Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Abdominal aortic calcification in dialysis patients: results of the CORD study

Background. Patients with chronic kidney disease stage 5 have a high prevalence of vascular calcification, but the specific anatomical distribution and severity of abdominal aortic calcification (AAC), in contrast to coronary calcification, is less well documented. AAC may be recorded using plain radiographs. The present report is an analysis of baseline data on AAC in patients enrolled in the CORD (Calcification Outcome in Renal Disease) study. Methods. A total of 47 centres in six European countries participated in this cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria were age ≥18 years and duration of dialysis ≥3 months. Lateral lumbar radiography of the abdominal aorta was used to determine the overall AAC score, which is related to the severity of calcific deposits at lumbar vertebral segments L1–L4. The reliability of the method was tested by double reading of 64 radiographs (coefficient of correlation 0.9). Results. A lateral lumbar radiograph was obtained in 933 patients. Calcification (AAC score ≥ 1) was present in 81% of the patients; its severity increased significantly from L1 to L4 (P < 0.0001) and affected all of these segments in 51% of patients. Independent predictors for the presence and severity of calcification were age (odds ratio [OR] 1.103/year; P < 0.0001), duration of dialysis (OR 1.110/year; P = 0.002) and history of cardiovascular disease (OR 3.247; P < 0.0001). Conclusions. AAC detected by lateral lumbar radiograph is associated with several risk factors of uraemic calcification. This semi-quantitative method is more widely available and less expensive than the current procedures for studying calcification and could form part of a pre-transplant workup and cardiovascular risk stratification.
Estimation of 10-Year Risk of Fatal and Nonfatal Ischemic Cardiovascular Diseases in Chinese Adults

Background— Stroke is much more prevalent than coronary heart disease in China; thus, any risk prediction model only for coronary heart disease may not be appropriate in application. Our objective is to develop a cardiovascular risk prediction model appropriate for the Chinese population. Methods and Results— Cox proportional hazards regression was used to develop sex-specific optimal 10-year risk prediction models for ischemic cardiovascular disease (ICVD; including ischemic stroke and coronary events) from 17 years of follow-up data from the USA-PRC Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Epidemiology cohort, in which 9903 participants were followed up every 2 years until 2000, and 371 ICVD events (266 strokes and 105 coronary heart disease events) occurred. The models showed ICVD was positively related to age, systolic blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, body mass index, current smoking status, and diabetes mellitus in both men and women. When the models were applied to the 17 329 participants in the China Multicenter Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Epidemiology cohort, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were 0.796±0.036 for men and 0.791±0.036 for women. The simplified point score model resulted in similar c statistics. Comparison of the observed with the estimated incidence of ICVD at different risk levels showed satisfactory precision. Meanwhile, application of recalibrated Framingham models significantly overestimated the coronary heart disease risk in both men (by ≈97%) and women (by ≈228%). Conclusions— The Cox regression prediction models and simplified point score model have satisfying predictive capability for estimating the 10-year integrated cardiovascular risk in Chinese, in whom stroke is the predominant cardiovascular disease.
The Rigorous Generation of Java Mutation Operators Using HAZOP

The mutation method tests programs by examining a set of alter nate programs (mutants) of the original program. Mutants are generated by predefined modification rules, ca lled mutation operators, which are intended to introduce possible faults into a program through syntactic change s. The main problem with the operators of current mutation systems is they were built ba sed on particular experience of the developers. The lack of a systematic method for operator generation makes it difficult to ascertain that all the program entities are properly considered and handled by the operators. Thi s paper proposes the use of a safety technique known as HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Studies) to r igorously generate mutation operators for the Java language. We show how to apply HAZOP to the Java synt x definition to identify the deviations (i.e., the possible ways a program may be in error) of Java language constructs. The identified deviations serve two roles. First, they inform our creation of mutation operators for the Java language. Second, they form a data base of flaws for Java programs which might be used as programming guidelines or inspection lists.
A weighted approach of missing data technique in cepstra domain based on S-function

The application of Missing Data Technique (MDT) has shown to improve the performance of speech recognition. To apply MDT to cepstral domain, this paper presents a weighted approach to compute the reliability of cepstral feature based on sigmoid function and introduces a weighted distance algorithm. It is deduced that the reliability compensates the Gaussian variance in hidden Markov model (HMM) frame by frame to reduce the mismatch between clean-trained model and corrupted speech. Experimental evaluation using the Aurora2 database demonstrates a distinct digit error rate reduction. The main advantages of the approach are simple system implementation, low computation cost and easy to plug into other robust recognition algorithm.
An evolutionary cellular automaton for minimizing energy consumption in network on chip-based soft real-time embedded systems

Embedded multimedia systems with multi-application scenarios increase the number and computational power of processing elements. To satisfy this growing demand, a network on chip is used due to lower message latency, better scalability and more reliable performance predictability. Today the focus is not on the implementation of one single application on the many-core platforms, but using a single-die that support multi-application scenarios, and due to that the mapping strategies that map the application tasks on the chip should minimize the energy consumption of multiple parallel applications under timing constraints. We used a new paradigm called Evolutionary cellular automata offering diversity point of views called transition rules which are evolved in time progress in order to optimize an application's mapping.
Rating health information on the Internet: navigating to knowledge or to Babel?

CONTEXT The rapid growth of the Internet has triggered an information revolution of unprecedented magnitude. Despite its obvious benefits, the increase in the availability of information could also result in many potentially harmful effects on both consumers and health professionals who do not use it appropriately. OBJECTIVES To identify instruments used to rate Web sites providing health information on the Internet, rate criteria used by them, establish the degree of validation of the instruments, and provide future directions for research in this area. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE (1966-1997), CINAHL (1982-1997), HEALTH (1975-1997), Information Science Abstracts (1966 to September 1995), Library and Information Science Abstracts (1969-1995), and Library Literature (1984-1996); the search engines Lycos, Excite, Open Text, Yahoo, HotBot, Infoseek, and Magellan; Internet discussion lists; meeting proceedings; multiple Web pages; and reference lists. INSTRUMENT SELECTION: Instruments used at least once to rate the quality of Web sites providing health information with their rating criteria available on the Internet. DATA EXTRACTION The name of the developing organization, Internet address, rating criteria, information on the development of the instrument, number and background of people generating the assessments, and data on the validity and reliability of the measurements. DATA SYNTHESIS A total of 47 rating instruments were identified. Fourteen provided a description of the criteria used to produce the ratings, and 5 of these provided instructions for their use. None of the instruments identified provided information on the interobserver reliability and construct validity of the measurements. CONCLUSIONS Many incompletely developed instruments to evaluate health information exist on the Internet. It is unclear, however, whether they should exist in the first place, whether they measure what they claim to measure, or whether they lead to more good than harm.
Proper motions of thermally emitting isolated neutron stars measured with Chandra

The remarkable astrometric capabilities of the Chandra Observatory offer the possibility to measure proper motions of X-ray sources with an unprecedented accuracy in this wavelength range. We recently completed a proper motion survey of three of the seven thermally emitting radio-quiet isolated neutron stars (INSs) discovered in the ROSAT all-sky survey. These INSs (RX J0420.0−5022, RX J0806.4−4123 and RX J1308.6+2127) either lack an optical counterpart or have one so faint that ground based or space born optical observations push the current possibilities of the instrumentation to the limit. Pairs of ACIS observations were acquired 3 to 5 years apart to measure the displacement of the sources on the X-ray sky using as a reference the background of extragalactic or remote Galactic X-ray sources. We derive 2σ upper limits of 123 mas yr −1 and 86 mas yr −1 on the proper motion of RX J0420.0−5022 and RX J0806.4−4123, respectively. RX J1308.6+2127 exhibits a very significant displacement (∼9σ) yielding μ = 220 ± 25 mas yr −1 , the second fastest measured among all ROSAT-discovered INSs. The source is probably moving away rapidly from the Galactic plane at a speed which precludes any significant accretion of matter from the interstellar medium. Its transverse velocity of ∼740 (d/700 pc) km s −1 might be the largest of all ROSAT INSs and its corresponding spatial velocity lies among the fastest recorded for neutron stars. RX J1308.6+2127 is thus a middle-aged (age ∼1 My) high velocity cooling neutron star. We investigate its possible origin in nearby OB associations or from a field OB star. In most cases, the flight time from birth place appears significantly shorter than the characteristic age derived from spin down rate. Overall, the distribution in transverse velocity of the ROSAT INSs is not statistically different from that of normal radio pulsars.
Thiamine Status in Humans and Content of Phosphorylated Thiamine Derivatives in Biopsies and Cultured Cells

Background Thiamine (vitamin B1) is an essential molecule for all life forms because thiamine diphosphate (ThDP) is an indispensable cofactor for oxidative energy metabolism. The less abundant thiamine monophosphate (ThMP), thiamine triphosphate (ThTP) and adenosine thiamine triphosphate (AThTP), present in many organisms, may have still unidentified physiological functions. Diseases linked to thiamine deficiency (polyneuritis, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) remain frequent among alcohol abusers and other risk populations. This is the first comprehensive study on the distribution of thiamine derivatives in human biopsies, body fluids and cell lines. Methodology and Principal Findings Thiamine derivatives were determined by HPLC. In human tissues, the total thiamine content is lower than in other animal species. ThDP is the major thiamine compound and tissue levels decrease at high age. In semen, ThDP content correlates with the concentration of spermatozoa but not with their motility. The proportion of ThTP is higher in humans than in rodents, probably because of a lower 25-kDa ThTPase activity. The expression and activity of this enzyme seems to correlate with the degree of cell differentiation. ThTP was present in nearly all brain and muscle samples and in ∼60% of other tissue samples, in particular fetal tissue and cultured cells. A low ([ThTP]+[ThMP])/([Thiamine]+[ThMP]) ratio was found in cardiovascular tissues of patients with cardiac insufficiency. AThTP was detected only sporadically in adult tissues but was found more consistently in fetal tissues and cell lines. Conclusions and Significance The high sensitivity of humans to thiamine deficiency is probably linked to low circulating thiamine concentrations and low ThDP tissue contents. ThTP levels are relatively high in many human tissues, as a result of low expression of the 25-kDa ThTPase. Another novel finding is the presence of ThTP and AThTP in poorly differentiated fast-growing cells, suggesting a hitherto unsuspected link between these compounds and cell division or differentiation.
Stock Prediction - A Neural Network Approach

Predicting stock data with traditional time series analysis has proven to be difficult. An artificial neural network may be more suitable for the task. Primarily because no assumption about a suitable mathematical model has to be made prior to forecasting. Furthermore, a neural network has the ability to extract useful information from large sets of data, which often is required for a satisfying description of a financial time series. This thesis begins with a review of the theoretical background of neural networks. Subsequently an Error Correction Neural Network (ECNN) is defined and implemented for an empirical study. Technical as well as fundamental data are used as input to the network. One-step returns of the Swedish stock index and two major stocks of the Swedish stock exchange are predicted using two separate network structures. Daily predictions are performed on a standard ECNN whereas an extension of the ECNN is used for weekly predictions. In benchmark comparisons, the index prediction proves to be successful. The results on the stocks are less convincing, nevertheless the network outperforms the naive strategy. Sammanfattning Att prediktera borsdata med traditionell tidsserieanalys har visat sig vara svart. Ett artificiellt neuralt natverk kan vara mer passande for uppgiften. Framst darfor att inga antaganden om en passande matematisk modell maste goras innan prediktering. Vidare har ett neuralt natverk formagan att extrahera anvandbar information fran stora datamangder, vilket ofta ar nodvandigt for en tillfredsstallande beskrivning av en finansiell tidsserie. Det har examensarbetet borjar med en genomgang av teorin bakom neurala natverk. Darefter definieras och implementeras ett felkorrigerande neuralt natverk (ECNN) for en empirisk studie. Bade tekniskaoch fundamentala data anvands som indata till natverket. Enstegsavkastningar for Generalindex samt tva stora aktier pa Stockholmsborsen predikteras med tva separata natverksstrukturer. Dagliga prediktioner utfors pa en standard ECNN medan en utokad variant av ECNN anvands for veckoprediktioner. Vid jamforelser med andra strategier visar sig prediktionen av index vara framgangsrik. Resultaten for aktierna ar mindre overtygande, likval presterar natverket battre an den naiva strategin. Acknowledgements First and foremost I thank Prof. Kenneth Holmstrom at Tomlab Optimization AB for initialising this project. Tomlab Optimization AB has been supportive with financial data, computer and office facilities. Furthermore I am grateful to Dr. Hans-Georg Zimmermann at Siemens AG Corporate Technology Department for giving me an excellent introduction to the SENN software. I also acknowledge staff at Siemens AG for technical support. Finally, I am thankful to Dr. Thomas Hellstrom for useful comments.
FRI Rehab 3D: 3D-reconstruction of the cuboid based on a single camera used in rehabilitation of the human hand

Extended abstract.The paper presents a rehabilitation method using a personal computer and a single web camera for patients who suffer from an arm or wrist injury. Patient holds in his hand a simple object, cuboid, and moves it around. A camera records his movement while the software calculates in real-time the position of the object in a 3D-space on the basis of the color information and the cuboid model. The program places the object in a virtual 3D-space in which another similar object is already present. In Chapter 2 we present the existing rehabilitation solutions, together with their accuracies and prices. As seen, they can be very expensive and need specialized hardware. Therefore, the goal of our work was to develop a much simpler and less expensive solution demanding only a personal computer and a single web camera. In Chapter 3 we present the environment required to achieve good results (Figure 1). To segment out the object more easily we need a black background and black glove. The lighting is one of the most important factors. In Chapters 4 and 5 we discuss the methods of obtaining cuboid characteristics such as edges and corners from input image. The edges were obtained by separating the sides of the cuboid from the original image and then intersecting them. This leaves only a very narrow set of points which we use as a basis for linear regression to determine the edges (Figure 2). Determining the corners is divided into three sub-problems. When only one side is visible, a bounding rectangle is calculated touching the cuboid on four points. We
Mechanical Anisotropy in Steels for Pipelines

There has been a huge expansion in the laying of pipelines for the transmission of fossil fuels over large distances and in dire environments. One particular problem associated with the steels used to fabricate the pipes is that of the anisotropy of mechanica lp roperties, especially the toughness. This review represents an attempt to critically assess the steels and the orientation dependence of their mechanical properties, with the aim of establishing a basis for further progress.
Query subtopic mining for search result diversification

Web search queries are usually short, ambiguous, and contain multiple aspects or subtopics. Different users may have different search intents (or information needs) when submitting the same query. The task of identifying the subtopics underlying a query has received much attention in recent years. In this paper, we propose a method that exploits query reformulations provided by three major Web search engines (WSEs) as a means to uncover different query subtopics. In this regard, we estimate the importance of the subtopics by introducing multiple query-dependent and query-independent features, and rank the subtopics by balancing relevancy and novelty. Our experiment with the NTCIR-10 INTENT-2 English Subtopic Mining test collection shows that our method outperforms all participants' methods in NTCIR-10 INTENT-2 task in terms of D#-nDCG@10.
On simulation studies of cyber attacks against LTE networks

Because of ever-increasing performance and capacity gains, the popularity of LTE as a 4G technology has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, cyber adversaries may launch attacks against the LTE network. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework to systematically explore the attack space which consists of three dimensions: communication services attacked, planes of attack, and network components under attack. Based on the developed framework, we carried out extensive simulations to evaluate the impact of some representative attacks on LTE network performance. Our developed framework and simulation models enables a foundation for advancing the understanding of threats on the LTE network and assists in developing counter-measures to secure LTE networks.
Identification of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Latency-Associated Transcript Sequences That both Inhibit Apoptosis and Enhance the Spontaneous Reactivation Phenotype

ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene is essential for the high spontaneous and induced reactivation phenotype of HSV-1 in the rabbit ocular model and for the high induced reactivation phenotype in the mouse ocular model. Recently we showed that LAT has an antiapoptosis function, and we hypothesized that LAT's ability to inhibit apoptosis played an important role in LAT's ability to enhance the reactivation phenotype. Expression of just the first 1.5 kb of the 8.3-kb LAT gene is sufficient for both inhibition of apoptosis in an in vitro transient-transfection assay and the high spontaneous reactivation phenotype in vivo. Here we show the results of more complex mapping studies in which inhibition of apoptosis and the enhanced spontaneous reactivation phenotype also appear to be linked. The HSV-1 mutant virus dLAT371 has a high spontaneous reactivation phenotype in rabbits, suggesting that the LAT region deleted in this mutant (LAT nucleotides 76 to 447) is not required for this phenotype. The LAT3.3A viral mutant (which expresses LAT nucleotides 1 to 1499) also has a high spontaneous reactivation phenotype, suggesting that the region of LAT not expressed by this mutant (LAT nucleotide 1500 to the end of LAT) is also not required for this phenotype. Surprisingly, LAT2.9A, which is a combination of dLAT371 and LAT3.3A (i.e., it expresses LAT nucleotides 1 to 76 and 447 to 1499), has a low spontaneous reactivation phenotype indistinguishable from that of LAT null mutants. We report here that consistent with the low spontaneous reactivation phenotype of LAT2.9A, a plasmid expressing the identical LAT RNA did not inhibit caspase 9-induced apoptosis. In contrast, plasmids containing the same deletion but able to transcribe up to or past LAT nucleotide 2850 (rather than just up to LAT nucleotide 1499) inhibited caspase 9-induced apoptosis, consistent with the high spontaneous reactivation phenotype of dLAT371. Thus, LAT2.9A may have a low spontaneous reactivation phenotype because the LAT RNA that is made cannot block apoptosis, and dLAT371 apparently has a high spontaneous reactivation phenotype because the LAT RNA made has significant antiapoptosis activity. Furthermore, LAT appeared to have at least two regions capable of interfering with caspase 9-induced apoptosis. One region partially overlaps LAT nucleotides 76 to 447. The second region is partially (or completely) downstream of LAT nucleotide 1499.
Delegation vs . Control of Component Procurement *

A manufacturer must choose to delegate component procurement to its tier-1 supplier, or to control component procurement by contracting with both the tier-1 supplier and the tier-2 component supplier. Both suppliers have private cost information and the manufacturer has an alternative source of supply with cost known to all parties. This paper proves that if the firms may use arbitrarily complex contracts, then the manufacturer has the same expected profit with delegation as with control of component procurement. If, however, the firms use simple price-only contracts, then the manufacturer may achieve strictly greater expected profit with either delegation or control, depending upon the price of the alternative source, the selling price of the end product and, most importantly, what the manufacturer knows about her suppliers’ costs. A numerical study shows that over a wide range of conditions, if the manufacturer chooses delegation versus control correctly, then she achieves nearly as much expected profit with price-only contracts as with the complex optimal contracts. However, the study identifies conditions under which price-only contracts perform poorly, and also shows that the loss may be extremely high when the manufacturer chooses delegation versus control incorrectly.