Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Smoke-free legislation and hospitalizations for childhood asthma.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that after the adoption of comprehensive smoke-free legislation, there is a reduction in respiratory symptoms among workers in bars. However, it is not known whether respiratory disease is also reduced among people who do not have occupational exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. The aim of our study was to determine whether the ban on smoking in public places in Scotland, which was initiated in March 2006, influenced the rate of hospital admissions for childhood asthma. METHODS Routine hospital administrative data were used to identify all hospital admissions for asthma in Scotland from January 2000 through October 2009 among children younger than 15 years of age. A negative binomial regression model was fitted, with adjustment for age group, sex, quintile of socioeconomic status, urban or rural residence, month, and year. Tests for interactions were also performed. RESULTS Before the legislation was implemented, admissions for asthma were increasing at a mean rate of 5.2% per year (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9 to 6.6). After implementation of the legislation, there was a mean reduction in the rate of admissions of 18.2% per year relative to the rate on March 26, 2006 (95% CI, 14.7 to 21.8; P<0.001). The reduction was apparent among both preschool and school-age children. There were no significant interactions between hospital admissions for asthma and age group, sex, urban or rural residence, region, or quintile of socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS In Scotland, passage of smoke-free legislation in 2006 was associated with a subsequent reduction in the rate of respiratory disease in populations other than those with occupational exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. (Funded by NHS Health Scotland.)
Contour detection based on multi-scale spatial inhibition and contextual modulation

A multi-scale processing model for contour detection based on the perception mechanism of primary visual cortex (V1) is proposed. At first, responses of V1 cells to contours and orientations are simulated by multi-scale Gabor filters, and multi-scale basic contours are obtained by filter vectors. Then, a three-dimensional (3D) DOG filter extended from its 2D counterpart is used to convolute with the multi-scale basic contours to accomplish inter-scale and intra-scale inhibition. After that, the inhibition results and orientations of multi-scale are combined respectively to obtain integrated contours and integrated orientations. Finally, contextual modulation based on both inhibition and facilitation fields is performed on the nonlinear mapping of integrated contours, and it also considers the weighting of distance and orientation difference, and enhances the colinearity and texture inhibition. Experiments on natural images demonstrate that the proposed model can improve the overall performance effectively in terms of both noise inhibition and accurate contour detection compared with other methods.
Regulation of the Bacillus subtilis Divergent yetL and yetM Genes by a Transcriptional Repressor, YetL, in Response to Flavonoids

ABSTRACT DNA microarray analysis revealed that transcription of the Bacillus subtilis yetM gene encoding a putative flavin adenine dinucleotide-dependent monooxygenase was triggered by certain flavonoids during culture and was derepressed by disruption of the yetL gene in the opposite orientation situated immediately upstream of yetM, which encodes a putative MarR family transcriptional regulator. In vitro analyses, including DNase I footprinting and gel retardation analysis, indicated that YetL binds specifically to corresponding single sites in the divergent yetL and yetM promoter regions, with higher affinity to the yetM region; the former region overlaps the Shine-Dalgarno sequence of yetL, and the latter region contains a perfect 18-bp palindromic sequence (TAGTTAGGCGCCTAACTA). In vitro gel retardation and in vivo lacZ fusion analyses indicated that some flavonoids (kaempferol, apigenin, and luteolin) effectively inhibit YetL binding to the yetM cis sequence, but quercetin, galangin, and chrysin do not inhibit this binding, implying that the 4-hydroxyl group on the B-ring of the flavone structure is indispensable for this inhibition and that the coexistence of the 3-hydroxyl groups on the B- and C-rings does not allow antagonism of YetL.
The Calcium Quandary: How Consumers use Nutrition Labels

It has been a decade since the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act mandated that the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels be formatted with nutrient reference values, namely, percent daily value (%DV). Across a series of three studies, the authors demonstrate that consumers have difficulty using %DV from the Nutrition Facts panel to determine their required calcium intake. These effects are demonstrated in Study 1 with consumers who are at risk for osteoporosis (seniors age 55 and over). In Study 2, the authors provide evidence that physicians dispense calcium recommendations to their patients in milligrams, even though most doctors cannot transform the %DV from the Nutrition Facts panel into milligrams. Study 3 reveals that exposing pregnant and lactating women to easy-to-use information in combination with the Nutrition Facts panel increases their calcium consumption to within the suggested daily recommended range.
A New Route to the Majorana Equation

In this paper, we suggest an alternative strategy to derive the complex two-component Majorana equation with a mass term and elucidate the related Lorentz transformation. The Majorana equation is established completely on its own, rather than derived from the chiral Dirac equation. Thereby, use is made of the complex conjugation operator and Pauli spin matrices only. The eigenfunctions of the two-component complex Majorana equation are also calculated. The associated quantum fields are found to describe particles and antiparticles, which have opposite mean helicities and are not their own antiparticles, but correspond to two independent degrees of freedom. The four-component real Dirac equation in its Majorana representation is shown to be the natural outcome of the two-component complex Majorana equation. Both types of equations come in two forms, which correspond to the irreducible left- and right-chiral representations of the Lorentz group.
Towards a Pattern Language for Learning Management Systems

Learning Management Systems are sophisticated web-based applications that are being engineered today in increasing numbers by numerous institutions and companies that want to get involved in e-learning either for providing services to third parties, or for educating and training their own people. Even though the construction of such systems has been taking place for many years, they are still designed and developed from scratch. The reason is that experience from previous Learning Management Systems, is not codified or documented, resulting in forcing the development teams to ‘re-invent the wheel’. This paper presents an approach of recording design experience in the form of design patterns for Learning Management Systems and aims at developing a pattern language for these systems.
comparative prosodic study of questions in french in contact with occitan and catalan

Philippe Boula de Mareüil, Albert Rilliard, Fanny Ivent, Varvara Kozhevina LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, França __________________________________________________________________________ Abstract In the south of France, the French language has developed in contact with Occitan in Provence and Languedoc, in contact with Catalan in Roussillon. This study reports on a first analysis of data collected in these regions, during a field survey carried out among speakers of Occitan and Catalan, in addition to French. In particular, we compared the prosody of yes/no questions ending in a word stressed on the penultimate syllable (e.g caserna ‘barracks’ in Occitan or Catalan, caserne with a pronounced final schwa in southern French). On the last two syllables of questions, it turns out that the rising-rising pitch pattern is the most common and, according to a perception experiment using prosody modification/resynthesis, that it is preferred to a falling-rising pattern by southern French listeners (without significant differences between Provence and Languedoc). A falling-rising pattern was also observed in Roussillon, possibly resulting from a prosodic transfer from Catalan to French. It was not associated with that region by southern French listeners who took part in a second perceptual experiment. Yet, the intonation patterns found may have different functions: the rising-rising pattern, especially, is most often interpreted as a confirmation query.
Forwarding Tables Verification through Representative Header Sets

Forwarding table verification consists in checking the distributed data-structure resulting from the forwarding tables of a network. A classical concern is the detection of loops. We study this problem in the context of software-defined networking (SDN) where forwarding rules can be arbitrary bitmasks (generalizing prefix matching) and where tables are updated by a centralized controller. Basic verification problems such as loop detection are NP-hard and most previous work solves them with heuristics or SAT solvers. We follow a different approach based on computing a representation of the header classes, i.e. the sets of headers that match the same rules. This representation consists in a collection of representative header sets, at least one for each class, and can be computed centrally in time which is polynomial in the number of classes. Classical verification tasks can then be trivially solved by checking each representative header set. In general, the number of header classes can increase exponentially with header length, but it remains polynomial in the number of rules in the practical case where rules are constituted with predefined fields where exact, prefix matching or range matching is applied in each field (e.g., IP/MAC addresses, TCP/UDP ports). We propose general techniques that work in polynomial time as long as the number of classes of headers is polynomial and that do not make specific assumptions about the structure of the sets associated to rules. The efficiency of our method rely on the fact that the data-structure representing rules allows efficient computation of intersection, cardinal and inclusion. Finally, we propose an algorithm to maintain such representation in presence of updates (i.e., rule insert/update/removal). We also provide a local distributed algorithm for checking the absence of black-holes and a proof labeling scheme for locally checking the absence of loops.
Elongation of the fertilization tubule in Chlamydomonas: new observations on the core microfilaments and the effect of transient intracellular signals on their structural integrity

Experimental manipulations of gametes of Chlamydomonas reinhardi and ultrastructural observation were used to examine the composition of the microfilaments in the fertilization tubule, their probable mode of formation, and their interaction with intracellular signals. Decoration with myosin subfragment-1 was used to demonstrate that the microfilaments in the fertilization tubule were actin filaments having uniform polarity: Myosin subfragment-1 arrowheads pointed away from the membrane at the tip of the process. Filaments were attached to the cone- shaped "doublet zone" at the base of the process by their pointed ends. Discrete attachment sites for filaments on the surface of the doublet zone were seen in stereo view. To test whether actin polymerization might accompany elongation of the fertilization tubule, mating gametes were exposed to cytochalasin D in an attempt to block actin polymerization. Treatment of mating type "plus" gametes with cytochalasin D prior to and during mating inhibited the appearance of actin filaments in fertilization tubules, suppressed fertilization tubule outgrowth, and lowered mating efficiency from 90 to 15%. The role of signals generated by flagellar adhesion in maintaining the structural integrity of the microfilament-doublet zone complex was examined by correlating flagellar disadhesion with the kinetics of breakdown of the complex. In zygotes, where flagellar disadhesion occurred after cell fusion, the complex disassembled within 3 h after mating. In gametes that had been agglutinated by isolated mating type "minus" flagella, microfilaments and fertilization tubules progressively disassembled over a 3-h time course following flagellar disadhesion. Disassembly of microfilaments was inhibited by maintaining flagellar agglutination, suggesting that signals generated by flagellar adhesion were necessary to maintain microfilaments intact.
IMPLEMENTATION OF ELEMENTARY GEOMETRIC DATABASE OPERATIONS FOR A 3D-GIS

We report on a preliminary study carried out for the development of a 3D-GIS, which is supposed to manage geoscientific data of the Lower Rhine Embayment. The implementation of geometric 3D-operations is fundamental for 3D-GIS. Here we present the realization of an extensible geometric library implemented within an object oriented prototype database kernel system. The spatial representation used for the 3D-objects are extended simplicial complexes. First runtime tests in the database kernel with geometric operations on geological layers and faults are presented. Furthermore, we describe optimizations of the algorithms based on the direct support of the internal topology of the extended complexes.
Analyzing Ensemble Systems for Protected Biometric Data

In this paper, we propose a comparative analysis of the use of cryptography and transformation functions to be used as biometric (signature) template protection methods. The main goal is to investigate the increasement of the biometric dataset security as well as the performance of the protected dataset in the biometric-based systems. We use the well-elaborated structures for pattern recognition (ensembles systems) on unprotected and protected dataset to measure the performance of the biometric template protection methods used in this research. The results would allow us to define the most secure used protection method which keeps an acceptable accuracy level at the same time.
Real-time wide area multi-camera stereo tracking

We present a fully integrated real-time system to track humans with a network of stereo sensors over a wide area. The processing includes single camera tracking and multi-camera fusion. Each single camera detects and tracks humans in its own view and a multi-camera fusion module combines all the local tracks of the same human into a global track. We propose stereo segmentation and tracking techniques to handle multiple humans moving in groups in cluttered environments. We have developed a ground-based fusion method for camera handoff using space-time constraint. We show results and performance evaluation on very challenging data from a 12-camera system.
Dopamine system genes associated with parenting in the context of daily hassles

The current study examined the molecular genetic foundations of sensitive parenting in humans and is the first to test the interaction between genes and environment in modulating parental sensitive responses to children. In a community sample of 176 Caucasian, middle class mothers with their 23‐month‐old toddlers at risk for externalizing behavior problems, the association between daily hassles and sensitive parenting was investigated. We tested whether two dopamine‐related genes, dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) and catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphisms, modulate parents’ vulnerability to the negative influence of daily hassles on sensitive parenting behavior to their offspring. Sensitive parenting was observed in structured settings, and parents reported on their daily hassles through a standard questionnaire. In parents with the combination of genes leading to the least efficient dopaminergic system functioning (COMT val/val or val/met, DRD4‐7Repeat), more daily hassles were associated with less sensitive parenting, and lower levels of daily hassles were associated with more sensitive parenting d = 1.12. The other combinations of COMT and DRD4 polymorphisms did not show significant associations between daily hassles and maternal sensitivity, suggesting differential susceptibility to hassles depending on parents’ dopaminergic system genes. It is concluded that the study of (multiple) gene–environment interactions (in the current case: gene by gene by environment interaction, G × G × E) may explain why some parents are more and others less impacted by daily stresses in responding sensitively to their offspring’s signals.
On correctness of buffer implementations in a concurrent lambda calculus with futures

Motivated by the question of correctness of a specific implementation of concurrent buffers in the lambda calculus with futures underlying Alice ML, we prove that concurrent buffers and handled futures can correctly encode each other. Correctness means that our encodings preserve and reflect the observations of may- and must-convergence, and as a consequence also yields soundness of the encodings with respect to a contextually defined notion of program equivalence. While these translations encode blocking into queuing and waiting, we also describe an adequate encoding of buffers in a calculus without handles, which is more low-level and uses busy-waiting instead of blocking. Furthermore we demonstrate that our correctness concept applies to the whole compilation process from high-level to low-level concurrent languages, by translating the calculus with buffers, handled futures and data constructors into a small core language without those constructs.
Health-education package to prevent worm infections in Chinese schoolchildren.

BACKGROUND Soil-transmitted helminths are among the most prevalent sources of human infections globally. We determined the effect of an educational package at rural schools in Linxiang City District, Hunan province, China, where these worms are prevalent. The intervention aimed to increase knowledge about soil-transmitted helminths, induce behavioral change, and reduce the rate of infection. METHODS We conducted a single-blind, unmatched, cluster-randomized intervention trial involving 1718 children, 9 to 10 years of age, in 38 schools over the course of 1 school year. Schools were randomly assigned to the health-education package, which included a cartoon video, or to a control package, which involved only the display of a health-education poster. Infection rates, knowledge about soil-transmitted helminths (as assessed with the use of a questionnaire), and hand-washing behavior were assessed before and after the intervention. Albendazole was administered in all the participants at baseline and in all the children who were found to be positive for infection with soil-transmitted helminths at the follow-up assessment at the end of the school year. RESULTS At the follow-up assessment, the mean score for the knowledge of helminths, calculated as a percentage of a total of 43 points on a questionnaire, was 90% higher in the intervention group than in the control group (63.3 vs. 33.4, P<0.001), the percentage of children who washed their hands after using the toilet was nearly twice as high in the intervention group (98.9%, vs. 54.2% in the control group; P<0.001), and the incidence of infection with soil-transmitted helminths was 50% lower in the intervention group than in the control group (4.1% vs. 8.4%, P<0.001). No adverse events were observed immediately (within 15 minutes) after albendazole treatment. CONCLUSIONS The health-education package increased students' knowledge about soil-transmitted helminths and led to a change in behavior and a reduced incidence of infection within 1 school year. (Funded by UBS Optimus Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland; Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry number, ACTRN12610000048088.).
Automatic grading of retinal vessel caliber

New clinical studies suggest that narrowing of the retinal blood vessels may be an early indicator of cardiovascular diseases. One measure to quantify the severity of retinal arteriolar narrowing is the arteriolar-to-venular diameter ratio (AVR). The manual computation of AVR is a tedious process involving repeated measurements of the diameters of all arterioles and venules in the retinal images by human graders. Consistency and reproducibility are concerns. To facilitate large-scale clinical use in the general population, it is essential to have a precise, efficient and automatic system to compute this AVR. This paper describes a new approach to obtain AVR. The starting points of vessels are detected using a matched Gaussian filter. The detected vessels are traced with the help of a combined Kalman filter and Gaussian filter. A modified Gaussian model that takes into account the central light reflection of arterioles is proposed to describe the vessel profile. The width of a vessel is obtained by data fitting. Experimental results indicate a 97.1% success rate in the identification of vessel starting points, and a 99.2% success rate in the tracking of retinal vessels. The accuracy of the AVR computation is well within the acceptable range of deviation among the human graders, with a mean relative AVR error of 4.4%. The system has interested clinical research groups worldwide and will be tested in clinical studies.
IP cores for hardware evolution of decision trees

This paper proposes several IP cores for the hardware implementation of the complete decision tree inference algorithm. Evolving decision trees in hardware is motivated by the significant improvement in the evolution time compared to the time needed for software evolution. Several architectures for the hardware evolution of single oblique or nonlinear decision trees are presented. The proposed architectures are suitable for the implementation using both Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC).
A Fully Digital Background Calibration Technique for Pipeline Analog-to-Digital Converters

This paper describes a new Background calibration technique for pipeline analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The new scheme utilizes an existing digital foreground calibration algorithm and extends it to work in background. The goal is to digitally calibrate the pipeline ADCs in the background without stopping the input conversion. In this method one additional stage connected in parallel to the stage under calibration and one cyclic ADC are used to accommodate the calibration. The extra stage and the cyclic ADC are only used during the calibration process. Sources of error in pipeline architectures and effects of error on residue plot of 1-bit per stage are identified and discussed. The digital background calibration accounts for capacitor mismatch, comparator offset, charge injection and finite op-amp gain. By applying proposed calibration to a 12 bit resolution pipeline ADC, maximum INL improved from 14 to 0.6 LSB, and maximum DNL improved from 26 to 0.8 LSB.
Role of executive functioning and literary reapproach for measures of intelligence

Over the years, Intelligence has been a crucial part in Psychological practices.Basic operational definition behind construct of Intelligence proposed by Wechsler (1944), was to act purposefully (Plan and control behaviors) and thinking rationally (organize and direct behavior). This operational definition was afterwards incorporated in measures for intelligence but as these measures were first aligned with academics, a major part of basic definition got overlooked. Previously Intelligence was divided in two major components that are Crystalized and Fluid Intelligence but resent Literary Reaproach was intended to enlighten the basic purpose of Intelligence measures and to highlight the overlooked components of Intelligence.These components are then further aligned with behavioral interpretations of Executive functions.It is proposed that alliance of Fluid Intelligence with Executive Functioning can bring pronounced change in clinical practices and change the bookish views of Intelligence into a functional approach.