Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can we improve the prediction of pouch of Douglas obliteration in women with suspected endometriosis using ultrasound‐based models? A multicenter prospective observational study

A negative “sliding sign” during transvaginal sonography (TVS) is associated with pouch of Douglas (POD) obliteration at laparoscopy in women with suspected endometriosis. The aim of the current study was to develop and validate mathematical ultrasound models to determine whether a combination of TVS markers could improve the prediction of POD obliteration as compared with the TVS “sliding sign” alone.
COMMUNICATION AND INTERPERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS: SKILLS TRAINING FOR OLDER ADULTS

This program adapts ideas expressed primarily in the non-aging clinical literature to the particular concerns of older adults as they face the sociocultural changes that accompany aging. Rationale for skills training in interpersonal effectiveness tailored to the needs of older adults is followed by implementation guidelines and then by a description of adaptation of specific training modules in observing and describing feeling states, use of "I" statements, reflecting, validating self and others, giving and receiving positive feedback, handling patronizing behavior from others, saying no, drawing and enforcing desired boundaries, and making requests and wishes known. Implications for society at large include access to the wisdom of older persons who would be otherwise marginalized.
Chemical nonlinearities in relating intercontinental ozone pollution to anthropogenic emissions

Model studies typically estimate intercontinental influence on surface ozone by perturbing emissions from a source continent and diagnosing the ozone response in the receptor continent. Since the response to perturbations is non‐linear due to chemistry, conclusions drawn from different studies may depend on the magnitude of the applied perturbation. We investigate this issue for intercontinental transport between North America, Europe, and Asia with sensitivity simulations in three global chemical transport models. In each region, we decrease anthropogenic emissions of NOx and nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) by 20% and 100%. We find strong nonlinearity in the response to NOx perturbations outside summer, reflecting transitions in the chemical regime for ozone production. In contrast, we find no significant nonlinearity to NOx perturbations in summer or to NMVOC perturbations year‐round. The relative benefit of decreasing NOx vs. NMVOC from current levels to abate intercontinental pollution increases with the magnitude of emission reductions.
Sirolimus therapy in tuberous sclerosis or sporadic lymphangioleiomyomatosis.

To the Editor: Tuberous sclerosis is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by hamartomatous growths in many organs and caused by inherited mutations of the TSC1 or TSC2 gene. Acquired (somatic) mutations of either gene occur within pathologic cells in patients with sporadic lymphangioleiomyomatosis. Renal angiomyolipomas occur in both disorders, resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality.1 The proteins TSC1 and TSC2 regulate signaling through the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway to control processes including growth, cell-cycle progression, apoptosis, and autophagy. Constitutive activation of mTOR and its downstream targets occurs in lesions associated with tuberous sclerosis or lymphangioleiomyomatosis, suggesting that mTOR .
Edit Distance Calculation by Phonetic Rules and Word-length Normalization

Edit distance calculation is a well-known criterion for string-to-string comparison. It seems to be an appropriate method for alphabetic languages like English and European languages. However, the conventional edit distance criterion is not the best one for agglutinative languages like Korean. The reason is supposed that two or more letter units make a Korean character which is called as a syllable. This mechanism of syllable construction in the Korean language causes an inefficiency of edit distance calculation. We explored a new edit distance method by consonant normalization and the normalization factor. Key-Words: edit distance, Korean character, consonant normalization, normalization factor
Band gap and stability in the ternary intermetallic compounds NiSnM (M=Ti,Zr,Hf): A first-principles study.

The structural stability and electronic properties of the ternary intermetallic compounds NiSnM (M=Ti,Zr,Hf) and the closely related Heusler compounds ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{2}$SnM are discussed using the results of ab initio pseudopotential total-energy and band-structure calculations performed with a plane-wave basis set using the conjugate gradients algorithm. The results characterize the lowest-energy phase of NiSnM compounds, with a SnM rocksalt structure sublattice, as narrow-gap semiconductors with indirect gaps near 0.5 eV, while the ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{2}$SnM compounds are described as normal metals. Two other atomic arrangements for NiSnM in the MgAgAs structure type result in energetically unfavorable compounds that are metallic. The gap formation in the lowest-energy structure of NiSnZr and relative stability of the three atomic arrangements are investigated within a tight-binding framework and by considering the decomposition of each ternary compound into a binary substructure plus a third element sublattice. The stabilization of the lowest-energy phase of NiSnZr is found to be mainly due to the relative stability of the SnZr rocksalt substructure, while the opening of the gap induced by the addition of the symmetry-breaking Ni sublattice makes a relatively minor contribution. The results from the theoretical calculations for the NiSnM compounds are compared with the existing experimental data. From analysis of structural and chemical trends in the NiSnM compounds, CoVSn is predicted to be a semiconducting intermetallic compound in the MgAgAs structure type. Preliminary first-principles calculations suggest an indirect gap of 0.8 eV.
Optimal design of hybrid filterbank analog-to-digital converters using input statistics

The hybrid filterbank architecture permits implementing accurate, high speed analog-to-digital converters. However, its design is technically involved since perfect reconstruction of the desired samples cannot be achieved in general. In this paper we propose a design method which generalizes existing approaches by dropping the bandlimited assumption on the input signal. The design minimizes the power of the reconstruction error in the samples, for a given input signal power spectrum. We discuss the use of blind techniques to estimate the analysis filterbank parameters as well as the input power spectrum, and we present simulation results to demonstrate the clear advantage of the proposed design, even under input spectrum uncertainties.
Progressive image coding based on an adaptive block compressed sensing

This paper proposes an adaptive block-based compressed sensing (ABCS) technique to build a new progressive image coding scheme, in which both image acquisition and reconstruction are carried out in two layers. At the base layer, an original image is sampled and restored by the block-based compressed sensing (BCS) method with a low and fixed measurement rate. Second, all blocks in the enhancement layer are re-sampled with different rates according to a block classification. The final reconstruction of a block at the enhancement layer is performed in multiple stages where each stage only knows a part of sampled coefficients. We present some experimental results to show that our proposed ABCS method outperforms the BCS method; in particular, it produces a better visual quality in regions that contain edges, patterns, and textures.
Presynaptic terminals in hyaline cells of normal and overstimulated chick inner ears

Hyaline cells are non-sensory epithelial cells of the vibrating part of the basilar membrane of chicks; they receive an extensive efferent innervation. Although these anatomical features suggest roles in auditory transduction, very little is known about the function of these cells. One possible way to understand function is by lesion experiments. We used synapsin-specific antibodies to study changes that occur in the pattern of efferent innervation in hyaline cells after lesion of the sensory epithelium induced by acoustic overstimulation. We found only small changes in hyaline cells after such trauma. These included a small increase in size and a small decrease in density of nerve terminals on hyaline cells. This suggests that hyaline cells and their nerve terminals are less susceptible to acoustic trauma than hair cells. Using neurofilament-specific antibodies we found little or no trauma-induced change in the density of nerve fibres that cross the basilar papilla and reach the hyaline cell region. This finding suggested that trauma to the hair cells does not necessarily lead to changes in the efferent fibres that cross the papilla and extend into the hyaline cell region. Using the trauma and the morphological parameters studied here, it appears that a moderate lesion in the hair cell region in the avian inner ear does not influence the hyaline cells or their innervation.
Cassava root chips as an alternative energy feed ingredient in broiler ration

A total of 300 day-old Hubbard Classic broiler chicks with initial body weight (BW) of 43.6±1.33 (mean±SD) were randomly and equally distributed into 15 pens, representing five feeding treatments with three replication per treatment to evaluate the performance of chicks fed varying dietary levels of cassava root chips (CRC) replacing corn grain (CG). Treatments were replacement of CG with CRC at 0 (T1), 25 (T2), 50 (T3), 75 (T4) and 100% (T5) levels. Isocaloric and isonitrogenous starter and finisher rations were used. Four birds 2 from each sex were randomly taken from each replication and slaughtered for carcass evaluation at the end of the study. The metabolizable energy content of CRC and CG were 3852 and 3753 kcal/kg dry matter (DM), respectively. Daily DM intake during the entire experimental period ranged 61 to 67 g/bird and was greater (P<0.05) for T5 than T3 and T4, while values for T1 was similar with other treatments. Change in BW, daily BW gain and DM conversion efficiency were similar (P>0.05) among treatments. Replacement of CRC for CG at higher levels (75 and 100%) lowered (P<0.05) yield of most carcass parameters such as slaughter weight, dressed weight, eviscerated weight, breast weight, thigh weight, drumstick weight and giblet weight. The same carcass parameters were greater (P<0.05) for male than female birds but abdominal fat percentage was higher for females. In conclusion, based on DM intake and growth performance of broilers obtained in this study, CRC could completely replace corn grain in broiler diets as energy feed ingredient. However, looking on the results of yields of major carcass parameters, CRC should substitute corn grain not more than 50%.
A Language Description is More than a Metamodel

Within the context of (software) language engineering, language descriptions are considered first class citizens. One of the ways to describe languages is by means of a metamodel, which represents the abstract syntax of the language. Unfortunately, in this process many language engineers forget the fact that a language also needs a concrete syntax and a semantics. In this paper I argue that neither of these can be discarded from a language description. In a good language description the abstract syntax is the central element, which functions as pivot between concrete syntax and semantics. Furthermore, both concrete syntax and semantics should be described in a well-defined formalism.
Advertising and Cultural Values: Reflections in the Distorted Mirror

This paper reviews the regrets and fears expressed by North American scholars about the commercialization of culture and presents a method for measuring the cultural character of advertising. This content analysis of manifest values yields a value profile of advertising and shows high consistency over time and across media. There is, however, a low correlation between this value profile and that of either the population at large or of heavy media users. This seriously challenges the conventional notion that advertising merely mirrors social values.
Development of a Mid-Infrared Sea and Lake Ice Index (MISI) Using the GOES Imager

An automated ice-mapping algorithm has been developed and evaluated using data from the GOES-13 imager. The approach includes cloud-free image compositing as well as image classification using spectral criteria. The algorithm uses an alternative snow index to the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI). The GOES-13 imager does not have a 1.6 µm band, a requirement for NDSI; however, the newly proposed Mid-Infrared Sea and Lake Ice Index (MISI) incorporates the reflective component of the 3.9 µm or mid-infrared (MIR) band, which the GOES-13 imager does operate. Incorporating MISI into a sea or lake ice mapping algorithm allows for mapping of thin or broken ice with no snow cover (nilas, frazil ice) and thicker ice with snow cover to a degree of confidence that is comparable to other ice mapping products. The proposed index has been applied over the Great Lakes region and qualitatively compared to the Interactive Multi-sensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS), the National Ice Center ice concentration maps and MODIS snow cover products. The application of MISI may open additional possibilities in climate research using historical GOES imagery. Furthermore, MISI may be used in addition to the current NDSI in ice identification to build more robust ice-mapping algorithms for the next generation GOES satellites.
An English-Portuguese parallel corpus of questions: translation guidelines and application in SMT

The task of Statistical Machine Translation depends on large amounts of training corpora. Despite the availability of several parallel corpora, these are typically composed of declarative sentences, which may not be appropriate when the goal is to translate other types of sentences, e.g., interrogatives. There have been efforts to create corpora of questions, specially in the context of the evaluation of Question-Answering systems. One of those corpora is the UIUC dataset, composed of nearly 6,000 questions, widely used in the task of Question Classification. In this work, we make available the Portuguese version of the UIUC dataset, which we manually translated, as well as the translation guidelines. We show the impact of this corpus in the performance of a state-of-the-art SMT system when translating questions. Finally, we present a taxonomy of translation errors, according to which we analyze the output of the automatic translation before and after using the corpus as training data.
Involvement of Nuclear Factor Kappa B in High-Fat Diet-Related Pancreatic Fibrosis in Rats

Background/Aims High-fat diets contribute to pancreatic fibrogenesis, but the pathogenesis remains unclear. This study investigated the role of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) in high-fat diet-induced pancreatic fibrosis in rats. Methods Male Wistar rats were fed a high-fat diet or standard normal chow for 20 weeks. Pancreatic fibrosis was determined by Sirius red staining. Immunohistochemical staining, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were used to identify NF-κB-associated genes or protein expressions. Results Inflammation, fat deposition, pancreatic stellate cell activation and fibrosis were observed in the pancreases of the high-fat diet group. NF-κB subunit p65 (NF-κB/p65) expression was localized to the nucleus, and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) was over-expressed. Pancreatic gene expression levels of NF-κB/p65, ICAM-1 and tumor necrosis factor α were all elevated significantly in rats fed a high-fat diet compared with control rats. Western blotting also revealed significantly increased levels of ICAM-1 and nuclear NF-κB/p65 in rats fed high-fat diets comparison with control rats. Conclusions NF-κB is involved in high-fat diet-related pancreatic fibrosis.
La filosofía educativa de los MOOC y la educación universitaria

Introduction to the special issue by the Coordinators: The educational philosophy of the MOOC and university education In the 21st century, education is moving towards new models of open and free mass education. These interactive, collaborative and online models enable and increase universal access to Higher Education. The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) movement is questioning traditional and ‘old smart’ ideas of education such as ‘packaged’ knowledge, limited access, imposed authority and a scientific rationalist paradigm, which are being upturned by a dynamic knowledge ecology. For teachers and students, new doors are unlocking onto knowledge. However, "all that glitters is not gold", and the movement needs to overcome some controversies and challenges, such as the issues of authentication, accreditation and high drop-out rates. This new type of learning poses a challenge to universities and teachers as they need to redefine the current methodological paradigm and venture into designing new interactive, collaborative and ubiquitous educational materials, as well as new modes of dynamic self-assessments.
Lifestyles of virtual world residents, living in the on-line game, "Lineage"

This study attempted to explore different lifestyles of game players who have adopted the virtual world as part of their life in the online game world. An online survey was conducted to the players of one of famous Internet based games called 'Lineage'. 'Lineage' has become the biggest online game in the world accommodating over 6 million users worldwide, where people create his or her new identities and play various roles. 4,786 game players have participated in the survey, and their lifestyles were identified with their values and attitudes in the virtual world. Upon classification of their lifestyles, the behavioral tendencies and characteristic desires were compared by the lifestyles in virtual world. The study showed that game players have developed their own distinctive lifestyles, and the lifestyles were strong criterion on explaining the behavior patterns and their different desire to achieve in the world among them. The lifestyles were classified into three general categories: Single-Oriented Player, Community-Oriented Player, Off-real World Games. Each group displayed distinct differences in their values and game activities, as well as anti-social behavior tendencies. The differences were reflecting not only their personality but also their socio-economic status within the virtual world that is constructed through the game activities. This study hopes to serve as a model to understand how players from different real life backgrounds will behave to the various game features and how they adopt the virtual world for their new social identities.
Action Development and Integration in a Humanoid iCub Robot How Language Exposure and Self-Talk Facilitate Action Development

One major challenge in evolutionary/developmental robotics is constituted by the need to identify design principles that allow robots to acquire progressively more complex action skills by integrating them into their existing behavioral repertoire. In this paper, we present a novel method that address this objective, the theoretical background behind the proposed methodology, and the results obtained in a series of experiments in which a simulated iCub robot develops lower- level and then integrated higher-level action skills. Moreover, we illustrate how the development of integrated action skill is facilitated by language exposure and self-talk.
Negative Returns on Positive Emotions: The Influence of Pride and Self-Regulatory Goals on Repurchase Decisions

Contrary to the common assumption that positive emotions generally lead to favorable behavioral intentions, feelings of pride can decrease consumers' repurchase intentions. Results from three experimental studies demonstrate that the impact of pride on repurchase intentions is contingent on consumers' self-regulatory goals but that this is so only among consumers with high levels of pride. Specifically, consumers with high prevention pride are less likely to repurchase than those with high promotion pride, whereas no difference arises between consumers with low promotion pride and those with low prevention pride. These effects generalize across situational and chronic differences in self-regulatory goals and are accompanied by differences in consumers' information requirements. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc.
Translation tables: A genetic code in a evolutionary algorithm

The genetic code that maps triples of DNA onto amino acids, is a central part of the biochemistry of life. In this study we incorporate an analogous code, called a translation table, into the self-avoiding walk test problem. Use of a translation table permits evolution of both the distribution of commands and the behavior of the mutation operator. It thus can evolve to encode two types of domain knowledge about the test problem. The translation tables are shown to specialize to specific cases of the test problem but yield no significant improvement in performance. The emergence of encoded problem-specific knowledge in the translation tables is demonstrated. A translation table constructed from extrapolation of the evolutionary trend yields a performance improvement, suggesting that the current algorithm would require more time than that allocated in the experiments to locate translation tables that would enhance performance. A tentative technique for overcoming this limitation is outlined.
High-level perception, representation, and analogy: a critique of artificial intelligence methodology

Abstract High-level perception—the process of making sense of complex data at an abstract, conceptual level—is fundamental to human cognition. Through high-level perception, chaotic environmental stimuli are organized into mental representations that are used throughout cognitive processing. Much work in traditional artificial intelligence has ignored the process of high-level perception, by starting with hand-coded representations. In this paper, we argue that this dismissal of perceptual processes leads to distorted models of human cognition. We examine some existing artificial-intelligence models—notably BACON, a model of scientific discovery, and the Structure-Mapping Engine, a model of analogical thought—-and argue that these are flawed precisely because they downplay the role of high-level perception. Further, we argue that perceptual processes cannot be separated from other cognitive processes even in principle,and therefore that traditional artificial-intelligence models cannot be defended by supp.
ReqsCov: A Tool for Measuring Test-Adequacy over Requirements

When creating test cases for software, a common approach is to create tests that exercise requirements. Determining the adequacy of test cases, however, is generally done through inspection or indirectly by measuring structural coverage of an executable artifact (such as source code or a software model). We present ReqsCov, a tool to directly measure requirements coverage provided by test cases. ReqsCov allows users to measure Linear Temporal Logic requirements coverage using three increasingly rigorous requirements coverage metrics: naive coverage, antecedent coverage, and Unique First Cause coverage. By measuring requirements coverage, users are given insight into the quality of test suites beyond what is available when solely using structural coverage metrics over an implementation.