Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of fatty acid status in cord blood serum on children's behavioral difficulties at 10 y of age: results from the LISAplus Study.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the effect of fatty acid (FA) concentrations in cord blood on long-term behavioral outcomes. OBJECTIVE We assessed the effect of FAs in cord blood serum on children's behavioral difficulties at the age of 10 y. DESIGN A longitudinal study of 416 children from the population-based Influences of Lifestyle-Related Factors on the Immune System and the Development of Allergies in Childhood (LISAplus) birth cohort from Munich was conducted. Individual glycerophospholipid FAs in blood were analyzed in venous cord blood. Data on children's behavior were collected with a parent-reported Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire at 10 y of age. Zero-inflated Poisson regression models were applied and adjusted for sex, parental income, smoking during pregnancy, and dietary intake of arachidonic acid (AA) and DHA at 10 y. RESULTS A 1% increase in DHA in cord blood serum was found to decrease total difficulties by (exp)β(adj) = 0.93 (SE = 0.02, P < 0.0001) and hyperactivity or inattention by (exp)β(adj) = 0.94 (SE = 0.03, P < 0.04). Higher long-chain (LC) PUFA concentrations in cord blood serum were associated with fewer emotional symptoms [(exp)β(adj) = 0.95, SE = 0.03, P = 0.01], and similarly higher AA concentrations were associated with fewer emotional symptoms [(exp)β(adj) = 0.94, SE = 0.03, P = 0.03]. CONCLUSION Increased concentrations of DHA, LC-PUFAs, and AA in cord blood serum were associated with lower scores on a parent-completed behavioral screen. An appropriate FA supply to the developing fetus may be essential for optimal long-term behavioral outcomes in children.
Methodological considerations for fMRI studies of pitch processing

Four functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of pitch processing in auditory cortex were designed to reduce the impact of a number of methodological issues that have hitherto limited previous research findings. Due to adaptation effects, it is necessary to repeatedly present short stimulus bursts rather than long-duration stimuli. Thus, conventionally, in neuroimaging studies of pitch perception, a number of short bursts of the pitch stimulus, separated by silent intervals, are compared to a Gaussian noise presented in the same way. The results of the first experiment indicate that replacing the silent intervals with an energetically matched noise context increases the pitch-specific response by removing the ? energy-onset response? that saturates the overall response if silent intervals are used. In the second experiment, a particular pitch-evoking stimulus, iterated ripple noise (IRN), which is commonly used in neuroimaging studies of pitch perception, was examined. Hall and Plack (Cerebral Cortex 2009;19:576-585) showed that IRN contains slowly varying spectro-temporal features unrelated to pitch, and suggested that these features could account for at least some of the cortical activation produced by IRN. The results support this hypothesis, but also suggest that there is an additional pitch-dependent effect in the same region of auditory cortex.The third experiment assessed the effect of using a different control stimulus to the usual Gaussian noise. The new matched controls were a pulse train with randomly jittered inter-pulse intervals and a random-phase unresolved harmonic complex tone. These low-pitch-salience controls were compared to a regular interval pulse train, which is identical to a cosine-phase unresolved harmonic complex tone. The third experiment did not provide evidence for sensitivity to pitch-salience in pitch-responsive regions of auditory cortex. The fourth and final experiment was a factorial design seeking to answer two main questions: 1) Is the pitch-sensitive region of auditory cortex responsive to the salience of other sound features (e.g. modulation)? 2) Are the responses to pitch and to modulation within this region co-located? Two different pitch-evoking stimuli with different levels of pitch salience were used, presented in a noise context. Results indicate that the pitch-sensitive region contains representations for both pitch and modulation. Furthermore, there was no evidence for an interaction between pitch and modulation, suggesting that the two responses are independent.Overall, the results suggest that careful stimulus design, and appropriate experimental control, is necessary to obtain reliable information on the cortical response to pitch. In addition, the results have shed further light on the likely neural substrates of pitch processing in the cortex.
Contribution of Cattellian psychometrics to the elucidation of human intellectual structure

The development of a taxonomy of human intellectual structure has received much impetus during the last decade. Findings indicate that there are at least 30-40 primary abilities, rather than only the seven proposed by Thurstone. While this list does not constitute a definitive taxonomy of primary ability structures, nevertheless, much of the ability variance should be accounted for by the presently known factors. At the second stratum level, several major factors (Gf, Gc, Gm, Gps, Gr, Gv, Ga) have been well replicated in numerous studies. Evidence indicates a smaller number of primary ability factors in children and old-aged individuals: Several of the ability factors have been shown to significantly predictive of educational achievement at both elementary and secondary school levels.
Design trade-offs of low-cost multicomputer network switches

A comparison is made among a large number of designs for the purpose of specifying low-cost yet cost-effective multicomputer network switches. Among the parameters varied are switching mode, number of lanes, buffer size, wraparound, and channel selection. Some assumptions we make are deterministic routing and small fixed-sized packets. We obtain results using two methods: i) RTL cycle-driven simulations to determine latency and capacity with respect to load, communication pattern, and packet size and ii) hardware synthesis to a current technology to find the operating frequency and chip area. These results are also combined to yield performance/area measures for all of the designs. One of the results is deeper understanding of virtual cut-through in terms of deadlock properties and the capability of dynamic load balancing among buffers. We find that lanes are even more likely to improve performance of virtual cut-through as wormhole networks, and that virtual cut-through routing is preferable to wormhole routing in more domains than may have been previously realized. Other results include finding that, after factoring in operating frequency, having more than two lanes per physical channel is not likely to be useful and various observations about the utility of varying buffer sizes.
A hybrid approach to continuous valued datasets classifying based on particle swarm optimization, variable precision rough set theory and modified huang-index function

This paper proposed a new hybrid method, designated as PSOVPRS-index method, for partitioning and classifying continuous valued datasets based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, Variable Precision Rough Set (VPRS) theory and a modified form of the Huang-index function. In contrast to the Huang-based index method which simply assigns a constant number of clusters to each attribute and in which the Rough Set (RS) theory is applied, this method could not only cluster the values of the individual attributes within the dataset and achieves both the optimal number of clusters and the optimal classification accuracy, but also extends the applicability of classification using VPRS theory. The validity of the proposed approach is investigated by comparing the classification results obtained for a real-world dataset containing stock market information with those obtained by PSORS-index method and pseudo-supervised decision-tree classification method. There is good evidence to show that the proposed PSOVPRS-index method not only has a better classification performance than the considered methods, but also achieves a more reliable basis for the extraction of decision-making rules.
Multichannel Equalization in the KLT and Frequency Domains With Application to Speech Dereverberation

Equalization of acoustic channels usually involves inversion of acoustic impulse responses (AIRs), and generally employs multichannel techniques. In this paper, we propose three equalization algorithms, one in the Karhunen-Loève transform (KLT) domain and the other two in the frequency domain. Our proposed algorithm in the KLT domain provides a platform to achieve equalization in conjunction with denoising. Existing multiple-input/output inverse theorem (MINT)-based non-adaptive algorithms require the inversion of a matrix with dimension that is proportional to the AIR length, and is computationally expensive. To overcome this limitation, we propose the frequency-domain algorithm which is computationally very efficient and thus can be employed for the equalization of high-order AIRs in practical applications. In addition, the frequency-domain method is more robust to AIR estimation errors. To achieve further reduction in the complexity without significant performance degradation, we then propose a modified version of the frequency-domain algorithm.
Facial Expression Recognition Using Deep Belief Network

Emotional understanding and expression is a fundamental basis for human-computer interaction, and how to read the human mind through facial expression recognition technology has become a hot issue. Large dimension of image data, sample calibration difficulties, and small size training sample set make the efficient facial expression recognition task difficult. DBN (Deep Belief Network) achieves a layered understanding of knowledge through abstracting multiple representation and layers of the characteristics (knowledge) of learning objects according to the graded information processing of human brain. On basis of DBNs, this paper proposes a deep facial expression recognition system. The system first trains the Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) network using the training sample set to obtain its RBM network-based probability distribution model, that is, the mapping relationship between network input and output; then, the multi-layered RBM network forms layered learning structure, realizing feature learning changes from fine-grained to coarse-grained scale, to achieve multi-layered feature learning and hierarchical levels of abstraction. Finally, the recognition system realizes facial expression recognition by resorting to training Softmax networks, which automatically learn expression image. The expression database JAFFE based experimental results show that our proposed deep facial expression recognition systemcan achieve realization of characteristic abstraction and form a good probability classification structure, and highest recognition rate can reach 98.75%.
Area-universal rectangular layouts

A rectangular layout is a partition of a rectangle into a finite set of interior-disjoint rectangles. They are used as rectangular cartograms in cartography, as floorplans in building architecture and VLSI design, and as graph drawings. Often areas are associated with the rectangles of a rectangular layout and it is desirable for one rectangular layout to represent several area assignments. A layout is area-universal if any assignment of areas to rectangles can be realized by a combinatorially equivalent rectangular layout. We identify a simple necessary and sufficient condition for a rectangular layout to be area-universal: a rectangular layout is area-universal if and only if it is one-sided. We also investigate similar questions for perimeter assignments. The adjacency requirements for the rectangles of a rectangular layout can be specified in various ways, most commonly via the dual graph of the layout. We show how to find an area-universal layout for a given set of adjacency requirements whenever such a layout exists.
A Fast-Acting Diagnostic Algorithm of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor Open Circuit Faults for Power Inverters in Electric Vehicles

To improve the diagnostic detection speed in electric vehicles, a novel diagnostic algorithm of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) open circuit faults for power inverters is proposed in this paper. The average of the difference between the actual three-phase current and referential three-phase current values over one electrical period is used as the diagnostic variable. The normalization method based on the amplitude of the d-q axis referential current is applied to the diagnostic variables to improve the response speed of diagnosis, and to avoid the noise and the delay caused by signal acquisition. In the parameter discretization process, the variable parameter moving average method (VPMAM) is adopted to solve the variation of the average value over a period with the speed of the motor; hence, the diagnostic reliability of the system is improved. This algorithm is robust, independent of load variations, and has a high resistivity against false alarms. Since only the three-phase current of the motor is utilized for calculations in the time domain, a fast diagnostic detection speed can be achieved, which is significantly essential for real-time control in electric vehicles. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by both simulation and experimental results.
Uniform p-adic cell decomposition and local zeta functions.

The purpose of this paper is to give a cell decomposition for p-adic fields, uniform in p. This generalizes a cell decomposition for fixed p, proved by Denef [7], [9]. We also give some applications of our cell decomposition. A first implication is a uniform quantifier elimination for p-adic fields. Beiair [2], Delon [6] and Weispfenning [16] obtained quantifier elimination in other languages, but the language we use seems more practical for the evaluation of p-adic integrals. As a second application, we reprove results of Denef [10] on the dependence on p of the Igusa local zeta function. In this context we also obtain new results on p-adic integrals over sets definable in a language with cross section.
Effects of interleukin 12 on immune responses and host protection in mice infected with intestinal nematode parasites

The cytokine interleukin (IL) 12 stimulates T cell and natural killer cell production of interferon (IFN) gamma and inhibits T cell production of IL-4. We investigated the effects of IL-12 on cytokine gene expression, immunoglobulin (Ig)E, mucosal mast cell, and eosinophil responses, and the course of infection in mice inoculated with the nematode parasite Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, as well as the IFN-gamma dependence of these effects. IL-12 stimulated IFN-gamma and IL-10 gene expression during primary and secondary N. brasiliensis infections and inhibited IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-9 gene expression during primary infections but had little inhibitory effect during secondary infections. IL-12 inhibited IgE, mucosal mast cell, and blood and tissue eosinophil responses during primary infections, but only eosinophil responses during secondary infections. IL-12 enhanced adult worm survival and egg production during primary, but not secondary infections. IL-12 needed to be administered by day 4 of a primary infection to inhibit IgE and mucosal mast cell responses, and by day 6 to strongly inhibit eosinophil responses and to enhance worm survival and fecundity. Anti-IFN-gamma mAb inhibited the effects of IL-12 on IgE secretion, intestinal mucosal mastocytosis, and parasite survival and fecundity, but did not affect IL-12 inhibition of eosinophilia. These observations indicate that IL-12, if administered during the initiation of eosinophilia. These observations indicate that IL-12, if administered during the initiation of an immune response, can change the response from one that is characterized by the production of T helper (Th)2-associated cytokines to one characterized by the production of Th-1 associated cytokines. However, IL-12 treatment has less of an effect once the production of Th2-associated cytokines has become established. In addition, our results provide evidence that Th2- associated responses protect against, and/or Th1-associated responses exacerbate, nematode infections.
Protecting Hadoop with VMware vSphere ® 5 Fault Tolerance

VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance (FT) can be used to protect virtual machines that run vulnerable components of a Hadoop cluster with only a small impact on application performance. A cluster of 24 hosts was used to run three applications characterized by different storage patterns. Various Hadoop configurations were employed to artificially create greater load on the NameNode and JobTracker daemons. With conservative extrapolation, these tests show that uniprocessor virtual machines with FT enabled are sufficient to run the master daemons for clusters of more than 200 hosts.
Epidemiology and Clinical Features of Infections Caused by Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase-Producing Escherichia coli in Nonhospitalized Patients

ABSTRACT Infections due to extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (ESBLEC) in nonhospitalized patients seem to be emerging in different countries. Their incidence, epidemiology, and clinical impact in the community have not been studied. We describe the epidemiology and clinical features of infections caused by ESBLEC in nonhospitalized patients in Spain and the results of a case-control study performed to investigate the risk factors associated with the acquisition of these organisms. The clonal relatedness of the organisms was assessed by repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence PCR. The ESBLs and the genes encoding the ESBLs were initially characterized by isoelectric focusing and PCR, respectively. Forty-nine patients (76% with urinary tract infections, 22% with asymptomatic bacteriuria, and 2% with acute cholangitis) were included. Six patients were bacteremic. Diabetes mellitus (odds ratio, 5.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.6 to 18.7), previous fluoroquinolone use (odds ratio, 7.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.9 to 30.1), recurrent urinary tract infections (odds ratio, 4.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 15.1), a previous hospital admission (odds ratio, 18.2; 95% confidence interval, 5.3 to 61.1), and older age in male patients (odds ratio per year, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.03 to 1.05) were identified as risk factors by multivariate analysis. The ESBLEC isolates were not clonally related. The ESBLs were characterized as members of the CTX-M-9 group, the SHV group, and the TEM group in 64, 18, and 18% of the isolates, respectively. ESBLEC is an emergent cause of urinary tract infections in nonhospitalized patients. There was no evidence of horizontal transmission of ESBLEC strains. Avoidance of fluoroquinolone use in high-risk patients should be considered whenever possible in order to avoid the selection of these organisms.
A Four-Party Password-Based Authentication Key Exchange Protocol

In this paper, we propose a four-party password-based authentication key exchange protocol, in which it has three clients A, B, and C, and a trusted server-side participant S. in the protocol, each client shares a password with the server and resorts to the server to authenticate the peer for establishing a session key. Our protocol is based on the chosen-based computation Diffie-Hellman assumption, and it only needs two rounds between the clients and the server. by security analysis, we show that our protocol can resist the dictionary attacks, the impersonation and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Bio-inspired holistic control through modular relative Jacobian for combined four-arm robots

Biological limbs normally come in pairs: mammals have four, insects have six, arachnids have eight, and centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment. This work attempts to interpret the biological method of controlling paired legs (here treated as dual-arms) in opposite and adjacent pairs to achieve a holistic controller of a large four-legged animal (here treated as a combined four-arm robot). A modular relative Jacobian controls a dual-arm as a single manipulator with a single end-effector, and is expressed in terms of the Jacobians of each of the stand-alone manipulators. In this work, the two opposite pairs of legs are treated as single end-effector dual-arms, and then these two dual-arms are combined together to form a single end-effector four-arm robot. The four-arm controller uses the same principle as a single end-effector controller of a dual-arm, and thus results into a single end-effector controller of a four-arm. A modular relative Jacobian of the four arms is derived. Gazebo simulation results are shown for two gait patterns of a four-legged animal, namely, pacing and trotting.
Influence of Genetic Polymorphisms of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha and Interleukin 10 Genes on the Risk of Liver Cirrhosis in HIV-HCV Coinfected Patients

Objective Analysis of the contribution of genetic (single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) at position -238 and -308 of the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and -592 of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) promotor genes) and of classical factors (age, alcohol, immunodepression, antirretroviral therapy) on the risk of liver cirrhosis in human immunodeficiency (HIV)-hepatitis C (HCV) virus coinfected patients. Patients and Methods Ninety one HIV-HCV coinfected patients (50 of them with chronic hepatitis and 41 with liver cirrhosis) and 55 healthy controls were studied. Demographic, risk factors for the HIV-HCV infection, HIV-related (CD4+ T cell count, antiretroviral therapy, HIV viral load) and HCV-related (serum ALT concentration, HCV viral load, HCV genotype) characteristics and polymorphisms at position -238 and -308 of the tumor necrosis factor alfa (TNF- α) and -592 of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) promotor genes were studied. Results Evolution time of the infection was 21 years in both patients’ groups (chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis). The group of patients with liver cirrhosis shows a lower CD4+ T cell count at the inclusion in the study (but not at diagnosis of HIV infection), a higher percentage of individuals with previous alcohol abuse, and a higher proportion of patients with the genotype GG at position -238 of the TNF-α promotor gene; polymorphism at -592 of the IL-10 promotor gene approaches to statistical significance. Serum concentrations of profibrogenic transforming growth factor beta1 were significantly higher in healthy controls with genotype GG at -238 TNF-α promotor gene. The linear regression analysis demonstrates that the genotype GG at -238 TNF-α promotor gene was the independent factor associated to liver cirrhosis. Conclusion It is stressed the importance of immunogenetic factors (TNF-α polymorphism at -238 position), above other factors previously accepted (age, gender, alcohol, immunodepression), on the evolution to liver cirrhosis among HIV-infected patients with established chronic HCV infections.