Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Null space imaging: Nonlinear magnetic encoding fields designed complementary to receiver coil sensitivities for improved acceleration in parallel imaging

To increase image acquisition efficiency, we develop alternative gradient encoding strategies designed to provide spatial encoding complementary to the spatial encoding provided by the multiple receiver coil elements in parallel image acquisitions. Intuitively, complementary encoding is achieved when the magnetic field encoding gradients are designed to encode spatial information where receiver spatial encoding is ambiguous, for example, along sensitivity isocontours. Specifically, the method generates a basis set for the null space of the coil sensitivities with the singular value decomposition and calculates encoding fields from the null space vectors. A set of nonlinear gradients is used as projection imaging readout magnetic fields, replacing the conventional linear readout field and phase encoding. Multiple encoding fields are used as projections to capture the null space information, hence the term null space imaging. The method is compared to conventional Cartesian SENSitivity Encoding as evaluated by mean squared error and robustness to noise. Strategies for developments in the area of nonlinear encoding schemes are discussed. The null space imaging approach yields a parallel imaging method that provides high acceleration factors with a limited number of receiver coil array elements through increased time efficiency in spatial encoding. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
UNDERSTANDING KNOWLEDGE SHARING BEHAVIOR: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EXTENDED MODEL OF THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

Knowledge is recognized as one valuable asset for many organizations. Thus, knowledge-sharing is one of important activities in many organizations, including university. Knowledge sharing is defined as activities of transferring or disseminating organizationally relevant information, ideas, suggestions, and expertise with one another. This research applied Christian values as a moderating variable in the framework of theory of planned behavior. The aims of this research to assess applicability of the theory of planned behavior to predict knowledge sharing and to examine the effects of Christian values in the relationship between attitude and intention to share knowledge. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data for this study. The data was then analyzed using structural equation modeling.
A new class of even length wavelet filters

A new class of biorthogonal wavelet filters and its design is presented in this work. The filters are even in length and have linear phase response. The new filter class is a modification of the Halfband Pair Filter Bank (HPFB, which only yields odd length filters) and is constructed using the Parametric Bernstein Polynomial. Perfect reconstruction is inherent in the structure of the filters and the desired number of vanishing moments can be easily achieved by setting the appropriate parameters of the Bernstein Polynomial to zero. The design of the non-zero parameters is achieved through a least squares method which is non-iterative. The design techniques allows filters with different characteristics to be designed with ease.
Dialog management using weighted finite-state transducers

We are aiming to construct an expandable and adaptable dialog system which handles multiple tasks and senses users’ intention via multiple modalities. A flexible platform to integrate different dialog strategies and modalities is indispensable for this purpose. In this paper, we propose an efficient approach to manage a dialog system using a weighted finite-state transducer (WFST) in which users’ concept and system’s action tags are input and output of the transducer, respectively. By incorporating WFSTs in dialog management, different components can easily be integrated and work on a common platform. We have constructed a prototype spoken dialog system of the Kyoto tour guide which assists users in making a plan for one-day trip to sightsee through interaction. A WFST for dialog management was created based on the annotated transcript of the Kyoto tour guide dialog corpus we recorded. The WFST was then composed with a word-to-concept WFST for language understanding, and optimized. We have confirmed our WFST-based dialog manager accepted recognition results from a speech recognizer well and worked as we designed.
Role of defective monocyte interleukin‐10 release in tumor necrosis factor‐alpha overproduction in alcoholic cirrhosis

Monocytes of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis produce higher amounts of tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. The mechanisms of this overproduction remain undefined. IL‐10 (IL‐10) is an antiinflammatory cytokine known to downregulate TNF‐α secretion by monocytes. The present study analyzes IL‐10 production by monocytes and its control on TNF‐α secretion in alcoholic cirrhosis. LPS‐stimulated monocytes from alcoholic cirrhotics (n = 13) showed decreased IL‐10 (median, 240 pg/mL [40 to 500] v 513 pg/mL [152 to 1,335]; P = .008) contrasting with increased TNF‐α secretion (18,120 pg/mL [2,500 to 46,200] v 8,100 pg/mL [4,400 to 14,580]; P = .01) compared with controls (n = 13). Cells from cirrhotic patients were normally responsive to recombinant IL‐10, which induced a dose dependent decrease of TNF‐α secretion. On the other hand, preincubation with anti‐IL‐10 monoclonal antibodies led to significant increase in TNF‐α secretion in controls (median, 7,325 to 16,800 pg/mL; P = .002) but not in cells from cirrhotic patients (18,535 to 20,450 pg/mL; P = .14), abolishing the difference in TNF‐α production between cirrhotic patients and controls. It is concluded that defective IL‐10 secretion by monocytes from alcoholic cirrhotic patients could be involved in the characteristic TNF‐α overproduction observed in this disease. (Hepatology 1995; 22:1436–1439).
Application of X-Ray scattering techniques for semiconductor-based quantum structures

Si-Ge superlattice structures have been prepared by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and investigated using X-Ray scattering techniques. The satellite peaks occurring in X-Ray reflectivity and X-Ray diffraction give information about the periodicity of the superlattice. Calculations of the dynamical diffraction reveal that the Ge layer is under compressive strain.
Co-ordination of patient care in inpatient rehabilitation

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a new patient care co-coordinator position in an inpatient rehabilitation setting. Design: Pre and post test using a 42-item staff survey. Setting: One inpatient rehabilitation service in rural New South Wales, Australia. Subjects: Members of the multidisciplinary team. Intervention: A new patient care co-coordinator position. Outcome measures: Comparison of trends in staff responses to pre and post test surveys. Findings: The post test survey demonstrated an overall increase in the reported frequency of desirable rehabilitation practices and increased staff satisfaction with those practices. Conclusions: A patient care co-coordinator may contribute to improving the processes and practices of inpatient rehabilitation and staff satisfaction.
Editorial: Delays to tuberculosis treatment: shall we continue to blame the victim?

Delayed diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) entail increased transmission since patients are contagious until effective chemotherapy is started. Health education on ‘TB signs and symptoms’ is often advocated in order to reduce delays and increase case detection under the hypothesis that ‘lack of knowledge about TB’ determines care seeking among patients. The only published literature review on the subject of delays to TB treatment is based on qualitative studies and concludes that ‘the main reasons for delayed presentation of TB are a lack of understanding about TB the stigma associated with the disease the inaccessibility of treatment and a preference for private practitioners’ (in that order). Quantitative studies to measure delays to TB treatment rely on interviews of diagnosed patients. Of 13 such studies published between 1995 and 2004 in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases a leading journal in the field of tuberculosis 10 include ‘improving awareness of TB in the community’ amongst their recommendations for reducing long delays to TB treatment. Does patients’ ‘lack of knowledge of TB’ indeed substantially contribute to long delays to TB treatment compared to other factors and should ‘awareness of the disease be increased in the community’ for more effective and successful tuberculosis control? The evidence for this is actually rather weak. (excerpt)
Preference for Online Social Interaction

The model introduced and tested in the current study suggests that lonely and depressed individuals may develop a preference for online social interaction, which, in turn, leads to negative outcomes associated with their Internet use. Participants completed measures of preference for online social interaction, depression, loneliness, problematic Internet use, and negative outcomes resulting from their Internet use.Results indicated that psychosocial health predicted levels of preference for online social interaction, which, in turn, predicted negative outcomes associated with problematic Internet use. In addition, the results indicated that the influence of psychosocial distress on negative outcomes due to Internet use is mediated by preference for online socialization and other symptoms of problematic Internet use.T he results support the current hypothesis that that individuals’ preference for online, rather than face-to-face, social interaction plays an important role in the development of negative consequences associated with problematic Internet use.
Graphs of Power-Bounded Clique-Width

Clique-width is a graph parameter with many algorithmic applications. For a positive integer k, the k-th power of a graph G is the graph with the same vertex set as G, in which two distinct vertices are adjacent if and only if they are at distance at most k in G. Many graph algorithmic problems can be expressed in terms of graph powers. We initiate the study of graph classes of power-bounded clique-width. A graph class is said to be of power-bounded clique-width if there exists an integer k such that the k-th powers of graphs in the class form a class of bounded cliquewidth. We identify several graph classes of power-unbounded clique-width and give a sufficient condition for clique-width to be power-bounded. Based on this condition, we characterize graph classes of power-bounded clique-width among classes defined by two connected forbidden induced subgraphs. We also show that for every integer k, there exists a graph class of power-bounded clique-width such that the k-th powers of graphs in the class form a class of unbounded clique-width.
Funzionamento cognitivo e variabili non cognitive

Cornoldi propone un modello a cono basato sulle strutture di base della memoria di lavoro che interagiscono con fattori emotivi, cultura o motivazione del soggetto e sua esperienza e descrive alcuni meccanismi di azione specifici. La lettura del suo articolo mi ha riportato a considerare due temi cui sono particolarmente affezionata: e possibile orientarsi verso modelli che non si limitino a descrivere il meccanismo di azione di singole abilita cognitive, ma tengano maggiormente conto delle modalita di funzionamento dei soggetti? E – secondo quesito – e possibile comprendere le modalita di interazione di quel coacervo di fattori che sono sempre stati presenti nella valutazione cognitiva, ma come fattori «altro» (da qui la denominazione che risale agli albori della testologia come non test factors), usando lo stesso paradigma che si impiega per la valutazione del funzionamento cognitivo, senza dovere necessariamente ricorrere a un altro paradigma? Queste variabili determinano pattern di attivazione differenti o una diversa modularita 1 , quale, ad esempio, quella di Geary e Huffman (2002)? Peraltro gia Spearman nel 1927 sosteneva la necessita di comprendere le unita funzionali del cervello e il modo in cui interagiscono per produrre un comportamento intelligente. Due premesse: non uso il termine intelligenza, ma privilegio vocaboli quali sistemi, processi e capacita cognitive, perche mi sembra che meglio definiscano il campo. Intelligenza e mente sono stati oggetto di molteplici discussioni, che hanno reso complicato pervenire a una definizione consensuale e questo puo ridurre l’efficacia di quanto si intende sostenere. Ritengo che il modello CHC (McGrew, 2005; McGrew e Flanagan, 1998; Woodcock, McGrew e Mather, 2001/2007) ben rappresenti la gerarchizzazione che esiste tra le capacita cognitive 1 Il termine e impiegato con diverse accezioni. Alcuni autori lo usano, ad esempio, per riferirsi a circoscritte aree corticali e sottocorticali che elaborano forme distinte di informazioni sensoriali, altri a sistemi complessi che implicano componenti cognitivi, affettivi e sociali, come ad esempio, Cosmides (1989).
Group communication protocol for flexible distributed systems

In large-scale distributed systems, the processes have to be upgraded to absorb the changes of user requirements and system environments. The system cannot be kept available by the conventional upgrading methods because multiple processes have to be suspended simultaneously. This paper discusses a new method where each process can invoke asynchronously the upgrading procedure. The key idea is that multiple versions of processes can be operated temporarily. Each pair of an old-version process and a new-version one are managed as one process group. The group communication protocol proposed supports the message transmission among the process groups. Moreover, the protocol detects protocol errors caused by the co-existence of multiple versions of processes. A checkpoint-rollback algorithm for resolving the protocol errors is proposed. By using the algorithm, the minimum number of processes are rolled back asynchronously. Hence, the system is highly available even if protocol error occurs.
Antibiotics prescription for indigent patients in primary care

Objective : A drug use evaluation focusing on prescribed antibiotics among Greek indigent and Social Security patients.Method: Four hundred and forty‐six indigent patients insured by Social Care and 332 patients insured under Social Security Funds were interviewed and their prescription records reviewed.Results: Although 88·5% of indigent patients stated that they had received instructions on antibiotic use and had understood these instructions, only 45·9% could correctly repeat these instructions. Only 9·9% read the enclosed leaflets and 59·4% reported asking the pharmacist for advice, 54·1% of these patients were unaware of the dosage of their medication, and the length of treatment was only written in 13% of cases. The most common diseases among indigent patients were respiratory infection (11·7%) and dental problems (10·1%). The latter ranked 11th among the insured patients (3·7%). Tuberculosis (3·3%) was still one of the most common diseases among the indigent patients. Overall, 30·9% of the prescribed daily defined dose (DDD) of medication for the indigent patients were for cardiovascular drugs (16·9% of the cost), 19·5% were for nervous system drugs (8·9% of the cost), 13·5% for gastrointestinal tract drugs (14·1% of the cost) and only 4·3% were antibiotics (but 16·9% of the cost). The most frequently prescribed antimicrobials were penicillins (45·6%), cephalosporins (19·7%), macrolides (12·6%) and quinolones (9·6%). Antituberculous agents made up 13·7% of the antibiotic prescriptions. The most widely prescribed antibiotics were amoxycillin+clavulanate (19·3%), amoxycillin (7·9%), cefaclor (5·6%), clarythromycin (5·1%) and rifampicin+isoniazid (6·3%). Conclusion: The present study emphasizes the need for more information on drug use among indigent patients and their information needs.
Research in Financial Time Series Forecasting with SVM: Contributions from Literature

Forecasting of financial time series is an intensive working area for researchers and practitioners. In this study, we analyze 59 articles and discuss the progress in financial time series analysis using support vector machines. Our main conclusions are: (a) forecasting is doing in a daily basis and studies in other time scales are scarce; (b) most of works are devoted to improve the parameter estimation process or preprocessing the time series; (c) most of the work is concerned to forecast market financial indexes; (d) in general, is commonly accepted than support vector machines are more accurate than classical time series forecasting methods and other types of neural networks; collected evidence in this work, shows that modified versions of support vector machines are more accurate that the traditional version; however, it is not possible to conclude about what improvements are better because used experimental cases in each study are different and it is no possible to draw general conclusions.
Reconstruction of Banknote Fragments Based on Keypoint Matching Method

Banknotes may be shredded by a scrap machine, ripped up by hand, or damaged in accidents. This study proposes an image registration method for reconstruction of multiple sheets of banknotes. The proposed method first constructs different scale spaces to identify keypoints in the underlying banknote fragments. Next, the features of those keypoints are extracted to represent their local patterns around keypoints. Then, similarity is computed to find the keypoint pairs between the fragment and the reference banknote. The banknote fragments can determine the coordinate and amend the orientation. Finally, an assembly strategy is proposed to piece multiple sheets of banknote fragments together. Experimental results show that the proposed method causes, on average, a deviation of 0.12457 ± 0.12810° for each fragment while the SIFT method deviates 1.16893 ± 2.35254° on average. The proposed method not only reconstructs the banknotes but also decreases the computing cost. Furthermore, the proposed method can estimate relatively precisely the orientation of the banknote fragments to assemble.
Signals for CP violation in scalar tau pair production at muon colliders

We discuss signals for CP-violation in $\mu^+ \mu^- \to \tilde \tau_i^- \tilde \tau_j^+$, where $i,j = 1,2$ label the two scalar $\tau$ mass eigenstates. We assume that these reactions can proceed through the production and decay of the heavy neutral Higgs bosons present in supersymmetric models. CP-violation in the Higgs sector can be probed through a rate asymmetry even with unpolarized beams, while the CP-odd phase associated with the $\tilde \tau$ mass matrix can be probed only if the polarization of at least one beam can be varied. These asymmetries might be ${\cal O}(1)$.
Chemoarchitectonic subdivisions of the songbird septum and a comparative overview of septum chemical anatomy in jawed vertebrates

Available data demonstrate that the avian septal region shares a number of social behavior functions and neurochemical features in common with mammals. However, the structural and functional subdivisions of the avian septum remain largely unexplored. In order to delineate chemoarchitectural zones of the avian septum, we prepared a large dataset of double‐, triple‐, and quadruple‐labeled material in a variety of songbird species (finches and waxbills of the family Estrildidae and a limited number of emberizid sparrows) using antibodies against 10 neuropeptides and enzymes. Ten septal zones were identified that were placed into lateral, medial, caudocentral, and septohippocampal divisions, with the lateral and medial divisions each containing multiple zones. The distributions of numerous immunoreactive substances in the lateral septum closely match those of mammals (i.e., distributions of met‐enkephalin, vasotocin, galanin, calcitonin gene‐related peptide, tyrosine hydroxylase, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, substance P, corticotropin‐releasing factor, and neuropeptide Y), enabling detailed comparisons with numerous chemoarchitectonic zones of the mammalian lateral septum. Our septohippocampal and caudocentral divisions are topographically comparable to the mammalian septohippocampal and septofimbrial nuclei, respectively, although additional data will be required to establish homology. The present data also demonstrate the presence of a medial septal nucleus that is histochemically comparable to the medial septum of mammals. The avian medial septum is clearly defined by peptidergic markers and choline acetyltransferase immunoreactivity. These findings should provide a useful framework for functional and comparative studies, as they suggest that many features of the septum are highly conserved across vertebrate taxa. J. Comp. Neurol. 473:293–314, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Excess mortality associated with the 2009 A(H1N1)v influenza pandemic in Antananarivo, Madagascar

SUMMARY It is difficult to assess the mortality burden of influenza epidemics in tropical countries. Until recently, the burden of influenza was believed to be negligible in Africa. We assessed the impact of the 2009 influenza epidemic on mortality in Madagascar by conducting Poisson regression analysis on mortality data from the deaths registry, after the first wave of the 2009 A(H1N1) virus pandemic. There were 20% more human deaths than expected in Antananarivo, Madagascar in November 2009, with excess mortality in the ⩾50 years age group (relative risk 1·41). Furthermore, the number of deaths from pulmonary disease was significantly higher than the number of deaths from other causes during this pandemic period. These results suggest that the A(H1N1) 2009 virus pandemic may have been accompanied by an increase in mortality.
A INFLUÊNCIA DA ATIVIDADE FÍSICA NA CAPACIDADE FUNCIONAL: ENVELHECIMENTO

A populacao com idade superior a 60 anos esta crescendo rapidamente em varias sociedades. Este aumento na expectativa de vida tem levado muitos cientistas a focalizar a atencao na questao da capacidade funcional e na dependencia fisica. Apesar do inevitavel declinio da capacidade funcional com o envelhecimento, um adequado programa de exercicio podera retardar a taxa de pro­gressao deste processo degenerativo. Atraves da manutencao de um estilo de vida ati­vo, incluindo exercicios regulares, um individuo podera ter a capacidade funcional de uma pessoa que e 20 (ou mais) anos de idade mais jovem. Consequentemente, um dos componentes para o envelhecimento bem-sucedido, esta na percepcao das habili­dades fisicas atraves de um processo educacional e modificacoes no estilo de vida, incluindo a atividade fisica regular. Sendo que e de responsabilidade de profissionais da area de educacao fisica/saude o desenvolvimento de avaliacoes e prescricao de exerci­cios, levando em consideracao as diferencas inter-individuais. Ha tambem a necessi­dade de disseminacao da informacao sobre os beneficios da atividade fisica para todos os grupo de individuos idosos. Sob este ponto de vista, o artigo ira examinar o processo de envelhecimento assim como o potencial de contribuicao da atividade fisica e pro­gramas de exercicio para a melhoria da capacidade funcional nesta populacao. No futuro, muitas pesquisas multidisciplinares serao necessarias para resolucao desta com­plexidade de questoes relacionadas a saude e ao envelhecimento bem-sucedido.
Measurement results of transmit delay diversity for DVB-T networks

This paper describes work carried out by Brunel University and Broadreach systems (UK) to quantify the advantages that can be achieved if transmit diversity is applied to systems employing the DVB standard. The techniques investigated can be applied to standard receiver equipment without modification. An extensive and carefully planned field trial performed during the winter of 2007/2008 in Uxbridge (UK) is described. The transmissions were performed in the 730 MHz frequency band with a DVB-T transmitter and a mean power of 18.4 dBW. Transmit delay diversity has been observed to deliver significant reception improvement in automotive- non line of sight situations.