Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of multi-source remote sensing data for land cover change detection

The objective of this study is to develop a methodology to integrate multi-source remote sensing data into a homogeneous time series of land cover maps in order to carry out change detection. We developed a method to increase the comparability between land cover maps coming from panchromatic aerial photographs and SPOT XS (multi-spectral) data by equalizing their levels of thematic content and spatial details. The methodology was based on the hypotheses that: (1) map generalization can improve the integration of data for change detection purpose, and (2) the spatial structure of a land cover map, as measured by a set of landscape metrics, is an indicator of the level of generalization of that map. Firstly, the methodology for data integration was developed by using land cover maps generated from near-synchronous data. Results revealed that, by controlling successively the parameters that influence the level of map generalization, the percentage of agreement between the near-synchronous land cover maps can be increased from 42% to 93%. The computation of five landscape metrics for a set of generalized land cover maps and for the target map allowed us to optimize the level of generalization by measuring the similarity in landscape pattern of the maps. The optimum level of generalization of the land cover map obtained from the aerial photographs for comparison with a land cover map derived from SPOT XS data was found at a resolution of 41m for two generalization levels of the thematic content. The spatial structure of a land cover map, as measured by a set of landscape metrics, is thus a good indicator of the level of generalization of this map. Secondly, the method was applied by integrating a land cover map obtained from aerial photographs of 1954 with a land cover map obtained from a SPOT XS image of 1992.
Mechanisms of the growth inhibitory effects of the isoflavonoid biochanin A on LNCaP cells and xenografts *

Isoflavones inhibit the growth of some types of tumor cells, including prostate adenocarcinoma. This study used LNCaP cells and xenografts to investigate the mechanisms of the antiproliferative effects of biochanin A, a major isoflavone present in red clover but not soy‐derived products.
What role does natural selection play in speciation?

If distinct biological species are to coexist in sympatry, they must be reproductively isolated and must exploit different limiting resources. A two-niche Levene model is analysed, in which habitat preference and survival depend on underlying additive traits. The population genetics of preference and viability are equivalent. However, there is a linear trade-off between the chances of settling in either niche, whereas viabilities may be constrained arbitrarily. With a convex trade-off, a sexual population evolves a single generalist genotype, whereas with a concave trade-off, disruptive selection favours maximal variance. A pure habitat preference evolves to global linkage equilibrium if mating occurs in a single pool, but remarkably, evolves to pairwise linkage equilibrium within niches if mating is within those niches—independent of the genetics. With a concave trade-off, the population shifts sharply between a unimodal distribution with high gene flow and a bimodal distribution with strong isolation, as the underlying genetic variance increases. However, these alternative states are only simultaneously stable for a narrow parameter range. A sharp threshold is only seen if survival in the ‘wrong’ niche is low; otherwise, strong isolation is impossible. Gene flow from divergent demes makes speciation much easier in parapatry than in sympatry.
Simplified Measuring Method of Copper Concentration in Solder Bath Utilizing Copper Dissolution

In lead-free soldering on printed circuit boards (PCBs), the dissolution and disappearance of PCB copper electrodes in solder bath has been a problem for the dip soldering method, such as wave soldering, in which PCBs are dipped in molten solder. In the former report, it has been estimated the influence of solder composition, temperature, and flowing velocity on the dissolution of copper electrodes by the experiment of the dip soldering process and clarified the dissolution rate for Sn-3.0Ag-xCu alloys, which is defined by solder temperature and copper concentration. Based on above study, the simplified measuring method of copper concentration in the solder bath has been developed, which uses the dissolution of wedge-shaped copper pattern formed on FR-4 PCB. As a result of the experiment on dipping the PCB in solder of Sn-3.0Ag-xCu (x = 0.5, 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5) alloys, it has been confirmed that the method enables the measuring copper concentration in the solder bath easily.
Estimation of Signal-Dependent Noise Level Function in Transform Domain via a Sparse Recovery Model

This paper proposes a novel algorithm to estimate the noise level function (NLF) of signal-dependent noise (SDN) from a single image based on the sparse representation of NLFs. Noise level samples are estimated from the high-frequency discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of nonlocal-grouped low-variation image patches. Then, an NLF recovery model based on the sparse representation of NLFs under a trained basis is constructed to recover NLF from the incomplete noise level samples. Confidence levels of the NLF samples are incorporated into the proposed model to promote reliable samples and weaken unreliable ones. We investigate the behavior of the estimation performance with respect to the block size, sampling rate, and confidence weighting. Simulation results on synthetic noisy images show that our method outperforms existing state-of-the-art schemes. The proposed method is evaluated on real noisy images captured by three types of commodity imaging devices, and shows consistently excellent SDN estimation performance. The estimated NLFs are incorporated into two well-known denoising schemes, nonlocal means and BM3D, and show significant improvements in denoising SDN-polluted images.
Blockchains and Smart Contracts for the Internet of Things

ABSTRACT: Motivated by the recent explosion of interest around Blockchains, we examine whether they make a good t for the Internet of Things (IoT) sector. Blockchains allow us to have a distributed peer-to-peer network where non-trusting members can interact with each other without a trusted intermediary, in a variable manner. We review how this mechanism works and also look into smart contracts scripts that reside on the Blockchain that allow for the automation of multi-step processes. We then move into the IoT domain, and describe how a Blockchain-IoT combination: 1) facilitates the sharing of services and resources leading to the creation of a marketplace of services between devices and 2) allows us to automate in a cryptographically variable manner several existing, time- consuming work owns. We also point out certain issues that should be considered before the deployment of a Blockchain network in an IoT setting: from transactional privacy to the expected value of the digitized assets traded on the network. Wherever applicable, we identify solutions and workarounds. Our conclusion is that the Blockchain-IoT combination is powerful and can cause sign cant transformations across several industries, paving the way for new business models and novel, distributed applications.
Escherichia coli K-12 clones that overproduce dam methylase are hypermutable

A strain of Escherichia coli K-12 that overproduces dam methylase 50-fold was found to be hypermutable, and mutations which resulted in loss of excess methylase activity restored mutation frequencies to wild-type levels. These results are consistent with involvement of this deoxyribonucleic acid methylase in mismatch correction.
Enhancing Beamformed Fingerprint Outdoor Positioning with Hierarchical Convolutional Neural Networks

With 5G millimeter wave communications, the resulting radiation reflects on most visible objects, creating rich multipath environments. The radiation is thus significantly shaped by the obstacles it interacts with, carrying latent information regarding the relative positions of the transmitter, the obstacles, and the mobile receiver. Through a pre-estabilhed codebook of beamforming patterns transmitted by a base station, the concept of beamformed fingerprints for mobile devices’ outdoor positioning has been previously proposed. In this paper, a tailored hierarchical convolutional neural network is proposed to further leverage the structure in the aforementioned hidden information. Average errors of down to 3.3 meters are obtained on a simulation environment based on realistic outdoor scenarios, containing mostly non-line-of-sight positions, making it a very competitive and promising alternative for outdoor positioning.
Efficacy and safety of micafungin, an echinocandin antifungal agent, on invasive fungal infections in patients with hematological disorders

The study was conducted as a prospective multicenter trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of micafungin in patients with invasive fungal infections (IFIs) in hematological disorders. A total of 277 patients was registered, and 197 were assessed for clinical efficacy. The mean dosage and duration of micafungin were 170.7 mg/day and 22.0 days, respectively. The efficacy rates were 87.5% (7/8) for patients with candidiasis, 44.7% (17/38) for probable IFIs, 61.9% (39/63) for possible IFIs and 80.7% (71/88) for those who failed to respond to antibacterials. In patients with febrile neutropenia (below 500/µL), despite broad-spectrum antibacterial treatment over 2 days, 86.3% (44/51) of patients had a favourable response to micafungin. The incidence of adverse events related to micafungin was 14.1% (39/277), but most of them were mild and reversible. These data indicate the usefulness of micafungin as a novel therapeutic drug for both empirical and targeted therapy for IFIs.
Necessity of Future Information in Admission Control

We study the necessity of predictive information in a class of queueing admission control problems, where a system manager is allowed to divert incoming jobs up to a fixed rate, in order to minimize the queueing delay experienced by the admitted jobs. Spencer et al. (2014) show that the system's delay performance can be significantly improved by having access to future information in the form of a lookahead window, during which the times of future arrivals and services are revealed. They prove that, while delay under an optimal online policy diverges to infinity in the heavy-traffic regime, it can stay bounded by making use of future information. However, the diversion polices of Spencer et al. (2014) require the length of the lookahead window to grow to infinity at a non-trivial rate in the heavy-traffic regime, and it remained open whether substantial performance improvement could still be achieved with less future information. We resolve this question to a large extent by establishing an asymptotically tight lower bound on how much future information is necessary to achieve superior performance, which matches the upper bound of Spencer et al. (2014) up to a constant multiplicative factor. Our result hence demonstrates that the system's heavy-traffic delay performance is highly sensitive to the amount of future information available. Our proof is based on analyzing certain excursion probabilities of the input sample paths, and exploiting a connection between a policy's diversion decisions and subsequent server idling, which may be of independent interest for related dynamic resource allocation problems.
Urinary Podocytes for the Assessment of Disease Activity in Lupus Nephritis

BackgroundDetection of podocytes in the urine indicates that severe injury of podocytes occurred in the glomerulus in children. MethodsThe pathological significance of podocytes in the urine was determined in patients with lupus nephritis. Podocytes were detected by immunofluorescence using a monoclonal antibody against podocalyxin present on the surface of podocytes. Subjects who participated in the present study were of the following types: patients with systemic lupus erythematosus with stable renal function (group A, n = 8; WHO classes IIIa, b, IVb, and IVc at the time of biopsy); patients with clinically active lupus nephritis (group B, n = 8; WHO classes IVb and IVc); and healthy control subjects (group C, n = 10). ResultsPodocytes were absent in the urine of subjects in groups A and C. However, podocytes were present in the urine of group B subjects. Patients in group B were examined monthly for urinary podocytes and were treated with methylprednisolone followed by prednisolone. Urinary podocytes were absent in all patients in group B after treatment. ConclusionsThese data indicate that urinary podocytes may be markers of the severity of lupus nephritis and that steroid therapy may be effective for podocyte injury in lupus nephritis.
Ecofriendly Heavy Metal Stabilization: Microbial Induced Mineral Precipitation (MIMP) and Biomineralization for Heavy Metals within the Contaminated Soil by Indigenous Bacteria

Abstract Heavy metals (HMs) pollution is a serious problem, worldwide. The present study focuses on HMs removal (HMs mobility restricted within soil) by microbial induced mineral precipitation (MIMP) using indigenous isolates. Indigenous isolates were identified as Bacillus subtilis C(225)(MK334652), Oceanobacillus indicireducens 5(225)(MK334653), and Bacillus pumilus 7(225)(MK334654) by 16S-rRNA from HMs polluted industrial-soil (soil-225) that is used for bioremediation. The studied soil contained high level (mg/kg) of Cr(307.41 ± 1.02), Cu(576.35 ± 1.02), and Zn(708.81 ± 1.50) as per Taiwan permissible limit (TPL) and/or Canadian Soil Quality Guidelines (CSQG). Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Bacillus species were higher compare to Oceanobacillus. Bioavailable-fraction (F1) of HMs (Cr/Cu/Zn) in untreated 225-soil was noticed to be higher compared to F2–F5 fraction. Bacillus subtilis C(225) are more efficient for HMs-mineralization, compared to other isolates where Cr/Cu/Zn immobilized within soil, transforming from bioavailable-fraction (F1) (high-mobility) (60–90% reduction) to residual-fraction F5 (low-mobility) (50–80% increment). Organic-bound-fraction (F4) (medium-mobility) of Cr increased (42.66 ± 2.1%), compared to Cu/Zn, by Bacillus subtilis C(225). Urease (40.8%) and dehydrogenase (8.3%) activity increased in bio-remediated soil, compared to control. MIMP of HMs by ingenious bacteria reflects the transformation-pathway from F1 to F5 of HMs to fix strongly within soils with inadequate mobility. Thus, MIMP by indigenous microbe can be applicable for HMs stabilization/removal in contaminated soil for ecofriendly environmental cleanup.
Repeated courses of rituximab in chronic ITP: Three different regimens

This study investigated responses to retreatment with rituximab in chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) patients. Treatment with rituximab in chronic ITP patients induces long‐lasting responses in ∼30% of patients but even these patients may relapse. Twenty patients who had achieved a response to rituximab and relapsed were retreated with rituximab (375 mg/m2× 4); this data was analyzed retrospectively. Subsequently, 16 patients were prospectively randomized to receive rituximab with cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone (R‐CVP) or double dose rituximab (DDR). Retreatment with standard dose rituximab demonstrated responses similar to initial rituximab treatment in 15 of 20 patients. Neither of the two more intensive regimens (R‐CVP, DDR) induced responses in any patient who had previously failed to respond to rituximab nor induced substantially longer‐lasting responses among previous responders. No additional toxicity was noted with the DDR regimen, whereas R‐CVP was not well tolerated. These results suggest that retreatment with standard dose rituximab induces similar responses in 75% of previously responding patients and is well tolerated. Neither combining rituximab with CVP nor doubling the dose of rituximab increased the response rate. Am. J. Hematol. , 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Sardinella fijiensis (Clupeiformes: clupeidae) and phylogenetic studies of clupeidae

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of Sardinella fijiensis was determined in this study, which was 16,651bp long, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, a putative control region and one origin of replication on the light-strand. The overall base composition includes C (29.4%), A (26.4%), T (24.7%), and G (19.5%). Moreover, the 13 PCGs encode 3799 amino acids in total, 12 of which use the initiation codon ATG except COI uses GTG, most of them have complete stop codon, whereas three protein-coding genes (COII, ND4, and Cytb) ended with the incomplete stop codon represented as a single T. The phylogenetic tree based on the Neighbor Joining method was constructed to provide relationship within Clupeidae, which could be a useful basis for the further understanding of this species.
Structural Neuroimaging Studies in Late-Life Depression: A Review

Which patients presenting with depression in late life will progress to a dementia syndrome has been an important research question in recent times. In this paper we review selectively structural neuroimaging investigations of late-life depression (LLD) that have been performed over the past two decades. These studies indicate that there are neuroimaging changes commonly observed in LLD patients when compared to normal controls. Findings include ventricular enlargement and sulcal widening, and reduction in volume size of frontal lobes, hippocampus and caudate nucleus. White matter lesions are more common in depressed subjects and tend to be more severe. Some studies report these changes to be more pronounced in patients who present with late-onset depression (LOD) but this has been contradicted by other studies. Preliminary work suggests that these changes may be associated with a poor prognosis but there is a dearth of systematic, well-controlled longitudinal studies.
Measures of hippocampal volumes, diffusion and 1H MRS metabolic abnormalities in temporal lobe epilepsy provide partially complementary information

We assessed whether interictal measures of hippocampal volume, hippocampal diffusion and metabolic abnormalities yield correlated or complementary information about hippocampal pathology in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Volumes, apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) and ratios of N‐acetyl‐aspartate (NAA) to Creatine/Phosphocreatine (Cr) and Choline (Cho) were measured from each hippocampus during one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) session in patients with TLE. Structural MRI showed unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) in 13 patients and was normal in the remaining nine patients. Pearson's correlation (two‐tailed) between ADC values and NAA/(Cr + Cho) ratios was significant (P = 0.04, r = −0.45) for the hippocampus ipsilateral to the epileptogenic zone as determined on the basis of interictal and ictal scalp EEG recordings. This finding was driven by a very high correlation between the two measures in the presence of HS (P < 0.001, r = −0.96). Furthermore, ipsilateral ADC values but not NAA/(Cr + Cho) ratios were correlated with disease duration (P = 0.001, r = 0.67). Hippocampal volumes did not correlate with either ADC values, NAA/(Cr + Cho) ratios or disease duration. These data suggest that hippocampal volumes, NAA/(Cr + Cho) ratios and ADC values capture partially complementary aspects of hippocampal pathology.
Cerebral hyporesponsiveness and cognitive impairment 10 years after chemotherapy for breast cancer

Chemotherapy is associated with cognitive impairment in a subgroup of breast cancer survivors, but the neural circuitry underlying this side effect is largely unknown. Moreover, long‐term impairment has not been studied well. In the present study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neuropsychological testing were performed in breast cancer survivors almost 10 years after high‐dose adjuvant chemotherapy (chemo group, n = 19) and in breast cancer survivors for whom chemotherapy had not been indicated (control group, n = 15). BOLD activation and performance were measured during an executive function task involving planning abilities (Tower of London) and a paired associates task for assessment of episodic memory. For the chemo group versus the control group, we found hyporesponsiveness of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the Tower of London, and of parahippocampal gyrus in the paired associates task. Also, the chemo group showed significantly impaired planning performance and borderline significantly impaired recognition memory as compared to findings in the control group. Whole‐brain analyses demonstrated hyporesponsiveness of the chemo versus the control group in very similar regions of bilateral posterior parietal cortex during both the Tower of London and the paired associates task. Neuropsychological testing showed a relatively stable pattern of cognitive impairment in the chemo group over time. These results indicate that high‐dose adjuvant chemotherapy is associated with long‐term cognitive impairments. These impairments are underpinned by (a) task‐specific hyporesponsiveness of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, and (b) a generalized hyporesponsiveness of lateral posterior parietal cortex encompassing attentional processing. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Curvilinear pattern of pulmonary tuberculosis among migrant workers entering Kuwait : 1997-2006

Background: There is paucity of published data on the pattern of tuberculosis among immigrants entering Middle Eastern countries. The objectives of this study were to use routine health surveillance data to i) to estimate the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis to migrant workers to Kuwait and ii) to determine the occurrence of any time trends in the proportions of pulmonary tuberculosis positive workers over the study period. Methods: Monthly aggregates of number tested and pulmonary tuberculosis positive diagnosis results obtained from routine health examinations of migrants from tuberculosis high-prevalence countries conducted between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2006, were analysed using time series methods. Results: Overall prevalence (per 100,000) of pulmonary tuberculosis positive migrants was 198 (4608/2328582). Year-specific tuberculosis positive (per 100,000) cases consistently declined from 456 (95% CI: 424 490) in 1997 to 124 (95% CI: 110 140) in 2002 before showing a steady increase till 2006. The second-order polynomial regression model revealed significant (P < 0.001) initial decline followed by a significant (P < 0.001) increasing trend thereafter in monthly proportions of tuberculosis positive migrants. Conclusion: The significant increasing trend in tuberculosis cases towards the end of the study period, underscore the need to maintain the current policy of screening of migrants from tuberculosis endemic countries using improved diagnostic protocol combined with treatment, to ensure that the risk of local M. tuberculosis transmission is minimized.