Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A crowdsourcing based mobile image translation and knowledge sharing service

Travelers in countries that use an unfamiliar script cannot use pocket translators or online translation services to understand menus, maps, signs and other important information, because they are unable to write the text they see. Solutions based on optical character recognition provide very limited performance in real-world situations and for complex scripts such as Chinese and Japanese. In this paper, we propose an alternative image translation solution based on crowdsourcing. A large number of human workers on mobile terminals are used to carry out the tasks of image recognition, translation and quality assurance. Compared to purely technical solutions, this human computation approach is also able to account for context and non-textual cues, and provide higher level information to the end-user. In this paper, we describe a preliminary user study to create a model of end-user requirements.
Sex Differences in Parents' Estimations of their Own and their Children's Multiple Intelligences: A Portuguese Replication

In this study, 148 Portuguese adults (M = 45.4 years) rated themselves and their children on overall IQ and on H. Gardner (1999) 10 intelligence subtypes. Men's self-estimates were not significantly higher than women's on any of the 11 estimates. The results were in line with previous studies, in that both sexes rated the overall intelligence of their first male children higher than the first female children. Higher parental IQ self-estimates correspond with higher IQ estimates for children. Globally parents estimated that their sons had significantly higher IQs than their daughters. In particular, parents rated their son's spiritual intelligence higher than those of their daughters. Children's age and sex, and parents' age and sex were all non-significant predictors of the overall “g” score estimates of the first two children. Participants thought verbal, mathematical, and spatial intelligence were the best indicators of the overall intelligence for self and children. There were no sex differences in experience of, or attitudes towards, intelligence testing. Results are discussed in terms of the growing literature in the self-estimates of intelligence, as well as limitations of that approach. En este estudio, 148 adultos portugueses (M = 45.4 años) evaluaron su CI general y el de sus hijos y los 10 subtipos de inteligencia de H. Gardner (1999). La auto-estimación de los hombres no fue significativamente más alta que la de las mujeres en ninguna des las 11 estimativas. Los resultados estuvieron en línea con estudios previos, en que ambos los sexos evaluaron la inteligencia global de su primogénito masculino más elevadamente que la de su primogénita hembra. El elevado CI parental auto-estimado correspondió con el CI estimado de los hijos. Globalmente los padres estimaron que sus hijos tenían un CI significativamente más elevado que el de sus hijas. En particular, los padres evaluaron la inteligencia espiritual de sus hijos más elevadamente que la de sus hijas. Ni el sexo y edad de los jóvenes, ni el sexo y edad de los padres fueron predictores de la puntuación general “g” estimada de los dos primeros hijos. Los participantes consideraron que la inteligencia verbal, matemática y espacial eran los mejores predictores de la inteligencia global tanto para ellos propios como para sus hijos. No hubo diferencias significativas de género en la experiencia, o actitudes en relación, al test de la inteligencia. Los resultados y las limitaciones fueron discutidos en términos de la creciente literatura sobre el enfoque de la auto-estimación de la inteligencia.
Business angel contracts: the influence of context

Relying on agency theory for guidance, a model is developed and empirically tested to examine the influence that various attributes of the contracting parties and of the deal itself can have on the form of the contract adopted between business angels and entrepreneurs. Findings are based on survey responses obtained from 106 UK-based business angels that had completed at least one investment to date.
Fire and Recreational Values in Fire-Prone Forests: Exploring an Intertemporal Amenity Function Using Pooled RP-SP Data

An important consideration in managing fire-prone forests is the intertemporal impacts of forest fires. This analysis examines these impacts in a forest recreation setting by fitting a combined stated and revealed data set to explicitly model the effects of forest regrowth following a fire on recreation economic values. The results are particularly useful as they provide clear measures of the time path of recovery of forest amenity values following a fire.
Real-Time ECG Signal Feature Extraction for the Proposition of Abnormal Beat Detection - Periodical Signal Extraction

This paper presents a novel algorithm for ECG signal feature extraction and proposes a solution for detection of abnormal beats. The main goal is to extract signal and heartbeat parameters by using local extreme values and their dependences. This produces the averaged heartbeat which is used to analyze the signal in real time to detect anomalies. The main advantages of our approach are fast computation and portability between software development platforms. The main disadvantage is the need of clear fragments of samples for the training of the algorithm. Experimental results indicate the proposed system is efficient when compared to other models.
A Note on the Hybrid Equilibrium in the Besley-Smart Model

This note shows that there is always a non-empty set of parameter values for which the hybrid equilibrium in the Besley and Smart(2003) model is unstable in the sense of Cho and Kreps. This set may include all the parameter values for which a hybrid equilibrium exists. For these parameter values, it is shown that a fully separating equilibrium always exists, which is Cho-Kreps stable. In this equilibrium, the good incumbent distorts ? scal policy to signal his type. An implication is that equilibrium in their model is not (generically) unique.
The Non-structural Protein 4A of Dengue Virus Is an Integral Membrane Protein Inducing Membrane Alterations in a 2K-regulated Manner*

Dengue virus (DV) is a positive sense RNA virus replicating in the cytoplasm in membranous compartments that are induced by viral infection. The non-structural protein (NS) 4A is one of the least characterized DV proteins. It is highly hydrophobic with its C-terminal region (designated 2K fragment) serving as a signal sequence for the translocation of the adjacent NS4B into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen. In this report, we demonstrate that NS4A associates with membranes via 4 internal hydrophobic regions, which are all able to mediate membrane targeting of a cytosolic reporter protein. We also developed a model for the membrane topology of NS4A in which the N-terminal third of NS4A localizes to the cytoplasm, while the remaining part contains three transmembrane segments, with the C-terminal end localized in the ER lumen. Subcellular localization experiments in DV-infected cells revealed that NS4A resides primarily in ER-derived cytoplasmic dot-like structures that also contain dsRNA and other DV proteins, suggesting that NS4A is a component of the membrane-bound viral replication complex (RC). Interestingly, the individual expression of DV NS4A lacking the 2K fragment resulted in the induction of cytoplasmic membrane alterations resembling virus-induced structures, whereas expression of full-length NS4A does not induce comparable membrane alterations. Thus, proteolytic removal of the 2K peptide appears to be important for induction of membrane alterations that may harbor the viral RC. These results shed new light on the role of NS4A in the DV replication cycle and provide a model of how this protein induces membrane rearrangements and how this property may be regulated.
Asymptomatic Carriers of Plasmodium spp. as Infection Source for Malaria Vector Mosquitoes in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract We have described the existence of asymptomatic carriers of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum infections in native Amazon populations. Most of them had low parasitemias, detected only by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Because they remain symptomless and untreated, we wanted to determine whether they could infect Anopheles darlingi Root, the main Brazilian vector, and act as disease reservoirs. Fifteen adult asymptomatic patients (PCR positive only) were selected, and experimental infections of mosquitoes were performed by direct feeding and by a membrane-feeding system. Seventeen adult symptomatic patients with high parasitemias were used as controls. We found an infection rate in An. darlingi of 1.2% for the asymptomatic carriers and 22% for the symptomatic carriers. Although the asymptomatic group infected mosquitoes at a much lower rate, these patients remain infective longer than treated, symptomatic patients. Also, the prevalence of asymptomatic infections is 4 to 5 times higher than symptomatic infections among natives. These results have implications for the malaria control program in Brazil, which focuses essentially on the treatment of symptomatic patients.
The impact of Lunar New Year on the January anomaly in Taiwan's stock market

This study empirically investigates the impact of Lunar New Year on the January anomaly in Taiwan's stock market. The Lunar New Year is the most significant festival for ethnic Chinese around the world, wherever they come from. It is a very jubilant occasion mainly because it is the time when people take a break from work to get together with family and friends. We hypothesize that the withdrawal of capital from the stock market to meet financial needs during this festival would compromise the anomaly when the Lunar New Year is in January. Empirical results support our hypothesis that the anomaly exists only when the Lunar New Year is in February.
Genome-wide association mapping to candidate polymorphism resolution in the unsequenced barley genome

Although commonplace in human disease genetics, genome-wide association (GWA) studies have only relatively recently been applied to plants. Using 32 phenotypes in the inbreeding crop barley, we report GWA mapping of 15 morphological traits across ∼500 cultivars genotyped with 1,536 SNPs. In contrast to the majority of human GWA studies, we observe high levels of linkage disequilibrium within and between chromosomes. Despite this, GWA analysis readily detected common alleles of high penetrance. To investigate the potential of combining GWA mapping with comparative analysis to resolve traits to candidate polymorphism level in unsequenced genomes, we fine-mapped a selected phenotype (anthocyanin pigmentation) within a 140-kb interval containing three genes. Of these, resequencing the putative anthocyanin pathway gene HvbHLH1 identified a deletion resulting in a premature stop codon upstream of the basic helix-loop-helix domain, which was diagnostic for lack of anthocyanin in our association and biparental mapping populations. The methodology described here is transferable to species with limited genomic resources, providing a paradigm for reducing the threshold of map-based cloning in unsequenced crops.
Expression of myelin basic protein (MBP) epitopes in human non‐neural cells revealed by two anti‐MBP IgM monoclonal antibodies

Two monoclonal antibodies (1H6.2 and 45.30) were raised against MBP purified from human brain under experimental conditions that allowed MBP to retain binding to surrounding myelin lipids (human lipid‐bound MBP (hLB‐MBP)). 1H6.2 and 45.30 MoAbs were selected on the basis of their different binding properties to: hLB‐MBP, human lipid‐free‐MBP (hLF‐MBP) and bovine lipid‐free‐MBP (bLF‐MBP). Although the isotype of both MoAbs was IgM, their specificity, as tested in ELISA assays against chemical haptens and unrelated protein antigens, was restricted to MBP. 1H6.2 and 45.30 MoAbs stained MBP from human brain white matter tissue extracts, as well as bLF‐MBP, in Western blot assays. Both MoAbs stained oligodendrocytes and myelin in immunohistochemical analysis of white matter from human brain. Tissue sections from human peripheral nerves were labelled by 1H6.2 only, however, demonstrating that the MoAbs recognize two different epitopes. Epitopes recognized by 1H6.2 and 45.30 MoAbs were also expressed by a wide array of human non‐neural cells of either normal or pathological origin, as evidenced by cytofluorimetric assays. In particular, MBP epitopes (MEs) were expressed by lymphoid cells as well as by cells which play a pivotal role in immune homeostasis and in the immune response, such as thymic epithelial cells and professional antigen‐presenting cells. Both MoAbs were efficiently internalized by cells from a human B cell line, suggesting trafficking of MEs along the endocytic pathways. These findings support hypotheses regarding the role of MEs expressed by non‐neural cells in establishing self‐tolerance and/or in triggering the immune response against MBP antigen.
Inhaled sodium cromoglycate

The systematic review and meta-analysis performed by Tasche and colleagues appears to have been carried out with commendable thoroughness. The results seem clear cut: sodium cromoglycate is ineVective as maintenance therapy in children with asthma. However, their conclusions are not objective but depend in the final analysis on their multivariate regression model. Perhaps this is where the most important bias has crept into the analysis. As in the case of many new drugs, clinical trials are first carried out in adults, later in schoolchildren, and finally (if ever) in infants and pre-schoolchildren. This appears to have been the case with sodium cromoglycate since, of the studies included in their review, 12 out of 14 conducted before 1981 involved schoolchildren while, of those published since 1981, nine out of 10 involved preschoolchildren. The authors point out that “age of the children . was strongly correlated with year of publication”. They chose to interpret the positive eVect size of older studies as an indication of publication bias. An equally reasonable interpretation might be that sodium cromoglycate is more eVective in schoolchildren than in preschoolchildren. I wonder if the authors could calculate the size of the treatment eVect in their selected trials separately for those trials predominantly involving schoolchildren and those involving predominantly pre-schoolchildren. Systematic review and meta-analysis often lend spurious objectivity to the assessment of eYcacy. In the final event statistics provide guidance, and some form of subjective judgement is required as to the clinical relevance of the analysis.
Decoupled mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA population structure reveals Holocene collapse and population isolation in a threatened Mexican‐endemic conifer

Chihuahua spruce (Picea chihuahuana Martínez) is a montane subtropical conifer endemic to the Sierra Madre Occidental in northwestern México. Range‐wide variation was investigated using maternally inherited mitochondrial (mtDNA) and paternally inherited chloroplast (cpDNA) DNA markers. Among the 16 mtDNA regions analysed, only two mitotypes were detected, while the study of six cpDNA microsatellite markers revealed eight different chlorotypes. The average cpDNA diversity (H = 0.415) was low but much higher than that for mtDNA (H = 0). The distribution of mitotypes revealed two clear nonoverlapping areas (GST = NST = 1), one including northern populations and the second one including the southern and central stands, suggesting that these two regions may represent different ancestral populations. The cpDNA markers showed lower population differentiation (GST = 0.362; RST = 0.230), implying that the two ancestral populations continued to exchange pollen after their initial geographic separation. A lack of a phylogeographic structure was revealed by different spatial analyses of cpDNA (GST > RST; and samova), and reduced cpDNA gene flow was noted among populations (Nm = 0.873). Some stands deviated significantly from the mutation–drift equilibrium, suggesting recent bottlenecks. Altogether, these various trends are consistent with the hypothesis of a population collapse during the Holocene warming and suggest that most of the modern P. chihuahuana populations are now effectively isolated with their genetic diversity essentially modelled by genetic drift. The conservation efforts should focus on most southern populations and on the northern and central stands exhibiting high levels of genetic diversity. Additional mtDNA sequence analysis confirmed that P. martinezii (Patterson) is not conspecific with P. chihuahuana, and thus deserves separate conservation efforts.
City Markets as a Unit of Analysis in Audit Research and the Re‐Examination of Big 6 Market Shares

Big 6 market shares based on aggregate national data have been used in prior research to infer market leadership and industry expertise, and to differentiate Big 6 accounting firms from one another. In this study it is demonstrated that further differences exist with respect to city-specific audit markets, both between firms and within the same firm across different city markets. The specific finding is that the national market leader is not the city-specific market leader the vast majority of time. Usefulness of the city-level unit of analysis is further demonstrated by re-examining the 1989 mergers creating Ernst & Young and Deloitte Touche. The primary effect of the Ernst & Young merger was to increase market shares in cities in which the pre-merger firms already had significant market shares, resulting in an increase in the number of cities in which the merged firm achieved top ranking. In contrast, the primary effect of the Deloitte Touche merger was an expansionof the number of city-level markets in which the merged firm had significant (though not leading) market shares. The findings of this study suggest that, in order to move beyond our current understanding, important audit research questions such as the reason for particular auditor–client alignments, the competitive nature of markets, audit pricing of reputations, and auditor reporting and independence issues should be investigated in city-level markets where audit contracting occurs and where Big 6 market shares (and presumably reputations) vary widely from city to city.
Resistance training in men is associated with increased arterial stiffness and blood pressure but does not adversely affect endothelial function as measured by arterial reactivity to the cold pressor test

Resistance training is a popular mode of exercise, but may result in stiffening of the central arteries. Changes in carotid artery diameter were determined using the cold pressor test (CPT), which results in production of nitric oxide via sympathetic activation and is one of the novel methods available for assessing endothelial function in the carotid artery. To investigate the effect of resistance training on endothelial function, we designed a cross‐sectional study of carotid arterial vasoreactivity to CPT in men participating in regular resistance training with increased carotid arterial stiffness compared with age‐matched control subjects. Twelve resistance‐trained middle‐aged men (age 38.7 ± 1.7 years) and 17 age‐matched control subjects (age 36.8 ± 1.2 years) were studied. The direction and magnitude of changes in carotid artery diameter were measured by B‐mode ultrasonography during sympathetic stress induced by submersion of the foot in ice slush for 90 s. Carotid arterial β‐stiffness index, and systolic and mean arterial blood pressure were higher (7.7 ± 0.7 versus 6.0 ± 0.4 arbitrary units, 116 ± 2 versus 131 ± 4 mmHg and 86 ± 2 versus 95 ± 2 mmHg, respectively, all P < 0.05) in the resistance training group compared with control subjects. There were, however, no significant differences in the amount or percentage change in carotid artery diameter in CPT between the two groups (resistance training group, 0.33 ± 0.07 mm and 5.2 ± 1.1%; control group, 0.37 ± 0.06 mm and 5.8 ± 0.9%, respectively). These findings suggest that while carotid arterial stiffening and higher blood pressure are observed in regular resistance‐trained men, these are not associated with abnormalities in carotid arterial vasoreactivity to sympathetic stimulus, which implies intact endothelial function.
Investigating the impact of coherent multipath interference on optical QPSK systems

Coherent multipath interference (MPI) occurs in optical networks when multiple replicas of the transmitted signal propagate over different optical paths with differential delays smaller than the laser source coherence time. This paper investigates the impact of this phenomenon on coherent optical quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) systems and derives new analytical expressions for the moment generating function of the decision variable and for the average symbol error probability. Furthermore, the tolerance of QPSK to coherent MPI is quantified and a comparison with the incoherent MPI is also carried out, showing that the incoherent impairment is more detrimental than the coherent one especially when a large number of replicas is considered.
Clinical practice guidelines for the medical management of nonhospitalized ulcerative colitis: the Toronto consensus.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The medical management of ulcerative colitis (UC) has improved through the development of new therapies and novel approaches that optimize existing drugs. Previous Canadian consensus guidelines addressed the management of severe UC in the hospitalized patient. We now present consensus guidelines for the treatment of ambulatory patients with mild to severe active UC. METHODS A systematic literature search identified studies on the management of UC. The quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were rated according to the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Statements were developed through an iterative online platform and then finalized and voted on by a working group of specialists. RESULTS The participants concluded that the goal of therapy is complete remission, defined as both symptomatic and endoscopic remission without corticosteroid therapy. The consensus includes 34 statements focused on 5 main drug classes: 5-aminosalicylate (5-ASA), corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapies, and other therapies. Oral and rectal 5-ASA are recommended first-line therapy for mild to moderate UC, with corticosteroid therapy for those who fail to achieve remission. Patients with moderate to severe UC should undergo a course of oral corticosteroid therapy, with transition to 5-ASA, thiopurine, anti-TNF (with or without thiopurine or methotrexate), or vedolizumab maintenance therapy in those who successfully achieve symptomatic remission. For patients with corticosteroid-resistant/dependent UC, anti-TNF or vedolizumab therapy is recommended. Timely assessments of response and remission are critical to ensuring optimal outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Optimal management of UC requires careful patient assessment, evidence-based use of existing therapies, and thorough assessment to define treatment success.
Enabling Dynamic Voltage & Frequency Scaling in next-generation microprocessors: Thermal & reliability considerations

With each advancing generation of process technology, the CPU power continues to rise, creating additional issues for thermal/mechanical packaging design. A common therme in next-generation CPU offerings will be the use of dynamic voltage and frequency. Scaling (DVFS) to manage the chip power during operation. With a DVFS policy, it becomes all the more important to study the potential impacts of imposed temporal variation in power on the thermo-mechanical reliability. In this study, we demonstrate a system identification approach for a practical CPU application and exemplify the trade-offs involved in creating a DVFS policy that is satisfactory to both thermal/mechanical reliability engineers and CPU design teams.