Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlation Between Electrode-Tissue Impedance and Motion Artifact in Biopotential Recordings

Ambulatory monitoring of the electrocardiogram (ECG) is a highly relevant topic in personal healthcare. A key technical challenge is overcoming artifacts from motion in order to produce ECG signals capable of being used in clinical diagnosis by a cardiologist. An electrode-tissue impedance is a signal of significant interest in reducing the motion artifact in ECG recordings on the go. A wireless system containing an ultralow-power analog front-end ECG signal acquisition, as well as the electrode-tissue impedance, is used in a validation study on multiple subjects. The goal of this paper is to study the correlation between motion artifacts and skin electrode impedance for a variety of motion types and electrodes. We have found that the correlation of the electrode-tissue impedance with the motion artifact is highly dependent on the electrode design the impedance signal (real, imaginary, absolute impedance), and artifact types (e.g., push or pull electrodes). With the chosen electrodes, we found that the highest correlation was obtained for local electrode artifacts (push, pull, electrode) followed by local skin (stretch, twist, skin) and global artifacts (walk, jog, jump). The results show that the electrode-tissue impedance can correlate with the motion artifacts for local disturbance of the electrodes and that the impedance signals can be used in motion artifact removal techniques such as adaptive filtering.
Data compression for progressive transmission of screened pictures

Some predictive encoding schemes are applied to the progressive reconstruction of news photos stored in screened form. Experimental results obtained on pictures received on the analog telephoto channel by means of a suitable electronic system are discussed. A switched predictor, which takes into account the RMS prediction error resulting from previous predictions to carry out the choice, is shown to perform significantly better than some classical prediction schemes.
Spectral transition measure for detection of obstruents

Obstruents are very important acoustical events (i.e., abrupt-consonantal landmarks) in the speech signal. This paper presents the use of novel Spectral Transition Measure (STM) to locate the obstruents in the continuous speech signal. The problem of obstruent detection involves detection of phonetic boundaries associated with obstruent sounds. In this paper, we propose use of STM information derived from state-of-the-art Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) feature set and newly developed feature set, viz., MFCC-TMP (which uses Teager Energy Operator (TEO) to exploit implicitly Magnitude and Phase information in the MFCC framework) for obstruent detection. The key idea here is to exploit capabilities of STM to capture high dynamic transitional characteristics associated with obstruent sounds. The experimental setup is developed on entire TIMIT database. For 20 ms agreement (tolerance) duration, obstruent detection rate is found to be 97.59 % with 17.65 % false acceptance using state-of-the-art MFCC-STM and 96.42 % with 12.88 % false acceptance using MFCC-TMP-STM. Finally, STM-based features along with static representation (i.e., MFCC-STM and MFCC-TMP-STM) are evaluated for phone recognition task.
MMBIRFinder: A Tool to Detect Microhomology-Mediated Break-Induced Replication

The introduction of next-generation sequencing technologies has radically changed the way we view structural genetic events. Microhomology-mediated break-induced replication (MMBIR) is just one of the many mechanisms that can cause genomic destabilization that may lead to cancer. Although the mechanism for MMBIR remains unclear, it has been shown that MMBIR is typically associated with template-switching events. Currently, to our knowledge, there is no existing bioinformatics tool to detect these template-switching events. We have developed MMBIRFinder, a method that detects template-switching events associated with MMBIR from whole-genome sequenced data. MMBIRFinder uses a half-read alignment approach to identify potential regions of interest. Clustering of these potential regions helps narrow the search space to regions with strong evidence. Subsequent local alignments identify the template-switching events with single-nucleotide accuracy. Using simulated data, MMBIRFinder identified 83 percent of the MMBIR regions within a five nucleotide tolerance. Using real data, MMBIRFinder identified 16 MMBIR regions on a normal breast tissue data sample and 51 MMBIR regions on a triple-negative breast cancer tumor sample resulting in detection of 37 novel template-switching events. Finally, we identified template-switching events residing in the promoter region of seven genes that have been implicated in breast cancer.
Adherence to ventilator-associated pneumonia bundle and incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in the surgical intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of adherence to a ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) bundle on the incidence of VAP in our surgical intensive care units (SICUs). DESIGN Prospectively collected data were retrospectively examined from our Infection Control Committee surveillance database of SICU patients over a 38-month period. Cost of VAP was estimated at $30,000 per patient stay. SETTING Two SICUs at a tertiary care academic level I trauma center. PATIENTS Ventilated patients admitted to a SICU. INTERVENTION The Institute for Healthcare Improvement VAP bundle was instituted at the beginning of the study and included head-of-bed elevation, extubation assessment, sedation break, peptic ulcer prophylaxis, and deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis. A daily checklist was considered compliant if all 5 items were performed for each patient. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patients were assessed for VAP. Staff were assessed for compliance with the VAP bundle. RESULTS Prior to initiation of the bundle, VAP was seen at a rate of 10.2 cases/1000 ventilator days. Compliance with the VAP bundle increased over the study period from 53% and 63% to 91% and 81% in each respective SICU. The rate of VAP decreased to 3.4 cases/1000 ventilator days. A cost savings of $1.08 million was estimated. CONCLUSIONS Initiation of the VAP bundle is associated with a significantly reduced incidence of VAP in patients in the SICU and with cost savings. Initiation of a VAP bundle protocol is an effective method for VAP reduction when compliance is maintained.
AwareKit: Exploring a Tangible Interaction Paradigm for Digital Calendars

Digital calendars are a conventional tool for planning meetings and providing information about the availability of others. In this paper, we explore an alternative tangible way of interaction with existing electronic calendaring systems. Our prototype, called AwareKit, is a tangible toolkit aimed at supplementing existing electronic calendar systems and exploits quick, fun and playful interaction. It integrates an attractive design and utilizes touch and rotation as interaction techniques to access different types of information. In this paper, we outline the design concept of AwareKit, its hardware implementation and the first usability feedback. The results of the pilot usability study showed that AwareKit is easy to use and facilitates intuitive and playful interaction.
Understanding and Measuring Student Inquiry and Resource Use Processes , and their Contribution to Outcomes , in “ Guided Discovery-Based ” Learning

Rebecca Reynolds Rutgers University School of Communication & Information 4 Huntington St., New Brunswick, NJ rebecca.reynolds@rutgers.edu ABSTRACT This research study investigates middle school and high school students’ use of a wiki-based e-learning platform as a coordinating representation in the context of their guided discovery-based game design work. The study aims to (a) consider/validate the quality of wiki trace data and Google Analytics page read data as a source of insight for research; (b) describe activity patterns; (c) investigate possible relationships between measured activity patterns and student learning outcomes; (d) consider implications for practice, such as enhanced teacher training, program improvements, and even development of LMS information system diagnostic tools. The research holds local pragmatic implications for optimization of the e-learning system under investigation, as well as methodological and design implications for the bridging fields of information and learning sciences.
Influence of atmospheric nutrients on primary productivity in a coastal upwelling region

Atmospheric deposition is an important source of nutrients to the coastal and open ocean; however, its role in highly productive upwelling regions like coastal California has not been determined. Approximately 0.1%–0.2% of new production is attributable to atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) annually, but if the estimate is expanded to encompass the effects of iron (Fe), aerosols may support 1%–2% of new production on average, and up to 5% on days with high deposition fluxes. Laboratory culture and in situ incubation experiments confirm the bioavailability of N from dry deposition in this region. A significant positive relationship between aerosol optical thickness and chlorophyll a derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer is observed for the summer months and is stronger offshore than near the coast. Moreover, the portion of productivity supported by atmospheric deposition is higher on days without upwelling and during El Niño periods when nutrient input from upwelling is suppressed, a phenomenon that could become more prevalent due to climate warming. Expanding the results from California, we estimate that dry deposition could increase productivity in other major coastal upwelling regions by up to 8% and suggest that aerosols could stimulate productivity by providing N, Fe, and other nutrients that are essential for cell growth but relatively deplete in upwelled water.
A VARIABLE STEP-SIZE PROPORTIONATE NLMS ALGORITHM FOR ECHO CANCELLATION

The proportionate normalized least-mean-square (PNLMS) algorithms were developed in the context of network echo cancellation. They outperform the normalized leastmean-square (NLMS) algorithm only when the echo path is sparse. Unfortunately, realworld network echo path may not be that sparse sometimes, while the acoustic echo paths are usually less sparse. The improved PNLMS (IPNLMS) algorithm is less sensitive to the sparseness character of the echo path. In order to enhance the performance of this algorithm we propose a variable step-size (VSS) version of it, providing a feasible solution for the conflicting requirements of fast convergence and low misadjustment. The simulation results prove that the proposed algorithm performs very well despite of the character of the echo path, being suitable for both network and acoustic echo cancellation.
Nonlinear reduced order modeling of plasticization cylinders

In this paper, we construct a nonlinear reduced order model of a plasticization cylinder of injection machines, which has a spatially distributed nonlinear dynamics. First, a distributed parameter model for the overall control system is derived based on the physical laws. Next, we attempt to reduce the model complexity focusing on the specific structure of the nonlinearity which arises from temperature-dependency of the rate of heat loss of heaters subjected to natural convection. This enables us to obtain a 28-dimensional model (via an 808-dimensional spatially discretized model) while theoretically guaranteeing a practically satisfactory accuracy. The obtained model is examined experimentally by using a prototype system.
Test Review No. 8: Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale

scores: receptive-language age, expressive-language age, and combined language age; individually administered; hand-scored; 1 form (1970, 7 pages); manual (1971, 56 pages); regular test package (softbound manual and 25 recording forms), $14.50; deluxe test package (hard-bound manual and 25 recording forms), $16.50; soft-bound manual, $9.00; hard-bound manual, $12.00; packet of 25 recording forms, $6.50; approximately 10 minutes for administration; test authors: Kenneth R. Bzoch and Richard League; publisher: The Tree of Life Press, 1309 N.E. 2nd St., P.O. Box 447, Gainesville, Fla. 32601 (telephone 1-904-376-0767); test review and prices relate to specimen set received December 13, 1971.2
Heart rate variability and experimentally induced pain in healthy adults: A systematic review

Reactivity of the autonomic nervous system to experimental pain stimuli has been extensively studied using measures of heart rate and blood pressure. Heart rate variability (HRV) attempts to tease out the relative contributions of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in the autonomic control of the heart and may therefore be more appropriate to investigate autonomic response to short‐term nociceptive stimulation in detail. The current evidence on HRV and experimentally induced pain has not yet been synthesized within a systematic review.
Secure Spatial Top-k Query Processing via Untrusted Location-Based Service Providers

This paper considers a novel distributed system for collaborative location-based information generation and sharing which become increasingly popular due to the explosive growth of Internet-capable and location-aware mobile devices. The system consists of a data collector, data contributors, location-based service providers (LBSPs), and system users. The data collector gathers reviews about points-of-interest (POIs) from data contributors, while LBSPs purchase POI data sets from the data collector and allow users to perform spatial top-k queries which ask for the POIs in a certain region and with the highest k ratings for an interested POI attribute. In practice, LBSPs are untrusted and may return fake query results for various bad motives, e.g., in favor of POIs willing to pay. This paper presents three novel schemes for users to detect fake spatial snapshot and moving top-k query results as an effort to foster the practical deployment and use of the proposed system. The efficacy and efficiency of our schemes are thoroughly analyzed and evaluated.
Metabolic signature shift in type 2 diabetes mellitus revealed by mass spectrometry-based metabolomics.

OBJECTIVE Metabolic profiling of small molecules offers a snapshot of physiological processes. To identify metabolic signatures associated with type 2 diabetes and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) beyond differences in glucose, we used mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Individuals attending an institutional health screen were enrolled. IFG (n = 24) was defined as fasting glucose (FG) of 6.1 to 6.9 mmol/L and 2-hour post glucose load <11.1 mmol/L or glycosylated hemoglobin <6.5%, type 2 diabetes (n = 27), FG ≥7.0 mmol/L, or 2-hour post glucose load ≥11.1 mmol/L, or glycosylated hemoglobin ≥6.5%, and healthy controls (n = 60), FG <6.1 mmol/L. Fasting serum metabolomes were profiled and compared using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. RESULTS Compared to healthy controls, those with IFG and type 2 diabetes had significantly raised fructose, α-hydroxybutyrate, alanine, proline, phenylalanine, glutamine, branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine), low carbon number lipids (myristic, palmitic, and stearic acid), and significantly reduced pyroglutamic acid, glycerophospohlipids, and sphingomyelins, even after adjusting for age, gender, and body mass index. CONCLUSIONS Using 2 highly sensitive metabolomic techniques, we report distinct serum profile change of a wide range of metabolites from healthy persons to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Apart from glucose, IFG and diabetes mellitus are characterized by abnormalities in amino acid, fatty acids, glycerophospholipids, and sphingomyelin metabolism. These early broad-spectrum metabolic changes emphasize the complex abnormalities present in a disease defined mainly by elevated blood glucose levels.
Positive and negative transcriptional control by the TAL1 helix-loop-helix protein.

Tumor-specific activation of the TAL1 gene is the most common genetic defect associated with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The TAL1 gene products possess a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) motif, a protein-dimerization and DNA-binding domain found in several transcription factors. TAL1 polypeptides interact, in vitro and in vivo, with class A bHLH proteins (e.g., E47) to form heterodimers with sequence-specific DNA-binding activity. In this study, we show that TAL1 can regulate the transcription of an artificial reporter gene that contains binding sites for bHLH heterodimers involving TAL1. Transcription of the reporter is strongly induced by E47-E47 homodimers and moderately induced by TAL1-E47 heterodimers. Thus, in a cellular environment that allows formation of E47-E47 homodimers (e.g., in the absence of Id regulatory proteins) TAL1 can repress transcription by recruiting E47 into bHLH complexes with less transcriptional activity (i.e., TAL1-E47 heterodimers). However, in other settings TAL1 can activate transcription because TAL1-E47 heterodimers are more resistant to negative regulation by Id proteins. Hence, TAL1 can potentially regulate transcription in either a positive or negative fashion.
Autonomous navigation to provide long-distance surface traverses for Mars Rover Sample Return Mission

Knowledge acquisition and representation techniques are developed to allow an autonomous vehicle to negotiate a path over partially unknown terrain, such as the long-distance traverses for the Mars Rover Sample Return Mission. Terrain navigation is accomplished by the following sequence of steps: the skylines from the visibility map and from the local terrain map are compared and the two 3-D curves in space are stochastically matched to update the vehicle location. A path segment is selected taking into consideration the goal, overall global topography, obstacles such as craters and boulders derived from the range-finder observations, and a priori constraints related to the mission, fuel consumption, and vehicle stability. The vehicle reaches a new vantage point with relatively broad visibility, but within sight of the last observation point. The skyline is then estimated and approximated again, and the cycle is reiterated for another advance. <<ETX>>
Behavior of HSI Color Co-Occurrence Features in Variety Recognition from Bulk Paddy Grain Image Samples

Computer vision applications in the field of agriculture science are gaining importance. The paper presents a method for recognition of paddy varieties from bulk paddy grain image samples based on color texture features extracted from color co-occurrence matrices. The color texture features are obtained from H, S and I color planes and their combinations. The feature set is reduced based on contribution of features to the recognition accuracy. The reduced feature set of the HS plane includes Energy, Entropy and Correlation features from Hue plane and Energy, Entropy, Contrast, and Correlation features from Saturation plane. The paddy grain images are recognized using a multilayer feed-forward artificial neural network. The considered fifteen paddy varieties have given the recognition accuracy of 92.33%. The work is useful in developing a machine vision system for agriculture produce market and developing multimedia applications in agriculture sciences.
La innovación tecnológica desde el marco del capital intelectual

La importancia creciente del conocimiento, como factor productivo clave en la sociedad actual, exige un cambio en la forma de pensar sobre la innovacion en terminos generales asi como en terminos especificos como la innovacion tecnologica, la innovacion de producto o la innovacion organizativa. Asimismo , las empresas son conscientes de que el conocimiento es el recurso mas valioso y estrategico para enfrentarse al entorno actual. El presente estudio propone un modelo teorico sobre los diferentes elementos de capital (capital humano, capital tecnologico, capital relacional y capital social) como fuente de distintos tipos de innovacion tecnologica.
The state of the art in organizational cognitive neuroscience: the therapeutic gap and possible implications for clinical practice

In the last decade, researchers in the social sciences have increasingly adopted neuroscientific techniques, with the consequent rise of research inspired by neuroscience in disciplines such as economics, marketing, decision sciences, and leadership. In 2007, we introduced the term organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), in an attempt to clearly demarcate research carried out in these many areas, and provide an overarching paradigm for research utilizing cognitive neuroscientific methods, theories, and concepts, within the organizational and business research fields. Here we will revisit and further refine the OCN paradigm, and define an approach where we feel the marriage of organizational theory and neuroscience will return even greater dividends in the future and that is within the field of clinical practice.
Label-free biosensing by means of optical micro-ring resonator

Micro-ring resonators have been widely employed, in recent years, as wavelength filters, switches and frequency converters in optical communication circuits, but can also be successfully used as transducing elements in optical sensing and biosensing. Their operation is based on the optical coupling between a ring-shaped waveguide and one or more linear waveguides patterned on a planar surface, typically an input and an output waveguide. When incoming light has a wavelength which satisfies the resonance conditions, it couples into the micro-ring and continuously re-circulates within it. A fraction of this resonant light escapes the micro-ring structure and couples into the output waveguide. The presence of a target analyte over the top surface of the micro-ring (i.e. within the evanescent field) changes the effective refractive index of the mode propagating into the structure, thus causing a shift in resonance wavelength which can be determined by monitoring the spectrum at the output port. Proper functionalization of the micro-ring surface allows to add selectivity to the sensing system and to detect specific interaction between a bioprobe and its proper target (e.g. protein-ligand, DNA-cDNA interactions). We present our preliminary results on the design of micro-ring resonators on silicon-on-insulator substrate, aimed at selective detection of several biomolecules. The design of the structure has been accomplished with the help of FDTD 2D numerical simulations of the distribution of the electromagnetic fields inside the waveguides, the micro-ring and near the micro-ring surface. Furthermore, all the functionalization reactions and the bio/non-bio interfaces have been studied and modelled by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry.
The 8-kDa Dynein Light Chain Binds to Its Targets via a Conserved (K/R)XTQT Motif*

Cytoplasmic dynein is a large, multisubunit molecular motor that translocates cargoes toward the minus ends of microtubules. Proper functioning of the dynein motor requires precise assembly of its various subunits. Using purified recombinant proteins, we show that the highly conserved 8-kDa light chain (DLC8) binds to the intermediate chain of the dynein complex. The DLC8-binding region was mapped to a highly conserved 10-residue fragment (amino acid sequence SYSKETQTPL) C-terminal to the second alternative splicing site of dynein intermediate chain. Yeast two-hybrid screening using DLC8 as bait identified numerous additional DLC8-binding proteins. Biochemical and mutational analysis of selected DLC8-binding proteins revealed that DLC8 binds to a consensus sequence containing a (K/R)XTQT motif. The (K/R)XTQT motif interacts with the common target-accepting grooves of DLC8 dimer. The role of each conserved amino acid residue in this pentapeptide motif in supporting complex formation with DLC8 was systematically studied using site-directed mutagenesis.