Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimization of Parallax Artifacts in Video Stitching for Moving Foregrounds

Parallax handling in the presence of moving foregrounds is a challenging problem in video stitching. The artifacts such as blurring or ghosting become prominent when objects move across multiple views. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme to minimize the parallax artifacts caused by moving objects in a fixed video stitching framework. We first stitch one frame from input videos and generate a lookup table (LUT) for every input video. These LUTs provide the mapping information of input videos to the panorama domain. For every frame of the input videos, we use structural similarity index to identify the LUT points in the overlapping region where parallax exists due to moving object. Therefore, our method does not require to match and track the features across frames to detect the moving object. For every detected LUT point having parallax, a descriptor based on histogram of oriented gradients and local binary patterns is generated and matched such that the parallax is minimized in the overlapping region. This may lead to the undesirable geometric artifacts in the non-overlapping region. To cater this issue, we smoothly propagate the correction in the non-overlapping region closer to the moving object. The proposed scheme is tested on different videos, where the overlapping region is very narrow, ranging from ~2.3% to ~9%. The experimental results demonstrate that it can significantly reduce the parallax artifacts, which occur due to moving foregrounds.
Intrauterine Fetal Growth Delay During Late Pregnancy After Maternal Gastric Bypass Surgery

Abstract Purpose To investigate intrauterine fetal growth development and birth anthropometry of fetuses conceived after maternal gastric bypass surgery. Materials and Methods Longitudinal cohort study describing longitudinal growth estimated by ultrasound on 43 singleton pregnancies after gastric bypass compared to 43 BMI-matched controls. Results In fetuses after maternal gastric bypass surgery, growth percentiles decreased markedly from the beginning of the second trimester until the end of the third trimester (decrease of 3.1 fetal abdomen circumference percentiles (95 %CI 0.9–5.3, p = 0.007) per four gestational weeks). While in the second trimester, fetal anthropometric measures did not differ between the groups, the mean abdomen circumference percentiles appeared significantly smaller during the third trimester in offspring of mothers after gastric bypass (mean difference 25.1 percentiles, p < 0.001). Similar tendencies have been observed in estimated fetal weight resulting in significantly more SGA offspring at delivery in the gastric bypass group. In children born after maternal gastric bypass surgery, weight percentiles (32.12th vs. 55.86th percentile, p < 0.001) as well as placental weight (525.2 g vs. 635.7 g, p < 0.001) were significantly reduced compared to controls. Conclusion In fetuses conceived after maternal gastric bypass, intrauterine fetal growth distinctively declined in the second and third trimester, most prominently observed in fetal abdomen circumferences. Birth weight and placental weight at birth was significantly lower compared to BMI-matched controls, possibly due to altered maternal metabolic factors and comparable to mothers experiencing chronic hunger episodes.
Local Production of Soluble Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor and Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor‐1 in the Coronary Circulation Is Associated With Coronary Endothelial Dysfunction in Humans

Background Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a proinflammatory biomarker associated with immune activation and fibrinolysis inhibition. Plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI‐1) is associated with excessive fibrin accumulation, thrombus formation, and atherosclerosis. The relationship between cross‐coronary suPAR and PAI‐1 production and endothelial dysfunction remains unknown. Methods and Results Seventy‐nine patients (age 53±10 years, 75% women) with angina and normal coronary arteries or mild coronary artery disease (<40% stenosis) on angiogram underwent acetylcholine assessment of epicardial endothelial dysfunction (mid–left anterior descending coronary artery diameter decrease >20% after acetylcholine) and mircovascular endothelial dysfunction (coronary blood flow change <50% after acetylcholine). Simultaneous left main and coronary sinus suPAR and PAI‐1 levels were measured in each patient before acetylcholine administration, and cross‐coronary suPAR and PAI‐1 production rates were calculated. Patients’ characteristics, except for age (51±10 versus 57±9, P=0.02), and resting coronary hemodynamics were not significantly different between patients with (26%) versus without (74%) epicardial endothelial dysfunction. Patients’ characteristics and resting coronary hemodynamics were not significantly different between those with (62%) and those without (38%) mircovascular endothelial dysfunction. Patients with mircovascular endothelial dysfunction demonstrated local coronary suPAR production versus suPAR extraction in patients with normal microvascular function (median 25.8 [interquartile range 121.6, −23.7] versus −12.7 [52.0, −74.8] ng/min, P=0.03). Patients with epicardial endothelial dysfunction had higher median coronary PAI‐1 production rates compared with those with normal epicardial endothelial function (1224.7 [12 940.7, −1915.4] versus −187.4 [4444.7, −4535.8] ng/min, P=0.03). Conclusions suPAR is released in coronary circulation of patients with mircovascular endothelial dysfunction and extracted in those with normal microvascular function. Cross‐coronary PAI‐1 release is higher in humans with epicardial endothelial dysfunction.
Thyrotropin‐releasing hormone (TRH) in the brain and pituitary of the teleost, Clarias batrachus and its role in regulation of hypophysiotropic dopamine neurons

Thyrotropin‐releasing hormone (TRH) regulates the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid axis in mammals and also regulates prolactin secretion, directly or indirectly via tuberoinfundibular dopamine neurons. Although TRH is abundantly expressed in teleost brain and believed to mediate neuronal communication, empirical evidence is lacking. We analyzed pro‐TRH‐mRNA expression, mapped TRH‐immunoreactive elements in the brain and pituitary, and explored its role in regulation of hypophysiotropic dopamine (DA) neurons in the catfish, Clarias batrachus. Partial pro‐TRH transcript from C. batrachus transcriptome showed six TRH progenitors repeats. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) identified pro‐TRH transcript in a number of different brain regions and immunofluorescence showed TRH‐immunoreactive cells/fibers in the olfactory bulb, telencephalon, preoptic area (POA), hypothalamus, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord. In the pituitary, TRH‐immunoreactive fibers were seen in the neurohypophysis, proximal pars distalis, and pars intermedia but not rostral pars distalis. In POA, distinct TRH‐immunoreactive cells/fibers were seen in nucleus preopticus periventricularis anterior (NPPa) that demonstrated a significant increase in TRH‐immunoreactivity when collected during preparatory and prespawning phases, reaching a peak in the spawning phase. Although tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)‐immunoreactive neurons in NPPa are hypophysiotropic, none of the TRH‐immunoreactive neurons in NPPa accumulated neuronal tracer DiI following implants into the pituitary. However, 87 ± 1.6% NPPa TH‐immunoreactive neurons were surrounded by TRH‐immunoreactive axons that were seen in close proximity to the somata. Superfused POA slices treated with TRH (0.5–2 μM) significantly reduced TH concentration in tissue homogenates and the percent TH‐immunoreactive area in the NPPa. We suggest that TRH in the brain of C. batrachus regulates a range of physiological functions but in particular, serves as a potential regulator of hypophysiotropic DA neurons and reproduction.
Gold Nanorods for Light-Based Lung Cancer Theranostics

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) have the potential to be used in photoacoustic (PA) imaging and plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) due to their unique optical properties, biocompatibility, controlled synthesis, and tuneable surface plasmon resonances (SPRs). Conventionally, continuous-wave (CW) lasers are used in PPTT partly due to their small size and low cost. However, if pulsed-wave (PW) lasers could be used to destroy tissue then combined theranostic applications, such as PA-guided PPTT, would be possible using the same laser system and AuNRs. In this study, we present the effects of AuNR size on PA response, PW-PPTT efficacy, and PA imaging in a tissue-mimicking phantom, as a necessary step in the development of AuNRs towards clinical use. At equivalent NP/mL, the PA signal intensity scaled with AuNR size, indicating that overall mass has an effect on PA response, and reinforcing the importance of efficient tumour targeting. Under PW illumination, all AuNRs showed toxicity at a laser fluence below the maximum permissible exposure to skin, with a maximum of 80% cell-death exhibited by the smallest AuNRs, strengthening the feasibility of PW-PPTT. The theranostic potential of PW lasers combined with AuNRs has been demonstrated for application in the lung.
Delivery of shRNA via lentivirus in human pseudoislets provides a model to test dynamic regulation of insulin secretion and gene function in human islets

Rodent islets are widely used to study the pathophysiology of beta cells and islet function, however, structural and functional differences exist between human and rodent islets, highlighting the need for human islet studies. Human islets are highly variable, deteriorate during culture, and are difficult to genetically modify, making mechanistic studies difficult to conduct and reproduce. To overcome these limitations, we tested whether pseudoislets, created by dissociation and reaggregation of islet cell suspensions, allow for assessment of dynamic islet function after genetic modulation. Characterization of pseudoislets cultured for 1 week revealed better preservation of first‐phase glucose‐stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) compared with cultured‐intact islets and insulin secretion profiles similar to fresh islets when challenged by glibenclamide and KCl. qPCR indicated that pseudoislets are similar to the original islets for the expression of markers for cell types, beta cell function, and cellular stress with the exception of reduced proinflammatory cytokine genes (IL1B, CCL2, CXCL8). The expression of extracellular matrix markers (ASPN, COL1A1, COL4A1) was also altered in pseudoislets compared with intact islets. Compared with intact islets transduced by adenovirus, pseudoislets transduced by lentivirus showed uniform transduction and better first‐phase GSIS. Lastly, the lentiviral‐mediated delivery of short hairpin RNA targeting glucokinase (GCK) achieved significant reduction of GCK expression in pseudoislets as well as marked reduction of both first and second phase GSIS without affecting the insulin secretion in response to KCl. Thus, pseudoislets are a tool that enables efficient genetic modulation of human islet cells while preserving insulin secretion.
Injectable Systems for Intra-Articular Delivery of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for Cartilage Treatment: A Systematic Review of Preclinical and Clinical Evidence

Stem cell-based therapy is a promising approach to treat cartilage lesions and clinical benefits have been reported in a number of studies. However, the efficacy of cell injection procedures may be impaired by cell manipulation and damage as well as by cell dissemination to non-target tissues. To overcome such issues, mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) delivery may be performed using injectable vehicles as containment systems that further provide a favorable cell microenvironment. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the preclinical and clinical literature on platelet-rich plasma (PRP), hyaluronic acid (HA), and hydrogels for the delivery of MSCs. The systematic literature search was performed using the PubMed and Web of science databases with the following string: “(stem cells injection) AND (platelet rich plasma OR PRP OR platelet concentrate OR biomaterials OR hyaluronic acid OR hydrogels)”: 40 studies (19 preclinical and 21 clinical) met the inclusion criteria. This review revealed an increasing interest on the use of injectable agents for MSC delivery. However, while negligible adverse events and promising clinical outcomes were generally reported, the prevalence of low quality studies hinders the possibility to demonstrate the real benefits of using such injectable systems. Specific studies must be designed to clearly demonstrate the added benefits of these systems to deliver MSCs for the treatment of cartilage lesions and osteoarthritis.
Patch-Based Sparse Representation For Bacterial Detection

In this paper, we propose an unsupervised approach for bacterial detection in optical endomicroscopy images. This approach splits each image into a set of overlapping patches and assumes that observed intensities are linear combinations of the actual intensity values associated with background image structures, corrupted by additive Gaussian noise and potentially by a sparse outlier term modelling anomalies (which are considered to be candidate bacteria). The actual intensity term representing background structures is modelled as a linear combination of a few atoms drawn from a dictionary which is learned from bacteria-free data and then fixed while analyzing new images. The bacteria detection task is formulated as a minimization problem and an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is then used to estimate the unknown parameters. Simulations conducted using two ex vivo lung datasets show good detection and correlation performance between bacteria counts identified by a trained clinician and those of the proposed method.
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Subsequent Malignant Neoplasm Risk After Radioactive Iodine Treatment of Thyroid Cancer.

BACKGROUND The potential risk of subsequent malignant neoplasms (SMNs) after radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment of thyroid cancer (TC) is an important concern. METHODS A systematic review was updated comparing the risk of SMNs in TC patients treated with RAI to TC patients without RAI. Six electronic databases were searched (up to March, 2018), supplemented with a hand search. Two reviewers independently screened citations, reviewed full-text papers, and critically appraised/abstracted data. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted using crude data and data statistically adjusted for confounders. The outcomes were any SMN and specific SMNs for which sufficient data were available. RESULTS In total, 3506 unique electronic search citations and 93 full-text papers were examined, including 17 studies (3 systematic reviews and 14 original studies). Published knowledge syntheses were limited by inclusion of small numbers of studies, with two systematic reviews suggesting an increased risk of any SMN and one meta-analysis suggesting a reduced risk of breast SMN after RAI treatment. In a meta-analysis of crude data, the risk ratio of any SMN in RAI-treated TC patients was 0.98 ([confidence interval (CI) 0.76-1.27]; n = 10 studies of 65,539 individuals, heterogeneity Q = 64.26, degrees of freedom [df] = 9, p < 0.001, I2 = 85.99). The pooled risk ratio for any SMN, adjusted for confounders, was 1.16 ([CI 0.97-1.39]; n = 6 studies, data from at least 11,241 TC patients, Q = 10.86, df = 5, p = 0.054, I2 = 53.96). In secondary analyses examining specific SMNs, although relatively rare, the risk of subsequent leukemia was increased, but the risk of multiple myeloma was reduced in RAI-treated TC patients. There was no significant increased relative risk of breast cancer, salivary cancer, or combined hematologic malignancies according to RAI treatment status. CONCLUSIONS The body of evidence on whether 131I treatment of thyroid cancer is associated with the primary outcome of any SMN is highly heterogeneous and complex. More research examining the long-term risk of specific SMNs after 131I treatment is needed.
SParse: Koç University Graph-Based Parsing System for the CoNLL 2018 Shared Task

We present SParse, our Graph-Based Parsing model submitted for the CoNLL 2018 Shared Task: Multilingual Parsing from Raw Text to Universal Dependencies (Zeman et al., 2018). Our model extends the state-of-the-art biaffine parser (Dozat and Manning, 2016) with a structural meta-learning module, SMeta, that combines local and global label predictions. Our parser has been trained and run on Universal Dependencies datasets (Nivre et al., 2016, 2018) and has 87.48% LAS, 78.63% MLAS, 78.69% BLEX and 81.76% CLAS (Nivre and Fang, 2017) score on the Italian-ISDT dataset and has 72.78% LAS, 59.10% MLAS, 61.38% BLEX and 61.72% CLAS score on the Japanese-GSD dataset in our official submission. All other corpora are evaluated after the submission deadline, for whom we present our unofficial test results.
Neural Source-filter-based Waveform Model for Statistical Parametric Speech Synthesis

Neural waveform models such as the WaveNet are used in many recent text-to-speech systems, but the original WaveNet is quite slow in waveform generation because of its autoregressive (AR) structure. Although faster non-AR models were recently reported, they may be prohibitively complicated due to the use of a distilling training method and the blend of other disparate training criteria. This study proposes a non-AR neural source-filter waveform model that can be directly trained using spectrum-based training criteria and the stochastic gradient descent method. Given the input acoustic features, the proposed model first uses a source module to generate a sine-based excitation signal and then uses a filter module to transform the excitation signal into the output speech waveform. Our experiments demonstrated that the proposed model generated waveforms at least 100 times faster than the AR WaveNet and the quality of its synthetic speech is close to that of speech generated by the AR WaveNet. Ablation test results showed that both the sine-wave excitation signal and the spectrum-based training criteria were essential to the performance of the proposed model.
Artichoke Polyphenols Produce Skin Anti-Age Effects by Improving Endothelial Cell Integrity and Functionality

Artichoke is a characteristic crop of the Mediterranean area, recognized for its nutritional value and therapeutic properties due to the presence of bioactive components such as polyphenols, inulin, vitamins and minerals. Artichoke is mainly consumed after home and/or industrial processing, and the undersized heads, not suitable for the market, can be used for the recovery of bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, for cosmetic applications. In this paper, the potential skin anti-age effect of a polyphenolic artichoke extract on endothelial cells was investigated. The methodology used was addressed to evaluate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and the improvement of gene expression of some youth markers. The results showed that the artichoke extract was constituted by 87% of chlorogenic, 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic, and 1,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acids. The extract induced important molecular markers responsible for the microcirculation and vasodilatation of endothelial cells, acted as a potential anti-inflammatory agent, protected the lymphatic vessels from oxidative damage by ROS formation, and enhanced the cellular cohesion by reinforcing the tight junction complex. In addition, the artichoke extract, through the modulation of molecular pathways, improved the expression of genes involved in anti-ageing mechanisms. Finally, clinical testing on human subjects highlighted the enhancement by 19.74% of roughness and 11.45% of elasticity from using an artichoke extract cosmetic formulation compared to placebo cream.
Second-Order Sliding Mode Control for Ball-Balancing System

The control objective of a ball-balancing system is to balance a ball atop a circular arc mounted on a carriage base that can move horizontally and at the same time move the carriage to a desired position. This study designs, implements, and validates a stabilizing controller for a ball-balancing system that is nonlinear and underactuated. Moreover, the equilibrium of this system is open-loop unstable. Second-order sliding mode control is used to design the stabilizing controller. A stability analysis is conducted to show that the proposed control scheme guarantees semi-global asymptotic stability over the upper half-plane under the assumption that the ball is in contact with the arc at all times. The controller is implemented and tested on an experimental apparatus. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
Monitoring the Effect of Contact Pressure on Bioimpedance Measurements

This paper presents preliminary results on the effect of contact pressure on bioimpedance measurements in an excised section of human colon tissue. The impedance measurements were performed with a small diameter probe suitable for in-vivo use, which is capable of measuring contact force. Force measurements are performed by fiber optic sensor which consisted of a Fiber Bragg Grating. The obtained results highlight the importance on limiting the applied pressure during bioimpedance measurements.
Age, health and other factors associated with return to work for those engaging with a welfare-to-work initiative: a cohort study of administrative data from the UK’s Work Programme

Objectives To investigate the role of individual factors (including age, health and personal circumstances) and external factors associated with clients having a job start while engaging with the Work Programme and variations by benefit type. Setting The UK Government’s main return to work initiative (The Work Programme) in Scotland. Design Piecewise Poisson regression to calculate incident rate ratios using administrative data from 2013 to 2016 to identify factors associated with job start. Participants 4322 Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) clients not in work due to poor health and 8996 Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) clients, aged 18–64 years, referred to the Work Programme between April 2013 and July 2014. Main outcome measures Starting a job and the time to first job start after entering the Work Programme. Results JSA clients (62%) were more likely to return to work (RTW) than ESA clients (20%). There is a strong negative relationship between age and the predicted probability of having a job start during the 2-year engagement with the programme for both JSA and ESA clients. JSA clients were most likely to RTW in the first 3 months, while for ESA clients the predicted probability of having a first job start was fairly constant over the 2 years. Health, including the number of health conditions, length of unemployment, client perception of job start and other individual factors were associated with job starts for both groups. Conclusions Age plays an important role in influencing RTW; however, important potentially modifiable factors include the length of unemployment, the management of multimorbidity and the individual’s perception of the likelihood of job start. Future welfare-to-work programmes may be improved by providing age-specific interventions which focus on health and biopsychosocial factors to enable more people to realise the potential health benefits of RTW.