Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparative Study of Unsupervised Grapheme-Phoneme Alignment Methods

This paper describes and compares two unsupervised algorithms to automatically align Japanese grapheme and phoneme strings, identifying segment-level correspondences between them. The rst algorithm is inspired by the tf-idf model, including enhancements to handle phonological variation and determine frequency through analysis of \alignment potential". The second algorithm relies on the C4.5 classication system, and makes multiple passes over the alignment data until consistency of output is achieved. In evaluation, the rst algorithm proves to be greatly superior to the second, producing a word accuracy of 96.94%.
Prédiction des habiletés et habitudes de conduite automobile sécuritaire chez les conducteurs âgés : apport de la neuropsychologie clinique

Being both at high risk of fatal crash injury and the fastest growing segment of car drivers, older drivers have become a subject of interest in driving safety research. To improve fitness to drive screening techniques, this simulated car driving study evaluates and compares the predictive value of seven neuropsychological measures and contribution of age in regard to peripheral detection speed in 50 healthy and elderly drivers. Results demonstrated that some neuropsychological predictors did in deed predict detection speed, in particular, during the most challenging condition in which the drivers were distracted by a hands-free cell phone task. The best neuropsychological predictor was represented by a measure of working memory, which outperforms UFOV known as one of the best screening measures of fitness to drive in elderly. On the other hand, detection performances were not predicted by drivers’ age. The results indicate the relevance of a neuropsychological approach in the field of elderly driving ability screening. Key-words: older drivers, cognitive tests, attention skills, predictors, detection task, distraction
The Effect of Estrogen on Bone Requires Er␣ in Nonhematopoietic Cells but Is Enhanced by Er␣ in Hematopoietic Cells

The effect of estrogen on bone requires ER␣ in nonhematopoietic cells but is enhanced by ER␣ in hemato-poietic cells. The effects of estrogen on bone are mediated mainly via estrogen receptor (ER)␣. ER␣ in osteoclasts (hematopoietic origin) is involved in the trabecular bone-sparing effects of estrogen, but conflicting data are reported on the role of ER␣ in osteoblast lineage cells (nonhema-topoietic origin) for bone metabolism. Because Cre-mediated cell-specific gene inactivation used in previous studies might be confounded by nonspecific and/or incomplete cell-specific ER␣ deletion, we herein used an alternative approach to determine the relative importance of ER␣ in hematopoietic (HC) and nonhematopoietic cells (NHC) for bone mass. Chimeric mice with selective inactivation of ER␣ in HC or NHC were created by bone marrow transplantations of wild-type (WT) and ER␣-knockout (ER␣ Ϫ/Ϫ) mice. Estradiol treatment increased both trabecular and cortical bone mass in ovariecto-mized WT/WT (defined as recipient/donor) and WT/ER␣ Ϫ/Ϫ mice but not in ER␣ Ϫ/Ϫ /WT or ER␣ Ϫ/Ϫ /ER␣ Ϫ/Ϫ mice. However, estradiol effects on both bone compartments were reduced (ϳ50%) in WT/ ER␣ Ϫ/Ϫ mice compared with WT/WT mice. The effects of estradiol on fat mass and B lymphopoiesis required ER␣ specifically in NHC and HC, respectively. In conclusion, ER␣ in NHC is required for the effects of estrogen on both trabecular and cortical bone, but these effects are enhanced by ER␣ in HC. estrogen; estrogen receptor-␣; bone marrow transplantation; trabecu-lar bone; cortical bone ESTROGEN REGULATES VARIOUS BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES, and one important target tissue is bone. The reduction in estrogen levels seen at menopause is strongly associated with postmenopausal osteo-porosis, and low estrogen levels have also been associated with low bone mass and increased fracture risk in elderly men (8, 17, 26). The effects of estrogen are mediated primarily via the nuclear estrogen receptors (ERs) ER␣ and ER␤. ER␣ is the main mediator of the trabecular and cortical bone protective effects of estrogen (2, 23). ER␣ expression is found both in nonhematopoietic cells (NHC), including the bone-forming osteoblasts and osteocytes, which are of mesenchymal origin, and in hematopoietic cells (HC), including the bone-resorbing osteoclasts (27). Treatment with estrogen has beneficial effects on bone mass but is associated with several side effects. Therefore, it is important to determine the target cell(s) mediating the positive ER␣-mediated estrogenic effects on bone to be able to separate the positive estrogen effects on bone from the negative side effects. To determine the …
APOC’s strategy of community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) and its potential for providing additional health services to the poorest populations

Abstract Since its inauguration in 1995, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) has made significant progress towards achieving its main objective: to establish sustainable community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) in onchocerciasis-endemic areas outside of the remit of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP). In the year 2000, the programme, in partnership with governments, non-governmental organizations and the endemic communities themselves, succeeded in treating 20,298,138 individuals in 49,654 communities in 63 projects in 14 countries. Besides the distribution of ivermectin, the programme has strengthened primary healthcare (PHC) through capacity-building, mobilization of resources and empowerment of communities. The community-directed-treatment approach is a model that can be adopted in developing other community-based health programmes. The approach has also made it possible to bring to the poor some measure of intervention in some other healthcare programmes, such as those for malaria control, eye care, maternal and child health, nutrition and immunization. CDTI presents, at all stages of its implementation, a unique window of opportunity for promoting the functional integration of healthcare activities. For this to be done successfully and in a co-ordinated manner, adequate funding of CDTI within PHC is as important as an effective sensitization of the relevant policy-makers, healthworkers and communities on the value of integration (accompanied by appropriate training at all levels). Evaluation of the experiences in integration of health services, particularly at community level, is crucial to the success of the integration.
Persistence of Termination for Term Rewriting Systems with Ordered Sorts

A property is persistent if for any many-sorted term rewriting system , has the property if and only if term rewriting system , which results from by omitting its sort information, has the property . Zantema showed that termination is persistent for term rewriting systems without collapsing or duplicating rules. In this paper, we show that the Zantema’s result can be extended to term rewriting systems on ordered sorts, i.e., termination is persistent for term rewriting systems on ordered sorts without collapsing, decreasing or duplicating rules. Furthermore we give the example as application of this result. Also we obtain that completeness is persistent for this class of term rewriting systems.
Real-time traffic information collecting and monitoring system based on the internet of things

Traffic is becoming one of important problems in our society, which is possible to be resolved by the application of the Internet of Things. Based on the analysis of relevant researches on the Internet of Things, this paper proposes the architecture of real-time information collecting and monitoring system. The system integrates several advanced technologies, such as RFID and wireless sensor networks (WSN), to realize the information collection and transmission and processing. Through the design of the hardware and software, the system can collect traffic information and monitor the traffic flow, and finally help to improve the traffic situation.
The effect of birthweight on childhood cognitive development in a middle-income country.

BACKGROUND Intra-uterine growth is a powerful predictor of infant mortality and of health, developmental and socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. The question about whether this relationship is causal rather than driven by unobserved characteristics of low-weight infants is, however, still open. We use twin models to examine the hypothesis that in utero growth has a detrimental impact on cognitive development in childhood. METHODS We merge birth registry information on birthweight with standardized Math and Spanish test scores for all fourth graders in Chile to create a prospective data set. Twin fixed-effects models are used to estimate the causal effect of intra-uterine growth on test scores. Fixed-effect estimates are compared with traditional regression results in a cross-section of births to gauge the omitted variable bias emerging from unobserved genetic, maternal and pregnancy-related factors in cross-sectional models. RESULTS Birthweight differences within twin pairs have a substantial effect on test scores. A 400-g increase in birthweight results in a 15% standard deviation increase in Math scores. The effect is larger among (estimated) monozygotic than dizygotic pairs, reaching >20% standard deviation. The effect varies across family socioeconomic status. It is strong among disadvantaged families but it nearly disappears among advantaged ones. CONCLUSION Scarcity of uterine resources resulting in intra-uterine growth restriction has a detrimental effect on cognitive development in childhood. This effect interacts with family socioeconomic status (SES), so that low-SES families reinforce the effect of low birthweight and high-SES families fully compensate for it. Findings are particularly relevant in the developing world, where intra-uterine growth restriction is the main determinant of low birthweight.
Persistent organic pollutants meet adipose tissue hypoxia: does cross‐talk contribute to inflammation during obesity?

Lipophilic persistent organic pollutants (POPs) accumulate in lipid‐rich tissues such as human adipose tissue. This is particularly problematic in individuals with excess adiposity, a physiological state that may be additionally characterized by local adipose tissue hypoxia. Hypoxic patches occur when oxygen diffusion is insufficient to reach all hypertrophic adipocytes. POPs and hypoxia independently contribute to the development of adipose tissue‐specific and systemic inflammation often associated with obesity. Inflammation is induced by increased proinflammatory mediators such as tumour necrosis factor‐alpha, interleukin‐6, and monocyte chemotactic protein‐1, as well as reduced adiponectin release, an anti‐inflammatory and insulin‐sensitizing adipokine. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates the cellular response to some pollutants, while hypoxia responses occur through the oxygen‐sensitive transcription factor hypoxia‐inducible factor (HIF)‐1. There is some overlap between the two signalling pathways since both require a common subunit called the AhR nuclear translocator. As such, it is unclear how adipocytes respond to simultaneous POP and hypoxia exposure. This brief review explores the independent contribution of POPs and adipose tissue hypoxia as factors underlying the inflammatory response from adipocytes during obesity. It also highlights that the combined effect of POPs and hypoxia through the AhR and HIF‐1 signalling pathways remains to be tested.
Opinion influence and diffusion in social network

Nowadays, more and more people tend to make decisions based on the opinion information from the Internet, in addition to recommendations from offline friends or parents. For example, we may browse the resumes and comments on election candidates to determine if one candidate is qualified, or consult the consumer reports or reviews on special e-commercial websites to decide which brand of computer is suitable for one's needs. Though opinion information is rich on the Internet, [2] points out that 58% of American Internet users deem that online information is irretrievable, confusing, or conflicting with each other. Early works on opinion mining help to classify opinion polarity, to extract specific opinions and to summarize opinion texts. However, all these works are usually based on plain texts (reviews, comments or news articles). With the explosion of Web 2.0 applications, especially social network applications like blogs, discussion forums, micro-blogs, the massive individual users go to the major media websites, which leads to much more opinion materials posted on the Internet by user-shared experiences or views [3]. These opinion-rich and social network-based applications bring new perspectives for opinion mining as well. First, in addition to plain texts (reviews, newswire) in traditional opinion mining, we see new types of cyber-based text, like personal diary blogs, cyber-SMS tweets. Second, if we regard the opinions in plain text as static, the dynamic change of opinions in the social network is a new promising area, and catch increasing attention of worldwide researchers. In the social network, the opinion held by one individual is not static, but changes, which can be influenced by others. A serial of changes among different users forms the opinion propagation or diffusion in the network. This paper and my doctoral work focus on the opinion influence and diffusion in the social network, which explore the detailed process of one-to-one influence and the opinion diffusion process in the social network. The significance of this work is it can benefit many other related researches, like information maximum, viral marketing. Now some pioneering works have been conducted to investigate the role of social networks in information diffusion and influencers in the social network. These works are usually based on information diffusion models, like the cascade model (CM) or epidemic model (EM). However, we argue that it is not enough to simply apply these models to opinion influence and diffusion. 1) For both CM and EM, status shift is along specific directions, from inactive to active (CM) or from susceptible to infectious, and then, to recovered (EM). But opinion influence is more complex.
Induction of Death Receptor CD95 and Co-stimulatory Molecules CD80 and CD86 by Meningococcal Capsular Polysaccharide-Loaded Vaccine Nanoparticles

Neisseria meningitidis is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis and sepsis, and its capsular polysaccharides (CPS) are a major virulence factor in meningococcal infections and form the basis for serogroup designation and protective vaccines. We formulated a novel nanovaccine containing meningococcal CPS as an antigen encapsulated in albumin-based nanoparticles (NPs) that does not require chemical conjugation to a protein carrier. These nanoparticles are taken up by antigen-presenting cells and act as antigen depot by slowly releasing the antigen. In this study, we determined the ability of CPS-loaded vaccine nanoparticles to induce co-stimulatory molecules, namely CD80, CD86, and CD95 that impact effective antigen presentation. Co-stimulatory molecule gene induction and surface expression on macrophages and dendritic cells pulsed with meningococcal CPS-loaded nanoparticles were investigated using gene array and flow cytometry methods. Meningococcal CPS-loaded NP significantly induced the surface protein expression of CD80 and CD86, markers of dendritic cell maturation, in human THP-1 macrophages and in murine dendritic cells DC2.4 in a dose-dependent manner. The massive upregulation was also observed at the gene expression. However, high dose of CPS-loaded NP, but not empty NP, induced the expression of death receptor CD95 (Fas) leading to reduced TNF-α release and reduction in cell viability. The data suggest that high expression of CD95 may lead to death of antigen-presenting cells and consequently suboptimal immune responses to vaccine. The CPS-loaded NP induces the expression of co-stimulatory molecules and acts as antigen depot and can spare antigen dose, highly desirable criteria for vaccine formulations.
Cross-banded filamentous aggregation in the human dermis.

Cross-banded filamentous aggregations (CBFA) with a periodic banding pattern (850–1250 A) have been found frequently in the stroma of squamous cell carcinomas and malignant melanomas of the skin. In these tumors, the aggregations were commonly associated with the basal lamina and abnormal fibrils. No CBFA was found where collagen fibrils did not show degradative changes. Less frequently, CBFAs were found in the skin lesions of primary and secondary amyloidoses, in inflammatory foci of a halo nevus, and in other skin lesions. CBFAs were similar to the Luse's bodies which have previously been found in normal and abnormal tissues of the central nervous system. Although some investigators have equated the aggregates with the fibrous-long-spacing (FLS) type of collagen, FLS collagen prepared in our laboratory showed a longer periodicity (2,200 A) than that of CBFA. Staining with ruthenium red significantly increased the electron density of CBFA, suggesting that CBFA contains acid mucopolysaccharides.
Sperm DNA damage is associated with an increased risk of pregnancy loss after IVF and ICSI: systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Sperm DNA damage is common amongst infertile men and may adversely impact natural reproduction, IUI-assisted reproduction and to a lesser degree IVF pregnancy. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of sperm DNA damage on the risk of spontaneous pregnancy loss after IVF and ICSI. METHODS We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on sperm DNA damage and pregnancy loss after an IVF and/or ICSI pregnancy. RESULTS Two by two tables were constructed and odds ratios (ORs) were derived from 11 estimates of pregnancy loss (five IVF and six ICSI studies from seven reports). These 11 studies involved 1549 cycles of treatment (808 IVF and 741 ICSI cycles) with 640 pregnancies (345 IVF and 295 ICSI) and 122 pregnancy losses. The combined OR of 2.48 (95% CI 1.52, 4.04, P < 0.0001) indicates that sperm DNA damage is predictive of pregnancy loss after IVF and ICSI. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, sperm DNA damage is associated with a significantly increased risk of pregnancy loss after IVF and ICSI. These data provide a clinical indication for the evaluation of sperm DNA damage prior to IVF or ICSI and a rationale for further investigating the association between sperm DNA damage and pregnancy loss.
Differentiation of Soft Bone Strength in Human Femur Radiographic Images Using Sharpness Features and Extreme Learning Machine

In this work, an attempt has been made to analyze human femur radiographic bone images using sharpness features and learning models. The sharpness features are derived for the neck of the femur bone images to characterize the trabecular structure. The significant parameters are found using Independent component analysis (ICA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The first three most significant parameters are used as inputs to the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Evolutionary Extreme Learning Machine (E-ELM) classifiers and the performance of the classifiers and feature selection techniques are analysed. The results demonstrate that it is possible to differentiate normal and abnormal images using sharpness features. Also, the E-ELM classifier using radial basis activation function performs better in terms of classification accuracy (99%) for the features selected using ICA
Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol

"A game-changing look at one of our culture's hidden problems. Honest, brave and inspirational. " -Margaret Trudeau Over the past few decades, the feminist revolution has had enormous ramifications. Women outnumber their male counterparts in postsecondary education in most of the developed world and are about to do the same in the workplace. But what has not been fully documented or explored is that while women have gained equality in many arenas, they have also begun to close the gender gap on risky drinking. Binge drinking among women is on the rise, contributing exponentially to a wide array of health issues--a problem exacerbated by the alcohol industry itself. Battling for women's dollars and leisure time, corporations have developed marketing strategies and products targeted exclusively to women. Girls' Night Out wines, MommyJuice and Mommy's Time Out, and berry-flavoured vodkas and fruit coolers are all aimed at the female consumer. Award-winning journalist Ann Dowsett Johnston illuminates this startling trend; dissects the psychological, social and financial factors that have contributed to its rise; and explores its long-lasting impact on our society and individual lives, including her own. In the bestselling Drink, she interweaves in-depth research and interviews with leading researchers with the moving story of her own struggle with alcohol, as well as those of many other women, from age seventeen to seventy. The result is an unprecedented and bold inquiry that is both informative and shocking.
New heuristic function in Ant Colony System for the Travelling Salesman Problem

Ant Colony System (ACS) is one of the best algorithms to solve NP-hard problems. However, ACS suffers from pheromone stagnation problem when all ants converge quickly on one sub-optimal solution. ACS algorithm utilizes the value between nodes as heuristic values to calculate the probability of choosing the next node. However, one part of the algorithm, called heuristic function, is not updated at any time throughout the process to reflect the new information discovered by the ants. This paper proposes an Enhanced Ant Colony System algorithm for solving the Travelling Salesman Problem. The enhanced algorithm is able to generate shorter tours within reasonable times by using accumulated values from pheromones and heuristics. The proposed enhanced ACS algorithm integrates a new heuristic function that can reflect the new information discovered by the ants. Experiments conducted have used eight data sets from TSPLIB with different numbers of cities. The proposed algorithm shows promising results when compared to classical ACS in term of best, average, and standard deviation of the best tour length.
Ozone generator for prolonging fruits using a full-bridge inverter with high frequency transformer

This paper presents an ozone generator by using a full-bridge inverter for applying in prolonging fruits process. The phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PSPWM) is used in the proposed circuit for adjusting the output power of inverter. In addition, the concentration of ozone will be controlled by adjusting the operating frequency of inverter. In order to prove the mentioned principle, the ozone generator was built and test in laboratory for prolonging mangoes. From the test, the 250 mg/hr of ozone concentration at 24 kHz of switching frequency can prolong the mangoes life satisfyingly more than the other concentrations and the maximum efficiency of inverter is 93.1 %.