Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cram$\acute{\text{e}}$r–Rao Bound for Constrained Parameter Estimation Using Lehmann-Unbiasedness

The constrained Cram$\acute{\text{e}}$r–Rao bound (CCRB) is a lower bound on the mean-squared-error (MSE) of estimators that satisfy some unbiasedness conditions. Although the CCRB unbiasedness conditions are satisfied asymptotically by the constrained maximum likelihood (CML) estimator, in the non-asymptotic region these conditions are usually too strict and the commonly used estimators, such as the CML estimator, do not satisfy them. Therefore, the CCRB may not be a lower bound on the MSE matrix of such estimators. In this paper, we propose a new definition for unbiasedness under constraints, denoted by C-unbiasedness, which is based on using Lehmann-unbiasedness with a weighted MSE (WMSE) risk and taking into account the parametric constraints. In addition to C-unbiasedness, a Cram$\acute{\text{e}}$r–Rao-type bound on the WMSE of C-unbiased estimators, denoted as Lehmann-unbiased CCRB (LU-CCRB), is derived. This bound is a scalar bound that depends on the chosen weighted combination of estimation errors. It is shown that C-unbiasedness is less restrictive than the CCRB unbiasedness conditions. Thus, the set of estimators that satisfy the CCRB unbiasedness conditions is a subset of the set of C-unbiased estimators and the proposed LU-CCRB may be an informative lower bound in cases where the corresponding CCRB is not. In the simulations, we examine linear and nonlinear estimation problems under nonlinear constraints in which the CML estimator is shown to be C-unbiased and the LU-CCRB is an informative lower bound on the WMSE, while the corresponding CCRB on the WMSE is not a lower bound and is not informative in the non-asymptotic region.
Benefits of biodiverse marine resources to child nutrition in differing developmental contexts in Hispaniola

There is an urgent need for an improved empirical understanding of the relationship among biodiverse marine resources, human health and development outcomes. Coral reefs are often at this intersection for developing nations in the tropics—an ecosystem targeted for biodiversity conservation and one that provides sustenance and livelihoods for many coastal communities. To explore these relationships, we use the comparative development contexts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. We combine child nutrition data from the Demographic Health Survey with coastal proximity and coral reef habitat diversity, and condition to empirically test human benefits of marine natural resources in differing development contexts. Our results indicate that coastal children have a reduced likelihood of severe stunting in Haiti but have increased likelihoods of stunting and reduced dietary diversity in the Dominican Republic. These contrasting results are likely due to the differential in developed infrastructure and market access. Our analyses did not demonstrate an association between more diverse and less degraded coral reefs and better childhood nutrition. The results highlight the complexities of modelling interactions between the health of humans and natural systems, and indicate the next steps needed to support integrated development programming.
Title Lpcat 3-dependent production of arachidonoyl phospholipids is a key determinant of triglyceride secretion

The role of specific phospholipids (PLs) in lipid transport has been difficult to assess due to an inability to selectively manipulate membrane composition in vivo. Here we show that the phospholipid remodeling enzyme lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 3 (Lpcat3) is a critical determinant of triglyceride (TG) secretion due to its unique ability to catalyze the incorporation of arachidonate into membranes. Mice lacking Lpcat3 in the intestine fail to thrive during weaning and exhibit enterocyte lipid accumulation and reduced plasma TGs. Mice lacking Lpcat3 in the liver show reduced plasma TGs, hepatosteatosis, and secrete lipid-poor very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) lacking arachidonoyl PLs. Mechanistic studies indicate that Lpcat3 activity impacts membrane lipid mobility in living cells, suggesting a biophysical basis for the requirement of arachidonoyl PLs in lipidating lipoprotein particles. These data identify Lpcat3 as a key factor in lipoprotein production and illustrate how manipulation of membrane composition can be used as a regulatory mechanism to control metabolic pathways. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.06557. 001
Multiplexing spatial memory: increasing the capacity of FastTap menus with multiple tabs

The capacity of spatial multi-touch menus such as FastTap is limited by device screen size. We explore the idea of using multiple tabs to increase capacity - multiplexing the tablet's screen space so each location holds multiple items. Earlier work has shown potential of this idea for smartwatches, but no evaluations have considered larger devices. To assess issues with interference-based errors and spatial memory development, we built two FastTap systems with multiple tabs and conducted two studies. We first tested user learning of 16 targets with a training game, and found that participants easily adapted to the multi-tab model, were able to perform memory-based shortcuts, and made few interference-based errors. The second study used realistic drawing tasks and showed that people successfully used the multi-tab FastTap system, with 88% of selections made using shortcuts by the study's end. Our work demonstrates that spatial memory can successfully be multiplexed, and that tabs are a promising way to increase command set sizes for spatial interfaces.
Feature selection and classification using multiple kernel learning for brain tumor segmentation

We propose a brain tumor segmentation method from multi-sequence images. The method selects the most relevant features and segments edema and tumor using a classification algorithm based on Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL). Using MKL algorithm, we can associate one or more kernels to each feature. Each kernel is associated to a weight reflecting its importance in the classification. A sparsity constraint on the kernel weights allows to force same weights to be equal to zero corresponding to insignificant kernels (non informative features). Our method was evaluated on real patient dataset of the MICCAI 2012 BraTS challenge. The results show that our method is competitive to the winning methods.
Investigation of Newly Prepared Biodegradable 32P-chromic Phosphate-polylactide-co-glycolide Seeds and Their Therapeutic Response Evaluation for Glioma Brachytherapy

32P high-dose rate brachytherapy allows high-dose radiation delivery to target lesions with less damage to adjacent tissues. The early evaluation of its therapeutic effect on tumours is vital for the optimization of treatment regimes. The most commonly used 32P-CP colloid tends to leak with blind therapeutic area after intratumour injection. We prepared 32P-chromic phosphate-polylactide-co-glycolide (32P-CP-PLGA) seeds with biodegradable PLGA as a framework and investigated their characteristics in vitro and in vivo. We also evaluated the therapeutic effect of 32P-CP-PLGA brachytherapy for glioma with the integrin αvβ3-targeted radiotracer 68Ga-3PRGD2. 32P-CP-PLGA seeds (seed group, SG, 185 MBq) and 32P-CP colloid (colloid group, CG, 18.5 MBq) were implanted or injected into human glioma xenografts in nude mice. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the seeds, micro-SPECT imaging, and biodistribution studies were performed at different time points. The tumour volume was measured using a caliper, and 68Ga-3PRGD2 micro-PET-CT imaging was performed to evaluate the therapeutic effect after 32P intratumour administration. The delayed release of 32P-CP was observed with biodegradation of vehicle PLGA. Intratumoural effective half-life of 32P-CP in the SG (13.3 ± 0.3) d was longer than that in the CG (10.4 ± 0.3) d (P < 0.05), with liver appearance in the CG on SPECT. A radioactivity gradient developed inside the tumour in the SG, as confirmed by micro-SPECT and SEM. Tumour uptake of 68Ga-3PRGD2 displayed a significant increase on day 0.5 in the SG and decreased earlier (on day 2) than the volume reduction (on day 8). Thus, 32P-CP-PLGA seeds, controlling the release of entrapped 32P-CP particles, are promising for glioma brachytherapy, and 68Ga-3PRGD2 imaging shows potential for early response evaluation of 32P-CP-PLGA seeds brachytherapy.
Challenges for enabling virtual reality broadcast using 5G small cell network

In the recent past, with the ubiquitous adoption of smartphones and tablets, there has been an exponential increase in data rate demands which has become increasingly challenging for network operators to support. This trend is expected to continue in future, with the advent of high-performance gaming and increasing appetite for immersive applications and social media experiences. Such factors have contributed to the development of the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks, which would be supporting significantly higher data rates with improved reliability and latency. 5G has also enabled the deployment of wireless virtual reality applications, with wide-ranging use cases. In this work, we consider the key challenges for broadcasting such content to a large number of audience thereby enabling new disruptions in mass media consumption. The technology potential and practical constraints for such deployments were also evaluated using realistic network settings. Based on the performance evaluations, it was shown that with slightly higher system bandwidth requirements, VR broadcast can be supported under ideal conditions, using 5G millimeter wave small cell networks. Potential areas for future work in order to make VR broadcast a reality is also discussed.
Effects of Chronic Waterborne and Dietary Metal Exposures on Gill Metal-Binding: Implications for the Biotic Ligand Model

The biotic ligand modeling (BLM) approach has gained recent widespread interest among the scientific and regulatory communities because of its potential for developing ambient water quality criteria (AWQC), which are site-specific, and in performing aquatic risk assessment for metals. Currently, BLMs are used for predicting acute toxicity (96 h LC50 for fish) in any defined water chemistry. The conceptual framework of the BLM has a strong physiological basis because it considers that toxicity of metals occurs due to the binding of free metal ions at the physiologically active sites of action (biotic ligand, e.g., fish gill) on the aquatic organism, which can be characterized by conditional binding constants (log K) and densities (Bmax). At present, these models assume that only water chemistry variables such as competing cations (e.g., Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and H+), inorganic ligands (e.g., hydroxides, chlorides, carbonates), and organic ligands (dissolved organic matter) can influence the bioavailability of free metal ions and thereby the acute toxicity of metals. Current BLMs do not consider the effects of chronic history of the fish in modifying gill-metal binding characteristics and acute toxicity. Here, for Cu, Cd, and Zn, we review a number of recent studies on the rainbow trout that describe significant modifying effects of chronic acclimation to waterborne factors (hardness and chronic metal exposure) and dietary composition (metal and essential ion content) on gill metalbinding characteristics (on both log K and Bmax) and on acute toxicity. We conclude that the properties of gill-metal interaction and toxicological sensitivity appear to be dynamic rather than fixed, with important implications for further development of both acute and chronic BLMs. Now that the initial framework of the BLM has been established, future research needs a more integrative approach with additional emphasis on the dynamic properties of the biotic ligand to make it a successful tool for ecological risk assessment of metals in the natural environment.
An Evidential Reliability Indicator-Based Fusion Rule for Dempster-Shafer Theory and its Applications in Classification

Dempster-Shafer evidence theory is an important methodology for multi-source information fusion depending on its advantages in dealing with uncertain information. The classical fusion rule proposed by Dempster, however, fails to handle evidence with high conflict in some cases, where the counter-intuitive results may be obtained. To address this issue, great efforts have been made by scholars from different perspectives, such as improving the combination rule or amending sources of evidence. Motivated by the idea of the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method, in this paper, the evidential reliability indicator is defined to measure the quality of a mass function (which can also be seen as its reliability) based on belief entropy. Accordingly, the novel fusion rule for multi-source evidence bodies is presented whose effectiveness has been demonstrated by some numerical examples and applications in classification by comparing with several classical approaches. The novelty aspects and advantages of this research rest with the development of an evidential reliability indicator that can 1) measure the credibility of evidence body; 2) be considered as the basis of the new combination rule; and 3) build the classification algorithm based on the proposed fusion rule.
SA-PFRS: Semantics-Aware Page Frame Reclamation System in Virtualized Environments

Page reclamation is one compelling way to overcommit memory in modern operating systems. To achieve wise reclamation, the Linux kernels employ page frame reclamation algorithm (PFRA) to reclaim pages based on the page usage view. However, due to the semantic gap problem in virtualized environments, the native PFRA suffers three types of unwise evictions including false eviction, superficial eviction and omitted eviction. This will lead to high swapping I/O activity and consequently limits the ability to overcommit memory. We present SA-PFRS, a Semantics-Aware Page Frame Reclamation System, to address this problem. SA-PFRS separates the memory pages allocated for guests from reclaimable candidates in host, explores how the pages are being used by guest OS, and adjusts the reclamation order in the view of guest. Then, SA-PFRS re-arranges the reclamation sequence of guest pages and host pages, so as to reclaim the memory pages in a global semantics-aware manner. This enables SA-PFRS to eliminate a large number of swapping I/O operations when memory is overcommitted. We implement a prototype of SA-PFRS in Linux kernel, and show its effectiveness through a set of experiments.
Clocked Hysteresis Control Scheme With Power-Law Frequency Scaling in Buck Converter to Improve Light-Load Efficiency for IoT Sensor Nodes

A clocked hysteresis control scheme with power-law frequency scaling is proposed to improve the conversion efficiency at a light load current, and it is applied to a buck converter design. By replacing a continuously on comparator used in conventional hysteresis control by a clocked comparator with power-law frequency scaling, the buck converter consumes no direct current (dc) in the comparators. Almost flat efficiency over a load current ranging from 500 nA to 20 mA is achieved. In addition, a quick wakeup feature is maintained because of the inherent hysteresis control. As for the theoretical aspect, expressions for the frequency stability condition, power consumption, and output voltage ripple of the proposed power-law frequency scaling scheme are derived and analyzed. A leakage-based digitally controlled oscillator, which consumes only 3.5 nW when the frequency is 15 Hz for 500-nA load current, is designed to provide a clock signal to the clocked comparator. Experimental results show that the buck converter implemented with the power-law frequency scaling scheme achieves a 90.4% peak efficiency and higher than 87% efficiency over a load current range from 500 nA to 20 mA.
Face verification across age progression: A survey of the state-of-the-art

Face recognition is still a challenge today, especially when the facial variation is added to images such as illumination, pose, and facial expression. Furthermore, adding the ageing concept to images, it becomes more difcult. Facial ageing affects the human face in different forms from infancy to adulthood. This paper presents a detailed review of the basic concepts of face verification across age progression and a survey of previous works carried out to solve these problems, applications and the theoretical studies conducted on the topic far. A survey is conducted to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the previous studies in this field. The goal of this survey is to help researchers to know what are the recent efforts exerted in age progression to come up with new methods to solve this problem.
Tandem Blocks in Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Due to the success of residual networks (resnets) and related architectures, shortcut connections have quickly become standard tools for building convolutional neural networks. The explanations in the literature for the apparent effectiveness of shortcuts are varied and often contradictory. We hypothesize that shortcuts work primarily because they act as linear counterparts to nonlinear layers. We test this hypothesis by using several variations on the standard residual block, with different types of linear connections, to build small (100k--1.2M parameter) image classification networks. Our experiments show that other kinds of linear connections can be even more effective than the identity shortcuts. Our results also suggest that the best type of linear connection for a given application may depend on both network width and depth.
Knockdown of 14-3-3γ Suppresses Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition and Reduces Metastatic Potential of Human Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Background/Aim: 14-3-3γ is involved in the metastasis of lung cancer cells. However, its functional roles in tumor cell invasion and the underlying mechanisms are still not understood. In this study, the roles and molecular mechanisms of 14-3-3γ in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration, and invasion were investigated using A549 and H358 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. Materials and Methods: siRNA against 14-3-3γ was used to suppress 14-3-3γ expression. Expression levels of proteins were detected by western blotting. Activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-2 and MMP9 was determined by gelatin zymography. Cell migration and invasion were analyzed using the Transwell assay. Results: Knockdown of 14-3-3γ resulted in a significant reduction of expression of EMT-associated proteins in NSCLC cell lines, and led to significant reduction in invasion and migration by approximately 59% and 39% in A549 cells, and 65% and 62% in H358 cells, respectively. In addition, MMP2 and MMP9 activity was significantly reduced in both NSCLC cell lines after down-regulation of 14-3-3γ. Conclusion: Our results suggest that knockdown of 14-3-3γ may be a potential strategy for suppressing metastasis of lung cancer by inhibiting MMP2 and MMP9 through regulation of EMT.
Ghrelin and Peptide YY Change During Puberty: Relationships With Adolescent Growth, Development, and Obesity

Context Pubertal adolescents show strong appetites. How this is mediated is unclear, but ghrelin and peptide YY (PYY) play potentially important roles. Objective To measure ghrelin and PYY change in relation to pubertal growth. Design Three-year prospective cohort study. Setting Australian regional community. Participants Eighty healthy adolescents (26 girls; 54 boys) recruited at 10 to 13 years. Main Outcome Measures Fasting circulating total ghrelin, total PYY, IGF-1, insulin, leptin (via radioimmunoassay), estradiol and testosterone (via mass spectrometry), anthropometry, and body composition (via bioelectrical impedance). Results Adolescents exhibited normal developmental change. Mixed models revealed positive associations for ghrelin to age2 (both sexes: P < 0.05), indicating a U-shaped trend over time. Ghrelin was also inversely associated with IGF-1 (both sexes: P < 0.05), leptin in girls (P < 0.01), and insulin in boys (P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with annual height and weight velocity (both sexes: P ≤ 0.01). PYY showed no age-related change in either sex. Neither ghrelin nor PYY were associated with Tanner stage. Weight subgroup analyses showed significant ghrelin associations with age2 in healthy-weight but not overweight and obese adolescents (7 girls; 18 boys). Conclusions Adolescents showed a U-shaped change in ghrelin corresponding to physical and biochemical markers of growth, and no change in PYY. The overweight and obesity subgroup exhibited an apparent loss of the U-shaped ghrelin trend, but this finding may be attributed to greater maturity and its clinical significance is unclear. Further research on weight-related ghrelin and PYY trends at puberty is needed to understand how these peptides influence growth and long-term metabolic risk.
DUTH at SemEval-2018 Task 2: Emoji Prediction in Tweets

This paper describes the approach that was developed for SemEval 2018 Task 2 (Multilingual Emoji Prediction) by the DUTH Team. First, we employed a combination of pre-processing techniques to reduce the noise of tweets and produce a number of features. Then, we built several N-grams, to represent the combination of word and emojis. Finally, we trained our system with a tuned LinearSVC classifier. Our approach in the leaderboard ranked 18th amongst 48 teams.
Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and its CagA subtypes in gastric cancer and duodenal ulcer at an Austrian tertiary referral center over 25 years

Background and aims The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) tends to be lower in Western countries such as central Europe compared with Asia. The virulence of H. pylori is influenced by its subtype composition, most importantly by the presence or absence of different types of cytotoxin-associated gene A(CagA). This study aimed to assess the prevalence of H. pylori and its respective CagA phenotype in a large retrospective cohort of patients with gastric cancer or duodenal ulcer at a Western tertiary referral institution. Methods H. pylori positive gastric biopsy samples from patients diagnosed with the afore mentioned diseases within the past 25 years were re-evaluated by histology for H. pylori and status of gastritis. Confirmed H. pylori positive cases were processed for immunohistochemistry (IHC) for H. pylori,CagA, and EastAsiantype CagA. Results The prevalence of H. pylori positive gastric biopsy samples decreased from 20.7% to 2.3% within the study period. Among the gastric cancer patients, the H. pylori positive rate was 16.6%, and didn’t show significant changes over time (p = 0.38). Contrary, the H. pylori positive rate of duodenal ulcer decreased significantlyfrom 40% to 5% (p = 0.01). Within H. pylori positive groups ofboth diseases, CagA was highly detected at IHC (86% and 78%, respectively). Except for a few patients originating from East Asian countries, all CagA detected in this study were of Western type. Conclusion In this first Western investigation on the chronological prevalence of H. pylori and its most relevant subtypes, Western type of CagA was highly detected in two important index diseases of the pathogen. This raises further questions about the virulence of this subtype.