Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quadruplet Networks for Sketch-Based Image Retrieval

Freehand sketches are a simple and powerful tool for communication. They are easily recognized across cultures and suitable for various applications. In this paper, we use deep convolutional neural networks (ConvNets) to address sketch-based image retrieval (SBIR). We first train our ConvNets on sketch and image object recognition in a large scale benchmark for SBIR (the sketchy database). We then conduct a comprehensive study of ConvNets features for SBIR, using a kNN similarity search paradigm in the ConvNet feature space. In contrast to recent SBIR works, we propose a new architecture the quadruplet networks which enhance ConvNet features for SBIR. This new architecture enables ConvNets to extract more robust global and local features. We evaluate our approach on three large scale datasets. Our quadruplet networks outperform previous state-of-the-art on two of them by a significant margin and gives competitive results on the third. Our system achieves a recall of 42.16% (at k=1) for the sketchy database (more than 5% improvement), a Kendal score of 43. 28Τb on the TU-Berlin SBIR benchmark (close to 6Τb improvement) and a mean average precision (MAP) of 32.16% on Flickr15k (a category level SBIR benchmark).
Detection of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia using watershed transformation technique

Large number of diseases can be diagnosed by the counting and classification of blood cells. One type of the most common blood diseases is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Rapid and uncontrolled growth of immature leukemic cells (also named as blast cells) is used to characterize ALL. The morphological analysis of the bone marrow and blood smear is the primary step of diagnosis. Valuable information is provided by the features extracted from the blood cells for the confirmation of the diagnosis. As the process have numerous drawbacks, a computerized system will be helpful for the analysis of stained microscopic images of the blood cells for quantitative examination. This paper demonstrates a new and simple segmentation approach using watershed transform and two simpler classification models to diagnose the presence of ALL in blood smear accurately.
The prgQ gene of the Enterococcus faecalis tetracycline resistance plasmid pCF10 encodes a peptide inhibitor, iCF10

Conjugative transfer of the Enterococcus faecalis tetracycline resistance plasmid pCF10 is stimulated by a peptide pheromone, cCF10. Once a recipient strain acquires pCF10 and thus becomes a pheromone-responsive donor, cCF10 activity is no longer detected in culture filtrates. Here we show that pCF10 encodes a peptide inhibitor, iCF10, secreted by donor cells; this inhibitor antagonizes the cCF10 activity in culture filtrates. In order to detect and quantitate iCF10, we developed a reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography assay in which the inhibitor peptide elutes separately from the pheromone; this type of assay enabled us to determine that lack of pheromone activity in donor culture filtrates was due to secretion of a mixture of iCF10 and cCF10, rather than abolition of cCF10 secretion. The gene encoding iCF10, prgQ, is located on the EcoRI-C fragment of pCF10. The open reading frame comprising the prgQ gene encodes a 23-amino-acid precursor that resembles a signal peptide. This precursor is cleaved to the mature heptapeptide iCF10 during the secretion process.
Lipocortin 1 in apoptosis: Mammary regression

Background: Enigmatically, degradation of debris generated in programmed cell death (apoptosis) elicits little inflammation. Having previously detected the upregulation of lipocortin 1 (LC1), a 35‐kDa protein with anti‐inflammatory and immuno‐suppressive properties, at sites of non‐inflammatory phagocytosis in the central nervous system (J Neurosci Res 36:491–500, 1993), we sought to determine if LC1 was involved in apoptosis.
Agonist, antagonist, and inverse agonist characteristics of TIPP (H-Tyr-Tic-Phe-Phe-OH), a selective delta-opioid receptor ligand.

Recent evidence indicates that the well established delta-opioid antagonist TIPP (H-Tyr-Tic-Phe-Phe-OH) also displays agonist activity in several cellular models. Therefore, it is possible that TIPP, and structurally related compounds, might represent a novel class of opioid agonists exhibiting unique characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine the properties of TIPP at selected points of the signal transduction pathway (i.e., receptor binding, G-protein activation, and effector regulation) in GH(3)DORT cells (GH(3) cells expressing delta-opioid receptors) and compare them with that of an established delta-opioid agonist, [D-Pen(2),D-Pen(5)]-enkephalin (DPDPE). DPDPE exhibited properties of an agonist in all assays. In contrast, TIPP demonstrated characteristics of an agonist, antagonist, or inverse agonist, depending on the step in the signal transduction cascade examined and the assay conditions employed. In receptor binding assays, the addition of guanine nucleotides and sodium ions increased the affinity of TIPP for delta-opioid receptors in both membrane preparations and digitonin-permeabilized cells, which is characteristic of an inverse agonist. In assays measuring G-protein activation, TIPP failed to stimulate guanosine 5'-O-(3-[(35)S]thio)triphosphate ([(35)S]GTPgammaS) binding in membrane preparations, which is consistent with an antagonist profile. However, when using cells semi-permeabilized with digitonin, TIPP exhibited properties of an agonist, producing concentration-dependent, antagonist-reversible stimulation of [(35)S]GTPgammaS binding. Finally, in assays examining regulation of the intracellular effector adenylyl cyclase, TIPP exhibited characteristics of an agonist, producing inhibition of enzyme activity in both membrane preparations and whole cells. Therefore, although DPDPE and TIPP act similarly as agonists to regulate the intracellular effector adenylyl cyclase, they demonstrate significant differences in the signal transduction cascade preceding this final point of convergence.
Carotid baroreflex responsiveness in normotensive African Americans is attenuated at rest and during dynamic leg exercise

Evidence suggests differences between African Americans (AAs) and Caucasian Americans (CAs) in cardiovascular responsiveness to physiological stressors. This study tested the hypothesis that carotid baroreflex (CBR) control of heart rate (HR) and blood pressure is reduced in AAs compared to CAs during exercise. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and HR were continuously recorded at rest and during leg cycling in 23 non-hypertensive male subjects (12 AA; 11 CA; age 19–26 years). CBR control of HR and MAP was assessed with 5-s pulses of neck pressure (NP, simulated hypotension) and neck suction (NS, simulated hypertension) ranging from +45 to −80 Torr. Across all NS stimuli (−20, −40, −60, −80 Torr) at rest, the AA group demonstrated attenuated CBR-mediated reductions in HR (AA, −8.9 ± 1.9 vs. CA, −14.1 ± 2.3 bpm; P < 0.001) and MAP (AA, −6.4 ± 1 vs. CA, −7.8 ± 0.8 mmHg; P < 0.05). Despite similar gain and magnitude of resetting observed in the modeled stimulus response curves, an attenuation among AAs persisted in HR (AA, −8.2 ± 1.6 vs. CA, −11.8 ± 3 bpm; P < 0.05) and MAP (AA, −6.8 ± 0.9 vs. CA, −8.2 ± 1.1 mmHg; P < 0.05) responses to NS during exercise. No differences in CBR-mediated HR and MAP responses to NP were detected between groups at rest or during exercise. These data suggest impairment in the ability to defend against a hypertensive challenge among AAs during steady-state exercise compared to their CA counterparts.
From spaces to places: emerging contexts in mobile privacy

Mobile privacy concerns are central to Ubicomp and yet remain poorly understood. We advocate a diversified approach, enabling the cross-interpretation of data from complementary methods. However, mobility imposes a number of limitations on the methods that can be effectively employed. We discuss how we addressed this problem in an empirical study of mobile social networking. We report on how, by combining a variation of experience sampling and contextual interviews, we have started focusing on a notion of context in relation to privacy, which is subjectively defined by emerging socio-cultural knowledge, functions, relations and rules. With reference to Gieryn's sociological work, we call this place, as opposed to a notion of context that is objectively defined by physical and factual elements, which we call space. We propose that the former better describes the context for mobile privacy.
Less is More

Ensemble learning for anomaly detection has been barely studied, due to difficulty in acquiring ground truth and the lack of inherent objective functions. In contrast, ensemble approaches for classification and clustering have been studied and effectively used for long. Our work taps into this gap and builds a new ensemble approach for anomaly detection, with application to event detection in temporal graphs as well as outlier detection in no-graph settings. It handles and combines multiple heterogeneous detectors to yield improved and robust performance. Importantly, trusting results from all the constituent detectors may deteriorate the overall performance of the ensemble, as some detectors could provide inaccurate results depending on the type of data in hand and the underlying assumptions of a detector. This suggests that combining the detectors selectively is key to building effective anomaly ensembles—hence “less is more”. In this paper we propose a novel ensemble approach called SELECT for anomaly detection, which automatically and systematically selects the results from constituent detectors to combine in a fully unsupervised fashion. We apply our method to event detection in temporal graphs and outlier detection in multi-dimensional point data (no-graph), where SELECT successfully utilizes five base detectors and seven consensus methods under a unified ensemble framework. We provide extensive quantitative evaluation of our approach for event detection on five real-world datasets (four with ground truth events), including Enron email communications, RealityMining SMS and phone call records, New York Times news corpus, and World Cup 2014 Twitter news feed. We also provide results for outlier detection on seven real-world multi-dimensional point datasets from UCI Machine Learning Repository. Thanks to its selection mechanism, SELECT yields superior performance compared to the individual detectors alone, the full ensemble (naively combining all results), an existing diversity-based ensemble, and an existing weighted ensemble approach.
Generating and testing ecological hypotheses at the pondscape with environmental DNA metabarcoding: a case study on a threatened amphibian

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is revolutionising biodiversity monitoring, but has unrealised potential for ecological hypothesis generation and testing. Here, we validate this potential in a large-scale analysis of vertebrate community data generated by eDNA metabarcoding of 532 UK ponds. We test biotic associations between the threatened great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) and other vertebrates as well as abiotic factors influencing T. cristatus detection at the pondscape. Furthermore, we test the status of T. cristatus as an umbrella species for pond conservation by assessing whether vertebrate species richness is greater in ponds with T. cristatus and higher T. cristatus Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) scores. T. cristatus detection was positively correlated with amphibian and waterfowl species richness. Specifically, T. cristatus was positively associated with smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris), common coot (Fulica atra), and common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), but negatively associated with common toad (Bufo bufo). T. cristatus detection did not significantly decrease as fish species richness increased, but negative associations with common carp (Cyprinus carpio), three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and ninespine stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) were identified. T. cristatus detection was negatively correlated with mammal species richness, and T. cristatus was negatively associated with grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). T. cristatus detection was negatively correlated with larger pond area, presence of inflow, and higher percentage of shading, but positively correlated with HSI score, supporting its application to T. cristatus survey. Vertebrate species richness was significantly higher in T. cristatus ponds and broadly increased as T. cristatus HSI scores increased. We reaffirm reported associations (e.g. T. cristatus preference for smaller ponds) but also provide novel insights, including a negative effect of pond inflow on T. cristatus. Our findings demonstrate the prospects of eDNA metabarcoding for ecological hypothesis generation and testing at landscape scale, and dramatic enhancement of freshwater conservation, management, monitoring and research.
Independent changes in cardiac muscle fibres and connective tissue in rats with spontaneous hypertension, aortic constriction and hypoxia.

The collagen content (hydroxyproline concentration) and muscle fibre diameter were determined in hearts of 16 week old spontaneously hypertensive, aortic constricted and normotensive rats and spontaneously hypertensive and aortic constricted groups exposed to 6 weeks of hypobaric hypoxia (simulated altitude of 6100 m). The early development of cardiomegaly associated with spontaneous hypertension is primarily caused by an increase in muscle mass with relatively less proliferation of the connective tissue elements. Although heart weight to body weight ratios and fibre diameter increase in the spontaneously hypertensive SHR compared with normotensive rats, the concentration of hydroxyproline decreases indicating that the connective tissue response in spontaneously hypertensive rats is less pronounced than the muscle response. Therefore, at 16 weeks of age, an increase in muscle mass is the primary contributor to cardiomegaly in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Hypobaric hypoxia induces increased collagen production in both the left and the right ventricles of spontaneously hypertensive rats. Unlike the spontaneously hypertensive rats, the collagen response in aortic constricted rats parallels the muscle response since cardiomegaly and increased left ventricular fibre diameter are associated with the maintenance of hydroxyproline concentration similar to that in normotensive rats. Hypoxia failed to activate collagen production further in aortic constricted rats. These findings suggest that the connective tissue response to cardiomegaly produced by aortic constriction is significantly different from the response produced by essential hypertension. The data also suggest that the factors governing connective tissue proliferation may be independent from those governing the muscle fibre hypertrophy.
Efficient human face detection in infancy.

Adults detect conspecific faces more efficiently than heterospecific faces; however, the development of this own-species bias (OSB) remains unexplored. We tested whether 6- and 11-month-olds exhibit OSB in their attention to human and animal faces in complex visual displays with high perceptual load (25 images competing for attention). Infants (n = 48) and adults (n = 43) passively viewed arrays containing a face among 24 non-face distractors while we measured their gaze with remote eye tracking. While OSB is typically not observed until about 9 months, we found that, already by 6 months, human faces were more likely to be detected, were detected more quickly (attention capture), and received longer looks (attention holding) than animal faces. These data suggest that 6-month-olds already exhibit OSB in face detection efficiency, consistent with perceptual attunement. This specialization may reflect the biological importance of detecting conspecific faces, a foundational ability for early social interactions.
Information Systems - Unavoidable Nuisances in Combining Local Administratives?

Local administratives face challenges similar to enterprises due to changes in their environment. Municipalities need to join their resources to reimburse and to deliver services. However, municipalities have not received much attention regarding ICT related integration, especially in cases when multiple municipalities are combined. Despite the central role of information systems in government services, ICT is often left without prior contemplation when making plans to integrate municipalities. Therefore, this paper addresses the role of information systems in municipality integration. In so doing, the study uses a framework described in prior literature: using this framework, the paper describes particular municipality integration and discusses IS-related factors in the implementation of integration.
Lack of Association Between Mortality and Timing of Surgical Fixation in Elderly Patients With Hip Fracture: Results of a Retrospective Population-Based Cohort Study

Background:Conventional wisdom suggests high-quality care for most patients with hip fractures is surgical fixation within 24 hours to reduce mortality and complications, although there is little evidence to support this standard. Objectives:We sought to determine the relationship between timing of hip fracture surgery and early mortality. Design and Subjects:This was a retrospective population-based cohort study of 3981 patients with hip fractures >60 years of age that were admitted to hospitals in one Canadian health region from 1994–2000. Methods:We collected sociodemographic, prefracture comorbidity, and postoperative complication data. Timing of surgery was classified as within 24 hours (“early surgery,” the referent group for all analyses), 24–48 hours, and beyond 48 hours. Main outcome was in-hospital mortality. We used multivariable logistic regression methods, including adjustments with propensity scores and a validated hip fracture-specific mortality index, to determine the independent association between early versus later surgery and mortality. Results:Median age of patients was 82 years, 71% were women, and 26% had >4 prefracture comorbidities. Unadjusted in-hospital mortality was 6%; it was 5% for those who had surgery within 24 hours or from 24 to 48 hours, 10% for surgery beyond 48 hours, and 21% for patients that did not have surgery. Compared with those who had surgery within 24 hours, there was no independent association between timing of surgery and in-hospital mortality (24–48 hours, adjusted odds ratio 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.62–1.30, P = 0.55; beyond 48 hours 1.30, 95% confidence interval 0.86–2.00], P = 0.21). Conclusions:The timing of surgical fixation of hip fracture was not associated with early mortality in carefully adjusted analyses, and the use of “surgery within 24 hours” as a measure of high quality care may be inappropriate.
MiRSEA: Discovering the pathways regulated by dysfunctional MicroRNAs

Recent studies have shown that dysfunctional microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the progression of various cancers. Dysfunctional miRNAs may jointly regulate their target genes and further alter the activities of canonical biological pathways. Identification of the pathways regulated by a group of dysfunctional miRNAs could help uncover the pathogenic mechanisms of cancer and facilitate development of new drug targets. Current miRNA-pathway analyses mainly use differentially-expressed miRNAs to predict the shared pathways on which they act. However, these methods fail to consider the level of differential expression level, which could improve our understanding of miRNA function. We propose a novel computational method, MicroRNA Set Enrichment Analysis (MiRSEA), to identify the pathways regulated by dysfunctional miRNAs. MiRSEA integrates the differential expression levels of miRNAs with the strength of miRNA pathway associations to perform direct enrichment analysis using miRNA expression data. We describe the MiRSEA methodology and illustrate its effectiveness through analysis of data from hepatocellular cancer, gastric cancer and lung cancer. With these analyses, we show that MiRSEA can successfully detect latent biological pathways regulated by dysfunctional miRNAs. We have implemented MiRSEA as a freely available R-based package on CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MiRSEA/).
Mutant BRAF(T1799A) can be detected in the blood of papillary thyroid carcinoma patients and correlates with disease status.

CONTEXT The BRAF(T1799A) transversion is the most frequent morphotype-specific somatic mutation in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). The ability to detect this mutation in the circulation could aid in diagnosis and follow-up of PTC patients. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to develop and clinically validate a sensitive and specific assay for the detection of BRAF(T1799A) in blood samples from PTC patients. DESIGN We developed an allele-specific real-time PCR method for the detection of BRAF(T1799A) in blood samples and studied prospectively blood samples from 193 patients with thyroid cancer (173 PTC, 20 non-PTC) attending for routine follow-up. The results of molecular testing were correlated with disease status and thyroglobulin measurements. BRAF(T1799A) status of the original tumor samples was also confirmed, where available. RESULTS The assay had a detection sensitivity of fewer than one heterozygote BRAF(T1799A)-carrying cell per 100,000 diploid cells, without detectable cross-reactivity between wild-type BRAF and BRAF(T1799A). Circulating BRAF(T1799A) was detected in 20 of 173 PTC patients and in none of the 20 non-PTC patients. BRAF(T1799A)-positive samples contained between one in 326 and fewer than one in 100,000 copies of BRAF(T1799A). Tissue BRAF status correlated with blood BRAF status, whereas BRAF(T1799A) positivity in blood correlated with the presence of active disease at the time of the blood draw, with eight of the 38 PTC patients with persistent/recurrent disease being positive for circulating BRAF(T1799A) (relative risk vs. circulating BRAF(T1799A)-negative, 2.55; P < 0.04). CONCLUSIONS BRAF(T1799A) can be detected in the blood of PTC patients with residual or metastatic disease and may provide diagnostic information.
Query Processing for Retrieval From Large Text Bases

Natural language experiments in information retrieval have often been inconclusive due to the lack of large text bases with associated queries and relevance judgments. This paper describes experiments in incremental query processing and indexing with the INQUERY information retrieval system on the TIPSTER queries and document collection. The results measure the value of processing tailored for different query styles, use of syntactic tags to produce search phrases, recognition and application of generic concepts, and automatic concept extraction based on interword associations in a large text base.