Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recognition of ayurvedic medicinal plants from leaves: A computer vision approach

Plants are an indispensable part of our ecosystem and India has a long history of using plants as a source of medicines. Since the advent of modern allopathic medicine, the use of traditional medicine declined to a considerable extent. However, in recent years, traditional medicine has made a comeback for a variety of reasons like they are inexpensive, nontoxic and does not impact any side effect. Different kind of medicinal plant species are available on earth but it is very difficult to identify the plant. Considerable knowledge accumulated by the villagers and tribal on medicine from plants remains unknown to the scientists and urban people. This kind of knowledge is usually handed down through generations. Our immediate concern is to preserve this knowledge in digital form through the concepts of machine learning, pattern recognition and computer vision. A machine can identify a medicinal plant through the features extracted from the leaf images, together with a classification algorithm. This paper proposes a computer vision approach for the recognition of ayurvedic medicinal plant species found in Western Ghats of India. The proposed system uses a combination of SURF and HOG features extracted from leaf images and a classification using k-NN classifier. Our experiments show results which seem to be sufficient for building apps for real life use.
Effects of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention Trial to Improve Disease Outcomes in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background:Studies testing the efficacy of behavioral interventions to modify psychosocial sequelae of inflammatory bowel disease in children are limited. This report presents outcomes through a 6-month follow-up from a large randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral intervention for children with inflammatory bowel disease and their parents. Methods:One hundred eighty-five children aged 8 to 17 years with a diagnosis of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and their parents were randomized to one of two 3-session conditions: (1) a social learning and cognitive behavioral therapy condition or (2) an education support condition designed to control for time and attention. Results:There was a significant overall treatment effect for school absences due to Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis (P < 0.05) at 6 months after treatment. There was also a significant overall effect after treatment for child-reported quality of life (P < 0.05), parent-reported increases in adaptive child coping (P < 0.001), and reductions in parents' maladaptive responses to children's symptoms (P < 0.05). Finally, exploratory analyses indicated that for children with a higher level of flares (2 or more) prebaseline, those in social learning and cognitive behavioral therapy condition experienced a greater reduction in flares after treatment. Conclusions:This trial suggests that a brief cognitive behavioral intervention for children with inflammatory bowel disease and their parents can result in improved child functioning and quality of life, and for some children may decrease disease activity.
Bacterial and Archaea Community Present in the Pine Barrens Forest of Long Island, NY: Unusually High Percentage of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria

Of the few preserved areas in the northeast of United States, the soil in the Pine Barrens Forests presents a harsh environment for the microorganisms to grow and survive. In the current study we report the use of clustering methods to scientifically select the sampling locations that would represent the entire forest and also report the microbial diversity present in various horizons of the soil. Sixty six sampling locations were selected across the forest and soils were collected from three horizons (sampling depths). The three horizons were 0–10 cm (Horizon O); 11–25 cm (Horizon A) and 26–40 cm (Horizon B). Based on the total microbial substrate utilization pattern and K-means clustering analysis, the soil in the Pine Barrens Forest can be classified into four distinct clusters at each of the three horizons. One soil sample from each of the four clusters were selected and archaeal and bacterial populations within the soil studied using pyrosequencing method. The results show the microbial communities present in each of these clusters are different. Within the microbial communities present, microorganisms involved in nitrogen cycle occupy a major fraction of microbial community in the soil. High level of diversity was observed for nitrogen fixing bacteria. In contrast, Nitrosovibrio and Nitrosocaldus spp are the single bacterial and archaeal population respectively carrying out ammonia oxidation in the soil.
Extended firm mutation testing: A cost reduction technique for mutation testing

All the white-box testing techniques are to check the quality of code but unable to test the quality of test cases. Mutation testing is the most effective testing technique to evaluate the quality of a test sets, but it also encounters a number of problems to do so. These problems prevent the mutation testing technique to become practical. The major problem is the very high computational cost that occurs due to execution of mutants. The usage of mutation testing restrict by its high computation cost. In order to the practical use to mutation testing, various cost reduction techniques were proposed. In this paper, we first investigate the advantages and disadvantages of existing cost reduction techniques and then propose a new execution based technique to reduce the cost of mutation testing.
The surface effects of plasma on xerographic photoreceptors

Xerographic photoreceptors play a large role in the printing process and advancements in photoreceptor robustness and efficiency will have a positive impact on both the economy and environment. During the printing process, the photoreceptor is exposed to plasma which causes degradation leading to a loss of print quality over time and eventual replacement of the part. To this end, we utilize a combination of static SIMS, ATR-FTIR, and AFM to characterise both chemical and physical changes on the photoreceptor surface after the photoreceptor had been brought to an end of life state. We also attempt to correlate changes in the photoreceptor to visible print defects in printed test pages. Our results point to evidence of binding polymer degradation at two specific locations in the molecule with water from the environment playing a large role in this process. Photoreceptor stressing leads to deep regular undulations in the photoreceptor surface which can be seen via AFM. However, we did not find any significant observable differences in printed test pages. Although we obtained evidence and clues on the general mechanism of photoreceptor degradation, more work is required to properly identify degradation pathways and products. Further work is also required to properly determine the way in which chemical degradation manifests itself onto printed pages.
Exploring the advantages of multiband fMRI with simultaneous EEG to investigate coupling between gamma frequency neural activity and the BOLD response in humans

We established an optimal combination of EEG recording during sparse multiband (MB) fMRI that preserves high‐resolution, whole‐brain fMRI coverage while enabling broad‐band EEG recordings which are uncorrupted by MRI gradient artefacts (GAs). We first determined the safety of simultaneous EEG recording during MB fMRI. Application of MB factor = 4 produced <1°C peak heating of electrode/hardware during 20 min of GE‐EPI data acquisition. However, higher SAR sequences require specific safety testing, with greater heating observed using PCASL with MB factor = 4. Heating was greatest in the electrocardiogram channel, likely due to it possessing longest lead length. We investigated the effect of MB factor on the temporal signal‐to‐noise ratio for a range of GE‐EPI sequences (varying MB factor and temporal interval between slice acquisitions). We found that, for our experimental purpose, the optimal acquisition was achieved with MB factor = 3, 3mm isotropic voxels, and 33 slices providing whole head coverage. This sequence afforded a 2.25 s duration quiet period (without GAs) in every 3 s TR. Using this sequence, we demonstrated the ability to record gamma frequency (55–80 Hz) EEG oscillations, in response to right index finger abduction, that are usually obscured by GAs during continuous fMRI data acquisition. In this novel application of EEG‐MB fMRI to a motor task, we observed a positive correlation between gamma and BOLD responses in bilateral motor regions. These findings support and extend previous work regarding coupling between neural and hemodynamic measures of brain activity in humans and showcase the utility of EEG‐MB fMRI for future investigations.
Has Selection for Improved Agronomic Traits Made Reed Canarygrass Invasive?

Plant breeders have played an essential role in improving agricultural crops, and their efforts will be critical to meet the increasing demand for cellulosic bioenergy feedstocks. However, a major concern is the potential development of novel invasive species that result from breeders' efforts to improve agronomic traits in a crop. We use reed canarygrass as a case study to evaluate the potential of plant breeding to give rise to invasive species. Reed canarygrass has been improved by breeders for use as a forage crop, but it is unclear whether breeding efforts have given rise to more vigorous populations of the species. We evaluated cultivars, European wild, and North American invader populations in upland and wetland environments to identify differences in vigor between the groups of populations. While cultivars were among the most vigorous populations in an agricultural environment (upland soils with nitrogen addition), there were no differences in above- or below-ground production between any populations in wetland environments. These results suggest that breeding has only marginally increased vigor in upland environments and that these gains are not maintained in wetland environments. Breeding focuses on selection for improvements of a specific target population of environments, and stability across a wide range of environments has proved elusive for even the most intensively bred crops. We conclude that breeding efforts are not responsible for wetland invasion by reed canarygrass and offer guidelines that will help reduce the possibility of breeding programs releasing cultivars that will become invasive.
Shiga Toxins Activate the NLRP3 Inflammasome Pathway To Promote Both Production of the Proinflammatory Cytokine Interleukin-1β and Apoptotic Cell Death

ABSTRACT Shiga toxin (Stx)-mediated immune responses, including the production of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), may exacerbate vascular damage and accelerate lethality. However, the immune signaling pathway activated in response to Stx is not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that enzymatically active Stx, which leads to ribotoxic stress, triggers NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent caspase-1 activation and IL-1β secretion in differentiated macrophage-like THP-1 (D-THP-1) cells. The treatment of cells with a chemical inhibitor of glycosphingolipid biosynthesis, which suppresses the expression of the Stx receptor globotriaosylceramide and subsequent endocytosis of the toxin, substantially blocked activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and processing of caspase-1 and IL-1β. Processing and release of both caspase-1 and IL-1β were significantly reduced or abolished in Stx-intoxicated D-THP-1 cells in which the expression of NLRP3 or ASC was stably knocked down. Furthermore, Stx mediated the activation of caspases involved in apoptosis in an NLRP3- or ASC-dependent manner. In Stx-intoxicated cells, the NLRP3 inflammasome triggered the activation of caspase-8/3, leading to the initiation of apoptosis, in addition to caspase-1-dependent pyroptotic cell death. Taken together, these results suggest that Stxs trigger the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway to release proinflammatory IL-1β as well as to promote apoptotic cell death.
Cement fraction effect on EIS response of chloride migration tests

This paper highlights the electrochemical phenomena that occur during chloride migration tests on construction materials. For this purpose, investigations by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were carried out on cementitious and non-cementitious materials. Materials deals with cement paste, mortar and concrete on one hand, and two types of terracotta, pink and brown, on the other hand. The results obtained for these two types of construction materials show that the electrical charge distribution within the material during the chloride transfer depends on the volumic cement proportion in the material. This was highlighted by the establishment of a plateau region at low frequencies of the EIS in the Nyquist plot. Moreover, the extension of the plateau region is closely linked to the volumic cement proportion. These electrical charges could reduce the transfer electrical current, which distorts the estimation of the diffusion coefficients obtained with accelerated tests.
Bit-Tactical: Exploiting Ineffectual Computations in Convolutional Neural Networks: Which, Why, and How

We show that, during inference with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), more than 2x to $8x ineffectual work can be exposed if instead of targeting those weights and activations that are zero, we target different combinations of value stream properties. We demonstrate a practical application with Bit-Tactical (TCL), a hardware accelerator which exploits weight sparsity, per layer precision variability and dynamic fine-grain precision reduction for activations, and optionally the naturally occurring sparse effectual bit content of activations to improve performance and energy efficiency. TCL benefits both sparse and dense CNNs, natively supports both convolutional and fully-connected layers, and exploits properties of all activations to reduce storage, communication, and computation demands. While TCL does not require changes to the CNN to deliver benefits, it does reward any technique that would amplify any of the aforementioned weight and activation value properties. Compared to an equivalent data-parallel accelerator for dense CNNs, TCLp, a variant of TCL improves performance by 5.05x and is 2.98x more energy efficient while requiring 22% more area.
Cervical Dysplasia: Original Research Similar Risk Patterns After Cervical Screening in Two Large U.S. Populations Implications for Clinical Guidelines

METHODS: The New Mexico Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Pap Registry is a statewide registry representing a diverse population experiencing varied clinical practice delivery. Kaiser Permanente Northern California is a large integrated health care delivery system practicing routine HPV cotesting since 2003. In this retrospective cohort study, a logistic-Weibull survival model was used to estimate and compare the cumulative 3and 5-year risks of histologic CIN 3 or worse among women aged 21–64 years screened in 2007–2011 in the New Mexico HPV Pap Registry and 2003–2013 in Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Results were stratified by age and baseline screening result: negative cytology, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) (with or without HPV triage), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion.
Vitamin D and Male Sexual Function: A Transversal and Longitudinal Study

Background The effects of vitamin D on sexual function are very unclear. Therefore, we aimed at evaluating the possible association between vitamin D and sexual function and at assessing the influence of vitamin D administration on sexual function. Methods We retrospectively studied 114 men by evaluating clinical, biochemical, and sexual parameters. A subsample (n = 41) was also studied longitudinally before and after vitamin D replacement therapy. Results In the whole sample, after performing logistic regression models, higher levels of 25(OH) vitamin D were significantly associated with high values of total testosterone and of all the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire parameters. On the other hand, higher levels of total testosterone were positively and significantly associated with high levels of erectile function and IIEF total score. After vitamin D replacement therapy, total and free testosterone increased and erectile function improved, whereas other sexual parameters did not change significantly. At logistic regression analysis, higher levels of vitamin D increase (Δ-) were significantly associated with high values of Δ-erectile function after adjustment for Δ-testosterone. Conclusions Vitamin D is important for the wellness of male sexual function, and vitamin D administration improves sexual function.
Effect of SLM Parameters on Transformation Temperatures of Shape Memory Nickel Titanium Parts

Selective laser melting (SLM) is used to manufacture dense nickel titanium (NiTi) parts. The reversible martensitic transformation of the NiTi parts is investigated with various SLM parameters. The parameters are in the same energy density range, composed of high laser parameters (HP: high laser power adjusted to high scanning speed) and low laser parameters (LP: low laser power adjusted to low scanning speed). The results are linked to the mechanical behavior and shape memory response achieved from compression and dilatometry tests. It is shown that the products may exhibit distinct transformation temperatures depending on the used SLM parameters. The atomized powders and the HP SLM parts with dominant pseudoelastic properties contain austenite at room temperature (due to their lower transformation temperatures), in contrast to the large thermal memory of the LP parts originating from martensitic phases (corresponding to higher transformation temperatures). The post‐annealed samples undergo transformations in a comparable temperature range, implying no significant effect of SLM on composition of the originally used powder. The possible origin of the above findings is postulated and discussed.
Does Variation in Genome Sizes Reflect Adaptive or Neutral Processes? New Clues from Passiflora

One of the long-standing paradoxes in genomic evolution is the observation that much of the genome is composed of repetitive DNA which has been typically regarded as superfluous to the function of the genome in generating phenotypes. In this work, we used comparative phylogenetic approaches to investigate if the variations in genome sizes (GS) should be considered as adaptive or neutral processes by the comparison between GS and flower diameters (FD) of 50 Passiflora species, more specifically, within its two most species-rich subgenera, Passiflora and Decaloba. For this, we have constructed a phylogenetic tree of these species, estimated GS and FD of them, inferred the tempo and mode of evolution of these traits and their correlations, using both current and phylogenetically independent contrasted values. We found significant correlations among the traits, when considering the complete set of data or only the subgenus Passiflora, whereas no correlations were observed within Decaloba. Herein, we present convincing evidence of adaptive evolution of GS, as well as clues that this pattern is limited by a minimum genome size, which could reduce both the possibilities of changes in GS and the possibility of phenotypic responses to environment changes.
Treatment Outcomes with Fluoroquinolone-Containing Regimens for Isoniazid-Resistant Pulmonary Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Resistance to isoniazid (INH) is the most common form of drug resistance in pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Although fluoroquinolones (FQs) are recommended to strengthen treatment regimens for INH-resistant pulmonary TB, few studies have evaluated the clinical efficacy of FQ-containing regimens in patients with INH-resistant pulmonary TB. A retrospective cohort study of 140 patients with INH-resistant pulmonary TB was performed between 2005 and 2012. We evaluated whether FQ-containing regimens yielded improved treatment outcomes for patients with INH-resistant pulmonary TB. Overall, favorable outcomes were achieved in 128 (91.4%) patients. Unfavorable outcomes occurred in 12 patients (8.6%), including 7 with treatment failure (5.0%) and 5 with relapse after initial treatment completion (3.6%). FQs, such as levofloxacin and moxifloxacin, were given to 75 (53.6%) patients. Favorable treatment outcomes were more frequent for patients who received FQs (97.3% [73/75 patients]) than for those who did not receive FQs (84.6% [55/65 patients]) (P = 0.007). Patients who did not receive FQs were more likely to develop treatment failure (9.2% [6/65 patients] versus 1.3% [1/75 patients]) (P = 0.049) than patients who received FQs. The adjusted proportion of unfavorable outcomes was significantly higher among patients who did not receive FQs (8.8%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.3 to 21.5%) than among those who did receive FQs (1.5%; 95% CI, 0.3 to 7.7%) (P = 0.037). These results suggest that the addition of FQs can improve treatment outcomes for patients with INH-resistant pulmonary TB.
Offline and Online Models of Budget Allocation for Maximizing Influence Spread

The research of influence propagation in social networks via word-of-mouth processes has been given considerable attention in recent years. Arguably, the most fundamental problem in this domain is influence maximization, where the goal is to identify a seed set of individuals that can trigger a large cascade of influence in the network. While there has been significant progress regarding this problem and its variants, one basic shortcoming of the models is that they lack the flexibility in the way the budget is allocated to individuals. Indeed, budget allocation is a critical issue in advertising and viral marketing. Taking the other point of view, known models allowing flexible budget allocation do not take into account the influence spread in the network. We introduce a generalized model that captures both budgets and influence propagation simultaneously. For the offline setting, we identify a large family of budget-based propagation functions that admit tight approximation guarantee. This family extends most of the previously studied influence models, including the well-known Triggering model. We establish that any function in this family implies an instance of a monotone submodular function maximization over the integer lattice subject to a knapsack constraint. This problem is known to admit an optimal (1-1/e)-approximation. We also study the price of anarchy of the multi-player game that extends the model and establish tight results. For the online setting, in which an unknown subset of agents arrive in a random order and the algorithm needs to make an irrevocable budget allocation in each step, we develop a 1/(15e)-competitive algorithm. This setting extends the secretary problem, and its variant, the submodular knapsack secretary problem. Notably, our algorithm improves over the best known approximation for the latter problem, even though it applies to a more general setting.