LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
A Survey : Feature Extraction Methods for Iris Recognition

The biometrics is the study of physical traits or behavioral characteristics of human include items such as finger prints, face, hand geometry, gait, keystrokes, voice and iris. Among the biometrics, iris has highly accurate and reliable characteristics. An iris has unique structure and it remains stable over a person life time. Iris recognition is one of the biometric identification and authentication that employs pattern recognition technology with the help of high resolution. A general approach of iris recognition system includes image acquisition, segmentation, feature Extraction, matching/classification. The performance of biometric system based on iris recognition depends on the selection of iris features. In this work performance of various feature extraction methods are analyzed for iris recognition. KeywordsHough Transform; Iris Normalization; Pattern Matching; Feature Extraction.
Software Process Modeling: Principles of Entity Process Models

A defined software process is needed to provide organizations with a consistent framework for performing their work and improving the way they do it. An overall framework for modeling simplifies the task of producing process models, permits them to be tailored to individual needs, and facilitates process evolution. This paper outlines the principles of entity process models and suggests ways in which they can help to address some of the problems with more conventional approaches to modeling software processes.
Asthma exacerbations in African Americans treated for 1 year with combination fluticasone propionate and salmeterol or fluticasone propionate alone.

OBJECTIVE
This long-term prospective study was conducted in African Americans with persistent asthma to examine the safety and effectiveness of the combination of the inhaled corticosteroid, fluticasone propionate (FP), and the long-acting beta-agonist, salmeterol, compared with FP alone.


RESEARCH AND DESIGN METHODS
This was a randomized, double-blind, parallel group, multi-center trial in adolescent and adult subjects >/=12 years of age symptomatic on a low dose of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS). The study consisted of a 2-week screening period on low dose ICS; a 4-week open-label FP 250 mcg twice daily (BID) run-in; a 52-week double-blind period (FP/salmeterol [FSC] 100/50 mcg [n=239] or FP 100 mcg [n=236] BID), and a 4-week FP 250 mcg BID run-out period. Annualized exacerbation rate was the primary outcome for comparing the two treatments. Other measures of asthma control included peak expiratory flow, asthma symptoms, and albuterol use. Safety was assessed through adverse events.


RESULTS
Exacerbation rates were not significantly different in those treated with FSC 100/50 mcg (0.449 per year) compared with FP 100 mcg (0.529 per year, p=0.169). When the per-protocol analysis was applied, the rates were 0.465 and 0.769 per year for FSC 100/50 mcg and FP 100 mcg, respectively. Treatment with FSC 100/50 mcg provided statistically greater improvements in lung function measures and nighttime awakenings (p</=0.050) and demonstrated numerically lower daily symptoms (p=0.216) and albuterol use (p=0.122). Two subjects treated with FSC 100/50 mcg were hospitalized for an asthma exacerbation compared to three treated with FP 100 mcg. The overall incidence of adverse effects during double-blind treatment was similar between the FSC 100/50 mcg and FP 100 mcg treatment groups (61% and 68%, respectively). Frequent study visits were required of subjects during this long-term study, and it remains unknown whether this intervention may affect generalizability.


CONCLUSION
In this large, prospective study among African Americans with asthma, the addition of salmeterol to FP resulted in a similar low rate of exacerbations and improved other markers of asthma control. Both FSC 100/50 mcg and FP 100 mcg were well-tolerated, and the overall safety-profiles were similar over 1 year of treatment.
Monument(al) meaning-making: the Ncome monument & its representation of Zulu identity

Abstract This essay offers a reflective reading of a recent Zulu monument/museum built at the Ncome/Blood River battle site in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The essay is organized into three sections: the possibility and politics of such a monument(al) re-presentation, perceiving the monument from the outside, and perusing the museum from the inside. As such, it examines representational issues of ethnicity, race, gender, nation, and power and their role in identity negotiation. More specifically, the essay explores how ‘Zulu’ identities are represented via a monument in post-apartheid South Africa. Ultimately, the monument/museum promotes Zulu nationalism and a Zulu warrior identity, homogenizes and fixes Zulu culture and identity, and, thus, fails to advocate unity and reconciliation, as was originally recommended. *The core of this essay was originally written in two cultural studies seminars at the University of California, Davis. Earlier versions of this essay were presented at a Cultu...
To feel or not to feel: The role of affect in human-computer interaction

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented growth in user interface and human– computer interaction (HCI) technologies and methods. The synergy of technological and methodological progress on the one hand, and changing user expectations on the other, are contributing to a redefinition of the requirements for effective and desirable human–computer interaction. A key component of these emerging requirements, and of effective HCI in general, is the ability of these emerging systems to address user affect. The objective of this special issue is to provide an introduction to the emerging research area of affective HCI, some of the available methods and techniques, and representative systems and applications. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cloud Forensic Maturity Model

In this paper we present a shortened version of the Cloud Forensic Maturity Model (CFMM). It composes of two inter-related parts, i.e., the Cloud Forensic Investigative Architecture (CFIA) and the Cloud Forensic Capability Matrix (CFCM). The CFMM is developed in order to create a reference model to evaluate and improve cloud forensic maturity. It is a part an on-going project, and is evaluted by a panel of experts and practitioners as a first step for further cloud forensic standardization efforts.
Protective efficacy of multiple vaccine platforms against Zika virus challenge in rhesus monkeys

Zika virus (ZIKV) is responsible for a major ongoing epidemic in the Americas and has been causally associated with fetal microcephaly. The development of a safe and effective ZIKV vaccine is therefore an urgent global health priority. Here we demonstrate that three different vaccine platforms protect against ZIKV challenge in rhesus monkeys. A purified inactivated virus vaccine induced ZIKV-specific neutralizing antibodies and completely protected monkeys against ZIKV strains from both Brazil and Puerto Rico. Purified immunoglobulin from vaccinated monkeys also conferred passive protection in adoptive transfer studies. A plasmid DNA vaccine and a single-shot recombinant rhesus adenovirus serotype 52 vector vaccine, both expressing ZIKV premembrane and envelope, also elicited neutralizing antibodies and completely protected monkeys against ZIKV challenge. These data support the rapid clinical development of ZIKV vaccines for humans.
Negative impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on the health-related quality of life of patients. Results of the EPIDEPOC study

BACKGROUND
COPD is currently the fourth cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed world. Patients with COPD experience a progressive deterioration and disability, which lead to a worsening in their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this work is to assess the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of patients with stable COPD followed in primary care and to identify possible predictors of disease.


METHODS
It is a multicenter, epidemiological, observational, descriptive study. Subjects of both sexes, older than 40 years and diagnosed of COPD at least 12 months before starting the study were included. Sociodemographic data, severity of disease, comorbidity, and use of health resources in the previous 12 months were collected. All patients were administered a generic quality-of-life questionnaire, the SF-12, that enables to calculate two scores, the physical (PCS-12) and the mental (MCS-12) component summary scores.


RESULTS
10,711 patients were evaluated (75.6% men, 24.4% women), with a mean age of 67.1 years (SD 9.66). The mean value of FEV1 was 35.9 +/- 10.0%. Mean PCS-12 and MCS-12 scores were 36.0 +/- 9.9 and 48.3 +/- 10.9, respectively. Compared to the reference population, patients with COPD had a reduction of PCS-12, even in mild stages of the disease. The correlation with FEV1 was higher for PCS-12 (r = 0.38) than for MCS-12 (r = 0.12). Predictors for both HRQoL components were sex, FEV1, use of oxygen therapy, and number of visits to emergency rooms and hospital admissions. Other independent predictors of PCS-12 were age, body mass index and educational level.


CONCLUSION
Patients with stable COPD show a reduction of their HRQoL, even in mild stages of the disease. The factors determining the HRQoL include sex, FEV1, use of oxygen therapy, and number of visits to emergency rooms and hospital admissions.
Solving Complex Planning Tasks Through Extraction of Subproblems

The paper introduces an approach to derive a total ordering between i creasing sets of subgoals by defining a relation over atomic goals. The ordering is represented in a so-called goal agenda that is used by the planner to incrementally plan for the increasing sets of subgoals. This can lead to an exponential complexity reduction because the solution to a complex planning problem is found by solving easier subproblems. Since only a polynomial overhead is caused by the goal agenda computation, a potential exists to dramatically speed up planning algorithms as we demonstrate in the empirical evaluation.
Gas–Surface Interactions on Quasicrystals

To commemorate the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Daniel Shechtman for his discovery of quasicrystals, this paper reviews our recent studies of the interaction of rare gases and hydrocarbon gases with the tenfold surface of quasicrystalline decagonal Al-Co-Ni.
Decreased Visual Attention Further from the Perceived Direction of Gaze for Equidistant Retinal Targets

The oculomotor and spatial attention systems are interconnected. Whereas a link between motor commands and spatial shifts in visual attention is demonstrated, it is still unknown whether the recently discovered proprioceptive signal in somatosensory cortex impacts on visual attention, too. This study investigated whether visual targets near the perceived direction of gaze are detected more accurately than targets further away, despite the equal eccentricity of their retinal projections. We dissociated real and perceived eye position using left somatosensory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which decreases cortical processing of eye muscle proprioceptive inflow and produces an underestimation of the rotation of the right eye. Participants detected near-threshold visual targets presented in the left or right visual hemifield at equal distance from fixation. We have previously shown that when the right eye is rotated to the left of the parasagittal plane, TMS produces an underestimation of this rotation, shifting perceived eye position to the right. Here we found that, in this condition, TMS also decreased target detection in the left visual hemifield and increased it in the right. This effect depended on the direction of rotation of the right eye. When the right eye was rotated rightward and TMS, we assume, shifted perceived gaze direction in opposite direction, leftward, visual accuracy decreased now in the right hemifield. We suggest that the proprioceptive eye position signal modulates the spatial distribution of visual processing resources, producing “pseudo-neglect” for objects located far relative to near the perceived direction of gaze.
Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy Interventions for Adults With Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE
This systematic review addresses the effectiveness of occupational therapy-related interventions for adults with fibromyalgia.


METHOD
We examined the literature published between January 2000 and June 2014. A total of 322 abstracts from five databases were reviewed. Forty-two Level I studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies were evaluated primarily with regard to the following outcomes: daily activities, pain, depressive symptoms, fatigue, and sleep.


RESULTS
Strong evidence was found for interventions categorized for this review as cognitive-behavioral interventions; relaxation and stress management; emotional disclosure; physical activity; and multidisciplinary interventions for improving daily living, pain, depressive symptoms, and fatigue. There was limited to no evidence for self-management, and few interventions resulted in better sleep.


CONCLUSION
Although the evidence supports interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice for people with fibromyalgia, few interventions were occupation based.
A Dependent Multilabel Classification Method Derived from the k-Nearest Neighbor Rule

In multilabel classification, each instance in the training set is associated with a set of labels, and the task is to output a label set whose size is unknown a priori for each unseen instance. The most commonly used approach for multilabel classification is where a binary classifier is learned independently for each possible class. However, multilabeled data generally exhibit relationships between labels, and this approach fails to take such relationships into account. In this paper, we describe an original method for multilabel classification problems derived from a Bayesian version of the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) rule. The method developed here is an improvement on an existing method for multilabel classification, namely multilabel k-NN, which takes into account the dependencies between labels. Experiments on simulated and benchmark datasets show the usefulness and the efficiency of the proposed approach as compared to other existing methods.
Lipopolysaccharide amplifies eosinophilic inflammation after segmental challenge with house dust mite in asthmatics.

BACKGROUND
House dust contains mite allergens as well as bacterial products such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Asthma exacerbations are associated with the level of exposure to allergens and LPS. LPS can potentiate allergen effects in steroid-naïve patients. Long-acting β2-agonists (LABA) were shown to inhibit LPS-induced bronchial inflammation in healthy volunteers. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of LPS on the allergen-induced eosinophilic inflammation [primary endpoints: eosinophil counts and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP)] induced by bronchial instillation of house dust mite (HDM) in patients with asthma on maintenance treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS).


METHODS
Thirty-two nonsmoking asthmatics with HDM allergy were treated with run-in medication (fluticasone propionate 100 μg bid) during 2 weeks before the study day. All patients underwent bronchial challenge with HDM, and half of them were randomized to receive additional LPS. Both groups were randomized to receive pretreatment with a single inhalation of 100 μg salmeterol 30 min before bronchial segmental challenge. Six hours later, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was collected for leukocyte cell count, differentials, and cellular activation markers.


RESULTS
Challenge with HDM/LPS induced a significant increase in eosinophil cationic protein (P = 0.036) and a trend toward an increase in BALF eosinophils as compared to HDM challenge.


CONCLUSION
Lipopolysaccharide promotes eosinophilic airway inflammation in patients with asthma despite being on maintenance treatment with ICS.
The retention indices of 201Tl-SPECT in brain tumors.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to assess the utility of 201Tl SPECT in the differential diagnosis of intracranial tumors and to determine the relationship between 201Tl uptake and histological types.


METHODS
Thirty-eight patients (19 males and 19 females) with thirty-eight brain tumors were evaluated with 201Tl-SPECT. The early and delayed 201Tl uptake ratio was calculated, and the retention index (RI) was applied as follows; RI = delayed uptake ratio/early uptake ratio.


RESULTS
The RI of malignant tumors was higher (0.72 +/- 0.18) than that of benign tumors (0.50 +/- 0.16) and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.00045). The difference between high-grade glioma (0.80 +/- 0.15) and metastatic tumors (0.64 +/- 0.19) was statistically significant (p = 0.039).


CONCLUSION
201Tl-SPECT may add useful biochemical information and could differentiate malignant brain tumors from benign lesions, but the RI of metastatic tumors varied depending on the organs with the primary lesion and histological types.
Modeling and Management of Firewall Policies

Firewalls are core elements in network security. However, managing firewall rules, especially for enterprise networks, has become complex and error-prone. Firewall filtering rules have to be carefully written and organized in order to correctly implement the security policy. In addition, inserting or modifying a filtering rule requires thorough analysis of the relationship between this rule and other rules in order to determine the proper order of this rule and commit the updates. In this paper we present a set of techniques and algorithms that provide automatic discovery of firewall policy anomalies to reveal rule conflicts and potential problems in legacy firewalls, and anomaly-free policy editing for rule insertion, removal, and modification. This is implemented in a user-friendly tool called ¿Firewall Policy Advisor.¿ The Firewall Policy Advisor significantly simplifies the management of any generic firewall policy written as filtering rules, while minimizing network vulnerability due to firewall rule misconfiguration.
Epidural versus non-epidural or no analgesia in labour.

BACKGROUND
Epidural analgesia is a central nerve block technique achieved by injection of a local anaesthetic close to the nerves that transmit pain and is widely used as a form of pain relief in labour. However, there are concerns regarding unintended adverse effects on the mother and infant.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the effects of all modalities of epidural analgesia (including combined -spinal-epidural) on the mother and the baby, when compared with non-epidural or no pain relief during labour.


SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group Trials Register (June 2005).


SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials comparing all modalities of epidural with any form of pain relief not involving regional blockade, or no pain relief in labour.


DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two of the review authors independently assessed trials for eligibility, methodological quality and extracted all data. Data were entered into RevMan and double checked. Primary analysis was by intention-to-treat; sensitivity analyses excluded trials with > 30% of women receiving un-allocated treatment.


MAIN RESULTS
Twenty-one studies involving 6664 women were included, all but one study compared epidural analgesia with opiates. For technical reasons, data on women's perception of pain relief in labour could only be included from one study which found epidural analgesia to offer better pain relief than non-epidural analgesia (weighted mean difference (WMD) -2.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) -3.82 to -1.38, 1 trial, 105 women). However, epidural analgesia was associated with an increased risk of instrumental vaginal birth (relative risk (RR) 1.38, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.53, 17 trials, 6162 women). There was no evidence of a significant difference in the risk of caesarean delivery (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.23, 20 trials, 6534 women), long-term backache (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.89 to 1.12, 2 trials, 814 women), low neonatal Apgar scores at five minutes (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.44 to 1.10, 14 trials, 5363 women), and maternal satisfaction with pain relief (RR 1.18 95% CI 0.92 to 1.50, 5 trials, 1940 women). No studies reported on rare but potentially serious adverse effects of epidural analgesia.


AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Epidural analgesia appears to be effective in reducing pain during labour. However, women who use this form of pain relief are at increased risk of having an instrumental delivery. Epidural analgesia had no statistically significant impact on the risk of caesarean section, maternal satisfaction with pain relief and long-term backache and did not appear to have an immediate effect on neonatal status as determined by Apgar scores. Further research may be helpful to evaluate rare but potentially severe adverse effects of epidural analgesia on women in labour and long-term neonatal outcomes.
Risk minimization, probability elicitation, and cost-sensitive SVMs

A new procedure for learning cost-sensitive SVM classifiers is proposed. The SVM hinge loss is extended to the cost sensitive setting, and the cost-sensitive SVM is derived as the minimizer of the associated risk. The extension of the hinge loss draws on recent connections between risk minimization and probability elicitation. These connections are generalized to costsensitive classification, in a manner that guarantees consistency with the cost-sensitive Bayes risk, and associated Bayes decision rule. This ensures that optimal decision rules, under the new hinge loss, implement the Bayes-optimal costsensitive classification boundary. Minimization of the new hinge loss is shown to be a generalization of the classic SVM optimization problem, and can be solved by identical procedures. The resulting algorithm avoids the shortcomings of previous approaches to cost-sensitive SVM design, and has superior experimental performance.
Effect of psychostimulants on brain structure and function in ADHD: a qualitative literature review of magnetic resonance imaging-based neuroimaging studies.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of therapeutic oral doses of stimulants on the brains of ADHD subjects as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based neuroimaging studies (morphometric, functional, spectroscopy).


DATA SOURCES
We searched PubMed and ScienceDirect through the end of calendar year 2011 using the keywords (1) psychostimulants or methylphenidate or amphetamine, and (2) neuroimaging or MRI or fMRI, and (3) ADHD or ADD or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.


STUDY SELECTION
We included only English language articles with new data from case-control or placebo controlled studies that examined attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) subjects on and off psychostimulants (as well as 5 relevant review articles).


DATA EXTRACTION
We combined details of study design and medication effects in each imaging modality.


RESULTS
We found 29 published studies that met our criteria. These included 6 structural MRI, 20 functional MRI studies, and 3 spectroscopy studies. Methods varied widely in terms of design, analytic technique, and regions of the brain investigated. Despite heterogeneity in methods, however, results were consistent. With only a few exceptions, the data on the effect of therapeutic oral doses of stimulant medication suggest attenuation of structural and functional alterations found in unmedicated ADHD subjects relative to findings in controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the inherent limitations and heterogeneity of the extant MRI literature, our review suggests that therapeutic oral doses of stimulants decrease alterations in brain structure and function in subjects with ADHD relative to unmedicated subjects and controls. These medication-associated brain effects parallel, and may underlie, the well-established clinical benefits.