Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Musical Instrument Classification Using Individual Partials

In a musical signals, the spectral and temporal contents of instruments often overlap. If the number of channels is at least the same as the number of instruments, it is possible to apply statistical tools to highlight the characteristics of each instrument, making their identification possible. However, in the underdetermined case, in which there are fewer channels than sources, the task becomes challenging. One possible way to solve this problem is to seek for regions in the time and/or frequency domains in which the content of a given instrument appears isolated. The strategy presented in this paper explores the spectral disjointness among instruments by identifying isolated partials, from which a number of features are extracted. The information contained in those features, in turn, is used to infer which instrument is more likely to have generated that partial. Hence, the only condition for the method to work is that at least one isolated partial exists for each instrument somewhere in the signal. If several isolated partials are available, the results are summarized into a single, more accurate classification. Experimental results using 25 instruments demonstrate the good discrimination capabilities of the method.
A new algorithm for static camera foreground segmentation via active coutours and GMM

Foreground segmentation is one of the most challenging problems in computer vision. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for static camera foreground segmentation. It combines Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and active contours method, and produces much better results than conventional background subtraction methods. It formulates foreground segmentation as an energy minimization problem and minimizes the energy function using curve evolution method. Because of the integration of GMM background model, shadow elimination term and curve evolution edge stopping term into energy function, it achieves more accurate segmentation than existing method of the same type. Promising results on real images demonstrate the potential of the presented method.
Gender and the New Inequality: Explaining the College/Non-College Wage Gap

The new inequality is often characterized by the increasing wage gap between workers with a college education and those without. Yet, although the gap in hourly wages between college-educated and non-college-educated women is high and rising, the topic has been overshadowed by research on gender inequality and wage inequality among men. Using the 1990 5–percent Public Use Microdata Samples, independent sources of macro data, and controls for individual human capital characteristics, I examine the association between the college/non-college wage gap and key aspects of local economic conditions for women and men. While the college/non-college wage gap among women is comparable in size to the gap among men, significant gender differences emerge in the underlying sources of high wage gaps in over 500 labor markets across the United States. Compared with men, flexible and insecure employment conditions (e.g., joblessness, casualization, and immigration) are more important in fostering high wage gaps among women than are technology, trade, and industrial composition, the prevailing explanations of rising wage inequality over time. Based on these gender differences, I reconsider the debate on labor-market restructuring and inequality and discuss a new analytical focus on differences in within-gender inequality.
Purification and Characterization of an Arene cis-Dihydrodiol Dehydrogenase Endowed with Broad Substrate Specificity toward Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Dihydrodiols

ABSTRACT Initial reactions involved in the bacterial degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) include a ring-dihydroxylation catalyzed by a dioxygenase and a subsequent oxidation of the dihydrodiol products by a dehydrogenase. In this study, the dihydrodiol dehydrogenase from the PAH-degrading Sphingomonas strain CHY-1 has been characterized. The bphB gene encoding PAH dihydrodiol dehydrogenase (PDDH) was cloned and overexpressed as a His-tagged protein. The recombinant protein was purified as a homotetramer with an apparent Mr of 110,000. PDDH oxidized the cis-dihydrodiols derived from biphenyl and eight polycyclic hydrocarbons, including chrysene, benz[a]anthracene, and benzo[a]pyene, to corresponding catechols. Remarkably, the enzyme oxidized pyrene 4,5-dihydrodiol, whereas pyrene is not metabolized by strain CHY-1. The PAH catechols produced by PDDH rapidly auto-oxidized in air but were regenerated upon reaction of the o-quinones formed with NADH. Kinetic analyses performed under anoxic conditions revealed that the enzyme efficiently utilized two- to four-ring dihydrodiols, with Km values in the range of 1.4 to 7.1 μM, and exhibited a much higher Michaelis constant for NAD+ (Km of 160 μM). At pH 7.0, the specificity constant ranged from (1.3 ± 0.1) × 106 M−1 s−1 with benz[a]anthracene 1,2-dihydrodiol to (20.0 ± 0.8) × 106 M−1 s−1 with naphthalene 1,2-dihydrodiol. The catalytic activity of the enzyme was 13-fold higher at pH 9.5. PDDH was subjected to inhibition by NADH and by 3,4-dihydroxyphenanthrene, and the inhibition patterns suggested that the mechanism of the reaction was ordered Bi Bi. The regulation of PDDH activity appears as a means to prevent the accumulation of PAH catechols in bacterial cells.
Cancer immunotherapy: The past, the present and the future

One of the most controversial issues in immunology for over a century has been whether an effective immune response can be elicited against malignant tumours. Whether the immunology community has believed cancer immunotherapy is feasible or impossible has been largely determined by the prevailing immunological paradigms at that time. In fact, during the last 110 years it is possible to trace at least five dramatic fluctuations in attitude towards cancer immunotherapy. It now appears, however, that overwhelming evidence is available to support the view that both the innate and adaptive immune responses can recognize and eliminate tumours. On the other hand, it remains to be seen if these immune responses can be harnessed to control cancer as, at the time of diagnosis, many tumours have already been immunoselected to be highly resistant to immune elimination. Based on these observations it is argued that immunotherapy approaches, other than the generation of tumour‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes, must be explored. Alternative strategies include recruiting tumouricidal myeloid cells into tumours, generating antiangiogenic immune responses and directing innate immunity to hypoxia‐induced ligands on tumour cells.
Influences of CYP2C19 polymorphism on recurrence of reflux esophagitis during proton pump inhibitor maintenance therapy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Patients with erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) have rapid recurrence after treatment withdrawal. The aim is to study the influences of CYP2C19 polymorphism on recurrence of GERD during proton pump inhibitor maintenance therapy. METHODOLOGY Ninety-nine patients with initial healing of GERD (judged by endoscopy) after 8 wk of treatment with PPIs were enrolled into maintenance therapy for 6 mo with rabeprazole (10 mg/day), omeprazole (20 mg/day) or lansoprazole (15 mg/day). The recurrence of GERD symptoms in the maintenance therapy was assessed by a QUEST questionnaire. RESULTS The recurrence rate of GERD symptoms in the group of CYP2C19 homozygous extensive metabolizers (38.5%) was significantly greater than those in groups of heterozygous extensive metabolizers (10.9%) and poor metabolizers (5.6%). The recurrence rates in patients treated with omeprazole (25%) and lansoprazole (30.8%) were significantly greater than that with rabeprazole (4.4%). The gender, age and H. pylori did not significantly affect the rate. CONCLUSIONS The CYP2C19 genotypes affected the recurrence rate of GERD symptoms during PPI maintenance therapy. The reason for the low recurrence rate with 10 mg/day rabeprazole possibly is due to its sufficient acid suppression independent of CYP2C19 genotypes in Japanese patients.
Synthesis of Stereoscopic 3D Videos by Limited Resources of Range Images

Recently, depth-image-based rendering has been suggested for 3D video creation, in which a monoscopic video stream is recorded along with a depth (range) video stream and a stereoscopic video stream is then generated at the user end. The fundamental assumption of this framework is the full availability of range images at video rate. In this work, we alleviate this hard demand and assume that only limited resources of range images are available, i.e. corresponding range images exist for some, but not all, color images of the monoscopic video stream. We propose to synthesize the missing range images between two consecutive range images. Our approach eases the recording of 3D material by using less expensive range sensors and enables to enhance existing 2D video material with 3D effect by limited manual overhead. Experiments on real videos have demonstrated very encouraging results. Especially, one 3D video was generated from a 2D video without any sensory 3D data available at all. In a quality evaluation using an auto stereoscopic 3D display, the test viewers have attested similar 3D video quality for our synthesis technique and rendering based on depth ground truth
Untangling the Threads: Networks, community and teacher learning in the National Writing Project

From 1998 to 2000, we studied two sites of the National Writing Project to find out whether network learning ever finds its way into teachers' classrooms. In the process of observing the 5-week invitational institute (purported to be the key to understanding the National Writing Project), we found that teacher learning and becoming engaged in a professional community revealed a set of social practices. These practices provide the core of this important professional development program-- a core that is recreated in sites all over the country, organized in a network-like organizational form. This complex, layered national network, at its best, provides a model for teacher development involving teachers in a professional community situated in teachers' practice.
On perspective, expertise and differences in accident analyses: arguments for a multidisciplinary integrated approach

This study draws attention to the importance of the fact that accident analyses, their conclusions and recommendations for improvements differ depending on the purpose of the analysis and the analyst's basic professional training. An accident in a hospital in which three patients died during dialysis was used as an illustrative example. The result of the legal analysis is presented first. Using this perspective, the cause of the accident was judged to be errors made by the chief nurse who was the only one who was found guilty of the deaths of three people. She was given a conditional prison sentence. The action taken at the hospital was to remove her from her job. Later, engineering and psychology experts were asked about how they attributed responsibility for the accident. Finally, the Accident Evolution and Barrier Function (AEB) method was also used to analyse the accident. This method models an accident as an interaction between technical and human factors systems. The results illustrated how the conc.
Active sport tourism: who participates?

Sport tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the tourism industry. This paper reviews the status of active sport tourism in the US. Taking a lead from sport sociologists who have repeatedly shown that sport in the US is still stratified on the basis of gender, class, and race among others, this paper examines the notion that by its evasiveness active sport tourism has gained mass appeal. Who is the active sport tourist? Are men more likely to be active sport tourists than women? Has active sport tourism become democratized? Male, affluent, and college educated are characteristics that describe the typical active sport tourist. A discussion focusing on gender, race, and social class is used to examine the participation patterns in active sport tourism and to suggest future avenues for research.
Multiple Compensatory Neural Fuzzy Networks Fusion Using Fuzzy Integral

This paper presents a novel method for combining multiple compensatory neural fuzzy networks (CNFN) using fuzzy integral. The fusion of multiple classifiers can overcome the limitations of a single classifier since the classifiers complement each other. A fuzzy integral is a better combination scheme than majority voting method that uses the subjectively defined relevance of classifiers. A combination of multiple CNFN classifiers with fuzzy integral (FI) is proposed to achieve data classification with higher accuracy than existing traditional methods. The advantage of the proposed method is that not only are the classification results combined but the relative importance of the different networks is also considered. Experimental results show that the fusion of multiple CNFNs using fuzzy integral can perform better than existing traditional methods.
Estimation and Control Using Sampling-Based Bayesian Reinforcement Learning

Real-world autonomous systems operate under uncertainty about both their pose and dynamics. Autonomous control systems must simultaneously perform estimation and control tasks to maintain robustness to changing dynamics or modeling errors. However, information gathering actions often conflict with optimal actions for reaching control objectives, requiring a trade-off between exploration and exploitation. The specific problem setting considered here is for discrete-time nonlinear systems, with process noise, input-constraints, and parameter uncertainty. This article frames this problem as a Bayes-adaptive Markov decision process and solves it online using Monte Carlo tree search with an unscented Kalman filter to account for process noise and parameter uncertainty. This method is compared with certainty equivalent model predictive control and a tree search method that approximates the QMDP solution, providing insight into when information gathering is useful. Discrete time simulations characterize performance over a range of process noise and bounds on unknown parameters. An offline optimization method is used to select the Monte Carlo tree search parameters without hand-tuning. In lieu of recursive feasibility guarantees, a probabilistic bounding heuristic is offered that increases the probability of keeping the state within a desired region.
Benefits of exercise in healthy population and impact on disease occurrence Beneficios del ejercicio físico en población sana e impacto sobre la aparición de enfermedad

Physical exercise is defined as any activity that produces body motion due to muscle contraction dependent on energy consumption and which has progressive benefits on the state of health. The effects of exercise on health in both primary and secondary prevention are becoming increasingly better known. A large part of current society has not been able to widely incorporate exercise into daily routine, with a progressive decrease in the amount of time devoted to exercise. There has also been a trend to the abuse of hypercaloric food, while the amount of time devoted to sedentary activities, such as watching TV or using personal computers, is increasing. The literature widely shows the benefits of physical exercise on several indicators of health, including cardiovascular mortality and death for other reasons, as shown in a recent meta-analysis. Many prospective studies conducted in several countries report the high prevalence of sedentary lifestyles and their association with poor health outcomes. A study showed a risk of premature death attributable to the lack of physical exercise of approximately 9%. This would lead to an approximate calculation of 5.3 million deaths
Regulation of Arm and Leg Movement during Human Locomotion

Walking can be a very automated process, and it is likely that central pattern generators (CPGs) play a role in the coordination of the limbs. Recent evidence suggests that both the arms and legs are regulated by CPGs and that sensory feedback also regulates the CPG activity and assists in mediating interlimb coordination. Although the strength of coupling between the legs is stronger than that between the arms, arm and leg movements are similarly regulated by CPG activity and sensory feedback (e.g., reflex control) during locomotion.
Digital-analog hybrid controlled converter with interleaved PWM method

This paper presents a novel digital control method that improves both phase margin and jitter of a dc-to-dc switching converter. The proposed method has two controlled pulse, one is generated by digital control and the other by analog control. The resulted switching frequency is twice of analog control and digital control frequency, which results in smaller ripple currents in the converter. From the analysis and examination of frequency response and the transient response, it is clarified that the proposed control method greatly contributes to improve the stability and the dynamic performance compared to the conventional digital PID control.
“Stick and Stones Hurt my Bones but His Glance and Words Hurt More”: The Impact of Psychological Abuse and Physical Violence by Current and Former Partners on Battered Women in Italy

Domestic violence causes short- and long-term negative consequences, both physical (e.g., bodily injury) and psychological (e.g., depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder). It is possible that these negative consequences vary according to the type of violence victims experience (physical versus psychological) and its duration, as well as the relationship with the offender. The present study investigated the relative contribution of psychological and physical abuse to the development of psychological symptoms in domestic violence cases. A sample of 145 women recruited from three shelters in Rome completed a face-to-face interview and a structured questionnaire measuring different types of abuse and psychological symptoms, as well as demographic variables. Multiple regression analyses revealed that psychological abuse was a stronger predictor of anxiety and depression, low self esteem, and intrusion/ avoidance symptoms than physical abuse, even though psychological and physical abuse experiences were highly correlated. Psychological symptoms were not associated with who committed the violence (husband or cohabiting partner) or whether the relationship was terminated or still ongoing. These findings have implications for mental health professionals who try to reduce the suffering of women who are abused.
Longitudinal Study of Survival and Causes of Death in Patients with Thalassemia Major in Greece

Abstract: Iron‐induced organ degeneration is the main factor of mortality in patients with thalassemia major. Since chelation therapy is at a turning point, from the laborious parenteral route to the use of new promising oral agents, we investigated the current status of survival of these patients to present reliable data that will be useful in future comparative studies. Survival probabilities were estimated by the Kaplan‐Meier method, and results were compared by the log‐rank test in a total of 647 thalassemic patients (pts) (52% males) born between 1/1/58 and 1/2/04. Terminal follow‐up was 1/12/04. All transfusion‐dependent pts monitored in our center, or in frequent contact if they had moved elsewhere, were strictly selected, excluding all rarely transfused or intermediate cases. Pts born before 1/1/75 were classified in group A (n= 366), while pts born later were included in group B (n= 281). According to the last 5 years' mean serum ferritin level, pts were divided into three hemosiderosis groups: (1) mild (<2000 μg/L) 49%, (2) moderate (2000‐4000 μg/L) 28%, and (3) severe (>4000 μg/L) 23%. Of the 647 pts, 115 died (mean age: 22.6 ± 6.2 years), most frequently by heart failure (71.3%) followed by sepsis (7.8%). Life expectancy in the entire population was up to 59% at 46 years. Survival was higher for pts born after 1975 than those before (P < .001). Statistically significantly different survival probabilities were found between groups with mild, moderate, or severe hemosiderosis (P < .001). Effective management with improved chelation therapy could lead to better results.
SPARTA A Mobile Agent based Intrusion Detection System

The large number of machines with different operating syste m and applications in an enterprise network makes it very difficult for the syste m administrator to close all security holes and install the latest OS and softwa re p tches. When the network is connected to the Internet and services are rem otely available they become a potential target for hackers. As the number of secur ity related incidents is constantly increasing at an alarming rate the need for aut ma ed tools to detect intrusions becomes evident. Such tools are called intrusio n detection systems (IDS). We present Sparta, a system that allows to detect security po licy violations and network intrusions in a heterogeneous, networked envir o ment. We have designed a pattern language in order to express intrusions ( .e. offending event patterns) in a declarative manner. This allows to specify wh at to detect instead of how to detect. A fully distributed approach to find the given p atterns is presented as well. We use mobile agents to correlate event data instead of moving the whole information to a central location. This increases the fault tolerance and scalability of our system.
Endogenous Functions of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR): Intersection of Cytochrome P450 1 (CYP1)-metabolized Eicosanoids and AHR Biology*

The AHR,2 a ligand-activated transcription factor, was first identified indirectly in the 1970s; the mouse and human genes were cloned in the early 1990s. Molecular mechanisms and biological consequences of AHR-mediated regulation of mammalian cytochrome P450 enzymes by foreign chemicals (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins) have been studied extensively. Binding of such ligands to AHR leads to transcriptional activation of CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP1B1; in turn, these enzymes catalyze oxidative detoxication or activation of most ligands. From the start, AHR endogenous ligands and functions were postulated; although this was initially controversial, the robust phenotype of Ahr–/– knock-out mice provided clear evidence of physiological roles (and endogenous ligands) for AHR. AHR has numerous important endogenous functions: during conception and embryonic and fetal development; in the immune, cardiovascular, neural, and reproductive systems; and in hepatocytes, skin cells, and adipocytes. These myriad AHR-mediated processes mirror the vast universe of action of the eicosanoids, lipid mediators known to undergo cytochrome P450-dependent oxidation. We propose that many endogenous and exogenous cellular stimuli lead to (i) AHR-dependent CYP1-dependent eicosanoid synthesis and degradation and (ii) AHR-dependent CYP1-independent (eicosanoid-dependent and -independent) responses. These two pathways can be delineated from one another in genetic models: the former is absent in the recently characterized Cyp1a1/1a2/1b1–/– triple-knock-out mouse, and the latter is absent in the Ahr–/– knock-out mouse. Identification of specific eicosanoids whose synthesis or degradation is carried out by each CYP1 enzyme should allow for identification of physiological endogenous AHR ligands. (For “History and Background,” see supplemental material (Box 1). )