Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Secure Algorithm for Fingerprint Recognition

Fingerprint recognition requires a minimal effort from the user, does not capture other information than strictly necessary for the recognition process, and provides relatively good performance. A critical step in fingerprint identification system is thinning of the input fingerprint image. The performance of a minutiae extraction algorithm relies heavily on the quality of the thinning algorithm. So, a fast fingerprint thinning algorithm is proposed. The algorithm works directly on the gray-scale image as binarization of fingerprint causes many spurious minutiae and also removes many important features. The performance of the thinning algorithm is evaluated and experimental results show that the proposed thinning algorithm is both fast and accurate. A new minutiae-based fingerprint matching technique is proposed. The main idea is that each fingerprint is represented by a minutiae table of just two columns in the database. The number of different minutiae types (terminations and bifurcations) found in each track of a certain width around the core point of the fingerprint is recorded in this table. Each row in the table represents a certain track, in the first column, the number of terminations in each track is recorded, in the second column, the number of bifurcations in each track is recorded. The algorithm is rotation and translation invariant, and needs less storage size. Experimental results show that recognition accuracy is 98%, with Equal Error Rate (EER) of 2%. Finally, the integrity of the data transmission via communication channels must be secure all the way from the scanner to the application. After applying Gaussian noise addition, and JPEG compression with high and moderate quality factors on the watermarked fingerprint images, recognition accuracy decreases slightly to reach 96%.
Cellular Visualization of Macrophage Pyroptosis and Interleukin-1β Release in a Viral Hemorrhagic Infection in Zebrafish Larvae

ABSTRACT Hemorrhagic viral diseases are distributed worldwide with important pathogens, such as dengue virus or hantaviruses. The lack of adequate in vivo infection models has limited the research on viral pathogenesis and the current understanding of the underlying infection mechanisms. Although hemorrhages have been associated with the infection of endothelial cells, other cellular types could be the main targets for hemorrhagic viruses. Our objective was to take advantage of the use of zebrafish larvae in the study of viral hemorrhagic diseases, focusing on the interaction between viruses and host cells. Cellular processes, such as transendothelial migration of leukocytes, virus-induced pyroptosis of macrophages. and interleukin-1β (Il-1β) release, could be observed in individual cells, providing a deeper knowledge of the immune mechanisms implicated in the disease. Furthermore, the application of these techniques to other pathogens will improve the current knowledge of host-pathogen interactions and increase the potential for the discovery of new therapeutic targets. IMPORTANCE Pathogenic mechanisms of hemorrhagic viruses are diverse, and most of the research regarding interactions between viruses and host cells has been performed in cell lines that might not be major targets during natural infections. Thus, viral pathogenesis research has been limited because of the lack of adequate in vivo infection models. The understanding of the relative pathogenic roles of the viral agent and the host response to the infection is crucial. This will be facilitated by the establishment of in vivo infection models using organisms such as zebrafish, which allows the study of the diseases in the context of a complete individual. The use of this animal model with other pathogens could improve the current knowledge on host-pathogen interactions and increase the potential for the discovery of new therapeutic targets against diverse viral diseases.
Developing a Model of Distributed Sensemaking: A Case Study of Military Analysis

In this paper, we examine the role of representational artefacts in sensemaking. Embodied within representational media, such as maps, charts and lists, are a number of affordances, which can furnish sensemakers with the ability to perform tasks that may be difficult to do inside the head. Presented here is a study of sensemaking in action. We conducted a study of military intelligence analysts carrying out a training exercise, the analysis of which focuses on the use of external task-specific representations. We present a discussion of the findings of our study in the form of a model of distributed sensemaking. Our model concentrates on the interaction of information and various representational artefacts, leading to the generation of insights and a situation picture. We also introduce a number of levels of description for examining the properties and affordances offered by representational artefacts and their role in the sensemaking process.
Shapelets: I. a method for image analysis

We present a new method for the analysis of images, a fundamental task in observational astronomy. It is based on the linear decomposition of each object in the image into a series of localized basis functions of different shapes, which we call ‘shapelets’. A particularly useful set of complete and orthonormal shapelets is that consisting of weighted Hermite polynomials, which correspond to perturbations around a circular Gaussian. They are also the eigenstates of the two-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator, and thus allow us to use the powerful formalism developed for this problem. One of their special properties is their invariance under Fourier transforms (up to a rescaling), leading to an analytic form for convolutions. The generator of linear transformations such as translations, rotations, shears and dilatations can be written as simple combinations of raising and lowering operators. We derive analytic expressions for practical quantities, such as the centroid (astrometry), flux (photometry) and radius of the object, in terms of its shapelet coefficients. We also construct polar basis functions which are eigenstates of the angular momentum operator, and thus have simple properties under rotations. As an example, we apply the method to Hubble Space Telescope images, and show that the small number of shapelet coefficients required to represent galaxy images lead to compression factors of about 40 to 90. We discuss applications of shapelets for the archival of large photometric surveys, for weak and strong gravitational lensing and for image deprojection.
Effects of Febrile Temperature on Adenoviral Infection and Replication: Implications for Viral Therapy of Cancer

ABSTRACT We previously conducted a phase I/II study using arterial infusions of ONYX-015 (dl1520), a replication-selective adenoviral vector, with E1b deleted, for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. No dose-limiting toxicities occurred, but >90% of the patients experienced fever. The effects of temperature on the replication of dl1520 in normal and transformed cells had not been studied. Therefore, replication and cell viability assays were performed with a panel of nontransformed and transformed cell lines cultured at 37 and 39.5°C and treated with adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) or dl1520. Ad5-mediated cytolytic effects were inhibited and production of infectious particles decreased by >1,000-fold in the nontransformed cells at 39.5°C. Seven of nine of the tumor cell lines retained significant cell-killing effects when treated with Ad5 at 39.5°C. When dl1520 was used, no cytolytic effects were observed at 39.5°C in the nontransformed cell lines; however, cytolytic effects occurred in six of nine tumor cell lines at 39.5°C. Notably, a subset of the tumor cell lines demonstrated increased dl1520-mediated cytolytic effect and replication at 39.5°C. Suppression of Ad5 and dl1520 replication at 39.5°C was not related to p53 status or HSP70 expression. Also, at 39.5°C, E1a expression was inhibited in nontransformed cells but was still abundant in the transformed cells, indicating that a novel early block in viral replication occurred in the nontransformed cells. Fever may therefore augment the therapeutic index of oncolytic viruses by inhibiting replication in normal cells while permitting or enhancing viral replication in some tumor cells.
Adaptive Global Testing for Functional Linear Models

This article studies global testing of the slope function in functional linear regression models. A major challenge in functional global testing is to choose the dimension of projection when approximating the functional regression model by a finite dimensional multivariate linear regression model. We develop a new method that simultaneously tests the slope vectors in a sequence of functional principal components regression models. The sequence of models being tested is determined by the sample size and is an integral part of the testing procedure. Our theoretical analysis shows that the proposed method is uniformly powerful over a class of smooth alternatives when the signal to noise ratio exceeds the detection boundary. The methods and results reflect the deep connection between the functional linear regression model and the Gaussian sequence model. We also present an extensive simulation study and a real data example to illustrate the finite sample performance of our method. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Semantic priming: an event-related potential investigation using pseudohomophone primes

The N400 component of the E R P has proven highly sensitive to lexical manipulations involving semantic congruity. This sensitivity is typically manifest as a comparative reduction in N400 amplitude when 'target' items are preceded by semantically related, as opposed to unrelated, 'primes'. The nature of the N400 has been extensively studied, with one of the more dominant theories regarding its functional significance suggesting that the underlying processes reflect mechanisms associated with lexical integration. Models of the visual word-recognition system typically delineate lexical information in terms of orthography, phonology and semantics. In some models, the representation of linguistic information is considered to occur at the sublexical level, in which case, the information utilised in the integration process would also be sub-lexical. Pseudohomophone stimuli are orthographically dissimilar from, but phonologically identical to, legal words and offer a means of examining the roles of phonological and orthographic information in visual word recognition and the integration process. To this end, the effects of semantically related pseudohomophone primes on behavioural and electrophysiological responses to target words were examined across a number of tasks. It was found that the pseudohomophone-primed targets exhibited effects associated with prime-target relatedness similar to those of word-primed targets i.e., compared to targets following unrelated primes, those which were preceded by related pseudohomophones were responded to faster and more accurately, and mean amplitudes across the N400 latency range were less negative-going. These results were consistent with an integration account of the N400 but topographical differences in the relatedness effects in wordand pseudohomophone-primed conditions supported a multi-source account of this component. The observed results were also considered to be consistent not only with a sub-lexical account of the visual wordrecognition system, but also with proposals which ascribe a prominent role for phonological mediation within this system. C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, Alistair M . Lethbridge, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong, is wholly m y own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for a qualification at any other academic institution. Alistair M . Lethbridge 2nd September 2001
A Human Histocompatibility Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-G–specific Receptor Expressed on All Natural Killer Cells

Human natural killer (NK) cells express several killer cell immunoglobulin (Ig)-like receptors (KIRs) that inhibit their cytotoxicity upon recognition of human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules on target cells. Additional members of the KIR family, including some that deliver activation signals, have unknown ligand specificity and function. One such KIR, denoted KIR2DL4, is structurally divergent from other KIRs in the configuration of its two extracellular Ig domains and of its transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. Here we show that recombinant soluble KIR2DL4 binds to cells expressing HLA-G but not to cells expressing other HLA class I molecules. Unlike other HLA class I–specific KIRs, which are clonally distributed on NK cells, KIR2DL4 is expressed at the surface of all NK cells. Furthermore, functional transfer of KIR2DL4 into the cell line NK-92 resulted in inhibition of lysis of target cells that express HLA-G, but not target cells that express other class I molecules including HLA-E. Therefore, given that HLA-G expression is restricted to fetal trophoblast cells, KIR2DL4 may provide important signals to maternal NK decidual cells that interact with trophoblast cells at the maternal–fetal interface during pregnancy.
Memory Offloading via Garbage Collection for Memory Constrained Devices

Our everyday life is becoming increasingly filled with computing devices. Among them, mobile and embedded devices usually have far more limited resource specifications than wired and consequently more powerful computing devices. In order to increase available software on mobile devices it is beneficial to reuse existing software platforms or applications. Conventional wisdom has been to trim down current software to fit them into smaller devices. However, we believe that when surrounded by other computer resources there is an alternative solution for certain resource, in which resource limited devices can utilize those resources by dynamically offloading services. In this paper, we examine the use of “memory offloading” as a means of relieving memory constraints in Java environments. Our experiments we have found that using virtual memory to relieve resource constraints from JVMs can lead to very bad performance due to Java’s garbage collector. We propose extending the garbage collector of a JVM we allow it to take into account the semantics of Java memory usage to provide efficient and transparent memory offloading. Our results using a modified JVM show that with moderate monitoring overhead, both migration policies investigated can achieve a 85% reduction in bandwidth requirement and even more in necessary number of messages for most of application benchmarks we used.
Construction of a German HPSG grammar from a detailed treebank

Grammar extraction in deep formalisms has received remarkable attention in recent years. We recognise its value, but try to create a more precision-oriented grammar, by hand-crafting a core grammar, and learning lexical types and lexical items from a treebank. The study we performed focused on German, and we used the Tiger treebank as our resource. A completely hand-written grammar in the framework of HPSG forms the inspiration for our core grammar, and is also our frame of reference for evaluation.
An expert system for early diagnose of vitamins and minerals deficiency on the body

Mineral and vitamin plays an important role for the human body. Vitamins are useful for the growth process, the setting, and the improvement of body functions while mineral plays a role in several stages of reactions energy metabolism, growth, and maintenance of the body. The importance of vitamins and minerals resulted in the need to be maintained levels of vitamins and minerals in the body. Many do not know that the symptoms are felt in the body is the result of a deficiency of a particular vitamin or mineral that is often too late for the unknown and the resulting need for a doctor's visit. Deficiency of the vitamin and mineral can be determined earlier using science field of artificial intelligence through expert systems. An expert system vitamin and mineral deficiencies is composed of 11 vitamins and 6 minerals. From the acquisition of knowledge by an expert, found 46 symptoms and generates 35 rules represented using decision tables. Search method uses a forward chaining while deficiencies to deal with the uncertainties arising used method of application Mycin certainty factor. To facilitate the users, the system is made by using mobile technology. Based on testing performed to the expert can be proved that the expert system built able to diagnose the deficiency of vitamins and minerals with a value of 100% accuracy the truth. By knowing deficiency that occurs then the handling and prevention can be done in a timely fashion.
Interactions of Hormone Replacement Therapy, Body Weight, and Bilateral Oophorectomy in Breast Cancer Risk

Purpose: To examine potential modifying effects of body weight and bilateral oophorectomy on the association of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with risk of breast cancer, overall and by subtypes according to status of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) among postmenopausal women. Experimental Design: This analysis included 2,510 postmenopausal white women recruited in the Nashville Breast Health Study, a population-based case–control study of breast cancer. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between HRT use and risk of breast cancer overall and by subtypes, adjusted for age and education. Results: Among women with natural menopause and body mass index (BMI) < 25 kg/m2, ever-use of HRT was associated with increased breast cancer risk (OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.32–2.88). Risk was elevated with duration of HRT use (P for trend = 0.002). Similar association patterns were found for ER+, ER+PR+, and luminal A cancer subtypes but not ER−, ER−PR−, and triple-negative cancer. In contrast, ever-HRT use in overweight women (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) showed no association with risk of breast cancer overall or by subtypes; interaction tests for modifying effect of BMI were statistically significant. Ever-HRT use was associated with decreased breast cancer risk (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.38–1.31) among women with prior bilateral oophorectomy but elevated risk (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 0.92–2.29) among those with hysterectomy without bilateral oophorectomy (P for interaction = 0.057). Similar associations were seen for virtually all breast cancer subtypes, although interaction tests were statistically significant for ER+ and luminal A only. Conclusion: Body weight and bilateral oophorectomy modify associations between HRT use and breast cancer risk, especially the risk of hormone receptor–positive tumors. Clin Cancer Res; 20(5); 1169–78. ©2014 AACR.
Acquisition and Development of a Shared Psychological Intergroup Repertoire in a Context of an Intractable Conflict

The study of stereotypes 2 , prejudice 3 , and racism has evolved as one of the major research areas in the social sciences in general, and in social and developmental psychology in particular. Developmental psychology has focused on issues related to their acquisition, and through the years, numerous studies have tried to elucidate the general mechanisms and trajectories of their development. Gradually, attention has begun to turn to the context in which children and adolescents develop their social views and attitudes (Bar-Tal & Teichman, 2005 ; Oppenheimer, 2006 ). Evidence suggests that social contexts affect how stereotypes, prejudice, and racism develop. One context that is particularly salient in the daily lives of children is intractable intergroup confl ict. The plan for this chapter is to present a perspective on the role of intractable confl icts in the development of children’s stereotypes and prejudices,
Classical and Bayesian Estimation in the Logistic Regression Model Applied to Diagnosis of Child Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The limitations inherent to classical estimation of the logistic regression models are known. The Bayesian approach in statistical analysis is an alternative to be considered, given that it makes it possible to introduce prior information about the phenomenon under study. The aim of the present work is to analyze binary and multinomial logistic regression simple models estimated by means of a Bayesian approach in comparison to classical estimation. To that effect, Child Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) clinical data were analyzed. The sample included 286 participants of 6–12 years (78% boys, 22% girls) with ADHD positive diagnosis in 86.7% of the cases. The results show a reduction of standard errors associated to the coefficients obtained from the Bayesian analysis, thus bringing a greater stability to the coefficients. Complex models where parameter estimation may be easily compromised could benefit from this advantage.
Serum Neprilysin and Recurrent Admissions in Patients With Heart Failure

Background Our aim was to evaluate the association between the soluble form of neprilysin (sNEP) levels and long‐term all‐cause, cardiovascular, and acute heart failure (AHF) recurrent admissions in an ambulatory cohort of patients with heart failure. sNEP has emerged as a new biomarker with promising implications for prognosis and therapy in patients with heart failure. Reducing the recurrent admission rate of heart failure patients has become an important target of public health planning strategies. Methods and Results We measured sNEP levels in 1021 consecutive ambulatory heart failure patients. End points were the number of all‐cause, cardiovascular, and AHF hospitalizations during follow‐up. We used covariate‐adjusted incidence rate ratios to identify associations. At a median follow‐up of 3.4 years (interquartile range: 1.8–5.7), 391 (38.3%) patients died, 477 (46.7%) patients had 1901 all‐cause admissions, 324 (31.7%) patients had 770 cardiovascular admissions, and 218 (21.4%) patients had 488 AHF admissions. The medians for sNEP and amino‐terminal pro‐brain natriuretic peptide were 0.64 ng/mL (interquartile range: 0.39–1.22) and 1248 pg/mL (interquartile range: 538–2825), respectively. In a multivariate setting, the adjusted incidence rate ratios for the top (>1.22 ng/mL) versus the bottom (≤0.39 ng/mL) quartiles of sNEP were 1.37 (95% confidence interval: 1.03–1.82), P=0.032; 1.51 (95% confidence interval: 1.10–2.06), P=0.010; and 1.51 (95% confidence interval: 1.05–2.16), P=0.026 for all‐cause, cardiovascular, and AHF admissions, respectively. Conclusions Elevated sNEP levels predicted an increased risk of recurrent all‐cause, cardiovascular, and AHF admissions in ambulatory patients with heart failure.
Evaluation of leishmanicidal and trypanocidal activities of phenolic compounds from Calea uniflora Less.

The phytochemical study of Calea uniflora led to the isolation of nine phenolic compounds identified as noreugenin (1), ethyl caffeate (2), a mixture of butein (3) + orobol (4), α-hydroxy-butein (5), caffeic acid (6), butein 4′-O-glucopyranosyl (7), quercetin 3-O-glucopyranosyl (8) and 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (9). The chemical identity of the isolates was established on the basis of NMR and physical data. The chemical shifts of 5 and 7 have been reassigned and all the isolates were tested against Leishmania amazonensis and Trypanosoma cruzi amastigotes. None of the metabolites showed promising leishmanicidal activity. However, 2 and the mixture of 3 and 4 demonstrated interesting trypanocidal effect with IC50 values of 18.27 and 26.53 μM, respectively. Besides, these compounds did not present cytotoxic effect towards THP-1 cells, and compound 2 was 3.5-fold more selective than the mixture of 3+4.