Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Evolutionary Approach for Dynamic Configuration of Multi-expert Classification Systems

We introduce a multiple classifier system that incorporates a global optimization technique based on a Breeder Genetic Algorithm for dynamically selecting the set of experts to be included in the pool. The proposed technique is applicable when the experts provide both the class assigned to the input sample and a measure of the reliability of the classification. For each sample, the experts selected for participating in the voting rule are those whose reliability is larger than a given threshold. There are as many thresholds as the number of experts by the number of classes. The values of the thresholds aimed at selecting the best set of experts for each input sample are determined by the Breeder Genetic Algorithm. The reliability measures provided by the experts of the pool are also used to implement the tie-break mechanism needed within the voting scheme. The system has been tested on the Image database from the UCI database repository by using as classifiers an ensemble of Back-Propagation neural network and an ensemble of Learning Vector Quantization neural network. The voting schemes adopted are the Majority Vote, the Weighted Majority Vote and the Borda Count. The performance of the system is compared with those exhibited by the multi-expert systems exploiting the same combining rules without the dynamic selection of the expert.
Comorbidities in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia.

BACKGROUND Comorbidity among developmental disorders such as dyslexia, language impairment, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder is common. This study explores comorbid weaknesses in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia with and without language impairment and considers the role that comorbidity plays in determining children's outcomes. METHOD The preschool attention, executive function and motor skills of 112 children at family risk for dyslexia, 29 of whom also met criteria for language impairment, were assessed at ages 3½ and 4½ years. The performance of these children was compared to the performance of children with language impairment and typically developing controls. RESULTS Weaknesses in attention, executive function and motor skills were associated with language impairment rather than family risk status. Individual differences in language and executive function are strongly related during the preschool period, and preschool motor skills predicted unique variance (4%) in early reading skills over and above children's language ability. CONCLUSION Comorbidity between developmental disorders can be observed in the preschool years: children with language impairment have significant and persistent weaknesses in motor skills and executive function compared to those without language impairment. Children's early language and motor skills are predictors of children's later reading skills.
Development of a recommendation system with multiple subjective evaluation process models

Current BtoC recommendation services utilize consumers' purchased log as criteria for selecting information, yet it includes little information of the reason why he bought the items. Thus it is difficult to recommend the suitable information for each consumer. We have observed how each consumer judges his likes and dislikes on objects viewing them. We have modeled each consumer's evaluation process by relationships among physical features of objects, each consumer's subjective interpretations and preferences. Thus, based on the models, our system can estimate users' subjective evaluations and preferences from physical features of objects to perform a suitable recommendation. We have also built situated preference models according to the usage of the items. The recommendation system refers such situated preference models together with the subjective evaluation model as the consumer's decision-making model for selecting objects.
Laparoscopic Extracorporeal Oophorectomy and Ovarian Cystectomy in Second Trimester Pregnant Obese Patients

Objectives: To determine whether a modified technique for laparoscopic extracorporal oophorectomy is less complicated and safer than traditional laparoscopic oophorectomy. Methods: Four obese patients in their second trimester underwent open laparoscopy for treatment of large ovarian cysts. A Cook Ob/Gyn special cyst aspirator with a 14-gauge aspirating needle was inserted into the abdomen to drain the ovary through a separate 10-mm port; the site of insertion depends on the location of the ovary. After the cyst was decompressed, the 10-mm incision was enlarged to 3 cm, and either extracorporal oophorectomy or cystectomy was performed. Results: No complications occurred. Average blood loss was less than 15 cc; average carbon dioxide insufflation time was less than 20 minutes. Average operating time was 40 minutes, which was significantly less than traditional laparoscopic oophorectomy. The patients were discharged in less than 23 hours. Patient A had a 500-cc dermoid cyst, and subsequently had a normal vaginal delivery at term. Patient B had a 1600-cc cyst removed. She had a cesarian delivery due to cephalopelvic dispro-portion. Pathological analysis of the specimen identified the mass as a dermoid cyst and serous cystadenoma. Patient C had a 3200-cc ovarian cyst. Currently, she is in her 24th week of gestation. Patient D had a 700-cc simple ovarian cyst removed at her 16th week of gestation. Conclusions: Laparoscopic extracorporal oophorectomy requires significantly less CO2 insufflation time and a shorter operation time, hence, decreasing the adverse effects on the fetus. The enlarged second trimester uterus made traditional laparoscopy more complicated. Performing the procedure extracorporally decreased the possibility of operative complications.
The Role of Appraisal and Expressive Support in Mediating Strain and Gain in Hispanic Alzheimer's Disease Caregivers

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine how appraisal of burden and satisfaction, and perception of expressive support mediate the effects of caregiving on depression, somatic complaints, life satisfaction and personal gain with a sample of Hispanic Alzheimer's disease (AD) primary caregivers. A purposive-snowball sampling technique was used to identify 103 Hispanic caregivers, who completed a self-report questionnaire. A translation-back-translation process was used to translate the instruments into Spanish. Translated instruments were then pilot tested prior to being administered to the participants. Appraisal of burden was found to mediate the effects of caregiving on depression and somatic complaints and had significant direct effects on life satisfaction. Appraisal of satisfaction did not have a mediating effect on any of the measures, but did have a direct effect on depression and personal gain. Expressive support did have a mediating effect on depression, as well as direct effects on somatic complaints and life satisfaction. These findings suggest a need for improving outreach to older minorities and developing culturally sensitive interventions that can improve caregivers' understanding of problematic behavior, thereby altering appraisal of the situation, as well as developing extended systems of support.
Chronic intermittent hypoxia induces cardiac inflammation and dysfunction in a rat obstructive sleep apnea model

Abstract Chronic intermittent hypoxia is considered to play an important role in cardiovascular pathogenesis during the development of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We used a well-described OSA rat model induced with simultaneous intermittent hypoxia. Male Sprague Dawley rats were individually placed into plexiglass chambers with air pressure and components were electronically controlled. The rats were exposed to intermittent hypoxia 8 hours daily for 5 weeks. The changes of cardiac structure and function were examined by ultrasound. The cardiac pathology, apoptosis, and fibrosis were analyzed by H&E staining, TUNNEL assay, and picosirius staining, respectively. The expression of inflammation and fibrosis marker genes was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot. Chronic intermittent hypoxia/low pressure resulted in significant increase of left ventricular internal diameters (LVIDs), end-systolic volume (ESV), end-diastolic volume (EDV), and blood lactate level and marked reduction in ejection fraction and fractional shortening. Chronic intermittent hypoxia increased TUNNEL-positive myocytes, disrupted normal arrangement of cardiac fibers, and increased Sirius stained collagen fibers. The expression levels of hypoxia induced factor (HIF)-1α, NF-kB, IL-6, and matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP-2) were significantly increased in the heart of rats exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia. In conclusion, the left ventricular function was adversely affected by chronic intermittent hypoxia, which is associated with increased expression of HIF-1α and NF-kB signaling molecules and development of cardiac inflammation, apoptosis and fibrosis.
Interactive Domain Adaptation for the Classification of Remote Sensing Images Using Active Learning

This letter presents a novel interactive domain-adaptation technique based on active learning for the classification of remote sensing (RS) images. The proposed method aims at adapting the supervised classifier trained on a given RS source image to make it suitable for classifying a different but related target image. The two images can be acquired in different locations and/or at different times. The proposed approach iteratively selects the most informative samples of the target image to be labeled by the user and included in the training set, whereas the source image samples are reweighted or possibly removed from the training set on the basis of their disagreement with the target image classification problem. This way, the consistent information available from the source image can be effectively exploited for the classification of the target image and for guiding the selection of new samples to be labeled, whereas the inconsistent information is automatically detected and removed. This approach can significantly reduce the number of new labeled samples to be collected from the target image. Experimental results on both a multispectral very high resolution and a hyperspectral data set confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Generative Processes of Comprehension

This article presents a model of the generative processes of reading comprehension. The article begins with a discussion of the four parts of the model: generation, motivation, attention, and memory. The discussion then reviews laboratory and classroom research relevant to the model. A series of experiments by the author and his colleagues are presented to support the instructional utility of the model. The article concludes with a discussion of the model and its relation to the teaching of reading comprehension in schools.
HIV-Specific IL-10-Positive CD8+ T Cells Are Increased in Advanced Disease and Are Associated with Decreased HIV-Specific Cytolysis1

IL-10-producing T cells have been shown to inhibit Ag-specific CD8+ T cell responses, and may play a role in the immune dysregulation observed in HIV-1 infection. We characterized the Gag-specific IL-10 responses by CD8+ T cells in HIV-1-positive volunteers from Uganda. HIV-specific IL-10 responses were detected in 32 of 61 (52.4%) antiretroviral naive and 2 of 15 (13.3%) volunteers with a complete virologic response on antiretroviral therapy (< 400 copies/ml). The frequency of HIV-specific IL-10-positive cells was significantly higher in volunteers with advanced disease (CD4+ T cell count <200 cells/mm3; p = 0.0004), and correlated positively with plasma HIV RNA (r = 0.43, p = 0.0004). Interestingly, the frequency of Gag-specific CD107a/b-, but not IFN-γ-, positive cells was significantly lower in individuals with detectable IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells (p = 0.004). Gag-specific IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells demonstrated a pattern of surface memory marker expression that is distinct compared with CD107a/b- and IFN-γ-positive CD8+ T cell populations (p < 0.0001). Our study describes a distinct population of IL-10-positive CD8+ T cells that may play a role in HIV-associated immune dysfunction.
Sartre's Circular Dialectic and the Empires of Abstract Space: A History of Space and Place in Ballymun, Dublin

Abstract Ballymun in Dublin, one of the most famous of Europe's grandiose housing estates, has had an especially dramatic history since it was first built in 1965. At the heart of the unfolding drama has been a series of conflicts between the spatial imaginations of the state officials and planners who designed, built, and managed the initial estate and who are currently undertaking its wholesale regeneration, and the place-making activities of the local residents who have inhabited, endured, and occasionally sought to reclaim this space. Concerned to prise open some fresh ways of thinking about the hyperextension of “abstract space” into everyday life, this article presents a reconstruction of the history of space and place in Ballymun. In their exploration of the onslaught of abstract space, critical human geographers have drawn upon a wide range of social theorists including Benjamin, De Certeau, Debord, Deluze, Foucault, Giddens, Habermas, Heidegger, Jameson, Weber, and, of course, Henri Lefebvre. Strangely absent from this list, however, has been the work of Jean-Paul Sartre. And yet, contained within Sartre's Critique de la raison dialectique (Critique of Dialectical Reason) resides a tremendously powerful account of the ever-growing occupation, dispossession, and reterritorialization of everyday life by the abstract grids and geometries imprinted on the Earth's surface by capitalism and the capitalist state. It will be the central task of this article to read the history of Ballymun through the lens of Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason, and, in so doing, to rework the Critique so that it speaks to the concerns of contemporary critical human geography.
Domain analysis for GenVoca generators

There are many reasons why one may model a domain: improved documentation, enhanced understanding of applications, etc. The author has only one motivation for domain modeling-to design product line architectures so that customized systems can be built quickly and cheaply from components. His goal is to cast and encapsulate existing artifacts, domain knowledge, and domain specific implementation techniques into software components that reflect the fundamental building blocks of domain applications. Every domain is characterized by a small set of fundamental abstractions. Each abstraction is characterized by many different realizations, which can be recognized as consistent "refinements" of the abstraction. The output of a domain analysis that the author performs is a GenVoca domain model (D. Batory et al., 1995): a list of fundamental domain abstractions; a list of refinements for each abstraction that identifies basic ways in which the abstraction can be realized; a parametric model which defines the abstractions that are imported and exported by a refinement; and rules-preconditions/postconditions-that express how refinements can be legally composed. In GenVoca terminology, abstractions correspond to realms, refinements correspond to parametrized components, and composition constraints correspond to design rules (D. Batory, 1997).
ER stress negatively regulates AKT/TSC/mTOR pathway to enhance autophagy

Disturbance to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis that can not be rescued by the unfolded protein response (UPR) results in autophagy and cell death, but the precise mechanism was largely unknown. Here we demonstrated that ER stress-induced cell death was mediated by autophagy which was partly attributed to the inactivation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Three widely used ER stress inducers including tunicamycin, DTT and MG132 led to the conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II, a commonly used marker of autophagy, as well as the downregulation of mTOR concurrently. TSC-deficient cells with constitutive activation of mTOR exhibited more resistance to ER stress-induced autophagy, compared with their wild-type counterparts. Furthermore, our studies showed that ER stress-induced deactivation of mTOR was attributed to the downregulation of AKT/TSC/mTOR pathway. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) as two regulators in this pathway seemed to be absent in this regulation. As a chemical chaperone helping the correct folding of proteins, 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA) partly rescued AKT/TSC/mTOR pathway in drug-induced acute ER stress. Moreover, constitutively-activated mTOR-induced long-term ER stress attenuated RTK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in response to the stimulation by various growth factors, which could also be partly restored by 4-PBA.
Acyclovir treatment for varicella does not lower gpI and IE-62 (p170) antibody responses to varicella-zoster virus in normal children

The varicella-zoster virus (VZV) membrane glycoprotein gpI elicits a major immunoglobulin G antibody response after naturally acquired VZV infection; antibody to a nonglycosylated immediate-early protein, IE-62 (p170), represents a response to a nonmembrane VZV component. We evaluated antibody response to VZV gpI and IE-62 (p170) at 28 days and 1 year following infection in 34 children (ages 5 to 16 years) enrolled in a randomized placebo-controlled study of oral acyclovir for the treatment of varicella. All children were VZV antibody negative at enrollment, were previously healthy, and had laboratory-documented varicella. Compared with placebo recipients, acyclovir recipients had lower geometric mean titers by the fluorescent antibody to membrane antigen technique at 28 days (620 versus 836) but similar titers at 1 year (122 versus 122). All children had antibodies to gpI and IE-62 detectable by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at 28 days and 1 year. No difference in gpI at 28 days compared with 1 year was noted in acyclovir recipients. No difference in antibody to IE-62 (p170) was noted when acyclovir and placebo recipients were compared at either 28 days or 1 year. Antibody responses to gpI and IE were similar when children were stratified by age (5 to 6 years, 7 to 11 years, 12 to 16 years). A short course of oral acyclovir for the treatment of varicella did not affect antibody responses to gpI or IE-62 (p170) in healthy children at 28 days and 1 year following varicella.
Immune Requirements of Post-Exposure Immunization with Modified Vaccinia Ankara of Lethally Infected Mice

Current prophylactic vaccines work via the induction of B and T cell mediated memory that effectively control further replication of the pathogen after entry. In the case of therapeutic or post-exposure vaccinations the situation is far more complex, because the pathogen has time to establish itself in the host, start producing immune-inhibitory molecules and spread into distant organs. So far it is unclear which immune parameters have to be activated in order to thwart an existing lethal infection. Using the mousepox model, we investigated the immunological mechanisms responsible for a successful post-exposure immunization with modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA). In contrast to intranasal application of MVA, we found that intravenous immunization fully protected mice infected with ectromelia virus (ECTV) when applied three days after infection. Intravenous MVA immunization induced strong innate and adaptive immune responses in lethally infected mice. By using various gene-targeted and transgenic mouse strains we show that NK cells, CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells and antibodies are essential for the clearance of ECTV after post-exposure immunization. Post-exposure immunization with MVA is an effective measure in a murine model of human smallpox. MVA activates innate and adaptive immune parameters and only a combination thereof is able to purge ECTV from its host. These data not only provide a basis for therapeutic vaccinations in the case of the deliberate release of pathogenic poxviruses but possibly also for the treatment of chronic infections and cancer.
Counteracting immunosuppressive cofactor B7-H1 may enhance the effects of chemotherapy in cancer patients.

In many countries, a leading contributor of high mortality rates is cancer. Combinatorial therapy, including surgery, radiotherapy and chemo‐ therapy, are necessary approaches for treating cancer. Chemotherapy is a commonly used adjuvant therapy in combination with surgery. However, the effects of this treatment require fur‐ ther improvement. For example, despite potential curative resection in stomach cancer, 50–90% of patients eventually show relapse of the disease. Furthermore, strategies aimed at targeting can‐ cer with a 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based adjuvant chemotherapy approach show a 5‐year overall survival rate increasing from 49.6 to 55.3% com‐ pared with surgery alone [1]. Although the dif‐ ference in outcome between the two treatment approaches was significant (p < 0.05), the net effect remained highly unsatisfactory.
A Critical Analysis of DNA Data Compression Methods

Data compression is an area of research that has many applications spanning different technological fields; among the most important of these fields is that of DNA compression. With whole genome sequencing becoming increasingly practical and cost-effective, the need for a superior space-saving algorithm is obvious. There are many research projects and feasible future applications that necessitate having many different sequenced genomes readily available in a form that can be easily decompressed and examined. A single, uncompressed human genome in the form that is generated by companies such as Helicos Biosciences, Pacific Biosciences, 454, and Illumina can take up as much as 285 GB [6]. This amount of hard drive space usage makes keeping even a few fully-sequenced, uncompressed genomes on the same machine unrealistic, while transferring them between machines over a small bandwidth is out of the question. Data compression is not a new topic, and at first several general-purpose compression algorithms were used to store the DNA in a more efficient manner. Lempel-Ziv, or gzip compression, is a universal compression algorithm that has been used to store genetic data using an adaptive dictionary [10]. Standard encoding like gzip can reduce the space needed per nucleotide in human DNA asymptotically to two bits, since we only have four possible nucleotides. Eventually, algorithms were implemented that took characteristics of DNA into consideration, such as reverse complementation or point mutation, which could compress DNA beyond this previous gold standard. Several algorithms employing this kind of tactic are GenCompress [3] and BioCompress [5].