Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimum probability estimation based on expectations

Probability estimation is important for the application of probabilistic models as well as for any evaluation in IR. We discuss the interdependencies between parameter estimation and other properties of probabilistic models. Then we define an optimum estimate which can be applied to various typical estimation problems in IR. A method for the computation of this estimate is described which uses expectations from empirical distributions. Some experiments show the applicability of our method, whereas comparable approaches are partially based on false assumptions or yield estimates with systematic errors.
Acute Pneumonia and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

BUMC PROCEEDINGS 2001;14:88–93 CASE PRESENTATION MICHELLE V. SUN, MD: On March 29, 2000, a 40-year-old black woman with known systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) presented to Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) with fevers to 40°C (104°F), yellow to green diarrhea without blood, dyspnea, fatigue, headache, photophobia, cold sores, and a productive cough of 3 days’ duration. She was on chronic prednisone therapy. Five days before admission, she had received her first dose of a course of monthly intravenous cyclophosphamide for type IV lupus nephritis and autoimmune hepatitis. She denied any new rashes, chest pain, or other gastrointestinal or urinary complaints. Her SLE was originally diagnosed in October 1998. She was then lost to follow-up for over a year. On February 1, 2000, she was admitted to an outside hospital with complaints of fatigue, nausea, and jaundice and was found to have elevated liver function tests with an obstructive pattern. An abdominal ultrasound showed gallbladder thickening, and she subsequently underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. At the time of her surgery, her liver was found to be fatty and possibly cirrhotic. The biopsy specimen was consistent with autoimmune hepatitis. During that hospitalization, she also developed acute renal insufficiency with a creatinine of 4.1 mg/dL. She was subsequently transferred to BUMC on February 12, 2000, for further care. Her C3 and C4 levels were both low, indicating active disease. She was started on pulse-dose steroids and underwent renal biopsy, with findings consistent with type IV lupus nephritis. Her hepatic and renal functions remained stable, and she was discharged home on February 23, 2000, on prednisone 40 mg twice a day, with a creatinine of 3.8 mg/dL. Intravenous cyclophosphamide was delayed at that time because of poor healing of her surgical wounds and persistent leak of ascitic fluid. On March 24, 2000, she had been readmitted for elective left subclavian Port-A-Cath placement and intravenous cyclophosphamide therapy (800 mg). She also received intravenous acyclovir for recurrent fever blisters. Her white blood cell count was 11.6 × 103/μL (5% lymphocytes and 88% neutrophils); hematocrit, 28%; platelets, 130 × 103/μL; and creatinine, 1.1 mg/dL. She was discharged home the following day on prednisone and oral acyclovir. The patient’s past medical history was significant only for hypertension and SLE as described above. Her current medications, all taken orally, included lansoprazole, 30 mg daily; furosemide, 40 mg daily; amlodipine, 10 mg daily; prednisone, 40 mg Acute pneumonia and systemic lupus erythematosus
A human identification method based on dynamic plantar pressure distribution

A novel human identification method based on dynamic plantar pressure distribution was proposed in this paper. An in-shoe plantar pressure measure system was applied to collect pressure information and the plantar pressure database was established. The wavelet transform was used to remove the noise. We extracted two sides of information including pressure amplitude and position during walking. The support vector machine (SVM) was employed to classify human. Experiments with samples of 35 persons showed that the recognition rate reached 96%, and the proposed method was insensitive for weight. However, the walking speed had significant influence on recognition performance.
Evaluating a Model for Medium Sized Electricity Consumers

In this paper a simple, but effective model is shown to model the electricity consumption of different consumers. An algorithm is described to determine the optimal parameters of the model automatically. The model is evaluated on data collected from different middle sized consumers. It is shown that the model is valid for a significant portion of the customers.
Structure, stability and behaviour of nucleic acids in ionic liquids

Nucleic acids have become a powerful tool in nanotechnology because of their conformational polymorphism. However, lack of a medium in which nucleic acid structures exhibit long-term stability has been a bottleneck. Ionic liquids (ILs) are potential solvents in the nanotechnology field. Hydrated ILs, such as choline dihydrogen phosphate (choline dhp) and deep eutectic solvent (DES) prepared from choline chloride and urea, are ‘green’ solvents that ensure long-term stability of biomolecules. An understanding of the behaviour of nucleic acids in hydrated ILs is necessary for developing DNA materials. We here review current knowledge about the structures and stabilities of nucleic acids in choline dhp and DES. Interestingly, in choline dhp, A–T base pairs are more stable than G–C base pairs, the reverse of the situation in buffered NaCl solution. Moreover, DNA triplex formation is markedly stabilized in hydrated ILs compared with aqueous solution. In choline dhp, the stability of Hoogsteen base pairs is comparable to that of Watson–Crick base pairs. Moreover, the parallel form of the G-quadruplex is stabilized in DES compared with aqueous solution. The behaviours of various DNA molecules in ILs detailed here should be useful for designing oligonucleotides for the development of nanomaterials and nanodevices.
Finding conjugate stabilizer subgroups of PSL ( 2 ; q )

We reduce a case of the hidden subgroup problem (HSP) in several families of finite groups of Lie type, such as SL(2; q), PSL(2; q), and PGL(2; q), to efficiently solvable HSPs in the affine group AGL(1; q). These groups act on projective space in an “almost” 3-transitive way, and we use this fact in each group to distinguish conjugates of its Borel (upper triangular) subgroup. Our observation is purely grouptheoretic, and as such breaks little new ground in quantum algorithms. Nonetheless, these appear to be the first positive results on the HSP in finite simple groups such as PSL(2; q).
Frame-based elastic models

We present a new type of deformable model which combines the realism of physically-based continuum mechanics models and the usability of frame-based skinning methods. The degrees of freedom are coordinate frames. In contrast with traditional skinning, frame positions are not scripted but move in reaction to internal body forces. The displacement field is smoothly interpolated using dual quaternion blending. The deformation gradient and its derivatives are computed at each sample point of a deformed object and used in the equations of Lagrangian mechanics to achieve physical realism. This allows easy and very intuitive definition of the degrees of freedom of the deformable object. The meshless discretization allows on-the-fly insertion of frames to create local deformations where needed. We formulate the dynamics of these models in detail and describe some precomputations that can be used for speed. We show that our method is effective for behaviors ranging from simple unimodal deformations to complex realistic deformations comparable with Finite Element simulations. To encourage its use, the software will be freely available in the simulation platform SOFA.
Prevalence and location of the posterior superior alveolar artery using cone-beam computed tomography

Purpose Insufficient knowledge of the anatomy of the maxillary sinuses prior to sinus graft surgery may lead to perioperative or postoperative complications. This study sought to characterize the position of the posterior superior alveolar artery (PSAA) within the maxillary sinuses using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods A total of 300 patients with edentulous posterior maxillae, including 138 females and 162 males with an age range of 33-86 years, who presented to a radiology clinic between 2013 and 2015 were enrolled in this retrospective cross-sectional study. The distance from the inferior border of the PSAA to the alveolar crest according to the residual ridge classification by Lekholm and Zarb, the distance from the PSAA to the nasal septum and zygomatic arch, and the diameter and position of the PSAA were all assessed on patients' CBCT scans. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test and the t-test. Results The PSAA was detected on the CBCT scans of 87% of the patients; it was located beneath the sinus membrane in 47% of cases and was intraosseous in 47% of cases. The diameter of the artery was between 1 and 2 mm in most patients (72%). The mean diameter of the artery was 1.29±0.39 mm, and the mean distances from the PSAA to the zygomatic arch, nasal septum, and alveolar crest were 22.59±4.89 mm, 26.51±3.52 mm, and 16.7±3.96 mm, respectively. Conclusion The likelihood of detecting the PSAA on CBCT scans is high; its location is intraosseous or beneath the sinus membrane in most patients. Determining the exact location of the PSAA on CBCT scans preoperatively can help prevent it from being damaged during surgery.
Design of quasi-millimeter wave leaf-shaped bowtie array antenna for UWB applications

Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology has recently attracted considerable attention for various applications, such as short-range high-speed communication, sensor networks, radar and location tracking. In 2002, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced its decision to allow the unlicensed use of the frequency band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz for UWB communication systems [1]. The FCC also allocated the quasi-millimeter wave band of 22 to 29GHz for radar applications. As a practical use of UWB radar systems, short-range (SR) automotive radar operating in the quasi-millimeter wave band has been receiving increased interest in recent years.
Special Issue on the Globalization of Marketing Ideology

One of the most pervasive forms of globalization in the past six decades is the globalization of the socio-organizational concept of ‘‘marketing. ’’ More than the idea of ‘‘finance’’— whose globalization is visible mainly in the large financial centers—the idea of ‘‘marketing’’ has seeped into everyday discourses in all corners of the world. While the globalization of markets and business practices are studied widely, the focus of this special issue is to step back and look at the fundamental processes at work in the globalization of the very idea of marketing. This idea has permeated all global contexts—including those that appear to be outside the ambit of capitalist business. We seek innovative contributions that explore how and why the idea and ideology of marketing have globalized in such sweeping ways. Empirical and theoretical contributions are invited on (but not limited to) the following topics:
Analyzing Emotional Facial Expressions’ Neural Correlates Using Event-Related Potentials and Eye Fixation-Related Potentials

The processing of emotional facial expressions (EFE) elicits specific evoked brain responses reflecting different stages of the EFE processing. Here, we focus on the Late Positive Potential (LPP; around 500ms) as a marker of an elaborative processing and conscious recognition of EFE involving the working memory. But at this latency, during visual exploration, the Event-Related Potential (ERP) at the stimuli onset and the Eye Fixation-Related Potential (EFRP) at the first fixation onset overlap. Using a General Linear Model, these potentials can be identified separately. Methods. Twenty-four participants were asked to freely empathize with the presented EFE (70 natural but standardized EFE -Neutral, Disgust, Surprise, Happiness- before categorizing them. Results. Around 200ms, early posterior neural activities of the first EFRP were modulated by EFE (Happiness vs Disgust). During the LPP latency, this modulation provided by cognitive processing from this fixation onset (mean 275ms), strengthened an activities pattern at left frontal sites -more involved for positive EFE- becoming significant across EFE. In contrast, at right frontal sites -more involved for negative EFE, another activities pattern, only elicited by the stimuli presentation, was significant across EFE. Moreover, taken together, these findings are in line with faster and facilitated perceptual processing for negative EFE.
A proposed internal model principle-based Kalman filter for fault detection

In this paper, we propose an internal model principle-based Kalman filter (IMP-KF) structure for use in fault detection. We show that the closed-loop structure of the IMP-KF is a necessary and sufficient condition for generating residuals upon which the fault detection process hinges. We advocate a residual generator structure similar to that used in standard Kalman filtering (KF), and judiciously exploit the non-robustness to model mismatch of the proposed IMP-KF scheme to detect faults in the presence of noise and disturbances. With no model mismatch, the KF residual's whiteness is exploited to derive a composite hypothesis testing that accounts for a low probability of false alarm and a high probability of correct decision for various reference inputs. The proposed scheme was successfully evaluated on both simulated and lab-scale physical systems
The scheduling and energy complexity of strong connectivity in ultra-wideband networks

Recently Moscibroda and Wattenhofer came up with the notion of scheduling complexity to capture the minimum amount of time to successfully schedule all the transmission requests under the physical SINR model. Their algorithm featuring a non-linear power assignment can schedule strongly connected transmissions in narrowband networks with O(log4 n) timeslots. In this paper, we first generalize this result to ultra-wideband networks. We show the strong connectivity scheduling complexity in UWB networks to be O(log (n/m)∙log3 n), where m is the processing gain. Secondly, we show that both of these polylogarithmic scheduling complexity results are gained at the expense of exponential energy complexity with lower bound ω(n∙2n). We also prove the upper bound of the energy complexity in narrowband networks to beO(n2∙2nα), and for UWB networks, this upper bound can be reduced by a processing gain factor.On the other hand, we show that improving the scheduling complexity through arbitrary power control has its limitations, and that different power assignment strategies have different impacts on the protocol interference models, which was often neglected in the design of wireless scheduling algorithms. Compared with narrowband networks, although the effect of aggregate interferences in UWB networks is greatly reduced, we demonstrate that the constant and linear power assignments in UWB networks are still inefficient in the worst case with respect to the scheduling complexity (Ω(n/m), which suggests there is a need for a better arbitrary power assignment.Our analyses shed new light on the design of the power assignment scheme and the performance analysis of the wireless scheduling algorithms. In energy-constrained wireless networks, a tradeoff between the scheduling complexity and energy complexity is a practical consideration. Our results in this paper can be directly applied to other spread-spectrum networks including DS-CDMA and FH-CDMA.
Chaos synchronization of hyperchaos lorenz system via nonlinear control

In this paper, chaos synchronization of hyperchaos Lorenz system [Xingyuan Wang, Mingjun Wang, ¿A hyperchaos generated from Lorenz system,¿ J. Physica A, pp. 3751-3758, 2008] is investigated. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, a novel nonlinear controller is designed that guarantees the global and exponential asymptotical stability of the origin of considered system. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to show the effectiveness of proposed nonlinear controller.
Switching Kalman Filters

We show how many di erent variants of Switching Kalman Filter models can be represented in a uni ed way, leading to a single, general-purpose inference algorithm. We then show how to nd approximate Maximum Likelihood Estimates of the parameters using the EM algorithm, extending previous results on learning using EM in the non-switching case [DRO93, GH96a] and in the switching, but fully observed, case [Ham90].
Runtime Testability in Dynamic High-Availability Component-Based Systems

Runtime testing is emerging as the solution for the integration and assessment of highly dynamic, high availability software systems where traditional development-time integration testing cannot be performed. A prerequisite for runtime testing is the knowledge about to which extent the system can be tested safely while it is operational, i.e., the system's runtime testability. This article evaluates RTM, a cost-based metric for estimating runtime testability. It is used to assist system engineers in directing the implementation of remedial measures, by providing an action plan which considers the trade-off between testability and cost. Two testability case studies are performed on two different component-based systems, assessing RTM's ability to identify runtime testability problems.
Be/longing: Reciprocal mentoring, pedagogies of place, and critical childhood studies in the time of Trump

This essay focuses on the important, but often taken-for-granted, roles that mentoring and collaborative inquiry play in rethinking childhood studies and situates our work in a time of resurgent racism and xenophobia in the United States—as well as invigorated movements to affirm human rights and social justice. It represents a co-mentoring dialogue, spanning over a decade, about the complexities of embodying critical, activist scholarship within dominant (White, Western, heteronormative, and Global North) assumptions about childhood, families, and communities. Our co-interrogation of these deeply encoded assumptions has been driven by a shared question of how to span the seemingly disparate discourse communities of critically engaged scholars and mainstream early childhood professionals in a variety of community contexts. These efforts have been guided by learning from Indigenous and Global South epistemologies and Black and Chicana/Latina/Mestiza feminisms. To illustrate what continues to be a reciprocal mentoring relationship, we use critical personal narrative to discuss key influences, literature, pedagogies of place, and exigencies of sustaining critical childhood studies movements in the current moment.
Using Big Data to Assess Prescribing Patterns in Greece: The Case of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Introduction Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is one of the top leading causes of death and disability, and its management is focused on reducing risk factors, relieving symptoms, and preventing exacerbations. The study aim was to describe COPD prescribing patterns in Greece by using existing health administrative data for outpatients. Methods This is a retrospective cross-sectional study based on prescriptions collected by the largest social insurance fund, during the first and last trimester of 2012. Selection criteria were the prescription of specific active substances and a COPD diagnosis. Extracted information included active substance, strength, pharmaceutical form and number of packages prescribed, diagnosis, time of dispensing, as well as insurees’ age, gender, percentage of co-payment and social security unique number. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results 174,357 patients received medicines for COPD during the study period. Patients were almost equally distributed between male and female, and age above 55 years was strongly correlated with COPD. Most patients received a long-acting beta agonist plus inhaled corticosteroid combination (LABA +ICS), followed by long-acting muscarinic agonist (LAMA). 63% patients belonging in the 35–54 age received LABA+ICS. LAMA was prescribed more frequently among males and was strongly correlated with COPD. Conclusion The study provides big data analysis of Greek COPD prescribing patterns. It highlights the need for appropriate COPD classification in primary care illustrating the role of electronic prescribing in ensuring appropriate prescribing. Moreover, it indicates possible gender differences in treatment response or disease severity, and the impact of statutory co-payments on prescribing.
The regulator of calcineurin (RCAN1) an important factor involved in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases development

Atherosclerosis, one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases, is a complex process that involves manifold factors. Besides the vascular lipids accumulation, inflammatory factors could be considered as a proatherogenic factor – RCAN1. RCAN1 is a regulator of calcineurin, both of them being calcium dependent proteins. Recent studies have shown that RCAN1 has an important role in heart valve development. In the same time researchers found that, the atherosclerotic plaques have an up-regulated RCAN1 gene expression. In the near future, it is desirable to elucidate the RCAN1 function and classify it as a possible biochemical marker to diagnose infancy atherosclerosis. Abbreviations: RCAN1 = regulator of calcineurin, LDL = low density lipoproteins, HMG-CoA – 3 = hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A, VSMCs = vascular smooth muscle cells, PDGF = platelet-derived growth factor, FGF = fibroblast growth factor, EGF = epidermal growth factor, IGF = insulin-like growth factor, VEGF = vascular endothelial growth factor, NFAT = nuclear factor of activated T cells, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12 = interleukin type 2, 6, 10, 12, AP-1 = activator protein 1, Mef-2 = myocyte enhancer factor-2, GATA-4 = transcription factor, CK1 = casein kinase 1, GSK3 = glycogen synthase kinase 3, DYRK = dual specificity tyrosine phosphorylation regulated kinase, DSCR1 = Down Syndrome Critical Region 1, MCIP1 = myocyte-enriched calcineurin-interacting protein, MLP = muscle lim protein, cAMP = cyclic adenosine monophosphate, PC12 = pheochromocytoma, NMR = nuclear magnetic resonance, SOD = superoxide dismutase, APP = amyloid precursor protein, eNOS = nitric oxide endothelial synthase, Cygb = cytoglobin, HUVEC = human umbilical vein endothelial cells, VDR = vitamin D receptor
The Effect of Bans and Taxes on Passive Smoking

This paper evaluates the effect of smoking bans in public places on the exposure to tobacco smoke of non-smokers and contrasts it with the effect of excise taxes. Exploiting data on cotinine - a metabolite of nicotine - as well as state and time variation in anti-smoking policies across US states, we show that smoking bans in public places can perversely increase the exposure of non-smokers to tobacco smoke by displacing smokers to private places where they contaminate non-smokers, and in particular young children. In contrast, we find that higher taxes are an efficient way to decrease exposure to tobacco smoke, especially for those most exposed. We supplement this analysis by showing that bans have little effect on smoking cessation, and present evidence of displacement from public places using data on time use.