Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Descriptive Analysis of HIV Prevalence, HIV Service Uptake, and HIV-Related Risk Behaviour among Patients Attending a Mental Health Clinic in Rural Malawi

Background Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and mental illness are interlinked health problems; mental illness may pose a risk for contracting HIV and HIV-positive individuals are at higher risk of mental illness. However, in countries with high HIV prevalence, the main focus of HIV-related health programmes is usually on prevention and treatment of somatic complications of HIV, and mental illness is not given high priority. We examined HIV prevalence, uptake of HIV services, and HIV-related risk behaviour among people attending a mental health clinic in rural Malawi. Methodology Semi-structured interviews were performed with patients capable to consent (94%), and with those accompanied by a capable caregiver who consented. HIV counselling and testing was offered to participants. Findings Among 174 participants, we collected 162 HIV test results (91%). HIV prevalence was 14.8%. Women were three times as likely to be HIV-positive compared to men. Two-thirds of participants reported having been tested for HIV prior to this study. The uptake of HIV-services among HIV-positive patients was low: 35% did not use recommended prophylactic therapy and 44% of patients not receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) had never been assessed for ART eligibility. The reported rate of sexual activity was 61%, and 9% of sexually active participants had multiple partners. Inconsistent condom use with stable (89%) and occasional (79%) sexual partners, and absence of knowledge of the HIV status of those partners (53%, 63%) indicate high levels of sexual risk behaviour. Conclusions HIV-prevalence among persons attending the clinic, particularly men, was lower than among the general population in a population survey. The rate of HIV testing was high, but there was low uptake of preventive measures and ART. This illustrates that HIV-positive individuals with mental illness or epilepsy constitute a vulnerable population. HIV programmes should include those with neuropsychiatric illness.
Depth from Defocus for Misaligned Mobile Photos Subject to Parallax Effects

This paper describes and implements an attempt to solve the problem of determining depth from defocus when given a focal stack (set of photos taken at different focuses) created from photos captured with a hand-held camera with unknown calibration. Although the photos may initially suffer from significant parallax due to camera/hand movement during capture, the image alignment steps explained in Section III are shown to be capable of compensating for such issues. Relative depth results are computed quickly, though suffer from some shortcomings around depth edges as discussed in Section VII. The final computed depth map is also shown to be sufficient for rendering visually pleasing synthetically refocused photos of the scene.
Is hyponatremia associated with mortality in pulmonary arterial hypertension?

Hyponatremia is associated with poor prognosis in left heart failure and liver disease. Its prognostic role in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is not well defined. We investigated the association between hyponatremia and one-year mortality in two large cohorts of PAH. This study is a secondary analysis evaluating the association between hyponatremia and one-year mortality in patients treated with subcutaneous treprostinil (cohort 1). The results are validated using a PAH registry at a tertiary referral center (cohort 2). Eight-hundred and twenty patients were enrolled in cohort 1 (mean age = 47 ± 14 years) and 791 in cohort 2 (mean age = 55 ± 15 years). Sodium level is negatively correlated with mean right atrial pressure (r = −0.09, P = 0.018; r = −0.089, P = 0.015 in cohorts 1 and 2, respectively). In unadjusted analyses of cohort 1, the sodium level (as a continuous variable) is associated with one-year mortality (hazard ratio = 0.94; P = 0.035). Hyponatremia loses its significance (as a continuous variable and when dichotomized at ≤ 137 mmol/L; P = 0.12) when adjusted for functional class (FC), which is identified as the variable whose presence turns the effect of sodium level into non-significant. Secondary analyses using a cut-off value of < 135 mmol/L showed similar results. These results are validated in cohort 2. Although the sample size for patients with sodium < 130 mmol/L is small (n = 31), severe hyponatremia is associated with higher overall mortality (47% versus 23%; P = 0.01), even when adjusting for age, FC, and baseline 6-min walk distance (P < 0.001). Although baseline hyponatremia is associated with one-year mortality, it loses its significance when adjusted for FC.
A Stochastic Model of Fragmentation in Dynamic Storage Allocation

We study a model of dynamic storage allocation in which requests for single units of memory arrive in a Poisson stream at rate $\lambda $ and are accommodated by the first available location found in a linear scan of memory. Immediately after this first-fit assignment, an occupied location commences an exponential delay with rate parameter $\mu $, after which the location again becomes available. The set of occupied locations (identified by their numbers) at time t forms a random subset $S_t $ of $\{ 1,2, \cdots \}$. The extent of the fragmentation in $S_t $, i.e. the alternating holes and occupied regions of memory, is measured by $\max (S_t ) - |S_t |$. In equilibrium, the number of occupied locations, $|S|$, is known to be Poisson distributed with mean $\rho = \lambda/ \mu$. We obtain an explicit formula for the stationary distribution of max $(S)$, the last occupied location, and by independent arguments we show that $(E\max (S) - E|S|) /E|S| \to 0$ as the traffic intensity $\rho \to \infty $. Moreove.
Exploration of cellular reaction systems

We discuss and review different ways to map cellular components and their temporal interaction with other such components to different non-spatially explicit mathematical models. The essential choices made in the literature are between discrete and continuous state spaces, between rule and event-based state updates and between deterministic and stochastic series of such updates. The temporal modelling of cellular regulatory networks (dynamic network theory) is compared with static network approaches in two first introductory sections on general network modelling. We concentrate next on deterministic rate-based dynamic regulatory networks and their derivation. In the derivation, we include methods from multiscale analysis and also look at structured large particles, here called macromolecular machines. It is clear that mass-action systems and their derivatives, i.e. networks based on enzyme kinetics, play the most dominant role in the literature. The tools to analyse cellular reaction networks are without doubt most complete for mass-action systems. We devote a long section at the end of the review to make a comprehensive review of related tools and mathematical methods. The emphasis is to show how cellular reaction networks can be analysed with the help of different associated graphs and the dissection into modules, i.e. sub-networks.
Sensorimotor paradigms for design of movement and social interaction

The human brain has evolved for governing motor activity by transforming sensory patterns to patterns of motor coordination. Movement, as a basic bodily expression of this governing function is shown to underlie higher cognitive processes and social interaction.There are three prevailing concepts of sensorimotor interaction that set up different frameworks for design of artificial movement. This paper focuses on the common coding [1? ] paradigm of sensorimotor interaction as justified by recent experimental studies on the mirror neuron system. It aims to provide a novel approach to design of movement interactions in an inter-agent setting.
Ridge-branch-based blood vessel detection algorithm for multimodal retinal images

Automatic detection of retinal blood vessels is important to medical diagnoses and imaging. With the development of imaging technologies, various modals of retinal images are available. Few of currently published algorithms are applied to multimodal retinal images. Besides, the performance of algorithms with pathologies is expected to be improved. The purpose of this paper is to propose an automatic Ridge-Branch-Based (RBB) detection algorithm of blood vessel centerlines and blood vessels for multimodal retinal images (color fundus photographs, fluorescein angiograms, fundus autofluorescence images, SLO fundus images and OCT fundus images, for example). Ridges, which can be considered as centerlines of vessel-like patterns, are first extracted. The method uses the connective branching information of image ridges: if ridge pixels are connected, they are more likely to be in the same class, vessel ridge pixels or non-vessel ridge pixels. Thanks to the good distinguishing ability of the designed "Segment-Based Ridge Features", the classifier and its parameters can be easily adapted to multimodal retinal images without ground truth training. We present thorough experimental results on SLO images, color fundus photograph database and other multimodal retinal images, as well as comparison between other published algorithms. Results showed that the RBB algorithm achieved a good performance.
Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles

Adaptive radiation, which results when a single ancestral species gives rise to many descendants, each adapted to a different part of the environment, is possibly the single most important source of biological diversity in the living world. One of the best-studied examples involves Caribbean Anolis lizards. With about 400 species, Anolis has played an important role in the development of ecological theory and has become a model system exemplifying the integration of ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral studies to understand evolutionary diversification. This major work, written by one of the best-known investigators of Anolis, reviews and synthesizes an immense literature. Jonathan B. Losos illustrates how different scientific approaches to the questions of adaptation and diversification can be integrated and examines evolutionary and ecological questions of interest to a broad range of biologists.
Casimir effect in a two-dimensional signature changing space-time

We study the Casimir effect for free massless scalar fields propagating on a two-dimensional cylinder with a metric that admits a change of signature from Lorentzian to Euclidean. We obtain a nonzero pressure, on the hypersurfaces of signature change, which destabilizes the signature changing region and so alters the energy spectrum of scalar fields. The modified region and spectrum, themselves, back react on the pressure. Moreover, the central term of diffeomorphism algebra of corresponding infinite conserved charges changes correspondingly.
Active warden for TCP sequence number base covert channel

Network covert channel generally use for leak the information by violating the security policies. It allows the attacker to send as well as receive secret information without being detected by the network administrator or warden in the network. There are several ways to implement such covert channels; Storage covert channel and Timing covert channel. However there is always some possibility of these covert channels being identified depending on their behaviour. In this paper, we propose, an active warden, which normalizes incoming and outgoing network traffic for eliminating all possible storage based covert channels. It is specially design for TCP sequence number because this field is a maximum capacity vehicle for storage based covert channel. Our experimental result shows that propose active warden model eliminates covert communication up to 99%, while overt communication is as intact.
Moving Cows in Space: Exploiting Proprioception As A Framework For Virtual Envrionment Interaction

Manipulation in immersive virtual environments is difficult partly because we humans must do without the haptic contact with real objects we rely on in the real world to orient ourselves and our manipulanda. To compensate for this lack, we propose exploiting the real objects one does have in a virtual environment, one's own body parts. We present a unified framework for virtual-environment interaction based on proprioception, a person's sense of the position and orientation of his body and limbs. We describe a taxonomy of three forms of body-relative interaction: • Direct manipulation ways to use body sense to help control manipulation • Physical mnemonics ways to store/recall information relative to the body • Gestural actions ways to use body-relative actions to issue commands and recall abstractions Automatic scaling is a way to instantly bring objects within reach so that users can manipulate them using proprioceptive cues. Several novel virtual interaction techniques based upon automatic scaling and our proposed framework of proprioception allow a user to intuitively, efficiently, precisely, and lazily interact with a virtual world. Finally we describe the integration of these techniques into a real-world system: the Chapel Hill Immersive Modeling Program . CR
Robust stabilizing modified repetitive controllers for multiple-input/multiple-output time-delay plants with specified input-output characteristic

The modified repetitive control system is a type of servomechanism for a periodic reference input. When modified repetitive control design methods are applied to real systems, the influence of uncertainties in the plant must be considered. In some cases, uncertainties in the plant make the modified repetitive control system unstable, even though the controller was designed to stabilize the nominal plant. Recently, Chen et al. proposed the parameterization of all robust stabilizing modified repetitive controllers for multiple-input/multiple-output time-delay plants. However, using their method, it is complex to specify the low-pass filter in the internal model for the periodic reference input of which the role is to specify the input-output characteristic. Because, the low-pass filter is related to four free parameters in the parameterization. To specify the input-output characteristic easily, this paper proposes the parameterization of all robust stabilizing modified repetitive controllers for multiple-input/multiple-output time-delay plants with specified input-output characteristic such that the input-output characteristic can be specified beforehand.
Working Paper E-learning: Designing New Business Education E-learning: Designing New Business Education

The PwC&IESE e-business Center is a joint initiative of IESE Business School and the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers aimed at creating a Research Center to analyse the impact of e-business on organizations. The mission of the PwC&IESE e-business Center is to be an international benchmark for companies and universities in the development and communication of new ideas. Based on this mission, the Center has set itself five basic goals: 1) Gather material on " best practices " and " next practices " in e-business. 2) Develop a conceptual framework that will help enable the world of business to understand and control the impact of the Internet and e-business. 3) Diffuse the knowledge generated by research in this field through the usual scientific and professional media. 4) Develop up-to-date, quality teaching materials. 5) Help train managers to understand the complexity of the changes that technology brings about in society and in the way businesses and competitive advantages are developed. These goals will be achieved through three activities: research, training, and communication. The Center's efforts will be focused primarily on research, as the foundation for training and communication of the results obtained. Abstract Business Schools are under intense competitive pressure, and one way for them to differentiate themselves and compete distinctively is by adopting innovative uses of information technology. However, incorporating information technology in business education is no trivial undertaking. This research is intended to provide some guidance about the effect that new information technologies can have in the field of high-level executive education and provide a conceptual framework of the key factors that need to be taken into account for efficient and effective course design in executive education.
Transparency in the Practice of Monetary Policy

Richmond Fed President Al Broaddus argues that greater transparency is desirable in U.S. monetary policy. Transparency should begin with an explicit congressional mandate for low inflation. In the medium term, the Fed should utilize an announced explicit inflation target to guide inflation back to a long-run path. Enhancements to instrument transparency already in place — the announcement of the current federal funds rate target and the release of the “tilt,” along with accompanying press statements — have been beneficial. Finally, speeches and other public statements by individual FOMC participants provide markets with a more robust and complete understanding of thinking inside the Fed. This last aspect of transparency is necessary to improve the public’s understanding of monetary policy over time.
Plane detection from monocular image sequences

AIRES, Kelson R. T. ; ARAUJO, Helder J. ; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D. Plane Detection from Monocular Image Sequences. In: VISUALIZATION, IMAGING AND IMAGE PROCESSING, 2008, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Proceedings. , Palma de Mallorca: VIIP, 2008
Adherence to surveillance among patients with superficial bladder cancer.

BACKGROUND Patients diagnosed with superficial bladder cancer who have not undergone total cystectomy are at high risk for recurrence, and bladder surveillance with cystoscopy is recommended for such patients every 3-6 months. We examined the degree to which bladder cancer patients undergo the recommended surveillance procedures and identified patient and primary care provider characteristics associated with nonadherence to these recommendations. METHODS We used information obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program-Medicare-linked database to identify 6717 patients aged 65 years or older who were diagnosed with superficial bladder cancer from 1992 through 1996 and who survived for at least 3 years after diagnosis but did not have a total cystectomy. We used information obtained from Medicare claims forms to examine the frequency with which these patients had a surveillance examination of the bladder during each of five contiguous 6-month intervals from month 7 to month 36 following diagnosis. We examined characteristics of patients and their physicians that were associated with low-intensity surveillance (defined as having an examination during fewer than two of the five possible follow-up intervals). Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Only 40% of the entire cohort had an examination during all five intervals; 1216 patients (18.1%) had low-intensity surveillance. Patient characteristics that were independently associated with low-intensity surveillance were being age 75 years or older (adjusted OR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.35 to 1.74), nonwhite (adjusted OR = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.57 to 2.40), and having favorable tumor histology (adjusted OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.48 to 0.72 for poorly differentiated versus referent well-differentiated tumor grade) and high comorbidity (adjusted OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.30 to 2.27). Residence in an urban area or in a census tract with low median income was also associated with low-intensity surveillance. CONCLUSIONS The actual practice of surveillance for patients with superficial bladder cancer differs substantially from the standards recommended in clinical guidelines.
Thalamic connections of three representations of the body surface in somatosensory cortex of gray squirrels

The anatomical tracer, wheat germ agglutinin, was used to determine the connections of electrophysiologically identified locations in three architectonically distinct representations of the body surface in the somatosensory cortex of gray squirrels. Injections in the first somatosensory area, S‐I, revealed reciprocal connections with the ventroposterior nucleus (VP), a portion of the thalamus just dorsomedial to VP, the posterior medial nucleus, Pom, and sometimes the ventroposterior inferior nucleus (VPI). As expected, injections in the representation of the face in S‐I resulted in label in ventroposterior medial (VPM), the medial subnucleus of VP, whereas injections in the representation of the body labeled ventroposterior lateral (VPL), the lateral subnucleus of VP. Furthermore, there was evidence from connections that the caudal face and head are represented dorsolaterally in VPM, and the forelimb is represented centrally and medially in VPL. The results also support the conclusion that a representation paralleling that in VP exists in Pom, so that the ventrolateral part of Pom represents the face and the dorsomedial part of Pom is devoted to the body. Because connections with VPI were not consistently revealed, the possibility exists that only some parts or functional modules of S‐I are interconnected with VPI.
IMPROVEMENT OF AUDIO-VISUAL SPEECH RECOGNITION IN CARS

For multi-stream HMMs which are used to effectively combine acoustic and visual information, it is important to optimize stream weights automatically and properly in order to improve the performance. This paper proposes a new stream-weight optimization method based on a likelihood-ratio maximization criterion, in which the difference of log likelihood values between the first and other hypotheses is maximized. Experiments are conducted using Japanese connected digit speech recorded in real-world environments. Applying our unsupervised stream-weight optimization technique, we achieved a 14% absolute accuracy improvement compared with the audio-only scheme, and found that the proposed method is more practical than the MCE-GPD method.
Disorganization/cognitive and negative symptom dimensions in the at-risk mental state predict subsequent transition to psychosis.

OBJECTIVE The at-risk mental state (ARMS) is associated with a very high risk of psychosis, but it is difficult to predict which individuals will later develop psychosis on the basis of their presenting symptoms. We investigated psychopathological dimensions in subjects with an ARMS and examined whether particular symptom dimensions predicted subsequent transition to psychosis. METHOD The sample comprised 122 subjects (aged 16-35 years) meeting Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation clinic criteria for the ARMS recruited through Outreach and Support in South London, a clinical service for people with an ARMS. A principal axis factor analysis was performed on symptom scores, obtained at presentation from the Comprehensive Assessment of the At-Risk Mental State, using Varimax rotation. The relationship between dimension scores and transition to psychosis during the following 24 months was then examined employing Cox regression analysis. RESULTS Factor analysis gave rise to a 5-factor solution of negative, anxiety, disorganization/cognitive, self-harm, and manic symptom dimensions, accounting for 37% of the total variance. Scores on the negative and on the disorganization/cognitive dimensions were associated with transition to psychosis during the follow-up period (P = 0.044 and P = 0.005, respectively). CONCLUSION The symptoms of the ARMS have a dimensional structure similar to that evident in patients with schizophrenia except for the positive symptom dimension. The association between scores on the disorganization/cognitive and negative dimensions and later transition is consistent with independent evidence that formal thought disorder, subjective cognitive impairments, and negative symptoms are linked to the subsequent onset of psychosis.