Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neutrophil CD64 combined with PCT, CRP and WBC improves the sensitivity for the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis

Abstract Background: The aim of this study was to determine whether neutrophil CD64 (nCD64) combined with procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell count (WBC) can increase the sensitivity and accuracy of neonatal sepsis diagnosis. Methods: The serum levels of nCD64, CRP, PCT and WBC were detected in 60 patients with neonatal sepsis and 60 patients with non-sepsis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve (AUC), and logistic regression analysis were performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of these markers on neonatal sepsis. Results: Serum levels of nCD64, PCT, CRP and WBC were higher in the sepsis group than non-sepsis group (p<0.001). The sensitivities of nCD64, PCT, CRP and WBC at the recommended cut-off level for all infants were 79.5%, 68.2%, 38.6% and 52.3%, respectively. The best combination was nCD64 and PCT, which obtained sensitivity of 90.9%, largest AUC of 0.922, and a negative predictive value of 89.2%. However by using an optimal cut-off value, the sensitivities of all four biomarkers for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis were increased to 95.5%. Except for WBC, the birth weight and gestational age had no effects on the diagnostic value of these serum biomarkers. Conclusions: nCD64 and PCT are better diagnostic biomarkers for early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis as compared to CRP. With the help of optimal cut-off value based on ROC curve and logistic regression analysis, the combination of these biomarkers could improve the sensitivity for the diagnosis of suspected late-onset neonatal sepsis based on common serum biomarkers.
The influence of wives’ and husbands’ fertility preferences on progression to a third birth in Nepal, 1997–2009

As couples across the globe increasingly exercise conscious control over their reproduction, both spouses’ family-size preferences have the opportunity to influence their fertility. Using couple-level measures of rural Nepalese spouses’ family-size preferences and more than a decade of monthly panel data collected subsequently on fertility outcomes, we investigate how both spouses’ preferences influence progression to a third birth in a country where the widely professed ideal family size is two children. Contrary to expectations based on women's relative disadvantage, we find that it is wives’ preferences that drive couples’ progression to a third birth. We find also that the influence of wives’ preferences is not explained by contraceptive use but that this influence is moderated by couple communication about family planning. Wives’ preferences drive progression to a third birth among couples who had discussed how many children to have.
When Is a Function Securely Computable?

A subset of a set of terminals that observe correlated signals seek to compute a function of the signals using public communication. It is required that the value of the function be concealed from an eavesdropper with access to the communication. We show that the function is securely computable if and only if its entropy is less than the capacity of a new secrecy generation model, for which a single-letter characterization is provided.
Comparison of commercial ELISA for detection of antibodies to the viral capsid antigen (VCA) of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

Epstein-Barr Yirus (EBY) is the causative agent of infectious mononucleosis (1M). The virus is primarily transmitted via saliva, with seroprevalence of approximately 90% in adults (Rocchi el al., 1977; Yao etal., 1985). Primary EBY infection in infants and young children is usually asymptomatic or at least very mild. In adults, 1M is a selflimiting disease characterised by fever, pharyngitis, generalised lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly (Evans, 1976). Traditionally, the serodiagnosis of EBY infection is based on the detection of heterophile antibodies. However, at least 10% of people with acute 1M fail to produce heterophile antibody with this figure being much higher in children (Evans et al., 1975; Sumaya and Ench, 1985). A more specific method of serodiagnosis of 1M is the detection of EBY -specific antibodies that appear during primary infection. Most serodiagnostic tests are based on the detection of antibodies to the Yiral Capsid Antigen (YCA) (Weidbrauk et al., 1993; Field et al., 1995). YCA antibodies of the IgG and IgM class become detectable early in the acute phase of infection. Anti-YCA IgM levels peak about 3 weeks after the onset of clinical disease, then rapidly decline to become undetectable. In contrast, YCA IgG antibodies persist for life (Youmans et al., 1985; Nikoskelainen et al., 1975). Although the indirect immunofluorscence assay (IF A) is the standard method for detection of antiYCA antibodies, it is not without limitations. IFA is difficult to standardize, time-consuming and not convenient for large scale screening (Wiedbrauk et al., 1993). The development of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELlSAs) for specific EBY antibodies has provided a sensitive and specific method that is objective and convenient for large scale screening (Hopkins et al., 1982; Luka et al., 1984) and assays for YCA are now available commercially.
Visual tracking by separability-maximum online boosting

Recently, visual tracking has been formulated as a classification problem whose task is detecting the object form the scene with a binary classifier. And online boosting, which adapts the binary classifier to appearance changes by online feature selection, has been investigated by researchers. However, online boosting generally suffers from drifting if the tracking error accumulates. To reduce tracking error, separability-maximum boosting (SMBoost), together with a two stage online boosting paradigm (online SMBoost), is proposed and applied to visual tracking. SMBoost uses a separability based cost function that defined on the statistics. And online boosting is therefore split into two individual stages: online statistics estimating and separability-maximum classifier training. Experiment on UCI machine learning datasets shows that SMBoost is more accurate than batch AdaBoost and its online variation. And benchmark on public sequences indicates that feature selection with online SMBoost is more effective and robust comparing with previous online boosting algorithm. To track a visual object stably, online SMBoost saves more than 50% classifier complexity, and achieves 108 fps.
Enhanced GPS inversion technique applied to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2004 offshore Sumatra, many source models have been put forward. Recent studies clearly show that modern GPS‐processing could achieve high resolving power for slip in near real time, which is crucial for determining tsunami initial conditions, provided accurate GPS‐processing and inversion. Here, we propose an inversion technique with improved representation of the subduction zone geometry and physically justified boundary conditions. We show that the discrepancy between the inversion of near‐ and far field GPS data for the 2004 event, which is often explained by postseismic slip, can be eliminated by using our inversion method and IASP91 earth model. Inverted source models, including versions with splay faulting, are shown to be consistent with satellite altimetry data of offshore tsunami wave height, suggesting that displacement at the splay fault might have been present but was likely a second order process.
Maximum Matchings via Glauber Dynamics

In this paper we study the classic problem of computing a maximum cardinality matching in general graphs $G = (V, E)$. The best known algorithm for this problem till date runs in $O(m \sqrt{n})$ time due to Micali and Vazirani \cite{MV80}. Even for general bipartite graphs this is the best known running time (the algorithm of Karp and Hopcroft \cite{HK73} also achieves this bound). For regular bipartite graphs one can achieve an $O(m)$ time algorithm which, following a series of papers, has been recently improved to $O(n \log n)$ by Goel, Kapralov and Khanna (STOC 2010) \cite{GKK10}. In this paper we present a randomized algorithm based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo paradigm which runs in $O(m \log^2 n)$ time, thereby obtaining a significant improvement over \cite{MV80}. We use a Markov chain similar to the \emph{hard-core model} for Glauber Dynamics with \emph{fugacity} parameter $\lambda$, which is used to sample independent sets in a graph from the Gibbs Distribution \cite{V99}, to design a faster algorithm for finding maximum matchings in general graphs. Our result crucially relies on the fact that the mixing time of our Markov Chain is independent of $\lambda$, a significant deviation from the recent series of works \cite{GGSVY11,MWW09, RSVVY10, S10, W06} which achieve computational transition (for estimating the partition function) on a threshold value of $\lambda$. As a result we are able to design a randomized algorithm which runs in $O(m\log^2 n)$ time that provides a major improvement over the running time of the algorithm due to Micali and Vazirani. Using the conductance bound, we also prove that mixing takes $\Omega(\frac{m}{k})$ time where $k$ is the size of the maximum matching.
SOAP3: GPU-based compressed indexing and ultra-fast parallel alignment of short reads

As the cost efficiency of the next generation DNA sequencing technology keeps improving, there is an ever-increasing demand for high-throughput software to align the enormous number of short reads (patterns) with reference genomes (such as the human genome). In the past few years, a number of very fast alignment software (e.g., Maq, SOAP2, ZOOM, Bowtie, BWA) have been developed; most of them are exploiting some kind of compressed index (like BWT) of the reference sequence. These tools can align at a speed of a few hundred seconds per one million reads. Yet such speed is still behind the throughput of the next generation sequencing machines. In this paper we show the first implementation of a compressed index on the GPU. The technical issues include how to reduce the memory accesses to the index from individual threads (cores) and how to control the branching and divergence of the threads to avoid unnecessary idle time. Based on this new index, we are able to exploit the parallelism of GPU to speed up the alignment of short reads. Our experiments show that with respect to the human genome, the GPU takes only a few seconds to perform exact alignment of one million length-100 reads, and tens of seconds when a few mismatches are required. Further improvement has been obtained by utilizing the host CPU to share the load of the GPU concurrently.
Toward automatic extraction of expressive elements from motion pictures: tempo

The paper addresses the challenge of bridging the semantic gap that exists between the simplicity of features that can be currently computed in automated content indexing systems and the richness of semantics in user queries posed for media search and retrieval. It proposes a unique computational approach to extraction of expressive elements of motion pictures for deriving high-level semantics of stories portrayed, thus enabling rich video annotation and interpretation. This approach, motivated and directed by the existing cinematic conventions known as film grammar, as a first step toward demonstrating its effectiveness, uses the attributes of motion and shot length to define and compute a novel measure of tempo of a movie. Tempo flow plots are defined and derived for a number of full-length movies and edge analysis is performed leading to the extraction of dramatic story sections and events signaled by their unique tempo. The results confirm tempo as a useful high-level semantic construct in its own right and a promising component of others such as rhythm, tone or mood of a film. In addition to the development of this computable tempo measure, a study is conducted as to the usefulness of biasing it toward either of its constituents, namely motion or shot length. Finally, a refinement is made to the shot length normalizing mechanism, driven by the peculiar characteristics of shot length distribution exhibited by movies. Results of these additional studies, and possible applications and limitations are discussed.
In vivo simultaneous measurement of urea and water in the human stratum corneum by diffuse‐reflectance near‐infrared spectroscopy

Background/purpose: As near‐infrared spectroscopy is a powerful non‐invasive technique, information about several functional groups such as OH, NH, and CH can be monitored simultaneously. This study aimed to coincidentally measure urea and water contents in the human stratum corneum after the treatment of urea‐containing cream, in vivo, by a Fourier transform near‐infrared spectrometer with a fiber‐optic probe.
The Evolution of tRNA Genes in Drosophila

The structure and function of transfer RNA (tRNA) genes have been extensively studied for several decades, yet the general mechanisms controlling tRNA gene family evolution remain unclear, primarily because previous phylogenetics-based methods fail to distinguish between paralogs and orthologs that are highly similar in sequence. We have developed a system for identifying orthologs of tRNAs using flanking sequences to identify regions of conserved synteny and used it to annotate sets of orthologous tRNA genes across the 12 sequenced species of Drosophila. These data have allowed us to place the gains and losses of individual tRNA genes on each branch of the Drosophila tree and estimate rates of tRNA gene turnover. Our results show extensive rearrangement of the Drosophila tRNA gene complement over the last 60 My. We estimate a combined average rate of 2.18 ± 0.10 tRNA gene gains and losses per million years across the Drosophila lineage. We have identified 192 tRNAs that are ancestral to the genus, of which 157 are “core” tRNAs conserved in at least 11 of 12 extant species. We provide evidence that the core set of tRNA genes encode a nearly complete set of anticodons and have different properties from other “peripheral” tRNA genes, such as preferential location outside large tRNA clusters and higher sequence conservation. We also demonstrate that tRNA isoacceptor and alloacceptor changes by anticodon shifts have occurred several times in Drosophila, annotating 16 such events in functional tRNAs during the evolution of the genus.
Object localization in ImageNet by looking out of the window

We propose a method for annotating the location of objects in ImageNet. Traditionally, this is cast as an image window classification problem, where each window is considered independently and scored based on its appearance alone. Instead, we propose a method which scores each candidate window in the context of all other windows in the image, taking into account their similarity in appearance space as well as their spatial relations in the image plane. We devise a fast and exact procedure to optimize our scoring function over all candidate windows in an image, and we learn its parameters using structured output regression. We demonstrate on 92000 images from ImageNet that this significantly improves localization over recent techniques that score windows in isolation.
Development of a reliable and valid Chinese version of the diabetes empowerment scale.

OBJECTIVE To translate the Diabetes Empowerment Scale (DES) into Chinese and establish its psychometric properties among Hong Kong Chinese people. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A two-stage study design, incorporating qualitative and quantitative components, determined the cultural equivalency and content validity of the translated scale and established the psychometric properties of the Chinese DES (C-DES) in 207 patients. RESULTS Psychometric analysis supported the reliability and validity of the 20-item Chinese DES (C-DES-20) and five subscales: overcoming barriers (alpha = 0.89), determining suitable methods (alpha = 0.79), achieving goals (alpha = 0.78), obtaining support (alpha = 0.78), and coping (alpha = 0.76). The test-retest reliability of the intraclass correlations was satisfactory when a subsample of 20 patients was tested after a 2-week interval. There was criterion validity between the global scale and metabolic control (HbA(1c)) of respondents with type 2 diabetes (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS The C-DES-20 is a reliable and valid outcome measure for patient education and psychosocial interventions among Hong Kong Chinese people with diabetes.
The role of recent versus future events in children's comprehension of referentially ambiguous sentences: Evidence from eye tracking

Findings from recent eye-tracking studies suggest that adults prefer to rely more on recently seen events than possible future events during sentence comprehension: When the verb in an NP1-VERB-ADV-NP2 sentence was referentially ambiguous between a recent action and an equally possible future action, adults fixated the target of the recent action more often than the not-yet-acted upon object (Knoeferle & Crocker, 2007; Knoeferle, Carminati, Abashidze, & Essig, 2011). We examined whether this preference for the recent event generalizes to five-year-old children. In an eye-tracking study, five-year-olds were presented a display with an animal and two other objects. On the next picture frame, the animal was depicted as performing an action (e.g., a horse galloped to a blue barn). Next, a spoken sentence referred either to an event involving the acted upon target object (the blue barn) or to an equally plausible future action event (e.g. galloping to the red barn). At the adverb in NP1-VERB-ADV-PP sentences, children fixated more often the recent (vs. future) event target. This result replicates the findings from the adult studies and suggests that, just like adults, children rely more on the recent event than expectations of an event that could happen next. At the same time, visual context effects of the recent events were subtly delayed for children (vs. adults). For adults, the recent-event preference emerged during the verb; for children, by contrast, it emerged post-verbally during the adverb. Thus, similar attentional mechanisms underlie visual context effects in both 5-year old children and adults but their time course differs.
Limited Feedback Multi-Antenna Quantization Codebook Design-Part II: Multiuser Channels

This is the second part of a two-part paper on optimal design of limited feedback single-user and multius er spatial multiplexing systems. The first part of the paper studies the single-user system and this part addresses the multiuse r case. The problem is cast in form of minimizing the average transmission power at the base station subject to the outage probability constraints at the users’ side. The optimization is over the power control function at the base station as well as the users’ channel quantization codebooks. The base statio n has M antennas and servesM single-antenna users, which share a common feedback link with a total rate ofB bits per fading block. We first fix the quantization codebooks and study the optimal power control problem which leads to an upper bound for the average transmission sum power. The upper bound solution is then used to optimize the quantization codebooks and to deri ve the optimal bit allocation laws in the asymptotic regime of B → ∞. The paper shows that for channels in the real space, the optimal number of channel direction quantization bits should be M − 1 times the number of channel magnitude quantization bits. It is shown that the users with higher requested QoS (lower target outage probabilities) and higher requested downlink rates (higher target SINR’s) should receive larger shares o f the feedback rate. The paper further shows that, for the target QoS parameters to be feasible, the total feedback bandwidth sho uld scale logarithmically with γ̄, the geometric mean of the target SINR values, and1/q̄, the geometric mean of the inverse target outage probabilities. Moreover, the minimum required feedback rate increases if the users’ target parameters deviate fromthe average parameters̄γ and q̄. Finally, we show that, asB increases, the multiuser system performance approaches the performan ce of the perfect channel state information system as1/q̄ · 2− B M2 .
Time and memory tradeoffs in the implementation of AUTOSAR components

The adoption of AUTOSAR in the development of automotive electronics can increase the portability and reuse of functional components. Inside each component, the behavior is represented by a set of runnables, defining reactions executed in response to an event or periodic computations. The implementation of AUTOSAR runnables in a concurrent program executing as a set of tasks reveals several issues and trade-offs because of the need to protect communication and state variables and to ensure time determinism. We discuss some of these tradeoffs and options and outline a problem formulation that can be used to compute the solution with minimum memory requirements executing within the deadlines.
Design and Implementation of Low Power Digital FIR Filter Based on Configurable Booth Multiplier

 Abstract— In this paper, an FIR filter using configurable booth multiplier (CBM) is proposed. Generally an FIR filter design requires many complex computations which effect the performance of the common digital signal processors (DSPs) in terms of power, speed, cost, area etc. Direct form fixed point FIR filter realization consists of different modules such as multiplier, adder etc. The low power consumption quality of configurable booth multiplier makes it a preferred choice in designing different circuits. It supports single 16-bit, single 8-bit or twin parallel 8-bit multiplication operations to be performed. To efficiently reduce the power consumption, a novel dynamic range detector is developed to dynamically detect the effective dynamic range of two operands. The detection results are used not only to pick the operand with small dynamic range for booth encoding to increase the probability of partial products becoming zero but also deactivate the redundant switching activities in ineffective ranges as much as possible. Moreover, the output product of the proposed configurable booth multiplier can be truncated to further decrease power consumption by sacrificing a bit of output precision. Dadda compression technique is used to compress the partial products and to produce final product. A carry look ahead adder is used to add the multiplier outputs to generate the FIR filter response. All these are implemented using VHDL.
Kontrola navodnjavanja i fertilizacije u plasteni č koj proizvodnji krastavca u Izraelu pri upotrebi dva razli č ita sistema navodnjanja " kap po kap " ( AutoAgronom i konvencionalno navodnjavanje )

Since agriculture is the highest consumer of water, there are many trials to improve water use efficiency especially in arid countries. Thus, in the world are developed many irrigation techniques that could decrease water use. In this paper is analyzed new irrigation technique (AutoAgronom) used in greenhouse cucumber (two varieties Rocky and Champion) production in order to improve water use in Israel. AutoAgronom is tested against conventional system where drip irrigation was used. AutoAgronom (AA) system follows pH, Electrical conductivity, oxygen level and nitrates on which basis irrigation was done. Obtained results strongly recommend use of AA system in vegetable production. In variety Champion irrigated by AA system (9.167 kg/m2) obtained yield was 20% higher in comparison with the same variety under conventional drip irrigation. Quantity of irrigation water, as well as fertilizers using AutoAgronom system are saved up to 9.7%, while phosphoric acid is saved up to 8.3%.