Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image-asssited system for the diagnosis of bladder tumor recurrence

This paper presents a system for detecting mor-phometric properties of bladder mucosa images obtained with a cystoscope. These properties are calculated for obtaining information about the probability of tumour recurrence. For this purpose, illumination problems of these images have been corrected to apply a vessels segmentation algorithm. Finally, the number of bifurcations of the vascular tree and a ratio Vessels/Bladder area are calculated to validate the hypothesis mentioned above. This validation is carried out with 20 images of bladder mucosa obtaining very promising results, in particular the presented algorithm achieves a sensibility of 0.8571 and a specificity of 1. Consequently, the system proposed in this paper shows valuable properties for the specific objective pointed, i.e, the characterization of the bladder tumour recurrence.
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications Low-distortion Embeddings of Trees

We prove that every tree T = (V, E) on n vertices with edges of unit length can be embedded in the plane with distortion O(√ n); that is, we construct a mapping f : V → R 2 such that ρ(u, v) ≤ ≤f (u) − f (v) ≤ O(√ n) · ρ(u, v) for every u, v ∈ V , where ρ(u, v) denotes the length of the path from u to v in T. The embedding is described by a simple and easily computable formula. This is asymptotically optimal in the worst case. We also construct interesting optimal embeddings for a special class of trees (fans consisting of paths of the same length glued together at a common vertex).
Isolation of Mycobacterium caprae (Lechtal Genotype) from Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in Italy

Abstract During tuberculosis (TB) surveillance, 53 hunted red deer (Cervus elaphus) were collected to determine whether TB was present in free-ranging animals from an Italian alpine area. Samples (lungs, liver, intestine, and lymph nodes) were cultured and analyzed by real-time PCR assay carried out directly on tissue. Mycobacterium caprae was isolated from small granulomatous, tuberculosis-like lesions in the liver of a 12-yr-old female. Identification of suspect colonies was done by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the gyrb gene, and genotyping was performed by spoligotyping and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit variable number tandem repeat analysis. The isolated strain was genetically identical to strains isolated in the study area in 2001 from dairy cows imported from Austria and in 2010 from an indigenous cow. The genotype, called “Lechtal,” is the most frequently detected in the TB outbreaks in Austria and Germany. The possibility that red deer act as a maintenance host of M. caprae between TB outbreaks could be not excluded. Despite the high red deer population density, the detection of only one infected red deer could suggest that the wildlife management measures applied in the study area (prohibition of artificial feeding and secure removal of offal from hunted animals) may reduce the risk of TB spreading.
Comparison of hemodynamic responses to laryngoscopy and intubation with Truview PCD™, McGrath® and Macintosh laryngoscope in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting: A randomized prospective study

Context: We hypothesized that reduced oropharyngolaryngeal stimulation with video laryngoscopes would attenuate hemodynamic response to laryngoscopy and intubation. Aim: Comparison of hemodynamic response to laryngoscopy and intubation with video laryngoscopes and Macintosh (MC) laryngoscope. Setting and Design: Superspecialty tertiary care public hospital; prospective, randomized control study. Methods: Sixty adult patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) were randomly allocated to three groups of 20 each: MC, McGrath (MG), and Truview (TV). Hemodynamic parameters were serially recorded before and after intubation. Laryngoscopic grade, laryngoscopy, and tracheal intubation time, ST segment changes, and intra-/post-operative complications were also recorded and compared between groups. Statistical Analysis: SPSS version 17 was used, and appropriate tests applied. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Heart rate and diastolic arterial pressure increased at 0 and 1 min of intubation in all the three groups (P < 0.05) while mean arterial pressure increased at 0 min in the MG and TV groups and at 1 min in all three groups (P < 0.05). A significant increase in systolic arterial pressure was only observed in TV group at 1 min (P < 0.05). These hemodynamic parameters returned to baseline by 3 min of intubation in all the groups. The intergroup comparisons of all hemodynamic parameters were not significant at any time of observation. Highest intubation difficulty score was observed with MC (2.16 ± 1.86) as compared with MG (0.55 ± 0.88) and TV (0.42 ± 0.83) groups (P = 0.003 and P = 0.001, respectively). However, duration of laryngoscopy and intubation was significantly less in MC (36.68 ± 16.15 s) as compared with MG (75.25 ± 30.94 s) and TV (60.47 ± 27.45 s) groups (P = 0.000 and 0.003, respectively). Conclusions: Video laryngoscopes did not demonstrate any advantage in terms of hemodynamic response in patients with normal airway undergoing CABG.
Combining rule-based and information retrieval techniques to assign software change requests

Change Requests (CRs) are key elements to software maintenance and evolution. Finding the appropriate developer to a CR is crucial for obtaining the lowest, economically feasible, fixing time. Nevertheless, assigning CRs is a labor-intensive and time consuming task. In this paper, we present a semi-automated CR assignment approach which combine rule-based and information retrieval techniques. The approach emphasizes the use of contextual information, essential to effective assignments, and puts the development team in control of the assignment rules, toward making its adoption easier. Results of an empirical evaluation showed that the approach is up to 46,5% more accurate than approaches which rely solely on machine learning techniques.
Ebp1 regulates myogenic differentiation of myoblast cells via SMAD2/3 signaling pathway

Regulation of skeletal muscle development requires many of the regulatory networks that are fundamental to developmental myogenesis. ErbB3 binding protein‐1 (Ebp1) is involved in the control of myoblasts development in chicken. However, the expression and biological functions of Ebp1 in the progress of myogenesis are unclear. This study focused on determining the effect of Ebp1 on myogenic proliferation and differentiation using a primary myoblasts culture model. Ebp1 was found to upregulate in proliferating myoblasts and decrease at the early stage of myogenic differentiation. The level of endogenous Ebp1 increased from E9 to E20 chicken leg muscles. Knockdown of Ebp1 had no effect on myoblasts proliferation. However, myogenic differentiation into multinucleated myotubes was significantly reduced. The mRNA and protein expression of MRFs was decreased when Ebp1 was knocked down. Downregulation of Ebp1, accompanied by elevated levels of pSMAD2/3, suggests that Ebp1 is involved in regulating myogenic differentiation via SMAD2/3 inhibition. The phosphorylation of SMAD2/3 was activated and the expression of MYOD and MYOG was reduced in Ebp1 knockdown myoblasts, but addition of LY2109761 (an inhibitor specified to SMAD2/3) blocked these effects. Collectively, these results indicate that Ebp1 promotes myoblast differentiation by inhibition of SMAD2/3 signaling pathway during chicken myogenesis. These data provide new insights into the biological role of Ebp1 in embryonic chicken skeletal muscle development.
Methylphenidate effect on hemispheric attentional imbalance in patients with traumatic brain injury: A psychophysical study

Primary objective: We found spatially asymmetric allocation of attention in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) without overt asymmetry on neurological examination. The possible effect of Methylphenidate in reducing this asymmetry is evaluated in the current research. Research design: Psychophysical study using a visual spatial attention task. Identification rates were measured after precuing attention to different visual field loci. TBI patients were tested before, during and after administration of Methylphenidate. Methods and procedures: After precuing to a locus 5° into the left or right hemifield, target patterns were presented briefly at the cued location (valid), or on the opposite side (invalid) – requiring an attentional shift. Patients were treated with a gradually increasing dosage of a psychostimulant over two weeks, followed by a similar two-week period of gradually diminishing dosage. Patients were tested before treatment, at its peak, and (twice) following its completion. Main outcome and results: Patients demonstrated significantly worse performance with leftward than with rightward cross-hemifield shifts of attention. This difference was significantly reduced during and following treatment. Conclusions: Asymmetric performance and improvement with treatment suggest that diffuse TBI damage leads to a lateralized attention-related deficit. These findings support the hypotheses that attention is a distributed and asymmetrically lateralized function. The findings are consistent with the conclusion that Methylphenidate may be an effective treatment for attentional deficits in TBI patients.
An Approach to Enable Cloud Service Providers to Arrange IaaS, PaaS, and Saas Using External Virtualization Infrastructures

Nowadays, the cloud computing ecosystem is more and more distributed and heterogeneous. Cloud service providers begin to build their services using cloud-based services offered by other service providers. This raises several issues due to integration between services and provider themselves. In this paper, we propose a practice addressing such a concern in a "Vertical Supply Chain" scenario of distributed clouds.
Online Supervised Subspace Tracking

We present a framework for supervised subspace tracking, when there are two time series $x_t$ and $y_t$, one being the high-dimensional predictors and the other being the response variables and the subspace tracking needs to take into consideration of both sequences. It extends the classic online subspace tracking work which can be viewed as tracking of $x_t$ only. Our online sufficient dimensionality reduction (OSDR) is a meta-algorithm that can be applied to various cases including linear regression, logistic regression, multiple linear regression, multinomial logistic regression, support vector machine, the random dot product model and the multi-scale union-of-subspace model. OSDR reduces data-dimensionality on-the-fly with low-computational complexity and it can also handle missing data and dynamic data. OSDR uses an alternating minimization scheme and updates the subspace via gradient descent on the Grassmannian manifold. The subspace update can be performed efficiently utilizing the fact that the Grassmannian gradient with respect to the subspace in many settings is rank-one (or low-rank in certain cases). The optimization problem for OSDR is non-convex and hard to analyze in general; we provide convergence analysis of OSDR in a simple linear regression setting. The good performance of OSDR compared with the conventional unsupervised subspace tracking are demonstrated via numerical examples on simulated and real data.
Memory management in NUMA multicore systems: trapped between cache contention and interconnect overhead

Multiprocessors based on processors with multiple cores usually include a non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA); even current 2-processor systems with 8 cores exhibit non-uniform memory access times. As the cores of a processor share a common cache, the issues of memory management and process mapping must be revisited. We find that optimizing only for data locality can counteract the benefits of cache contention avoidance and vice versa. Therefore, system software must take both data locality and cache contention into account to achieve good performance, and memory management cannot be decoupled from process scheduling. We present a detailed analysis of a commercially available NUMA-multicore architecture, the Intel Nehalem. We describe two scheduling algorithms: maximum-local, which optimizes for maximum data locality, and its extension, N-MASS, which reduces data locality to avoid the performance degradation caused by cache contention. N-MASS is fine-tuned to support memory management on NUMA-multicores and improves performance up to 32%, and 7% on average, over the default setup in current Linux implementations.
Mullite in Libyan Desert Glass: Evidence for high‐temperature/low‐pressure formation

Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) is a SiO2‐rich natural glass whose origin, formation mechanism, and target material are highly debated. We here report on the finding of a lens‐shaped whitish inclusion within LDG. The object is dominantly composed of siliceous glass and separated from the surrounding LDG by numerous cristobalite grains. Within cristobalite, several regions rich in mullite often associated with ilmenite were detected. Mineral assemblage, chemical composition, and grain morphologies suggest that mullite was formed by thermal decomposition of kaolinitic clay at atmospheric pressure and T ≥ 1600 °C and also attested to high cooling rates under nonequilibrium conditions. Cristobalite contains concentric and irregular internal cracks and is intensely twinned, indicating that first crystallized β‐cristobalite inverted to α‐cristobalite during cooling of the SiO2‐rich melt. The accompanied volume reduction of 4% induced the high density of defects. The whitish inclusion also contains several partly molten rutile grains evidencing that at least locally the LDG melt was at T ≥ 1800 °C. Based on these observations, it is concluded that LDG was formed by high‐temperature melting of kaolinitic clay‐, rutile‐, and ilmenite‐bearing Cenozoic sandstone or sand very likely during an asteroid or comet impact onto Earth. While melting and ejection occurred at high pressures, the melt solidified quickly at atmospheric pressure.
Blood levels of oxime and symptoms in humans after single and multiple oral doses of 2-pyridine aldoxime methochloride.

Single and repeated doses of a commercially available tablet of 2-pyridine aldoxime methochloride (2-PAMCI) were given to volunteers. A single dose of 5 g. was required to produce a plasma level of 4 mcg. /ml. , and higher doses (to 9 g.) produced plasma levels up to 11 mcg. /ml. However, there was much variation in blood levels among individuals receiving the same dose. Although it was possible to maintain blood levels of more than 4 mcg. /ml. when the oxime was given in doses higher than 3 g. at 4-hr. intervals, all subjects who received multiple doses over 48 hr. had gastrointestinal symptoms. The mean urinary excretion was 20–25% of the dose administered; the plasma t0.5 was 2.7 hr. and the t0.5 for excretion into the urine was 2.4 hr.
Domestic Politics and Non-Compliance in the Andean Community

Abstract:Focusing on the Andean Community, this article examines why some instances of non-compliance escalates to disputes between states and the Andean Court. It argues that domestic societal and state-centered factors motivate such disputes. It focuses on three mechanisms: industry size, veto players, and litigation experience. It contends that when a case involves a large industry or an industry with litigation experience, government is more likely to persist with protection which increases the probability of disputes. It also argues that there is a nonlinear relationship between the number of veto players involved and ACJ disputes. Empirical analysis support these arguments by showing that protection of large industries and past experience increases the likelihood ofdispute, while the probability of dispute increases when up to four veto players are involved and then decreases with additional actors. Analysis also finds that the interaction of size and experience has a significant effect on disputes.
Multi-Paragraph Segmentation Expository Text

This paper describes TextTiling, an algorithm for partitioning expository texts into coherent multi-paragraph discourse units which reflect the subtopic structure of the texts. The algorithm uses domain-independent lexical frequency and distribution information to recognize the interactions of multiple simultaneous themes. Two fully-implemented versions of the algorithm are described and shown to produce segmentation that corresponds well to human judgments of the major subtopic boundaries of thirteen lengthy texts.
HPChecker: An AMBA AHB On-Chip Bus Protocol Checker with Efficient Verification Mechanisms

Bus-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) design has become the major integrated methodology for shortening SoC design time. The main challenge is how to verify on-chip bus protocols efficiently. Although traditional simulation-based bus protocol monitors can check whether bus signals obey bus protocol or not. They are still lack of an efficient bus protocols verification environment such as FPGA-level or chip-level. To overcome the shortage, we propose a rule-based synthesizable AMBA AHB on-chip bus protocol checker, which contains 73 related AHB on-chip bus protocol rules to check AHB bus signal behaviors, and two corresponding verification mechanisms: an error reference table (ERT) and a windowed trace buffer, to shorten verification time.
Effect of irreversible electroporation on three-dimensional cell culture model

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a new treatment to necrotize abnormal cells by high electric pulses. Electric potential difference over 1 V across the plasma membrane permanently permeabilizes the cell with keeping the extracellular matrix intact if the thermal damage due to the Joule heating effect is avoided. This is the largest advantage of the IRE compared to the other conventional treatment. However, since the IRE has just started to be used in clinical tests, it is important to predict the necrotized region that depends on pulse parameters and electrode arrangement. We therefore examined the numerical solution to the Laplace equation for the static electric field to predict the IRE-induced cell necrosis. Three-dimensionally (3-D) cultured cells in a tissue phantom were experimentally subjected to the electric pulses through a pair of puncture electrodes. The necrotized area was determined as a function of the pulse repetition and compared with the area that was estimated by the numerical analysis.
The design and analysis of microarray experiments: applications in parasitology.

Microarray experiments can generate enormous amounts of data, but large datasets are usually inherently complex, and the relevant information they contain can be difficult to extract. For the practicing biologist, we provide an overview of what we believe to be the most important issues that need to be addressed when dealing with microarray data. In a microarray experiment we are simply trying to identify which genes are the most "interesting" in terms of our experimental question, and these will usually be those that are either overexpressed or underexpressed (upregulated or downregulated) under the experimental conditions. Analysis of the data to find these genes involves first preprocessing of the raw data for quality control, including filtering of the data (e.g., detection of outlying values) followed by standardization of the data (i.e., making the data uniformly comparable throughout the dataset). This is followed by the formal quantitative analysis of the data, which will involve either statistical hypothesis testing or multivariate pattern recognition. Statistical hypothesis testing is the usual approach to "class comparison," where several experimental groups are being directly compared. The best approach to this problem is to use analysis of variance, although issues related to multiple hypothesis testing and probability estimation still need to be evaluated. Pattern recognition can involve "class prediction," for which a range of supervised multivariate techniques are available, or "class discovery," for which an even broader range of unsupervised multivariate techniques have been developed. Each technique has its own limitations, which need to be kept in mind when making a choice from among them. To put these ideas in context, we provide a detailed examination of two specific examples of the analysis of microarray data, both from parasitology, covering many of the most important points raised.
Human activities in a tropical Mexican desert: Impact of rainfed agriculture and firewood extraction on vegetation and soil

The impacts of human activities on temperate and subtropical deserts have been evaluated worldwide. However, data about tropical deserts are scarce. In this study, we evaluated the impacts of rainfed agriculture and firewood extraction on vegetation and soil of abandoned croplands (mesquite cropland and goldeneye cropland) and mesquite shrublands (open‐canopy mesquite and closed‐canopy mesquite) in a tropical Mexican desert. We interviewed peasants to understand their management practices and evaluated vegetation traits and soil properties of sites. We also examined the impacts of land management on vegetation and soil with structural equation modeling. Rainfed agriculture consisted of cultivating crops, fertilizing with manure, and introducing goats to croplands after harvest. Goldeneye cropland had higher canopy cover, vegetation structure, and litter cover than mesquite cropland. However, soil in both croplands was highly compacted with low infiltration rate, organic matter, and nutrient content. Firewood extraction only consisted of removing mesquite branches. Open‐canopy mesquite had lower canopy and litter cover and higher biological soil crust cover than closed‐canopy mesquite. The soil in both shrublands was less compacted with relatively high infiltration rate, organic matter, and nutrient content. Rainfed agriculture decreased soil nutrient content due to removal of native vegetation, plowing, and goat introduction to croplands. In contrast, firewood extraction maintained a relatively high soil nutrient content because branch removal enables the establishment of biological soil crusts, which increased the infiltration rate and nutrient availability. Thus, firewood extraction has a lower impact on the structure and function of fluvial terraces than rainfed agriculture in this tropical desert.
Multi-layered image retargeting

Pixel domain methods for content-aware image retargeting have a performance limitation in that they distort important objects when an image is shrunken too much. To address this problem, we have designed and developed a novel 3D space domain image retargeting which rearranges objects with occlusions and deforms objects. With this method image formation is modeled as a quasi-3D space. The method also reduces image width by shrinking a part of the image space. Instead of directly optimizing the position and shape of objects, it closes objects by shrinking the gap space between them and deforms objects by shrinking spaces that include parts of them. It is capable of being extended to higher dimension problems such as multi-view image retargeting because it needs to optimize only one quasi-3D space whether the input is ordinary images or more complex ones such as video and stereo images. We have also designed a simple algorithm that makes use of dynamic programming. An experiment we conducted demonstrated the algorithm's effectiveness.