Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication PrinciplesEstimating neutral divergence amongst Mammals for Comparative Genomics with Mammalian scope

Comparative sequence analyses on a collection of carefully chosen mammalian genomes could facilitate identification of functional elements within the human genome and allow quantification of evolutionary constraint at the single nucleotide level. High-resolution quantification would be informative for determining the distribution of important positions within functional elements and for evaluating the relative importance of nucleotide sites that carry single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The level of resolution in comparative sequence analyses is a direct function of sequence diversity, so the information content of a candidate mammalian genome can be defined as the sequence divergence it would add relative to already- sequenced genomes. Our study involves sequences from 29 mammals and we compute total neutral divergence present in set of mammals. Our results of how different mammals add to neutral divergence to the already fully sequenced mammals would increases the effectiveness of comparative genomics with mammalian scope.
Diagnostic imaging and image-guided therapy of skeletal metastases.

BACKGROUND The high incidence of skeletal metastases in cancer patients warrants careful detection with imaging and follow-up. Efforts are needed to manage pain associated with skeletal metastases as part of overall patient management. METHODS This article reviews the current methods of diagnostic imaging in the evaluation of skeletal metastases and image-guided treatment of bone metastases for the palliation of pain based primarily on the assessment of imaging and interventional radiologic literature. RESULTS Approaches to diagnostic imaging of skeletal metastases are summarized. Skeletal scintigraphy provides high sensitivity for detecting skeletal metastases, but targeted computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be needed to increase specificity. Newer imaging modalities, such as positron emission tomography (PET)/CT, improve detection of both lytic and blastic metastases. Minimally invasive percutaneous ablative treatment techniques, including radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation, and cryoablation, are examined. They provide alternative approaches to radiation therapy to effectively palliate pain of bone metastases. Preliminary results of MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) demonstrate its effectiveness in palliating pain from skeletal metastases. CONCLUSIONS Skeletal scintigraphy is the most common imaging modality for detecting skeletal metastases. Additional imaging may be required based on the type of tumor, the disease state, or treatment options. External-beam radiation therapy remains the mainstay for palliation of pain from bone metastases. Alternative minimally invasive and noninvasive image-guided treatment options can provide effective pain palliation.
Multicontrast MRI Quantification of Focal Inflammation and Degeneration in Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction. Local microstructural pathology in multiple sclerosis patients might influence their clinical performance. This study applied multicontrast MRI to quantify inflammation and neurodegeneration in MS lesions. We explored the impact of MRI-based lesion pathology in cognition and disability. Methods. 36 relapsing-remitting MS subjects and 18 healthy controls underwent neurological, cognitive, behavioural examinations and 3 T MRI including (i) fluid attenuated inversion recovery, double inversion recovery, and magnetization-prepared gradient echo for lesion count; (ii) T1, T2, and T2* relaxometry and magnetisation transfer imaging for lesion tissue characterization. Lesions were classified according to the extent of inflammation/neurodegeneration. A generalized linear model assessed the contribution of lesion groups to clinical performances. Results. Four lesion groups were identified and characterized by (1) absence of significant alterations, (2) prevalent inflammation, (3) concomitant inflammation and microdegeneration, and (4) prevalent tissue loss. Groups 1, 3, 4 correlated with general disability (Adj-R 2 = 0.6; P = 0.0005), executive function (Adj-R 2 = 0.5; P = 0.004), verbal memory (Adj-R 2 = 0.4; P = 0.02), and attention (Adj-R 2 = 0.5; P = 0.002). Conclusion. Multicontrast MRI provides a new approach to infer in vivo histopathology of plaques. Our results support evidence that neurodegeneration is the major determinant of patients' disability and cognitive dysfunction.
Building Recurrent Neural Networks to Implement Multiple Attractor Dynamics Using the Gradient Descent Method

The present paper proposes a recurrent neural network model and learning algorithm that can acquire the ability to generate desired multiple sequences. The network model is a dynamical system in which the transition function is a contraction mapping, and the learning algorithm is based on the gradient descent method. We show a numerical simulation in which a recurrent neural network obtains a multiple periodic attractor consisting of five Lissajous curves, or a Van der Pol oscillator with twelve different parameters. The present analysis clarifies that the model contains many stable regions as attractors, and multiple time series can be embedded into these regions by using the present learning method.
The Effects of Presence and Tactile Illusion on Consumers' Attitudes and Intentions: The Mediating Role of Mental Imagery and the moderators' effects

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between presence, tactile illusion, vividness of imagery and advertising effectiveness. A total of 207 undergraduate students participated for an experiment. The result of path analysis found that presence and tactile illusion induce more vivid mental imagery. Vividness of mental imagery was a major contributor to consumers’ attitudes toward the website. Spatial presence and realness had a partial impact on advertising effectiveness. There were main effects of site type and NFT on some of advertising effectiveness measures with interaction effects for product type and site type, and for product type, site type, and NFT. Theoretical reasoning and practical implications for the results are followed. Keywords--- Presence, cross-modal illusion, mental imagery, 3D advertising, advertising effectiveness 1. Introduction Despite the importance of touching in consumers’ decision making, this sense is not usually available when we try online shopping. It is possible to virtually experience a product by interacting with 3D graphic images instead. Previous researches [1, 2] show that a sense of presence is an important mediator in this virtual product experience and have a positive impact on web advertising effectiveness. It is also found that, in a virtual environment, presence stimulates synesthesia[3]. Will it be possible that this cross-modal illusion have a compensating effect for deficient sensory cues (e.g., haptic information) in a virtual store? The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between presence, tactile illusion, and advertising effectiveness. The paper also examines the difference in advertising effectiveness by product type, site type, and consumer’s need for touch (NFT).
Power-delay product minimization in high-performance fixed-width multiplier

In this paper, we propose a parallel fixed-width multiplier design that receive two n-bit numbers and produce a n-bit product. To design the proposed fixed-width multiplier, three multiplication modules are used that can work as independent smaller-precision multiplications. In order to add the outputs of the multiplication modules, carry save adder and Brent-Kung adder is used which can further improve the performance of the design. Implementation results demonstrate that the proposed fixed-width multiplier with parallel multiplication modules achieve significant improvement in delay and power-delay product when compared with previous architectures.
Mobile Information Systems: An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Mobile Commerce Acceptance in Jordan

Although mobile commerce have been used and widely researched in developed nations, there is a low usage in the Arab world. Also, there is a limited empirical research on mobile commerce in Jordan despite the high penetration of mobile phone subscribers in 2009. Among the aims of this quantitative research is to empirically investigate the determinants of mobile commerce adoption in a collectivist culture such as Jordan where social norms are valued and individual actions are influenced greatly by important reference groups. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is extended to include four factors (facilitating conditions, cost, personal innovativeness in IT (PIIT) and subjective norms). Furthermore, in order to understand subjective norms in collectivist culture; subjective norms were decomposed into different levels (personal and societal injunctive and descriptive norms). The research framework consists of twelve latent variables (seven exogenous and five endogenous). Using self-administered survey, 40 items with 7-point Likert scale is used to collect data. Out of the 500 samples, 448 responses (89.6 % response rate) were collected; eventually 401 responses were usable. Structural Equation Modeling is applied to analyze the data. The findings of this study revealed that facilitating conditions, cost, PIIT, attitude and perceived usefulness are significant determinants of behavioral intention in Jordan. In addition, subjective norms, facilitating conditions, cost and perceived ease of use are significant antecedents of attitude which in turn influencing behavioral intention. Moreover, the empirical evidence indicated that personal injunctive norm, personal descriptive norm and societal injunctive norm are indeed antecedents of subjective norms. It can be concluded that extended TAM successfully enriched the model and increased the exploratory power to 53% in explaining behavioral intention variance.
Effects of cholesterol, FSH and LH on steroidogenic activity of cat granulosa cells cultured in vitro

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of 22R-hydroxycholesterol (22R-HC), folliclestimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) on estradiol and progesterone production by cat granulosa cells. Granulosa cells from follicles were collected and cultured for up to 5 days in 24 well plates containing Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM)/HAM F-12 supplemented with 10-7 M androstenedione, 0.1% ITS premix and 0.1% bovine serum albumin, in the presence or absence of 22R-HC (10 μg/ml), FSH or LH (10, 100 ng/ml each) on first and third day. Additionally, 5% fetal calf serum was added into the culture medium for the first 24 h. Treatment of cells with 22R-HC resulted in an increase (P < 0.05) in progesterone and estradiol production on days 3 and 5 of the culture. Incubation of cells with FSH (10 and 100 ng/ml) resulted in significant stimulations of progesterone (P < 0.001) whilst incubation had no effect on estradiol production. None of the LH doses (10 and 100 ng/ml) had any effect on progesterone production by granulosa cells during the culture time. With the inclusion of 22R-HC into the culture system, progesterone synthesis was enhanced (P < 0.001) in the presence of all FSH doses.
Interleaving motion in contact and in free space for planning under uncertainty

In this paper we present a planner that interleaves free-space motion with motion in contact to reduce uncertainty. The planner finds such motions by growing a search tree in the combined space of collision-free and contact configurations. The planner reasons efficiently about the accumulated uncertainty by factoring the state in a belief over configuration and a fully observable contact state. We show the uncertainty-reducing capabilities of the planner on manipulation benchmark from the POMDP literature. The planner scales up to more complex problems like manipulation under uncertainty in seven-dimensional configuration space. We validate our planner in simulation and on a real robot.
Towards Rigorously Faking Bidirectional Model Transformations

Bidirectional model transformations (bx) are mechanisms for auto-matically restoring consistency between multiple concurrently modified models. They are, however, challenging to implement; many model transformation languages not supporting them at all. In this paper, we propose an approach for automatically obtaining the consistency guarantees of bx without the complexities of a bx language. First, we show how to “fake” true bidirectionality using pairs of unidirectional transformations and inter-model consistency constraints in Epsilon. Then, we propose to automatically verify that these transformations are consistency preserving — thus indistinguishable from true bx — by defining translations to graph rewrite rules and nested conditions, and leveraging recent proof calculi for graph transformation verification.
The First Five Years of anAutomated Language

The L 0 project at ICSI and UC Berkeley attempts to combine not only vision and natural language modelling, but also learning. The original task was put forward in (Feldman et al. 1990a) as a touchstone task for AI and cognitive science. The task is to build a system that can learn the appropriate fragment of any natural language from sentence-picture pairs. We have not succeeded in building such a system, but we have made considerable progress on component subtasks and this has led in a number of productive and surprising directions.
Breadth and Depth of Semantic Lexicons - Notes on the Workshop

Whereas the former has been regarded as a topical issue for quite some time, the latter is only now receiving its due attention. This workshop will concentrate on lexical rules as a regulator of breadth and depth of the lexicons. Lexical rules are known under a variety of names, e.g., Leech's (1981) "semantic transfer rules," "lexical implication rules" of Ostler and Atkins (1991) and others. They are also addressed in the framework of such theories as the generative lexicon of Pustejovsky (1995). Such linguistic frameworks as LFG and HPSG have also used the concept, albeit in a different sense and for a different purpose. At the same time, theoretical accounts of the use of lexical rules (such as, for instance, preemption or blocking) are rather too general and underspecified to support actual processing. The workshop will stress issues connected with the practical application of lexical rules: when to apply the rules, how the rules influence system design, how to reexamine and adjust the theoretically posited rules in view of practical needs and evidence. Another central issue for the workshop will be large-scale acquisition of computational-semantic lexicons for practical applications. We are mainly interested in examining the following trade-offs: the coverage vs.the depth of existing semantic lexicons vs. the effort involved in building them.
Prolonged Right Ventricular Ejection Delay in Brugada Syndrome Depends on the Type of SCN5A Variant　- Electromechanical Coupling Through Tissue Velocity Imaging as a Bridge Between Genotyping and Phenotyping.

BACKGROUND Patients with Brugada syndrome (BrS) and a history of syncope or sustained ventricular arrhythmia have longer right ventricular ejection delays (RVEDs) than asymptomatic BrS patients. Different types ofSCN5Avariants leading to different reductions in sodium current (INa) may have different effects on conduction delay, and consequently on electromechanical coupling (i.e., RVED). Thus, we investigated the genotype-phenotype relationship by measuring RVED to establish whether BrS patients carrying more severeSCN5Avariants leading to premature protein truncation (T) and presumably 100%INareduction have a longer RVED than patients carrying missense variants (M) with different degrees ofINareduction.Methods and Results:There were 34 BrS patients (mean [±SD] age 43.3±12.9 years; 52.9% male) carrying anSCN5Avariant and 66 non-carriers in this cross-sectional study. Patients carrying aSCN5Avariant were divided into T-carriers (n=13) and M-carriers (n=21). Using tissue velocity imaging, RVED and left ventricular ejection delay (LVED) were measured as the time from QRS onset to the onset of the systolic ejection wave at the end of the isovolumetric contraction. T-carriers had longer RVEDs than M-carriers (139.3±15.1 vs. 124.8±11.9 ms, respectively; P=0.008) and non-carriers (127.7±17.3 ms, P=0.027). There were no differences in LVED among groups. CONCLUSIONS Using the simple, non-invasive echocardiographic parameter RVED revealed a more pronounced 'electromechanical' delay in BrS patients carrying T variants ofSCN5A.
Multi-atlas tensor-based morphometry and its application to a genetic study of 92 twins

Here we develop a multi-template analysis for tensor-based morphometry (TBM) which aims to reduce error from the registration step. In conventional TBM, a single template is nonlinearly registered to all images in the study, and the deformation field statistics are computed from the transformations. Using an MRI dataset from 23 monozygotic and 23 dizygotic twin pairs, we instead registered each individual twin image to 9 additional brain templates using a Riemannian fluid algorithm [3]. Average deformation tensors from multiple registrations were computed within each image, using a log-Euclidean framework [1]. To quantify improvements as the number of registration templates increased from 1 to 9, sequential t-tests assessed the significance of any error reduction, as each new template was added. For each number of templates, we also computed two tensor-derived metrics, and maps of the intraclass correlation of local volume differences, to evaluate any power advantages of multi-atlas TBM. 1
Dissociation in Trauma: A New Definition and Comparison with Previous Formulations

Amid controversy regarding the psychobiological construct of dissociation, efforts to formulate a precise definition of dissociation are rare. Some understandings of dissociation are so broad that a host of common psychobiological phenomena would qualify as dissociative. Overly narrow conceptualizations of dissociation exclude phenomena that originally, and for good reasons, have been regarded as dissociative. A common lack of conceptual distinctions between dissociation as process, organization, deficit, psychological defense, and symptom adds to the current confusion. In previous publications, we criticized many of these perspectives and proposed a detailed psychobiological theory of dissociation in trauma. However, what has remained missing is a precise definition of dissociation in trauma. This article first presents such a definition and elucidates its various components. Next the new definition is compared with several other major definitions of the concept. The strengths of the new formulation are highlighted and discussed.
An investigation of factors affecting lean implementation success of Thai logistics companies

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting the success of lean implementation in Thai logistics companies. Data wa s collected from the logistic companies implemented lean. Questionnaire survey wa s used to collect the data. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were cond ucte to understand the relationship between these factors and lean implementation succe s. The results of this study highlight the importance of leadership and management, financ al capabilities, and organization culture as the critical success factors of lean imp le entation. The results also provide practitioners with guidelines in implementing lean more efficiently and effectively for enhancing their capability and competitiveness towa rds globalized market.
Codec independent lossy audio compression detection

In this paper, we propose a method for detecting marks of lossy compression encoding, such as MP3 or AAC, from PCM audio. The method is based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) applied to audio spectrograms and trained with the output of various lossy audio codecs and bitrates. Our method shows good performances on a large database and robustness to codec type and resampling.
Interaction between carotid baroregulation and the pulsating heart : a mathematical model

Ursino, Mauro. Interaction between carotid baroregulation and the pulsating heart: a mathematical model. Am. J. Physiol. 275 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 44): H1733–H1747, 1998. —A mathematical model of short-term arterial pressure control by the carotid baroreceptors in pulsatile conditions is presented. The model includes an elastance variable description of the left and right heart, the systemic (splanchnic and extrasplanchnic) and pulmonary circulations, the afferent carotid baroreceptor pathway, the sympathetic and vagal efferent activities, and the action of several effector mechanisms. The latter mechanisms work, in response to sympathetic and vagal action, by modifying systemic peripheral resistances, systemic venous unstressed volumes, heart period, and end-systolic elastances. The model is used to simulate the interaction among the carotid baroreflex, the pulsating heart, and the effector responses in different experiments. In all cases, there has been satisfactory agreement between model and experimental results. Experimental data on heart rate control can be explained fairly well by assuming that the sympathetic-parasympathetic systems interact linearly on the heart period. The carotid baroreflex can significantly modulate the cardiac function curve. However, this effect is masked in vivo by changes in arterial and atrial pressures. During heart pacing, cardiac output increases with frequency at moderate levels of heart rate and then fails to increase further because of a reduction in stroke volume. Shifting from nonpulsatile to pulsatile perfusion of the carotid sinuses decreases the overall baroreflex gain and significantly modifies operation of the carotid baroreflex. Finally, a sensitivity analysis suggests that venous unstressed volume control plays the major role in the early hemodynamic response to acute hemorrhage, whereas systemic resistance and heart rate controls are a little less important.
Validierung eines Screeninginstruments zur Identifizierung von Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS): Die Chemische Geruchssensitivitätsskala (CGSS)

: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) -- also known as Idiopathic Environmental Intolerances (IEI) -- is defined as a disorder with multiple somatic and psychological symptoms attributed to low levels of various, chemically unrelated substances in the environment. Self-reported chemical odor sensitivity is an important feature of MCS. We describe the construction and the reliability and validity properties of a short questionnaire for the assessment of chemical odor sensitivity (COSS). The 11 items of the COSS were factor analytically derived from the Questionnaire of Chemical and General Environmental Sensitivity (CGES). Test statistical properties of the COSS were examined in college students, unselected community members, environmental medicine outpatients and chemically sensitive subjects. The COSS achieved good internal consistency in all samples (Cronbach's alpha = 0.89 - 0.93). Women and subjects from samples with higher MCS risk showed elevated COSS scores. The scale showed adequate construct validity and proved useful as an economic screening instrument for persons at risk for MCS.
Edpf: a Real-Time parameter-Free Edge Segment Detector with a False Detection Control

We propose a real-time, parameter-free edge/edge segment detection algorithm based on our novel edge/edge segment detector, the edge drawing (ED) algorithm; hence the name edge drawing parameter free (EDPF). EDPF works by running ED with ED's parameters set at their extremes. This produces all edge segments in a given image with numerous false detections. The detected edge segments are then validated by an "a contrario" validation step due to the Helmholtz principle, which eliminates invalid detections leaving only "meaningful" edge segments.