Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying Translation-Invariance in Convolutional Neural Networks

A fundamental problem in object recognition is the development of image representations that are invariant to common transformations such as translation, rotation, and small deformations. There are multiple hypotheses regarding the source of translation invariance in CNNs. One idea is that translation invariance is due to the increasing receptive field size of neurons in successive convolution layers. Another possibility is that invariance is due to the pooling operation. We develop a simple a tool, the translation-sensitivity map, which we use to visualize and quantify the translation-invariance of various architectures. We obtain the surprising result that architectural choices such as the number of pooling layers and the convolution filter size have only a secondary effect on the translation-invariance of a network. Our analysis identifies training data augmentation as the most important factor in obtaining translation-invariant representations of images using convolutional neural networks.
A comparative study of efficacy of propofol auto-co-induction versus midazolam propofol co-induction using the priming principle

Application of priming principle is well documented in relation to the use of muscle relaxants. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of priming technique in relation to induction agents. Clinical efficacy in terms of dose reduction and alteration in peri-intubation haemodynamics was compared in propofol auto-co-induction and midazolam propofol co-induction groups along with a control group. The study was carried out in 90 patients scheduled for upper abdominal surgery, who were randomly divided into three equal groups. Group I received 0.5 mg/kg propofol IV (20% of the pre-calculated induction dose), group II received 0.05 mg/kg IV midazolam and group III received 3 ml of normal saline. This was followed by IV induction with propofol 2 minutes later in all the three groups at a predetermined rate till the bispectral index value of 45 was attained. The results showed a significant decrease in induction dose requirement in both the groups but haemodynamic stability during induction and intubation was more in propofol auto-co-induction group.
Pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori Infection

Helicobacter pylori infections are thought to eventually lead to symptoms as a result of the long‐lasting interactions between the bacterium and its host. Mechanisms that allow this bacterium to cause a life‐long infection involve modulation of both the immune response and host cellular processes. Last year many novel findings that improve our knowledge on how H. pylori virulence factors interact with the host were reported, but because of space limitations we can only discuss a limited number of these studies. Among those are studies on the genetic variation of genes encoding outer membrane proteins and the mimicry of host antigens, factors that alter host‐cell metabolism and factors that modulate the host’s immune response.
Real-Time Linux

Linux has the reputation that it's not suitable for real-time applications. It is certainly true that it was initially designed as a general-purpose multi-tasking operating system for use on a workstation and in computer centers for server applications. However, work is underway to make it more suitable for a variety of embedded applications, some with real-time requirements. Specifically, patches are available to reduce interrupt latency, to make the kernel preemptible, and to improve the overhead of the scheduler on real-time tasks. The resulting performance of Linux with each of these patches will be presented. Interrupt latencies of less than 30 microseconds and context switches of less than 300 microseconds will be shown.
A KNOWLEDGE-BASED THEORY OF THE FIRM TO GUIDE IN STRATEGY FORMULATION

This article is seeking to explore the practical implications of an epistemological approach to strategy formulation. In doing so it tries to expand the field of knowledge management and intellectual capital beyond its operational and often inwardly technological focus to a new theory of the firm. A resource‐based perspective is suggested, using autopoietic epistemology to guide strategy formulation. People use their capacity‐to‐act in order to create value in mainly two directions; by transferring and converting knowledge externally and internally to the organisation. The value grows each time a knowledge transfer or conversion takes place. The strategy formulation issues are concerned with how to utilise the leverage and how to avoid the blockages that prevent sharing and conversion. Activities that form the backbone of a knowledge‐based strategy are to be aimed at improving the capacity‐to‐act both inside and outside the organisation.
Gastroschisis and young mothers: What makes them different from other mothers of the same age?

BACKGROUND Although young maternal age has been identified as a risk factor for gastroschisis, its role remains undisclosed. To our knowledge, the differences between young mothers of infants with gastroschisis and young mothers of infants with other pregnancy outcomes have not been established. The aim of this work was to compare characteristics of young mothers whose newborn had gastroschisis with same aged mothers of malformed and nonmalformed control infants, diagnosed within the ECLAMC maternity hospital network. METHODS Data base records of live and stillborn infants of one of three groups (with isolated gastroschisis, with 1 of 5 other isolated birth defects, and nonmalformed), and whose mothers were younger than 20 years, were selected. Secular trends were obtained for all birth defects; frequencies and odds ratios (OR) of demographic and reproductive variables were compared among the 3 groups. Significantly associated variables were adjusted with a multivariate regression. RESULTS The association was higher with gastroschisis 1) than with other birth defects for African ancestry, smoking, adequate prenatal control and diagnosis 2) than with nonmalformed controls for maternal illnesses and alcohol 3) and than both for previous pregnancy loss and medication, mainly sex hormones. After adjustment, only previous pregnancy loss maintained its significance when compared with malformed (OR = 2.34; 1.37-3.97; P = 0.002), as well as with nonmalformed (OR = 3.43; 2.07-5.66; P < 0.001) controls. CONCLUSION A previous pregnancy loss was identified as the main risk factor for gastroschisis, while an increased use of sex hormones, perhaps related to the previous loss, could trigger a disruptive mechanism, due to their thrombophilic effect.
Characterization of the screwworm flies Cochliomyia hominivorax and Cochliomyia macellaria by PCR‐RFLP of mitochondrial DNA

The primary screwworm fly Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is one of the most important insect pests of livestock in neotropical regions, whereas Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), the secondary screwworm, is of medical and sanitary importance because of its role in the dissemination of pathogens. These two species share morphological similarities and both may occur in the same myiasis, but in different developmental stages. In this work, the usefulness of PCR‐RFLP (polymerase chain reaction – restriction fragment length polymorphism) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) for the unambiguous identification of C. hominivorax and C. macellaria was investigated. Two specific regions of mtDNA were amplified: 870 bp from Cytochrome oxidase subunit I and 2100 bp from the A + T rich/12S region from C. hominivorax and C. macellaria specimens from different areas of Brazil. Reliable species‐specific PCR‐RFLP results were obtained for the CO I region and the A + T rich/12S region using the restriction enzymes Dra I and Ssp I. These results confirm the conservation of CO I diagnostic restriction sites previously reported and demonstrate the usefulness of the control region sequences as an efficient marker for PCR‐RFLP identification of Brazilian screwworm flies. The occurrences of intraspecific polymorphic patterns are discussed based on frequencies and potential conflicts for species identification. PCR‐RFLP provides a potentially useful method for identifying samples from the areas where these species are monitored.
Three-dimensional modeling of composites fire behavior

The present paper introduces a numerical study on the fire behavior of composites during exposure to a heating source at high-incident power. A three-dimensional novel numerical model is proposed, which is able to simulate the behavior of composite materials in fire environment providing the composites mass loss rate, heat release rate, and total heat released during the heating source application. The ANSYS commercial FEM software has been selected as the platform for the implementation of the proposed numerical model. The use of the ANSYS Parametric Design Language has allowed the ANSYS FEM code to numerically simulate, by a stop–restart incremental procedure, all the most relevant physical phenomena related to fire. As an application, a cone calorimeter experiment over a laminated composite plate has been numerically simulated, and the numerical model has been validated by comparing the ANSYS numerical results to experimental literature data in terms of temperature profile over the panel thickness, mass loss rate, heat release rate, and total heat released. An excellent agreement has been found between the obtained numerical results and the experimental test, confirming the validity of the proposed three-dimensional tool, taking into account the specimen edge effects, which has perspectives of application to the assessment of the fire performance of complex composite structural components.
Corticomuscular Coherence Analysis on Hand Movement Distinction for Active Rehabilitation

Active rehabilitation involves patient's voluntary thoughts as the control signals of restore device to assist stroke rehabilitation. Although restoration of hand opening stands importantly in patient's daily life, it is difficult to distinguish the voluntary finger extension from thumb adduction and finger flexion using stroke patients' electroencephalography (EMG) on single muscle activity. We propose to implement corticomuscular coherence analysis on electroencephalography (EEG) and EMG signals on Extensor Digitorum to extract their intention involved in hand opening. EEG and EMG signals of 8 subjects are simultaneously collected when executing 4 hand movement tasks (finger extension, thumb adduction, finger flexion, and rest). We explore the spatial and temporal distribution of the coherence and observe statistically significant corticomuscular coherence appearing at left motor cortical area and different patterns within beta frequency range for 4 movement tasks. Linear discriminate analysis is applied on the coherence pattern to distinguish finger extension from thumb adduction, finger flexion, and rest. The classification results are greater than those by EEG only. The results indicate the possibility to detect voluntary hand opening based on coherence analysis between single muscle EMG signal and single EEG channel located in motor cortical area, which potentially helps active hand rehabilitation for stroke patients.
Shear strength of concrete beams in hogging regions

The results of tests on 64 model reinforced concrete beams in shear are presented. The major variables examined were the influence of laps in the shear span, and the position of the flexural reinforcement (top or bottom of beam) at the time of pouring. It was found that the presence of laps did not affect shear strength. However, the shear strength of beams with top cast bars was about 40% less than those with bottom cast bars. Similar reductions in shear strength were found for prototype bars by examining the work of other researchers. It is concluded that the reason for the reduction in shear strength is the inferior bond on top cast bars.
Subcutaneous rather than visceral adipose tissue is associated with adiponectin levels and insulin resistance in young men.

INTRODUCTION Studies on the association between adiponectin, body composition, and insulin resistance (IR) have been conflicting. AIM Our aim was to evaluate the impact of body composition on adiponectin and IR determined by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) in a population-based study on relatively healthy young men, minimizing the possible effects of age, obesity, and severe comorbidity. DESIGN, METHODS, AND SUBJECTS: A population-based, cross-sectional study of 783 men aged 20-29 yr, randomly drawn from the Danish Central Personal Registry. Adiponectin was assessed using an in-house assay, and IR was determined using HOMA. Central fat mass (CFM) and lower extremity fat mass (LEFM) was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and visceral adipose tissue (VAT), sc adipose tissue (SAT), and thigh fat area (TFA) were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS Using multiple linear regression analysis, adiponectin correlated negatively with CFM (r = -0.27; P < 0.001) and SAT (r = -0.20; P < 0.001) and positively with LEFM (r = 0.19; P < 0.001) and TFA (r = 0.18; P < 0.001), whereas VAT did not associate significantly. In multiple linear regression analysis, HOMA-IR (dependent variable), correlated significantly with CFM (r = 0.27; P < 0.001) and SAT (r = 0.15; P < 0.001), whereas LEFM, VAT, or TFA did not correlate. Adiponectin was an independent predictor of HOMA-IR in both analyses (r = -0.14; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION SAT rather than VAT was inversely associated with adiponectin levels, and, interestingly, fat on the lower extremities was positively associated with adiponectin. Focusing on insulin resistance, SAT rather than VAT and TFA independently predicted a higher HOMA-IR. The observation that adiponectin was independently associated with lower HOMA-IR must be repeated in other populations.
Assessment of different pre-treatment methods for the removal of limonene in citrus waste and their effect on methane potential and methane production rate

The objective of this study was to assess the limonene removal efficiency of three pre-treatment methods when applied to citrus waste and to evaluate their effects on the biochemical methane potential and the methane production rate using batch anaerobic tests. The methods tested were based on removal (biological pretreatment by fungi) or recovery (steam distillation and ethanol extraction) of limonene. All the treatments decreased the concentration of limonene in orange peel, with average efficiencies of 22%, 44% and 100% for the biological treatment, steam distillation and ethanol extraction, respectively. By-products from limonene biodegradation by fungi exhibited an inhibitory effect also, not making interesting the biological pretreatment. The methane potential and production rate of the treated orange peel increased significantly after applying the recovery strategies, which separated and recovered simultaneously other inhibitory components of the citrus essential oil. Apart from the high recovery efficiency of the ethanol extraction process, it presented a favourable energy balance.
Prevalence of tuberculosis respiratory symptoms and associated factors in the indigenous populations of Paraguay (2012)

BACKGROUND The prevalence of respiratory symptoms and confirmed tuberculosis (TB) among indigenous groups in Paraguay is unknown. METHODS This study assessed the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, confirmed pulmonary TB, and associated socio-economic factors among indigenous Paraguayan populations. Indigenous persons residing in selected communities were included in the study. A total of 24,352 participants were interviewed at home between October and December 2012. Respiratory symptomatic individuals were defined as those with respiratory symptoms of TB. A hierarchical Poisson regression analysis was performed with four levels: individual characteristics, living conditions and environmental characteristics, source of food, and type of nutrition. FINDINGS In this study, 1,383 participants had respiratory symptoms (5.7%), but only 10 had culture-confirmed TB (41/100,000 inhabitants). The small number of cases did not allow evaluation of the risk factors for TB. Age older than 37 years was associated with a two-fold increased risk of symptoms. Female sex; family history of TB; type of housing; home heating; a lack of hunting, fishing, or purchasing food; and a lack of vegetable consumption were also associated with the presence of symptoms. A lack of cereal consumption had a protective effect. Members of the Ayoreo or Manjui ethnic groups had a three-fold increased risk of symptoms. MAIN CONCLUSION Individual characteristics, dietary habits, and belonging to specific ethnic groups were associated with respiratory symptoms.
Breast Screening Revisited

Breast screening is the medical screening of asymptomatic, apparently healthy women for breast lump in an attempt to achieve an earlier diagnosis. The assumption is that the early detection will improve outcomes. In western countries, breast screening programs have led to a significant reduction in mortality and improved prognosis of patients with breast cancer. However in India, although the number of breast cancer are on the rise there is no such organized program. This article emphasizes on the importance of breast screening and protocol to be followed in our country where it can have significant impact on the prognosis.
A Description of the Effect of Polarized Light as an Adjuvant Therapy on Wound Healing Process in Pediatrics

Backgroundandpurpose: The ability of light to penetrate a tissue and deposit energy via the optical absorption properties of the tissue is the key to therapeutic applications. Birefringence which is an anisotropic property of dermal layer of skin, the blood flow in the tissue capillaries and the multi-scattering from the tissue static components affect the polarization of light. The goal of this study was to describe the healing process of deep partial thickness wound in pediatrics submitted (or not) to the excitation property or the polarization property of light.Subjects: Thirty children who suffered from deep partial thickness burn (20-30%) participated in this study (13 boys and 17 girls). Their ages ranged from 10 to18 years. They were classified randomly into two groups (study and control group) of equal numbers.Procedures: Group A (study) was treated using polarized light as an adjuvant therapy to the regular wound care (debridement, Local antimicrobial drug and beta dine) 5 sessions per week for 3 weeks. Group B (control) was treated using the regular wound care (debridement, Local antimicrobial drug and beta dine). Wound surface areas were measured before and after the treatment period by using wound tracing method. Results: The study showed a significant reduction in burn wound surface areas in both groups (P < 0.05) while there was no significant difference between both groups.Conclusion:it was concluded that polarized light has a limited effect as an adjuvant therapy on healing process of deep partial thickness burn wounds in children.
Stereo Matching with Global Edge Constraint and Occlusion Handling

In this paper, an effective constraint is proposed to leverage the stereo matching in early vision literature. Firstly, some particular edges are extracted to compose the new smooth constraint by categorizing the color edges into different groups. Then the optimal support windows can be established based on the proposed constraint. Finally, the disparity map would be estimated by using match propagation within the optimal support windows. Compared to the traditional window-based algorithms, our method is more effective to deal with the difficulties caused by the occluded regions or disparity discontinuities. We evaluated our algorithm with real stereo pair of images and the experimental results showed the good performance.
A Practical Guide to Optical Metrology for Thin Films

www.wiley-vch.de This book presents a comprehensive overview of optical metrology for thin film thickness determination by optical means, from electrodynamic basics, and hardware components, to methods of measurement and evaluation. The author, an expert in the field with both academic and industrial experience, concentrates on the spectral reflectance measurement with miniaturized spectrometers, one of the most flexible techniques for inline and offline thickness determination.
Anti-prion activity of an RNA aptamer and its structural basis

Prion proteins (PrPs) cause prion diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The conversion of a normal cellular form (PrPC) of PrP into an abnormal form (PrPSc) is thought to be associated with the pathogenesis. An RNA aptamer that tightly binds to and stabilizes PrPC is expected to block this conversion and to thereby prevent prion diseases. Here, we show that an RNA aptamer comprising only 12 residues, r(GGAGGAGGAGGA) (R12), reduces the PrPSc level in mouse neuronal cells persistently infected with the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agent. Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis revealed that R12, folded into a unique quadruplex structure, forms a dimer and that each monomer simultaneously binds to two portions of the N-terminal half of PrPC, resulting in tight binding. Electrostatic and stacking interactions contribute to the affinity of each portion. Our results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of an RNA aptamer as to prion diseases.
Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis directly from spiked human sputum by Q-beta replicase-amplified assay

We report on a rapid, sensitive, Q-Beta replicase-amplified nucleic acid hybridization assay for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis directly from spiked human sputum. Specimens were processed by either an N-acetyl-L-cysteine-NaOH or a 2% NaOH digestion-decontamination method and then washed to neutralize the pH of the cell pellet. The washed sputum pellets were heated at 100 degrees C to inactivate the M. tuberculosis organisms. The heat-inactivated samples were mechanically lysed at 5,000 rpm for 6 min in the GENE-TRAK Sample Processing Instrument in the presence of zirconium oxide beads and a buffer containing guanidine thiocyanate. The released nucleic acid was subjected to the GENE-TRAK Q-Beta replicase-amplified, dual-capture assay. The assay sensitivity was 10(3) purified rRNA targets or 1 CFU of M. tuberculosis spiked into M. tuberculosis-negative human sputum. There was a low level of noise because of the limitations of performing a signal amplification assay in an open system. High levels of other mycobacterial rRNA (approximately 10(7) organisms), including rRNAs of Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium gordonae, did not interfere with the sensitivity of the assay.
A new tower over cubic finite fields

We present a new explicit tower of function fields (Fn)n≥0 over the finite field with ` = q3 elements, where the limit of the ratios (number of rational places of Fn)/(genus of Fn) is bigger or equal to 2(q2 − 1)/(q + 2). This tower contains as a subtower the tower which was introduced by Bezerra– Garcia–Stichtenoth (see [3]), and in the particular case q = 2 it coincides with the tower of van der Geer–van der Vlugt (see [12]). Many features of the new tower are very similar to those of the optimal wild tower in [8] over the quadratic field Fq2 (whose modularity was shown in [6] by Elkies).