Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Christopoulos: Thc Jpeg2000 Still Image Coding System: an Overview the Jpeg2000 Still Image Coding System: an Overview

With the increasing use of multimedia technologies, image compression requires higher performance as well as new features. To address this need in the specific area of still image encoding, a new standard is currently being developed, the JPEC2000. It is not only intended to provide rate-distortion and subjective image quality performance superior to existing standards, but also to provide features and functionalities that current standards can either not address efficiently or in many cases cannot address at all. Lossless and lossy compression, embedded lossy to lossless coding, progressive transmission by pixel accuracy and by resolution, robustness to the presence of bit-errors and region-of-interest coding, are some representative features. It is interesting to note that JPEG2000 is being designed to address the requirements of a diversity of applications, e.g.
The impact of sleep deprivation and nighttime light exposure on clock gene expression in humans

Aim To examine the effect of acute sleep deprivation under light conditions on the expression of two key clock genes, hPer2 and hBmal1, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and on plasma melatonin and cortisol levels. Methods Blood samples were drawn from 6 healthy individuals at 4-hour intervals for three consecutive nights, including a night of total sleep deprivation (second night). The study was conducted in April-June 2006 at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana. Results We found a significant diurnal variation in hPer2 and hBmal1 expression levels under baseline (P < 0.001, F = 19.7, df = 30 for hPer2 and P < 0.001, F = 17.6, df = 30 for hBmal1) and sleep-deprived conditions (P < 0.001, F = 9.2, df = 30 for hPer2 and P < 0.001, F = 13.2, df = 30 for hBmal1). Statistical analysis with the single cosinor method revealed circadian variation of hPer2 under baseline and of hBmal1 under baseline and sleep-deprived conditions. The peak expression of hPer2 was at 13:55 ± 1:15 hours under baseline conditions and of hBmal1 at 16:08 ± 1:18 hours under baseline and at 17:13 ± 1:35 hours under sleep-deprived conditions. Individual cosinor analysis of hPer2 revealed a loss of circadian rhythm in 3 participants and a phase shift in 2 participants under sleep-deprived conditions. The plasma melatonin and cortisol rhythms confirmed a conventional alignment of the central circadian pacemaker to the habitual sleep/wake schedule. Conclusion Our results suggest that 40-hour acute sleep deprivation under light conditions may affect the expression of hPer2 in PBMCs.
Dietary fiber is positively associated with cognitive control among prepubertal children.

BACKGROUND Converging evidence now indicates that aerobic fitness and adiposity are key correlates of childhood cognitive function and brain health. However, the evidence relating dietary intake to executive function/cognitive control remains limited. OBJECTIVE The current study assessed cross-sectional associations between performance on an attentional inhibition task and dietary fatty acids (FAs), fiber, and overall diet quality among children aged 7-9 y (n = 65). METHODS Attentional inhibition was assessed by using a modified flanker task. Three-day food records were used to conduct nutrient-level analyses and to calculate diet quality (Healthy Eating Index-2005) scores. RESULTS Bivariate correlations revealed that socioeconomic status and sex were not related to task performance or diet measures. However, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), pubertal staging, maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max), and percentage of fat mass (%fat mass) correlated with task accuracy. Hierarchical regression models were used to determine the relation between diet variables and task accuracy and reaction time across both congruent and incongruent trials of the flanker task. After adjustment of confounding variables (age, IQ, pubertal staging, V̇O2max, and %fat mass), congruent accuracy was positively associated with insoluble fiber (β = 0.26, P = 0.03) and total dietary fiber (β = 0.23, P = 0.05). Incongruent response accuracy was positively associated with insoluble fiber (β = 0.35, P < 0.01), pectins (β = 0.25, P = 0.04), and total dietary fiber (β = 0.32, P < 0.01). Higher diet quality was related to lower accuracy interference (β = -0.26, P = 0.03), whereas higher total FA intake was related to greater accuracy interference (β = 0.24, P = 0.04). No statistically significant associations were observed between diet variables and reaction time measures. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that children's diet quality, specifically dietary fiber, is an important correlate of performance on a cognitive task requiring variable amounts of cognitive control.
Gastric antisecretory and antiulcer effects of simvastatin in rats

Background and Aim: Recently, statins have appeared to have additional benefits beyond their lipid lowering effects, which has led to the interest in the use of this class of drugs outside the realm of cardiovascular disease. Simvastatin (SIM) is a commonly prescribed statin with anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Excessive generation of oxygen‐derived free radicals (ODFR) and proinflammatory mediators has been implicated in the pathogenesis of gastric ulcers. This investigation aimed to study the effect of SIM on experimentally induced gastric acid secretion and ulcer formation.
Acoustic Noise Improves Visual Perception and Modulates Occipital Oscillatory States

Perception is a multisensory process, and previous work has shown that multisensory interactions occur not only for object-related stimuli but also for simplistic and apparently unrelated inputs to the different senses. We here compare the facilitation of visual perception induced by transient (target-synchronized) sounds to the facilitation provided by continuous background noise like sounds. Specifically, we show that continuous acoustic noise improves visual contrast detection by systematically shifting psychometric curves in an amplitude-dependent manner. This multisensory benefit was found to be both qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that induced by a transient and target synchronized sound in the same paradigm. Studying the underlying neural mechanisms using electric neuroimaging (EEG), we found that acoustic noise alters occipital alpha (8–12 Hz) power and decreases beta-band (14–20 Hz) coupling of occipital and temporal sites. Task-irrelevant and continuous sounds thereby have an amplitude-dependent effect on cortical mechanisms implicated in shaping visual cortical excitability. The same oscillatory mechanisms also mediate visual facilitation by transient sounds, and our results suggest that task-related sounds and task-irrelevant background noises could induce perceptually and mechanistically similar enhancement of visual perception. Given the omnipresence of sounds and noises in our environment, such multisensory interactions may affect perception in many everyday scenarios.
Recognition judgments and the performance of the recognition heuristic depend on the size of the reference class

In a series of three experiments, participants made inferences about which one of a pair of two objects scored higher on a criterion. The first experiment was designed to contrast the prediction of Probabilistic Mental Model theory (Gigerenzer, Hoffrage, & Kleinbölting, 1991) concerning sampling procedure with the hard-easy effect. The experiment failed to support the theory’s prediction that a particular pair of randomly sampled item sets would differ in percentage correct; but the observation that German participants performed practically as well on comparisons between U.S. cities (many of which they did not even recognize) than on comparisons between German cities (about which they knew much more) ultimately led to the formulation of the recognition heuristic. Experiment 2 was a second, this time successful, attempt to unconfound item difficulty and sampling procedure. In Experiment 3, participants’ knowledge and recognition of each city was elicited, and how often this could be used to make an inference was manipulated. Choices were consistent with the recognition heuristic in about 80% of the cases when it discriminated and people had no additional knowledge about the recognized city (and in about 90% when they had such knowledge). The frequency with which the heuristic could be used affected the percentage correct, mean confidence, and overconfidence as predicted. The size of the reference class, which was also manipulated, modified these effects in meaningful and theoretically important ways.
Longitudinal course of bipolar I disorder: duration of mood episodes.

CONTEXT The phenomenology of bipolar I disorder affects treatment and prognosis. OBJECTIVE To describe the duration of bipolar I mood episodes and factors associated with recovery from these episodes. DESIGN Subjects with Research Diagnostic Criteria bipolar I disorder were prospectively followed up for as long as 25 years. The probability of recovery over time from multiple successive mood episodes was examined with survival analytic techniques, including a mixed-effects grouped-time survival model. SETTING Five US academic medical centers. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred nineteen subjects with bipolar I disorder. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Level of psychopathology was assessed with the Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation every 6 months for the first 5 years of follow-up and annually thereafter. RESULTS The median duration of bipolar I mood episodes was 13 weeks. More than 75% of the subjects recovered from their mood episodes within 1 year of onset. The probability of recovery was significantly less for an episode with severe onset (psychosis or severe psychosocial impairment in week 1 of the episode) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.746; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.578-0.963; P = .02) and for subjects with greater cumulative morbidity (total number of years spent ill with any mood episode) (HR = 0.917; 95% CI, 0.886-0.948; P < .001). Compared with the probability of recovery from a major depressive episode, there was a significantly greater probability of recovery from an episode of mania (HR = 1.713; 95% CI, 1.373-2.137; P < .001), hypomania (HR = 4.502; 95% CI, 3.466-5.849; P < .001), or minor depression (HR = 2.027; 95% CI, 1.622-2.534; P < .001) and, conversely, a significantly reduced probability of recovery from a cycling episode (switching from one pole to the other without an intervening period of recovery) (HR = 0.438; 95% CI, 0.351-0.548; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS The median duration of bipolar I mood episodes was 13 weeks, and the probability of recovery was significantly decreased for cycling episodes, mood episodes with severe onset, and subjects with greater cumulative morbidity.
Traumatic Dissociation as a Predictor of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in South African Female Rape Survivors

AbstractWomen survivors of rape are at an increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Traumatic dissociation has been identified as a precursor of PTSD. This study assessed the predictive potential of traumatic dissociation in PTSD and depression development.The study followed a longitudinal, prospective design. Ninety-seven female rape survivors were recruited from 2 clinics in Cape Town, South Africa. Clinical interviews and symptom status assessments of the participants were completed to measure dissociation, childhood traumas, resilience, depression, and PTSD.Traumatic dissociation was a significant predictor of PTSD and depression. The linear combination of prior dissociation, current dissociation, and resilience significantly explained 20.7% of the variance in PTSD. Dissociation mediated the relationship between resilience and PTSD.As traumatic dissociation significantly predicts PTSD, its early identification and management may reduce the risk of developing PTSD. Interventions focused on promoting resilience may also be successful in reducing the risk of dissociation following rape.
Association between patterns of leisure time physical activity and asthma control in adult patients

Background Physical activity has been shown to have various health benefits in patients with asthma, especially in children. However, there are still limited data on the nature of the association between physical activity and asthma control in adults. Objective The objective of the current study was to determine the nature of the association between physical activity and asthma control, with particular emphasis on the intensity of the activity and seasonal variations. Methods 643 adult patients with objectively confirmed asthma (mean age (SD)=53 (15) years, 60% women) were interviewed by telephone. Patients completed the asthma control questionnaire (ACQ), the asthma quality of life questionnaire, and a 1-year physical activity recall questionnaire to assess leisure time physical activity (LTPA). Results Total LTPA was related to control (β (95% CI)=−0.013 (−0.030 to 0.006)), with those doing recommended levels of LTPA being nearly 2.5 times more likely to have good control compared with inactive patients. Analysis of seasonal exercise habits found that winter LTPA (β=−0.027 (−0.048 to −0.006)) was more strongly associated with ACQ scores than summer LTPA (β=−0.019 (−0.037 to −0.001)). Adjustment for age, sex, season of assessment, inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) dose, body mass index, and current smoking status reduced the strength of the relationships. Conclusions Data indicate that higher levels of LTPA are associated with better levels of asthma control in adult patients with asthma, and that this seems to be more pronounced among asthmatics who do the recommended levels of exercise.
Bell's palsy.

THE TERM Bell's palsy denotes facial paresis occurring suddenly in an otherwise healthy person. It is not due to trauma. It may be due to virus infection, as in the Ramsey-Hunt syndrome. (Patients with the Ramsey-Hunt syndrome are not considered in this report.) It may also be due to neighborhood focal infection, in which case its onset is more gradual, the treatment obvious, and the differentiation from the ischemic palsy clear. The ischemic palsy is characterized by sudden onset with or without pain, usually the latter. Frequently, there is an exposure to cold, which is one mechanism of setting up an ischemia. This may explain why the percentage of severe cases with nonrecovery varies so much in different parts of the world. Neurosurgeons here see most of these patients, and they do not see such a high per cent of poor results with conservative treatment as is reported elsewhere. Perhaps
Effect of Magnetic Water on Engineering Properties of Concrete

mail: - E Abstract This research investigates the influence of magnetic water on compressive strength and workability (consistence) of concrete. Results show that the compressive strength of concrete samples prepared with magnetic water increases 10-20% more than that of the tap water samples. In the present study, increasing in compressive strength of concrete is achieved when the magnetic strength of water is 1.2 T, and velocity of water current that passes through magnetic field is of 0.71 m/s. It is also found that magnetic water improves the workability (consistency) of fresh concrete.
The Effect of Active Learning Methodologies on the Teaching of Pharmaceutical Care in a Brazilian Pharmacy Faculty

Background In recent years, pharmacists have been involved in expanded patient care responsibilities, for example patient counseling in self-medication, medication review and pharmaceutical care, which require graduates to develop the necessary competences. Consequently, reorientation of pharmacy education has become necessary. As such, active learning strategies have been introduced into classrooms to increase problem-solving and critical thinking skills of students. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and perceptions of competency of students in a new pharmaceutical care course that uses active learning methodologies. Methods This pharmaceutical care course was conducted in the first semester of 2014, in the Federal University of Sergipe. In the pharmaceutical care course, active learning methods were used, consisting of dialogic classroom expository, simulation and case studies. Student learning was evaluated using classroom tests and instruments that evaluated the perception of competency in pharmaceutical care practice. Furthermore, students' satisfaction with the course was evaluated. Results Thirty-three students completed the four evaluations used in the course (i.e., a discursive written exam, seminars, OSCE, and virtual patient); 25 were female (75.75%), and the median age was 23.43 (SD 2.82) years. The overall mean of student scores, in all evaluation methods was 7.97 (SD 0.59) on a scale of 0 to 10 points, and student performance on the virtual patient method was statistically superior to other methods. With respect to the perception of competency in pharmaceutical care practice, a comparison of pre- and post-test scores revealed statistically significant improvement for all evaluated competences. At the end of the semester, the students presented positive opinions of the pharmaceutical care course. Conclusions The results suggest that an active learning course can enhance the learning of pharmaceutical care competences. In future studies it will be necessary to compare active learning to traditional methods.
From Emotions to Action Units with Hidden and Semi-Hidden-Task Learning

Limited annotated training data is a challenging problem in Action Unit recognition. In this paper, we investigate how the use of large databases labelled according to the 6 universal facial expressions can increase the generalization ability of Action Unit classifiers. For this purpose, we propose a novel learning framework: Hidden-Task Learning. HTL aims to learn a set of Hidden-Tasks (Action Units) for which samples are not available but, in contrast, training data is easier to obtain from a set of related Visible-Tasks (Facial Expressions). To that end, HTL is able to exploit prior knowledge about the relation between Hidden and Visible-Tasks. In our case, we base this prior knowledge on empirical psychological studies providing statistical correlations between Action Units and universal facial expressions. Additionally, we extend HTL to Semi-Hidden Task Learning (SHTL) assuming that Action Unit training samples are also provided. Performing exhaustive experiments over four different datasets, we show that HTL and SHTL improve the generalization ability of AU classifiers by training them with additional facial expression data. Additionally, we show that SHTL achieves competitive performance compared with state-of-the-art Transductive Learning approaches which face the problem of limited training data by using unlabelled test samples during training.
Retinal horizontal cells: challenging paradigms of neural development and cancer biology

A group of retinal interneurons known as horizontal cells has recently been shown to exhibit a variety of unique biological properties, as compared with other nerve cells, that challenge many long-standing assumptions in the fields of neural development and cancer biology. These features include their unusual migratory behavior, their unique morphological plasticity, and their propensity to divide at a relatively late stage during development. Here, we review these novel features, discuss their relevance for other cell types, outline open questions in our understanding of horizontal cell development and consider their implications.
Accumulator based deterministic BIST

Most built-in self test (BIST) solutions require specialized test pattern generation hardware which may introduce significant area overhead and performance degradation. Recently, some authors proposed test pattern generation on chip by means of functional units also used in system mode like adders or multipliers. These schemes generate pseudo-random or pseudo-exhaustive patterns for serial or parallel BIST. If the circuit under test contains random pattern resistant faults a deterministic test pattern generator is necessary to obtain complete fault coverage. In this paper it is shown that a deterministic test set can be encoded as initial values of an accumulator based structure, and all testable faults can be detected within a given test length by carefully selecting the seeds of the accumulator. A ROM is added for storing the seeds, and the control logic of the accumulator is modified. In most cases the size of the ROM is less than the size required by traditional LFSR-based reseeding approaches.
Increased levels of C-reactive protein in serum from blood donors before the onset of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE We previously reported that approximately half of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have specific serologic abnormalities (elevated serum concentrations of IgM rheumatoid factor and/or anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies) starting several years before the onset of symptoms. In this study, the presence of serologic signs of inflammation in patients with preclinical RA was investigated with serial measurements of C-reactive protein (CRP). METHODS Seventy-nine patients (61% female; mean age at onset of symptoms 51 years) who had been blood donors before the onset of RA were identified. Frozen serum samples from each donor were retrieved, together with 1 sample from a control donor matched for age, sex, and date of donation. CRP was measured using a highly sensitive latex-enhanced assay. The dates of donation were categorized into 15 1-year periods preceding the onset of RA symptoms. For each period, the median CRP levels in the patient and control groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. The course of CRP concentrations over time in the patient group was estimated with random coefficient analysis. RESULTS A median of 13 samples (range 1-51) per patient were available; the earliest donation was made a median of 7.5 years (range 0.4-14.5 years) before the onset of symptoms. A total of 1,078 patient samples and 1,071 control samples were tested. For all 1-year periods, the median CRP concentration was increased in the patient group compared with the control group, but this difference was statistically significant only for the periods 0-1 year, 1-2 years, and 4-5 years before the onset of symptoms. The CRP concentration increased significantly over time in patients with preclinical RA; levels were slightly higher in the group of patients who had serologic abnormalities before the onset of symptoms than in those without such serologic abnormalities. CONCLUSION After observing specific serologic abnormalities 5 years before the onset of RA symptoms, we now report increased levels of CRP in blood donors in whom RA later developed; these increases were most common within the 2 years before the onset of symptoms. The preclinical increase in CRP levels was observed both in donors with and in those without serologic abnormalities.