Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low Complexity Channel Tracking for Adaptive MMSE Channel Estimation in OFDM

In this paper, we introduce a channel parameter tracking method for adaptive OFDM MMSE channel estimation. Even though the MMSE estimation is one of the most accurate channel estimation methods, it requires several channel information including Doppler frequency, RMS (root mean squared) delay spread, and noise power. To implement the MMSE estimation, tracking of such parameters should be preceded. We first propose methods to track such parameters focusing on the estimation of Doppler frequency, and mention their performance and complexity. We then implement and simulate the adaptive MMSE estimation using these tracking schemes and analyze the estimator's performance in terms of channel tracking accuracy and BER performance. We conclude that the proposed channel parameter estimator tracks channel condition reliably in various channel conditions without significant increase in computational complexity and that BER performance of the adaptive MMSE estimation is better than that of a robust MMSE estimator by 5 dB in average.
Efficacy of a DNA Vaccine Carrying Eimeria maxima Gam56 Antigen Gene against Coccidiosis in Chickens

To control coccidiosis without using prophylactic medications, a DNA vaccine targeting the gametophyte antigen Gam56 from Eimeria maxima in chickens was constructed, and the immunogenicity and protective effects were evaluated. The ORF of Gam56 gene was cloned into an eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1(zeo)+. Expression of Gam56 protein in COS-7 cells transfected with recombinant plasmid pcDNA-Gam56 was confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence assay. The DNA vaccine was injected intramuscularly to yellow feathered broilers of 1-week old at 3 dosages (25, 50, and 100 µg/chick). Injection was repeated once 1 week later. One week after the second injection, birds were challenged orally with 5×104 sporulated oocysts of E. maxima, then weighed and killed at day 8 post challenge. Blood samples were collected and examined for specific peripheral blood lymphocyte proliferation activity and serum antibody levels. Compared with control groups, the administration of pcDNA-Gam56 vaccine markedly increased the lymphocyte proliferation activity (P<0.05) at day 7 and 14 after the first immunization. The level of lymphocyte proliferation started to decrease on day 21 after the first immunization. A similar trend was seen in specific antibody levels. Among the 3 pcDNA-Gam56 immunized groups, the median dosage group displayed the highest lymphocyte proliferation and antibody levels (P<0.05). The median dosage group had the greatest relative body weight gain (89.7%), and the greatest oocyst shedding reduction (53.7%). These results indicate that median dosage of DNA vaccine had good immunogenicity and immune protection effects, and may be used in field applications for coccidiosis control.
The Ligamp TP53 Assay for Detection of Minimal Residual Disease in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Surgical Margins

Purpose: Detect tumor-related DNA using LigAmp in histologically clear margins and associate results with clinical outcome. Experimental Design: Patients with head and neck cancer were registered for molecular analysis of surgical margins. Adequacy of resection was ensured using histologic margin analysis. Further margins were then harvested and DNA extracted. TP53 mutations in tumor were determined using Affymetrix p53 GeneChip. Margins were analyzed by Ligamp in comparison with standard curves for quantification of mutant DNA. Ligation used two oligonucleotides to isolate DNA targeting the mutation. Ligated DNA was amplified using real-time PCR. The quantity of mutation in the margin was determined as percent of mutant species relative to plasmid and relative to tumor. Cutpoints were identified and defined groups were evaluated for local failure-free, cancer-specific, and overall survival. Study margins were examined for presence of tumor by light microscopy. Results: Tissue from 95 patients with common mutations was analyzed. Fifteen experienced local recurrence. Cutpoints of 0.15% for mutant species relative to plasmid and 0.5% for mutant species relative to tumor were chosen as most selective of recurrent cases. LigAmp had slightly better area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (P = 0.09) than light microscopy correctly predicting 9 of 15 recurrent tumors. There were 6 false negative cases and 26 false positive results. No statistically significant distinctions were observed in cancer-specific or overall survival in this limited cohort. Conclusions: Ligamp provides quantifiable, sensitive detection of mutant DNA in histologically normal margins. Detection of mutant species in margins may identify patients at risk of local recurrence. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(24):7658–65)
Systematic review of the effect of education on survival in Alzheimer's disease

ABSTRACT Background: According to the cognitive reserve model, higher levels of education compensate for the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), delaying its clinical manifestations. This model suggests that for any level of cognitive impairment, people with more education have worse neuropathology than those with less education and will therefore have shorter survival post-diagnosis. This is the first systematic review of the relationship between more education and decreased survival in people with AD. Methods: We reviewed the literature systematically, searching electronic databases and reference lists of included studies. We used Centre for Evidence Based Medicine criteria for inclusion and rating of the validity of cohort studies that reported the relationship of education to survival in people with AD. Results: 22 studies met inclusion criteria. We found Grade A evidence (highest evidence level) that more education was not associated with decreased survival post-diagnosis in AD. Only one of 11 studies rated 1b (highest level of quality) supported our hypothesis that more education predicted reduced survival after adjusting for age, gender and dementia severity; it comprised African-Caribbean participants, who had on average more severe cognitive impairment than other studies' participants. Conclusions: Education delays the onset of the dementia syndrome in AD, but does not lead to earlier death after diagnosis.
Surface Proteins of Streptococcus agalactiae and Related Proteins in Other Bacterial Pathogens

SUMMARY Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus) is the major cause of invasive bacterial disease, including meningitis, in the neonatal period. Although prophylactic measures have contributed to a substantial reduction in the number of infections, development of a vaccine remains an important goal. While much work in this field has focused on the S. agalactiae polysaccharide capsule, which is an important virulence factor that elicits protective immunity, surface proteins have received increasing attention as potential virulence factors and vaccine components. Here, we summarize current knowledge about S. agalactiae surface proteins, with emphasis on proteins that have been characterized immunochemically and/or elicit protective immunity in animal models. These surface proteins have been implicated in interactions with human epithelial cells, binding to extracellular matrix components, and/or evasion of host immunity. Of note, several S. agalactiae surface proteins are related to surface proteins identified in other bacterial pathogens, emphasizing the general interest of the S. agalactiae proteins. Because some S. agalactiae surface proteins elicit protective immunity, they hold promise as components in a vaccine based only on proteins or as carriers in polysaccharide conjugate vaccines.
Entrainment of Silicon Central Pattern Generators for Legged Locomotory Control

We have constructed a second generation CPG chip capable of generating the necessary timing to control the leg of a walking machine. We demonstrate improvements over a previous chip by moving toward a significantly more versatile device. This includes a larger number of silicon neurons, more sophisticated neurons including voltage dependent charging and relative and absolute refractory periods, and enhanced programmability of neural networks. This chip builds on the basic results achieved on a previous chip and expands its versatility to get closer to a self-contained locomotion controller for walking robots.
Facial expression quantification and analysis

Visual image processing is extensively used in the field of medicine and biomedical engineering. It has two major divisions: analysis and synthesis, (i) analysis refers to the extraction and quantification of data from available images, (ii) synthesis refers to the construction of images from available information. This paper mentions some of the latest techniques available in the above field and proposes a design technique. "Text based talking face animation with subtle eye expressions" is done using phonemes as the basic unit for the generation of audio and video. MS-SDK is used as the TTS module, Alvarez optic flow method for generation of correspondence maps and image morphing technique to do the morphing of visemes (images corresponding to phonemes). A prototype of this design is implemented using VC++ and an account of its highlights and limitations are presented along with the improvements possible to make this design a much more robust and efficient one.
Dexamethasone treatment and prognostic factors in community-acquired bacterial meningitis: A Danish retrospective population-based cohort study

Abstract Introduction: The morbidity and mortality in community-acquired bacterial meningitis (CABM) remain substantial and treatment outcomes and predictors of a poor prognosis must be assessed regularly. We aimed to describe the outcome of patients with CABM treated with dexamethasone and to assess the performance of the Dutch Meningitis Risk Score (DMRS). Methods: We retrospectively evaluated all adults with CABM in North Denmark Region, 1998–2012. Outcomes included in-hospital mortality and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score. A GOS score of 5 was categorized as a favourable outcome and scores of 1–4 as unfavourable. We used logistic analysis to compute relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for an unfavourable outcome adjusted for age, sex, and comorbidity. Results: We identified a total of 172 cases of CABM. In-hospital mortality was unaffected by the implementation of dexamethasone in 2003 (19% vs 20%). Dexamethasone treatment was associated with a prompt diagnosis of meningitis and a statistically insignificant decrease in the risk of an unfavourable outcome (33% vs 53%; adjusted RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.41–1.01) and in-hospital mortality (15% vs 24%; adjusted RR 0.72, 95% CI 0.35–1.48). Of the risk factors included in the DMRS, we found age and tachycardia to be significantly associated with an unfavourable outcome in the multivariate analyses. Conclusions: Patients treated with dexamethasone were more likely to have a favourable outcome, although statistical significance was not reached. Several parameters included in the Dutch risk score were also negative predictors in our cohort, although the entire risk score could not be validated due to a lack of data.
Adapting the sampling distribution in PRM planners based on an approximated medial axis

Probabilistic roadmap planners have proven to be effective in solving complex path planning problems. These planners sample the configuration space to compute a representation of its free space connectivity. One of the major difficulties for this approach is the planning of a path through narrow configuration space passages, since samples are placed inside narrow passages only with small probability. To address this problem, approaches have been devised that rely on the medial axis of the workspace to bias sampling in configuration space such that the probability of generating samples inside narrow passages is increased. This paper introduces a novel algorithm for computing an approximation to the medial axis, which can be computed more efficiently than the exact or discretized medial axis. We demonstrate that, compared to the true medial axis, this approximation is equally well suited to bias the sampling in probabilistic roadmap planners. Furthermore, we present a novel sampling strategy based on the approximated medial axis. This strategy results in high sampling density in narrow passages, while sampling open spaces sparsely. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the medial axis approximation and its application to motion planning based on the proposed sampling scheme.
The Effectiveness of Application Permissions

Traditional user-based permission systems assign the user's full privileges to all applications. Modern platforms are transitioning to a new model, in which each application has a different set of permissions based on its requirements. Application permissions offer several advantages over traditional user-based permissions, but these benefits rely on the assumption that applications generally require less than full privileges. We explore whether that assumption is realistic, which provides insight into the value of application permissions. We perform case studies on two platforms with application permissions, the Google Chrome extension system and the Android OS. We collect the permission requirements of a large set of Google Chrome extensions and Android applications. From this data, we evaluate whether application permissions are effective at protecting users. Our results indicate that application permissions can have a positive impact on system security when applications' permission requirements are declared up-front by the developer, but can be improved.
A Study of the Impact of a Simple Stimulus on a Receiver's Imagination in Mediated Communication

Mediated communication involves a form of intimate partnership where, as in the case of face-to-face intimate relationships, parties have a strong desire to exchange emotion and ensure a connection by way of receiving and responding to personal messages. So, in mediated communication, although partners have an effective means of conveying a connection, they still are in need of an equally effective means of conveying emotional state; they need a so-called "emotion-related channel. " A desire to develop an efficient means of conveying emotion in mediated communication has driven this study. A study was carried out to determine the effects of a simple stimulus on one's imagination when subjects considered the simple stimulus to be a message from an intimate partner. Twenty-one subjects were first subjected to a simple pattern stimulus. They then experienced the same stimulus as a message received from an intimate partner in mediated communication. They subsequently answered questionnaires on their impressions of the stimulus, the emotional states of their imagined partners, and their own emotional states. A statistical analysis was then carried out. From a close examination of the findings, some interesting points were discovered. One important finding is that from the simple stimulus, subjects were able to imagine not only an intimate partner but also the emotional state of that partner. This and other findings lend support to the notion that a simple stimulus could serve as an emotion-related channel, in mediated communication.
The identification and degradation of isosaccharinic acid, a cellulose degradation product

Nirex is seeking to develop a deep underground repository for the disposal of solid intermediate-level and low-level radioactive wastes (ILW and LLW) in the UK. One possible influence on the behaviour of radionuclides is the formation of water-soluble complexants by the degradation of the solid organic polymers that will be present in the wastes. The degradation products of cellulose have been shown to increase the solubility of plutonium and other radionuclides and to reduce sorption onto near-field and far-field materials. Degradation of cellulose under anaerobic alkaline conditions produces a range of organic acids. In this paper 2- C -(hydroxymethyl)-3-deoxy- D -pentonic acid (isosaccharinic acid, ISA) is identified by High Performance Liquid Chromatography as a significant component of cellulose leachates. A combination of fractionation of cellulose leachates and plutonium solubility determinations shows that ISA is responsible for the majority of the enhancement of plutonium solubility observed in such leachates. Further degradation of ISA by chemical or microbial action may lessen the effect of degraded cellulose leachates. Experimental studies on the chemical degradation of this compound under alkaline conditions suggest that the presence of oxygen is required. Microbial degradation studies show that the plutonium solubility in solutions of ISA is reduced by their exposure to microbial action.
Your Mobile Virtual Assistant Just Got Smarter!

A Mobile Virtual Assistant (MVA) is a communication agent that recognizes and understands free speech, and performs actions such as retrieving information and completing transactions. One essential characteristic of MVAs is their ability to learn and adapt without supervision. This paper describes our ongoing research in developing more intelligent MVAs that recognize and understand very large vocabulary speech input across a variety of tasks. In particular, we present our architecture for unsupervised acoustic and language model adaptation. Experimental results show that unsupervised acoustic model learning approaches the performance of supervised learning when adapting on 40-50 device-specific utterances. Unsupervised language model learning results in an 8% absolute drop in word error rate.
A polynomial time solution for 2-SAT

The question of whether the P and NP complexity classes are equivalent is unresolved. It is conjectured that they are inequivalent because of the vast number of NP-Complete languages (including the ever-popular 3-SAT) for which there is no known polynomial time solution. The author of this paper respectfully disagrees and presents a polynomial time solution to a problem closely related to 3-SAT: 2-SAT.
Spaces of closed subgroups of locally compact groups

The set $\Cal C(G)$ of closed subgroups of a locally compact group $G$ has a natural topology which makes it a compact space. This topology has been defined in various contexts by Vietoris, Chabauty, Fell, Thurston, Gromov, Grigorchuk, and many others. The purpose of the talk was to describe the space $\Cal C(G)$ first for a few elementary examples, then for $G$ the complex plane, in which case $\Cal C(G)$ is a 4--sphere (a result of Hubbard and Pourezza), and finally for the 3--dimensional Heisenberg group $H$, in which case $\Cal C(H)$ is a 6--dimensional singular space recently investigated by Martin Bridson, Victor Kleptsyn and the author \cite{BrHK}. These are slightly expanded notes prepared for a talk given at several places: the Kortrijk workshop on {\it Discrete Groups and Geometric Structures, with Applications III,} May 26--30, 2008; the {\it Tripode 14,} \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure de Lyon, June 13, 2008; and seminars at the EPFL, Lausanne, and in the Universit\'e de Rennes 1. The notes do not contain any other result than those in \cite{BrHK}, and are not intended for publication.
Phytochromes B, D, and E Act Redundantly to Control Multiple Physiological Responses in Arabidopsis

Phytochrome-mediated perception of the ratio of red to far-red wavelengths in the ambient light environment is fundamental to plant growth and development. Such monitoring enables plants to detect neighboring vegetation and initiate avoidance responses, thus conferring considerable selective advantage. The shade avoidance syndrome in plants is characterized by elongation growth and early flowering, responses that are fully induced by end-of-day far-red light treatments. Elucidating the roles of individual phytochromes in mediating responses to red to far-red has however always been confounded by synergistic and mutually antagonistic coactions between family members. The creation of triple and quadruple mutants in Arabidopsis, deficient in multiple phytochromes, has revealed functional redundancy between phyB, D, and E in controlling flowering time, leaf development, and regulation of the homeobox gene,ATHB-2. In addition, mutant analysis suggests a possible novel role for phyC in suppressing ATHB-2 transcription in the light.
Influence of Strontium on In Vitro Bioactivity of Heat-Treated Porous Ca-P Ceramics on Titanium for Biomedical Applications

The bioactivity of materials was evaluated based on the ability to induce a bond-like apatite layer on the surface in simulated body fluid (SBF). The aim of this study was to investigate the coatings containing strontium on bioactivity after heat treatment. After the materials were soaked in SBF for 1 day, precipitates did not form on the surface of heat-treated MAO coating without strontium. The precipitates were observed on surface of heat-treated MAO coatings containing strontium. After 7 days, the surface of heat-treated MAO coatings containing strontium was completely covered with precipitates. The precipitates were found to be composed of fiber structures using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The phase was identified as the apatite phase using thin film X-ray diffraction (TF-XRD). The results show that heat-treated MAO coatings containing strontium can induce the formation of an apatite layer on their surface. All finding in this study indicated that heat-treated MAO coatings containing strontium have good bioactivity for clinical applications.
Constructing a Memory-Based Distributed Code Storage on Networked Diskless Embedded Systems

Advances in networking and microprocessor technology have enabled the development of a variety of small, low-cost, and resource-limited embedded systems. Such an embedded system is often diskless due to the weight, size, and cost of a disk. Because of the availability of inexpensive high-speed network cards, most embedded systems are networked, wired or wireless. We propose and implement a memory-based distributed code storage called NFC (networked file cache) for networked diskless embedded systems. NFC utilizes and integrates all available memory resources in a network to form a large-scaled code storage to which all applications in all nodes are allowed to access. To efficiently locate a file in NFC, we present a one-hop file lookup algorithm and a set of cache management algorithms dealing with file migrations and replications. In comparison with a client-server approach, the experimental results show that NFC successfully integrates memory resources in a network to significantly extend code storage and reduce file-access time of a diskless embedded system
Cuffless and Continuous Blood Pressure Estimation from the Heart Sound Signals

Cardiovascular disease, like hypertension, is one of the top killers of human life and early detection of cardiovascular disease is of great importance. However, traditional medical devices are often bulky and expensive, and unsuitable for home healthcare. In this paper, we proposed an easy and inexpensive technique to estimate continuous blood pressure from the heart sound signals acquired by the microphone of a smartphone. A cold-pressor experiment was performed in 32 healthy subjects, with a smartphone to acquire heart sound signals and with a commercial device to measure continuous blood pressure. The Fourier spectrum of the second heart sound and the blood pressure were regressed using a support vector machine, and the accuracy of the regression was evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. Statistical analysis showed that the mean correlation coefficients between the predicted values from the regression model and the measured values from the commercial device were 0.707, 0.712, and 0.748 for systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure, respectively, and that the mean errors were less than 5 mmHg, with standard deviations less than 8 mmHg. These results suggest that this technique is of potential use for cuffless and continuous blood pressure monitoring and it has promising application in home healthcare services.