Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measurement of dietary intake in children

When children and adolescents are the target population in dietary surveys many different respondent and observer considerations surface. The cognitive abilities required to self-report food intake include an adequately developed concept of time, a good memory and attention span, and a knowledge of the names of foods. From the age of 8 years there is a rapid increase in the ability of children to self-report food intake. However, while cognitive abilities should be fully developed by adolescence, issues of motivation and body image may hinder willingness to report. Ten validation studies of energy intake data have demonstrated that mis-reporting, usually in the direction of under-reporting, is likely. Patterns of under-reporting vary with age, and are influenced by weight status and the dietary survey method used. Furthermore, evidence for the existence of subject-specific responding in dietary assessment challenges the assumption that repeated measurements of dietary intake will eventually obtain valid data. Unfortunately, the ability to detect mis-reporters, by comparison with presumed energy requirements, is limited unless detailed activity information is available to allow the energy intake of each subject to be evaluated individually. In addition, high variability in nutrient intakes implies that, if intakes are valid, prolonged dietary recording will be required to rank children correctly for distribution analysis. Future research should focus on refining dietary survey methods to make them more sensitive to different ages and cognitive abilities. The development of improved techniques for identification of mis-reporters and investigation of the issue of differential reporting of foods should also be given priority.
Coarse-to-Fine Lifted MAP Inference in Computer Vision

There is a vast body of theoretical research on lifted inference in probabilistic graphical models (PGMs). However, few demonstrations exist where lifting is applied in conjunction with top of the line applied algorithms. We pursue the applicability of lifted inference for computer vision (CV), with the insight that a globally optimal (MAP) labeling will likely have the same label for two symmetric pixels. The success of our approach lies in efficiently handling a distinct unary potential on every node (pixel), typical of CV applications. This allows us to lift the large class of algorithms that model a CV problem via PGM inference. We propose a generic template for coarse-to-fine (C2F) inference in CV, which progressively refines an initial coarsely lifted PGM for varying quality-time trade-offs. We demonstrate the performance of C2F inference by developing lifted versions of two near state-of-the-art CV algorithms for stereo vision and interactive image segmentation. We find that, against flat algorithms, the lifted versions have a much superior anytime performance, without any loss in final solution quality.
Egress modeling with cellular discrete event system

The Discrete-Event Modeling and Simulation (DEVS) formalism has been successfully used to model systems whose behavioral state changes based on trigger events. The purpose of this project is to explore the extension of DEVS beyond the modeling of event driven systems, focusing on the application of DEVS to changes in human behavior as driven by emergency events. The objective is to build a modeling and simulation framework for human behavior in emergencies that could easily be extended and built upon in the future. Here we introduce the development of a suite of Cell-DEVS models representing aspects of human behaviors, and the simulation and a detailed analysis of this suite of models. This suite of models explored random and controlled human behaviors, as well as implementing psychological conditions such as herd following. The end state is the development of a repository for these models to serve the DEVS community.
Animal ‘language’ research: The perpetuation of some old mistakes

Given the nature of their training and their special expertise, both philosophers and linguists appear to be predestined to provide answers to one or both of the following closely related questions posed by Noam Chomsky in relation to animal language research: 'What is a language? ' and 'What is a human language? ' (Chomsky 1979: 31). As I happen to be a philosopher of science äs well äs a linguist, readers may reasonably expect me to discuss these questions in the following pages, and to try to suggest some fairly reliable and authoritative take-home Solutions to the specific problems these questions entail. Although it can be readily admitted that, at least at a first glance, Chomsky's questions appear to be of immediate relevance to, and might become quite consequential for, the broader issue of whether animals can comprehend and use language or what some have called 'language-like Systems', I have decided for several reasons not to attempt a discussion of those questions in connection with contemporary animal language research. The first of these reasons is purely pragmatic: the issues raised by Chomsky's questions are far too complicated and controversial to be properly treated within the scope of the present paper. Secondly, most people involved, in one way or another, in the protracted controversies around the merits, purposes, and achievements of contemporary animal language research usually complicate matters by carrying their own respective private language definitions into that debate, and requesting that their specific definitions be adopted and considered rational and reasonable by everyone eise involved. In addition to this terminological and conceptual imperialism, these competing and enormously varying definitions of what constitutes language frequently are not independent of the debaters' respective preconceived attitudes toward the usefulness and quality of contemporary animal language research. Thus, many of those who themselves are actively engaged in that kind of research have defined language' in such a way that whatever their animal subjects might produce would easily qualify äs evidence of linguistic capacity. On the
Predicate Argument Structure Analysis Using Transformation Based Learning

Maintaining high annotation consistency in large corpora is crucial for statistical learning; however, such work is hard, especially for tasks containing semantic elements. This paper describes predicate argument structure analysis using transformation-based learning. An advantage of transformation-based learning is the readability of learned rules. A disadvantage is that the rule extraction procedure is time-consuming. We present incremental-based, transformation-based learning for semantic processing tasks. As an example, we deal with Japanese predicate argument analysis and show some tendencies of annotators for constructing a corpus with our method.
The Mixed-Radix Chinese Remainder Theorem and Its Applications to Residue Comparison

The Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) and mixed-radix conversion (MRC) are two classic theorems used to convert a residue number to its binary correspondence for a given moduli set {<i>P</i> <sub>n</sub>,. ,<i>P</i> <sub>2</sub>, <i>P</i> <sub>1</sub>}. The MRC is a weighted number system and it requires operations modulo <i>P</i> <sub>i</sub> only and hence magnitude comparison is easily performed. However, the calculation of the mixed-radix coefficients in the MRC is a strictly sequential process and involves complex divisions. Thus the residue-to-binary (R/B) conversions and residue comparisons based on the MRC require large delay. In contrast, the R/B conversion and residue comparison based on the CRT are fully parallel processes. However, the CRT requires large operations modulo <i>M</i> = <i>P</i> <sub>n</sub>,. ,<i>P</i> <sub>2</sub> <i>P</i> <sub>1</sub>. In this paper, a new mixed-radix CRT is proposed which possesses both the advantages of the CRT and the MRC, which are parallel processing, small operations modulo <i>P</i> <sub>i</sub> only, and the efficiency of making modulo comparison. Based on the proposed CRT, new residue comparators are developed for the three-moduli set {2<sup>n</sup> - 1, 2<sup>n</sup>, 2<sup>n</sup> + 1}. The FPGA implementation results show that the proposed modulo comparators are about 20% faster and smaller than one of the previous best designs.
Predictive text input in a mobile shopping assistant: methods and interface design

The fundamental nature of grocery shopping makes it an interesting domain for intelligent mobile assistants. Even though the central role of shopping lists is widely recognized, relatively little attention has been paid to facilitating shopping list creation and management. In this paper we introduce a predictive text input technique that is based on association rules and item frequencies. We also describe an interface design for integrating the predictive text input with a web-based mobile shopping assistant. In a user study we compared two interfaces, one with text input support and one without. Our results indicate that, even though shopping list entries are typically short, our technique makes text input significantly faster, decreases typing error rates and increases overall user satisfaction.
Comparison of Efficacy of Enucleation and Pancreaticoduodenectomy for Small (<3 cm) Branch Duct Type Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm Located at the Head of Pancreas and the Uncinate Process

Purpose Accurate indications and the extent of surgery for branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas are still debatable. In particular, small tumor is located at the head portion of pancreas presents a dilemma. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of enucleation (EN) with that of pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) in patients with small (2 cm<size<3 cm) branch duct IPMN located at the head of pancreas or uncinate process. Materials and Methods Among 155 patients who underwent pancreatic surgery due to pancreatic cystic tumors between January 2000 and December 2007 at Yonsei University Health System in Seoul, Korea, 14 patients with small (2 cm<size<3 cm) branch duct IPMN located at the head of pancreas or uncinate process were included in this study. Ten patients underwent PD, and four patients underwent EN. We compared short term surgical outcomes between the two groups. Correlation of the variables was analyzed using Mann-Whitney test and Fisher's exact test (SPSS Window 12.0). p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results The average age was 62.21 years (±6.71 years) and consisted of 8 men and 6 women. The mean operation time and blood loss were significantly lower in EN group. There were no significant differences in other surgical morbidities. Conclusion The result suggests that enucleation for small branch duct IPMN located at the head of pancreas or uncinate process is feasible and as safe as PD, despite a high rate of minor complications.
Does Psychoeducation Improve Insight of Patients with Schizophrenia

Objective: The main aim of the study was to determine the effect of psychoeducation program on insight of patients with schizophrenia and to determine other factors associated with the change of the insight. Methods: This was an interventional study of 70 patients with schizophrenia who underwent a psychoeducation program. Diagnosis was confirmed using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I). Insight was assessed using the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight (SAI) before and after the psychoeducation programme. Effect on insight was measured as the change in SAI scores. Results: There was an improvement in insight after the psychoeducation programme which was significant (p Conclusion: Psychoeducation is an important tool in improving insight into illness among patients with schizophrenia. It needs to be given as early as possible during the course of the illness.
Efficacy and tolerability of an ulcer compression stocking for therapy of chronic venous ulcer compared with a below-knee compression bandage: results from a prospective, randomized, multicentre trial

SUMMARY Objective: To investigate the possibility of improving healing rates in ulcus cruris venosum by using an ulcer compression stocking (U-Stocking) (Venotrain* ulcertec) as compared to compression bandages. Research design and setting: Prospective, multicentre, open-labelled, randomized, active-controlled study with blinded assessment of the primary endpoint. Sixteen phlebology outpatient clinics in Germany or the Netherlands or German medical practices specialized in phlebology. Patients and methods: 134 patients with venous leg ulcers entered the study. Among others, patients with infected ulcer or obesity were excluded. 121 patients were eligible for primary efficacy analyses. U-Stocking or bandages applied for at least eight hours per day and for up to 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was the healing rate after 12 weeks as assessed by planimetric measures. The secondary outcome variables were time to healing, changes in ulcer size (planimetry), experience of use and patient compliance. Main outcome measures: Therapy with the U-Stocking produced a significantly higher rate of complete healing of 47.5% (29/61) versus 31.7% (19/60) with bandages, 1-sided p = 0.0129 [CI: 95% for differences: 4.3% to 28.5%]. Mean time to healing was 46 days in both groups. Time required for application of the U-Stocking was a mean of 5.4 min (SD 5.4) versus 8.5 min (SD 6.5) for bandages, p = 0.0001. Around three patients in each treatment group were affected by serious adverse events. All treatment-related adverse events are known for compression therapy. Conclusions: The U-Stocking was superior to bandages in compression therapy for venous ulcer. This is of significance to new treatment standards as well as to future studies of longer term therapy (> 12 weeks) for unhealed ulcers or prevention of recurrence.
Outage performance of secure multicasting in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers

Recently, there has been a growing interest in applying multiple antennas to achieve information-theoretic security in wireless communication networks. In this paper, we consider the transmission of common confidential data from a single-antenna transmitter to multiple multi-antenna receivers in the presence of multiple multi-antenna eavesdroppers. Both the receivers and eavesdroppers employ maximal-ratio combining (MRC) to combine the signals received at multiple antennas. For the considered system, we derive its connection outage probability and secrecy outage probability to characterize the reliability level and the security level, respectively. Numerical results are also provided to analyze the tradeoff among the reliability and security performances and the number of antennas (or nodes) of either receivers or eavesdroppers.
Understanding Internet topology: principles, models, and validation

Building on a recent effort that combines a first-principles approach to modeling router-level connectivity with a more pragmatic use of statistics and graph theory, we show in this paper that for the Internet, an improved understanding of its physical infrastructure is possible by viewing the physical connectivity as an annotated graph that delivers raw connectivity and bandwidth to the upper layers in the TCP/IP protocol stack, subject to practical constraints (e.g., router technology) and economic considerations (e.g., link costs). More importantly, by relying on data from Abilene, a Tier-1 ISP, and the Rocketfuel project, we provide empirical evidence in support of the proposed approach and its consistency with networking reality. To illustrate its utility, we: 1) show that our approach provides insight into the origin of high variability in measured or inferred router-level maps; 2) demonstrate that it easily accommodates the incorporation of additional objectives of network design (e.g., robustness to router failure); and 3) discuss how it complements ongoing community efforts to reverse-engineer the Internet.
Hepatoprotective Effect of Otostegia persica Boiss. Shoot Extract on Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Acute Liver Damage in Rats

In this study, the hepatoprotective effect of the methanol extract of aerial parts (shoot) from Otostegia persica Boiss (Golder) was investigated against the carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced acute hepatotoxicity in male rats. Liver damage was induced through the oral administration of 50% CCl4 in liquid paraffin (2.5 mL/Kg bw, per os) 60 min after the administration of the methanol extract of O. persica shoot (in 200, 300, 400 mg/Kg bw doses) and assessed using biochemical parameters (plasma and liver tissue malondialdehyde (MDA), transaminase enzyme levels in plasma [aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT)] and liver glutathione (GSH) levels). Results show that the methanol extract of O. persica shoot is active at 300 mg/Kg (per os) and it possess remarkable antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities. Additionally, histopathological studies verified the effectiveness of this dose of extract in acute liver damage prevention.
ON THE ORIGIN OF MODULAR VARIATION

Abstract We study the dynamics of modularization in a minimal substrate. A module is a functional unit relatively separable from its surrounding structure. Although it is known that modularity is useful both for robustness and for evolvability (Wagner 1996), there is no quantitative model describing how such modularity might originally emerge. Here we suggest, using simple computer simulations, that modularity arises spontaneously in evolutionary systems in response to variation, and that the amount of modular separation is logarithmically proportional to the rate of variation. Consequently, we predict that modular architectures would appear in correlation with high environmental change rates. Because this quantitative model does not require any special substrate to occur, it may also shed light on the origin of modular variation in nature. This observed relationship also indicates that modular design is a generic phenomenon that might be applicable to other fields, such as engineering: Engineering design methods based on evolutionary simulation would benefit from evolving to variable, rather than stationary, fitness criteria, as a weak and problem-independent method for inducing modularity.
Bandwidth-delay based routing algorithms

Multimedia applications often require guaranteed quality of service and resource reservation, which has raised a number of challenging technical issues for routing. We consider two new routing algorithms based on bandwidth and delay metrics. The implications of routing metrics on path computation are examined and the rationales behind the selection of bandwidth and delay metrics are discussed. Two new routing algorithms based on bandwidth and delay metrics are presented and some of their important properties are investigated.
High iron requirement for growth, photosynthesis, and low-light acclimation in the coastal cyanobacterium Synechococcus bacillaris

Iron limits carbon fixation in much of the modern ocean due to the very low solubility of ferric iron in oxygenated ocean waters. We examined iron-limitation of growth rate under varying light intensities in the coastal cyanobacterium Synechococcus bacillaris, a descendent of the oxygenic phototrophs that evolved ca. 3 billion years ago when the ocean was reducing and iron was present at much higher concentrations as soluble Fe(II). Decreasing light intensity increased the cellular iron:carbon (Fe:C) ratio needed to support a given growth rate, indicating that iron and light may co-limit the growth of Synechococcus in the ocean, as shown previously for eukaryotic phytoplankton. The cellular Fe:C ratios needed to support a given growth rate were 5- to 8-fold higher than ratios for coastal eukaryotic algae growing under the same light conditions. The higher iron requirements for growth in the coastal cyanobacterium may be largely caused by the high demand for iron in photosynthesis, and to higher ratios of iron-rich photosystem I to iron-poor photosystem II in Synechococcus than in eukaryotic algae. This high iron requirement may also be vestigial and represent an adaptation to the much higher iron levels in the ancient reducing ocean. Due to the high cellular iron requirement for photosynthesis and growth, and for low light acclimation, Synechococcus may be excluded from many low-iron and low-light environments. Indeed, it decreases rapidly with depth within the ocean’s deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) where iron and light levels are low, and lower-iron requiring picoeukaryotes typically dominate the biomass of phytoplankton community within the mid to lower DCM.
Displaced ganglion cells and the accessory optic system of pigeon

The central projection and retinal distribution of displaced ganglion cells (DGC's) are described for the pigeon. Discrete, localized injections of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into the nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) complex labeled as many as 4,800 DGC's in the contralateral retina. The greatest densities of DGC's were observed in the more peripheral regions of the middle and inferior temporal regions of the retina, with lowest densities occurring in the inferior nasal, red field, and foveal areas. Large HRP injections of the tectal lobes, which did not include the pretectal, accessory optic (nBOR), hypothalamic, or thalamic visual nuclei, labeled only ganglion cells within the ganglion cell layer. An HRP injection centered within the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali, also including portions of the optic tectum and optic tract, labeled only ganglion cells within the ganglion cell layer of the contralateral retina. DGC's thus appear to be the primary, if not exclusive, source of retinal afferents to the nBOR complex in pigeon. The observed retinal distribution of DGC's indicates that the areas of retina with the greatest density of cells in the receptor layer, inner nuclear layer, and ganglion cell layer are relatively devoid of DGC's. Since the nBOR complex projects directly upon the vestibulocerebellum and oculomotor nuclei, DGC's would thus appear to be involved in neural circuits that mediate oculomotor reflexes and visuomotor behavior.
Structure, Function, and Evolution of the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Nucleocapsid Protein

ABSTRACT Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is an emerging tick-borne virus of the Bunyaviridae family that is responsible for a fatal human disease for which preventative or therapeutic measures do not exist. We solved the crystal structure of the CCHFV strain Baghdad-12 nucleocapsid protein (N), a potential therapeutic target, at a resolution of 2.1 Å. N comprises a large globular domain composed of both N- and C-terminal sequences, likely involved in RNA binding, and a protruding arm domain with a conserved DEVD caspase-3 cleavage site at its apex. Alignment of our structure with that of the recently reported N protein from strain YL04057 shows a close correspondence of all folds but significant transposition of the arm through a rotation of 180 degrees and a translation of 40 Å. These observations suggest a structural flexibility that may provide the basis for switching between alternative N protein conformations during important functions such as RNA binding and oligomerization. Our structure reveals surfaces likely involved in RNA binding and oligomerization, and functionally critical residues within these domains were identified using a minigenome system able to recapitulate CCHFV-specific RNA synthesis in cells. Caspase-3 cleaves the polypeptide chain at the exposed DEVD motif; however, the cleaved N protein remains an intact unit, likely due to the intimate association of N- and C-terminal fragments in the globular domain. Structural alignment with existing N proteins reveals that the closest CCHFV relative is not another bunyavirus but the arenavirus Lassa virus instead, suggesting that current segmented negative-strand RNA virus taxonomy may need revision.