Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling Fire Danger in Galicia and Asturias (Spain) from MODIS Images

Forest fires are one of the most dangerous natural hazards, especially when they are recurrent. In areas such as Galicia (Spain), forest fires are frequent and devastating. The development of fire risk models becomes a very important prevention task for these regions. Vegetation and moisture indices can be used to monitor vegetation status; however, the different indices may perform differently depending on the vegetation species. Eight different spectral indices were selected to determine the most appropriate index in Galicia. This study was extended to the adjacent region of Asturias. Six years of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images, together with ground fire data in a 10 × 10 km grid basis were used. The percentage of fire events met the variations suffered by some of the spectral indices, following a linear regression in both Galicia and Asturias. The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) was the index leading to the best results. Based on these results, a simple fire danger model was established, using logistic regression, by combining the EVI variation with other variables, such as fire history in each cell and period of the year. A seventy percent overall concordance was obtained between estimated and observed fire frequency.
Exacerbation of Facial Motoneuron Loss after Facial Nerve Transection in Severe Combined Immunodeficient (scid) Mice

The immune system functions to protect an organism against microbial infections and may be involved in the reparative response to nerve injury. The goal of this study was to determine whether the immune system plays a role in regulating motoneuron survival after a peripheral nerve injury. After a right facial nerve axotomy, facial motoneuron (FMN) survival in C.B-17 (+/+) wild-type mice was found to be 87 +/- 3.0% of the unaxotomized left side control. In contrast, facial nerve axotomy in C.B-17 (-/-) severe combined immunodeficient (scid) mice, lacking functional T and B lymphocytes, resulted in an average FMN survival of 55 +/- 3.5% relative to the unaxotomized left side control. This represented an approximately 40% decrease in FMN survival compared with wild-type controls. The reconstitution of scid mice with wild-type splenocytes containing T and B lymphocytes restored FMN survival in these mice to the level of the wild-type controls. These results suggest that immune cells associated with acquired immunity play a role in regulating motoneuron survival after a peripheral nerve injury.
Dietary habits of lung cancer patients from the Lower Silesia region of Poland

Aim of the study Assessment of lung cancer patients’ dietary habits before treatment enable medical staff to provide more individual, precise and complex care to patients, taking into consideration their nutritional status. The aim of this study was, therefore, to evaluate dietary habits related to lung cancer risk of lung cancer patients in comparison with controls from the Lower Silesia region of Poland. Material and methods Assessments of dietary habits, based on a validated questionnaire related to lung cancer risk were performed on 92 lung cancer patients and compared with the results obtained in 157 controls. Dietary patterns were evaluated concerning on eating frequency of high- and low- glycemic index products, vegetables and fruits, vegetable and fruit juices, green tea, liquid dairy products, meat and fried products over the previous year. Alcohol consumption was assessed on a dichotomous scale (yes or no). Results Majority of patients had inappropriate dietary habits, such as low consumption of low GI cereal products, vegetables, fruit and green tea, and a high consumption frequency of fried products. Conclusions Reported dietary mistakes indicate the need for dietary education among people at lung cancer risk and with newly diagnosed disease, to enhance their nutritional status.
Analysis of lscr1 minimization in the Geometric Separation Problem

Modern data are often composed of two (or more) morphologically distinct constituents - for instance, pointlike and curvelike structures in astronomical imaging of galaxies. Although it seems impossible to extract those components - as there are two unknowns for every datum - suggestive empirical results have already been obtained especially by Jean-Luc Starck and collaborators. In this paper we develop a theoretical view-point, defining a Geometric Separation Problem and analyzing a model procedure. This procedure is inspired by work relating lscr1 minimization and sparsity. The procedure uses two deliberately overcomplete systems which sparsify the different components and decomposes by lscr1 minimization of the analysis (rather than synthesis) frame coefficients. We formalize two concepts - cluster coherence in place of the now-traditional singleton coherence and lscr1 minimization in frame settings, including those where singleton coherence within one frame may be high - and develop all the needed machinery to make these into fruitful tools. Our general approach applies to the problem of geometric separation of pointlike and curvelike structures in images by employing frames of radial wavelets and curvelets or orthonormal wavelets and shearlets. Our theoretical results show that at all sufficiently fine scales, nearly-perfect separation is achieved. We use microlocal analysis to understand heuristically why separation might be possible and to organize a rigorous analysis.
DISTINCTIVE PHONETIC FEATURE (DPF) BASED PHONE SEGMENTATION USING 2-STAGE MULTILAYER NEURAL NETWORKS

Segmentation of speech into its corresponding phones has become very important issue in many speech processing areas such as speech recognition, speech analysis, speech synthesis, and speech database. In this paper, for accurate segmentation in speech recognition applications, we introduce Distinctive Phonetic Feature (DPF) based feature extraction using a two-stage MLN (Multi-Layer Neural Network) system consists of an MLNLF-DPF in the first stage and an MLNDyn in the second stage. The MLNLF-DPF maps continuous acoustic features, Local Feature (LF), onto discrete DPF patterns, while the MLNDyn constraints DPF context or dynamics in an utterance. The experiments are carried out using Japanese triphthong data. The proposed DPF based feature extractor provides good segmentation and high recognition rate with a reduced mixture-set of HMMs (Hidden Markov Models) by resolving co-articulation effect.
A Theoretical Study of The Relationship Between Whole An ELM Network and Its Subnetworks

A biological neural network is constituted by numerous subnetworks and modules with different functionalities. For an artificial neural network, the relationship between a network and its subnetworks is also important and useful for both theoretical and algorithmic research, i.e. it can be exploited to develop incremental network training algorithm or parallel network training algorithm. In this paper we explore the relationship between an ELM neural network and its subnetworks. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to prove a theorem that shows an ELM neural network can be scattered into subnetworks and its optimal solution can be constructed recursively by the optimal solutions of these subnetworks. Based on the theorem we also present two algorithms to train a large ELM neural network efficiently: one is a parallel network training algorithm and the other is an incremental network training algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of the theorem and the validity of the developed algorithms.
A new cache replacement policy for location dependent data in mobile environment

Caching frequently accessed data items on the client side is an effective technique to improve the system performance in mobile environment. Due to cache size limitations, the choice of cache replacement techniques used to find a suitable subset of items for eviction from cache becomes important. In this paper, we propose a new cache replacement policy, predicted region based replacement policy (PRRP) for location dependent data in mobile environment. Unlike earlier cache replacement policies that consider only directional/non-directional data distance, PRRP takes into account data distance integrated with predicted region of client's movement that adapts to client's movement nature. It also considers the size of data item in cache. Simulation results show that our proposed policy significantly improves the system performance by more than 10 percent in terms of cache hit ratio, compared to previous schemes
Constitutive STAT3 Phosphorylation in Circulating CD4+ T Lymphocytes Associates with Disease Activity and Treatment Response in Recent-Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis

The aim of the present study was to examine constitutive signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation in circulating leukocytes as a candidate biomarker in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). 25 patients with recent-onset, untreated RA provided samples for whole blood flow cytometric determination of intracellular STAT3 phosphorylation, expressed as relative fluorescence units. The occurrence of constitutive STAT3 phosphorylation was evaluated by determining proportion of STAT3-phosphorylated cells among different leukocyte subtypes. Plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17 and IL-21 were measured by immunoassay, radiographs of hands and feet were examined and disease activity score (DAS28) was determined. Biomarkers were restudied and treatment response (according to European League Against Rheumatism) was determined after 12 months of treatment with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. At baseline, constitutive phosphorylation of STAT3 occurred in CD4+ T cells of 14 (56%) patients, CD8+ T cells of 13 (52%) patients, in CD19+ B cells of 7 (28%) patients, and in CD14+ monocytes of 12 (48%) patients. STAT3 phosphorylation levels of CD4+ T cells associated with DAS28, and those of all leukocyte subtypes studied associated with erosive disease. The presence of constitutive STAT3 phosphorylation in CD4+ T lymphocytes, pSTAT3 fluorescence intensity of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels at baseline associated with good treatment response. In conclusion, constitutive STAT3 phosphorylation in circulating CD4+ T cells is common in recent-onset untreated RA and associates with good treatment response in patients characterized by high disease activity and the presence of systemic inflammation.
When the U.S. Stock Market Becomes Extreme

Over the last three decades, the world economy has been facing stock market crashes, currency crisis, the dot-com and real estate bubble burst, credit crunch and banking panics. As a response, extreme value theory (EVT) provides a set of ready-made approaches to risk management analysis. However, EVT is usually applied to standardized returns to offer more reliable results, but remains difficult to interpret in the real world. This paper proposes a quantile regression to transform standardized returns into theoretical raw returns making them economically interpretable. An empirical test is carried out on the S&P500 stock index from 1950 to 2013. The main results indicate that the U.S stock market becomes extreme from a price variation of ±1.5% and the largest one-day decline of the 2007–2008 period is likely, on average, to be exceeded one every 27 years.
Autoimmune Hepatitis as a Unique Form of an Autoimmune Liver Disease: Immunological Aspects and Clinical Overview

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a unique form of immune-mediated disease that attacks the liver through a variety of immune mechanisms. The outcomes of AIH are either acute liver disease, which can be fatal, or, more commonly, chronic progressive liver disease, which can lead to decompensated liver cirrhosis if left untreated. AIH has characteristic immunological, and pathological, features that are important for the establishment of the diagnosis. More importantly, most patients with AIH have a favorable response to treatment with prednisolone and azathioprine, although some patients with refractory AIH or more aggressive disease require more potent immune-suppressant agents, such as cyclosporine or Mycophenolate Mofetil. In this paper, we discuss the immunological, pathological and clinical features of AIH, as well as the standard and alternative treatments for AIH.
Using Protocols to Model Mixed Initiative

We are interested in the mechanisms needed to control computer initiative to allow systems to engage in mixed-initiative task-oriented/planning (TOP) dialogues. A TOP dialogue is about an ongoing task that may require replanning during its execution. We discuss our model for initiative and motivate the use of protocols. Finally, we present some protocol rules and analyze a TOP dialogue exchange in terms of them.
Constrained Optimization for Homepage Relevance

This paper considers an application of showing promotional widgets to web users on the homepage of a major professional social network site. The types of widgets include address book invitation, group join, friends' skill endorsement and so forth. The objective is to optimize user engagement under certain business constraints. User actions on each widget may have very different downstream utilities, and quantification of such utilities can sometimes be quite difficult. Since there are multiple widgets to rank when a user visits, launching a personalized model to simply optimize user engagement such as clicks is often inappropriate. In this paper we propose a scalable constrained optimization framework to solve this problem. We consider several different types of constraints according to the business needs for this application. We show through both offline experiments and online A/B tests that our optimization framework can lead to significant improvement in user engagement while satisfying the desired set of business objectives.
Baseline Results and Future Plans for the NREL Controls Advanced Research Turbine: Preprint

During the 2002 - 2003 wind season, several new algorithms were tested on the Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. These include an''Optimally Tracking Rotor'' algorithm proposed before, an adaptive power tracking algorithm and several full-state feedback systems. General results from these algorithms are presented here with detailed results presented elsewhere.
Design of a Large ScaleMultimedia

Large scale multimedia storage servers will be an integral part of the emerging distributed multimedia computing infrastructure. However, given the modest rate of improvements in storage transfer rates, designing servers that meet the demands of multimedia applications is a challenging task that needs signiicant architectural innovation. Our research project, called Massively-parallel And Real-time Storage (mars) architecture, is aimed at the design and prototype implementation of a large scale multimedia storage server. It uses some of the well-known techniques in parallel I/O, such as data striping and Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (raid) and an innovative atm based interconnect inside the server to achieve a scalable architecture that transparently connects storage devices to an atm-based broadband network. The atm interconnect within the server uses a custom asic called ATM Port Interconnect Controller (apic) currently being developed as a part of an arpa sponsored gigabit local atm testbed. Our architecture relies on innovative data striping and real-time scheduling to allow a large number of guaranteed concurrent accesses, and uses separation of metadata from real data to achieve a direct ow of the media streams between the storage devices and the network. This paper presents our system architecture; one that is scalable in terms of the number of supported users and the throughput.
Asymptotic theory for dipole radiation in the presence of a lossy slab lying on a conducting half-space

The basic theory for dipole radiation in the presence of a two-layer half-space is outlined with special reference to its use as a model for studying radio propagation through and over heavily vegetated terrain. The source dipole may be located above or below the top surface of the slab. The dipole orientation is either vertical or horizontal. The asymptotic derivations for the field expressions are carried out without making the usual assumption that the refractive index of the uppermost layer is large compared with unity. The final results exhibit the expected inverse square dependence of the field on horizontal range.
Representations of thermodynamic variabilityin the automated understanding of FLIR scenesAaron

Grenander's pattern theory ooers a uniied approach to characterizing variability in complex systems. Automatic target recognition systems for forward-looking infrared sensors must be robust to three kinds of variability: 1) Geometric variability-Target appearances vary with their orientations and positions; 2) Image variability-Target appearances vary with their thermodynamic state, and natural backgrounds consist of widely varying textures; 3) Complexity/scene variability-The number of targets encountered will not be known in advance, and targets may enter or leave the scene at random times. Pattern theoretic algorithms based on jump-diiusion processes which accommodate variabilities (1) and (3) have been proposed. The diiusions account for (1) by estimating positions and orientations, and the jumps account for (3) by adding and removing hypothesized targets and changing target types. Here we extend that work to better accommodate (2) by summarizing the thermodynamic state of targets with a parsimonious set of variables which become nuisance parameters in the Grenander/Bayesian formulation.
Priority setting for research in health care: An application of value of information analysis to glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonists in non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explain the rationale for the value of information approach to priority setting for research and to describe the methods intuitively for those familiar with basic decision analytical modeling. A policy-relevant case study is used to show the feasibility of the method and to illustrate the type of output that is generated and how these might be used to frame research recommendations. The case study relates to the use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonists for the treatment of patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome. This is an area that recently has been appraised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
The late stages of evolution of helium star-neutron star binaries and the formation of double neutron star systems

A grommet at one side comprises a tubular part which widens out either in a regular trumpet-shaped curve ("monotonic") or via one or more "steps" or "bends" with the result that the risk of blockage is considerably reduced and the grommet is less quickly expelled from the eardrum. At the other side, the grommet is provided with a flange via which the grommet remains hooked behind the eardrum. This flange is so large - either round and the same size as the widely "fanning" top side of the trumpet-shaped top part of the grommet, or provided with one or more symmetrical or asymmetrical projections - that the grommet is held fast by the eardrum for a relatively long time. A recurrence of the fluid accumulation in the tympanic cavity or of an ear infection is consequently less likely to occur.
Enhanced PVM Communications over a High-Speed LocalArea

Emulating a parallel machine via a collection of heterogenous independent hosts and a general-purpose local area network has obvious advantages such as cost-eeectiveness and very large aggregate processing power and memory. However, the ability of most current general-purpose local area networks to support communication-intensive parallel applications has been questionable. Today, with the emergence of several high-speed switch-based networks, such as HIgh Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI), Fibre Channel, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), the possibility of networks eeectively supporting communication-intensive parallel applications may soon prove a reality. For this study, we have chosen to use ATM for the underlying high-speed network infrastructure. This choice is due to the exibility of ATM and its rapid acceptance into the local area networking community. For parallel programming support, we have chosen Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM). PVM is a parallel programming environment which allows a heterogeneous network of computers to be used as a single parallel computer. It provides the functionality, e.g., message passing library, typically found in most distributed memory parallel machines. In this paper, we present results of the performance of PVM over a local ATM network. In addition to the high-speed transport support provided via the high-speed ATM network, we re-implemented PVM using the lower level Fore Systems' ATM API instead of the BSD socket interface for which PVM was originally intended. We also implemented an end-to-end ow control scheme with a selective retransmission mechanism (for message reliability), and re-implemented a more eecient multicasting operation. Our overall results show that parallel computing on a high-speed network (ATM), as opposed to a conventional network such as Ethernet, does provide increased communication bandwidth. However, the performance improvement at the application level is still far below that which the physical medium can provide. Before applications can beneet from the full potential of high speed networks, further improvements in the hardware and software components of network I/O subsystems must be performed.
A novel UGGT1 and p97-dependent checkpoint for native ectodomains with ionizable intramembrane residue

There is unexpected collaboration of the cytosolic AAA-ATPase p97 and the luminal quality control factor UGGT1 in a novel, BiP- and CNX-independent protein quality checkpoint. This prevents Golgi transport of a chimera with a native ectodomain that passes the luminal quality control scrutiny but displays an intramembrane defect.
Development of studies on grooming reciprocity in primates

Many researchers have investigated why and how animals benefit from each other in a group. Grooming is considered as prosocial behavior in animal societies; the groomer expends time and energy costs, while the groomee receives hygienic and physiological benefits. Based on the reciprocal altruism hypothesis (Trivers, 1971), many researchers have investigated grooming behaviors in primate species. In primates, individuals exchange grooming for grooming or other social benefits (e.g., tolerance for food, agonistic support, or infant handling). Researchers have also established and modified models of grooming reciprocity. In future researches, it would be valuable to investigate the effects of affiliative relationships, soliciting behaviors, self-rewarding, inequity aversion, and partner choice and partner switching on prosocial behaviors.