Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wavelet based R-peak detection for heart rate variability studies

Detection of QRS complex in electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is of immense importance in cardiac health prognosis. In this paper a new symmetric wavelet for detection of R-peak is presented, which has been designed based on spectral characteristics and morphology of QRS complex. The detection of R-peak was carried out using this designed wavelet, and with existing symmetric wavelets such as db3, db6, haar and bior2.2. The detection accuracy with this wavelet is 99.99%, which is higher than those with existing symmetric wavelets. The algorithm has been tested on standard databases such as Fantasia database of normal and healthy subjects, MIT/BIH (Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Beth Israel Hospital) arrhythmia database, and on self-recorded electrocardiograms of normal subjects and patients under diseased stress. The study of heart rate variability (HRV) through computation of RR-tachogram using the new wavelet has proved to be effective in reliably evaluating HRV parameters.
Scalable search-based image annotation of personal images

With the prevalence of digital cameras, more and more people have considerable digital images on their personal devices. As a result, there are increasing needs to effectively search these personal images. Automatic image annotation may serve the goal, for the annotated keywords could facilitate the search processes. Although many image annotation methods have been proposed in recent years, their effectiveness on arbitrary personal images is constrained by their limited scalability, i.e. limited lexicon of small-scale training set. To be scalable, we propose a search-based image annotation (SBIA) algorithm that is analogous to Web page search. First, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) technology is used to retrieve a set of visually similar images from a large-scale Web image set. Then, a text-based keyword search (TBKS) technique is used to obtain a ranked list of candidate annotations for each retrieved image. Finally, a fusion algorithm is used to combine the ranked lists into the final annotation list. The application of both efficient search technologies and Web-scale image set guarantees the scalability of the proposed algorithm. Experimental results on U. Washington dataset show not only the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm but also the advantage of image retrieval using annotation results over that using visual features.
Langmuir probes in RF plasma: surprising validity of OML theory

Low-temperature, partially ionized plasmas are commonly used in industry for materials processing, and many of these are created by radiofrequency (RF) power. For the characterization of plasma sources, electrostatic probes are the easiest to use, but interpretation of the current–voltage (I–V) curves is not straightforward. The presence of strong RF pickup and neutral collisions further complicates the problem. Langmuir's orbital-motion-limited (OML) theory provides a simple formula for ion current, but this is not expected to be valid in high-density plasmas. With carefully designed probes, it is found experimentally that OML can be used successfully under adverse conditions. Careful examination of the OML theory shows that its validity is fortuitous but can give correct results in commonly encountered conditions. The probe design, results, caveats, and methodology are given for use of probes in RF plasmas.
High Blood Pressure, Bone-Mineral Loss and Insulin Resistance in Women

Increasing evidence indicates that high blood pressure is associated with abnormalities in calcium metabolism. Sustained calcium loss may lead to increased bone-mineral loss in subjects with elevated blood pressure. Furthermore, recent findings indicate a possible linkage between abnormal calcium metabolism and insulin resistance. In the present study, we investigated the relationship(s) among bone-mineral density (BMD), blood pressure, calcium-related and bone metabolic parameters (plasma intact parathyroid hormone (I-PTH), 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D], osteocalcin, and urinary deoxypyridinoline), and insulin resistance, as assessed by a conventional homeostasis model (HOMA-R). We compared non-diabetic women with essential hypertension (WHT, n=34) with age-, body mass index- and menopause (yes or no)-matched normotensive, non-diabetic women (WNT, n=34). The BMD for WHT was significantly lower than that for WNT (0.596±0.019 vs. 0.666 ±0.024 g/cm2, p<0.05). The BMD was correlated inversely with systolic blood pressure in all subjects examined (r=-0.385, p<0.05). The 24-h urinary calcium/sodium excretion ratio (Ux-Ca/Na) was significantly greater in WHT compared with WNT (p<0.01). In addition, a negative relationship was apparent between Ux-Ca/Na and BMD (r=-0.58, p<0.05). The plasma levels of PTH and 1,25(OH)2D, and HOMA-R were significantly higher in WHT compared with WNT (p<0.01, p<0.05, and p<0.05, respectively), whereas the serum ionized calcium was lower in WHT compared with WNT (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in serum total calcium, inorganic phosphorus, osteocalcin, or urinary deoxypyridinoline between the two groups. These results indicate that high blood pressure is associated with abnormalities in calcium metabolism and insulin resistance in WHT.
“Kurdistan” Technique for the Treatment of Unprotected Trifurcation Left Main Stem Coronary Artery Lesion: Case Report

The left main coronary artery (LMCA) is responsible for supplying about 75% to 100% of the left ventricular cardiac mass. Left main stem coronary artery (LMCA) disease reduces flow to a large portion of the myocardium, placing the patient at high risk for life-threatening events such as left ventricular dysfunction and arrhythmias with a high mortality approaching 50% in those treated medically. For several decades, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been considered as a gold standard treatment of unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA). However, successful percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) have been increasingly reported recently due to improved stent technology and better operator expertise. In spite of these factors, management can be challenging especially in LMCA bifurcational & trifurcational lesions, and therefore an integrated approach combining special techniques, physiological evaluation and adjunctive pharmacological agents should be combined for better clinical outcome. Herein, we describe a new promising technique named (Kurdistan technique) for the treatment of trifurcation unprotected left main stem lesion. In the last 18 months, 21 patients with significant trifurcational LMS had underwent PCI using this technique in our hospital (Sulaimany Heart Hospital/Kurdistan). The procedural success rate was 100%, follow up coronary angiography done between 6 - 12 months after the procedure for all the patients with no significant in-stent restenosis in any patient. One case is presented here demonstrating the technique.
A patient-centered clinical evaluation of acellular dermal matrix graft in the treatment of gingival recession defects.

BACKGROUND The present randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate acellular dermal matrix (ADM) graft in terms of patient satisfaction and its effectiveness and efficiency in the treatment of gingival recession. METHODS Fourteen patients (seven males and seven females) with Miller Class I and II recessions > or =3 mm participated in this 6-month clinical study. They were assigned randomly to the ADM group (ADM graft and coronally positioned flap [CPF]) or the CPF group (CPF alone). Results were evaluated based on parameters measuring patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes associated with the two treatment procedures. Significance was set at P <0.05. RESULTS The mean recession was 4.0 +/- 1.0 mm and 3.7 +/- 0.7 mm for the ADM and CPF groups, respectively. For the ADM group, the defect coverage was 3.85 +/- 0.89 mm or 97.14% compared to the CPF group, in which the defect coverage was 2.85 +/- 0.89 mm or 77.42%. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P <0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the remaining clinical parameters and overall patient satisfaction except in criteria related to patient comfort and cost effectiveness, in which CPF alone produced significantly better results (P <0.03). CONCLUSIONS ADM graft is significantly superior with regard to effectiveness and efficiency in the treatment of gingival recession than CPF alone. CPF emerges as a better option than ADM graft in terms of cost effectiveness and patient comfort.
A Topic-Based Coherence Model for Statistical Machine Translation

Coherence that ties sentences of a text into a meaningfully connected structure is of great importance to text generation and translation. In this paper, we propose a topic-based coherence model to produce coherence for document translation, in terms of the continuity of sentence topics in a text. We automatically extract a coherence chain for each source text to be translated. Based on the extracted source coherence chain, we adopt a maximum entropy classifier to predict the target coherence chain that defines a linear topic structure for the target document. The proposed topic-based coherence model then uses the predicted target coherence chain to help decoder select coherent word/phrase translations. Our experiments show that incorporating the topic-based coherence model into machine translation achieves substantial improvement over both the baseline and previous methods that integrate document topics rather than coherence chains into machine translation.
An Inspection-Time Analysis of Figural Effects and Processing Direction in Syllogistic Reasoning

Two experiments are reported that tested core assumptions of the mental models theory of syllogistic inference (e.g., Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991) by examining inspection times for syllogistic components. Results supported mental models predictions of: (1) increased cognitive load across syllogistic figures, with differences in processing demand arising for BA-CB versus AB-BC problems for both conclusionevaluation and conclusion-production tasks; and (2) conclusion-order preferences across figures – again in both the evaluation and the production paradigms. These findings challenge views of figural biases as being confined to conclusion-production tasks (Geurts, 2003; Rips, 1994) and theories that reject the assumption of figure-induced cognitive load (Chater & Oaksford, 1999). Since figural effects are typically viewed as being indicative of premise-driven processing, these results are also inconsistent with proposals that premise-driven processing prevails in conclusionproduction, and conclusion-driven processing dominates in conclusion-evaluation (Morley, Evans, & Handley, 2004). The results also clarify the role of processing demands associated with conclusion validity: Valid conclusions were scrutinised less than invalid ones in the evaluation paradigm (as predicted by Hardman & Payne, 1995), supporting the notion that invalid syllogisms have at least two mental models. Although our specific results are not entirely consistent with recent models-based proposals, our basic findings remain broadly compatible with a models approach rather than alternative theoretical positions.
The time dependent defect spectroscopy (TDDS) for the characterization of the bias temperature instability

We introduce a new method to analyze the statistical properties of the defects responsible for the ubiquitous recovery behavior following negative bias temperature stress, which we term time dependent defect spectroscopy (TDDS). The TDDS relies on small-area metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) where recovery proceeds in discrete steps. Contrary to techniques for the analysis of random telegraph noise (RTN), which only allow to monitor the defect behavior in a rather narrow window, the TDDS can be used to study the capture and emission times of the defects over an extremely wide range. We demonstrate that the recoverable component of NBTI is due to thermally activated hole capture and emission in individual defects with a very wide distribution of time constants, consistent with nonradiative multiphonon theory previously applied to the analysis of RTN. The defects responsible for this process show a number of peculiar features similar to anomalous RTN previously observed in nMOS transistors. A quantitative model is suggested which can explain the bias as well as the temperature dependence of the characteristic time constants. Furthermore, it is shown how the new model naturally explains the various abnormalities observed.
National surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in 2005–2006 and recommendations of first-line antimicrobial drugs for gonorrhoea treatment in Russia

Objectives: To investigate comprehensively the antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae during 2005–2006 in a national survey and to recommend effective antimicrobial drugs for the treatment of gonorrhoea in Russia. Methods: The susceptibility of N gonorrhoeae isolates, cultured mainly from consecutive gonorrhoea patients (n = 1030) during the period January 2005 to December 2006 in Russia, to penicillin G, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and spectinomycin was analysed using the agar dilution method. Nitrocefin discs were used for β-lactamase detection. Results: All isolates were susceptible to ceftriaxone. During 2005 and 2006, however, 5%, 50%, 70% and 77% displayed intermediate susceptibility or resistance to spectinomycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and penicillin G, respectively. Furthermore, 4% of the isolates were β-lactamase producing during these years. The different federal districts of Russia displayed substantial heterogeneities with regard to the prevalence of gonorrhoea and antimicrobial resistance among N gonorrhoeae isolates. Conclusions: In Russia, penicillins, ciprofloxacin, or tetracycline should definitively not be used in the empirical treatment of gonorrhoea. The recommended first-line antimicrobial drug should be ceftriaxone. If ceftriaxone is not available, spectinomycin ought to be used. Increasing levels of intermediate susceptibility and resistance to spectinomycin have, however, been observed during recent years and, accordingly, great care and monitoring should be undertaken when using this agent. Continuous local, national and international surveillance of N gonorrhoeae antimicrobial susceptibility, in order to reveal the emergence of new resistance, to monitor changing patterns of susceptibility and to be able to update treatment recommendations on a regular basis, is crucial.
Parameter estimation for a discrete-response model with double rules of sample selection: A Bayesian approach

We present a Bayesian sampling approach to parameter estimation in a discrete-response model with double rules of selectivity, where the dependent variables contain two layers of binary choices and one ordered response. Our investigation is motivated by an empirical study using such a double-selection rule for three labor-market outcomes, namely labor force participation, employment and occupational skill level. Full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation often encounters convergence problems in numerical optimization. The contribution of our investigation is to present a sampling algorithm through a new reparameterization strategy. We conduct Monte Carlo simulation studies and find that the numerical optimization of FIML fails for more than half of the simulated samples. Our Bayesian method performs as well as FIML for the simulated samples where FIML works. Moreover, for the simulated samples where FIML fails, Bayesian works as well as it does for the simulated samples where FIML works. We apply the proposed sampling algorithm to the double-selection model of labor-force participation, employment and occupational skill level. We derive the 95% Bayesian credible intervals for marginal effects of the explanatory variable on the three labor-force outcomes. In particular, the marginal effects of mental health factors on these three outcomes are discussed.
Evidence for evolving spheroidals in the Hubble Deep Fields North and South

We investigate the dispersion in the internal colours of faint spheroidals in the Hubble Deep Fields North and South. In high-redshift rapid-collapse scenarios, the dispersion in internal colours should be small at moderate redshift apart from a small metallicity induced reddening in the enriched cores. However, recently assembled spheroidals are likely to show non-homologous internal colours, at least until younger stellar populations become fully mixed. Here we find that a remarkably large fraction (≳30 per cent) of the morphologically classified spheroidals with I814W<24 mag show strong variations in internal colour, which we take as evidence for recent episodes of star formation. In most cases these colour variations manifest themselves via the presence of blue cores, an effect of opposite sign to that expected from metallicity gradients. Examining similarly selected ellipticals in five rich clusters with 0.37<z<0.83 we find a significant lower dispersion in their internal colours. This suggests that the colour inhomogeneities have a strong environmental dependence being weakest in dense environments where spheroidal formation was presumably accelerated at early times. We use the trends defined by the cluster sample to define an empirical model based on a high redshift of formation and estimate that at z∼1 about half the field spheroidals must be undergoing recent episodes of star formation. Using spectral synthesis models, we construct the time dependence of the density of star formation (ρSFR). Although the samples are currently small, we find evidence for an increase in ρSFR between z=0 and 1. We discuss the implications of this rise in the context of that observed in the similar rise in the abundance of galaxies with irregular morphology. Regardless of whether there is a connection our results provide strong evidence for the continued formation of field spheroidals over 0<z<1.
Significance of Left Ventricular Outflow Tract Cross‐sectional Area in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Two‐dimensional Echocardiographic Assessment

The morphologic determinants of subaortic obstruction in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are not completely understood. To define the relation between left ventricular outflow tract orifice size and presence or absence of subaortic obstruction, we studied 65 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 16 normal controls by quantitative two-dimensional echocardiography. Left ventricular outflow tract area was measured at the onset of systole in the short-axis view in the stop-frame mode.Left ventricular outflow tract area was significantly smaller in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and subaortic obstruction (2.6 ± 0.7 cm2) than in patients without obstruction (5.9 ± 1.6 cm2, p < 0.001). Twenty of 21 patients with obstruction had a left ventricular outflow tract area smaller than 4.0 cm2, whereas 28 of 30 patients without obstruction had a left ventricular outflow tract area of 4.0 cm2 or greater. The outflow tract area in patients with provocable obstruction (4.6 ± 1.6 cm2) was intermediate between the areas of patients with and without obstruction. Left ventricular outflow tract area was significantly smaller in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (4.6 ± 2.0 cm2) than in normal subjects (10.4 ± 1.2 cm2, p < 0.001). We conclude that the cross-sectional outflow tract area is closely related to the presence or absence of subaortic obstruction in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hence, the size of the outflow tract at the level of the mitral valve appears to be of major pathophysiologic significance in producing obstruction in these patients.
Strategy and suppression impairments after right lateral prefrontal and orbito-frontal lesions

Sir, We read with interest the scientific commentary by Hornberger and Bertoux (2015) on our study on the specificity of prefrontal cortex subregions for strategy use, verbal initiation and suppression (Robinson et al. , 2015). We administered Section 1 and 2 of the Hayling sentence completion task (Burgess and Shallice, 1997) to a large group of frontal and posterior patients. Section 1, assessing verbal initiation, requires the subject to complete sentences with an appropriate word (e.g. ‘ The captain stayed with the sinking …’ could be completed by saying ‘ ship ’). Section 2, assessing inhibition/suppression, requires the completion of sentences with an unconnected word (e.g. ‘ London is a very busy …’, could be completed by saying…‘ banana ’). This section also assesses the ability to adopt appropriate strategies. Healthy subjects are known to use heuristics in order to generate words unrelated to the sentence frame. Frontal patients may produce suppression errors (e.g. ‘ London is a very busy …’ may be completed with ‘… city ’). We found that right lateral (RL) patients were impaired on three critical variables, whereas patients with left lateral (LL) or superior medial lesions were not. Right lateral patients produced a significantly greater number of Suppression Errors, fewer Number of Correct Answers in Section 2 and had a larger Response Time difference (RTs Section 2 − RTs Section 1), a measure taken to indicate the additional ‘thinking time’ required to generate unconnected rather than appropriate words. We suggested that the right lateral region has a key role in generating or implementing an effective strategy. Other studies have previously documented that lesions in right rostral prefrontal cortex or right inferior frontal gyrus are linked to suppression impairments (Roca et al. , 2010). However, our study was the first to link these deficits to impairment …