Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lung Function and Methacholine Responsiveness among Adolescents in an Air-Polluted Area

Background: Outdoor air pollution is hazardous to human pulmonary health. Airway inflammation is an important cause of bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Information is not univocal about the potential effects of prolonged exposure to environmental air pollutants on lung function. Objectives: A cross-sectional study was performed to assess bronchial responsiveness to methacholine in children living in an air-polluted area. Afterwards, the same study protocol was repeated in children of similar age living in mountain valleys with virtually no air pollution. Methods: Every child underwent a lung function test, skin tests to common allergens, total serum levels of IgE, and a challenge to methacholine at increasing doses (PD20 FEV1). Subjects were 246 children 11–12 years old living in an air-polluted area, and 285 children 11–13 years old living in mountain valleys. Respectively, 156 and 161 were negative to skin tests and had serum total IgE <100 IU/ml, and had no asthma or other recurrent or ongoing respiratory symptoms. Results: Lung function data, adjusted for the effect of potential confounders showed significantly lower FVC, and even more so FEV1, in the children from the polluted area. After the exclusion of subjects with positive skin tests and serum total IgE >100 IU/ml and those with history of asthma or respiratory disorders, there were higher percentages of positive responses in the challenge to methacholine in children from the polluted area (28.9 vs. 15.5%, p < 0.001). Conclusions: These data may corroborate the possible importance of long exposure to air pollutants on the prevalence of bronchial aspecific hyperresponsiveness in otherwise normal children.
Abstract—this Paper Presents a Path Planner for Rendezvous of Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (auvs) in Turbulent, Cluttered, and Uncertain Environments. the Proposed Strategy Combines an Optimized Mass-center Rendezvous Point Selection Scheme with an Evolutionary Path Planner to Find Trajec

particle swarm optimization (QPSO) algorithm is used with a cost function which is determined by the sum of time usage over all participating vehicles accounting for the effect of space-time variable currents and the sum of the waiting time of every vehicle. The proposed path planner is tested to generate optimal trajectories for rendezvous of multiple AUVs navigating through a variable ocean environment in the presence of irregularly shaped terrains as well as obstacles whose position coordinates are uncertain. Simulation results show that with integration of the Optimized Mass-center rendezvous point selection scheme, the proposed methodology is able to obtain more optimized trajectories for multiple AUVs than the ones relying on centroid, mass-center or optimized full-scale rendezvous point selection schemes.
Estimation of the formant frequencies by means of a wavelet transform of the speech spectrum

|The objective is to present a method that extracts the spectral envelope of a speech signal. The method is based on the wavelet transform, which is a family of multi-resolution analysis methods. The extraction is founded on the observation that spectral envelope and source-related spectral components vary on diierent frequency scales. The diierence between cepstral and wavelet analysis is that the latter is not based on the hypothesis that a speech signal is the outcome of a convolution of the source signal with the vocal tract impulse response. The method of analysis was tested on a corpus of a],,i],,u] vowels sustained by healthy and dyspho-nic speakers. Results show that the envelopes extracted via cepstral and wavelet analysis are very similar except in the case of u], for which the rst two formants extracted by means of wavelet analysis are shifted slightly towards higher values and the formant peaks are somewhat closer.
Reflecting on reflective practice: a coach’s action research narratives

Abstract Reflection is now advocated by coach education programmes around the world as a framework for coaches to learn from their experience. Yet, there is a paucity of empirical and critical work focussed on coaches’ experiences of reflective practice. Consequently, we lack understanding as to the utility of reflection in the messy realities of practice, and of what is meaningful to those who engage in such a personally involving, emotive and challenging process. This article presents a series of narratives that evoke the dilemmas I (the lead author) experienced reflecting on my reflective practice within an action research process. The narratives tell a highly personal tale about the temporal, emotional and contextual qualities of reflective practice, a tale that counters traditional presentations of the coach as a calculated, dispassionate and rational being who operates as if in a social vacuum. By providing insight that befits the problematic nature of practice, we hope to contribute to a more authentic and holistic epistemology in sports coaching.
Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia Elicits Serotonin-Dependent Plasticity in the Central Neural Control of Breathing

We tested the hypothesis that chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) elicits plasticity in the central neural control of breathingvia serotonin-dependent effects on the integration of carotid chemoafferent inputs. Adult rats were exposed to 1 week of nocturnal CIH (11–12% O2/air at 5 min intervals; 12 hr/night). CIH and untreated rats were then anesthetized, paralyzed, vagotomized, and artificially ventilated. Time-dependent hypoxic responses were assessed in the phrenic neurogram during and after three 5 min episodes of isocapnic hypoxia. Integrated phrenic amplitude (∫Phr) responses during hypoxia were greater after CIH at arterial oxygen pressures (PaO2) between 25 and 45 mmHg (p < 0.05), but not at higher PaO2 levels. CIH did not affect hypoxic phrenic burst frequency responses, although the post-hypoxia frequency decline that is typical in rats was abolished. ∫Phr and frequency responses to electrical stimulation of the carotid sinus nerve were enhanced by CIH (p < 0.05). Serotonin-dependent long-term facilitation (LTF) of ∫Phr was enhanced after CIH at 15, 30, and 60 min after episodic hypoxia (p < 0.05). Pretreatment with the serotonin receptor antagonists methysergide (4 mg/kg, i.v.) and ketanserin (2 mg/kg, i.v.) reversed CIH-induced augmentation of the short-term hypoxic phrenic response and restored the post-hypoxia frequency decline in CIH rats. Whereas methysergide abolished CIH-enhanced phrenic LTF, the selective 5-HT2antagonist ketanserin only partially reversed this effect. The results suggest that CIH elicits unique forms of serotonin-dependent plasticity in the central neural control of breathing. Enhanced LTF after CIH may involve an upregulation of a non-5-HT2 serotonin receptor subtype or subtypes.
An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Agile Software Development in a Highly Distributed Environment

A radio unit (12) for communication over a communication channel (300) having repeating frames. The radio unit has a memory (131) with a table (280) of time locations in a frame and indications of the availability of time locations for transmission. A time is selected from the table and a cell of data is transmitted on the channel at the selected time. If an acknowledgement to the cell is received at a receiver (102) the transmitter sends a series of further cells at corresponding times in later frames. Otherwise a different time is selected for a new access attempt. A sequence of ATM cells is prepared for transmission by forming data into cells each having synchronization information (230), a physical layer field (251), a sequence number (253) and an error check number (254). Error coding cells (245) are added, with error coding which is spread across the cells such that a lost cell is recoverable from adjacent cells.
Frequency and functional use of cited documents in information science

The purpose of this study was to examine factors which may explain frequency and nature of use of documents in citing document texts over time. Articles published in the Journal of the American Society for lnformatlon Science in 1972, 1973, and 1974 were searched on SciSearch to derive two sample groups. One group was frequently cited; the other was infrequently cited. The functional uses of the sample document groups were examined by four classification taxonomies In 417 citing contexts. The patterns of frequency of use, multiple use, and functional use were examined over time. The citation levels of documents citing the two sample groups were examined as well. When measured by functional citation taxonomles, frequently and infrequently cited documents were not used for significantly different functions. Frequently cited documents, however, seemed more tightly linked (essential) than infrequently cited documents to the documents in which they were used. While frequently cited documents were not judged more useful than infrequently cited documents Initially, they were used at a stable higher level over a longer period. Infrequently cited documents were used immediately following publication and then their use rapidly diminished. The repeated use of infrequently cited documents within documents tended to decrease over time while the repeated use of frequently cited documents tended to increase. Frequently cited articles were used for different functions in the period immediately following publication and a later time period. Infrequently cited articles were used with greater consistency In the two time periods.
The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance

Despite growing interest in meaning in life, many have voiced their concern over the conceptual refinement of the construct itself. Researchers seem to have two main ways to understand what meaning in life means: coherence and purpose, with a third way, significance, gaining increasing attention. Coherence means a sense of comprehensibility and one’s life making sense. Purpose means a sense of core goals, aims, and direction in life. Significance is about a sense of life’s inherent value and having a life worth living. Although some researchers have already noted this trichotomy, the present article provides the first comprehensible theoretical overview that aims to define and pinpoint the differences and connections between these three facets of meaning. By arguing that the time is ripe to move from indiscriminate understanding of meaning into looking at these three facets separately, the article points toward a new future for research on meaning in life.
Topology of the postperovskite phase transition and mantle dynamics

The postperovskite (ppv) phase transition occurs in the deep mantle close to the core–mantle boundary (CMB). For this reason, we must include in the dynamical considerations both the Clapeyron slope and the temperature intercept, Tint, which is the temperature of the phase transition at the CMB pressure. For a CMB temperature greater than Tint, there is a double crossing of the phase boundary by the geotherms associated with the descending flow. We have found a great sensitivity of the shape of the ppv surface due to the CMB from variations of various parameters such as the amount of internal heating, the Clapeyron slope, and the temperature intercept. Three-dimensional spherical models of mantle convection that can satisfy the seismological constraints depend on the Clapeyron slope. At moderate value, 8 MPa/K, the best fit is found with a core heat flow amounting for 40% of the total heat budget (≈15 TW), whereas for 10 MPa/K the agreement is for a lower core heat flow (20%, ≈7.5 TW). In all cases, these solutions correspond to a temperature intercept 200 K lower than the CMB temperature. These models have holes of perovskite adjacent to ppv in regions of hot upwellings.
Building NVRAM-Aware Swapping Through Code Migration in Mobile Devices

Mobile applications are becoming increasingly feature-rich and powerful, but also dependent on large main memories, which consume a large portion of system energy, especially for devices equipped with 4/6 GB DRAM. Swapping inactive DRAM pages to byte-addressable, non-volatile memory (NVRAM) is a promising solution to this problem. However, most NVRAMs have limited write endurance and the current victim pages selecting algorithm does not aware it. Therefore, to make it practical, the design of an NVRAM based swapping system must also consider endurance. In this paper, we target at prolonging the lifetime of NVRAM based swap area in mobile devices by reducing the write activities to NVRAM based swap area. Different from traditional wisdom, such as wear leveling and hot/cold data identification, we propose to build a system called nCode, which exploits the fact that code pages are easy to identify, read-only, and therefore a perfect candidate for swapping. Utilizing NVRAM’s byte-addressability, we support execute-in-place (XIP) of the code pages in the swap area, without copying them back to DRAM based main memory. Experimental results based on the Google Nexus 5 smartphone show that nCode can effectively prolong the lifetime of NVRAM under various workloads.
Automated Program Diversity Using Program Synthesis

Software monocultures are susceptible to large scalesecurity attacks as attacks on a single node can be effortlesslyscaled out to the rest of the system. Program diversity hasbeen explored as a means of defending systems from mass scalesecurity attacks and system failures. Existing diversity techniqueshave focused on reordering code blocks to alter the controlflow graph. In contrast, we focus on algorithmic diversity. Wepresent an algorithmic diversity approach that is fully automatedend to end by adopting techniques in program synthesis. Wedemonstrate how our approach can be deployed as a defenceagainst code reuse attacks and against common software faults.
Blood-based analyses of cancer: circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA.

UNLABELLED The ability to study nonhematologic cancers through noninvasive sampling of blood is one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing fields in cancer diagnostics. This has been driven both by major technologic advances, including the isolation of intact cancer cells and the analysis of cancer cell-derived DNA from blood samples, and by the increasing application of molecularly driven therapeutics, which rely on such accurate and timely measurements of critical biomarkers. Moreover, the dramatic efficacy of these potent cancer therapies drives the selection for additional genetic changes as tumors acquire drug resistance, necessitating repeated sampling of cancer cells to adjust therapy in response to tumor evolution. Together, these advanced noninvasive diagnostic capabilities and their applications in guiding precision cancer therapies are poised to change the ways in which we select and monitor cancer treatments. SIGNIFICANCE Recent advances in technologies to analyze circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA are setting the stage for real-time, noninvasive monitoring of cancer and providing novel insights into cancer evolution, invasion, and metastasis.
Feature Preserving Nonlinear Image Interpolation

Image interpolation is used widely in the digital imaging technologies. This paper presents a feature preserving nonlinear image interpolation, where an image is first interpolated using a hyperbolic tangent function, and then a nonlinear shock-diffusion equation is employed to sharpen image edge and to remove artifacts ("jaggies"). Finally, a shock capturing scheme with a special limiter function is developed to speed the process with numerical stability. Experimental results on real images demonstrate that our algorithm substantially improves the subjective quality of the interpolated images over conventional interpolations and some related equations
Outstanding issues in the theory of radar aurora: Evidence from the frequency dependence of spectral characteristics

[1] A review of the spectral characteristics of radar aurora with a focus on the behavior over a wide range of frequencies gives a different perspective on several issues concerning auroral backscatter. Some of the conclusions from this study are as follows: (1) It appears most likely (but has certainly not been proven) that auroral backscatter at large geometric magnetic aspect angles has the same general characteristics at all frequencies; VHF observations showing other characteristics are most likely refracted to small aspect angle by sporadic E. (2) The broadest spectra are observed at neither HF or UHF, but at VHF frequencies, but it is unclear whether this is a topic for theoreticians to consider, or if it is an observational effect. (3) The flow angle dependence of sub-ion-acoustic UHF echoes and large aspect angle echoes both present theoretical challenges which remain unaddressed. (4) In spite of several attempts, there appears to be no satisfactory theory of either type 3 or type 4 echoes, especially when the frequency dependence of these echoes is considered.
Neural Repetition Effects in the Medial Temporal Lobe Complex are Modulated by Previous Encoding Experience

It remains an intriguing question why the medial temporal lobe (MTL) can display either attenuation or enhancement of neural activity following repetition of previously studied items. To isolate the role of encoding experience itself, we assessed neural repetition effects in the absence of any ongoing task demand or intentional orientation to retrieve. Experiment 1 showed that the hippocampus and surrounding MTL regions displayed neural repetition suppression (RS) upon repetition of past items that were merely attended during an earlier study phase but this was not the case following re-occurrence of items that had been encoded into working memory (WM). In this latter case a trend toward neural repetition enhancement (RE) was observed, though this was highly variable across individuals. Interestingly, participants with a higher degree of neural RE in the MTL complex displayed higher memory sensitivity in a later, surprise recognition test. Experiment 2 showed that massive exposure at encoding effected a change in the neural architecture supporting incidental repetition effects, with regions of the posterior parietal and ventral-frontal cortex in addition to the hippocampus displaying neural RE, while no neural RS was observed. The nature of encoding experience therefore modulates the expression of neural repetition effects in the MTL and the neocortex in the absence of memory goals.
On the Glivenko-Cantelli Problem in Stochastic Programming: Linear Recourse and Extensions

Integrals of optimal values of random linear programming problems depending on a finite dimensional parameter are approximated by using empirical distributions instead of the original measure. Uniform convergence of the approximations is proved under fairly broad conditions allowing non-convex or discontinuous dependence on the parameter value and random size of the linear programming problem.
Sparse Canonical Correlation Analysis: New Formulation and Algorithm

In this paper, we study canonical correlation analysis (CCA), which is a powerful tool in multivariate data analysis for finding the correlation between two sets of multidimensional variables. The main contributions of the paper are: 1) to reveal the equivalent relationship between a recursive formula and a trace formula for the multiple CCA problem, 2) to obtain the explicit characterization for all solutions of the multiple CCA problem even when the corresponding covariance matrices are singular, 3) to develop a new sparse CCA algorithm, and 4) to establish the equivalent relationship between the uncorrelated linear discriminant analysis and the CCA problem. We test several simulated and real-world datasets in gene classification and cross-language document retrieval to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The performance of the proposed method is competitive with the state-of-the-art sparse CCA algorithms.
Tabletop games using real environment and physical simulation

The recent widespread of RGBD cameras such as Kinect® device from Microsoft® opens many new interaction metaphors available to the general public. In this poster we introduce a tabletop interaction metaphor using the depth map from the Kinect: each element on the table is included as a set of physical constraints in a virtual environment. We briefly discuss visualization methods and present a gaming genre adapted to this framework: action-construction games.
Changes in life satisfaction when losing one's spouse: individual differences in anticipation, reaction, adaptation and longevity in the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP)

ABSTRACT Losing a spouse is among the most devastating events that may occur in people's lives. We use longitudinal data from 1,224 participants in the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine (a) how life satisfaction changes with the experience of spousal loss; (b) whether socio-demographic factors and social and health resources moderate spousal loss-related changes in life satisfaction; and (c) whether extent of anticipation, reaction and adaptation to spousal loss are associated with mortality. Results reveal that life satisfaction shows anticipatory declines about two and a half years prior to (anticipation), steep declines in the months surrounding (reaction) and lower levels after spousal loss (adaptation). Older age was associated with steeper anticipatory declines, but less steep reactive declines. Additionally, younger age, better health, social participation and poorer partner health were associated with better adaptation. Higher pre-loss life satisfaction, less steep reactive declines and better adaptation were associated with longevity. The discussion focuses on the utility of examining the interrelatedness among anticipation, reaction and adaptation to further our understanding of change in life satisfaction in the context of major life events.
Power-efficient FSM mapping in FPGAs through SEMB dormancy control

Controllers implemented as finite-state machines (FSMs) occupy a major portion of FPGA designs. These FSMs can be implemented on synchronous embedded memory blocks (SEMBs) in current FPGAs. This approach, in addition to reducing considerable amount of power, also has several implementation benefits. In this research, we propose to further minimize the power consumed by the FSMs that are mapped to the SEMBs. We present an algorithm that maps the FSM outputs across the SEMBs based on its transition probabilities and thereby maximizes the dormancy of the SEMBs. For a given FSM as a state transition table, the algorithm determines for each transition in the table, the combination of inputs, outputs and state bits which contribute to the dormant transitions of the SEMB. Further, we develop a flow to determine the net power saved by this approach by computing the power consumed in the enable control logic and report the power savings for a variety of microprocessor models and MCNC benchmark circuits. Experimental results show a reduction of 8% to 21% in power compared to the SEMB based FSM technique and that it consumes 30% to 74% less dynamic power compared to the traditional LUT/FF implementation.