nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Logistic Regression HSMM Based Heart Sound Segmentation
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering

The identification of the exact positions of the first and second heart sounds within a phonocardiogram (PCG) or heart sound segmentation, is an essential step in the automatic analysis of heart sound recordings, allowing for the classification of pathological events. While threshold based segmentation methods have shown modest success, probabilistic models, such as hidden Markov models, have recently been shown to surpass the capabilities of previous methods. Segmentation performance is further improved when apriori information about the expected duration of the states is incorporated into the model, such as in a hidden semiMarkov model (HSMM) This paper addresses the problem of the accurate segmentation of the first and second heart sound within noisy real world PCG recordings using an HSMM, extended with the use of logistic regression for emission probability estimation. In addition, we implement a modified Viterbi algorithm for decoding the most likely sequence of states, and evaluated this method on a large dataset of 10 172 s of PCG recorded from 112 patients (including 12 181 first and 11 627 second heart sounds) The proposed method achieved an average F1 score of 95.63 0.85% while the current state of the art achieved 86.28 1.55% when evaluated on unseen test recordings. The greater discrimination between states afforded using logistic regression as opposed to the previous Gaussian distribution based emission probability estimation as well as the use of an extended Viterbi algorithm allows this method to significantly outperform the current state of the art method based on a two sided paired t test.
Conflict and Poverty in Afghanistan's Transition

Despite record economic growth for more than a decade, poverty has remained stubbornly high in Afghanistan, especially in the regions that suffered less from conflict. This paper aims to explain this paradox by combining a model of conflict intensity at the province level over period 2007 14 with a model of consumption at the household level in 2011. Provincial data show that higher levels of conflict were positively correlated with both a larger presence of troops (international and Afghan) and larger aid flows. Household data show that the negative impact of conflict on consumption was more than offset by the positive impact of aid and troops. According to the estimates, Afghan troops contributed more to poverty reduction than international troops, possibly because they spent more locally. The paper uses the estimated models to conduct an out of sample validation exercise, focusing on the transition initiated in 2014. The results should be interpreted with caution, as the quantitative models cannot account for strategic shifts in the insurgency and watershed political developments. But they suggest that the reduction in the number of international troops and declining foreign aid flows led to an increase in conflict intensity and a decline in consumption per capita, matching current trends.
Extending flow further: Narrative of a Filipino musician

This paper is a preliminary attempt to describe how flow was experienced by an eminent singer songwriter from the Philippines. Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1996) has written extensively about the elements of the flow state among creative people and its contributions to positive psychology and optimal level of functioning. Through multiple in depth interviews (nine hours and 45 minutes of conversation) conducted with the artist collaborator, it was evident that while flow was indeed experienced and keenly felt, there were cross cultural variations and nuances that made the experience distinct. This paper explores how the concept of flow can be extended further to reflect the realities of an artist coming from a different sociocultural background. The implications of the research findings for educators and practitioners are discussed.
Cross platform mobile software development with React Native

9.10.2016 Author Janne Waren Degree programme Business Information Technology Thesis title Cross platform mobile software development with React Native Number of pages and appendix pages 27 0 The purpose of this study was to give an understanding of what React Native is and how it can be used to develop a cross platform mobile application. The study explains the idea and key features of React Native based on source literature. The key features covered are the Virtual DOM, components, JSX, props and state. I found out that React Native is easy to get started with, and that it's well suited for a web programmer. It makes the development process for mobile programming a lot easier compared to traditional native approach, it's easy to see why it has gained popularity fast. However, React Native still a new technology under rapid development, and to fully understand what's happening it would be good to have some knowledge of JavaScript and perhaps React (for the Web) before jumping into React Native.
Discourse Cognition Society Current state and prospects of the socio cognitive approach to discourse

This article presents the current state of the art of the socio cognitive approach in Discourse Studies. The theory relates structures of discourse with social interaction and social structure through a socio cognitive interface, with the argument that discourse structures and social structures are of a different nature and cannot be related directly. The cognitive theory consists on the one hand, of a personal dimension of personal mental models (i) of the events talked or written about, and (ii) of the communicative situation itself (context models) and on the other hand of a social dimension consisting of socially shared beliefs, knowledge, attitudes and ideologies which control the personal mental models, and indirectly all discourse. In this way, we are able to explicitly describe how discourses are involved in the reproduction of social problems such as racism or sexism. Moreover, cognitive analysis also describes and explains many aspects of discourse itself, such as all discourse structures based on knowledge (such as local and global semantic coherence, evidentials, etc. and ideology (such as the polarization of various discourse structures related to Us (ingroup) and Them (outgroup)
DCAN: Deep Contour Aware Networks for Accurate Gland Segmentation
Venue: 2016 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)

The morphology of glands has been used routinely by pathologists to assess the malignancy degree of adenocarcinomas. Accurate segmentation of glands from histology images is a crucial step to obtain reliable morphological statistics for quantitative diagnosis. In this paper, we proposed an efficient deep contour aware network (DCAN) to solve this challenging problem under a unified multi task learning framework. In the proposed network, multi level contextual features from the hierarchical architecture are explored with auxiliary supervision for accurate gland segmentation. When incorporated with multi task regularization during the training, the discriminative capability of intermediate features can be further improved. Moreover, our network can not only output accurate probability maps of glands, but also depict clear contours simultaneously for separating clustered objects, which further boosts the gland segmentation performance. This unified framework can be efficient when applied to large scale histopathological data without resorting to additional steps to generate contours based on low level cues for post separating. Our method won the 2015 MICCAI Gland Segmentation Challenge out of 13 competitive teams, surpassing all the other methods by a significant margin.
Real, Live, and Concise: Answering Open Domain Questions with Word Embedding and Summarization
Venue: TREC

Resorting to community question answering (CQA) websites for finding answers has gained momentum in the recent years with the explosive rate at which social media has been proliferating. With many questions left unanswered on those websites, automatic question answering (QA) systems have seen light. A main objective of those systems is to harness the plethora of existing answered questions; hence transforming the problem to finding good answers to newlyposed questions from similar previously answered ones or composing a new concise one from those potential answers. In this paper, we describe the real time Question Answering system we have developed to participate in TREC 2016 LiveQA track. Our QA system is composed of three phases: answer retrieval from three different Web sources (Yahoo! Answers, Google Search, and Bing Search) answer ranking using learning to rank models, and summarization of top ranked answers. Official track results of our three submitted runs show that our runs significantly outperformed the average scores of all participated runs across the entire spectrum of official evaluation measures deployed by the track organizers this year.
Syntax information structure: The grammar of English inversions

Author(s) Samko, Bern Advisor(s) McCloskey,  This dissertation examines the relationship between form and function in VP initial word orders in English. While the questions at its core are old (questions of the interaction between syntactic form and discourse context) they are addressed here with the aid of tools only recently made available. Those tools are in the first place theoretical the Minimalist framework for syntax and a Question Under Discussion framework for formal pragmatics, but in the second place also methodological. The ability to search large electronic corpora for naturally produced data in full discourse context massively expands our ability to explore subtle interactions between syntactic form and discourse context. The goal of this dissertation is to exploit these new opportunities and in so doing to combine a technically sophisticated syntax with an equally sophisticated pragmatics in a way that gives serious consideration to both components of the grammar and, especially, to the often subtle ways in which they interact. The empirical focus is on Participle Preposing, as in (0.1a) and on VP Preposing, as in (0.1b)(0.1) a. Topping the list for least affordable communities were Laredo, San Francisco and Manhattan.b. .but criticize him they did.Much existing work on these constructions incorporates a more or less sophisticated elaboration of the Minimalist model of syntax, but is largely silent on the important question of what effect such complex syntactic mechanisms have on an unfolding discourse. The analyses developrd here aim to be serious about the syntax, but equally serious about developing a pragmatic (and semantic) analysis that is not tailored to the problem at hand but that rather has some independent grounding. The analysis is in turn built on a close examination of patterns which are instantiated across hundreds of inversions in hundreds of contexts. The combined approach leads to several important insights into the relationship between syntax and pragmatics and the overall picture that emerges is one in which the syntax makes both direct and indirect reference to discourse context.
In situ Transmission Electron Microscopy He+ implantation and thermal aging of nanocrystalline iron

The high density of interfaces in nanostructured materials are hypothesized to improve radiation tolerance compared to coarse grained materials. In order to investigate the roles of vacancies, self interstitials, and helium, both room temperature in situ TEM He+ implantation and annealing, as well as high temperature He+ implantation was performed on nanocrystalline iron. Dislocation loops are formed by the accumulation of mobile point defects rather than by displacement cascades at intermediate temperatures. Around 600 degC, loops disappeared through gradual shrinking, which is hypothesized to correspond to the annihilation of self interstitial atoms by mobile vacancies that also resulted in cavity formation. The room temperature implantation resulted in cavities evenly distributed throughout the grain after annealing, whereas cavities were predominately observed at grain boundaries for the elevated temperature implantation. This difference is associated with the formation of stable helium vacancy complexes in the grains during room temperature implantation, which is not present during high temperature implantation.
Blood donor selection and deferral pattern as an important tool for blood safety in a tertiary care hospital
Venue: Asian journal of transfusion science

Blood donor selection criteria based on science and regulatory rules influence donor as well recipient safety and demographics.  To evaluate and analyze the blood donor deferral pattern and its causes among blood donors in a tertiary care hospital blood bank and to review its influence on blood safety.  Hospital based blood bank, retrospective analysis.  The data available as donor deferral record over a period of 13 years from 2001 to 2013 was analyzed.  The blood donor deferral rate was 11.5% the deferral rate in various categories was 4.8% 4.7% 1.6% and 0.3% in Category 1, Category 2, Category 3, and Category 4, respectively. The majority of deferrals were temporary deferrals (62.8% of young donors. The maximum number of donors deferred (28.2% due to a history of jaundice (permanent) followed by 19.4% due to low hemoglobin (temporary) History of malaria, intake of medicines, infections, underweight, last blood donation within 3 months (temporary deferral) and history of heart and lung diseases, diabetes, and with suspicious identity (permanent deferral) were other major causes identified.  The pattern of donor deferral identified is an important tool for blood safety and also provides key areas to focus on a region or policy formulation nationally for donor selection as well ensure donor safety. The value of determining donor deferral pattern by the categories described is in calling back donors deferred due to temporary reasons and can help retain pool of motivated blood donors.
Evaluation of blood donor deferral causes: a retrospective study from South India

Detailed analysis of various causes for deferral of blood donors may help medical personnel to curb the barriers that impede the blood donation. This study aims to evaluate the deferral reasons of a blood donor in our centre and to uncover the hindering factors behind the target of achieving 100% acceptance of blood donors  This is a retrospective record based study over a time period of 4 years from January 2012 to December 2015.Data were collected from the Donor deferral registry with respect to age and Gender. The causes of deferral were categorized as temporary and permanent.  A total of 9557 registered donors were screened and 1421 (14.87% were deferred. Overall, men (1258; 88.5% were deferred more than the women (163; 11.5% But women had higher deferral rate (163/236; 69.1% compared to Men (1258/9321; 13.5% Temporary deferral (78.7% was common than the permanent deferral (21.3% Anemia with low hemoglobin was the commonest cause of temporary deferral (31.5% in both males and females. Hypertension was the commonest cause of permanent deferral (75.8% constituting 16.2% of the total deferrals.  Ensuring the confidentiality of history taking and examination of donors will help them to answer the questions honestly and to curb the barriers that impede the donation. Defining and educating the donor selection criteria to the community by the medical professionals and awareness and self motivation from the donors are the key factors behind achieving cent percent acceptance of blood donors.
Application of capon method to direct position determination
Venue: ICT Express

The direct position determination (DPD) approach is a single step method which uses the Maximum Likelihood estimator to localize sources emitting electromagnetic energy using combined data from all available sensors. The DPD is known to outperform the traditional 2 step methods under low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) conditions. We propose an improvement to the DPD approach, using the well known minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) approach. Unlike Maximum Likelihood, the number of sources need not be known before applying the method. The combination of both the direct approach and MVDR yields unprecedented localization accuracy and resolution for weak sources. We demonstrate this approach on the problem of multistatic radar, but the method can easily be extended to general localization problems.
Formation Mechanism of CaS Al2O3 Inclusions in Low Sulfur Al Killed Steel After Calcium Treatment
Venue: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B

The laboratory experiments of alumina inclusions modified by calcium treatment in Al killed steel were carried out at 1873 K (1600 degC) and the inclusions in steel samples were characterized at 1, 5, and 10 minutes after calcium addition. The results show that the type of inclusions after calcium treatment was determined by the sulfur and T.O contents of steel. CaS Al2O3 inclusions were obtained in steels with high sulfur and low T.O contents. The mass ratio between CaS and Al2O3 was determined by T.Ca and T.O contents of steel. The influence of holding time after calcium addition on the composition of inclusions was negligible. The thermodynamics for the formation of CaS Al2O3 inclusions after calcium treatment was discussed, and a simple formation mechanism was proposed. Moreover, the CaO, Al2O3, and CaS contents in the inclusions were predicted through the sulfur, total calcium (T.Ca) and T.O contents, and it was found that the CaO content decreases with increasing S/T.O, while (pctCaS)(pctAl2O3)1/3 increases with increasing T.Ca/T.O.
Lectin Receptors Expressed on Myeloid Cells.
Venue: Microbiology spectrum

Lectins recognize a diverse array of carbohydrate structures and perform numerous essential biological functions. Here we focus on only two families of lectins, the Siglecs and C type lectins. Triggering of intracellular signaling cascades following ligand recognition by these receptors can have profound effects on the induction and modulation of immunity. In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of each family and then focus on selected examples that highlight how these lectins can influence myeloid cell functioning in health and disease. Receptors that are discussed include Sn (Siglec 1) CD33 (Siglec 3) and Siglec 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, E, F, and G as well as Dectin 1, MICL, Dectin 2, Mincle/MCL, and the macrophage mannose receptor.
Managing the challenges of pharmaceutical patent expiry: a case study of Lipitor

The paper aims to study how global pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer have managed the challenges of pharmaceutical patent expiry.  A case study method was applied. The best selling brand drug over the past 10 years Lipitor was chosen as the case target.  For dealing with this, this paper describes all the details of the corresponding strategies of Pfizer before and after patent expiration of Lipitor. Before patent expiry, Pfizer undertook the activities of direct to consumer marketing, pricing strategy for competition, legal delay and me too drug R&D. After patent expiry, Pfizer chose to carry out continuous marketing for brand, rebate strategy, authorized generics and change to over the counter. In addition, diversity and globalization strategy was applied before and after patent expiry.  This research provides strong implication for managing pharmaceutical products before and after patent expiry.  It is strongly recommended for both brand and generic drug companies to design strategies to meet the challenges of pharmaceutical patent expiry. Social implications For the global pharmaceutical market, a conclusion can be drawn that, nowadays, the "patent cliff" is the most significant factor influencing decision makers to consider futuristic policies. Further, it is also a considerably effective solution for reducing health care costs for policymakers.  This paper contributes to the field of patent expiry management in high tech industries such as pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceutical patent applications in freeze drying.
Venue: Pharmaceutical patent analyst

Injectable products are often the formulation of choice for new therapeutics; however, formulation in liquids often enhances degradation through hydrolysis. Thus, freeze drying (lyophilization) is regularly used in pharmaceutical manufacture to reduce water activity. Here we examine its contribution to 'state of the art' and look at its future potential uses. A comprehensive search of patent databases was conducted to characterize the international patent landscape and trends in the use of freeze drying. A total of 914 disclosures related to freeze drying, lyophilization or drying of solid systems in pressures and temperatures equivalent to those of freeze drying were considered over the period of 1992 2014. Current applications of sublimation technology were contrasted across two periods those with patents due to expire (1992 1993) and those currently filed. The number of freeze drying technology patents has stabilized after initial activity across the biotechnology sector in 2011 and 2012. Alongside an increasing trend for patent submissions, freeze drying submissions have slowed since 2002 and is indicative of a level of maturity.
Secure Channel Coding Schemes based on Algebraic Geometric Codes over Hermitian Curves
Venue: J. Univers. Comput. Sci.

Algebraic Geometric (AG) codes are new paradigm in coding theory with promising performance improvements and diverse applications in point to point communications services and system security. AG codes offer several advantages over stateof the art Reed Solomon (RS) codes. Algebraic Geometric Codes are proposed and implemented in this paper. The design, construction and implementation are investigated and a software platform has been developed. Simulation results are presented for the first time showing significant performance improvements of AG codes over RS codes using different modulation schemes. The superiority in error correcting and security of AG codes over RS codes has been demonstrated clearly when Rayleigh fading channel is used. Also the results show an obvious improvement when using higher modulation schemes, namely 16QAM and 64QAM.
Blast induced damage and its impact on structural stability of underground excavations

Analysis of rock wedge stability plays important role in tunneling and hard rock mining. Today there are many procedures for prediction of wedge formation and their stability. These procedures consider preexisting joints in rock mass, and there is no procedure that considers blast induced cracks and their impact on structural stability of excavations. Using main principles of new rock blasting theory it is possible to assess length and density of radial cracks around blastholes. Herein, one simple excavation situation in hard rock is presented, where only two joint sets were present. This made it impossible for rock wedges to form. After blast induced crack with limited persistence was added to analysis as result unstable rock wedge was formed. in addition to presented problem it is suggested how mechanical properties of blast induced cracks could be estimated using Barton Bandis failure criterion. As final result it was clear that without blast induced cracks no wedge stability analysis is complete.