Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitigating sensor differences for phone-based human activity recognition

This paper presents our recent work on the analyses of smart phone sensor data collected for the human activity recognition (HAR), with the objective to develop more accurate activity recognition systems independent of smart phone models. We identify the multi-device scenario and present the impairments of different smartphone embedded sensor models on HAR applications. Outlier removal, interpolation, and filters in the preprocessing stage are proposed as mitigating techniques. Based on datasets collected from four distinct smartphones, the proposed mitigating methods show positive effects on 10-fold cross validation, device-to-device validation, and leave-one-out validation. Improved performance for smartphone based human activity recognition is observed.
TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT EUROPEAN UNEMPLOYMENT

A general equilibrium search model makes layoff costs affect the aggregate unemployment rate in ways that depend on equilibrium proportions of frictional and structural unemployment that in turn depend on the generosity of government unemployment benefits and skill losses among newly displaced workers. The model explains how, before the 1970s, lower flows into unemployment gave Europe lower unemployment rates than the United States and also how, after 1980, higher durations have kept unemployment rates in Europe persistently higher than in the United States. These outcomes arise from the way Europe's higher firing costs and more generous unemployment compensation make its unemployment rate respond to bigger skill losses among newly displaced workers. Those bigger skill losses also explain why U.S. workers have experienced more earnings volatility since 1980 and why, especially among older workers, hazard rates of gaining employment in Europe now fall sharply with increases in the duration of unemployment.
Maintenance of LHRH and oxytocin neurons in slice explants cultured in serum-free media: effects of tetrodotoxin on gene expression.

A variety of neuroendocrine cells survive and express specific neuropeptide genes for long periods of time in slice explant cultures in the presence of serum. However, before use of these slice explant cultures as experimental models for physiological and pharmacological studies on the regulation of neuropeptide gene expression, it is first necessary to evaluate their characteristics in defined (e.g. serum free) media and to control for the spontaneous electrical and synaptic activity of neurons in these cultures. In this study, brain slices from postnatal day 4 rats were cultured in serum-containing media (SCM) for 12 days to allow thinning, and then maintained in a serum-free, defined media (SFM) for 6 days. Culture slices transferred to SFM appeared healthy and numerous neuroendocrine neurons containing messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding for LHRH and magnocellular neurons containing mRNA encoding for oxytocin (OT) were detected using in situ hybridization histochemistry (ISHH). Each of these neuronal subtypes robustly produced their appropriate gene products as determined by immunocytochemical analysis. Abundant magnocellular OT neurons were found in cultures grown in either SCM or SFM. In contrast, magnocellular vasopressin (VP) neurons were rarely detected under these conditions. Inhibition of spontaneous electrical and synaptic activity in these slice explant cultures was effectively achieved by incubation for the last 2.5 days of culture in the presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX; 10(-6) M). Densitometric single cell analyses after ISHH was performed on both LHRH and OT cells. Comparisons of the density values (corresponding to mRNA levels), from these slice explants, found that: (1) cellular LHRH mRNA levels decreased in the absence of serum, whereas cellular OT mRNA levels did not significantly change under these conditions; (2) the presence of TTX in the media resulted in an overall decrease in cellular LHRH mRNA values in both SCM and SFM, and (3) the OT neurons in these slice cultures appear to be composed of a heterogeneous population, with one cell subtype responding to TTX with an increase in cellular OT mRNA levels. These data show that factors in serum and spontaneous electrical activity can differentially influence mRNA levels of LHRH cells and magnocellular OT neurons in culture.
On privacy vs. cooperation in multi-agent systems

ABSTRACT This paper considers distributed systems arising when multiple agents cooperatively solve a quadratic optimisation problem. To maintain privacy of their states over time, agents implement a noise-adding mechanism according to the classic differential privacy framework. We characterise how the noise due to the privacy mechanism degrades the performance of the multi-agent system. Interestingly, we show that depending on the desired level of privacy (and thus noise), the system performance is optimised by reducing the level of cooperation among the agents. The notion of cooperation level, which is formally introduced and defined in the paper, models the trust of an agent towards the information received from neighbouring agents. For the prototypical examples of consensus and centroidal Voronoi tessellations, we are able to characterise the optimum cooperation level that maximises the system performance while ensuring a desired privacy level. Our results suggest that for the class of problems we study, and in fact for a broad class of multi-agent systems, it is always beneficial for the agents to reduce their cooperation level when the privacy level increases.
Failure of human immunoresponse to N-glycolylneuraminic acid epitope contained in recombinant human erythropoietin.

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHUEPO) was produced by Chinese hamster ovary cells and commercially distributed to hospitals by two pharmaceutical companies in Japan ('ESPO' by Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd., and Sankyo Co. Ltd., and 'EPOGIN' by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.) These products contained about 1% N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) in total sialic acid content. Since humans do not synthesize Neu5Gc, successive injection of Neu5Gc-containing products was feared to lead to allergic-like symptoms. Therefore, serum levels of antibodies of Neu5Gc epitope in 90 patients who received repeated i.v. injections of ESPO or EPOGIN were determined by an enzyme immunoassay using Neu5Gc alpha 2-3Gal beta 1-4Glc-Cer, GM3(Neu5Gc), as an antigen and compared with those in 100 healthy persons. Either no or low antibody levels were detected in both groups with no significant difference. In 40 patients who received s.c. injections of ESPO or EPOGIN, serum HD antibody levels were determined before and after weekly therapeutic injections carried out for one to several months, but no significant elevations were detected in all patients. The above results indicated that therapeutic administration of rHuEPO to patients to patients with chronic renal failure is safe from allergic-like side effects associated with the production of Neu5Gc-specific antibodies, and it was concluded that Neu5Gc epitope of rHuEPO is minimally antigenic in humans.
Polychlorinated biphenyl accumulation in tree bark and wood growth rings.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in the bark of black walnut and tulip poplar trees growing near a PCB-contaminated landfill. PCBs were also found in the bark of white oak trees growing 14 km away from the landfill. The concentration of individual congeners in the bark averaged 18 ppb at the landfill and 0.5 ppb at the other site. The PCB congeners were accumulated into the bark in proportion to their lipophilicity (as measured by octanol-water partition coefficients). The authors findings suggest that tree bark could be used for biomonitoring of lipophilic organic pollutants in the atmosphere. There is little evidence that PCBs are present in the wood of trees. The signal to blank ratios are always less than 3, and the relative concentrations between 20-year time intervals do not show trends that correlate with the known inputs of PCBs in Bloomington, IN. 2 tables.
Topic Segmentation Algorithms for Text Summarization and Passage Retrieval: An Exhaustive Evaluation

In order to solve problems of reliability of systems based on lexical repetition and problems of adaptability of language-dependent systems, we present a context-based topic segmentation system based on a new informative similarity measure based on word co-occurrence. In particular, our evaluation with the state-of-the-art in the domain i.e. the c99 and the TextTiling algorithms shows improved results both with and without the identification of multiword units.
Vibration and Stability of Functionally Graded Plates Based on a Higher-order Deformation Theory

In this article, the governing equations of motion for a functionally graded material plate (FGP) based on a higher-order deformation theory in a general state of non-uniform initial stress are derived. The properties of FGP are assumed varied continuously along the thickness of the plate, according to a simple power law of volume fractions of constituents. With the derived governing equations, the natural frequencies and buckling loads of ceramic—FGM—metal plates subjected to an initial stress are investigated. The initial stress is taken to be a combination of a uniaxial extensional stress and a pure bending stress. A ceramic—FGM—metal plate can become an all-FGM, all-ceramic plate, or all-metal plate by modifying the value of material parameter and volume fraction index. The effects of various parameters and initial stresses on the natural frequencies and buckling loads of FGPs are studied.
SPATE: Small-Group PKI-Less Authenticated Trust Establishment

Establishing trust between a group of individuals remains a difficult problem. Prior works assume trusted infrastructure, require an individual to trust unknown entities, or provide relatively low probabilistic guarantees of authenticity (95 percent for realistic settings). This work presents SPATE, a primitive that allows users to establish trust via mobile devices and physical interaction. Once the SPATE protocol runs to completion, its participants' mobile devices have authentic data that their applications can use to interact securely (i.e., the probability of a successful attack is 2-24). For this work, we leverage SPATE as part of a larger system to facilitate efficient, secure, and user-friendly collaboration via e-mail, file-sharing, and text messaging services. Our implementation of SPATE on Nokia N70 smartphones allows users to establish trust in small groups of up to eight users in less than one minute. The example SPATE applications provide increased security with little overhead noticeable to users once keys are established.
Efficacy and Safety of Long-Term Thiopurine Maintenance Treatment in Japanese Patients With Ulcerative Colitis

Background/Aims The long-term clinical outcomes of patients with bio-naive ulcerative colitis (UC) who maintain remission with thiopurine are unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term efficacy and safety of maintenance treatment with thiopurine in UC patients. Methods This was a retrospective observational cohort analysis conducted at a single center. Between December 1998 and August 2013, 59 of 87 patients with bio-naive UC who achieved remission after induction with treatments other than biologics were enrolled. Remission maintenance with thiopurine was defined as no concomitant treatment needed other than 5-aminosalicylate without relapse. We assessed the remission-maintenance rate, mucosal healing rate, colectomy-free rate, and treatment safety in UC patients who received thiopurine as maintenance treatment. Results The 84-month cumulative remission-maintenance and colectomy-free survival rates in the UC patients who were receiving maintenance treatment with thiopurine and 5-aminosalicylate were 43.9% and 88.0%, respectively. Of the 38 patients who underwent colonoscopy during thiopurine maintenance treatment, 23 (60.5%) achieved mucosal healing. Of the 59 patients who achieved clinical remission with thiopurine, 6 patients (10.2%) discontinued the thiopurine therapy because of adverse events. Conclusions Our study demonstrates the long-term efficacy and safety of thiopurine treatment in patients with bio-naive UC.
Strain phenomenon in protein aggregation

Studies of yeast and mammalian prions introduced the idea that the protein aggregates can exist in multiple stable conformations that can be propagated by seeding. These conformational states (aka strains) were shown to have distinct physical (secondary structure, stability) and biological (cytotoxicity, infectivity) properties. For mammalian prions they were also tied to differences in disease pathology and incubation time. It was later shown that this phenomenon is not limited to prion proteins, and distinct conformational states of amyloid fibrils and oligomers derived from a variety of proteins can be propagated both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, in some cases these conformations were preserved even when propagated into a protein with a different sequence. There is now an increasing body of evidence that strain phenomenon is a generic feature of protein aggregation, and characteristic features of amyloid strains can be transmitted between unrelated sequences.
Hierarchical network abstraction for HetNet coordination

We consider a user-centric network-level coordination architecture for 5G heterogeneous Radio Access Networks (RANs), based on RAN softwarization and a centralized coordination framework. We describe the RAN as a set of logical RAN entities, related to cells in a Heterogeneous Network (HetNet), under the control of a central coordination entity. This description allows the creation of Network Functions (NFs) with an abstracted view of the network. We describe a centralized coordination framework, and then develop a NF for InterCell Interference Coordination (ICIC) in a 5G HetNet, optimizing the radio resource usage at network-level. We construct a Network Graph to abstract the problem of resource allocation and cell offloading, with the NF seeking for an optimal solution based on this abstraction. Simulations are performed in a HetNet scenario with a Tabu Search algorithm. Results show the feasibility of performing network-level coordination through a modular NF, with an abstracted view of the network.
Efficient Wireless Channel Estimation using Alamouti STBC with MIMO and 16-PSK Modulation

The wireless communication system is better for the new generation of data communication technology, because it facilitates the user to communicate of share information through mobile devices in mobile situation without any leased or dedicated line. This research field is continuously by the researchers to innovate new techniqu and easier for the users with lots of facilities. In this paper the communication system is analyzed for channel with applying Alamouti STBC coding with multiple inputs (MIMO) system. The proposed system is outperformed implemented with 16-PSK modulation. The system configured and tested for 4xM and 2xM, where M is number of receiver antennas.
Biological Mechanism of Antidepressant Effect of Omega–3 Fatty Acids: How Does Fish Oil Act as a ‘Mind-Body Interface’?

The unsatisfactory results of monoamine-based antidepressant therapy and the high occurrence of somatic symptoms and physical illness in patients with depression imply that the serotonin hypothesis is insufficient to approach the aetiology of depression. Depressive disorders with somatic presentation are the most common form of depression. Somatization, the bodily symptoms without organic explanation, is similar to cytokine-induced sickness behaviour. Based on recent evidence, omega–3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n–3 PUFAs, or n–3 fatty acids) are enlightening a promising path to discover the unsolved of depression, sickness behaviour and to link the connection of mind and body. The PUFAs are classified into n–3 (or omega–3) and n–6 (or omega–6) groups. Eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, the major bioactive components of n–3 PUFAs, are not efficiently synthesized in humans and should therefore be obtained directly from the diet, particularly by consuming fish. Docosahexaenoic acid deficiency is associated with dysfunctions of neuronal membrane stability and transmission of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, which might connect to the aetiology of mood and cognitive dysfunction of depression. Likewise, eicosapentaenoic acid is important in balancing the immune function and physical health by reducing membrane arachidonic acid (an n–6 PUFA) and prostaglandin E2 synthesis, which might be linked to the somatic manifestations and physical comorbidity in depression. The role of n–3 PUFAs in immunity and mood function supports the promising hypothesis of psychoneuroimmunology of depression and provides an excellent interface between ‘mind’ and ‘body’. This review is to provide an overview of the evidence about the role of n–3 PUFAs in depression and its common comorbid physical conditions and to propose mechanisms by which they may modulate molecular and cellular functions.
Sustained intermittent release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone in the prepubertal male rhesus monkey induced by N-methyl-DL-aspartic acid.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons in the hypothalamus of the prepubertal monkey may be prematurely provoked into producing a sustained train of intermittent GnRH release N-methyl-DL-aspartic acid (NMA), an analog of the putative excitatory neurotransmitter aspartate, was used to stimulate the hypothalamus. In order to utilize pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion as a bioassay of hypothalamic GnRH release, juvenile males were castrated and the responsiveness of their gonadotrophs to GnRH was enhanced prior to the study with a chronic intermittent intravenous infusion of the synthetic decapeptide (0.1 microgram/min for 3 min every hour). Treatment with this regimen of GnRH, which appears to provide the pituitary gonadotrophs with a hypophysiotropic stimulus similar to that produced by the hypothalamus of castrated adults, elicited a pattern of pulsatile LH secretion in prepubertal animals similar to that observed in the open-loop situation in adults. This episodic pattern of LH release was sustained without decrement following termination of GnRH priming and initiation of an intermittent intravenous infusion of NMA (4.5-6.5 mg NMA/kg body weight/pulse, administered over 1 min) delivered at a frequency of 1 pulse/1 h for 50 h. In contrast, an intermittent infusion of the vehicle employed to administer NMA (saline) failed to maintain LH secretion. Administration of the same dose of NMA at a slower frequency of 1 pulse/2 h for 52 h, while also sustaining LH secretion without decrement, resulted in an exaggeration in the LH response. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, shows negative correlation to naturally elevated carbon dioxide levels: Implications for near‐term ocean acidification effects

We report results from an oyster hatchery on the Oregon coast, where intake waters experienced variable carbonate chemistry (aragonite saturation state < 0.8 to > 3.2; pH < 7.6 to > 8.2) in the early summer of 2009. Both larval production and midstage growth (∼ 120 to ∼ 150 µm) of the oyster Crassostrea gigas were significantly negatively correlated with the aragonite saturation state of waters in which larval oysters were spawned and reared for the first 48 h of life. The effects of the initial spawning conditions did not have a significant effect on early‐stage growth (growth from D‐hinge stage to ∼ 120 µm), suggesting a delayed effect of water chemistry on larval development.
Recovery free of heart failure after acute coronary syndrome and coronary revascularization

Previous studies have examined risk factors for the development of heart failure (HF) subsequent to acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Our study seeks to clarify the clinical variables that best characterize patients who remain free from HF after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery for ACS to determine novel biological factors favouring freedom from HF in prospective translational studies.
Synchronous papillary thyroid cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Rationale: Differentiated thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy with concomitant hematological malignancy in 7%. Patient concerns: We present a case of a synchronous papillary thyroid cancer and a follicular variant of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and discuss the possible diagnostic and treatment dilemmas. Diagnosis: A 48-year-old female was reffered to our hospital with diagnosis „thyroid cancer“. Due to a history compatable of synchronous lymphoproliferative disease we performed a computed tomography, which revealed multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, mediastinum, axilla and abdomen. Interventions: A total thyroidectomy with dissection of the central compartment was performed. The microscopic examination of thyroid gland revealed multifocal papilary thyroid cancer and metastaes from the same cancer plus aggressive follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the lymph nodes. Despite the classic approach „solid cancer first“, due to the advanced stage of lymphoma we first started the chemotherapy of NHL. She received 8 cycles of CHOP and I131 therapy with 129 mCi. Because of incomplete response 4 cycles Mabthera plus Bendamustin were added. The follow-up PET scan revealed complete remission of lymphoma and bilaterally enlarged single cervical lymph nodes, previously known to be iodine positive on I131-SPECT/CT. She was sheduled for bilateral radical neck LND. Outcomes: Complete remission of NHL and residual single metastatic cervical lymph nodes requiring bilateral radical neck LND. Lessons: The synchronous DTC and NHL is rare. To date, there is no standardized approach due to lack of experience. We suggest lymphoma first approach with synchronized and tailored multidisciplinary efforts. The molecular mechanisms of this link are poorly understood and yet remain to be elucidated.