Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-stream processing using context-independent and context-dependent hybrid systems

Multi-stream processing provides a successful approach to enhance the generalization capability of a recognizer and can, moreover, be combined with other robust techniques, such as spectral subtraction and/or robust features, HMM/MLP hybrid systems, and others. The question usually arises at which point the different streams are to be recombined, i.e. at the feature or at the probability level. Feature and probability combination are often seen as alternative approaches. We show here how a sensitive combination of both renders this decision obsolete and improves recognition as compared to each approach carried out on its own. The study has been carried out on the digits and numbers part of the Portuguese SPEECHDAT corpus. This corpus includes a large number of speakers and channel conditions and is, thus, well suited to test the described multi-stream systems under realistic conditions. Results are presented for both context-independent and context-dependent models used in an HMM/MLP hybrid system.
A ug 2 01 1 Entanglement Storage Units

Entanglement represents the manifestation of correlations without a classical counterpart and it is regarded as the necessary ingredient at the basis of the power of quantum information processing. Indeed quantum information applications as teleportation, quantum criptography or quantum computers rely on entanglement as a crucial resource [1]. Within the current state-of-art, promising candidates for truly scalable quantum information processors are considered architectures that interface hardware components playing different roles like for example solid-state systems as stationary qubits combined in hybrid architectures with optical devices [3]. In this scenario, the stationary qubits are a collection of engineered qubits with desired properties, as decoupled as possible from one another to prevent errors. However, this architecture is somehow unfavorable to the creation and the conservation of entanglement. Indeed, it would be desirable to have a hardware where “naturally” entanglement is present and that can be prepared in a highly entangled state that persists without any external control: the closest quantum entanglement analogue of a classical information memory support, i.e. an entanglement-storage unit (ESU). Such hardware once prepared can be used at later times (alone or with duplicates) – once the desired kind of entanglement has been distilled – to perform quantum information protocols [1].
Additional antihypertensive effect of magnesium supplementation with an angiotensin II receptor blocker in hypomagnesemic rats

Background/Aims Magnesium (Mg) is an essential element for vascular function and blood pressure regulation. Several studies have demonstrated that Mg concentration is inversely associated with blood pressure, and that Mg supplementation attenuates hypertension. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary Mg supplementation on the blood pressure effects of an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) in hypomagnesemic rats. Methods Fifty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into Mg-deficient (n = 30), normal diet plus Mg (n = 10), and control groups (n = 10). Mg-free, high-Mg, and normal-Mg diets were respectively fed to the rats. After 14 weeks, 10 of the 30 Mg-deficient rats were treated with Mg, 10 Mg-deficient rats received an ARB, and 10 Mg-deficient rats received an ARB plus Mg for 4 weeks. Results Systolic blood pressure was significantly higher in the Mg-deficient rats than in the control rats at week 14. Hypomagnesemic rats exhibited decreased systolic blood pressure after treatment with Mg, and systolic blood pressure showed a greater decrease after ARB treatment. Treatment with the ARB/Mg combination resulted in the greatest decrease in systolic blood pressure. Mg deficiency did not affect the serum angiotensin II level, but did increase the serum aldosterone concentration. Concomitant Mg/ARB supplementation significantly decreased the elevated serum aldosterone level in hypomagnesemic rats. Kidney tissues of the hypomagnesemic rats revealed mild to moderate inflammatory infiltrates. Mg and/or ARB treatment did not reverse the inflammatory reaction in the kidneys of hypomagnesemic rats. Conclusions Concurrent dietary Mg supplementation can enhance ARB-induced blood pressure reduction in rats with hypomagnesemic hypertension.
Circling Around the Uncanny Valley: Design Principles for Research Into the Relation Between Human Likeness and Eeriness

The uncanny valley effect (UVE) is a negative emotional response experienced when encountering entities that appear almost human. Research on the UVE typically investigates individual, or collections of, near human entities but may be prone to methodological circularity unless the properties that give rise to the emotional response are appropriately defined and quantified. In addition, many studies do not sufficiently control the variation in human likeness portrayed in stimulus images, meaning that the nature of stimuli that elicit the UVE is also not well defined or quantified. This article describes design criteria for UVE research to overcome the above problems by measuring three variables (human likeness, eeriness, and emotional response) and by using stimuli spanning the artificial to human continuum. These criteria allow results to be plotted and compared with the hypothesized uncanny valley curve and any effect observed can be quantified. The above criteria were applied to the methods used in a subset of existing UVE studies. Although many studies made use of some of the necessary measurements and controls, few used them all. The UVE is discussed in relation to this result and research methodology more broadly.
Corticosteroid enhances TNF‐α‐mediated leukocyte adhesion to pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells

Background: Some severe asthma patients are characterized by elevated levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) and neutrophilic inflammation in the airways. Although such phenotypic changes in asthma might contribute to corticosteroid refractoriness, the role of TNF‐α in the process remains unclear. TNF‐α exerts its biological effects mainly by acting on the vascular endothelium, and thereby upregulates leukocyte recruitment into inflamed tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dexamethasone (DEX) on the TNF‐α‐mediated responses of human microvascular endothelial cells from lung blood vessels (HMVEC‐LBl) in vitro.
Modulation of helper T cell function by prostaglandins.

OBJECTIVE To determine the influence of prostaglandins on the production of interleukins 2, 4, and 5 (IL-2, IL-4, and IL-5), interferon-gamma (IFN gamma), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and transformating growth factor beta 1 by CD4+ T cells. METHODS TH0, TH1, and TH2 T cell clones were stimulated in the presence and absence of the prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) analog misoprostol and PGE2. Lymphokine production was analyzed by using a semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction with lymphokine-specific primer sets and/or by determining lymphokine activity in bioassays. RESULTS PGE2 and misoprostol have distinct effects on different functional T helper cells. TH1 cells, which predominantly produce IL-2 and IFN gamma, are completely inhibited, while TH2 cells, which preferentially produce IL-4 and IL-5, are largely unaffected. Misoprostol and PGE2 are equivalent in their ability to modulate T cell function. In the presence of prostaglandins, TH0-like helper cells, which are characterized by the coproduction of multiple lymphokines, function as TH2 cells; however, they do not differentiate into TH2 T cells. CONCLUSION Prostaglandins that are produced in inflamed tissue can regulate the functional capabilities of infiltrating T cells. In the presence of PGE2, TH1-like responses are suppressed and TH0-like responses are shifted toward a TH2-like pattern dominated by the production of IL-4 and IL-5. Inhibition of prostaglandin production by antiinflammatory agents might restore TH1 responses with local production of IL-2 and IFN gamma.
The evolution of eccentric training as treatment for patellar tendinopathy (jumper’s knee): a critical review of exercise programmes

Background and aim: Eccentric training has become a popular treatment for patellar tendinopathy. Our purpose was to review the evolution of eccentric strength training programmes for patellar tendinopathy with a focus on the exercise prescriptions used, to help clinicians make appropriate choices and identify areas needing further research. Methods: A computerised search of the entire MEDLINE database was performed on 1 September 2006 to identify prospective and randomised clinical trials with a focus on clinical outcome of eccentric training for patellar tendinopathy. Results: 7 articles with a total of 162 patients and in which eccentric training was one of the interventions, all published after 2000, were included. The results were positive, but study quality was variable, with small numbers or short follow-up periods. The content of the different training programmes varied, but most were home-based programmes with twice daily training for 12 weeks. A number of potentially significant differences were identified in the eccentric programmes used: drop squats or slow eccentric movement, squatting on a decline board or level ground, exercising into tendon pain or short of pain, loading the eccentric phase only or both phases, and progressing with speed then loading or simply loading. Conclusion: Most studies suggest that eccentric training may have a positive effect, but our ability to recommend a specific protocol is limited. The studies available indicate that the treatment programme should include a decline board and should be performed with some level of discomfort, and that athletes should be removed from sports activity. However, these aspects need further study.
A Qualitative Survey of Modern Software Transactional Memory Systems

Software Transactional Memory (STM) can be defined as a generic nonblocking synchronization construct that allows correct sequential objects to be converted automatically into correct concurrent objects. In STM, a transaction is defined as a sequence of instructions that atomically modifies a set of concurrent objects. The original STM proposed by Shavit and Touitou worked on static transactions (wherein the concurrent objects being accessed by a transaction were pre-determined). Recent STM research has focused on support for more realistic dynamic transactions. In this paper we present a qualitative survey of modern STM systems that support dynamic transactions. More concretely, we describe the designs of three STM systems—a hash table based STM system (Hash table STM) for shared memory words due to Harris and Fraser, and two purely object-based STM systems, one due to Herlihy et al., the other due to Fraser. We also present a detailed analysis of the Hash table STM and a qualitative comparison between the two object-based STM systems. We identify a scalability drawback (that may be unacceptable in some applications) in the Hash table STM and propose an LL/SC based variant that overcomes this drawback. The qualitative comparison between the two object-based STM systems helps us understand their various design peculiarities and the potential tradeoffs involved. Specifically, we discuss object ownership acquire semantics, levels of indirection to access concurrent objects, space utilization, transaction search overhead during conflict resolution, transaction validation semantics, and contention management versus helping. ∗This work was supported in part by NSF grants numbers EIA-0080124, CCR-9988361, and CCR-0204344, by DARPA/AFRL contract number F29601-00-K-0182, and by financial and equipment grants from Sun Microsystems Laboratories.
University of Glasgow (UoG_TwTeam) at TREC Microblog 2013

In TREC 2013, we participated in the ad-hoc search task of the Microblog Track. The Microblog track, which is in its third consecutive year, has remained very similar to the last two. This paper describes the approaches we have implemented for Tweet retrieval, which comprehend query expansion, and baseline model selection. The results for all the runs submitted are well above the median achieved for all the automatic runs submitted to TREC. Furthermore, statistically significant improvements in terms of precision at 30, are reported for our automatic query expansion approach with respect to the baseline we chose. The methods here proposed show great potential for enhancing tweet retrieval performance and should therefore be further studied.
Modeling and Simulation of a Bank Queuing System

One of the major factors influencing the success of organizations in today's competitive world is to increase customer satisfaction through the improvement of service quality. In any service organization, managers are mostly concerned about the time that customers are required to wait for receiving their service. Banks in particular pay special attention to service quality as the most significant core competence. The queue length and waiting time are two significant factors which play important roles in customer perception about the quality of service in banks. Therefore, banks' managers are concerned about providing the optimal service configuration that can satisfy both customers and service providers. Among different approaches which are useful to evaluate different alternatives, simulation has proven its high capability in modeling and evaluating such situations. This study attempts to investigate and suggest the best possible configuration for a bank in Malaysia through constructing computer -- based simulation models. As the result of this study, the final suggested configuration shows improvement in terms of average utilization rate of counters and average waiting time that customers have to spend in the queue.
Making Sense of Epigenetics

The gene-environment interactions that underlie development and progression of psychiatric illness are poorly understood. Despite a century of progress, genetic approaches have failed to identify new treatment modalities, perhaps because of the heterogeneity of the disorders and lack of understanding of mechanisms. Recent exploration into epigenetic mechanisms in health and disease has uncovered changes in DNA methylation and chromatin structure that may contribute to psychiatric disorders. Epigenetic changes suggest a variety of new therapeutic options due to their reversible chemistry. However, distinguishing causal links between epigenetic changes and disease from changes consequent to life experience has remained problematic. Here we define epigenetics and explore aspects of epigenetics relevant to causes and mechanisms of psychiatric disease, and speculate on future directions.
Refresher corner Warm up angina

Walk-through angina dates back more than 200 years. It was first described in a letter to the British physician, William Heberden. The term is used to describe patients with ischemic heart disease who have reduced symptoms after an episode of angina. It is related to ‘‘warm up’’ angina or, when playing golf, ‘‘first hole’’ angina. The mechanisms responsible for warm up angina are not yet clear, although ischemic preconditioning and collateral recruitment seem to play important parts. Triggers and mediators involved in preconditioning are adenosine, bradykinin, opioid receptor agonists, ATPsensitive potassium channels, and protein kinase C. However, only bradykinin seems to have an influence on warm up angina in humans. Heart Metab. 2006;31:30–33.
In Vivo Magnetization Transfer and Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Detects Thrombus Composition in a Mouse Model of Deep Vein Thrombosis

Background— Deep vein thrombosis remains a major health problem necessitating accurate diagnosis. Thrombolysis is associated with significant morbidity and is effective only for the treatment of unorganized thrombus. We tested the feasibility of in vivo magnetization transfer (MT) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging to detect thrombus organization in a murine model of deep vein thrombosis. Methods and Results— Deep vein thrombosis was induced in the inferior vena cava of male BALB/C mice. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed at days 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 after thrombus induction using MT, diffusion-weighted, inversion-recovery, and T1-mapping protocols. Delayed enhancement and T1 mapping were repeated 2 hours after injection of a fibrin contrast agent. Finally, excised thrombi were used for histology. We found that MT and diffusion-weighted imaging can detect histological changes associated with thrombus aging. MT rate (MTR) maps and percentage of MT rate (%MTR) allowed visualization and quantification of the thrombus protein content, respectively. The %MTR increased with thrombus organization and was significantly higher at days 14, 21, and 28 after thrombus induction (days 1, 7, 14, 21, 28: %MTR=2483±451, 2079±1210, 7029±2490, 10 295±4356, 32 994±25 449; P ANOVA<0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between the %MTR and the histological protein content of the thrombus (r=0.70; P<0.05). The apparent diffusion coefficient was lower in erythrocyte-rich and collagen-rich thrombus (0.72±0.10 and 0.69±0.05 [×10−3 mm2/s]). Thrombus at days 7 and 14 had the highest apparent diffusion coefficient values (0.95±0.09 and 1.10±0.18 [×10−3 mm2/s]). Conclusions— MT and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging sequences are promising for the staging of thrombus composition and could be useful in guiding medical intervention.
Antimicrobial Peptides

The rapid increase in drug-resistant infections has presented a serious challenge to antimicrobial therapies. The failure of the most potent antibiotics to kill “superbugs” emphasizes the urgent need to develop other control agents. Here we review the history and new development of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a growing class of natural and synthetic peptides with a wide spectrum of targets including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. We summarize the major types of AMPs, their modes of action, and the common mechanisms of AMP resistance. In addition, we discuss the principles for designing effective AMPs and the potential of using AMPs to control biofilms (multicellular structures of bacteria embedded in extracellular matrixes) and persister cells (dormant phenotypic variants of bacterial cells that are highly tolerant to antibiotics).
Multimode C-arm fluoroscopy, tomosynthesis, and cone-beam CT for image-guided interventions: from proof of principle to patient protocols

High-performance intraoperative imaging is essential to an ever-expanding scope of therapeutic procedures ranging from tumor surgery to interventional radiology. The need for precise visualization of bony and soft-tissue structures with minimal obstruction to the therapy setup presents challenges and opportunities in the development of novel imaging technologies specifically for image-guided procedures. Over the past ~5 years, a mobile C-arm has been modified in collaboration with Siemens Medical Solutions for 3D imaging. Based upon a Siemens PowerMobil, the device includes: a flat-panel detector (Varian PaxScan 4030CB); a motorized orbit; a system for geometric calibration; integration with real-time tracking and navigation (NDI Polaris); and a computer control system for multi-mode fluoroscopy, tomosynthesis, and cone-beam CT. Investigation of 3D imaging performance (noise-equivalent quanta), image quality (human observer studies), and image artifacts (scatter, truncation, and cone-beam artifacts) has driven the development of imaging techniques appropriate to a host of image-guided interventions. Multi-mode functionality presents a valuable spectrum of acquisition techniques: i. ) fluoroscopy for real-time 2D guidance; ii. ) limited-angle tomosynthesis for fast 3D imaging (e.g., ~10 sec acquisition of coronal slices containing the surgical target); and iii. ) fully 3D cone-beam CT (e.g., ~30-60 sec acquisition providing bony and soft-tissue visualization across the field of view). Phantom and cadaver studies clearly indicate the potential for improved surgical performance - up to a factor of 2 increase in challenging surgical target excisions. The C-arm system is currently being deployed in patient protocols ranging from brachytherapy to chest, breast, spine, and head and neck surgery.
Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of C(6)-Modified Celastrol Derivatives as Potential Antitumor Agents

New six C6-celastrol derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activities against nine human cancer cell lines (BGC-823, H4, Bel7402, H522, Colo 205, HepG2 and MDA-MB-468). The results showed that most of the compounds displayed potent inhibition against BGC823, H4, and Bel7402, with IC50s of 1.84–0.39 μM. The best compound NST001A was tested in an in vivo antitumor assay on nude mice bearing Colo 205 xenografts, and showed significant inhibition of tumor growth at low concentrations. Therefore, celastrol C-6 derivatives are potential drug candidates for treating cancer.
Interwoven Ubiquitination Oscillators and Control of Cell Cycle Transitions

Ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis has emerged as a paramount mechanism for regulating the cell division cycle. Changes in the activities of certain E3 ligases can promote the interconversion of cell cycle states or transitions. Recent studies have revealed how distinct E3 ligases control the activity of other E3 ligases and how the interplay between these degradation machines sets up the timing of cell cycle transitions. For example, during G1, the anaphase-promoting complex in conjunction with Cdh1 (APCCdh1) catalyzes destruction of the S-phase activator Skp2, helping to define the G1 state. In response to poorly defined signals, APCCdh1 activity is reduced, allowing accumulation of Skp2 and therefore entry into S phase. In many cases, E3 ligases also function to ubiquitinate proteins that negatively regulate cell cycle transitions. Recent work indicates that cyclin-dependent kinase 2 and Polo kinase collaborate to phosphorylate Wee1, thereby promoting its ubiquitination by SCFβ-TRCP. Thus, activation of the mitotic transition produces feedback signals that help to turn off the negative upstream pathway to further reenforce the transition.
Comparative Usefulness of Online and Traditional Vocabulary Learning.

Acquiring vocabulary in L2 is rather a difficult and demanding process and most of the language learners wish to know which vocabulary learning method and/or activity is more beneficial or even the best one; however, the responses to this question vary and there is no clear-cut answer though there are some various suggestions and conclusions drawn from the studies related to vocabulary acquisition such as keeping a notebook, regularly reviewing and using vocabulary items in context. This study compares the usefulness of online vocabulary teaching and the traditional methods used in upper-intermediate Academic English class. The control group students practiced vocabulary items in ten reading passages through vocabulary notebooks and cards. The learners in the experimental group practiced the same vocabulary items in the passages through WordChamp. Furthermore, with both groups, the vocabulary items were regularly reviewed. The usefulness of the two methods was evaluated via the post-test. The study showed that the learners in the experimental group outperformed the learners in the control group and that the experimental group students better remember the words studied online, evidenced by a follow-up post-test given 3 months later.