 19.0 per 100 000 students (a 3% increase, although the increase was not statistically significant). Also, the proportion of those who reported driving under the influence of alcohol in the past year increased from 26.5% to 28.9% (Hingson RW et al. J Stud Alcohol Drugs Suppl. 2009;[16]:12-20). The analysis integrated data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s injury mortality data, national coroner studies, census and college enrollment data, the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the Harvard School of Public Health’s College Alcohol Study (CAS). The findings appear in the July supplement of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, which published 14 articles reporting results of projects associated with the Rapid Response to College Drinking Problems Initiative, a grant program funded by the NIAAA. Ralph W. Hingson, ScD, MPH, lead author and director of the NIAAA’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, said his study’s findings show that colleges and communities are not taking the necessary steps to implement effective alcohol abuse prevention and intervention programs, and by not doing so, they are putting the students who drink at risk for longterm medical problems, injury, and legal troubles.
Cyber Meets Control: A Novel Federated Approach for Resilient CPS Leveraging Real Cyber Threat Intelligence

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) embody a tight integration between network-based communications, software, sensors, and physical processes. While the integration of cyber technologies within legacy systems will most certainly introduce opportunities and advancements not yet envisioned, it will undoubtedly also pave the way to misdemeanors that will exploit systems� resources, causing drastic and severe nationwide impacts. While almost all works in the literature exclusively tackled the security of one independent aspect of CPS (i.e., cyber or physical), we argue that these systems cannot be decoupled. In this context, we present what we believe is a first attempt ever to tackle the problem of CPS security in a coupled and a systematic manner. To this end, this article proposes a novel approach that federates the cyber and physical environments to infer and attribute tangible CPS attacks. This is achieved by - Leveraging real cyber threat intelligence derived from empirical measurements. - Capturing and investigating CP data flows by devising an innovative CPS threat detector. An added value of the proposed approach is rendered by physical remediation strategies, which are envisioned to automatically be invoked as a reaction to the inferred attacks to provide CPS resiliency. We conclude this article by discussing a few design considerations and presenting three case studies that demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.
The Role Of The Infralimbic Cortex In A Pain Intensity-graded Rodent Model Of Distraction Analgesia

THE ROLE OF THE INFRALIMBIC CORTEX IN A PAIN INTENSITY-GRADED RODENT MODEL OF DISTRACTION ANALGESIA Christopher T. McNabb, PhD The University of Texas at Arlington, 2014 Supervising Professor: Perry N. Fuchs The misdirection of attention has been used to reduce experimental and clinical paina technique known as distraction analgesia (DA). A growing understanding of the important interrelationship between cognition and pain has prompted the need for a deeper understanding of its neural substrates. There is evidence implicating the infralimbic cortex of the rat brain as a putative mediator of DA, but this has never been directly tested. Therefore, this study investigated the role of the infralimbic cortex (IL) in a rat model of DA at highand low-intensity pain. One hundred fifty two Sprague Dawley rats underwent stereotaxic surgery to receive either a bilateral electrolytic lesion to the IL or a sham procedure. Following recovery, rats underwent a week of daily habituation to a test chamber. Following habituation, rats received a subcutaneous injection of either . 5% or 1% formalin into the plantar surface of the left hindpaw and underwent a formalin test in the same chamber to which they had been habituated. Each chamber was either left empty or outfitted with an inverted falcon tube to serve as a distractor. Behavior during habituation and formalin testing was recorded with tracking software. The presence of the distractor was associated with significantly decreased formalin pain scores in sham animals (p < .05), indicating successful DA. However, distractor presence did not decrease formalin pain scores in IL-lesioned animals, indicating that the IL lesion
Optimal below Threshold Delay Estimation for Radio Signals

Time delay estimation of a random signal observed at twospatially separated sites is a problem of considerable practicalinterest. Radio-frequency (RF) signals pose a difficulty that does notarise while treating sonar or other low frequency signals: the signalprocessing can be performed only on low frequency versions of theobserved signals. We propose an estimation scheme, based oncomplex envelopes, the mean square error (MSE) of which achievesthe performance predicted by Barankin, Bellini-Tartara, and Weiss-Weinsteinlower bounds. The proposed scheme was tested byextensive computer simulations, and the results are in closeagreement with theory predictions. Moreover, a real-time hardwareimplementation of the algorithm was developed and testedsuccessfully using real RF signals.
Confirmation and extension of association of blood lead with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ADHD symptom domains at population-typical exposure levels.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have suggested that child attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its symptom domains are related to blood lead level, even at background exposure levels typical in western countries. However, recent studies disagreed as to whether lead was related to inattention or hyperactivity-impulsivity within the ADHD domain. More definitive evaluation of these questions was sought. METHODS Two hundred and thirty-six (236) children aged 6-17 years participated (61 ADHD-Combined type, 47 ADHD Predominantly Inattentive type, 99 non-ADHD control, 29 unclassified borderline, situational, or not otherwise specified (NOS) cases). Formal diagnosis was reliably established by a best estimate procedure based on a semi-structured clinical interview and parent and teacher ratings. Lead was assayed from whole blood using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with a method detection limit of . 3 microg/dL. RESULTS Blood lead levels were slightly below United States and Western Europe population exposure averages, with a mean of . 73 and a maximum of 2.2 microg/dL. This is the lowest level of blood lead ever studied in relation to ADHD. After statistical control for covariates including IQ and prenatal smoking exposure, blood lead was associated with ADHD-combined type but not inattentive type. Parent and teacher report indicated association of blood lead with Conners cognitive problems, but only teacher report showed effects on DSM-IV inattention symptoms. Blood lead was associated with hyperactivity-impulsivity in parent report regardless of measurement method, whereas teacher report effects depended on child treatment history. CONCLUSIONS These findings confirm that in children with typical US population lead exposure, careful identification of children with ADHD also identifies children with slightly elevated blood lead.
Alienated Playbour

This article explores the play practices of EVE Online industrialists: those primarily responsible for generating the materials and equipment that drive the game’s robust economy. Applying the concept of “immaterial labor” to this underattended aspect of the EVE community, we consider the range of communicative and informational artifacts and activities industrialists enact in support of their involvement in the game—work that happens both in game and crucially outside of it. Moving past the increasingly anachronistic distinctions between digitally mediated labor and leisure, in game and out of game, we examine the relations of production in which these players are situated: to other EVE players, in-game corporations, the game’s developer, and the broader digital economy. Seen from this perspective, we consider the extent to which EVE both ideologically and economically supports the extension of capital into increasing aspects of our everyday lives—a “game” in which many play, but few win.
Study on the Friction Nonlinear Control of Force Control System

A nonlinear friction(moment) compensation controller of force (moment) control system is developed. Friction is one of the important factors which affect system performance. Due to the influence of friction nonlinearity to the electro-hydraulic passive force servo system, we develop a nonlinear friction(moment) controller which is applied in force(moment) control system. This controller, which is based on the Lyapunov theorem, doesn't need precision friction model. It only needs parameters upper bounds. It is a nonlinear friction (moment) compensation controller which is based on non-precision friction model. The simulation results show that compared with PID controller, the controller designed in this paper is better at eliminating the friction(moment) influence. This controller has the use for reference in friction(moment) eliminating of low moment or low velocity force(moment) control system.
Obesity: genome and environment interactions

Obesity has become one of the major threats for public health in industrialised world among adults, but also among adolescents and children. It is infl uenced by the interaction of genes, nutrition, environment, and lifestyle. Environmental and lifestyle risk factors include foetal and lifelong environment, nutrient quality, chemical and microbial exposure, and psychical stress, all of which are important contributing infl uences. Removing or limiting chemical and pharmaceutical obesogens from human environment could make a difference in the growing epidemic of obesity. Additionally, nutrigenomics describes how modifi cations in individual diets can improve health and prevent chronic diseases, as well as obesity, by understanding the effects of a genetic profi le in the interaction between food and increase in body weight. Furthermore, individual genetic variations in genome represent an individual′s predisposition for obesity. Therefore, the use of individual genetic information, avoiding obesogens, and a healthy lifestyle could help to improve the management of obesity and maintain a healthy weight.