Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Segmentation of liver tumor via nonlocal active contours

To reduce the manual labor time and provide the accuracy of liver tumor segmentation in the treatment planning of radiofrequency ablation (RFA), a novel method for liver tumor image segmentation by nonlocal active contours is proposed in this paper. A multi Gabor feature map of the liver tumor image is computed to describe the homogeneity of patches in a nonlocal way, and the nonlocal comparisons between pairs of patches are used to calculate the active contour energy. The whole energy function is minimized via a level set method to give the final segmentation. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method leads to good liver tumor segmentation with a good robustness to initialization condition. Experiment results show the proposed method can provide segmentation close to manual results, with the mean overlap error (OE) less than 23.86%.
Fast Cooling and Exhumation of the Valhalla Metamorphic Core Complex, Southeastern British Columbia

High-grade, migmatitic paragneisses (820°C, 8 kbar peak conditions) of the Valhalla metamorphic core complex experienced the retrograde net transfer reaction (ReNTR): garnet + melt + K-feldspar = sillimanite + biotite + plagioclase during cooling and crystallization of the melt, resulting in an increase in the Fe/(Fe + Mg) of both garnet and biotite at their margins. Diffusion profiles generated by this increase in Fe/(Fe + Mg) have been modeled numerically. Optimal fits were obtained with an initial, short period of rapid cooling (> 200°C/m.y. for > 0.5 m.y.) followed by slower (but still rapid) cooling at 20-30°C/m.y. for 10-20 m.y. Four generations of monazite have been observed. Monazite inclusions within garnet contain only generations 1 and 2, and generations 3-4 are found only in matrix monazites. Generations 1-2 record ages of 75-85 Ma, which is believed to represent the prograde metamorphism of the complex. A single age of ˜105 Ma may represent an early contact metamorphic episode. Third-generation monazite is 60 ±2 Ma, and reflects near-peak conditions. Generation 4 monazite, which occurs only on the outer rims of monazite, has not been dated, but is believed to represent monazite produced during melt crystallization. A hornblende K-Ar age of 58±2 Ma suggests a cooling rate of several tens to several hundreds of degrees/m.y. immediately following the metamorphic peak. The extremely rapid cooling (hundreds of degrees/m.y.) at ˜60 Ma must have been tectonically induced and it is suggested that transport of the hot Valhalla complex onto cooler basement up a thrust ramp along the underlying Gwillim Creek shear zone was the cause. Two-dimensional thermal modeling indicates that thrust transport of several centimeters/year up a 20° ramp will produce the observed cooling rates. The subsequent slower cooling rate (tens of degrees/m.y.) is believed to have been the result of extensional unroofing by low-angle normal faulting along the Slocan Lake fault.
Network-Compressive Coding for Wireless Sensors with Correlated Data

A network-compressive transmission protocol is developed in which correlated sensor observations belonging to a finite alphabet are linearly combined as they traverse the network on their way to a sink node. Statistical dependencies are modeled using factor graphs. The sum-product algorithm is run under different modeling assumptions to estimate the maximum a posteriori set of observations given the compressed measurements at the sink node. Error exponents are derived for cyclic and acyclic factor graphs using the method of types, showing that observations can be recovered with arbitrarily low probability of error as the network size grows. Simulated tests corroborate the theoretical claims.
The shifting sands of creative thinking: Connections to dual-process theory

Dual-process models of cognition suggest that there are two types of thought: autonomous Type 1 processes and working memory dependent Type 2 processes that support hypothetical thinking. Models of creative thinking also distinguish between two sets of thinking processes: those involved in the generation of ideas and those involved with their refinement, evaluation, and/or selection. Here we review dual-process models in both these literatures and delineate the similarities and differences. Both generative creative processing and evaluative creative processing involve elements that have been attributed to each of the dual processes of cognition. We explore the notion that creative thinking may rest upon the nature of a shifting process between Type 1 and Type 2 dual processes. We suggest that a synthesis of the evidence bases on dual-process models of cognition and of creative thinking, together with developing time-based approaches to explore the shifting process, could better inform the development of interventions to facilitate creativity.
Secure Sampling of Public Parameters for Succinct Zero Knowledge Proofs

Non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs (NIZKs) are a powerful cryptographic tool, with numerous potential applications. However, succinct NIZKs (e.g., zk-SNARK schemes) necessitate a trusted party to generate and publish some public parameters, to be used by all provers and verifiers. This party is trusted to correctly run a probabilistic algorithm (specified by the the proof system) that outputs the public parameters, and publish them, without leaking any other information (such as the internal randomness used by the algorithm), violating either requirement may allow malicious parties to produce convincing "proofs" of false statements. This trust requirement poses a serious impediment to deploying NIZKs in many applications, because a party that is trusted by all users of the envisioned system may simply not exist. In this work, we show how public parameters for a class of NIZKs can be generated by a multi-party protocol, such that if at least one of the parties is honest, then the result is secure (in both aforementioned senses) and can be subsequently used for generating and verifying numerous proofs without any further trust. We design and implement such a protocol, tailored to efficiently support the state-of-the-art NIZK constructions with short and easy-to-verify proofs (Parno et al. IEEE S&P '13, Ben-Sasson et al. USENIX Sec '14, Danezis et al., ASIACRYPT '14). Applications of our system include generating public parameters for systems such as Zero cash (Ben-Sasson et al. IEEE S&P '13) and the scalable zero-knowledge proof system of (Ben-Sasson et al. CRYPTO '14).
Limits on the Short-Term Variability of Sagittarius A* in the Near-Infrared

The recent detection of a 3 hr X-ray flare by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has raised the possibility of enhanced emission over a broad range of wavelengths from Sagittarius A*, the suspected 2.6 × 106 M☉ black hole at the Galactic center, during a flaring event. We have, therefore, reconstructed 3 hr data sets from 2 μm speckle and adaptive optics images (θcore = 50-100 mas) obtained with the W. M. Keck 10 m telescopes between 1995 and 2001. In 25 separate observations, no evidence of any significant excess emission associated with Sgr A* was detected. The lowest of our detection limits gives an observed limit for the quiescent state of Sgr A* of 0.09 ± 0.005 mJy or, equivalently, a dereddened value of 2.0 ± 0.1 mJy, which is a factor of 2 lower than the best previously published quiescent value. Under the assumption that there are random 3 hr flares producing both enhanced X-ray and near-infrared emission, our highest limit constrains the variable state of Sgr A* to ≲0.8 mJy (observed) or 19 mJy (dereddened). These results suggest that the model favored by Markoff et al., in which the flare is produced through local heating of relativistic particles surrounding Sgr A* (e.g., a sudden magnetic reconnection event), is unlikely because it predicts peak 2 μm emission of ~300 mJy, well above our detection limit.
A Measurement of TCP over Long-Delay Network

Over the years TCP have been designed and developed in the terrestrial network environment where the network propagation delay is in terms of 100ms. Recent advance in communication satellite technologies have introduced networks with longer delay (in terms of 500ms round-trip). This study is to evaluate the performance of TCP over such long-delay networks.
Explorer Structural priming in artificial languages and the regularisation of unpredictable variation

We present a novel experimental technique using artificial language learning to investigate the relationship between structural priming during communicative interaction, and linguistic regularity. We use unpredictable variation as a test-case, because it is a wellestablished paradigm to study learners’ biases during acquisition, transmission and interaction. We trained participants on artificial languages exhibiting unpredictable variation in word order, and subsequently had them communicate using these artificial languages. We found evidence for structural priming in two different grammatical constructions and across human-human and human-computer interaction. Priming occurred regardless of behavioral convergence: communication led to shared word order use only in humanhuman interaction, but priming was observed in all conditions. Furthermore, interaction resulted in the reduction of unpredictable variation in all conditions, suggesting a role for communicative interaction in eliminating unpredictable variation. Regularisation was strongest in human-human interaction and in a condition where participants believed they were interacting with a human but were in fact interacting with a computer. We suggest that participants recognize the counter-functional nature of unpredictable variation and thus act to eliminate this variability during communication. Furthermore, reciprocal priming occurring in human-human interaction drove some pairs of participants to converge on maximally regular, highly predictable linguistic systems. Our method offers potential benefits to both the artificial language learning and the structural priming fields, and provides a useful tool to investigate communicative processes that lead to language change and ultimately language design. 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
TRAPP, a highly conserved novel complex on the cis‐Golgi that mediates vesicle docking and fusion

We previously identified BET3 by its genetic interactions with BET1, a gene whose SNARE‐like product acts in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)‐to‐Golgi transport. To gain insight into the function of Bet3p, we added three c‐myc tags to its C‐terminus and immunopurified this protein from a clarified detergent extract. Here we report that Bet3p is a member of a large complex (∼800 kDa) that we call TRAPP (transport protein particle). We propose that TRAPP plays a key role in the targeting and/or fusion of ER‐to‐Golgi transport vesicles with their acceptor compartment. The localization of Bet3p to the cis‐Golgi complex, as well as biochemical studies showing that Bet3p functions on this compartment, support this hypothesis. TRAPP contains at least nine other constituents, five of which have been identified and shown to be highly conserved novel proteins.
The Impact of Agricultural and Forestry Subsidies on Land Prices and Land Uses in Ireland

CONTENTS: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 OBJECTIVES AND BACKGROUND 2 A THEORY OF LAND PRICES, LAND USAGE AND SUBSIDIES 3 AGRICULTURAL LAND PRICE SERIES 4 FORESTRY LAND PRICES 5 ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF FORESTRY AND AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES ON LAND PRICES AND AFFORESTATION 6 CONCLUSION APPENDICES REFERENCES
Computer security and ethics awareness among IIUM students: An empirical study

People's perception and attitude towards computer ethics and information security significantly affect the way they use information technology. This is especially the case among university students who are generally regarded as major violators of computer ethics and computer security. This paper follows previous work on computer security and ethics. The paper intend to examine the level of ethical and security awareness among IT and education students. The findings of this study reveals that there are satisfactory levels of awareness among the students surveyed with slightly higher level of awareness among IT students, most likely due to security and ethics courses they offered. Also, the findings indicate that gender-wise male students reported higher level of computer security and ethics violations than their female counterparts. The paper concludes that female students are more conscious of security and ethics while using computer (e.g. Internet) than the male students. Furthermore, IT students were found to be more aware of internet security & ethics, but largely ignore this knowledge and are more engaged in unethical activities and illegal internet practices when compared with Education students.
Bireysel ve Takım Sporu Yapan Spor Bilimleri Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Kendinle Konuşma Düzeylerinin Çeşitli Değişkenlere Göre İncelenmesi

Bu arastirmanin amaci, bireysel ve takim sporu yapan spor bilimleri fakultesi ogrencilerinin kendinle konusma duzeylerini incelemek ve aralarinda cinsiyet, sporculuk duzeyi, bolum ve milli olma durumuna gore fark olup olmadigini belirlemektir. Arastirmaya bireysel sporlardan yuzme, taekwondo, okculuk, masa tenisi ve gures branslarindan 47’si erkek (46,1), 55’i kadin (53,9) olmak uzere toplam 102 sporcu; takim sporlarindan ise, futbol, basketbol, voleybol ve hentbol branslarindan 43’u erkek (35,3), 79’u kadin (64,7) olmak uzere 122 sporcu gonullu olarak katilmistir. Arastirmada sosyo-demografik degiskenler ile ilgili bilgiler, arastirmaci tarafindan olusturulan Kisisel Bilgi Formu ile toplanmistir. Arastirmanin amacina ulasmak icin; Zervas, Stavrouve Psychountaki (2007)tarafindan gelistirilen, Turkceye uyarlamasi Engur (2011) tarafindan yapilan “Kendinle Konusma Envanteri” kullanilmistir. Calismada kullanilan olcege verilen yanitlarin ic tutarliligi Cronbach alpha (α) ile incelenmis, kendinle konusma duzeyi, motivasyonel islev altboyutu, bilissel islev altboyutlari icin katsayilar sirasiyla; . 96, . 95, . 91 olarak bulunmustur. Elde edilen verilerin analizinde betimsel istatistik yontemleri ve ikili gruplarin karsilastirilmasinda bagimsiz gruplar T testi kullanilmistir. Ikiden fazla gruplarin karsilastirilmasi tek yonlu varyans analizi ile yapilmistir. Istatistikler SPSS 22 paket programiyla yapilmis ve yapilan tum degerlendirmelerde istatistiksel anlamlilik duzeyi p<0.05 olarak kabul edilmistir. Milli takimda yer alma, takim ya da bireysel spor yapma degiskeni acisindan ogrencilerin kendinle konusma duzeylerinin farklilasmadigi saptanmistir. Ote yandan, cinsiyet ve bolum acisindan ise kendinle konusma duzeylerinde ve motivasyonel islev altboyutunda istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir farklilik saptanmistir. Bu arastirma sonucunda spor bilimleri fakultesi ogrencilerinin kendinle konusma duzeylerinin yuksek oldugu saptanmistir.
The relation between stress accent and pronunciation variation in spontaneous american English discourse

There is a systematic relationship between stress accent and pronunciation variation in spontaneous American English discourse. Although all constituents of the syllable are affected by accent, its impact is particularly manifest in the nucleus and coda. For example, height of the vocalic nucleus is closely associated with accent weight, and deletion of coda and onset segments is far more common in unaccented syllables. Such patterns imply that stress accent and syllabic articulation are inextricably bound together, and this knowledge could be used to improve pronunciation models for speech applications.
Spinal cord ischemia. Development of a model in the mouse.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Spinal cord ischemia with resulting paraplegia is a devastating complication of thoracoabdominal aortic surgery. Experimental models of spinal cord ischemia have been developed in primate, dog, pig, rabbit, and rat with variable reproducibility, but none has been developed in mouse. Because genetically engineered mice have become important to examine the impact of specific genes in ischemic pathophysiology, we sought to develop a reproducible mouse model of spinal cord ischemia. METHODS C57BL/6NCrlBR mice were subjected to cross-clamping of the aortic arch, left subclavian artery, and internal mammary artery for 9 minutes (group A; n=8) or 11 minutes (group B; n=29) followed by reperfusion for 24 or 48 hours. Mean distal arterial blood pressure (left femoral artery) and lumbar (L1) spinal cord blood flow (laser-Doppler flowmetry) were measured for the duration of the procedure. The arterial blood supply of the spinal cord was visualized by intravascular perfusion of carbon black ink. We evaluated motor function in the hind limbs at 0, 1, 3, 6, and 24 hours after reperfusion using a rating scale of 0 (normal function) to 6 (total absence of movement). Spinal cord histopathology was evaluated after 24 and 48 hours of reperfusion by Luxol fast blue-hematoxylin and eosin. RESULTS The vascular anatomy of the mouse and human spinal cord appeared similar in that blood was supplied by 1 anterior and 2 posterior spinal arteries and heterosegmental radicular arteries. During combined occlusion of aortic arch and left subclavian artery, mean distal arterial blood pressure dropped to 10+/-5 mm Hg, and spinal cord blood flow at the L1 level decreased to 27+/-7% of baseline. All animals recovered from anesthesia with acute paraplegia. Animals in the 9-minute group (group A) showed steady recovery of hind limb function over the ensuing 24 hours, whereas the majority (80%) in the 11-minute group (group B) remained paralyzed with maximum deficit throughout the postoperative period. Mortality was 0% and 21% in groups A and B, respectively. Maximal ischemic damage was observed at the lower thoracic and higher lumbar spinal levels in both groups. In group A (9 minutes), tissue damage was mild, affecting predominantly dorsal horns and intermediate gray matter, whereas ventral horns were minimally involved. All mice in group B (11 minutes) showed extensive gray matter lesions particularly involving dorsal horns and intermediate areas; in ventral horns, >50% of motor neurons died. White matter lesions were present in the most severely damaged cords only. CONCLUSIONS Spinal cord ischemia caused by aortic arch plus left subclavian artery cross-clamping provides a mouse model useful for the study of spinal cord injury and of potential relevance to the complications following thoracoabdominal aortic surgery in humans.
The CCSM4 Land Simulation, 1850-2005: Assessment of Surface Climate and New Capabilities

AbstractThis paper reviews developments for the Community Land Model, version 4 (CLM4), examines the land surface climate simulation of the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) compared to CCSM3, and assesses new earth system features of CLM4 within CCSM4. CLM4 incorporates a broad set of improvements including additions of a carbon–nitrogen (CN) biogeochemical model, an urban canyon model, and transient land cover and land use change, as well as revised soil and snow submodels.Several aspects of the surface climate simulation are improved in CCSM4. Improvements in the simulation of soil water storage, evapotranspiration, surface albedo, and permafrost that are apparent in offline CLM4 simulations are generally retained in CCSM4. The global land air temperature bias is reduced and the annual cycle is improved in many locations, especially at high latitudes. The global land precipitation bias is larger in CCSM4 because of bigger wet biases in central and southern Africa and Australia.New earth.
The Melatonergic System in Mood and Anxiety Disorders and the Role of Agomelatine: Implications for Clinical Practice

Melatonin exerts its actions through membrane MT1/MT2 melatonin receptors, which belong to the super family of G-protein-coupled receptors consisting of the typical seven transmembrane domains. MT1 and MT2 receptors are expressed in various tissues of the body either as single ones or together. A growing literature suggests that the melatonergic system may be involved in the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders. In fact, some core symptoms of depression show disturbance of the circadian rhythm in their clinical expression, such as diurnal mood and other symptomatic variation, or are closely linked to circadian system functioning, such as sleep-wake cycle alterations. In addition, alterations have been described in the circadian rhythms of several biological markers in depressed patients. Therefore, there is interest in developing antidepressants that have a chronobiotic effect (i.e., treatment of circadian rhythm disorders). As melatonin produces chronobiotic effects, efforts have been aimed at developing agomelatine, an antidepressant with melatonin agonist activity. The present paper reviews the role of the melatonergic system in the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders and the clinical characteristics of agomelatine. Implications of agomelatine in “real world” clinical practice will be also discussed.
Compression circuit of a multiband analog system for hearing aid

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a circuit which performs the compression of narrow-band signals within a multiband analog system for a hearing aid. The system has twelve narrow-band modules. Each module is formed by four stages. The first stage is a band-pass filter which selects the bandwidth of the module. The second stage, the object of this paper, is a compression circuit which performs a nonlinear operation for removing the attack and release times typical of automatic gain control systems. The third stage is another band-pass filter like the first, the function of which is to reduce the distortion produced by the compression stage. The fourth stage is a controlled linear gain stage. The simulation and experimental results obtained show that the compression circuit has good accuracy within the dynamic range of speech signals. The output narrow-band filter reduces to a great extent the harmonic and intermodulation distortion inherent in all compression systems when the input signal has some important formants very close.
What are Users’ Perceptions of the Hospital Courtyard Garden and How Satisfied are they with it?

Since the 1970s, courtyard gardens with diverse scales and design configurations have been introduced in the planning of Malaysian public hospitals to enhance users’ experiences. However, these have never been systematically evaluated to understand of how they perform and what improvements can be made to them to increase their responsiveness to users’ needs and inform the practice of both hospital designers and managers. This paper presents the results of fieldwork conducted in a large central courtyard in a Malaysian public hospital. Interview surveys and field measurements were conducted to provide a new understanding of users’ perceptions of the various physical and environmental attributes and their satisfaction levels with them. Keywords: Hospital courtyard garden; perceptions; experiences; level of satisfaction. eISSN 2514-751X © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/aje-bs.v4i13. 348