Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secular trends in preterm birth: a hospital-based cohort study.

CONTEXT Canada and the United States have reported a recent increase in the incidence of preterm birth, but the reasons for this increase are unknown. OBJECTIVE To assess secular trends in preterm birth and its potential determinants. DESIGN Hospital-based cohort study. SETTING Canadian tertiary care university teaching hospital, 1978-1996. PARTICIPANTS A total of 65574 nonreferred live births and stillbirths. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Changes in occurrence of preterm birth, before and after adjustment for changes in method of gestational age assessment, obstetric intervention, registration of births weighing less than 500 g, and sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical determinants. RESULTS A crude secular increase in preterm births was seen for births less than 37, 34, and 32 completed weeks using 3 alternative gestational age estimation methods. Based on an algorithm incorporating both menstrual and early ultrasound gestational age estimates, rates increased from 6.6% to 9.8% for births at less than 37 weeks' gestation, 1.7% to 2.3% at less than 34 weeks, and 1.0% to 1.2% at less than 32 weeks. Exclusion of births weighing less than 500 g and those with induction or preterm cesarean delivery without labor before each of the corresponding gestational age cutoffs eliminated the secular trends for births before 34 and 32 weeks and attenuated the trend for births before 37 weeks. Nearly half of the remaining trend for births before 37 weeks was accounted for by the increasing use of early ultrasound dating. The residual trend was eliminated after controlling for secular increases in unmarried status and the proportion of women aged 35 years or older. These factors, combined with a decrease in alcohol consumption and increases in histological chorioamnionitis and cocaine use, appear to have counteracted a reduction in preterm birth since the mid-1980s that otherwise would have been observed. CONCLUSIONS This hospital's increase in preterm births since 1978 parallels increases reported in population-based national studies from the United States and Canada. This trend appears largely attributable to the increasing use of early ultrasound dating, preterm induction and preterm cesarean delivery without labor, and changes in sociodemographic and behavioral factors.
An automatic approach to identify class evolution discontinuities

When a software system evolves, features are added, removed and changed. Moreover, refactoring activities are periodically performed to improve the software internal structure. A class may be replaced by another, two classes can be merged, or a class may be split in two others. As a consequence, it may not be possible to trace software features between a release and another. When studying software evolution, we should be able to trace a class lifetime even when it disappears because it is replaced by a similar one, split or merged. Such a capability is also essential to perform impact analysis. This work proposes an automatic approach, inspired on vector space information retrieval, to identify class evolution discontinuities and, therefore, cases of possible refactoring. The approach has been applied to identify refactorings performed over 40 releases of a Java open source domain name server. Almost all the refactorings found were actually performed in the analyzed system, thus indicating the helpfulness of the approach and of the developed tool.
Content Based Copy Detection with Coarse Audio-Visual Fingerprints

Content Based Copy Detection (CBCD) emerges as a viable choice against active detection methodology of watermarking. The very first reason is that the media already under circulation cannot be marked and secondly, CBCD inherently can endure various severe attacks, which watermarking cannot. Although in general, media content is handled independently as visual and audio in this work both information sources are utilized in a unified framework, in which coarse representation of fundamental features are employed. From the copy detection perspective, number of attacks on audio content is limited with respect to visual case. Therefore audio, if present, is an indispensable part of a robust video copy detection system. In this study, the validity of this statement is presented through various experiments on a large data set.
Word Prominence Detection using Robust yet Simple Prosodic Features

Automatic detection of word prominence can provide valuable information for downstream applications such as spoken language understanding. Prior work on automatic word prominence detection exploit a variety of lexical, syntactic, and prosodic features and model the task as a sequence labeling problem (independently or using context). While lexical and syntactic features are highly correlated with the notion of word prominence, the output of speech recognition is typically noisy and hence these features are less reliable than the acousticprosodic feature stream. In this work, we address the automatic detection of word prominence through novel prosodic features that capture the changes in F0 curve shape and magnitude in conjunction with duration and energy. We contrast the utility of these features with aggregate statistics of F0, duration and energy used in prior work. Our features are simple to compute yet robust to the inherent difficulties associated with identifying salient points (such as F0 peaks) in the F0 contour. Feature analysis demonstrates that these novel features are significantly more predictive than the standard aggregation-based prosodic features. Experimental results on a corpus of spontaneous speech indicate that prominence detection accuracy using only the new prosodic features is better than using both lexical and syntactic features.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1gag Gene Encodes an Internal Ribosome Entry Site

ABSTRACT Several retroviruses have recently been shown to promote translation of their gag gene products by internal ribosome entry. In this report, we show that mRNAs containing the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gag open reading frame (ORF) exhibit internal ribosome entry site (IRES) activity that can promote translational initiation of Pr55 gag . Remarkably, this IRES activity is driven by sequences within the gag ORF itself and is not dependent on the native gag 5′-untranslated region (UTR). This cap-independent mechanism for Pr55 gag translation may help explain the high levels of translation of this protein in the face of major RNA structural barriers to scanning ribosomes found in the gag 5′ UTR. The gag IRES activity described here also drives translation of a novel 40-kDa Gag isoform through translational initiation at an internal AUG codon found near the amino terminus of the Pr55 gag capsid domain. Our findings suggest that this low-abundance Gag isoform may be important for wild-type replication of HIV-1 in cultured cells. The activities of the HIV-1 gag IRES may be an important feature of the HIV-1 life cycle and could serve as a novel target for antiretroviral therapeutic strategies.
Sliding plane design for discrete-time networked control of cable suspended loads

The paper addresses the problem of controlling the position of a cable suspended mass from a remote location with communication network used for information exchange. Since in industrial applications it is a common practice to apply digital controllers, in particular in networked environment, the design is performed with explicit consideration of finite sampling rate. Discrete sliding-mode control is proposed with sliding hyperplane providing delay compensating features. The plane parameters are selected for dead-beat response, and the control law is synthesized in easy-to-implement closed form. In order to satisfy input constraints (e.g. mass downward motion restricted by gravity constant), a time-varying hyperplane is introduced. The proposed control strategy provides fast error elimination without overshoots and oscillations.
RELATION INFORMATION EXTRACTION USING DEEP SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

There has been an increasing need for natural language processing technology to Information Extraction (IE), such as relations between entities, which are more informative than mere documents searched by key words. This dissertation proposes a novel method to construct and utilize extraction patterns for relation extraction based on deep syntactic relations obtained by full parsing. The process which requires the most amount of manual work in construction of IE systems is construction of extraction patterns which extract target information from source texts, because the same information can be represented through many kinds of syntactic variations. To reduce this amount of manual work, our approach has two phases: First, we raise representation ability of extraction patterns and reduce number of necessary patterns by normalizing syntactic variations into predicateargument structures (PASs) using a full parser based on Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Then, PASs which connect entities to extract in a small training corpus are considered as extraction patterns, and we divide them into components and utilize combinations of the components for generalization. As a real world application, we have constructed an IE system for protein-protein interactions, which are important knowledge in biomedical research. We evaluated the IE system on a small test-case corpus and a large real-world corpus, and show its effectiveness. This dissertation also describes aspects that should be considered to ensure effectiveness of full parsers on domain-specific IE. The first aspect is the ability of deep syntactic relations obtained by parsing to capture syntactic information, which is necessary for constructing extraction patterns. To show enough accuracy of full parsing on a biomedical text, we evaluated precision of primitive PASs obtained from a biomedical text by an HPSG parser. And to compare performance of PAS patterns to patterns of partof-speeches, we also evaluated performance of verb-argument relations obtained from a biomedical text by PAS patterns and by patterns of part-of-speeches. The second aspect is difficulties to apply general-purpose parsers to domain-specific domains. To measure domain-specific coverage of a general-purpose HPSG, we investigated deficiencies of the grammar on parsing a biomedical text. We also show preliminary investigation on performance of general-purpose parsers that suggested parsing accuracy on general corpus does not ensure parsing accuracy or IE accuracy on a domain-specific text. Through all results on this dissertation, we show that full parsing is effective for IE. To obtain more performance of a domain-specific IE with full parsing, we should use shallow information in sentences, such as surface words, in combination of full parsing results. And it is also necessary to develop a full parser not only with consideration to general-purpose corpora but also with consideration to domain-specific text.
Prevalence and determinants of common perinatal mental disorders in women in low- and lower-middle-income countries: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To review the evidence about the prevalence and determinants of non-psychotic common perinatal mental disorders (CPMDs) in World Bank categorized low- and lower-middle-income countries. METHODS Major databases were searched systematically for English-language publications on the prevalence of non-psychotic CPMDs and on their risk factors and determinants. All study designs were included. FINDINGS Thirteen papers covering 17 low- and lower-middle-income countries provided findings for pregnant women, and 34, for women who had just given birth. Data on disorders in the antenatal period were available for 9 (8%) countries, and on disorders in the postnatal period, for 17 (15%). Weighted mean prevalence was 15.6% (95% confidence interval, CI: 15.4-15.9) antenatally and 19.8% (19.5-20.0) postnatally. Risk factors were: socioeconomic disadvantage (odds ratio [OR] range: 2.1-13.2); unintended pregnancy (1.6-8.8); being younger (2.1-5.4); being unmarried (3.4-5.8); lacking intimate partner empathy and support (2.0-9.4); having hostile in-laws (2.1-4.4); experiencing intimate partner violence (2.11-6.75); having insufficient emotional and practical support (2.8-6.1); in some settings, giving birth to a female (1.8-2.6), and having a history of mental health problems (5.1-5.6). Protective factors were: having more education (relative risk: 0.5; P = 0.03); having a permanent job (OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.4-1.0); being of the ethnic majority (OR: 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1-0.8) and having a kind, trustworthy intimate partner (OR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.3-0.9). CONCLUSION CPMDs are more prevalent in low- and lower-middle-income countries, particularly among poorer women with gender-based risks or a psychiatric history.
The moral capacity as a biological adaptation: A commentary on Tomasello

ABSTRACT We welcome Tomasello’s new book on the natural history of human morality as an important confirmation of the evolutionary approach, which sees adaptive behaviors and their psychological underpinnings as linked to a species’ socioecology (the package of subsistence, social, mating, and rearing systems). This perspective automatically leads to the conclusion that the basic set of moral preferences is a straightforward human adaptation to the derived cooperative foraging niche of nomadic foragers, which involves a high degree of interdependence. We provide more background information in support of this evolutionary approach, call for work on defining the contents of the innate core of moral preferences it implies, and urge philosophers to pursue its implications more seriously. Tomasello also offers a historical reconstruction, but his scenario is not compatible with recent comparative data showing a surprising overlap with aspects of human morality, nor does it fit the currently best-supported evolutionary scenario of hominin foraging. We offer a better-fitting alternative, but also call for more behavioral work in child development and on nonhuman primates to improve this reconstruction.
Advances in Automotive Radar: A framework on computationally efficient high-resolution frequency estimation

Radar technology is used for many applications of advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) and is considered as one of the key technologies for highly automated driving (HAD). An overview of conventional automotive radar processing is presented and critical use cases are pointed out in which conventional processing is bound to fail due to limited frequency resolution. Consequently, a flexible framework for computationally efficient high-resolution frequency estimation is presented. This framework is based on decoupled frequency estimation in the Fourier domain, where high-resolution processing can be applied to either the range, relative velocity, or angular dimension. Real data obtained from series-production automotive radar sensor are presented to show the effectiveness of the presented approach.
Scholars Commons @ Laurier Scholars Commons @ Laurier atToc159 is a Selective Transit Peptide Receptor for the Import of atToc159 is a Selective Transit Peptide Receptor for the Import of Nucleus-Encoded Chloroplast Proteins Nucleus-Encoded Chloroplast Proteins

he members of the Toc159 family of GTPases act as the primary receptors for the import of nucleus-encoded preproteins into plastids. Toc159, the most abundant member of this family in chloroplasts, is required for chloroplast biogenesis (Bauer, J., K. Chen, A. Hiltbunner, E. Wehrli, M. D. Schnell, and F. Kessler. 2000. Nature . 403: 203–207) and has been shown to covalently cross-link to bound preproteins at the chloroplast surface (Ma, Y., A. Kouranov, S. LaSala, and D.J. Schnell. 1996. J. Cell Biol. 134:1–13; Perry, S.E., and K. Keegstra. 1994. Plant Cell. 6:93–105). These reports led to the hypothesis that Toc159 T functions as a selective import receptor for preproteins that are required for chloroplast development. In this report, we provide evidence that Toc159 is required for the import of several highly expressed photosynthetic preproteins in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the cytoplasmic and recombinant forms of soluble Toc159 bind directly and selectively to the transit peptides of these representative photosynthetic preproteins, but not representative constitutively expressed plastid preproteins. These data support the function of Toc159 as a selective import receptor for the targeting of a set of preproteins required for chloroplast biogenesis.
Immanants of Totally Positive Matrices are Nonnegative

If/ is an irreducible character of Sn, these functions are known as immanants; if/ is an irreducible character of some subgroup G of Sn (extended trivially to all of Sn by defining /(vv) = 0 for w$G), these are known as generalized matrix functions. Note that the determinant and permanent are obtained by choosing / to be the sign character and trivial character of Sn, respectively. We should point out that it is more traditional to use /(vv) in (1) where we have used /(W). This change can be undone by transposing the matrix. If/ happens to be a character, then /(w) = x(w), so the generalized matrix function we have indexed by / is the complex conjugate of the traditional one. Since the characters of Sn are real (and integral), it follows that there is no difference between our indexing of immanants and the traditional one. It is convenient to associate with each AeMn(k) the following element of the group algebra kSn: [A]:= £ flliW(1). flBiW(B)-w~\
Real-time activity recognition via deep learning of motion features

Activity recognition is a challenging computer vision problem with countless applications. Here we present a real time activity recognition system using deep learning of local motion feature representations. Our approach learns to directly extract energy based motion features from video blocks. We implement the system on a distributed computing architecture and evaluate its performance on the iCub humanoid robot. We demonstrate real time performance using GPUs, paving the way for wide deployment of activity recognition systems in real world scenarios.
Essays on attention in individual decision making

A growing economic and psychology literature considers how changes in the attention given to situations and goods can affect consumers’ evaluations of these things. This thesis employs an experimental methodology to investigate the role of attention in explaining a number of irregularities in individual consumer-related decision making that have been established in the behavioural and experimental economic literature: choice effects and order effects. Chapter One presents a novel experimental design to test the different role of choice effects on the valuation of consumable goods when participants assume the roles of buyers and sellers, measuring the effect of choice on the well-known willingness-to-accept- willingness-to-pay disparity. Chapter Two utilises an experimental design to disentangle a number of potential attention-based order effects to explain surprising findings of order effects in Chapter One, where valuations for goods in earlier tasks were significantly higher than for goods valued in later tasks. Chapter Three presents another novel experimental design to capture the effect of choice on willingness-to-donate to charitable causes. Chapter Four takes this experimental design, and measures the effect of choice on consumable goods. A number of interesting results are found within these papers. Evidence of the positive effect of choice is found in Chapters One, Three and Four, consistent with theories of attention. Chapter Two finds evidence that participants give reduced attention to both the general experimental design of later tasks and the specific goods they value in these later tasks. This provides a novel explanation of the causes of order effects. Together, the papers of this thesis show that attention can explain how individuals evaluate goods differently in different consumer-related decision making situations, and that carefully considered experimental methodology can be used to better isolate these effects in laboratory settings.
Counterfeit Integrated Circuits: A Rising Threat in the Global Semiconductor Supply Chain

As the electronic component supply chain grows more complex due to globalization, with parts coming from a diverse set of suppliers, counterfeit electronics have become a major challenge that calls for immediate solutions. Currently, there are a few standards and programs available that address the testing for such counterfeit parts. However, not enough research has yet addressed the detection and avoidance of all counterfeit parts-recycled, remarked, overproduced, cloned, out-of-spec/defective, and forged documentation-currently infiltrating the electronic component supply chain. Even if they work initially, all these parts may have reduced lifetime and pose reliability risks. In this tutorial, we will provide a review of some of the existing counterfeit detection and avoidance methods. We will also discuss the challenges ahead for implementing these methods, as well as the development of new detection and avoidance mechanisms.
MULTI-RANGE TRANSFORMER BRIDGE FOR CALIBRATION OF INDUCTANCE STANDARDS

− A high-precision multi-range unbalanced transformer bridge designed for inductance standard calibration is described. Basic theory of the bridg e is discussed which enables direct measurement of diffe renc s of both impedance components ( ∆L and ∆R). The instrument was designed to compare inductors from 100 μH to10 H in the frequency range from 100 Hz to10 kHz. The uncer tainty of comparison in the impedance range from 1 Ω to 10 kΩ is assessed to be smaller than 10 ppm.
Enterprise Historian for Efﬁcient Storage and Analysis of Industrial Big Data

With a massive increase in time series sensor data being generated by an ever-growing number of industrial equipment such as gas and steam turbines, new systems are required to store and analyze this machine-generated “Industrial Big Data. ” GE Global Research, GE Intelligent Platforms, and GE Power & Water designed and built Enterprise Histo-rian to address this challenge with the goal of enabling GE Power & Water to perform deep historical analysis and data mining on terabytes of time series sensor data. Enterprise Historian is built on top of Apache Hadoop, an open-source framework for executing batch analytics on big data sets in a distributed computing environment. An instance of Enterprise Historian has been deployed on a 48-node, 280TB Hadoop cluster at GE Global Research and loaded with 3 years of Thermal RM&D sensor data. With Enterprise His-torian, analytics that used to take weeks to months to run can now be executed in minutes to hours. Enterprise His-torian has also been commercialized by GE Intelligent Plat-forms as GE Historian HD.