Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Dynamic Multiple-Set Membership Testing Using Combinatorial Bloom Filters

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing a data structure that can perform fast multiple-set membership testing in deterministic time. Our primary goal is to develop a hardware implementation of the data structure that uses only embedded memory blocks. Prior efforts to solve this problem involve hashing into multiple Bloom filters. Such approach needs a priori knowledge of the number of elements in each set in order to size the Bloom filter. We use a single-Bloom-filter-based approach and use multiple sets of hash functions to code for the set (group) id. Since a single Bloom filter is used, it does not need a priori knowledge of the distribution of the elements across the different sets. We show how to improve the performance of the data structure by using constant-weight error-correcting codes for coding the group id. Using error-correcting codes improves the performance of these data structures especially when there are a large number of sets. We also outline an efficient hardware-based approach to generate the large number of hash functions that we need for this data structure. The resulting data structure, COMB, is amenable to a variety of time-critical network applications.
Eficacia de los Consejos de Hábitos saludables en la reducción del Nivel de Riesgo Cardiovascular (NCR) en la empresa

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the preventive recommendations for the reduction of Cardiovascular risk (NRC). Material and Method: Review of medical examinations of 240 workers of a company over the last 5 years including those that showed some level of cardiovascular risk. Assessment of effectiveness of preventive counsel in reducing risk factors and their correlation in the reduction of the NRC initially presented. Results: Preventive action was effective in 62.3% of the cases. Decreases in the level of cardiovascular risk occurred only in 29.7% of the cases, being higher in men and for those NRC in which coexisted combined risk factors. Conclusion: Preventive action was effective in reducing risk factors, for all groups of risk, only existing correlation on the decrease of the NRC for groups with higher
Discordance of Species Trees with Their Most Likely Gene Trees

Because of the stochastic way in which lineages sort during speciation, gene trees may differ in topology from each other and from species trees. Surprisingly, assuming that genetic lineages follow a coalescent model of within-species evolution, we find that for any species tree topology with five or more species, there exist branch lengths for which gene tree discordance is so common that the most likely gene tree topology to evolve along the branches of a species tree differs from the species phylogeny. This counterintuitive result implies that in combining data on multiple loci, the straightforward procedure of using the most frequently observed gene tree topology as an estimate of the species tree topology can be asymptotically guaranteed to produce an incorrect estimate. We conclude with suggestions that can aid in overcoming this new obstacle to accurate genomic inference of species phylogenies.
Sexual Risk Factors for HIV Infection in Early and Advanced HIV Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Overview of 68 Epidemiological Studies

Background It is commonly assumed that sexual risk factors for heterosexual HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, such as multi-partner sex, paid sex and co-infections, become less important as HIV epidemics mature and prevalence increases. Methods and Findings We conducted a systematic review of 68 African epidemiological studies from 1986 to 2006 involving 17,000 HIV positive adults and 73,000 controls. We used random-effects methods and stratified results by gender, time, background HIV prevalence rates and other variables. The number of sex partners, history of paid sex, and infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) or other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) each showed significant associations with HIV infection. Among the general population, the odds ratio (OR) of HIV infection for women reporting 3+ sex partners versus 0–2 was 3.64 (95%CI [2.87–4.62]), with similar risks for men. About 9% of infected women reported ever having been paid for sex, versus 4% of control women (OR = 2.29, [1.45–3.62]). About 31% of infected men reported ever paying for sex versus 18% of uninfected men (OR = 1.75, [1.30–2.36]). HSV-2 infection carried the largest risk of HIV infection: OR = 4.62, [2.85–7.47] in women, and OR = 6.97, [4.68–10.38] in men. These risks changed little over time and stratification by lower and higher HIV background prevalence showed that risk ratios for most variables were larger in high prevalence settings. Among uninfected controls, the male-female differences in the number of sex partners and in paid sex were more extreme in the higher HIV prevalence settings than in the lower prevalence settings. Significance Multi-partner sex, paid sex, STIs and HSV-2 infection are as important to HIV transmission in advanced as in early HIV epidemics. Even in high prevalence settings, prevention among people with high rates of partner change, such as female sex workers and their male clients, is likely to reduce transmission overall.
SEPTIMU: continuous in-situ human wellness monitoring and feedback using sensors embedded in earphones

ABSTRACT A mobile phone, as a pervasive device, has great potential in human wellness monitoring. In this demo, we first present the design and implementation of our hardware — SEPTIMU. SEPTIMU consists of a small baseboard and a pair of tiny sensor boards embedded inside conventional earphones. The baseboard provides power conversion and data communication through the normal audio jack interface. The embedded sensor board is 1×1cm2 and integrates 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, thermometer, photodiode and microphone. Secondly, we evaluate SEPTIMU using a mobile application that continuously monitors body posture and provides feedback to the user.
Co-Occurrence Patterns of Plants and Soil Bacteria in the High-Alpine Subnival Zone Track Environmental Harshness

Plants and soil microorganisms interact to play a central role in ecosystem functioning. To determine the potential importance of biotic interactions in shaping the distributions of these organisms in a high-alpine subnival landscape, we examine co-occurrence patterns between plant species and bulk soil bacteria abundances. In this context, a co-occurrence relationship reflects a combination of several assembly processes: that both parties can disperse to the site, that they can survive the abiotic environmental conditions, and that interactions between the biota either facilitate survival or allow for coexistence. Across the entire landscape, 31% of the bacterial sequences in this dataset were significantly correlated to the abundance distribution of one or more plant species. These sequences fell into 14 clades, 6 of which are related to bacteria that are known to form symbioses with plants in other systems. Abundant plant species were more likely to have significant as well as stronger correlations with bacteria and these patterns were more prevalent in lower altitude sites. Conversely, correlations between plant species abundances and bacterial relative abundances were less frequent in sites near the snowline. Thus, plant-bacteria associations became more common as environmental conditions became less harsh and plants became more abundant. This pattern in co-occurrence strength and frequency across the subnival landscape suggests that plant-bacteria interactions are important for the success of life, both below- and above-ground, in an extreme environment.
Vaccination and nutritional status of children in Karawari, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

Delivery of health care services to rural and remote populations in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is problematic. This is mainly due to difficulties with transportation and communication. Hence, the children in this region of PNG are likely to be at risk of malnutrition compounded by inadequate vaccination that may predispose them to preventable diseases. This study was conducted to determine the vaccination and nutritional status of children less than 5 years old in the remote and rural Karawari area of PNG. 105 children were included in the study, of whom 55% were male and 45% female. The mean age of children included in the study was 32.6 months. Their age, height, and weight by gender was not significantly different. Overall, 85% of children had incomplete vaccination. However, children above the median age of 32 months (34%) were more likely to be fully vaccinated for their age, χ2 (1) = 23.294, p < 0.005. In addition, 25% of children were below the -1 SD (Z-scores) for weight-for—height, 33% below the -1 SD for weight-for-age, and 25.5% below the -1 SD for height-for-age compared to WHO standards. A large proportion of children had poor nutrition status and lack protection from vaccine preventable diseases. This study recommends that the government should introduce a surveillance system for detecting issues of importance to the rural majority. We also recommend that the PNG government reopen the nearby health centre, and/ or establish new facilities within the region, with adequately trained and compensated staff.
HIV, Stigma, and Rates of Infection: A Rumour without Evidence: Authors' Reply

The HIV/AIDS area has always been highly politically and emotionally charged and we wrote a controversial and provocative piece. Most of the responses to it were unreasoned. The most cogent response came from UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) and it generally restated an already well articulated position. We disagree with a number of the points for the reasons discussed in our original essay and applaud one point. First a brief restatement of our argument is warranted. There is good evidence that HIV-related stigma adversely affects the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. There is little or no evidence however to support the notion that HIV-related stigma is one of the determinants of the global HIV epidemic. Furthermore an argument could be made for why stigma might slow or contain the spread of infection in the general population. Given the very different effect the two positions would have on policy and the significance of the HIV epidemic they deserve investigation. Among epidemiologists two competing hypotheses for which there is no strong evidence either way would constitute a position of equipoise. (excerpt)
Morphological filter for lossless image subsampling

We present a morphological filter for lossless image subsampling for a given downsampling-upsampling strategy. This filter is applied in a multiresolution decomposition and results in a more efficient scheme for image coding purposes than other lossy sampling schemes. Its main advantage is a greatly reduced computational load compared to multiresolution schemes performed with linear filters. <<ETX>>
How Google tests software

Pioneering the Future of Software Test Do you need to get it right, too? Then, learn from Google. Legendarytesting expertJames Whittaker, until recently a Google testing leader,and two top Google experts reveal exactly how Google tests software, offering brand-new best practices you can use even if youre not quite Googles sizeyet! Breakthrough Techniques You Can Actually Use Discover 100% practical, amazingly scalable techniques for analyzing risk and planning teststhinking like real usersimplementing exploratory, black box, white box, and acceptance testinggetting usable feedbacktracking issueschoosing and creating toolstesting Docs & Mocks, interfaces, classes, modules, libraries, binaries, services, and infrastructurereviewing code and refactoringusing test hooks, presubmit scripts, queues, continuous builds, and more. With these techniques, you can transform testing from a bottleneck into an acceleratorand make your whole organization more productive!
A Lattice Precoding for Flat-Fading MIMO Channels Based on Eigenvalue Decomposition

A novel Lattice Precoding scheme based on Eigenvalue decomposition (EDLP) is proposed for single user multiple- input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems transmitting over slowly-varying flat-fading channels. This technique uses linear precoding to orthogonalize the channels, thus nullifying the interference. It employs a perturbation vector as well to reduce the transmitted power. The performance is enhanced by joint optimization of the linear precoder and the perturbation vector. As a result, the EDLP achieves not only full diversity order, but also significant power gain over comparable techniques. Although this structure enables EDLP to perform a global optimization on the closest lattice point search problem, the computational complexity of this nonlinear lattice precoding is comparable to linear techniques. Furthermore, the complexity at the receiver is kept constrained. When channel estimation errors are present, the proposed EDLP technique exhibits its robustness compared to other lattice precoding techniques.
Action of Human Growth Hormone (hGH) on Extrathyroidal Conversion of Thyroxine (T4) to Triiodothyronine (T3) in Children with Hypopituitarism

Summary: To study the action of human growth hormone (hGH) on peripheral metabolism of serum thyroxine (T4), an oral loading dose of levothyroxine (1.2 mg/m2) was administered to seven children with hypopituitarism before initiation of hGH therapy. Serum concentrations of triiodothyronine (T3), T4, reverse triiodothyronine (rT3), and thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) capacity were measured sequentially for 6 days. The study was repeated after 4 wk of treatment with hGH. Serum concentrations of T4 were not affected by hGH therapy. In contrast, mean basal serum concentration of T3 increased significantly after treatment with hGH. Also, changes in serum concentrations of T3 and in the ratio of T3/T4 after an oral dose of levothyroxine were significantly augmented during hGH therapy. Serum concentrations of rT3 changed in the opposite direction of T3 during therapy. After treatment with hGH, the mean basal level of serum rT3, decreased, and increases in serum concentrations of rT3, after oral levothyroxine were significantly attenuated. No changes in mean serum concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and TBG capacity were observed.These data suggest that administration of hGH to children with hypopituitarism enhances the extrathyroidal conversion of T4 to T3 and concomitantly decreases the serum concentration of rT3.Speculation: The increase in serum concentration of triiodothyronine after administration of human growth hormone may play a role in the growth-promoting action of growth hormone in children with hypopituitarism.
Receptor-mediated endocytosis of antigens overcomes the requirement for HLA-DM in class II-restricted antigen presentation.

HLA-DM- APC are unable to present soluble Ags to T cells in the context of class II DR molecules. This defect in DM- APC can be overcome by receptor-mediated delivery of Ag into cells. Ag conjugated to ligands for cell surface receptors, such as transferrin or goat anti-human Ig, was processed and presented by DM- T2.DR4 cells. Intracellular processing of Ag conjugates was required, as receptor cross-linking alone did not restore presentation by DM- APC. Ag conjugates targeted by transferrin receptors to endosomes or via surface Ig to endosomal and lysosomal compartments, were each efficiently presented by DM- cells. These Ag conjugates were predominantly localized in light density endosomes in T2.DR4 cells. This study demonstrates that the facilitated uptake and sorting of exogenous Ag by cell surface receptors allow efficient class II-restricted presentation even in the absence of HLA-DM.
The Wakeup Problem in Synchronous Broadcast Systems

This paper studies the differences between two levels of synchronization in a distributed broadcast system (or a multiple-access channel). In the globally synchronous model, all processors have access to a global clock. In the locally synchronous model, processors have local clocks ticking at the same rate, but each clock starts individually when the processor wakes up. We consider the fundamental problem of waking up all n processors of a completely connected broadcast system. Some processors wake up spontaneously, while others have to be woken up. Only awake processors can send messages; a sleeping processor is woken up upon hearing a message. The processors hear a message in a given round if and only if exactly one processor sends a message in that round. Our goal is to wake up all processors as fast as possible in the worst case, assuming an adversary controls which processors wake up and when. We analyze the problem in both the globally synchronous and locally synchronous models with or without the assumption that n is known to the processors. We propose randomized and deterministic algorithms for the problem, as well as lower bounds in some of the cases. These bounds establish a gap between the globally synchronous and locally synchronous models.
MODOMICS: a database of RNA modification pathways. 2008 update

MODOMICS, a database devoted to the systems biology of RNA modification, has been subjected to substantial improvements. It provides comprehensive information on the chemical structure of modified nucleosides, pathways of their biosynthesis, sequences of RNAs containing these modifications and RNA-modifying enzymes. MODOMICS also provides cross-references to other databases and to literature. In addition to the previously available manually curated tRNA sequences from a few model organisms, we have now included additional tRNAs and rRNAs, and all RNAs with 3D structures in the Nucleic Acid Database, in which modified nucleosides are present. In total, 3460 modified bases in RNA sequences of different organisms have been annotated. New RNA-modifying enzymes have been also added. The current collection of enzymes includes mainly proteins for the model organisms Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and is currently being expanded to include proteins from other organisms, in particular Archaea and Homo sapiens. For enzymes with known structures, links are provided to the corresponding Protein Data Bank entries, while for many others homology models have been created. Many new options for database searching and querying have been included. MODOMICS can be accessed at http://genesilico.pl/modomics.
Network-Based Fuzzy Decentralized Sliding-Mode Control for Car-Like Mobile Robots

In this paper, the trajectory tracking of a car-like mobile robot (CLMR) using network-based fuzzy decentralized sliding-mode control (NBFDSMC) is developed. The scaling factors and the coefficients of the sliding surface for the control of the steering angle and forward-backward velocity of a CLMR are adopted by that for the control of two motors. Due to the delay transmission of a signal through an Internet and wireless module, a revision of fuzzy decentralized sliding-mode control (FDSMC) with suitable sampling time (i.e., NBFDSMC) is accomplished by the quality-of-service (QoS). The proposed control can track a reference trajectory without the requirement of a mathematical model. Only the information of the upper bound of system knowledge (including the dynamics of the CLMR, the delay feature of Internet network, and wireless module) is required to select the suitable scaling factors and coefficients of sliding surface such that an excellent performance is obtained. In addition, the stability of the closed-loop system in the presence of time-varying delay is addressed. Finally, a sequence of experiments including the control of unloaded CLMR and the trajectory tracking of CLMR is carried out to consolidate the usefulness of the proposed control system
The Effects of Viewing the Forest Landscape on Physiological and Psychological Status in Radiologists

This study aimed to compare th effect of viewing forest and urban landscapes on the physiological responses and the psychological status of radiologists. An experiment was conducted among 10 healthy raiologists (n=10, 24±2.9 years old). They were instructed to view forest and urban landscapes, and their HRV (Heart Rate Variability) was measured to assess their physiological responses, and POMS (Profile of Mood States), and SD (Semantic Differential) questionnaires were also conducted to assess their psychological status. The collected data were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank test using the SPSS 21.0. The results showed that viewing the forest landscape stimulated the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system more than viewing the urban landscape, which reduced stress and stabilized the psychological status of participants, and that viewing the forest landscape also increased the levels of positive feelings among POMS and SD subscales. Therefore, it was concluded in this study that viewing forest landscapes can contribute to the reduction of stress, emotional stability, and positive psychological status of those who work in a closed space like radiologists.
A 7 bit, 3.75 ps Resolution Two-Step Time-to-Digital Converter in 65 nm CMOS Using Pulse-Train Time Amplifier

In this paper, a novel pulse-train time amplifier is proposed that achieves linear, accurate, and programmable gain for a wide input range. Using the proposed pulse-train time amplifier, a 7-bit two-step TDC is implemented. The proposed TDC employs repetitive pulses with gated delay-lines for a calibration-free and programmable time amplification and quantization. The prototype chip fabricated in 65 nm CMOS process achieves 3.75 ps of time resolution at 200 MS/s while consuming 3.6 mW and occupying 0.02 mm2 area. Compared to previously reported TDCs, the proposed TDC achieves the fastest conversion rate and the best FoM without any calibration.
Pathological network activity in Parkinson's disease: from neural activity and connectivity to causality?

Pathophysiological changes in the basal ganglia thalamocortical loops, first described ∼20 years ago by Alexander et al . (1990), are commonly assumed to underlie key symptoms of Parkinson's disease. In their model, Alexander et al . (1990) described a large network of inhibitory and excitatory connections between different subnuclei of basal ganglia, thalamus and cortex. In the normal (i.e. physiological) state, two distinct loops regulate basal ganglia activity: a direct loop between the striatum and the internal segment of the globus pallidus; and an indirect loop between this structure and the striatum (in this loop, activity is relayed via the subthalamic nucleus). In the healthy state, these two loops are balanced resulting in well-regulated activity of the internal segment of the globus pallidus and the tightly connected pars reticulata of the substantia nigra. Besides its influence on brainstem activity, the ‘output-region’ of this basal ganglia network is assumed to project to the thalamus, thereby modulating thalamo-cortical interactions. Albeit simplistic, the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra is to date considered the key neuropathological change underlying Parkinson's disease. Based upon neuropathological findings, after degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra the Alexander et al . 's (1990) model proposes affection of the indirect loop leading to reduced inhibition of the subthalamic nucleus, and stronger excitation of the internal segment of the globus pallidus and the pars reticulata of the substantia nigra. Conversely, the model predicts that the direct inhibitory projections of the striatum to the internal segment of the globus pallidus and the pars reticulata of the substantia are reduced. The sum effects of these changes are ‘overactivity’ in the internal segment of the globus pallidus and the pars reticulata of the substantia and an inhibition of thalamo-cortical interactions. This model could then …