Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Signal Pulse-Rate and Judged Duration

Theories which construct perception of time from content of input predict monotonic functions of rate-judged duration of stimuli, and do not account for intersensory differences. Two experiments required Ss to compare directly the durations of paired lights or sounds pulsed at various rates to produce discriminable beats and flickers (6.0, 10.0, 14.0 Hz), and steady signals. Pulsed lights, not sounds, were judged longer than steady, and this visual effect was identical for all flicker rates. Faster pulsed sounds and lights were judged longer than slower ones for all frequency combinations except for 10.0- to 14.0-Hz comparisons with vision. No monotonic function of rate-judged durations of pulses was obtained; the effect was all-or-none. Although pulse rate did affect judged duration, neither simple functions nor symmetry across senses was found.
Thinking Outside the Hearing Aid : Wireless Microphone Accessories

Address correspondence to: Arthur Boothroyd, Ph.D., 2550 Brant Street, San Diego, California, USA 92101, aboothroyd@cox.net. speech-to-noise ratio); by bandwidth limitations (usually loss of high frequencies); by deficits of auditory resolution (both spectral and temporal); and possibly by cognitive and processing deficits (which are likely to increase with age) (see figure 1). Note that noise and distance are features of the listening context. Bandwidth restriction can be a feature of the hearing aid, the user, or both. Resolution is primarily a feature of the listener but may involve some aspect of hearing aid processing. Cognition and perceptual processing are entirely features of the user. Because of the five enemies of effective speech perception (distance, noise, bandwidth, resolution, and cognition), unfavorable conditions that are tolerable for a
Genetic Analysis of AheZD and AuvrD Mutations in Combination with Other Genes in the RecF Recombination Pathway in Escherichia coli: Suppression of a mvB Mutation by a uvrD Deletion

Helicase I1 (uvrD gene product) and helicase IV (hew gene product) have been shown previously to be involved in the RecF pathway of recombination. To better understand the role of these two proteins in homologous recombination in the RecF pathway [recBCsbcB(C) background], we investigated the interactions between hew, uvrD and the following RecF pathway genes: re@ rec0, recN and ruvAB. We observed synergistic interactions between UWD and the re& recN, rec0 and recG genes in both conjugational recombination and the repair of methylmethane sulfonate (MMS)-induced DNA damage. No synergistic interactions were detected between hew and the re& rec0 and recNgenes when conjugational recombination was analyzed. We did, however, detect synergistic interactions between hew and recF/recO in recombinational repair. Suprisingly, the uvrD deletion completely suppressed the phenotype of a ruvB mutation in a recBCsbcB(C) background. Both conjugational recombination efficiency and M M S damaged DNA repair proficiency returned to wild-type levels in the AuwDruvB9double mutant. Suppression of the effects of the ruvB mutation by a uvrD deletion was dependent on the recG and recN genes and not dependent on the recF/O/R genes. These data are discussed in the context of two “RecF” homologous recombination pathways operating in a recBCsbcB(C) strain background.
A mapping function for human chromosomes

The available simple mapping functions are surveyed, and a new mapping function that provides for positive interference within chromosome arms and no interference across the centromere is proposed, together with the corresponding formula for centromeric linkage. This new function is derived by assuming that all chromosome arms except the short arms of acrocentric chromosomes hav an obligatory chiasma, and that the remaining chiasmata are distributed at random; assumptions which may correspond reasonably well to reality. A method for the comparison of the goodness of fit of mapping functions with family data is given. Low levels of interference seem to be indicated, although as yet insufficient human data is available to allow interference to the specified. Interference has a considerable effect on the estimation of map distances between loci from 3-point lod scores as is shown by the linkage group Rh, UMPK, PGM1, Amy, 1qh, Fy, on chromosome 1.
Supporting reliable and secure transport services over DVB-RCS satellite systems using XCP

The DVB-RCS standard provides a framework for Multi-Frequency TDMA (MF-TDMA) and dynamic resource (frequencies and time slots) allocation over satellite links. Nevertheless, MF-TDMA and dynamic resource allocation alone are not sufficient to achieve satisfactory throughput for TCP, the dominant transport protocol in IP-based networks such as the Global Information Grid (GIG) system, due to the inherent large delay-bandwidth product of the satellite links. Various mechanisms called TCP Performance Enhancement Proxies (PEP) are proposed to improve the performance of TCP over large delay-bandwidth product networks. However, typical TCP PEPs do not support GIGpsilas layer-3 security standard HAIPE (High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryption). In this paper, we identify eXplicit Control Protocol (XCP) as a desired performance enhancement mechanism, and propose a novel system architecture that integrates DVB-RCS, XCP and HAIPE. We implement XCP in the network simulator QualNet and evaluate its performance against that of TCP. Our simulation results show that XCP achieves higher throughput and fairer bandwidth allocation among competing traffic flows in DVB-RCS systems than TCP.
p53 Codon 72 polymorphism in gastric cancer susceptibility in patients with Helicobacter pylori‐associated chronic gastritis

p53 codon 72, which produces variant proteins with an arginine (Arg) or proline (Pro), has been reported to be associated with cancers of the lung, esophagus and cervix. However, there have been no reports on the p53 codon 72 polymorphism in gastric cancer susceptibility in patients with Helicobacter pylori‐associated chronic gastritis (H. pylori‐CG). We, therefore, examined the polymorphism in 117 gastric cancer patients (72 intestinal type and 45 diffuse type) with H. pylori‐CG and 116 H. pylori‐CG patients without gastric cancer as controls. Polymerase chain reaction‐restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) analysis was performed to analyze the p53 codon 72 polymorphism. The crude genotypic frequencies in the gastric cancer patients were similar to those of the controls. However, when gastric cancers were classified by histologic subtype, the Pro/Pro was more frequent in the patients with diffuse type gastric cancer than in the controls (22.2% of cases vs. 12.1% of controls). The Pro/Pro genotype was associated with a 2.98‐fold higher risk of diffuse‐type cancer compared to the Arg/Arg genotype (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07–8.32, p = 0.038). These results suggest that the Pro/Pro genotype at p53 codon 72 contributes to susceptibility for diffuse‐type gastric cancer in patients with H. pylori‐CG. The p53 codon 72 polymorphism may serve as the genetic marker for the risk assessment of the diffuse‐type gastric cancer development in patients with H. pylori‐CG. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Assessing Lay Health Advisor Activity in an Intervention to Prevent Lead Poisoning in Native American Children

The purpose of this study is to assess patterns of lay health advisor (LHA) activity in an intervention to reduce lead exposure in Native American children exposed to mine waste. A total of 39 LHAs were recruited and trained to become LHAs from eight tribes in northeastern Oklahoma. LHAs completed activity tracking forms over a 2-year intervention period to document contacts made with community groups and individuals in their social networks. They engaged in an average of 5.4 activities per month, reaching an average of 39 persons. Close members of their social networks were reached in 40.4% of the contacts; persons outside of their networks were reached in 24% of the contacts. This study suggests that 1 to 3 contacts per week may be a reasonable expectation for LHA activity. Findings also suggest that LHA interventions are a promising approach for engaging Native American communities in addressing an environmental health problem.
USING GIS TO STUDY THE HEALTH IMPACT OF AIR EMISSIONS

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is a fast-developing technology with an ever-increasing number of applications. Air dispersion modeling is a well-established discipline that can produce results in a spatial context. The marriage of these two applications is optimal because it leverages the predictive capacity of modeling with the data management, analysis, and display capabilities of GIS. In the public health arena, exposure estimation techniques are invaluable. The utilization of air emission data, such as U.S. EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data, and air dispersion modeling with GIS enable public health professionals to identify and define the potentially exposed population, estimate the health risk burden of that population, and determine correlations between point-based health outcome results with estimated health risk.
A policy dimension required for technology roadmapping: Learning from the development of emerging wind energy industry in China

Innovation policies play an important role throughout the development process of emerging industries. However, existing policy studies view the process as a black-box, and fail to understand the policy-industry interactions through the process. This paper aims to develop an integrated technology roadmapping tool, in order to facilitate the better understanding of policy heterogeneity at the different stages of new energy industries in China. Through the case study of Chinese wind energy equipment manufacturing industry, this paper elaborates the dynamics between policy and the growth process of the industry. Further, this paper generalizes some Chinese specifics for the policy-industry interactions. As a practical output, this study proposes a policy-technology roadmapping framework that maps policy-market-product-technology interactions in response to the requirement for analyzing and planning the development of new industries in emerging economies (e.g. China). This paper will be of interest to policy makers, strategists, investors, and industrial experts.
Thoracoscopic Assessment of Pleural Tumor Burden in Patients with Malignant Pleural Effusion: Prognostic and Therapeutic Implications

Background: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is encountered at an advanced stage of disease progression and often heralds a poor prognosis. The most reliable predictive factor of survival in such patients is the primary tumor. Thoracoscopy is often performed for accurate diagnosis and/or thoracoscopic talc insufflation as a therapeutic modality. It remains unknown whether pleural tumor burden, as visualized on thoracoscopy, has potential prognostic value. The objective of this study was to determine the prognostic accuracy of pleural tumor extent and localization (parietal, visceral, or diaphragmatic involvement), as assessed during medical thoracoscopy. Methods: Medical records of all patients who underwent thoracoscopy for suspicion of MPE between 2001 and 2008 at a tertiary care referral hospital were reviewed. Patients were included if pleural metastatic invasion was confirmed on tissue biopsy and survival status ascertained. Results: Four hundred twenty-one patients underwent diagnostic or therapeutic medical thoracoscopy at our referral center. Among them, 122 had confirmed metastatic pleural spread, but survival data were lacking in 15. Primary tumor consisted of non-mall cell lung cancer in 56, breast cancer in 23, melanoma in eight, and other malignancies in 20. Median survival of the entire population was 9.4 months. On univariate analysis, the following variables were significantly associated with reduced median overall survival: pleural metastatic melanoma, age less than 60 years, bloody MPE, extensive pleural adhesions, and widespread visceral pleural nodules (p < 0.05). On multivariate analysis, only melanoma as a primary tumor, pleural fluid appearance and extent of pleural adhesions remained independent and significant predictors of survival. Conclusion: No significant association was found between the extent or localization of pleural tumor burden and overall survival.
Protein sources for finishing calves as affected by management system.

Two beef production systems were evaluated in conjunction with an evaluation of escape protein sources for finishing calves. Two hundred forty crossbred steers and 80 crossbred heifer calves (BW = 267 +/- 2 kg) were split into two groups: 1) control, finished (207 d) after a 3-wk feedlot adjustment period and 2) grazing cornstalks for 74 d after a 3-wk feedlot adjustment period, then finished (164 d). Finishing treatments were sources and proportions of supplemental CP: 1) urea 100%; 2) soybean meal (SBM) 100%; 3) blood meal (BM) 50%, urea 50%; 4) feather meal (FTH) 50%, urea 50%; 5) SBM 50%, FTH 25%, urea 25%; 6) SBM 25%, FTH 38%, urea 37%; 7) FTH 25%, BM 25%, urea 50%, and 8) FTH 38%, BM 13%, urea 50%. Treatments 1 to 8 were fed in dry-rolled corn (DRC)-based diets. Treatments 9 and 10 were supplement Treatments 1 and 7 fed in diets based on high-moisture corn. Calves finished after a 74-d period of grazing cornstalks consumed more feed (P < .01) and gained faster (P < .01) but were less efficient (P < .05) than calves finished directly after weaning. Although not statistically different, calves finished after grazing cornstalks and supplemented with natural protein in the feedlot were 7% more efficient than calves supplemented with urea alone. Efficiency of calves finished directly after weaning was similar for calves supplemented with natural protein or urea alone. Supplementing SBM/FTH/urea or BM/FTH/urea improved feed efficiency compared with supplementing FTH/urea alone. These data suggest that allowing calves to graze cornstalks before finishing is a possible management option, but this system may require more metabolizable protein in the finishing diet to maximize feed efficiency if the calves are expressing compensatory growth.
License Plate Recognition : An Insight to the Proposed Approach for Plate Localization and Binarization Technique

License Plate Recognition (LPR) system for vehicles is an innovative and a very challenging area for research due to the innumerous plate formats and the nonuniform outdoor illumination conditions during which images are acquired. Thus, most approaches developed, work under certain restrictions such as fixed illumination, stationary background and limited speed. Algorithms developed for LPR systems are generally composed of three significant stages: 1] localization of the license plate from an entire scene image; 2] segmentation of the characters on the plate; 3] recognition of each of the segmented characters. A simple approach for preprocessing of the images, localization and extraction phase has been described in this paper. Numerous procedures have been developed for LPR systems and are assessed in this paper taking into consideration issues like processing time, computational power and recognition rate wherever available. General Terms Image Processing, Pattern Recognition, Security, LPR Algorithms.
Identification of Poly(cis-1,4-Isoprene) Degradation Intermediates during Growth of Moderately Thermophilic Actinomycetes on Rubber and Cloning of a Functional lcp Homologue from Nocardia farcinica Strain E1

ABSTRACT The enrichment and isolation of thermophilic bacteria capable of rubber [poly(cis-1,4-isoprene)] degradation revealed eight different strains exhibiting both currently known strategies used by rubber-degrading mesophilic bacteria. Taxonomic characterization of these isolates by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis demonstrated closest relationships to Actinomadura nitritigenes, Nocardia farcinica, and Thermomonospora curvata. While strains related to N. farcinica exhibited adhesive growth as described for mycolic acid-containing actinomycetes belonging to the genus Gordonia, strains related to A. nitritigenes and T. curvata formed translucent halos on natural rubber latex agar as described for several mycelium-forming actinomycetes. For all strains, optimum growth rates were observed at 50°C. The capability of rubber degradation was confirmed by mineralization experiments and by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Intermediates resulting from early degradation steps were purified by preparative GPC, and their analysis by infrared spectroscopy revealed the occurrence of carbonyl carbon atoms. Staining with Schiff's reagent also revealed the presence of aldehyde groups in the intermediates. Bifunctional isoprenoid species terminated with a keto and aldehyde function were found by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry analyses. Evidence was obtained that biodegradation of poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) is initiated by endocleavage, rather than by exocleavage. A gene (lcp) coding for a protein with high homology to Lcp (latex-clearing protein) from Streptomyces sp. strain K30 was identified in Nocardia farcinica E1. Streptomyces lividans TK23 expressing this Lcp homologue was able to cleave synthetic poly(cis-1,4-isoprene), confirming its involvement in initial polymer cleavage.
Obstetric outcome in women after multiple spontaneous abortions.

Obstetric outcome in 88 women with a past history of three or more consecutive pregnancy losses was studied. The results were compared to those in our total obstetric population for the same period (control group). The incidence of small-for-gestational-age infants, prematurity, low-birth-weight infants and toxemia in the study group was not significantly different from that in the control group. Gestational diabetes and chronic hypertension, however, occurred more frequently in the study group than in the control group (P less than .001). These data could be helpful in counseling women with repeated pregnancy loss.
Time-Resolved Pulsed Elastography with Ultrafast Ultrasonic Imaging

In this paper, a new elastographic method is proposed. Using this method, the propagation of a low-frequency transient shear wave can be imaged by means of an ultrafast imaging system (up to 10,000 frames/s) that we have developed. Ultrafast ultrasonic imaging is obtained with a linear array of transducers (3.5 MHz) connected to electronics that have 64 channels sampled at 30 MHz and 128 Kbytes for storing the backscattered signals. Displacements are measured using cross-correlation of the ultrasonic signals. Movies of the low central frequency (200 Hz) shear wave propagation through homogeneous and heterogeneous phantoms have been obtained with 1,000 and 2,000 frames per second.
A regenerative push-pull differential logic family

A new differential logic family is described. Complex Boolean functions are realized at one-third the propagation delay of static differential logic and up to 40% faster than existing dynamic logic. Using this logic, a 1.5 ns 64-bit adder is achieved in a 0.70 micron, 3.0 V process technology. The relative performance of this circuit technology at the fundamental power supply limit is also analyzed and discussed. <<ETX>>
Palliative Radiotherapy in Cancer Patients with Increased Serum C-Reactive Protein Level.

BACKGROUND/AIM Connections exist between inflammation and cancer, for example with regard to disease progression and prognosis. Therefore, we investigated whether systemic inflammatory processes indicated by increased serum C-reactive protein (CRP) provide prognostic information for physicians prescribing palliative radiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyzed data from 781 patients and evaluated prognostic factors for survival. RESULTS Only 277 patients (35%) had CRP <8 mg/l before radiotherapy. No significant association was observed between CRP level and steroid treatment. In patients with the highest CRP level (>60 mg/l, 20% of patients), intravenous therapy with antibiotics was more common. CRP significantly influenced survival and contributed prognostic information together with established parameters, such as performance status (PS). In the multivariate model, white blood cell count did not provide relevant additional information. A simple four-tiered prognostic score solely based on CRP showed promising results. CONCLUSION Most patients treated with palliative radiotherapy had increased CRP. This widely available biomarker might improve decision-making and should be further validated.
A Novel System for Automatic Hand Gesture Spotting and Recognition in Stereo Color Image

Automatic gesture spotting and recognition is a challenging task for locating the start and end points that correspond to a gesture of interest in Human-Computer Interaction. This paper proposes a novel gesture spotting system that is suitable for real-time implementation. The system executes gesture segmentation and recognition simultaneously without any time delay based on Hidden Markov Models. In the segmentation module, the hand of the user is tracked using mean-shift algorithm, which is a non-parametric density estimator that optimizes the smooth similarity function to find the direction of hand gesture path. In order to spot key gesture accurately, a sophisticated method for designing a non-gesture model is proposed, which is constructed by collecting the states of all gesture models in the system. The non-gesture model is a weak model compared to all trained gesture models. Therefore, it provides a good confirmation for rejecting the non-gesture pattern. To reduce the states of the non-gesture model, similar probability distributions states are merged based on relative entropy measure. Experimental results show that the proposed system can automatically recognize isolated gestures with 97.78% and key gestures with 93.31% reliability for Arabic numbers from 0 to 9.