Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ALTERNATING DIRECTION ALGORITHMS FOR TOTAL VARIATION DECONVOLUTION IN IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION

Image restoration and reconstruction from blurry and noisy observation is known to be ill-posed. To stabilize the recovery, total variation (TV) regularization was introduced by Rudin, Osher and Fatemi in [24], which has demonstrated superiority in preserving image edges. However, the nondifferentiability of TV makes the underlying optimization problems difficult to solve. In this paper, we propose to solve TV deconvolution problems by alternating direction method (ADM) — a variant of the classic augmented Lagrangian method for structured optimization. The main idea of our approach is to reformulate a TV problem as a linear equality constrained problem where the objective function is separable, and then minimize its augmented Lagrangian function using a Gauss-Seidel updates of both primal and dual variables. This ADM approach can be applied to both singleand multi-channel images with either Gaussian or impulsive noise, and permit cross-channel blurs when the underlying image has more than one channel. The per-iteration computational complexity of the algorithm is dominated by several fast Fourier transforms. We present extensive experimental results concerning different blurs and noise to compare with FTVd [34, 37, 38] — a state-of-the-art algorithm for TV image reconstruction, and the results indicate that the ADM approach is more stable and efficient.
Please Scroll down for Article Hydrological Sciences Journal the Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (crest) Distributed Hydrological Model the Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (crest) Distributed Hydrological Model

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Abstract The Coupled Routing and Excess STorage model (CREST, jointly developed by the University of Oklahoma and NASA SERVIR) is a distributed hydrological model developed to simulate the spatial and temporal variation of land surface, and subsurface water fluxes and storages by cell-to-cell simulation. CREST's distinguishing characteristics include: (1) distributed rainfall–runoff generation and cell-to-cell routing; (2) coupled runoff generation and routing via three feedback mechanisms; and (3) representation of sub-grid cell variability of soil moisture storage capacity and sub-grid cell routing (via linear reservoirs). The coupling between the runoff generation and routing mechanisms allows detailed and realistic treatment of hydrological variables such as soil moisture. Furthermore, the representation of soil moisture variability and routing processes at the sub-grid scale enables the CREST model to be readily scalable to multi-scale modelling research. This paper presents the model development and demonstrates its applicability for a case study in the Nzoia basin located in Lake Victoria, Africa. Le modèle hydrologique distribué couplé routage et stockage des excédents (CREST)
Developing kinship care : a case of evidence based social work practice?

This thesis provides a description and analysis of contemporary policy and practice in kinship care within three local authorities in England. The aim is to examine the extent to which government policy principles and available research evidence have translated into professional practice on the ground in different agency settings and to consider the implications of these findings for future management planning in this field. This is approached through considering UK research on kinship and examining the relationship between the statutory principles driving policies and the way the three local authorities have responded. This is with a view to questioning how kinship locally has influenced social work practice at a case level and compares local policies and practice against wider research evidence. Proposals are made about the modelling of a more effective approach to social work practice and management in kinship care planning. This study of different authorities and their approaches to kinship explores some of the challenges by which policy principles and research findings get translated into social work practice in a field of practice and theory that is itself contested. The study was undertaken in four stages: 1. A review of the extent to which local authority policies are compliant and consistent with statutory rules and contemporary research findings on kinship care. 2. A comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between policies and their formation in three studied authorities. 3. An analysis of the extent to which local management and social work practice, as reported, is consistent with policy and research. 4. The modelling of a Kinship care Definition and Policy Model could be proposed that is compliant with the principles of the Children Act 1989 and responsive to the research findings. The challenge set out in this research is to bridge academic research, policy formulation and operational practice. This research does not seek to evidence best practice in its own right but to recognise the variance of kinship in practice and approach and, from knowledge gained, set out a proposed model of good practice, one that is responsive to the findings and could be adopted within local authorities in England.
Antibody to Coxsackie B virus in diagnosing postviral fatigue syndrome.

OBJECTIVE--To study the association between coxsackie B virus infection and the postviral fatigue syndrome and to assess the immunological abnormalities associated with the syndrome. DESIGN--Case-control study of patients with the postviral fatigue syndrome referred by local general practitioners over one year. SETTING--General practitioner referrals in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. PATIENTS--254 Patients referred with the postviral fatigue syndrome (exhaustion, myalgia, and other symptoms referable to postviral fatigue syndrome of fairly recent onset--that is, several months) and age and sex matched controls obtained from same general practitioner; 11 patients were rejected because of wrong diagnoses, resolution of symptoms, and refusal to participate, leaving 243 patients and matched controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Detailed questionnaire (patients and controls) and clinical examination (patients) and blind analysis of blood sample at entry and after six months for determination of coxsackie B virus IgM and IgG antibodies and other variables (including lymphocyte protein synthesis, lymphocyte subsets, and immune complexes). RESULTS--Percentage positive rates for coxsackie B virus IgM at entry were 24.4% for patients and 22.6% for controls and for coxsackie B virus IgG 56.2% and 55.3% respectively; there were no significant differences between different categories of patients according to clinical likelihood of the syndrome nor any predictive value in a fourfold rise or fall in the coxsackie B virus IgG titre in patients between entry and review at six months. The rates of positive antibody test results in patients and controls showed a strong seasonal variation. Of the numerous immunological tests performed, only a few detected significant abnormalities; in particular the mean value for immune complex concentration was much higher in 35 patients and 35 controls compared with the normal range and mean value for total IgM was also raised in 227 patients and 35 controls compared with the normal range. CONCLUSIONS--Serological tests available for detecting coxsackie B virus antibodies do not help diagnose the postviral fatigue syndrome. Percentage positive rates of the antibodies in patients simply reflect the background in the population as probably do the raised concentrations of total IgM and immune complexes.
An event-guided approach to reducing voltage noise in processors

Supply voltage fluctuations that result from inductive noise are increasingly troublesome in modern microprocessors. A voltage ldquoemergencyrdquo, i.e., a swing beyond tolerable operating margins, jeopardizes the safe and correct operation of the processor. Techniques aimed at reducing power consumption, e.g., by clock gating or by reducing nominal supply voltage, exacerbate this noise problem, requiring ever-wider operating margins. We propose an event-guided, adaptive method for avoiding voltage emergencies, which exploits the fact that most emergencies are correlated with unique microarchitectural events, such as cache misses or the pipeline flushes that follow branch mispredictions. Using checkpoint and rollback to handle unavoidable emergencies, our method adapts dynamically by learning to trigger avoidance mechanisms when emergency-prone events recur. After tightening supply voltage margins to increase clock frequency and accounting for all costs, the net result is a performance improvement of 8% across a suite of fifteen SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks.
A New Method for Computing Attention Network Scores and Relationships between Attention Networks

The attention network test (ANT) is a reliable tool to detect the efficiency of alerting, orienting, and executive control networks. However, studies using the ANT obtained inconsistent relationships between attention networks due to two reasons: on the one hand, the inter-network relationships of attention subsystems were far from clear; on the other hand, ANT scores in previous studies were disturbed by possible inter-network interactions. Here we proposed a new computing method by dissecting cue-target conditions to estimate ANT scores and relationships between attention networks as pure as possible. The method was tested in 36 participants. Comparing to the original method, the new method showed a larger alerting score and a smaller executive control score, and revealed interactions between alerting and executive control and between orienting and executive control. More interestingly, the new method revealed unidirectional influences from alerting to executive control and from executive control to orienting. These findings provided useful information for better understanding attention networks and their relationships in the ANT. Finally, the relationships of attention networks should be considered with more experimental paradigms and techniques.
Media Coverage of Adolescent and Celebrity Suicides and Imitation Suicides among Adolescents

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States. Imitation plays an important role in adolescent suicides. Identification theory suggests that media coverage of adolescent suicides can increase imitation suicides among adolescents. The present study examines this possibility using data collected from South Korea. It also explores the relationship between media coverage of celebrity suicides and suicide rates among adolescents. We found that adolescent suicides increase after media coverage of either an adolescent’s suicide or a domestic celebrity’s suicide.
Alters Estrogen-Responsive Gene Expression α Receptor Nonmetastatic Protein 23 Homologue H 1 and Estrogen Interaction of the Tumor Metastasis Suppressor

Metastasis of cancer cells from the primary tumor is associated with poor prognosis and decreased overall survival. One protein implicated in inhibiting metastasis is the tumor metastasis suppressor nonmetastatic protein 23 homologue 1 (NM23-H1). NM23-H1 is a multifunctional protein, which, in addition to limiting metastasis, has DNase and histidine protein kinase activities. We have identified new functions for NM23-H1 in influencing estrogen receptor A (ERA)–mediated gene expression. Using a battery of molecular and biochemical techniques, we show that NM23-H1 interacts with ERA and increases the ERA–estrogen response element (ERE) interaction. When NM23-H1 expression is increased in U2 osteosarcoma and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, transcription of a transiently transfected, estrogen-responsive reporter plasmid is decreased. More importantly, when endogenous NM23-H1 expression is knocked down in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells using small interfering RNA, estrogen responsiveness of the progesterone receptor (PR), Bcl-2, cathepsin D, and cyclin D1 genes, but not the pS2 gene, is enhanced. Furthermore, NM23-H1 associates with the region of the PR gene containing the +90 activator protein 1 site, but notwith the ERE-containing region of the pS2 gene, indicating that NM23-H1 mediates gene-specific effects by association with endogenous chromatin. Our studies suggest that the capacity of NM23-H1 to limit the expression of estrogen-responsive genes such as cathepsin D and Bcl-2, which are involved in cell migration, apoptosis, and angiogenesis, may help to explain the metastasis-suppressive effects of this protein. The complementary abilities of ERA and NM23-H1 together to influence gene expression, cell migration, and apoptosis could be key factors in helping to determine tumor cell fate. [Cancer Res 2007;67(21):10600–7]
Hamiltonian analysis of Plebanski theory

We study the Hamiltonian formulation of Plebanski theory in both the Euclidean and Lorentzian cases. A careful analysis of the constraints shows that the system is non-regular, i.e., the rank of the Dirac matrix is non-constant on the non-reduced phase space. We identify the gravitational and topological sectors which are regular subspaces of the non-reduced phase space. The theory can be restricted to the regular subspace which contains the gravitational sector. We explicitly identify first- and second-class constraints in this case. We compute the determinant of the Dirac matrix and the natural measure for the path integral of the Plebanski theory (restricted to the gravitational sector). This measure is the analogue of the Leutwyler–Fradkin–Vilkovisky measure of quantum gravity.
Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Use of Representations and Suggestions for Students’ Incorrect Use

In this study, we investigated how elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) perceive using representations in teaching mathematics and what fractional representations (e.g., manipulatives or models) they suggest to guide students’ incorrect use of representations in learning fractions. A written questionnaire was administrated to 151 PSTs at a large Southwestern university in the US. An inductive content analysis approach including both qualitative and quantitative analyses was used to analyze the data. Findings suggested that fraction-related topics were the PSTs’ main choices for using representations, and they valued understanding concepts and making connections between representations and concepts. Also, the findings showed the PSTs’ tendency to use models procedurally and their predominant dependency on a few types of models (e.g., wedged circular models) in guiding students who use representations incorrectly. Implications for designing mathematics methods courses that support effective use of representations are discussed.
An Investigation of Factors Influencing the Adoption of Internet Services in Social Security Organization: with Structural Equation Modeling

Social Security Organization (SSO) has designed a system for the online performance of different tasks of Social Security (such as paying insurance premium) in order to reduce its overhead and operating costs and increase the welfare of clienteles. Given the undesirable level of using Internet services in developing countries, especially among people with lower levels of education, this study aimed to identify various factors affecting the purpose of using internet services within the organization in the framework of technology adoption models. The present study was conducted in the time period of September to October in 2014 in BuinZahra Social Security Organization. In order to collect the raw data, a questionnaire based on the previous studies and localization of indicators related to the study variables was formulated. The questionnaires were distributed among a sample consisted of 386 clienteles in the organization (by indicating at least once using organization's internet services). They were selected in a simple random sampling method. To evaluate reliability and inter-correlation among questions, Cronbach's alpha was used and for all categories, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was assessed higher than 0.7. The validity of the structure was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. The hypotheses were tested using path analysis method and running LISREL software. The test of the hypotheses showed that all investigated variables had an effect on intention to use internet services of the organization except for the need for personal interaction.
Improved drought tolerance through drought preconditioning associated with changes in antioxidant enzyme activities, gene expression and osmoregulatory solutes accumulation in White clover (Trifolium repens L.)

Improving drought tolerance through drought preconditioning is an important way to understand drought tolerance mechanism in plants. Some limited researches have focused on the gene expression patterns in conjunction with the underlying enzymes promoting drought tolerance and post-drought recovery in white clover. The objective of this study was to identify whether preconditioning-induced drought tolerance is in relation to changes of antioxidant enzyme activities, gene expression and osmoregulatory solutes in white clover. Plants of white clover cultivar, 'Chuanyin Ladino' (drought sensitive), were exposed to two cycles of drought preconditioning (non-preconditioned, well-watered plants, as a control) then exposed to drought stress for 11 days and rewatered for 6 days in a growth chamber with 14 h photoperiod at day/night temperature of 21/16 degreesC, 70 % relative humidity, and 300 mumol m-2 s-1 photosynthetic photon flux density. Results showed that drought preconditioning improved drought tolerance and post-drought recovery in white clover, as demonstrated by significantly lower (p=0.05) lipid peroxidation, better cell membrane stability and higher relative water content in droughtpreconditioned plants as compared to non-preconditioned plants under drought stress and rewatering. Drought-preconditioned plants exhibited higher superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT) and guaiacol peroxidase activities (POD), as well as higher transcript level of Cu/Zn SOD gene. Meanwhile, more accumulation of soluble sugars and betain and less accumulated proline were also observed in preconditioned plants. Enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and significantly higher transcript level of Cu/Zn SOD gene may be the critical reasons in acquiring drought tolerance through drought preconditioning. This study also suggests that drought preconditioning improved white clover drought tolerance, which could be related to more accumulation of soluble sugars and betain, while the accumulated proline is associated with the degree of drought stress injury in white clover.
Body tilt effect on the reproduction of orientations: studies on the visual oblique effect and subjective orientations.

Body tilt effects on the visual reproduction of orientations and the Class 2 oblique effect (E. A. Essock, 1980) were examined. Body tilts indicate whether the oblique effect (i.e., lower performance in oblique orientations than in vertical-horizontal orientations) is defined in an egocentric or a gravitational reference frame. Results showed that the oblique effect observed in upright posture disappeared in tilted conditions, mainly due to a decrease in the precision of the vertical and horizontal settings. In tilted conditions, the subjective visual vertical proved to be the orientation reproduced the most precisely. Thus, the oblique effect seemed to be not purely gravitationally or egocentrically defined but, rather, to depend on a subjective gravitational reference frame tilted in the same direction as body tilts.
Neglected Tropical Diseases of the Middle East and North Africa: Review of Their Prevalence, Distribution, and Opportunities for Control

The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are highly endemic but patchily distributed among the 20 countries and almost 400 million people of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and disproportionately affect an estimated 65 million people living on less than US$2 per day. Egypt has the largest number of people living in poverty of any MENA nation, while Yemen has the highest prevalence of people living in poverty. These two nations stand out for having suffered the highest rates of many NTDs, including the soil-transmitted nematode infections, filarial infections, schistosomiasis, fascioliasis, leprosy, and trachoma, although they should be recognized for recent measures aimed at NTD control. Leishmaniasis, especially cutaneous leishmaniasis, is endemic in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, and elsewhere in the region. Both zoonotic (Leishmania major) and anthroponotic (Leishmania tropica) forms are endemic in MENA in rural arid regions and urban regions, respectively. Other endemic zoonotic NTDs include cystic echinococcosis, fascioliasis, and brucellosis. Dengue is endemic in Saudi Arabia, where Rift Valley fever and Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever have also emerged. Great strides have been made towards elimination of several endemic NTDs, including lymphatic filariasis in Egypt and Yemen; schistosomiasis in Iran, Morocco, and Oman; and trachoma in Morocco, Algeria, Iran, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. A particularly noteworthy achievement is the long battle waged against schistosomiasis in Egypt, where prevalence has been brought down by regular praziquantel treatment. Conflict and human and animal migrations are key social determinants in preventing the control or elimination of NTDs in the MENA, while local political will, strengthened international and intersectoral cooperative efforts for surveillance, mass drug administration, and vaccination are essential for elimination.