Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic redundancy allocation for video streaming using Sub-GOP based FEC code

Reed-Solomon erasure code is one of the most studied protection methods for video streaming over unreliable networks. As a block-based error correcting code, large block size and increased number of parity packets will enhance its protection performance. However, for video applications this enhancement is sacrificed by the error propagation and the increased bitrate. So, to tackle this paradox, we propose a rate-distortion optimized redundancy allocation scheme, which takes into consideration the distortion caused by losing each slice and the propagated error. Different from other approaches, the amount of introduced redundancy and the way it is introduced are automatically selected without human interventions based on the network condition and video characteristics. The redundancy allocation problem is formulated as a constraint optimization problem, which allows to have more flexibility in setting the block-wise redundancy. The proposed scheme is implemented in JM14.0 for H.264, and it achieves an average gain of 1dB over the state-of-the-art approach.
Prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions and its associated factors in a Brazilian teaching hospital.

PURPOSE The hazards of prescribing many drugs, including side-effects, drug-drug interactions (DDI) and difficulties of compliance have long been recognized as particular problems when prescribing. This study estimates the rate and factors associated with potential DDI in prescriptions from wards of a Brazilian teaching hospital. METHODS Data were retrieved from wards of a teaching hospital (300 beds) handwritten prescription, once a week during a period of 4 months in 2004. Potential DDI were identified using DrugReax system. Patient's age and gender, number of prescribers; number of drugs and therapeutic drug classes on prescriptions were explored as associated factors to DDI. RESULTS The overall frequency of potential DDI was 49.7%. The frequency of the potentially major DDI was 3.4%, with digoxin-hydrochlorothiazide as the most common interacting pair. The rate of potential DDI was significantly associated to in-patients' gender [woman, Odds ratio (OR)=1.23 (P=0.035)], age=55 years old [OR=1.5 (P=0.0008)], number of therapeutic drug class (ATC code, level 1)=4 [OR=5.5 (P=0.0000), cardiology patients [OR=7.87 (P=0.0000)] hospitalized at weekends [OR=1.24 (P=0.039)] and having digoxin prescribed [OR=16.79 (P=0.0000)]. A positive correlation was found between DDI, patient's age, number of drugs and therapeutic action ATC codes were significant, controlling for gender (Pearson's r=0.628, P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS Cardiology women inpatients, age more then 55 years old, 7 or more drugs prescribed (including digoxin) and hospitalized at weekends should be closely monitored for adverse outcomes from DDI. A collaborative approach toward drug selection is strongly recommended, as well as electronic prescribing and development of pharmaceutical care in Brazilian hospitals.
The estimation of relative fitness and frailty in community-dwelling older adults using self-report data.

BACKGROUND While on average health declines with age, it also becomes more variable with age. As a consequence of this marked variability, it becomes more important as people age to have a means of summarizing health status, but how precisely to do so remains controversial. We developed one measure of health status, personal biological age, from a frailty index. The index itself is a count of deficits derived, in the first instance, from a clinical database. In our earlier investigations, personal biological age demonstrated a strong relationship with 6-year survival. Here we extend this approach to self-reported data. METHODS This is a secondary analysis of community-dwelling people aged 65 years and older (n = 9008) in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. The frailty index was calculated from 40 self-reported variables, representing symptoms, attitudes, illnesses, and function. Personal biological age was estimated for each individual as the age corresponding to the mean chronological age for the index value. Individual frailty (and the related construct of fitness) was calculated as the difference between chronological and personal biological age. RESULTS The frailty index showed, on average, an exponential increase with age at an average rate of 3% per year. Although women, on average, demonstrate more frailty than men of the same chronological age, their survival chances are greater. The frailty index strongly correlated (Pearson r =.992 for women and.955 for men) with survival. CONCLUSIONS A frailty index, based on self-report data, can be used as a tool for capturing heterogeneity in the health status of older adults.
Influenza in Migratory Birds and Evidence of Limited Intercontinental Virus Exchange

Migratory waterfowl of the world are the natural reservoirs of influenza viruses of all known subtypes. However, it is unknown whether these waterfowl perpetuate highly pathogenic (HP) H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses. Here we report influenza virus surveillance from 2001 to 2006 in wild ducks in Alberta, Canada, and in shorebirds and gulls at Delaware Bay (New Jersey), United States, and examine the frequency of exchange of influenza viruses between the Eurasian and American virus clades, or superfamilies. Influenza viruses belonging to each of the subtypes H1 through H13 and N1 through N9 were detected in these waterfowl, but H14 and H15 were not found. Viruses of the HP Asian H5N1 subtypes were not detected, and serologic studies in adult mallard ducks provided no evidence of their circulation. The recently described H16 subtype of influenza viruses was detected in American shorebirds and gulls but not in ducks. We also found an unusual cluster of H7N3 influenza viruses in shorebirds and gulls that was able to replicate well in chickens and kill chicken embryos. Genetic analysis of 6,767 avian influenza gene segments and 248 complete avian influenza viruses supported the notion that the exchange of entire influenza viruses between the Eurasian and American clades does not occur frequently. Overall, the available evidence does not support the perpetuation of HP H5N1 influenza in migratory birds and suggests that the introduction of HP Asian H5N1 to the Americas by migratory birds is likely to be a rare event.
Cultural Match or Culturally Suspect: How New Teachers of Color Negotiate Sociocultural Challenges in the Classroom

Background The call to recruit and retain teachers of color in urban high-minority schools is based on an assumption of a cultural match with students. Yet new teachers of color may find themselves challenged by students with whom they are supposedly culturally matched. Although past research has examined recruitment, preservice, and veteran experiences of teachers of color, little research investigates the critical novice phase. Purpose The study examines the induction experiences of new teachers of color in urban high-minority schools as they negotiate challenges about cultural identifications. The research questions ask: How, if at all, do new teachers of color experience sociocultural challenges from students? If they do experience such challenges, how do the teachers respond to them in practice? Participants Fifteen new teachers of color working in urban high-minority secondary schools in different subject domains in California. The participants include Latino, African American, Asian, Filipino, and biracial new teachers. Research Design This article draws from cross-case analysis of case studies of new teachers of color on the theme of responses to sociocultural challenges. Data Collection/Analysis Data are from teacher interviews, classroom observations, and focus groups, reflecting 3 years in the teachers’ lives. We coded the data on three levels: preliminary coding of sociocultural challenges, pattern coding of responses to challenges, and cross-case analysis. Findings The study findings complicate the limited conception of cultural match currently dominating policy and research rhetoric about teachers of color. The authors highlight a surprising new form of “practice shock” that the novices of color experienced when students of color questioned the teachers’ cultural identifications, finding them culturally suspect. The study also challenges the prevailing description of novices’ response to practice shock as moving toward more control-focused teaching. Instead, most novices at times took up the challenges as teachable moments and opportunities to broaden student conceptions. Teachers drew on “emergent multicultural capital” to negotiate challenges in ways that shaped teaching practice. Conclusions The literature on novices, drawn from a White-dominant sample, has not included a discussion of sociocultural conflicts or the supports needed in induction years for teachers of color. The study revealed the lack of support that many of the teachers felt in relation to negotiating sociocultural issues. The study raises issues about targeted induction support for teachers of color that educators and researchers should consider as they seek to diversify the workforce.
Predictors of adolescents' academic achievement and engagement in school

Research conducted during 1999-2000 investigating adolescents at risk, led to the development of a short form questionnaire (ISM-S) specifically calibrated to distinguish between the intention to either complete or leave school. Using the four subscales of this instrument (ISM-S) and obtaining teacher’s ratings on the likelihood of students’ intention to leave, research was conducted during 2002-2003 on five hundred and twenty-three students (female=287; male=236) from three high schools in South-Western Sydney, Australia. Multiple regression analyses tested hypothesised low levels of Mastery Goals, General Academic Self-concept, Global Motivation, Value of schooling and Mean Teacher ratings to predict increased levels of absenteeism, and lower academic achievement through either ELLA (for literacy) or SNAP (for numeracy) results. The most consistent and strongest predictor of the three criterion variables was Mean Teachers’ ratings, with low levels of General Academic Self Concept as the next strongest predictor of lower academic achievement in literacy and numeracy. Teachers’ ratings therefore, provide an accessible and reliable predictor of students who are at risk of not completing high school.
Sparse Feature Learning for Visual Tracking by Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator

In this paper, a robust visual tracking method is proposed by using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (Lasso) in a particle filter framework. First, to locate the tracking target at a new frame, each target candidate is sparsely represented in the space spanned by sampling particle images and sparsity vector. The lasso can replace the sparse approximation problem by a convex problem. Then, the likelihood is evaluated by the sparsity coefficients which is very different from the current tracking scheme using sparse representation. The combination of sampling images with coefficients bigger than a threshold will be taken as the tracking target without any template. After that, tracking is continued using a Bayesian state inference framework in which a particle filter is used for propagating sample distributions over time. The dynamic target updating scheme keeps track of the most representative particles throughout the tracking procedure. The proposed approach shows excellent performance on several image sequences.
Early development of the Drosophila brain: III. The pattern of neuropile founder tracts during the larval period

The Drosophila N‐CAM homolog Fasciclin II (FasII) is expressed during the embryonic period in a subset of central neurons that pioneer the neuropile of the larval brain. Toward the end of embryogenesis, FasII expression in axon tracts diminishes but resumes from the late first larval instar in an increasingly complex pattern of axon tracts that join the tracts laid down in the embryo. We present evidence that FasII is expressed in a major fraction of the long axon tracts that interconnect different domains of the larval brain. For many tracts, FasII expression remains stable throughout larval development and pupal development. Therefore, the FasII pattern of axon tracts, along with the mushroom body and optic lobe, both of which are also FasII‐positive, represents a useful set of landmarks that define different regions in the Drosophila brain throughout development. In this study, serial confocal brain sections were used to generate digital three‐dimensional models of larval axon tracts at different stages. These models form part of our effort to generate an anatomic framework of Drosophila larval brain structure required for accurate localization of gene expression and gene function in experimental studies of neural development. J. Comp. Neurol. 455:417–434, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Stable expression of Anthozoa fluorescent proteins in mammalian cells.

BACKGROUND Fluorescent proteins have become invaluable reporters in many areas of cellular and developmental biology. An enhanced version of the Aequorea victoria green fluorescent protein (AvEGFP) is the most widely used fluorescent protein. For a variety of reasons, it is useful to have alternative fluorescent proteins to AvEGFP. METHODS The cDNA sequences for enhanced variants of the Anemonia cyan fluorescent protein (AmCyan1), as well as the Zoanthus green (ZsGreen1) and yellow (ZsYellow1) fluorescent proteins, were cloned downstream of a constitutive cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter within a retroviral expression vector. NIH3T3, HEK293, SW620, and WM35 cells were transduced with recombinant retroviruses at a low multiplicity of infection (MOI) to bias for single-copy integration. Both unselected and stably selected cells transduced with the retroviral expression constructs were characterized. Expression of each fluorescent protein in cells was detected using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy with filter sets typically used for AvEGFP/fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) detection and was compared with the expression of AvEGFP. In addition, a fluorescence plate reader with several excitation and emission filter sets was used for detection. RESULTS Expression of each protein was observable by fluorescence microscopy. Under given conditions of flow cytometry, the ZsGreen1 mean fluorescence was approximately 3-fold, 10-fold, and 50-fold greater than that of AvEGFP, ZsYellow1, and AmCyan1, respectively. AmCyan1, ZsGreen1, and AvEGFP were detected by a fluorescence plate reader. CONCLUSION We determined that fluorescent proteins from Anthozoa species are detectable using a standard flow cytometer and fluorescence microscope. All of the mammalian cell lines tested expressed detectable levels of fluorescent proteins from stable integrated provirus. In cell lines where the AvEGFP protein is toxic or poorly expressed, these Anthozoa fluorescent proteins may serve as alternative fluorescent reporters.
Prostaglandin E 2 induces chloride secretion through crosstalk between cAMP and calcium signaling in mouse inner medullary collecting duct cells

Rajagopal M, Thomas SV, Kathpalia PP, Chen Y, Pao AC. Prostaglandin E2 induces chloride secretion through crosstalk between cAMP and calcium signaling in mouse inner medullary collecting duct cells. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 306: C263–C278, 2014. First published November 27, 2013; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00381. 2012. —Under conditions of high dietary salt intake, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production is increased in the collecting duct and promotes urinary sodium chloride (NaCl) excretion; however, the molecular mechanisms by which PGE2 increases NaCl excretion in this context have not been clearly defined. We used the mouse inner medullary collecting duct (mIMCD)-K2 cell line to characterize mechanisms underlying PGE2-regulated NaCl transport. When epithelial Na channels were inhibited, PGE2 exclusively stimulated basolateral EP4 receptors to increase short-circuit current (Isc). We found that Isc was sensitive to inhibition by H-89 and CFTR-172, indicating that EP4 receptors signal through protein kinase A to induce Cl secretion via cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Unexpectedly, we also found that Isc was sensitive to inhibition by BAPTA-AM (Ca chelator), 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB) (inositol triphosphate receptor blocker), and flufenamic acid (FFA) [Ca -activated Cl channel (CACC) inhibitor], suggesting that EP4 receptors also signal through Ca to induce Cl secretion via CACC. Additionally, we observed that PGE2 stimulated an increase in Isc through crosstalk between cAMP and Ca signaling; BAPTA-AM or 2-APB inhibited a component of Isc that was sensitive to CFTR-172 inhibition; H-89 inhibited a component of Isc that was sensitive to FFA inhibition. Together, our findings indicate that PGE2 activates basolateral EP4 receptors and signals through both cAMP and Ca to stimulate Cl secretion in IMCD-K2 cells. We propose that these signaling pathways, and the crosstalk between them, may provide a concerted mechanism for enhancing urinary NaCl excretion under conditions of high dietary NaCl intake.
Microzooplankton herbivory and phytoplankton growth in the northwestern Sargasso Sea

Microzooplankton grazing and phytoplankton growth rates were measured with the dilution technique during spring, summer and fall in the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea near Bermuda. Phytoplankton growth rates estimated from changes in chlorophyll a ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 d-' and grazing rates from undetectable to 0.8 d-'. Grazing rates approximately balanced or exceeded growth rates, except on 1 date when no grazing was detected. The results support the view that phytoplankton in the subtropical oligotrophic gyres are growing at high, but sub-maximal, rates and are grazed to low stable blomass levels. Chlorophyll grazing rates in the surface mixed layer could be related to ambient chlorophyll levels by a Michaelis-Menten model with a grazing threshold. The close correspondence between the apparent feeding threshold level and the observed lower limit of chlorophyll concentration in the surface water of the Sargasso Sea suggests that the lower biomass limit may be related to threshold feeding behavior of the grazer community.
Mathematics Performance Assessment: Discovering Why Some Items or Rubrics Don’t Measure Up

AbstractThis study examines the quality of mathematics performance assessment items and scoring rubrics at the middle school level. A total of 53 items on an assessment instrument aligned with key features of mathematics reform such as problem solving, reasoning, and communication were analyzed to identify features of the items and rubrics that tended to be related to how well an item functioned on the assessment instrument. A qualitative analysis of student responses to three items was undertaken to further explore the problematic features. Based on the results of both analyses, scoring rubrics were revised so as to produce a more valid assessment of students’ knowledge of mathematical concepts. The findings suggested five major issues important in the development and use of performance assessments in classrooms: the creation of well-defined criteria that accurately assess understanding of mathematical concepts, the consistency in applying rubric criteria across items, the range of points in the rubric, .
Development of a brand image scale and the impact of lovemarks on brand equity

The purposes of the present study were: (1) to develop a reliable and valid scale for three brand image dimensions (mystery, sensuality, and intimacy), (2) to empirically test Roberts‘ (2004) lovemarks theory by examining the effect of the three brand image dimensions on the lovemark experience (brand love and respect), and (3) to examine the relationships among elements of brand equity (brand awareness, image, and loyalty), the lovemark experience, overall brand equity, fashion innovativeness, fashion information search, and gender. Data were collected using an online survey and two samples, one consisting of college students and the other representing a national sample. A number of steps were involved in validating the scale. First, consistent with mystery, sensuality, and intimacy sub-themes proposed by Roberts (2004, 2006), three brand image dimensions were fleshed out based on a literature review, descriptive comments from the lovemarks Website, and findings from interviews. Twenty-one sub-themes of the brand image were identified, leading to the development of 137 representative items (i.e., 77 mystery, 25 sensuality, and 35 intimacy items). Second, based on the factor loadings from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, 22 items (i.e., six mystery, seven sensuality, and nine intimacy items) were retained. Based on data collected from undergraduate college students, reliability and convergent and nomological validity of the brand image scale were confirmed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results indicated that the six mystery items reflected positive present experiences and positive memories from past experiences with
Exploring the construct of female sexual self-schema

The present study investigated the relationships between the recently proposed construct of sexual self-schema and sexuality (behaviours and attitudes), personality (extraversion, neuroticism, and sensation seeking), and intimacy. Participants included both undergraduates, and community dwelling females. The sample consisted of women between the ages of 19 and 66. Participants completed a variety of self-report measures, including the Sexual Self-Schema Scale. In the sample of young females, women with a positive sexual schema reported more sexual arousability, less sexual anxiety, and more positive sexual attitudes than those with a negative sexual schema. These results were not found for the older samples of women. In all age groups, individuals with different sexual schemas were found to score differently on measures of extraversion and sensation seeking. Few schema group differences on levels of intimacy were found. For young women, the results are a partial replication of those of Cyranowski and Andersen (1998) who found differences in sexual attitude and behaviour among their schema groups. The findings for non-university aged women differ from those found by Andersen and Cyranowski (1994). The results suggest that the sexual self-schema construct may be more strongly related to sexuality for young females than for women over the age of 30.
Joint Rate-Distortion model for H.264/AVC rate control

This paper presents a novel rate control algorithm for H.264/AVC video coding. Pertinent to the algorithm, the paper introduces a joint R-D model, a coding bit estimation approach, a picture complexity measurement, and a model update method. Specifically, the proposed picture complexity measurement employs a Harmonic Mean based approach to predict the coding complexity of a frame. These techniques collectively enhance the overall rate control performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms JVT-W042 in providing robust buffer control, reducing frame skipping, and improving coding quality.