Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Open Mind Word Expert: Creating Large Annotated Data Collections with Web Users’ Help

Open Mind Word Expert is an implemented active learning system that aims to create large annotated corpora by tapping into the world’s vast pool of knowledge. It does this by relying on the vast number of Web users who contribute their knowledge to data annotation. Open Mind Word Expert focuses on building semantically annotated corpora, by collecting word sense tagging from the general public over the Web. It is available at http://teachcomputers.org. During the first nine months of activity, the system yielded 90,000 high quality tagged items at a much lower cost than the traditional method of hiring lexicographers.
The Virtual Deadline Based Optimization Algorithm for Priority Assignment in Fixed-Priority Scheduling

This paper considers the problem of design optimization for real-time systems scheduled with fixed priority, where task priority assignment is part of the decision variables, and the timing constraints and/or objective function linearly depend on the exact value of task response times (such as end-to-end deadline constraints). The complexity of response time analysis techniques makes it difficult to leverage existing optimization frameworks and scale to large designs. Instead, we propose an efficient optimization framework that is three magnitudes (1,000×) faster than Integer Linear Programming (ILP) while providing solutions with the same quality. The framework centers around three novel ideas: (1) An efficient algorithm that finds a schedulable task priority assignment for minimizing the average worst-case response time; (2) The concept of Maximal Unschedulable Deadline Assignment (MUDA) that abstracts the schedulability conditions, i.e., a set of maximal virtual deadline assignments such that the system is unschedulable; and (3) A new optimization procedure that leverages the concept of MUDA and the efficient algorithm to compute it.
Summarizing Situational Tweets in Crisis Scenario

During mass convergence events such as natural disasters, microblogging platforms like Twitter are widely used by affected people to post situational awareness messages. These crisis-related messages disperse among multiple categories like infrastructure damage, information about missing, injured, and dead people etc. The challenge here is to extract important situational updates from these messages, assign them appropriate informational categories, and finally summarize big trove of information in each category. In this paper, we propose a novel framework which first assigns tweets into different situational classes and then summarize those tweets. In the summarization phase, we propose a two stage summarization framework which first extracts a set of important tweets from the whole set of information through an Integer-linear programming (ILP) based optimization technique and then follows a word graph and content word based abstractive summarization technique to produce the final summary. Our method is time and memory efficient and outperforms the baseline in terms of quality, coverage of events, locations et al., effectiveness, and utility in disaster scenarios.
Association of Decreased Myocardial β‐Receptors and Chronotropic Response to Isoproterenol and Exercise in Pigs Following Chronic Dynamic Exercise

The effects of chronic dynamic exercise on myocardial β-adreneegic and muscarlnlc cholinergic receptors and chronotropic sensitivity to isoproterenol were studied in 5 Yucatan mlniswine. Right atrial and left ventricular biopsies, heart rate responses to isoproterenol, and maximal exercise treadmill testing were obtained before and after 10–19 weeks of treadmill running. Radioligand studies using 125I-iodocyanopindolol (ICYP) and 3H-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) were used to determine the number of β-adrenergic and muscarinic cholinergic receptors. Maximal oxygen consumption increased from 52 ± 5 to 65 ± 7 ml/kg/min (mean ± SD; p <0.02), maximal workload from 530 ± 111 to 1,074 ± 179 KPM/min (p <0.01), resting heart rate decreased from 91 ± 13 to 62 ± 4 beats/min (p <0.01), heart rate at 75% of pretraining maximal workload decreased from 253 ± 15 to 196 ± 12 beats/min (p <0.01), and maximal exercise heart rate decreased from 273 ± 6 to 254 ± 9 beats/min (p <0.01). Decreased heart rate responsiveness to adrenergic stimulation was observed following chronic exercise. Maximal isoproterenol-stimulated heart rate decreased from 225 ± 13 to 185 ± 28 beats/min (p< 0.05) and the slope of the isoproterenol dose-response relation decreased from 63 ± 16 to 40 ± 16 (p <0.05). Radioligand studies revealed a decrease in β-receptor number in the right atrium following chronic exercise (61 ± 9 vs. 34 ± 8 fmol/mg; p <0.02), but receptor number in membranes from the left ventricle did not change (60 ± 9 vs. 62 ± 4 fmol/mg). There was no change in muscarinic cholinergic receptor number in right atrial membranes following the training period (204 ± 73 vs. 230 ± 92 fmol/mg). Thus, chronic dynamic exercise results in down-regulation of β- adrenergic receptors in the right atrium and is associated with reduced chronotropic responsiveness to exercise and isoproterenol stimulation.
Minimum inhibitory concentration of various single agents and the effect of their combinations against Helicobacter pylori, as estimated by a fast and simple in vitro assay method.

OBJECTIVES Fast and simple in vitro methods of accurately assaying anti-Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) activity are needed to facilitate the selection of optimal drugs for the eradication of H. pylori. With that purpose in mind, we developed a broth microdilution technique that uses a 96-well flat-bottom microplate. METHODS Clinical isolates of H. pylori were placed in 25-cm2 tissue culture flasks and were grown in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air at 37 degrees C and 100% humidity. Then they were inoculated in 96-well flat-bottom microplates. After 24 h, the bacterial growth was assessed by automatic measurement at A450 with a microplate reader. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 11 drugs against H. pylori and the effect of two-drug combinations were respectively evaluated by the broth microdilution technique and by calculating the fractional inhibitory concentration index according to the checkerboard titration method. RESULTS The MICs of all drugs tested with this system roughly agreed with those of previous reports in which the agar dilution method was used. The MIC of lansoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor, was low (0.88 microg/ml) and surpassed that of metronidazole (3.15 microg/ml). The effect of the combination of macrolide antibiotics with tetracycline was favorable. The proton pump inhibitor demonstrated a strong additive effect with macrolide antibiotics and fostered the activity of ecabet sodium (mucosal protective agent). CONCLUSION This system could estimate the MIC of individual drugs quickly and simply, and could accurately measure the efficacy of two-drug combinations in vitro.
Identifying Contradictory and Contrastive Relations between Statements to Outline Web Information on a Given Topic

We present a method for producing a bird's-eye view of statements that are expressed on Web pages on a given topic. This method aggregates statements that are relevant to the topic, and shows contradictory and contrastive relations among them. This view of contradictions and contrasts helps users acquire a top-down understanding of the topic. To realize this, we extract such statements and relations, including cross-document implicit contrastive relations between statements, in an unsupervised manner. Our experimental results indicate the effectiveness of our approach.
Speechdat-e: five eastern european speech databases for voice-operated teleservices completed

In the Speechdat-E project five medium large telephone speech databases have been collected for Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Slovak. The project was recently concluded. This paper reports briefly on the contents of the databases, elaborates on experiences gained from the data recordings and from the validation of the databases. The availability of the databases to the public is addressed, too.
Snail and Slug Play Distinct Roles during Breast Carcinoma Progression

Purpose: Carcinoma progression is linked to a partially dedifferentiated epithelial cell phenotype. As previously suggested, this regulation could involve transcription factors, Snail and Slug, known to promote epithelial-mesenchymal transitions during development. Here, we investigate the role of Snail and Slug in human breast cancer progression. Experimental Design: We analyzed Snail, Slug, and E-cadherin RNA expression levels and protein localization in large numbers of transformed cell lines and breast carcinomas, examined the correlation with tumor histologic features, and described, at the cellular level, Snail and Slug localization in carcinomas using combined in situ hybridization and immunolocalization. Results: In contrast with transformed cell lines, Slug was found to colocalize with E-cadherin at the cellular level in normal mammary epithelial cells and all tested carcinomas. Snail also colocalized at the cellular level with E-cadherin in tumors expressing high levels of Snail RNA. In addition, Snail was significantly expressed in tumor stroma, varying with tumors. Slug and Snail genes were significantly overexpressed in tumors associated with lymph node metastasis. Finally, the presence of semidifferentiated tubules within ductal carcinomas was linked to Slug expression levels similar to or above normal breast samples. Conclusions: These results suggest that Snail or Slug expression in carcinoma cells does not generally preclude significant E-cadherin expression. They emphasize a link between Snail, Slug, and lymph node metastasis in a large sampling of mammary carcinomas, and suggest a role for Slug in the maintenance of semidifferentiated structures. Snail and Slug proteins seem to support distinct tumor invasion modes and could provide new therapeutic targets.
Behavioral state‐specific changes in human hippocampal theta activity

Although there has been extensive examination of the behavioral and physiologie correlates of hippocampal theta activity in animals, the human literature consists of a single case study. We investigated the differential effects of four behavioral states on human hippocampal theta activity in 16 epilepsy surgery patients. Behavioral conditions included resting eyes closed (RC), resting eyes open (RO), eyes open with auditory word activation (AW), and eyes open with visuospatial activation (VS). Hippocampal theta activity decreased during both RO and VS compared to both RC and AW. There were reciprocal changes in delta activity. Comparisons of RO to VS and of RC to AW were nonsignificant. The result demonstrate state-specific changes in human hippocampal theta and are consistent with the animal literature that relates hippocampal theta to sensorimotor integration and forebrain volitional mechanisms.
Hadoop++

MapReduce is a computing paradigm that has gained a lot of attention in recent years from industry and research. Unlike parallel DBMSs, MapReduce allows non-expert users to run complex analytical tasks over very large data sets on very large clusters and clouds. However, this comes at a price: MapReduce processes tasks in a scan-oriented fashion. Hence, the performance of Hadoop --- an open-source implementation of MapReduce --- often does not match the one of a well-configured parallel DBMS. In this paper we propose a new type of system named Hadoop++: it boosts task performance without changing the Hadoop framework at all (Hadoop does not even 'notice it'). To reach this goal, rather than changing a working system (Hadoop), we inject our technology at the right places through UDFs only and affect Hadoop from inside. This has three important consequences: First, Hadoop++ significantly outperforms Hadoop. Second, any future changes of Hadoop may directly be used with Hadoop++ without rewriting any glue code. Third, Hadoop++ does not need to change the Hadoop interface. Our experiments show the superiority of Hadoop++ over both Hadoop and HadoopDB for tasks related to indexing and join processing.
A Widely Linear Distortionless Filter for Single-Channel Noise Reduction

Traditionally in the single-channel noise-reduction problem, speech distortion is inevitable since the desired signal is also filtered while filtering the noise. In fact, the more the noise is reduced, the more the speech distortion is added into the desired signal, as proved in the literature. So, if we require no speech distortion, we either end up with no noise reduction at all or have to use multiple sensors. In this paper, we attempt to apply the widely linear (WL) estimation theory to noise reduction. Unlike the traditional approaches that only filter the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) of the noisy signal, the method developed in this paper applies the noise-reduction filter to both the STFT of the noisy signal and its conjugate. With the constraint of no speech distortion, a WL distortionless filter is derived. We show that this new optimal filter can fully take advantage of the noncircularity property of speech signals to achieve up to 3-dB signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) improvement without introducing any speech distortion, which can only be obtained with the traditional approaches if two or more microphones are used.
Evaluation and treatment of chagas disease in the United States: a systematic review.

CONTEXT Because of population migration from endemic areas and newly instituted blood bank screening, US clinicians are likely to see an increasing number of patients with suspected or confirmed chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection (Chagas disease). OBJECTIVE To examine the evidence base and provide practical recommendations for evaluation, counseling, and etiologic treatment of patients with chronic T cruzi infection. Evidence Acquisition Literature review conducted based on a systematic MEDLINE search for all available years through 2007; review of additional articles, reports, and book chapters; and input from experts in the field. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS The patient newly diagnosed with Chagas disease should undergo a medical history, physical examination, and resting 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) with a 30-second lead II rhythm strip. If this evaluation is normal, no further testing is indicated; history, physical examination, and ECG should be repeated annually. If findings suggest Chagas heart disease, a comprehensive cardiac evaluation, including 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring, echocardiography, and exercise testing, is recommended. If gastrointestinal tract symptoms are present, barium contrast studies should be performed. Antitrypanosomal treatment is recommended for all cases of acute and congenital Chagas disease, reactivated infection, and chronic T cruzi infection in individuals 18 years or younger. In adults aged 19 to 50 years without advanced heart disease, etiologic treatment may slow development and progression of cardiomyopathy and should generally be offered; treatment is considered optional for those older than 50 years. Individualized treatment decisions for adults should balance the potential benefit, prolonged course, and frequent adverse effects of the drugs. Strong consideration should be given to treatment of previously untreated patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection or those expecting to undergo organ transplantation. CONCLUSIONS Chagas disease presents an increasing challenge for clinicians in the United States. Despite gaps in the evidence base, current knowledge is sufficient to make practical recommendations to guide appropriate evaluation, management, and etiologic treatment of Chagas disease.
RADIO COUNTERPARTS OF COMPACT BINARY MERGERS DETECTABLE IN GRAVITATIONAL WAVES: A SIMULATION FOR AN OPTIMIZED SURVEY

Mergers of binary neutron stars and black hole–neutron star binaries produce gravitational-wave (GW) emission and outflows with significant kinetic energies. These outflows result in radio emissions through synchrotron radiation. We explore the detectability of these synchrotron-generated radio signals by follow-up observations of GW merger events lacking a detection of electromagnetic counterparts in other wavelengths. We model radio light curves arising from (i) sub-relativistic merger ejecta and (ii) ultra-relativistic jets. The former produce radio remnants on timescales of a few years and the latter produce γ-ray bursts in the direction of the jet and orphan-radio afterglows extending over wider angles on timescales of weeks. Based on the derived light curves, we suggest an optimized survey at 1.4 GHz with five epochs separated by a logarithmic time interval. We estimate the detectability of the radio counterparts of simulated GW-merger events to be detected by advanced LIGO and Virgo by current and future radio facilities. The detectable distances for these GW merger events could be as high as 1 Gpc. Around 20%–60% of the long-lasting radio remnants will be detectable in the case of the moderate kinetic energy of erg and a circum-merger density of or larger, while 5%–20% of the orphan-radio afterglows with kinetic energy of 1048 erg will be detectable. The detection likelihood increases if one focuses on the well-localizable GW events. We discuss the background noise due to radio fluxes of host galaxies and false positives arising from extragalactic radio transients and variable active galactic nuclei, and we show that the quiet radio transient sky is of great advantage when searching for the radio counterparts.
Expression profiling identifies dysregulation of myosin heavy chains IIb and IIx during limb immobilization in the soleus muscles of old rats

Aged individuals suffer from multiple dysfunctions during skeletal muscle atrophy. The purpose of this study was to determine differential changes in gene expression in atrophied soleus muscle induced by hindlimb immobilization in young (3–4 months) and old (30–31 months) rats. The hypothesis was that differentially expressed mRNAs with age‐atrophy interactions would reveal candidates that induce loss of function responses in aged animals. Each muscle was applied to an independent set of Affymetrix micoarrays, with 385 differentially expressed mRNAs with atrophy and 354 age‐atrophy interactions detected by two‐factor ANOVA (α of 0.05 with a Bonferroni adjustment). Functional trends were observed for 23 and 15 probe sets involved in electron transport and the extracellular matrix, respectively, decreasing more in the young than in the old. Other functional categories with atrophy in both ages included chaperones, glutathione‐S‐transferases, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, reductions in Z‐line‐associated proteins and increases in probe sets for protein degradation. Surprisingly, myosin heavy chain IIb and IIx mRNAs were suppressed in the atrophied soleus muscle of old rats as opposed to the large increases in the young animals (16‐ and 25‐fold, respectively, with microarrays, and 61‐ and 68‐fold, respectively, with real‐time PCR). No significant changes were observed in myosin heavy chain IIb and IIx mRNA with micoarrays in the atrophied soleus muscles of old rats, but they were found to increase six‐ and fivefold, respectively, with real‐time PCR. Therefore, deficiencies in pre‐translational signals that normally upregulate myosin heavy chain IIb and IIx mRNAs during atrophy may exist in the soleus muscle of old animals.
Treatment of Gastroparesis: An Update

Gastroparesis is a chronic disorder of gastric motility that is characterized by delayed emptying of either solids or liquids from the stomach in the absence of any mechanical obstruction. Nausea, vomiting, early satiety and bloating are some of the manifestations of gastroparesis. Idiopathic, diabetes mellitus and postsurgical states account for the majority of cases. Gastroparesis is a difficult condition to treat. Prokinetic drugs like metoclopramide and erythromycin form the mainstay of therapy but are less than ideal. Some patients may benefit from endoscopic botolinium toxin injection. Gastric electrical stimulation, though promising, is not ready for prime time yet.
Multimedia communication techniques for remote cable-based video-surveillance systems

This paper aims at presenting a study of costs and performance concerning different multimedia communication techniques that can be employed in the context of the implementation of 2/sup nd/ generation remote video-surveillance systems using wired cable TV networks as a communication means. The multimedia information is acquired by video sensors and transmitted through the CATV network to a remote control centre, where a PC-based image processing architecture performs the image processing tasks needed by the implementation of the foreseen system functionalities. The paper will show some possible analogue and digital solutions to the problems concerning the real-time multimedia data transmission in generic cable-based AVS applications. Laboratory simulations of multimedia data transmission over upstream noisy channels have been performed in order to test the performance in terms of quality of the received images provided by the most advanced high-speed commercial cable modem systems.
Cross-Layer Design of FDD-OFDM Systems Based on ACK/NAK Feedbacks

It is well known that cross-layer scheduling which adapts power, rate and user allocation can achieve significant gain on system capacity. However, conventional cross-layer designs all require channel state information at the base station (CSIT) which is difficult to obtain in practice. In this paper, we focus on cross-layer resource optimization based on ACK/NAK feedback flows in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems without explicit CSIT. While the problem can be modeled as Markov decision process (MDP), brute-force approach by policy iteration or value iteration cannot lead to any viable solution. Thus, we derive a simple closed-form solution for the MDP cross-layer problem, which is asymptotically optimal for sufficiently small target packet error rate (PER). The proposed solution also has low complexity and is suitable for real-time implementation. It is also shown to achieve significant performance gain compared with systems that do not utilize the ACK/NAK feedbacks for cross-layer designs or cross-layer systems that utilize very unreliable CSIT for adaptation with mismatch in CSIT error statistics. Asymptotic analysis is also provided to obtain useful design insights.
Nitric Oxide Protects Neuroblastoma Cells from Apoptosis Induced by Serum Deprivation through cAMP-response Element-binding Protein (CREB) Activation*

The transcription factor cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) mediates survival in many cells, including neurons. Recently, death of cerebellar granule neurons due to nitric oxide (NO) deprivation was shown to be accompanied by down-regulation of CREB activity (1). We now provide evidence that overproduction of endogenous NO or supplementation with exogenous NO renders SK-N-BE human neuroblastoma cells more resistant to apoptosis induced by serum deprivation. Parental cells underwent apoptosis after 24 h of serum deprivation, an outcome largely absent in clones overexpressing human neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). This protective effect was reversed by the inhibition of NOS itself or soluble guanylyl cyclase, pointing at cGMP as an intermediate effector of NO-mediated rescue. A slow-releasing NO donor protected parental cells to a significant extent, thus confirming the survival effect of NO. The impaired viability of serum-deprived parental cells was accompanied by a strong decrease of CREB phosphorylation and transcriptional activity, effects significantly attenuated in nNOS-overexpressing clones. To confirm the role of CREB in survival, the ectopic expression of CREB and/or protein kinase A largely counteracted serum deprivation-induced cell death of SK-N-BE cells, whereas transfection with a CREB negative mutant was ineffective. These experiments indicate that CREB activity is an important step for NO-mediated survival in neuronal cells.