Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DualBlink: A Wearable Device to Continuously Detect, Track, and Actuate Blinking For Alleviating Dry Eyes and Computer Vision Syndrome

Increased visual attention, such as during computer use leads to less blinking, which can cause dry eyes—the leading cause of computer vision syndrome. As people spend more time looking at screens on mobile and desktop devices, computer vision syndrome is becoming epidemic in today's population, leading to blurry vision, fatigue, and a reduced quality of life. One way to alleviate dry eyes is increased blinking. In this paper, we present a series of glasses-mounted devices that track the wearer's blink rate and, upon absent blinks, trigger blinks through actuation: light flashes, physical taps, and small puffs of air near the eye. We conducted a user study to evaluate the effectiveness of our devices and found that air puff and physical tap actuations result in a 36% increase in participants’ average blink rate. Air puff thereby struck the best compromise between effective blink actuations and low distraction ratings from participants. In a follow-up study, we found that high intensity, short puffs near the eye were most effective in triggering blinks while receiving only low-rated distraction and invasiveness ratings from participants. We conclude this paper with two miniaturized and self-contained DualBlink prototypes, one integrated into the frame of a pair of glasses and the other one as a clip-on for existing glasses. We believe that DualBlink can serve as an always-available and viable option to treat computer vision syndrome in the future.
Functional changes between seasons in the male songbird auditory forebrain

Songbirds are an excellent model for investigating the perception of learned complex acoustic communication signals. Male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) sing throughout the year distinct types of song that bear either social or individual information. Although the relative importance of social and individual information changes seasonally, evidence of functional seasonal changes in neural response to these songs remains elusive. We thus decided to use in vivo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine auditory responses of male starlings that were exposed to songs that convey different levels of information (species-specific and group identity or individual identity), both during (when mate recognition is particularly important) and outside the breeding season (when group recognition is particularly important). We report three main findings: (1) the auditory area caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), an auditory region that is analogous to the mammalian auditory cortex, is clearly involved in the processing/categorization of conspecific songs; (2) season-related change in differential song processing is limited to a caudal part of NCM; in the more rostral parts, songs bearing individual information induce higher BOLD responses than songs bearing species and group information, regardless of the season; (3) the differentiation between songs bearing species and group information and songs bearing individual information seems to be biased toward the right hemisphere. This study provides evidence that auditory processing of behaviorally-relevant (conspecific) communication signals changes seasonally, even when the spectro-temporal properties of these signals do not change.
The Ibar: a Perspective-based Camera Widget Wucse-2004-32 the Ibar: a Perspective-based Camera Widget

We present a new widget, the IBar, for controlling all aspects of a perspective camera. This widget provides an intuitive interface for controlling the perspective distortion in the scene by providing single handles that manipulate one or more projection parameters simultaneously (e.g., distance-to-object and lens aperture) in order to create a single perceived projection change (increasing the perspective distortion without changing the scene size). We demonstrate that novice users more easily learn how to manipulate the camera using the IBar.
Co-occurrence of Sawtooth Waves and Rapid Eye Movements during REM Sleep

We investigated the relationship between sawtooth waves and rapid eye movements during periods of REM sleep using a system that scored electroencephalograms (EEG) in 5-sec intervals (Takahara et al., 2006). Eleven university and graduate-school student volunteers participated in this study. Initially we scored polysomnographic (PSG) recordings according to standard criteria for 30-sec intervals, and we used standard criteria to identify REM epochs. These 30-sec REM epochs were subdivided into 5-sec epochs, and they were re-scored according to Sato's definition of sleep stages. The fraction of 5-sec epochs that contained at least one REM was higher for the EEG stage 5-STW epochs (44.8%) than for the corresponding fraction for other EEG stages (20.5% on average). REMs occurred far more frequently in 5-sec epochs containing sawtooth waves than in any other epoch within 2 minutes of an epoch containing sawtooth waves, suggesting that the relationship between sawtooth waves and rapid eye movements during REM sleep is not random. During REM sleep, rapid eye movements are temporally related to sawtooth waves. We showed that sawtooth waves do not necessarily precede rapid eye movements. The present study suggested that PGO processes possibly are related to the occurrence of sawtooth waves.
Mycobacterial catalase–peroxidase is a tissue antigen and target of the adaptive immune response in systemic sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a disease of unknown etiology characterized by noncaseating epithelioid granulomas, oligoclonal CD4+ T cell infiltrates, and immune complex formation. To identify pathogenic antigens relevant to immune-mediated granulomatous inflammation in sarcoidosis, we used a limited proteomics approach to detect tissue antigens that were poorly soluble in neutral detergent and resistant to protease digestion, consistent with the known biochemical properties of granuloma-inducing sarcoidosis tissue extracts. Tissue antigens with these characteristics were detected with immunoglobulin (Ig)G or F(ab′)2 fragments from the sera of sarcoidosis patients in 9 of 12 (75%) sarcoidosis tissues (150–160, 80, or 60–64 kD) but only 3 of 22 (14%) control tissues (all 62–64 kD; P = 0.0006). Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry identified Mycobacterium tuberculosis catalase–peroxidase (mKatG) as one of these tissue antigens. Protein immunoblotting using anti-mKatG monoclonal antibodies independently confirmed the presence of mKatG in 5 of 9 (55%) sarcoidosis tissues but in none of 14 control tissues (P = 0.0037). IgG antibodies to recombinant mKatG were detected in the sera of 12 of 25 (48%) sarcoidosis patients compared with 0 of 11 (0%) purified protein derivative (PPD)− (P = 0.0059) and 4 of 10 (40%) PPD+ (P = 0.7233) control subjects, suggesting that remnant mycobacterial catalase–peroxidase is one target of the adaptive immune response driving granulomatous inflammation in sarcoidosis.
The TreeBanker: a Tool for Supervised Training of Parsed Corpora

I describe the TreeBanker, a graphical tool for the supervised training involved in domain customization of the disambiguation component of a speech- or language-understanding system. The TreeBanker presents a user, who need not be a system expert, with a range of properties that distinguish competing analyses for an utterance and that are relatively easy to judge. This allows training on a corpus to be completed in far less time, and with far less expertise, than would be needed if analyses were inspected directly: it becomes possible for a corpus of about 20,000 sentences of the complexity of those in the ATIS corpus to be judged in around three weeks of work by a linguistically aware non-expert.
Green and black tea consumption and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Experimental models of stroke provide consistent evidence of smaller stroke volumes in animals ingesting tea components or tea extracts. To assess whether a similar association of black or green tea consumption with reduced risk is evident in human populations, we sought to identify and summarize all human clinical and observational data on tea and stroke. METHODS We searched PubMed and Web of Science for all studies on stroke and tea consumption in humans with original data, including estimation or measurement of tea consumption and outcomes of fatal or nonfatal stroke. Data from 9 studies involving 4378 strokes among 194 965 individuals were pooled. The main outcome was the occurrence of fatal or nonfatal stroke. We tested for heterogeneity and calculated the summary effect estimate associated with consumption of >or=3 cups of tea (green or black) per day using random-effects and fixed-effects models for the homogeneous studies. Publication bias was also evaluated. RESULTS Regardless of their country of origin, individuals consuming >or=3 cups of tea per day had a 21% lower risk of stroke than those consuming <1 cup per day (absolute risk reduction, 0.79; CI, 0.73 to 0.85). The proportion of heterogeneity not explained by chance alone was 23.8%. CONCLUSIONS Although a randomized clinical trial would be necessary to confirm the effect, this meta-analysis suggests that daily consumption of either green or black tea equaling 3 cups per day could prevent the onset of ischemic stroke.
Leveled indoor localization algorithms based on passive RFID

We propose three indoor localization algorithms, namely the leveled nearest-neighbor, leveled multilateration and leveled Bayesian inference, to locate stationary objects (books, merchandise) by a±xing passive RFID tags to them. The algorithms use a number of passive tags deployed on the known coordinates as reference points. The simulation results show that the proposed leveled detectable count RFID localization algorithms produce superb accuracy performance.
Affect inference in learning environments : a functional view of facial affect analysis using naturalistic data

This research takes an application-oriented stance on affective computing and addresses the problem of automatic affect inference within learning technologies. It draws from the growing understanding of the centrality of emotion in the learning process and the fact that, as yet, this crucial link is not addressed in the design of learning technologies. This dissertation specifically focuses on examining the utility of facial affect analysis to model the affective state of a learner in a one-on-one learning setting. Although facial affect analysis using posed or acted data has been studied in great detail for a couple of decades now, research using naturalistic data is still a challenging problem. The challenges are derived from the complexity in conceptualising affect, the methodological and technical difficulties in measuring it, and the emergent ethical concerns in realising automatic affect inference by computers. However, as the context of this research is derived from, and relates to, a real-world application environment, it is based entirely on naturalistic data. The whole pipeline of identifying the requirements, to collection of data, to the development of an annotation protocol, to labelling of data, and the eventual analyses – both quantitative and qualitative; is described in this dissertation. In effect, a framework for conducting research using natural data is set out and the challenges encountered at each stage identified. Apart from the challenges associated with the perception and measurement of affect, this research emphasises that there are additional issues that require due consideration by virtue of the application context. As such, in light of the discussed observations and results, this research concludes that we need to understand the nature and expression of emotion in the context of technology use, and pursue creative exploration of what is perhaps a qualitatively different form of emotion expression and communication.
Individual-based modelling of population growth and diffusion in discrete time

Individual-based models (IBMs) of human populations capture spatio-temporal dynamics using rules that govern the birth, behavior, and death of individuals. We explore a stochastic IBM of logistic growth-diffusion with constant time steps and independent, simultaneous actions of birth, death, and movement that approaches the Fisher-Kolmogorov model in the continuum limit. This model is well-suited to parallelization on high-performance computers. We explore its emergent properties with analytical approximations and numerical simulations in parameter ranges relevant to human population dynamics and ecology, and reproduce continuous-time results in the limit of small transition probabilities. Our model prediction indicates that the population density and dispersal speed are affected by fluctuations in the number of individuals. The discrete-time model displays novel properties owing to the binomial character of the fluctuations: in certain regimes of the growth model, a decrease in time step size drives the system away from the continuum limit. These effects are especially important at local population sizes of <50 individuals, which largely correspond to group sizes of hunter-gatherers. As an application scenario, we model the late Pleistocene dispersal of Homo sapiens into the Americas, and discuss the agreement of model-based estimates of first-arrival dates with archaeological dates in dependence of IBM model parameter settings.
Indications of Mycophenolate Mofetil in Liver Transplantation

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is approved for prophylaxis of acute rejection after kidney, heart, and liver transplantation as well as for pediatric patients after kidney transplantation. MMF, a noncompetitive inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH), blocks de novo purine synthesis which leads to an effective inhibition of proliferation selectively in T and B lymphocytes, smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts. MMF shows additional effects with inhibition of the expression of activating and adhesion molecules on the surface of lymphocytes. The beneficial safety profile with distinct side effects compared to calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) enable efficacious combination with ciclosporin or tacrolimus as de novo therapy after liver transplantation. Furthermore, recent studies show the possibility to reduce CNI induced toxicities by adding MMF to primary immunosuppression. MMF is also used to enable early steroid withdrawal after liver transplantation. MMF can increase efficacy of immunosuppressive therapy and thereby support the treatment of steroid resistant acute rejections, chronic rejections and chronic graft dysfunction.
Two new deep-reef basslets (Teleostei, Grammatidae, Lipogramma), with comments on the eco-evolutionary relationships of the genus

Abstract The banded basslet, Lipogramma evides Robins & Colin, 1979, is shown to comprise two species: Lipogramma evides, which inhabits depths of 133–302 m, and a new species described here as Lipogramma levinsoni, which inhabits depths of 108–154 m and previously was considered to represent the juvenile of Lipogramma evides. A second new species of banded basslet, described here as Lipogramma haberi, inhabits depths of 152–233 m and was previously not reported in the literature. Morphologically, the three species differ in color patterns and modal numbers of gill rakers, whereas various other morphological features distinguish Lipogramma levinsoni from Lipogramma evides and Lipogramma haberi. DNA barcode data and multilocus, coalescent-based, species-delimitation analysis support the recognition of the three species. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear genetic data supports a sister-group relationship between the two deepest-living of the three species, Lipogramma evides and Lipogramma haberi, and suggests that the shallower Lipogramma levinsoni is more closely related to Lipogramma anabantoides Böhlke, 1960, which inhabits depths < 120 m. Evolutionary relationships within Lipogramma thus appear to be correlated with species depth ranges, an eco-evolutionary pattern that has been observed in other Caribbean marine teleosts and that warrants further investigation. The new species represent the eleventh and twelfth new fish species described in recent years from exploratory submersible diving in the Caribbean in the globally poorly studied depth zone of 50–300 m. This study suggests that there are at least two additional cryptic species of Lipogramma, which are being analyzed in ongoing investigations of Caribbean deep-reef ecosystems.
Longitudinal Study of Transmission, Diversity, and Stability of Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus Genotypes in Brazilian Nursery Children

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to perform a follow-up evaluation of the Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus colonization profile of children's oral cavities, which included the pattern of vertical transmission from mother to child, genotypic diversity, and stability of the strains. The subjects were 16 mother-child pairs, who were monitored for 20 months. Samples of saliva, tongue dorsum, alveolar ridge mucosa, and dental plaque from the children were collected bimonthly. Saliva samples from the mothers were also collected. After isolation and identification, the arbitrarily primed PCR method was performed for the genotypic characterization of S. mutans (968 isolates) and S. sobrinus (111 isolates). At the time the strains were acquired, the children harbored one to four distinct genotypes of S. mutans and only one genotype of S. sobrinus. Although S. mutans prevalence and genotypic diversity were greater than those of S. sobrinus, the presence of matching genotypes of S. mutans and S. sobrinus was similar (in 81.25 and 83.33% of mother-child pairs, respectively), suggesting vertical transmission for both species. This longitudinal study showed an increase in genotypic diversity of S. mutans in the oral cavity during the follow-up period: most of the initially acquired genotypes persisted, normally those genotypes transmitted by the mother, and some were lost during follow-up; new strains were also acquired. In conclusion, S. mutans and S. sobrinus genotypes acquired from maternal or alternative sources may show effective persistence in the oral cavity and/or transitory detection in the children's mouths, reflecting the continuous development of oral microbiota in children.
Front-end approaches to the issue of correlations in forensic speaker comparison

In likelihood ratio (LR)-based forensic speaker comparison it is essential to consider correlations between parameters to accurately estimate the overall strength of the evidence. Current approaches attempt to deal with correlations after the computation of LRs (back-end processing). This paper explores alternative, front-end techniques, which consider the underlying correlation structure of the raw data. Calibrated LRs were computed for a range of parameters commonly analysed in speaker comparisons. LRs were combined using (1) an assumption of independence, (2) the mean, (3) assumptions from phonetic theory, and (4) empirical correlations in the raw data. System (1), based on an assumption of independence, produced the best validity (Cllr = 0.04). Predictably, overall strength of evidence was also highest for system (1), while strength of evidence was weakest using the mean (2). Both systems (3) and (4) performed well achieving Cllr values of ca. 0.09.
Lysophosphatidylcholine Potentiates Phenylephrine Responses in Rat Mesenteric Arterial Bed through Modulation of Thromboxane A2

Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) plays important physiological and pathophysiological roles in the cardiovascular system. Despite this, there is little information about its effects on vasore-activity of resistance vessels. The present study was designed to characterize the effects of LPC in the isolated perfused rat mesenteric arterial bed (MAB) and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the changes it produced. Perfusion with 10 μM LPC for 40 min did not significantly affect basal perfusion pressure or reactivity of MAB to the α1-adrenoceptor agonist phenylephrine (PE) but almost completely abolished the maximal endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine (Ach), reducing it from 93 ± 5 to 7 ± 4% (p < 0.001). After washout of LPC for 60 min, the vasodilator response to Ach partially recovered, whereas the vasoconstrictor response to PE was markedly enhanced, the pD2 value increasing from 7.50 ± 0.04 to 8.13 ± 0.15 and maximum response to 199 ± 24% of control (p < 0.001). Pretreatment with either indomethacin, a nonselective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase, or SQ-29548 [[1S-[1a,2a(Z),3a,4a]]-7-[3-[[2-[(phenylamino)carbonyl]hydrazino] methyl]-7-oxabicyclo [2.2. 1]hept-2-yl]-5-heptanoic acid], a selective thromboxane receptor antagonist, completely prevented the potentiation of the PE response after washout of LPC. In untreated MABs, only the highest concentration of PE produced a significant increase in thromboxane A2 (TxA2) production (assessed by enzyme-immunoassay of thromboxane B2 levels). This was prevented by perfusion with LPC but was significantly increased after LPC washout. The basal release of TxA2 was not modified by LPC. These results demonstrate that LPC exerts both immediate and residual effects on the reactivity of the rat MAB and that these effects are at least partially due to modification of PE-induced TxA2 production.
À vos marques, prêts-- cherchez! : la stratégie européenne de Lisbonne, vers un marché de la recherche

La strategie de Lisbonne ne concerne pas uniquement la recherche et l’enseignement superieur. Ses visees sont bien plus larges et ambitieuses. Elle incite les pays de l’Union europeenne a reformer leur economie et leurs services publics pour promouvoir l’avenement du capitalisme cognitif. Les chercheurs, les enseignants-chercheurs et leur travail sont des elements fondamentaux d’un tel programme. Mais l’elaboration et l’application de la strategie de Lisbonne ne sont pas de leur ressort ; l’elaboration et l’application de la strategie de Lisbonne impliquent de transformer les modes de financement et de gestion du travail de recherche pour « inviter » les chercheurs et les enseignants-chercheurs a devenir des acteurs efficaces et engages dans le projet de faire de l’Union europeenne la premiere economie mondiale fondee sur la connaissance. Cestransformations passent par des reformes des administrations nationales dont la LOLF, le Pacte pour la recherche et la LRU sont les illustrations francaises. Les extraits du livre A vos marques®, prets cherchez ! , d’Isabelle Bruno, livrent des cles pour mieux identifier les objectifs des reformes francaises de la recherche et de l’enseignement superieur et leur encastrement dans un projet europeen. Ils rendent egalement compte des outils et des technologies de gestion qui soutiennent l’application de la LOLF, du Pacte pour la recherche et de la LRU. Ces passages ont une autre vertu, d’autant plus precieuse aujourd’hui. Ils permettent de rappeler combien les programmes des partis socialistes europeens en matiere de recherche et d’enseignement superieur ne different pas substantiellement de ceux promus puis executes par la droite. D’ailleurs, la definition et l’adoption de la strategie de Lisbonne – dont l’un des instigateurs, l’ancien Premier ministre portugais Antonio Guterres, etait alors a la tete de l’International socialiste – est une composante de la « vague rose » que connut l’Union europeenne au tournant du xxe et du xxie siecle.