Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local All-Pass filters for optical flow estimation

The optical flow is a velocity field that describes the motion of pixels within a sequence (or set) of images. Its estimation plays an important role in areas such as motion compensation, object tracking and image registration. In this paper, we present a novel framework to estimate the optical flow using local all-pass filters. Instead of using the optical flow equation, the framework is based on relating one image to another, on a local level, using an all-pass filter and then extracting the optical flow from the filter. Using this framework, we present a fast novel algorithm for estimating a smoothly varying optical flow, which we term the Local All-Pass (LAP) algorithm. We demonstrate that this algorithm is consistent and accurate, and that it outperforms three state-of-the-art algorithms when estimating constant and smoothly varying flows. We also show initial competitive results for real images.
UE-TCAM: An ultra efficient SRAM-based TCAM

Ternary content-addressable memories (TCAMs) are high speed memories; however, compared to static random-access memories (SRAMs), TCAMs suffer from low storage density, relatively slow access time, poor scalability, complexity in circuitry, and higher cost. To access the benefits of SRAM, several SRAM-based TCAMs, specifically on field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms, were proposed. To further improve the performance of SRAM-based TCAMs, this paper presents UE-TCAM, which reduces memory requirement, latency, power consumption, and improves speed. An example design of 512×36 of UE-TCAM has been implemented on Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA. Performance evaluation confirms a significant improvement in the proposed UE-TCAM, which achieves 100% reduction in 18K B-RAMs, 74.67% reduction in SRs, 70.28% reduction in LUTs, 75.76% reduction in energy-delay product, and 60% reduction in latency and improves speed by 70.85%, compared with the available SRAM-based TCAM.
Serum citrulline levels as a marker of enterocyte function in patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells transplantation – a pilot study

Background Citrulline is an amino acid produced by enterocytes. Serum citrulline concentration has been proposed as a marker of enterocyte mass and function. Our study focused on evaluation of citrulline levels in patients with diarrhea related to toxic intestinal damage (mucositis), intestinal graft versus host disease (GVHD), and other etiology of diarrhea (e.g., dysmicrobia) after allogeneic stem cells transplantation (SCT). Material/Methods This was a prospective study in 11 adults (18 blood samples) with diarrhea developed after allogeneic SCT in 4/2011–1/2012 compared to twenty healthy control samples. Results The median (interquartile range) of citrulline levels was significantly lower in the transplanted patients group compared to healthy controls: 9.3 (3.62–15.38) vs. 33.3 (26.82–36.23) μmol/L, p<0.0001. The median values of citrulline in patients with post-transplant toxic intestinal mucositis (n=8, days 1–22 post-transplant) vs. intestinal GVHD (n=7, day 43–142) vs. other etiology of diarrhea (e.g., dysmicrobia) (n=3, day 120–127) were: 9.55 (2.95–12.03) vs. 5 (3.85–9.05) vs. 15.6 (15.45–18.3) μmol/L resp. Serum citrulline levels were significantly higher in other (eg, dysmicrobic) etiology of diarrhea in comparison with mucositis (p=0.0336) and GVHD (p=0.0152). Conclusions Citrulline levels are very low shortly after the myeloablative FLU/MEL or BuCY2 conditioning allogeneic SCT due to the toxic intestinal damage. Significantly low levels of citrulline were also in patients with intestinal GVHD later on. Other observations in larger groups of patients are necessary before any specific recommendation for citrulline levels monitoring in intestinal GVHD can be made.
EVAPORATION OF WATER FROM A WETTED VERTICAL WAVY SURFACE

This paper presents the results of a theoretical study of the evaporation of the most common solvent, namely, water, by natural convection from a wet vertical wavy surface into stagnant streams of dry air, unsaturated mixtures of air and vapors, and super heated vapors. The surface is maintained at uniform wall temperature and constant wall concentration. A simple coordinate transformation is employed to transform the complex wavy surface to a rather simpler flat plate. A marching finite-difference scheme is used to solve the partial differential equations that describe the evaporation process. The effect of the amplitude of the wavy surface on the rate of evaporation and the inversion temperature, as well as the effect of ambient temperature and free stream composition are investigated. The results showed that the rate of evaporation from a wavy surface is significantly lower than that from a flat plate under the same conditions. The rate of evaporation of water increases as the ambient temperature increases and it is higher in pure air than that in superheated vapor up to the inversion temperature. Above this temperature the rate of evaporation becomes higher in superheated vapor than in pure air. The amplitude of the wavy surface showed no effect on the inversion temperature.
Particulate air pollution and respiratory disease in Anchorage, Alaska.

This paper examines the associations between average daily particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) and temperature with daily outpatient visits for respiratory disease including asthma, bronchitis, and upper respiratory illness in Anchorage, Alaska, where there are few industrial sources of air pollution. In Anchorage, PM10 is composed primarily of earth crustal material and volcanic ash. Carbon monoxide is measured only during the winter months. The number of outpatients visits for respiratory diagnoses during the period 1 May 1992 to 1 March 1994 were derived from medical insurance claims for state and municipal employees and their dependents covered by Aetna insurance. The data were filtered to reduce seasonal trends and serial autocorrelation and adjusted for day of the week. The results show that an increase of 10 micrograms/m3 in PM10 resulted in a 3-6% increase in visits for asthma and a 1-3% increase in visits for upper respiratory diseases. Winter CO concentrations were significantly associated with bronchitis and upper respiratory illness, but not with asthma. Winter CO was highly correlated with automobile exhaust emissions. These findings are consistent with the results of previous studies of particulate pollution in other urban areas and provide evidence that the coarse fraction of PM10 may affect the health of working people. ImagesFigure 1. AFigure 1. BFigure 2. AFigure 2. BFigure 3. AFigure 3. BFigure 4. AFigure 4. B
Optimizing peer-to-peer backup using lifetime estimations

In this paper, we study the viability of a peer-to-peer backup system on nowadays internet connections. In particular, we show that peer lifetime estimation can be used to reduce the maintenance cost of peer-to-peer backup. Previous studies [5] have shown that lifetimes in a peer-to-peer system follow a Pareto distribution. Consequently, peers can be sorted on their expected lifetimes, depending only on the length of their history in the system. By carefully selecting the peers on which backup data is stored, repairing cost can be highly reduced for long-term backup users, while it is still acceptable for new users. The efficiency of this technique is evaluated through simulations of a state-of-the-art peer-to-peer backup system.
Le Fort III Distraction: Part I. Controlling Position and Vectors of the Midface Segment

Background: The purpose of this investigation was to determine the response of the osteotomized Le Fort III midface bony segment to variations in the location and direction, or vector, of force application on using the rigid external distraction device. Methods: This retrospective study involved 18 consecutive syndromic craniosynostotic patients (average age, 5.7 years) who underwent Le Fort III midface advancement distraction. Various cephalometric and novel landmarks, located on the mobilized Le Fort III segment and on the components of the distraction device, were identified before activation and at mid-activation. The direction and magnitude of change for these points were recorded. Results: Based on the observed change in the position of the midface during distraction, the sample was divided into the following groups. In group 1 (n = 5), the Le Fort III segment translated forward and no rotation was noted. In group 2 (n = 3), the Le Fort III segment rotated clockwise and showed downward displacement. In group 3 (n = 6), the Le Fort III segment showed forward displacement and rotated counterclockwise. In group 4 (n = 4), the Le Fort III segment translated forward and downward. Conclusions: Direction of movement and resultant change in position of the Le Fort III segment during distraction are directly related to the location and direction of force application. Translation forward, with minimal rotation, was achieved when the force was applied at a location 55 percent above the occlusal plane (between the occlusal plane and the nasion) and in a direction parallel to the maxillary occlusal plane.
Scalp Hematoma Characteristics Associated With Intracranial Injury in Pediatric Minor Head Injury.

OBJECTIVES Minor head trauma accounts for a significant proportion of pediatric emergency department (ED) visits. In children younger than 24 months, scalp hematomas are thought to be associated with the presence of intracranial injury (ICI). We investigated which scalp hematoma characteristics were associated with increased odds of ICI in children less than 17 years who presented to the ED following minor head injury and whether an underlying linear skull fracture may explain this relationship. METHODS This was a secondary analysis of 3,866 patients enrolled in the Canadian Assessment of Tomography of Childhood Head Injury (CATCH) study. Information about scalp hematoma presence (yes/no), location (frontal, temporal/parietal, occipital), and size (small and localized, large and boggy) was collected by emergency physicians using a structured data collection form. ICI was defined as the presence of an acute brain lesion on computed tomography. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for age, sex, dangerous injury mechanism, irritability on examination, suspected open or depressed skull fracture, and clinical signs of basal skull fracture. RESULTS ICI was present in 159 (4.1%) patients. The presence of a scalp hematoma (n = 1,189) in any location was associated with significantly greater odds of ICI (odds ratio [OR] = 4.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.06 to 6.02), particularly for those located in temporal/parietal (OR = 6.0, 95% CI = 3.9 to 9.3) and occipital regions (OR = 5.6, 95% CI = 3.5 to 8.9). Both small and localized and large and boggy hematomas were significantly associated with ICI, although larger hematomas conferred larger odds (OR = 9.9, 95% CI = 6.3 to 15.5). Although the presence of a scalp hematoma was associated with greater odds of ICI in all age groups, odds were greatest in children aged 0 to 6 months (OR = 13.5, 95% CI = 1.5 to 119.3). Linear skull fractures were present in 156 (4.0%) patients. Of the 111 patients with scalp hematoma and ICI, 57 (51%) patients had a linear skull fracture and 54 (49%) did not. The association between scalp hematoma and ICI attenuated but remained significant after excluding patients with linear skull fracture (OR = 3.3, 95% CI = 2.1 to 5.1). CONCLUSIONS Large and boggy and nonfrontal scalp hematomas had the strongest association with the presence of ICI in this large pediatric cohort. Although children 0 to 6 months of age were at highest odds, the presence of a scalp hematoma also independently increased the odds of ICI in older children and adolescents. The presence of a linear skull fracture only partially explained this relation, indicating that ruling out a skull fracture beneath a hematoma does not obviate the risk of intracranial pathology.
Robot-Assisted Neck Dissection via a Transaxillary and Retroauricular Approach Versus a Conventional Transcervical Approach in Papillary Thyroid Cancer with Cervical Lymph Node Metastases

Background: Recently, robot-assisted neck dissection (ND) using a transaxillary approach in thyroid cancer patients with lateral neck metastases (LNM) was demonstrated to be feasible. The aim of this study was to compare the surgical outcomes of a modified transaxillary and retroauricular (TARA) versus a conventional transcervical approach in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients with LNM. Patients and Methods: In total, 47 patients with PTC underwent total thyroidectomy with central compartment ND and modified radical ND except Level I. Twenty-two NDs were performed via the TARA approach, and 25 unilateral NDs were performed via the conventional transcervical approach. Results: The TARA and the open ND groups consisted of 22 and 25 patients, respectively. The operation time for ND in the TARA group was longer than that in the open ND group (209.4 – 38.2 minutes versus 143.1 – 30.5 minutes; P = .000). The mean scar satisfaction score in the TARA group was higher than in the conventional ND group (3.9 – 1.0 versus 2.8 – 1.0; P = .000). There were no differences in the mean number of retrieved lymph nodes. Conclusions: The robot-assisted ND via the TARA approach can be an alternative option that produces excellent esthetic results for the management of LNM in PTC patients.
Text readability and intuitive simplification: A comparison of readability formulas

Texts are routinely simplified for language learners with authors relying on a variety of approaches and materials to assist them in making the texts more comprehensible. Readability measures are one such tool that authors can use when evaluating text comprehensibility. This study compares the Coh-Metrix Second Language (L2) Reading Index, a readability formula based on psycholinguistic and cognitive models of reading, to traditional readability formulas on a large corpus of texts intuitively simplified for language learners. The goal of this study is to determine which formula best classifies text level (advanced, intermediate, beginner) with the prediction that text classification relates to the formulas’ capacity to measure text comprehensibility. The results demonstrate that the Coh-Metrix L2 Reading Index performs significantly better than traditional readability formulas, suggesting that the variables used in this index are more closely aligned to the intuitive text processing employed by authors when simplifying texts.
Does mini‐incision donor nephrectomy improve quality of life in living kidney donors?

Abstract: Background: Living kidney donation helps to avoid or reduce the time period of dialysis and on waiting lists in patients requiring a new organ. Mini‐incision donor nephrectomy (MIDN) shows to result in better clinical outcome in comparison with traditional open donor nephrectomy (ODN). This study was performed to evaluate the impact of different surgical procedures on the quality of life (QoL) in patients that underwent donor nephrectomy.
Integrase strand transfer inhibitors in the management of HIV-positive individuals

Abstract The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can lead to rare instances of treatment failure and the emergence of drug resistance. HIV drug-resistant strains are archived in cellular reservoirs, and this can exclude the future efficacy of drugs or drug classes against which resistance has emerged. In addition, drug-resistant viruses can be transmitted between individuals. HIV drug resistance has been countered through the constant development of new antiretroviral drugs. Integrase strand transfer inhibitors, that actively block the integration of the HIV genome into the host DNA, represent the most recent antiretroviral drugs. Of these, raltegravir, elvitegravir, and dolutegravir are the only integrase strand transfer inhibitors that have been approved for human therapy by the US Food and Drug Administration. Dolutegravir is unique in its ability to seemingly evade HIV drug resistance in treatment-naïve individuals. Here, we review the use of integrase strand transfer inhibitors in the management of HIV, focusing on HIV resistance.
Robust practical output tracking by dynamic output feedback for uncertain non-linear systems with unstabilisable and undetectable linearisation

This paper studies the global robust practical output tracking problem using a dynamic output feedback controller (i.e., an output compensator) for a family of uncertain non-linear systems whose Jacobian linearisation may be unstabilisable and/or undetectable. It is shown that under some mild conditions on a given system, there is an output compensator achieving global robust practical output tracking and such a compensator is explicitly constructed by the 'coupled controller-observer method' recently proposed. The usefulness of our result is illustrated by some simple numerical examples.
Consistent near‐surface ocean warming since 1900 in two largely independent observing networks

We compare historical global temperature time series, based on bias‐adjusted sea‐surface temperatures with independent temperature time series, for the upper 20 meter layer of the ocean based on the latest update of an historical hydrographic profile data set. Despite the two underlying data sets being different in number of data points, instrumentation and applied adjustments, both of the time series are consistent in showing an overall warming since 1900. We also extend records of temperature change in the upper 400 m back to 1900. Noting that the geographic coverage is limited prior to 1950, the temperature change in the 0–400 m layer is characterized by two periods of temperature increase between 1900 and 1940–45 and between 1970 and 2003, separated by a period of little change.
Early diagnosis of oral cancer

Oral cancer currently strikes about 30,000 Americans each year. Survival rates are approximately 50%. However, early detection followed by appropriate treatment can increase cure rates to about 80%, and greatly improves the quality of life by minimizing extensive, debilitating treatments. An early oral cancer can appear as an innocuous red or white change, an ulcer, or a lump, mimicking many benign lesions. Additionally, when the discomfort is minimal, professional consultation often is delayed, increasing the chance for local spread and regional metastases. Vital staining with toluidine blue and exfoliative cytologic examination can aid early detection by accelerating the biopsy of lesions that cannot be classified adequately or made to disappear.
Soil hydro-physical Environment as Influenced by Different Biochar Amendments

Biochar acts as a soil conditioner, improving soil physical properties, nutrient use efficiency and thereby increasing plant growth. An experiment was conducted at ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute during the year 2016−17 in order to study the effect of different levels of biochar obtained from different biomass on selected soil hydro-physical properties. In this study, a sandy loam soil was amended with four different types of biochar (maize, Lantana camara , pine needle and black gram) at four different rates (0, 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 t ha -1 ). The biochar were characterized for their physico-chemical properties. After biochar application selected soil hydro-physical properties were analyzed for bulk density, porosity, aggregate stability, mean weight diameter, hydraulic conductivity and water holding capacity. Maize biochar was showing best result for improving all the selected the soil physical properties compared to other type. With increasing rate of application of biochar soil physical properties also changed significantly. The results showed that bulk density decreased from 1.53 to 1.13 g cm -3 while porosity increased from 58.38 to 65.67. Aggregate stability and mean weight diameter increased from 4.13 and 2.51 to 8.29 and 2.83, respectively. But biochar amendment decreased the soil hydraulic conductivity from 0.41 to 0.16. Besides water holding capacity also increased from 11.37 to 19.8 g cm -3 . Finally soil moisture content increased significantly from 19.1 to 25.7 for all the biochar. These results strongly suggest positive improvement of soil hydro-physical properties following addition of biochar amendment in sandy loam soil.
An instrument for measuring coping behaviours in hospitalized alcoholics: implications for relapse prevention treatment.

Summary The results of a principal components analysis of the Coping Behaviours Inventory administered to 256 hospitalized alcoholic patients are compared with a reanalysis of data obtained from a different group of patients five years ago. These results indicate that the factor structure of the Inventory is stable over time and with different alcoholic patient populations. The four factors emerging from the present study, which account for 54% of the variance, were: (i) Positive Thinking (ii) Negative Thinking (iii) Avoidance/Distraction (iv) Seeking Social Support The possible uses of this instrument in monitoring and informing some types of alcoholism-treatment programmes are discussed.
Dissecting the Practical Lexical Function Model for Compositional Distributional Semantics

The Practical Lexical Function model (PLF) is a recently proposed compositional distributional semantic model which provides an elegant account of composition, striking a balance between expressiveness and robustness and performing at the state-of-the-art. In this paper, we identify an inconsistency in PLF between the objective function at training and the prediction at testing which leads to an overcounting of the predicate’s contribution to the meaning of the phrase. We investigate two possible solutions of which one (the exclusion of simple lexical vector at test time) improves performance significantly on two out of the three composition datasets.
Metabolic Constraint-Based Refinement of Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

There is a strong need for computational frameworks that integrate different biological processes and data-types to unravel cellular regulation. Current efforts to reconstruct transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) focus primarily on proximal data such as gene co-expression and transcription factor (TF) binding. While such approaches enable rapid reconstruction of TRNs, the overwhelming combinatorics of possible networks limits identification of mechanistic regulatory interactions. Utilizing growth phenotypes and systems-level constraints to inform regulatory network reconstruction is an unmet challenge. We present our approach Gene Expression and Metabolism Integrated for Network Inference (GEMINI) that links a compendium of candidate regulatory interactions with the metabolic network to predict their systems-level effect on growth phenotypes. We then compare predictions with experimental phenotype data to select phenotype-consistent regulatory interactions. GEMINI makes use of the observation that only a small fraction of regulatory network states are compatible with a viable metabolic network, and outputs a regulatory network that is simultaneously consistent with the input genome-scale metabolic network model, gene expression data, and TF knockout phenotypes. GEMINI preferentially recalls gold-standard interactions (p-value = 10−172), significantly better than using gene expression alone. We applied GEMINI to create an integrated metabolic-regulatory network model for Saccharomyces cerevisiae involving 25,000 regulatory interactions controlling 1597 metabolic reactions. The model quantitatively predicts TF knockout phenotypes in new conditions (p-value = 10−14) and revealed potential condition-specific regulatory mechanisms. Our results suggest that a metabolic constraint-based approach can be successfully used to help reconstruct TRNs from high-throughput data, and highlights the potential of using a biochemically-detailed mechanistic framework to integrate and reconcile inconsistencies across different data-types. The algorithm and associated data are available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/gemini-data/