Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of the risk factors for tuberculosis: a case-control study in three countries in West Africa.

BACKGROUND Host-related and environment-related factors have been shown to play a role in the development of tuberculosis (TB), but few studies were carried out to identify their respective roles in resource-poor countries. METHODS A multicentre case-control study was conducted in Guinée, Guinea Bissau, and The Gambia, from January 1999 to March 2001. Cases were newly detected smear positive TB patients. Two controls were recruited for each case, one within the household of the case, and one in the community. RESULTS Regarding host-related factors, univariate analysis by conditional logistic regression of 687 matched pairs of cases and household controls showed that TB was associated with male sex, family history of TB, absence of a BCG scar, smoking, alcohol, anaemia, HIV infection, and history and treatment of worm infection. In a multivariable model based on 601 matched pairs, male sex, family history of TB, smoking, and HIV infection were independent risk factors of TB. The investigation of environmental factors based on the comparison of 816 cases/community control pairs showed that the risk of TB was associated with single marital status, family history of TB, adult crowding, and renting the house. In a final model assessing the combined effect of host and environmental factors, TB was associated with male sex, HIV infection, smoking (with a dose-effect relationship), history of asthma, family history of TB, marital status, adult crowding, and renting the house. CONCLUSION TB is a multifactorial disorder, in which environment interacts with host-related factors. This study provided useful information for the assessment of host and environmental factors of TB for the improvement of TB control activities in developing countries.
A Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Genistein on Bone in Two Different Murine Models of Diminished Estrogen-Producing Capacity

This experiment was designed to assess the capacity of dietary genistein (GEN), to attenuate bone loss in ovariectomized (OVX) and ovary-intact VCD-treated mice. Pretreatment of mice with 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) gradually and selectively destroys ovarian follicles whilst leaving ovarian androgen-producing cells largely intact. VCD induces a perimenopause-like condition prior to the onset of reproductive acyclicity. Sixteen-week-old C57BL/6J mice were randomized to five treatment groups: sham(SHM), OVX, SHM + VCD, OVX + GEN, and SHM + VCD + GEN. In vivo, blood samples were drawn for hormone and isoflavone analyses, estrous cycles were monitored, and X-ray imaging was performed to assess changes in bone parameters. Following sacrifice, ovaries were assessed histologically, bone microarchitecture was evaluated via microcomputed tomography, and bone mechanical properties were measured. Some effects of GEN were observed in OVX mice, but GEN effects were not able to be evaluated in VCD-treated mice due to the subtle diminution of bone during the 4 months of this experiment.
Can graduating students design: revisited

In this paper we revisit previous research to elaborate on the question: "Can graduating students design software systems? " The work concluded that the answer was "not really". We wished to determine if this was true currently at our institution and also to look at whether students were able to design software in groups, and evaluate others' designs. In summary, it appears that our students, just as in the original experiment, struggle with doing design, even in a group situation. The representation of behavioral design was particularly lacking. That said, students were able to recognize weaknesses when evaluating other group designs. Based on our findings, we provide several pedagogic recommendations.
Neural Modeling of Psychiatric

This paper reviews recent neural modeling studies of psychiatric disorders. Numerous aspects of psychiatric disturbances have been investigated, such as the role of synaptic changes in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, the study of spurious attractors as possible neural correlates of schizophrenic positive symptoms, and the exploration of the ability of feed-forward and recurrent networks to quantitatively model the cognitive performance of schizophrenic patients. Current models all employ considerable simpliications, both on the level of the behavioral phenomenology they seek to explore, and on the level of their structure and dynamics. However, it is encouraging to realize that the disruption of just a few simple computational mechanisms can lead to behaviors which correspond to some of the clinical features of psychiatric disorders, and can shed light on their pathogenesis.
Database Compression: A Performance Enhancement Tool

Compression is typically used for databases that have grown large enough to create a strain on system storage capacity. We argue here that database compression is attractive from a query processing viewpoint also and should therefore be implemented even when disk storage is plentiful. We study the compression ratio and query processing performance of a variety of compression algorithms, for diierent compression granularities, on a set of relations drawn from real world databases. Our study shows that attribute level compression is the best from a query processing perspective but has poor compression ratio. We then present a modiied attribute level compression algorithm, based on non-adaptive arithmetic compression, called COLA, which simultaneously provides good query processing and reasonable compression ratios. We also analyze, for a range of relational queries, the performance beneets that COLA could be expected to provide.
From sex robots to love robots: is mutual love with a robot possible?

Some critics of sex-robots worry that their use might spread objectifying attitudes about sex, and common sense places a higher value on sex within love-relationships than on casual sex. If there could be mutual love between humans and sex-robots, this could help to ease the worries about objectifying attitudes. And mutual love between humans and sex-robots, if possible, could also help to make this sex more valuable. But is mutual love between humans and robots possible, or even conceivable? We discuss three clusters of ideas and associations commonly discussed within the philosophy of love, and relate these to the topic of whether mutual love could be achieved between humans and sex-robots: (i) the idea of love as a “good match”; (ii) the idea of valuing each other in our distinctive particularity; and (iii) the idea of a steadfast commitment. We consider relations among these ideas and the sort of agency and free will that we attribute to human romantic partners. Our conclusion is that mutual love between humans and advanced sex-robots is not an altogether impossible proposition. However, it is unlikely that we will be able to create robots sophisticated enough to be able to participate in love-relationships anytime soon.
Achieving 10Gbps Line-rate Key-value Stores with FPGAs

Distributed in-memory key-value stores such as memcached have become a critical middleware application within current web infrastructure. However, typical x86based systems yield limited performance scalability and high power consumption as their architecture with its optimization for single thread performance is not wellmatched towards the memory-intensive and parallel nature of this application. In this paper we present the design of a novel memcached architecture implemented on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) which is the first in literature to achieve 10Gbps line rate processing for all packet sizes. By transformation of the functionality into a dataflow architecture, the implementation can not only provide significant speed-up but also operate at a lower power consumption than any x86. More specifically, with our prototype we have measured an increase of up to a factor of 36x in requests per second per Watt that can be serviced in comparison to the best published numbers for regular servers with optimized software. Additionally, we show that through the tight integration of network interface, memory and compute, round trip latency can be reduced down to below 4.5 microseconds.
Approche multi-agent pour l'exploration coordonnée d'un environnement labyrinthique 2D

Cet article presente une approche multi-agent resolvant le probleme de "poursuite-evasion" pour un ou plusieurs robots mobiles cooperatifs possedant une vision omnidirectionnelle. Cette approche possede l'originalite de mettre en oeuvre une cooperation reelle entre les agents fondee sur un partage de connaissances. Un algorithme complet pour une patrouille de robots reposant sur une decomposition de l'environnement en points critiques est presente. Nous abordons son application dans le cadre de l'exploration coordonnee d'un environnement inconnu et nous presentons quelques resultats de simulation.
Prosodic Markings of Complex NP Focus,Syntax, and the Pre-/Post-focus String

The prosodic realization of focus can vary depending on various factors such as type of focus (e.g., information focus, corrective focus), morphosyntax (whether or not a language has a morpho-syntactic marker of focus), and intonational phonology of language, and thus is language-specific. On one hand, head-prominence languages such as English, German, and Greek, mark prominence through the use of pitch accent (i.e., salient pitch movement on the stressed syllable), and the focused word receives a nuclear pitch accent, “deaccenting” the following word(s). On the other hand, edge prominencelanguages such as Korean and Japanese mark prominence by manipulating the phrasing (i.e., grouping) of words, Lastly, languages such as Bengali and French, considered both headand edge-prominence languages, prominence is marked by both pitch accent and phrasing (Jun 2005). Prosodic realizations of focus also differ by domain (i.e., whether the focus domain is a single word or a phrase) and the syntactic type of constituent (i.e., whether it’s an NP or VP). In the case of VP focus in English, e.g., (1c), studies have shown that nuclear pitch accent is given on the VP-final argument, thus similar to the case with the final argument having narrow focus (Gussenhoven 1983; Birch & Clifton 1995; Welby 2003), though more recent studies have revealed some differences in the pitch accent types and the realization of pre-nuclear pitch accent (Baumann, Becker, Grice, & Mucke 2008; Breen, Fedorenko, Wagner, & Gibson submitted; Jun in progress). In the case of VP focus in Korean, Jun, Kim, Lee, & Kim (2006) and Jun & Kim (2007) have shown that the VP-initial argument receives the strongest prominence, while all following lexical items, sometimes even the verb, still receive prominence. That is, no dephrasing happens after the initial argument. This differs from the case where the VP-initial argument receives narrow focus. In that case, a strong phrase boundary is inserted at the beginning of the focused argument, and all items after the focused argument are either dephrased (i.e., phrase boundaries are deleted) or realized in substantially reduced pitch range. Prosodic realizations of NP focus differ from VP focus and also vary across languages. In Neapolitan Italian declaratives, each word in a focused NP is marked by a rising (L+H*) nuclear pitch
Real-time face tracking using discriminator technique on standard PC hardware

We show here that it is possible to track a face or an object in real-time using usual PC hardware, even if the object quickly changes its rotation and scale. An algorithm based on the discriminator technique (used earlier in analogue signal processing) was developed. Tracking control was realized by a scale factor and roll angle discriminator control loops and convolution based 2D cross-correlation. Experiments revealed that this method enables real-time scale and rotation invariant tracking control of an object or face template in a wide scale range and provides robustness against high frequency camera vibrations, from which cameras on mobile robots suffer.
Association between Emotional Intelligence and Hemispheric Activity Asymmetry

The relations between the asymmetry of hemispheric activity using the EEG rhythms in resting and both trait emotional intelligence (EI-IPIP) and self-assessment of emotional reactivity on IAPS stimuli were studied in university students. The obtained EEG patterns of power asymmetry in both low-frequency and high-frequency indicate different variants of the hemispheric dominance in the anterior and posterior regions of the brain, depending not only on the valence of induced emotions, but also on selfassessment of perception or expression of emotional states. Total EI was associated with relatively greater left frontal activation on low frequency delta oscillations and on higher beta2 oscillations in posterior cortex. Using EEG mapping positive relations were found between the right hemispheric delta rhythm and emotional reactivity to negative emotive stimuli and between the left hemispheric delta and positive affect. Self-rating of positive to negative emotion during both EI and IAPS stimuli-induced affect testing was more pronounced in the relationships to asymmetry of hemispheric activity than separate traits EI. Keywords: Emotional intelligence traits, self-assessment of emotional reactivity, EEG, hemispheric asymmetry, frequency bands
Different Flour Microbial Communities Drive to Sourdoughs Characterized by Diverse Bacterial Strains and Free Amino Acid Profiles

This work aimed to investigate whether different microbial assemblies in flour may influence the microbiological and biochemical characteristics of traditional sourdough. To reach this purpose, members of lactic acid bacteria, enterobacteria, and yeasts were isolated from durum wheat flour. Secondly, the isolated microorganisms (Pediococcus pentosaceus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pantoea agglomerans, and Escherichia hermannii) were inoculated in doughs prepared with irradiated flour (gamma rays at 10 kGy), so that eight different microbial assemblies were obtained. Two non-inoculated controls were prepared, one of which (C-IF) using irradiated flour and the other (C) using non-irradiated flour. As shown by plate counts, irradiation of flour caused total inactivation of yeasts and a decrease of all the other microbial populations. However, acidification occurred also in the dough C-IF, due to metabolic activity of P. pentosaceus that had survived irradiation. After six fermentations, P. pentosaceus was the dominant lactic acid bacterium species in all the sourdoughs produced with irradiated flour (IF). Yet, IF-based sourdoughs broadly differed from each other in terms of strains of P. pentosaceus, probably due to the different microorganisms initially inoculated. Quantitative and qualitative differences of free amino acids concentration were found among the sourdoughs, possibly because of different microbial communities. In addition, as shown by culture-independent analysis (16S metagenetics), irradiation of flour lowered and modified microbial diversity of sourdough ecosystem.
Community Recovery in Hypergraphs

Community recovery is a central problem that arises in a wide variety of applications such as network clustering, motion segmentation, face clustering, and protein complex detection. The objective of the problem is to cluster data points into distinct communities based on a set of measurements, each of which is associated with the values of a certain number of data points. While most prior works focus on a setting in which the number of data points involved in a measurement is two, this paper explores a generalized setting in which the number can be more than two. Motivated by applications particularly in machine learning and channel coding, we consider two types of measurements: 1) homogeneity measurement that indicates whether or not the associated data points belong to the same community and 2) parity measurement that denotes the modulo-2 sum of the values of the data points. Such measurements are possibly corrupted by Bernoulli noise. We characterize the fundamental limits on the number of measurements required to reconstruct the communities for the considered models.
Attitudes Towards Strangers: a test of Uslaner’s Theory of Generalized Trust

EnglishUslaner and others predict that generalized trust is an independentconstruct that does not need to be analyzed solely as an element of social capital.Uslaner’s theory suggests that generalized trust should be measured with a singleitem about whether most people can be trusted or you can’t be too careful. It ispredicted that generalized trust is a predictor of attitudes towards strangers. Uslaner’stheory conjectures that generalized trust is established early in life and that itdoes not depend on experience, and that variables that do not depend on experiencewill be better predictors of attitudes towards strangers than those that are influencedby experience. We explore hypotheses derived from Uslaner’s theory ofgeneralized trust with data from Spain collected in the frame of the 7th wave of theEuropean Social Survey. Data analyses rely on standard regression tools. EnglishUslaner y otros predicen que la confianza generalizada es un constructoindependiente que no precisa ser analizado unicamente como un elementodel capital social. La teoria de Uslaner sugiere que la confianza generalizada deberiamedirse con un item unico sobre si puedes confiar en la mayoria de las personaso si es mejor ser precavido. Se predice que la confianza generalizada es un predictorde las actitudes hacia los extranos. La teoria de Uslaner conjetura que la confianzageneralizada queda establecida pronto en la vida de las personas y que nodepende de la experiencia, asi como que las variables que no dependen de la experienciaseran mejores predictores de las actitudes hacia los extranos que las que seencuentran influenciadas por la experiencia. Exploramos hipotesis derivadas de lateoria de la confianza generalizada de Uslaner con datos de Espana recogidos en elmarco de la 7.a oleada de la Encuesta Social Europea. Los analisis utilizan herramientasde regresion comunes.
Exploring Vibrotactile and Peripheral Cues for Spatial Attention Guidance

For decision making in monitoring and control rooms situation awareness is key. Given the often spacious and complex environments, simple alarms are not sufficient for attention guidance (e.g., on ship bridges). In our work, we explore shifting attention towards the location of relevant entities in large cyber-physical systems. Therefore, we used pervasive displays: tactile displays on both upper arms and a peripheral display. With these displays, we investigated shifting the attention in a seated and standing scenario. In a first user study, we evaluated four distinct cue patterns for each on-body display. We tested seated monitoring limited to 90° in front of the user. In a second study, we continued with the two patterns from the first study for lowest and highest urgency perceived. Here, we investigated standing monitoring in a 360° environment. We found that tactile cues led to faster arousal times than visual cues, whereas the attention shift speed for visual cues was faster than tactile cues.
Wideband Inductive-coupling Interface for High-performance Portable System

This paper presents a wideband, low power, and low cost pulse-based inductive-coupling interface for wireless data transfer in high performance portable devices. General aspects of wireless links are discussed to understand the position of the inductive-coupling technique. Two applications of a pulse-based inductive-coupling interface are introduced, one is a 0.14 pJ/b inter-chip link for system-in-a-package. The other is a detachable wireless interface for chip monitoring through LSI package. Circuit design techniques for a power reduction and an extension of communication range are presented.
Video quality assessment based on Fast Structural Similarity index algorithm

Objective quality measures play important roles in fast image and video quality assessment (VQA). In the paper, a Fast Structural Similarity (FSSIM) index algorithm, which modifies Structural Similarity (SSIM) to achieve a high speed of execution, is used to assess the quality of real-time video application. The experimental results show that the FSSIM index algorithm not only has competitive performance with normal SSIM for assessing video quality, but also has much lower computational complexity.
Open robot control software: the OROCOS project

This paper introduces the OROCOS project that aims at becoming a general-purpose and open robot control software package. OROCOS follows the open source development model that has been proven to work in many other general-purpose software packages, such as Linux, Apache, Perl or LATEX. The paper focuses on the long-term vision of this start-up project, motivates which strategic and innovative design decisions are to be taken (a CORBA-like component architecture being the most important one), and lists other projects on which OROCOS could build. The success of OROCOS depends critically on how many researchers and engineers can be motivated to contribute code, documentation and feedback to the project.
[Social functioning and quality of life in schizophrenia patients --relationship with symptomatic remission and duration of illness].

AIM The assessment of social functioning and subjective quality of life in relation to symptomatic remission in schizophrenia patients after a first psychiatric hospitalization, as well as the analysis of connection between intensity of psychopathological symptoms and the level of functioning and quality of life, taking into account the status of remission and duration of illness. METHODS Sixty-four patients were assessed, at 13 months (1st examination) and at mean 8 years (2nd examination) after the first hospitalization, and compared with two control groups of healthy persons. The following scales were used: Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Social Functioning Scale (SFS), WHO Quality of Life (WHOQoL--Bref) scale and Global Assessment Scale (GAS). RESULTS At first examination, the score of SFS domains was not significantly different between patients in remission and without remission while the score of most domains of WHOQoL was significantly higher in patients with remission. At second examination, the scores of both SFS and WHOQoL were significantly higher in patients with remission and did not differ significantly from healthy persons. In both examinations, significant correlations between PANSS and SFS and WHOQoL scores were found, especially in patients without remission. CONCLUSIONS At mean 8 years after first psychiatric hospitalization, 2/3 of the patients with schizophrenia did not get a symptomatic remission and had worse social functioning and quality of life compared to patients with remission and to healthy controls. Psychopathological symptoms correlated significantly with social functioning and quality of life, especially among patients without remission.