Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
E Role-based Decomposition of Business Processes using BPEL

This paper addresses role-based decomposition of a business process model (based on a subset of WS-BPEL, using explicit data links. A mechanism is presented for partitioning a business process so that each partition can be enacted by a different participant. An important goal is to disconnect the partitioning itself from the design of the business process, simplifying the reassignment of activities to different entities. The result is several (compliant) BPEL processes, one for each participant, as well as the information needed to wire them together at deployment time and ensuring correct instance-level connections at runtime. We present details of partitioning and successfully running a sample process with three participants
Regional Disparities and Inequality of Opportunity: The Case of Italy

In this paper we provide a new methodology to measure opportunity inequality and to decompose overall inequality in an "ethically offensive" and an "ethically acceptable" part. Moreover, we provide some empirical applications of these new evaluation tools: in the first exercise, we compare the income distributions of South and North of Italy on the basis of a measure of opportunity inequality. Then, we repeat the exercise using the cognitive abilities in a sample of 15-year old students. In both circumstances we find that the less developed regions in the South are characterized by greater incidence of inequality of opportunity.
Cilansetron: a new serotonergic agent for the irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea

Cilansetron is a novel serotonin type-3 (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) receptor subtype 3 (5-HT3) receptor antagonist currently being evaluated for the treatment of female and male patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea predominance (IBS-D). 5-HT3 receptor antagonists such as cilansetron have been shown to affect gastrointestinal motility. Whether cilansetron affects visceral sensation independent of effects on visceral compliance remains controversial. Results from two large, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group Phase III clinical trials of cilansetron in patients with IBS-D have recently been presented in abstract form. These studies found that cilansetron was more effective than placebo at improving overall, as well as individual symptoms, including abdominal pain and diarrhoea in female and male IBS-D patients. The most commonly reported side effect with cilansetron has been constipation and, in general, the drug has been well tolerated in clinical trials. Although rare, the most concerning side effect observed with cilansetron has been suspected ischaemic colitis. The event rate for suspected ischaemic colitis associated with cilansetron from clinical trials is 3.77 per 1000 person years of exposure. This rate appears to be greater than that expected in the IBS population and similar to that observed with alosetron, another 5--HT3 receptor antagonist. All of the cases of suspected ischaemic colitis reported with cilansetron have resolved without serious sequelae. How issues surrounding the safety of cilansetron will affect the approval process in various countries remains to be determined. However, the risk–benefit of cilansetron is likely to be most favourable in patients with IBS-D who have failed to respond to conventional medical therapies. A detailed risk management plan and post-marketing surveillance programme will be required should this drug become available for the treatment of patients with IBS-D.
Stability of a neutral delay neuron system in the critical case

In this paper, the asymptotic stability properties of neutral-type neuron system are studied mainly in the critical case when the exponential stability is not possible. In the case of a critical value of the coefficient in neutral-type neuron system, the difficulty for our investigation is the fact that the spectrum of the linear operator is asymptotically approximated to the imaginary axis. Hence, based on the energy method, the asymptotic stability results for neutral-type neuron system are derived, and a complete analysis of the stability diagram is presented.
Chapter 1 Introduction to Cognitive Systems

The chapter reviews some historical and recent trends in understanding natural and developing artificial cognitive systems. One of the fundamental concepts of cognitive science, i.e. mental representation, is discussed. The two main directions, symbolic and connectionist (and their combination: hybrid) architectures are analysed. Two main cognitive functions, memory and language are specifically reviewed. While the pioneers of cognitive science neglected neural level studies, modern cognitive neuroscience contributes to the understanding of neural codes, neural representations. In addition, cognitive robotics builds autonomous systems to realise intelligent sensory-motor integration.
Lumbar posture--should it, and can it, be modified? A study of passive tissue stiffness and lumbar position during activities of daily living.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Physical therapists commonly attempt to reduce and prevent low back pain by "improving" individuals' lumbar posture. To investigate the physical therapy clinical practice of attempting to "improve" lumbar posture, measures of passive tissue stiffness and angular deformation during activities of daily living were used. PARTICIPANTS The lumbar spine posture of 150 university students was measured as the inclinometer angle difference between L1 and S1. Eighteen female participants (6 with hypolordosis, 6 with hyperlordosis, and 6 controls without lumbar spine impairment) were recruited from this lumbar posture database. Hypolordosis and hyperlordosis were clinically classified by physical therapists. METHODS Lumbar passive tissue stiffness was measured during sitting, standing, and walking before and after a 12-week exercise program, and estimates of lumbar passive tissue strain were calculated from those measurements. RESULTS The neutral zone (NZ), a range of lumbar positions of low passive tissue stiffness, was identified. Prior to training, the subjects with hypolordosis had more passive tissue strain during sitting than the subjects with hyperlordosis, and the subjects with hyperlordosis stood in extension relative to their NZs while the control subjects and subjects with hypolordosis stood within their NZs. Before and after training, subjects in all 3 groups walked with lumbar spine positions within their NZs. After training, the lumbar posture of the subjects with hypolordosis and the subjects with hyperlordosis changed toward a "mean" (mid-range) lumbar posture. After the exercise program, subjects in all 3 groups stood and walked with their lumbar spines in positions within their NZs, and they sat with their lumbar spines flexed relative to their NZs. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Knowing that tissue failure can be related to passive tissue strain, the results of this study support the clinical practice of attempting to change individuals' posture-related lumbar spine positions during activities of daily living. Lumbar passive tissue strain, as estimated from the NZ and angular deformation during activities of daily living, can be decreased, but can also be increased, by an exercise program.
Clinical Communications: Adults PULMONARY EMBOLISM PRESENTING AS FLANK PAIN: A CASE SERIES

e Abstract—Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially fatal disease that can be effectively treated once diagnosed. Due to insidious and often cryptogenic presentations, the diagnosis of this disease can easily elude clinicians. Over the last several years the use of computed tomography (CT) scanning has improved the clinician’s ability to diagnose PE. In addition, the widespread use of CT to investigate other complaints such as flank and abdominal pain could theoretically result in radiographic findings not previously identified that could point to the diagnosis of PE. The current case series reveals the unexpected and initially unrecognized CT finding of a pulmonary infarct in two patients presenting with flank pain; a third patient presented with flank pain and was also found to have a PE. Objective: We describe three cases of patients who presented to the Emergency Department with flank pain who were diagnosed with pulmonary embolism. Case Reports: The cases reported here discuss patients who presented with flank pain and were ultimately diagnosed with PE. In the first two cases, the patients had incidental findings of pulmonary infiltrates on abdominal CT scans, which prompted further diagnostic investigation. In the third case, the patient had risk factors for PE and presented with flank pain and the diagnosis was quickly made by CT imaging. Conclusion: Physicians should consider pulmonary embolism in the differential diagnosis of patients with isolated flank pain. Additionally, unexpected pulmonary findings on abdominal CT scans may help suggest the diagnosis of PE in the appropriate clinical setting. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
More Efficient Classification of Web Content Using Graph Sampling

In mining information from very large graphs, processing time as well as system memory become computational bottlenecks as the properties of large graphs must be compared through each iteration of an algorithm. This is a particularly pronounced problem for complex properties. For example, distance metrics are used in many fundamental data mining algorithms including k-nearest neighbors for the classification task. Even the relatively efficient distance and similarity heuristics for large inputs, though, often require processing and memory well beyond linear with respect to the size of the input, and this rapidly becomes intractable with very large inputs. Complex properties such as the distance between two graphs can be extremely costly, but using samples of these large graphs to calculate the same properties proves to reduce memory requirements and processing time significantly without sacrificing quality of classification. Because the vast amount of Web data is easily and robustly represented with graphs, a data reduction technique that preserves the accuracy of mining algorithms on such inputs is important. The sampling techniques presented here show that very large graphs of Web content can be condensed into significantly smaller yet equally expressive graphs that lead to accurate but more efficient classification of Web content
Hepatic infarction caused by arterial insufficiency: spectrum and evolution of CT findings.

PURPOSE To determine the CT imaging appearances of liver infarction due to arterial insufficiency and to attempt to understand reasons for apparent discrepancy of appearance in prior reports. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-seven CT examinations from 18 patients with proven hepatic infarction were evaluated for character, location, and evolution of lesions by all investigators, with a consensus interpretation. Etiologies of infarction included posttransplant complication (15), laparoscopic cholecystectomy complication (2), and traumatic arterial injury (1). Proof of hepatic infarction was made by hepatectomy (11), biopsy (1), or clinical course compatible with infarction with angiographic (3) or surgical (3) evidence of hepatic arterial abnormality. In patients without histologic proof of infarction, all lesions seen at CT were considered to be due to hepatic infarction, except those meeting the criteria for hemangioma. In 10 patients, serial examinations were available over 2-180 days and a determination of serial changes in specific lesions was made using a similar image analysis. RESULTS Of 55 lesions identified, 53 could be classified into three shapes--wedge-shaped (18), rounded or oval (26), or irregularly shaped low-attenuation lesions paralleling bile ducts (9). The other two lesions were flat hypodense areas along the posterior aspect of the medial left hepatic lobe. Wedge-shaped lesions were peripherally located; rounded lesions were either peripheral (10) or central (26). The caudate lobe was spared except in one patient. Of 16 serially followed wedge-shaped lesions, four evolved into rounded lesions. No rounded lesions became wedge-shaped. CONCLUSION Hepatic infarction caused by arterial disease produces a spectrum of CT findings. Prior reported discrepancies in appearance may be due to the small number of cases in each report and the variety of potential imaging appearances,aas well as evolutionary changes.
The Seizure and Cognitive Outcome of Anterior Thalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation for Patients with Intractable Epilepsy

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of anterior thalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (ANT-DBS) for patients with intractable epilepsy based on seizure and cognitive outcomes. Patients and Methods: Seventeen patients suffering from intractable epilepsy who received ANT-DBS implants from April 2015 to October 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. The preoperative evaluation consisted of semiology, electroencephalogram (EEG), positron emission tomography (PET) and MRI. During follow-up over 0.6-1 years, the surgical effects were evaluated mainly based on the seizure outcome (McHugh classification); psychological examinations including Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), and quality of life (QOL). Results: The results showed that there was complete seizure free in 1 case, and temporal seizure free in 1 case. The average seizure improvement was 56%. Five (29.4%), 4 (23.5%), 6 (35.3%), 1 (5.9%), and 1 (5.9%) patients were classified into McHugh classes I, II, III, IV, and V, respectively. Complex partial seizure and temporal lobe epilepsy may have better seizure outcomes. The average postoperative IQ was slightly higher than that before operation, and the quality of life was statistically improved after ANT-DBS. Conclusions: The outcomes showed obvious seizure improvement with cognitive gain. ANT-DBS appears to be an effective and promising therapy for intractable epilepsy.
Environmental influences on independent collaborative play

Data from two qualitative research projects indicated a relationship between the type of early childhood setting and children's independent collaborative play. The first research project involved 22 three and four-year-old children in a daylong setting and 47 children four-year-old children in a sessional kindergarten. The second project involved 14 parent educators and 31 children in an Auckland Playcentre. There was substantially greater complexity of the play, and more mixed gender independent collaborative play in the daylong centre than in the kindergarten, and independent collaborative play was largely absent in the Playcentre. Three factors appeared to explain the differences in the nature and frequency of the independent collaborative play. These were the physical environment, the educator's pedagogy, and the nature of the relationships within the setting. The paper discusses these factors and suggests some implications for early childhood educators.International Research in Early Childhood Education, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 2-12
Auxiliary Image Regularization for Deep CNNs with Noisy Labels

Precisely-labeled data sets with sufficient amount of samples are very important for training deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, many of the available real-world data sets contain erroneously labeled samples and those errors substantially hinder the learning of very accurate CNN models. In this work, we consider the problem of training a deep CNN model for image classification with mislabeled training samples - an issue that is common in real image data sets with tags supplied by amateur users. To solve this problem, we propose an auxiliary image regularization technique, optimized by the stochastic Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm, that automatically exploits the mutual context information among training images and encourages the model to select reliable images to robustify the learning process. Comprehensive experiments on benchmark data sets clearly demonstrate our proposed regularized CNN model is resistant to label noise in training data.
Diffusion kernels on graphs and other discrete structures

The application of kernel-based learning algorithms has, so far, largely been conﬁned to real-valued data and a few special data types, such as strings. In this paper we propose a general method of constructing natural families of kernels over discrete structures, based on the matrix exponentiation idea. In particular, we focus on generating kernels on graphs, for which we propose a special class of exponential kernels, based on the heat equation, called diffusion kernels, and show that these can be regarded as the discretisa-tion of the familiar Gaussian kernel of Euclidean space.
A constrained optimal data association for multiple target tracking

One of the major problems in multiple target tracking is to obtain an accurate association between targets and noisy measurements. We introduce a new scheme, called constrained optimal data association (CODA), that finds the optimal data association by a MAP estimation method and uses a new energy function. In this scheme, the natural constraints between targets and measurements are defined so that they may contain missed detection and false alarm errors. Most current algorithms involve many heuristic adjustments of the parameters. Instead, this paper suggests an adaptive mechanism for such parameter updating. In this manner, the system automatically adapts to the clutter environment as it continuously changes in time and space, resulting in better association. Experimental results, using PDA, NNF, and CODA, show that the new approach reduces position errors in crossing trajectories by 13.9% on average compared to NNF.
Joint On-Demand Routing and Spectrum Assignment in Cognitive Radio Networks

In cognitive radio networks, nodes can work on different frequency bands. Existing routing proposals help nodes select frequency bands without considering the effect of band switching and intra-band backoff. In this paper, We propose a joint interaction between on-demand routing and spectrum scheduling. A node analytical model is proposed to describe the scheduling-based channel assignment progress, which relief the inter-flow interference and frequent switching delay. We also use an on-demand interaction to derive a cumulative delay based routing protocol. Simulation results show that, comparing to other approaches, our protocol provides better adaptability to the multi- flow environment and derives paths with much lower cumulative delay.
Insights into the Dynamic Properties of Keratin Intermediate Filaments in Living Epithelial Cells

The properties of keratin intermediate filaments (IFs) have been studied after transfection with green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged K18 and/or K8 (type I/II IF proteins). GFP-K8 and -K18 become incorporated into tonofibrils, which are comprised of bundles of keratin IFs. These tonofibrils exhibit a remarkably wide range of motile and dynamic activities. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) analyses show that they recover their fluorescence slowly with a recovery t 1/2 of ∼100 min. The movements of bleach zones during recovery show that closely spaced tonofibrils (<1 μm apart) often move at different rates and in different directions. Individual tonofibrils frequently change their shapes, and in some cases these changes appear as propagated waveforms along their long axes. In addition, short fibrils, termed keratin squiggles, are seen at the cell periphery where they move mainly towards the cell center. The motile properties of keratin IFs are also compared with those of type III IFs (vimentin) in PtK2 cells. Intriguingly, the dynamic properties of keratin tonofibrils and squiggles are dramatically different from those of vimentin fibrils and squiggles within the same cytoplasmic regions. This suggests that there are different factors regulating the dynamic properties of different types of IFs within the same cytoplasmic regions.
Decreased Processivity of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Reverse Transcriptase (RT) Containing Didanosine-Selected Mutation Leu74Val: a Comparative Analysis of RT Variants Leu74Val and Lamivudine-Selected Met184Val

ABSTRACT We previously showed that a didanosine-selected mutation in pNL4-3 background conferred a replication disadvantage on human immunodeficiency virus type 1, resulting in a loss of replication fitness. This work has been extended by showing that a recombinant virus with the HXBc2 backbone and reverse transcriptase (RT) fragments from pNL4-3 containing the Leu74Val mutation produce decreasing amounts of p24 antigen over a 3-week period. The HXBc2 recombinant containing the wild-type RT from pNL4-3 replicated efficiently. When the virion-associated RT containing the Leu74Val mutation was used in an RT processivity assay with homopolymer RNA template-primer, poly(A), and oligo(dT), the RT with altered Leu74Val mutation was less processive, generating fewer cDNA products in comparison to wild-type pNL4-3 RT. The replication kinetics and RT processivity of the mutant with the Leu74Val mutation were compared to those of a lamivudine-selected mutant Met184Val. In replication kinetics assays, mutant Leu74Val replicated slower than the mutant Met184Val. In a processivity assay, the mutant RTs from both viruses show comparable decreases in processivity. These observations provide biochemical evidence of decreased processivity to support the decrease in replication fitness observed with the Leu74Val or Met184Val mutations.
Impact of the Sampling Rate on the Estimation of the Parameters of Fractional Brownian Motion

Abstract. Fractional Brownian motion is a mean‐zero self‐similar Gaussian process with stationary increments. Its covariance depends on two parameters, the self‐similar parameter H and the variance C. Suppose that one wants to estimate optimally these parameters by using n equally spaced observations. How should these observations be distributed? We show that the spacing of the observations does not affect the estimation of H (this is due to the self‐similarity of the process), but the spacing does affect the estimation of the variance C. For example, if the observations are equally spaced on [0, n] (unit‐spacing), the rate of convergence of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the variance C is . However, if the observations are equally spaced on [0, 1] (1/n‐spacing), or on [0, n2] (n‐spacing), the rate is slower, . We also determine the optimal choice of the spacing Δ when it is constant, independent of the sample size n. While the rate of convergence of the MLE of C is in this case, irrespective of the value of Δ, the value of the optimal spacing depends on H. It is 1 (unit‐spacing) if H = 1/2 but is very large if H is close to 1.
CD8-positive T lymphocytes specific for murine cytomegalovirus immediate-early antigens mediate protective immunity

We have shown in a murine model system for acute, lethal cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in the immunocompromised natural host that control of virus multiplication in tissues, protection from virus-caused tissue destruction, and survival are mediated by virus-specific CD8+ CD4-T lymphocytes. Protection from a lethal course of disease did not result in a rapid establishment of virus latency, but led to a long-lasting, persistent state of infection. The CD8- CD4+ subset of T lymphocytes was not effective by itself in controlling murine CMV (MCMV) multiplication in tissue or essential for the protective function of the CD8+ CD4- effector cells. The antiviral efficacy of the purified CD8+ CD4- subset was not impaired by preincubation with fibroblasts that presented viral structural antigens, but was significantly reduced after depletion of effector cells specific for the nonstructural immediate-early antigens of MCMV, which are specified by the first among a multitude of viral genes expressed during MCMV replication in permissive cells. Thus, MCMV disease provides the first example of a role for nonstructural herpesvirus immediate-early antigens in protective immunity.