Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Holter Monitoring in Patients with Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemia

The value of continuous long-term ECG monitoring in patients with transient generalized neurological symptoms is well established, but its value in transient focal neurological deficits is less clear. A patient is reported who had significant dysrhythmias and transient focal cerebral symptoms which did not clear after cardiac pacing. Nineteen other patients were monitored as part of their evaluation for transient focal cerebral symptoms and were found to have essentially no cerebrally significant dysrhythmias. This report suggests cardiac dysrhythmias rarely cause such symptoms.
A pitch-contour model adaptation method for integrated synthesis of Mandarin, Min-Nan, and Hakka speech

In this paper, a pitch-contour model adaptation method is developed for integrated synthesis of Mandarin, Min-Nan, and Hakka speech. The goal is to reduce the repeated efforts of constructing an independent model for each language. In practice, our approach is to construct just one working pitch-contour model from Min-Nan language's training sentences. Then, this model is adapted to generate pitch-contours for the other two languages. Since model adaptation is done in a way that model parameters are not modified, hence no training data from the other two languages are required. To test the proposed model adaptation method, we insert the developed program modules into a previously built speech synthesis system to synthesize speech of the three languages. Initial evaluation shows that the generated pitch-contours for Mandarin and Hakka are perceptually acceptable and the degradation in intonation presentation is very small. Therefore, our approach is feasible in practice.
A mean value performance model for locking in databases: the waiting case

An earlier paper introduced a simple performance model for studying the behaviour of locking. That paper treats a highly simplified form of locking, called the no waiting case, in which transactions restart when they request locks that are already held by others. This analysis is now extended to the more realistic waiting case, in which transactions are allowed to wait for conflicting locks, and restart only if there is a deadlock. The analysis begins with a system that has uniform access and exclusive locks only. The model's predictions for this base system agree well with simulation results. Next, a system with nonuniform access and another with shareable locks are each shown to be reducible to the base system. A comparison of the waiting and no waiting cases yields a surprising result: the throughput for the no waiting case is often better than for the waiting case, and never much worse.
Electronic Reprint Biological Crystallography Differential Effects of Short Affinity Tags on the Crystallization of Pyrococcus Furiosus Maltodextrin-binding Protein Biological Crystallography Differential Effects of Short Affinity Tags on the Crystallization of Pyrococcus Furiosus Maltodextrin- Bind

Author(s) of this paper may load this reprint on their own web site provided that this cover page is retained. Republication of this article or its storage in electronic databases or the like is not permitted without prior permission in writing from the IUCr. Pyrococcus furiosus maltodextrin-binding protein readily forms large orthorhombic crystals that diffract to high resolution. This protein was used as a model system to investigate the in¯uence of ®ve short af®nity tags (His 6 , Arg 5 , Strep tag II, FLAG tag and the biotin acceptor peptide) on the formation of protein crystals and their ability to diffract X-rays. The results indicate that the amino-acid sequence of the tag can have a profound effect on both of these parameters. Consequently, the ability to obtain diffracting crystals of a particular protein may depend as much on which af®nity tag is selected as it does on whether an af®nity tag is used at all. PDB Reference: P. furiosus maltodextrin-binding protein in complex with maltotriose, 1elj, reljsf.
Research on Validity Evaluation of Mandatory Access Control Policy under LSM Framework

Mandatory access control is an important technology to achieve security-enhanced operating system, and access control policy is core to Mandatory Access Control. The security policy generation tool is given by current mainstream of mandatory access control system, while it is lack of assessment of effectiveness of security policies. This paper analyzes the implementation method of mandatory access control based on LSM, proposes a solution based on system calls to evaluate validity of mandatory access control policy, outlines its concrete realization and verifies its effectiveness from a practical view.
Robust Gene-Gene Interaction Analysis in Genome Wide Association Studies

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully discovered hundreds of associations between genetic variants and complex traits. Most GWAS have focused on the identification of single variants. It has been shown that most of the variants that were discovered by GWAS could only partially explain disease heritability. The explanation for this missing heritability is generally believed to be gene-gene (GG) or gene-environment (GE) interactions and other structural variants. Generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) has been proven to be reasonably powerful in detecting GG and GE interactions; however, its performance has been found to decline when outlying quantitative traits are present. This paper proposes a robust GMDR estimation method (based on the L-estimator and M-estimator estimation methods) in an attempt to reduce the effects caused by outlying traits. A comparison of robust GMDR with the original MDR based on simulation studies showed the former method to outperform the latter. The performance of robust GMDR is illustrated through a real GWA example consisting of 8,577 samples from the Korean population using the Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) level as a phenotype. Robust GMDR identified the KCNH1 gene to have strong interaction effects with other genes on the function of insulin secretion.
OPTIMAL REDEEMING STRATEGY OF STOCK LOANS WITH FINITE MATURITY

A stock loan is a loan, secured by a stock, which gives the borrower the right to redeem the stock at any time before or on the loan maturity. The way of dividends distribution has a significant effect on the pricing of stock loans and the optimal redeeming strategy adopted by the borrower. We present the pricing models of the finite maturity stock loans subject to various ways of dividend distribution. Because closed‐form price formulas are generally not available, we provide a thorough analysis to examine the optimal redeeming strategy. Numerical results are presented as well.
Prevalence and profile of sexting among adolescents in Ecuador

ABSTRACT Sexting is an emergent phenomenon in adolescents that has been studied in the USA and Europe, but scarcely in Latin American countries. This study examined the psychometric properties of an instrument to measure sexting and analyzed the prevalence, correlators, and profile of sexting among Ecuadorian adolescents. Participants were 664 students aged between 12 and 18 years (M = 14.6, SD = 1.74) who completed a battery of questionnaires. Results showed a higher prevalence of passive sexting (18.5%–22.3%) than of active sexting (3.5%–18.5%). Sexting was not related to socioeconomic status, but was more prevalent among boys, late and middle adolescents, and those in a romantic relationship. In these groups, wanting to have sex was the main motivation for sexting, whereas joking with people was the main reason endorsed by girls and early adolescents. Those adolescents who scored higher on active sexting were more likely to sext with someone regarded as attractive and more likely to endorse wanting to have sex or dating as the motivation for sexting. The findings suggest that sexting is a way of expressing sexuality and that it is related to romantic interaction. The results are discussed in relation to preventing possible risks and negative consequences of sexting.
Co-evolutionary Learning : Machines and Humans Schooling

We consider a new form of co-evolutionary learning in which human students and software tutors become partners in a cooperative learning process. While the students are learning from the tutors, the tutors will also be learning how to do their job more e ectively through their interactions with the students. Earlier work on game-playing machine learners has brought to light important issues for co-evolutionary learning; in particular, that these interactions can be modeled as a meta-game between teachers and students, and that learning may fail due to suboptimal equilibria { for example, because of collusion between the individual players { in this meta-game of learning. We discuss some of the challenges that these issues may raise for the designers of intelligent software tutoring systems and describe a prototype Java applet that we have built in an e ort to explore how these challenges may best be met.
TREC 2006 Legal Track Overview

This paper describes the first year of a new TREC track focused on “e-discovery” of business records and other materials. A large collection of scanned documents produced by multiple real world discovery requests was adopted as the basis for the test collection. Topic statements were developed using a process representative of current practice in e-discovery applications, with both Boolean and natural language queries being supported. Relevance judgments were performed by personnel who had received professional training, and often considerable experience, in review of similar materials for this task. Six research teams and one manual searcher submitted a total of 33 retrieved sets for each topic. These were pooled and a portion assessed to support evaluation of both the retrieved sets themselves and for future use of the collection.
T:G mismatch-specific thymine-DNA glycosylase (TDG) as a coregulator of transcription interacts with SRC1 family members through a novel tyrosine repeat motif

Gene activation involves protein complexes with diverse enzymatic activities, some of which are involved in chromatin modification. We have shown previously that the base excision repair enzyme thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) acts as a potent coactivator for estrogen receptor-α. To further understand how TDG acts in this context, we studied its interaction with known coactivators of nuclear receptors. We find that TDG interacts in vitro and in vivo with the p160 coactivator SRC1, with the interaction being mediated by a previously undescribed motif encoding four equally spaced tyrosine residues in TDG, each tyrosine being separated by three amino acids. This is found to interact with two motifs in SRC1 also containing tyrosine residues separated by three amino acids. Site-directed mutagenesis shows that the tyrosines encoded in these motifs are critical for the interaction. The related p160 protein TIF2 does not interact with TDG and has the altered sequence, F-X-X-X-Y, at the equivalent positions relative to SRC1. Substitution of the phenylalanines to tyrosines is sufficient to bring about interaction of TIF2 with TDG. These findings highlight a new protein–protein interaction motif based on Y-X-X-X-Y and provide new insight into the interaction of diverse proteins in coactivator complexes.
Towards Accurate Event Detection in Social Media: A Weakly Supervised Approach for Learning Implicit Event Indicators

Accurate event detection in social media is very challenging because user generated contents are extremely noisy and sparse in content. Event indicators are generally words or phrases that act as a trigger that help us understand the semantics of the context they occur in. We present a weakly supervised approach that relies on using a single strong event indicator phrase as a seed to acquire a variety of additional event cues. We propose to leverage various types of implicit event indicators, such as props, actors and precursor events, to achieve precise event detection. We experimented with civil unrest events and show that the automatically learnt event indicators are effective in identifying specific types of events.
Detection and estimation of embolic Doppler signals using discrete wavelet transform

Almost any system for the detection of asymptomatic circulating emboli by Doppler ultrasound employs the fast Fourier Transform (FFT). However, the FFT is not ideally suited to study short-lived embolic signals. The wavelet transform (WT) is an optimized way of analyzing short-lived signals and performs better than the FFT in some respects. We propose a detection method based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and study some parameters, which might be useful for describing embolic signals. We used 2 independent data sets, comprising 100 low intensity embolic signals, 100 various type of artifacts and 100 Doppler speckle. After applying the DWT to the data, several parameters were evaluated. The threshold values used for both data sets were optimized using the first data set. 98 out of 100 embolic signals were detected as embolic signals for the first data set. 95 out of 100 embolic signals were detected for the second data set when the same threshold values were used.
A framework for early event detection for wearable systems

A considerable number of wearable system applications necessitate early event detection (EED). EED is defined as the detection of an event with as much lead time as possible. Applications include physiological (e.g., epileptic seizure or heart stroke) or biomechanical (e.g., fall movement or sports event) monitoring systems. EED for wearable systems is under-investigated in literature. Therefore, we introduce a novel EED framework for wearable systems based on hybrid Hidden Markov Models. Our study specifically targets EED based on inertial measurement unit (IMU) signals in sports. We investigate the early detection of high intensive soccer kicks, with the possible pre-kick adaptation of a soccer shoe before the shoe-ball impact in mind. We conducted a study with ten subjects and recorded 226 kicks using a custom IMU placed in a soccer shoe cavity. We evaluated our framework in terms of EED accuracy and EED latency. In conclusion, our framework delivers the required accuracy and lead times for EED of soccer kicks and can be straightforwardly adapted to other wearable system applications that necessitate EED.
Epiblast Ground State Is Controlled by Canonical Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in the Postimplantation Mouse Embryo and Epiblast Stem Cells

Epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) are primed pluripotent stem cells and can be derived from postimplantation mouse embryos. We now show that the absence of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling is essential for maintenance of the undifferentiated state in mouse EpiSCs and in the epiblast of mouse embryos. Attenuation of Wnt signaling with the small-molecule inhibitor XAV939 or deletion of the β-catenin gene blocked spontaneous differentiation of EpiSCs toward mesoderm and enhanced the expression of pluripotency factor genes, allowing propagation of EpiSCs as a homogeneous population. EpiSCs were efficiently established and propagated from single epiblast cells in the presence of both XAV939 and the Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Y27632. Cell transplantation revealed that EpiSCs were able to contribute to primordial germ cells and descendants of all three germ layers in a host embryo, suggesting that they maintained pluripotency, even after prolonged culture with XAV939. Such an improvement in the homogeneity of pluripotency achieved with the use of a Wnt inhibitor should prove advantageous for manipulation of primed pluripotent stem cells.
A new fuzzy bandwidth carrier recovery system in GPS for robust phase tracking

Fast carrier recovery loops are essential in high-dynamic global positioning system receivers. A new digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) system incorporating a fuzzy bandwidth controller (FBC) is presented in this letter. The FBC provides a time-varying bandwidth and adjusts the loop filter coefficients to improve DPLL tracking capability. When the phase error or phase difference error becomes large in the presence of significant accelerations, the loop bandwidth increases adaptively and performs rapid locking. Simulation results show that our receiver does achieve a superior performance over conventional tracking loops in terms of shorter settling time and wider frequency ramp range, while preventing the occurrence of cycle slipping.
The Mediterranean Sea Overturning Circulation

The time-mean zonal and meridional overturning circulations of the entire Mediterranean Sea are studied in both the Eulerian and residual frameworks. The overturning is characterized by cells in the vertical and either zonal or meridional planes with clockwise circulations in the upper water column and counterclockwise circulations in the deep and abyssal regions. The zonal overturning is composed of an upper clockwise cell in the top 600 m of the water column related to the classical Wüst cell and two additional deep clockwise cells, one corresponding to the outflow of the dense Aegean water during the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) and the other associated with dense water formation in the Rhodes Gyre. The variability of the zonal overturning before, during, and after the EMT is discussed. The meridional basinwide overturning is composed of clockwise, multicentered cells connected with the four northern deep ocean formation areas, located in the Eastern and Western Mediterranean basins. The connection between the Wüst cell and the meridional overturning is visualized through the horizontal velocities vertically integrated across two layers above 600 m. The component of the horizontal velocity associated with the overturning is isolated by computing the divergent components of the vertically integrated velocities forced by the inflow/outflow at the Strait of Gibraltar.
Cattle enterotoxaemia and Clostridium perfringens: description, diagnosis and prophylaxis

Cattle enterotoxaemia is one of numerous pathologies caused by Clostridium perfringens. These anaerobic Gram-positive bacteria are naturally present in the intestinal flora of mammals, but their uncontrolled multiplication under certain conditions results in the overproduction of toxins in the intestinal tract. Major clinical signs are induced by the systemic spread of these toxins in the blood and tissues. Enterotoxaemia may be acute or peracute, and sudden death is often reported in rapidly growing, apparently healthy cattle. Enterotoxaemia can be prevented only with better understanding of its risk factors and pathogenesis. This paper provides an up-to-date overview of knowledge concerning the aetiology of the syndrome, its epidemiological context, pathogenesis, clinical signs and lesions, the diagnostic procedures and prophylactic tools, with specific attention to field aspects that are directly relevant to practitioners and clinical researchers.
Effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) on lexical retrieval of content words in sentences in persons with aphasia

Background: Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) is a semantic treatment that aims to improve lexical retrieval of content words in sentence context by promoting systematic retrieval of verbs (e.g., measure) and their thematic roles—i.e., agent (doer of the action, e.g., carpenter, chef) and patient (receiver of the action, e.g., lumber, sugar). VNeST is influenced by Loverso and colleagues (e.g., Loverso, Selinger, & Prescott, 1979) who used “verb as core” treatment to improve sentence production with encouraging results, and McRae and colleagues who showed that verbs prime typical agents (e.g., pray–nun) and patients (arrest–criminal) (Ferretti, McRae, & Hatherell, 2001) and vice‐versa (McRae, Hare, Elman, & Ferretti, 2005). Aims: There are four specific questions in this study. Does training a set of verbs using VNeST generalise to the ability to produce (1) an agent (carpenter), trained verb (measure), and patient (stairs) in response to novel picture stimuli and (2) an agent (nurse), untrained semantically related verb (weigh), and patient (baby) in response to novel picture stimuli? (3) Are generalisation effects maintained? (4) Does VNeST generalise to the ability to retrieve nouns and verbs not directly related to treatment items in single word naming, picture description, and connected speech tasks? Methods & Procedures: Four participants with aphasia participated. Participants received VNeST, which involves retrieval of agent–patient pairs (e.g., chef/sugar, surveyor/land) related to trained verbs (e.g., measure), twice per week. A single‐participant, repeated probe, multiple baseline experimental design was used. Generalisation to sentence production for sentences containing trained verbs and untrained semantically related verbs was tested weekly. Outcomes & Results: Results demonstrated generalisation to lexical retrieval of content words in sentences with trained and untrained verbs across participants. Additionally, pre‐ to post‐treatment generalisation was observed on single verb and noun naming and lexical retrieval in sentences across a variety of tasks across participants. Generalisation to connected speech was observed for three of four participants. Conclusions: Although preliminary, these results indicate that VNeST may be effective in promoting generalisation from single word naming to connected speech in persons with moderate aphasia. A number of clinical implications related to treatment efficiency are discussed. The authors would first like to thank the four individuals who participated in this study. Additional thanks go Laura K. Allred for creating the artwork for developed stimuli, and Michela Palmieri and Adam Jacks for assistance with reliability.
A Development Platform for Distributed User Interfaces

Developing user interfaces for a heterogeneous environment is a difficult challenge. Partial distribution of the user interface is an event harder one. Specifically providing developers with means of describing and controlling how components move around as devices are included or removed We present an approach to overcome these challenges, by combining ontologies with reasoning engines. Our tool MaDoE uses Protege in combination with Jess to exemplify this in a simulated home setting. Our approach allows system developers to take advantage of the formal knowledge in the ontologies as well harnessing the power of rules inside the expert system when they design distributed user interfaces.
Evaluating QoS of a Wireless System for Real-Time Cardiac Monitoring

Quality of service (QoS), and in particular reliability and low latency, are essential qualities of safety-critical wireless systems for medical applications. However, wireless links are typically prone to bursts of errors, with characteristics which vary over time. We propose a wireless system suitable for real-time remote patient monitoring in which both the necessary reliability and a bounded end-to-end delay are achieved by an efficient error control scheme. We have paired an example electrocardiography (ECG) application to this wireless system. We also developed a tool chain to assess various combinations of system parameters: we can determine the QoS in terms of the packet-delivery ratio and the end-to-end latency, and also the size of jitter buffer required for seamless ECG monitoring services. A realistic assessment, based on data from the MIT-BIT arrhythmia database, shows that the proposed wireless system can achieve an appropriate level of QoS for real-time ECG monitoring if link-level error control is appropriately implemented.