Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image enhancement using Moving window-based double Haar wavelet transform

- In the image processing scenario the image enhancement takes high importance . Among so many image enhancement techniques the image enhancement is one of the main way. Visual information transmitted in the form of digital images is becoming a major method of communication in the modern age, but the image obtained after transmission is often corrupted with noise. The received image needs processing before it can be used in applications. Image enhancement involves the manipulation of the image data to produce a visually high quality image. Different noise models including additive and multiplicative types are used. They include Gaussian noise, Salt and Pepper noise, Speckle noise and Brownian noise. But wavelet transform considered to be better when compared with traditional techniques like median filtering etc.The proposed Double Haar Wavelet transform can make the image enhancement more effectively because of its improved low pass filter. Here, we propose an improved way in the choice of moving windows which can realize protecting the details and smoothing the noise. The estimate error of the wavelet coefficient for a pixel does not influence the estimates of the other pixels in the image. This technique can be used in the weather forecasting applications, for cleaning satellite images, in photo studios and in internet applications, etc, where the images are affected by Gaussian noise.
Should there be both categorical and dimensional criteria for the substance use disorders in DSM-V?

AIMS As discussed in the following literature review, the relative advantages of categorical and dimensional criteria for classifying the substance use disorders (SUDs) have been debated for many years. The scheduled revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) offers an opportunity to re-examine this question. Both categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosis offer advantages, both may in fact be necessary for a comprehensive taxonomy. METHODS One means of resolving debate about the direction to take in revising DSM-V and simultaneously of achieving maximum taxonomic utility is to include both categorical and dimensional criteria in DSM-V. This could be accomplished by first defining a set of categorical criteria, as in the previous editions of the DSM. Corresponding dimensional criteria could then be created using a more empirical methodology. In this paper we review some of the relevant literature, offer a specific proposal for a dimensional component for the DSM-V substance use disorders that also preserves the categorical definitions and suggest areas for additional research relevant the this agenda. RESULTS There is evidence that alcohol and other forms of substance abuse and dependence are heterogeneous categories and that the SUDs can be conceptualized viably as arrayed along a continuum. Amplifying clinically derived categorical definitions with more empirically derived dimensional components to better capture this variability is a particularly important consideration for a substance use research agenda for DSM-V. CONCLUSIONS It is crucial that a dimensional approach be offered in some form in DSM-V; but it is also vital that any dimensional approach be linked to the categorical definition. The proposal offered herein provides a model for amplifying categorical definitions with a dimensional component in a way that is evolutionary and not disruptive to the existing taxonomy.
Vaccination against a hit-and-run viral cancer

Cancers with viral aetiologies can potentially be prevented by antiviral vaccines. Therefore, it is important to understand how viral infections and cancers might be linked. Some cancers frequently carry gammaherpesvirus genomes. However, they generally express the same viral genes as non-transformed cells, and differ mainly in also carrying oncogenic host mutations. Infection, therefore, seems to play a triggering or accessory role in disease. The hit-and-run hypothesis proposes that cumulative host mutations can allow viral genomes to be lost entirely, such that cancers remaining virus-positive represent only a fraction of those to which infection contributes. This would have considerable implications for disease control. However, the hit-and-run hypothesis has so far lacked experimental support. Here, we tested it by using Cre–lox recombination to trigger transforming mutations in virus-infected cells. Thus, ‘floxed’ oncogene mice were infected with Cre recombinase-positive murid herpesvirus-4 (MuHV-4). The emerging cancers showed the expected genetic changes but, by the time of presentation, almost all lacked viral genomes. Vaccination with a non-persistent MuHV-4 mutant nonetheless conferred complete protection. Equivalent human gammaherpesvirus vaccines could therefore potentially prevent not only viral genome-positive cancers, but possibly also some cancers less suspected of a viral origin because of viral genome loss.
Modeling of optically controlled dielectric resonators using conformal ADI-FDTD method

The alternating direction implicit (ADI) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) formulation has been used to estimate the effect that solid state plasmas have on the resonant frequency of dielectric resonators (DRs). By using conformal technique, an accurate numerical modeling is carried out to describe the performance of optically controlled DRs. The results are compared with measurement and are shown to yield a quantitative estimate of the optically induced DR frequency shift as a function of the illumination, properties of the plasma host semiconductor, and the properties of the DR.
Patients With Long-QT Syndrome Caused by Impaired hERG-Encoded Kv11.1 Potassium Channel Have Exaggerated Endocrine Pancreatic and Incretin Function Associated With Reactive Hypoglycemia

Background: Loss-of-function mutations in hERG (encoding the Kv11.1 voltage-gated potassium channel) cause long-QT syndrome type 2 (LQT2) because of prolonged cardiac repolarization. However, Kv11.1 is also present in pancreatic &agr; and &bgr; cells and intestinal L and K cells, secreting glucagon, insulin, and the incretins glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide), respectively. These hormones are crucial for glucose regulation, and long-QT syndrome may cause disturbed glucose regulation. We measured secretion of these hormones and cardiac repolarization in response to glucose ingestion in LQT2 patients with functional mutations in hERG and matched healthy participants, testing the hypothesis that LQT2 patients have increased incretin and &bgr;-cell function and decreased &agr;-cell function, and thus lower glucose levels. Methods: Eleven patients with LQT2 and 22 sex-, age-, and body mass index–matched control participants underwent a 6-hour 75-g oral glucose tolerance test with ECG recording and blood sampling for measurements of glucose, insulin, C-peptide, glucagon, GLP-1, and GIP. Results: In comparison with matched control participants, LQT2 patients had 56% to 78% increased serum insulin, serum C-peptide, plasma GLP-1, and plasma GIP responses (P=0.03–0.001) and decreased plasma glucose levels after glucose ingestion (P=0.02) with more symptoms of hypoglycemia (P=0.04). Sixty-three percent of LQT2 patients developed hypoglycemic plasma glucose levels (<70 mg/dL) versus 36% control participants (P=0.16), and 18% patients developed serious hypoglycemia (<50 mg/dL) versus none of the controls. LQT2 patients had defective glucagon responses to low glucose, P=0.008. &bgr;-Cell function (Insulin Secretion Sensitivity Index-2) was 2-fold higher in LQT2 patients than in controls (4398 [95% confidence interval, 2259–8562] versus 2156 [1961–3201], P=0.03). Pharmacological Kv11.1 blockade (dofetilide) in rats had similar effect, and small interfering RNA inhibition of hERG in &bgr; and L cells increased insulin and GLP-1 secretion up to 50%. Glucose ingestion caused cardiac repolarization disturbances with increased QTc intervals in both patients and controls, but with a 122% greater increase in QTcF interval in LQT2 patients (P=0.004). Conclusions: Besides a prolonged cardiac repolarization phase, LQT2 patients display increased GLP-1, GIP, and insulin secretion and defective glucagon secretion, causing decreased plasma glucose and thus increased risk of hypoglycemia. Furthermore, glucose ingestion increased QT interval and aggravated the cardiac repolarization disturbances in LQT2 patients. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02775513.
Neurons That Confuse Mirror-Symmetric Object Views

AbstractNeurons in inferotemporal cortex that respond similarly to many pairsof mirror-symmetric images { for example, 45  and 45  views of thesame face { have often been reported. The phenomenon seemed to be aninteresting oddity. However, the same phenomenon has also emerged insimple hierarchical models of the ventral stream. Here we state a theoremcharacterizing sucient conditions for this curious invariance to occurin a rather large class of hierarchical networks and demonstrate it withsimulations. Neurons in inferotemporal (IT) cortex { the highest visual area in the ventralvisual pathway { respond with varying degrees of selectivity to a speci c patternsuch as one particular view of an object. In some cases, single cells respondingin a similar way to many pairs of images, each representing an object view andits mirror-symmetric counterpart, have been reported (Logothetis et al., 1995),as shown in g. 1. Similar tuning has also been observed for some units in ahierarchical model of cortex, as shown in g. 2.This property seems puzzling and so far appeared to originate from an acci-dental tuning of neurons in IT to features in common between views and theirmirror-symmetric versions. Without discounting this possibility, we focus hereon establishing an alternative { and quite possibly, complementary { explana-tion. We argue that it may (also) reect a property of a large class of hierarchicalarchitectures. Recently, we have been developing a general theory (Smale et al.,2010) of hierarchical feedforward architectures such as the model of visual cor-tex shown in g. 3. Within this theoretical framework we have established1
Dynamic Learning of Patient Response Types: An Application to Treating Chronic Diseases

Currently available medication for treating many chronic diseases is often effective only for a subgroup of patients, and biomarkers accurately assessing whether an individual belongs to this subgroup typically do not exist. In such settings, physicians learn about the effectiveness of a drug primarily through experimentation, i.e., by initiating treatment and monitoring the patient's response. Precise guidelines for discontinuing treatment are often lacking or left entirely to the physician's discretion. We introduce a framework for developing adaptive, personalized treatments for such chronic diseases. Our model is based on a continuous-time, multi-armed bandit setting where drug effectiveness is assessed by aggregating information from several channels: by continuously monitoring the state of the patient, but also by (not) observing the occurrence of particular infrequent health events, such as relapses or disease flare-ups. Recognizing that the timing and severity of such events provides critical information for treatment decisions is a key point of departure in our framework compared with typical (bandit) models used in healthcare. We show that the model can be analyzed in closed form for several settings of interest, resulting in optimal policies that are intuitive and may have practical appeal. We illustrate the effectiveness of the methodology by developing a set of efficient treatment policies for multiple sclerosis, which we then use to benchmark several existing treatment guidelines.
Constitutive Activation and Transgenic Evaluation of the Function of an Arabidopsis PKS Protein Kinase*

A novel family of SOS2 (salt overly sensitive 2)-like protein kinase genes (designated PKSes) have been recently identified in Arabidopsis. The biochemical characteristics as well as in vivo roles of most of the PKSes are unclear at present. In this work, we isolated and characterized one of the PKSes, PKS18. PKS18 was expressed in leaves of matureArabidopsis plants. The glutathioneS-transferase (GST)-PKS18 fusion protein was inactive by itself in substrate phosphorylation. An activation loop Thr169 to Asp mutation, however, highly activated this kinase in vitro (designated PKS18T/D). Kinase activity of the PKS18T/D preferred Mn2+ to Mg2+. The activated kinase showed a substrate specificity, and high catalytic efficiency for a peptide substrate p3 and for ATP. Interestingly,PKS18T/D transgenic plants were hypersensitive to the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) in seed germination and seedling growth, whereas silencing the kinase gene by RNA interference (RNAi) conferred ABA-insensitivity, indicating the involvement of PKS18 in plant ABA signaling.
Design of a Substrate Integrated Waveguide Balun Filter Based on Three-Port Coupled-Resonator Circuit Model

A novel balun filter is proposed using the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technique, which is designed with a three-port coupled-resonator circuit model. Considering the loading effect of other resonators, a modified balanced resonant mode in a higher-order SIW cavity is utilized to provide both a negative cross-coupling and the conversion from an unbalanced signal to a balanced one. Our developed balun filter has good frequency selectivity, and the balance of amplitude and phase between two outputs is also achieved, which is demonstrated by good agreement between its simulated and measured results.
The Met receptor tyrosine kinase transduces motility, proliferation, and morphogenic signals of scatter factor/hepatocyte growth factor in epithelial cells

Depending on the target cells and culture conditions, scatter factor/hepatocyte growth factor (SF/HGF) mediates several distinct activities, i.e., cell motility, proliferation, invasiveness, tubular morphogenesis, angiogenesis, or cytotoxicity. A small isoform of SF/HGF encoded by a natural splice variant, which consists of the NH2-terminal hairpin structure and the first two kringle domains but not the protease homology region, induces cell motility but not mitogenesis. Two types of SF/HGF receptors have recently been discovered in epithelial cells, the high affinity c-Met receptor tyrosine kinase, and low affinity/high capacity binding sites, which are probably located on heparan sulfate proteoglycans. In the present study, we have addressed the question whether the various biological activities of SF/HGF are transduced into cells by a single type of receptor. We have here examined MDCK epithelial cells transfected with a hybrid cDNA encoding the ligand binding domain of the nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor and the membrane-spanning and tyrosine kinase domains of the Met receptor. We demonstrate that all biological effects of SF/HGF upon epithelial cells such as the induction of cell motility, proliferation, invasiveness, and tubular morphogenesis can now be triggered by the addition of NGF. Thus, it is likely that all known biological signals of SF/HGF are transduced through the receptor tyrosine kinase encoded by the c-Met protooncogene.
The meaning of sea kayaking for persons with spinal cord injuries.

OBJECTIVES Research has described benefits of physical, athletic, and avocational activity on improving self-esteem, quality of life, and locus of control in persons with disabilities. The objective of this study was to identify meaningful components of the experience of sea kayaking as described by persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). METHOD Three subjects with SCI who had participated in recreational kayaking were interviewed. Qualitative research methods included strategies from Guba's model for rigor in qualitative research, Spradley's interviewing guidelines, and Good's method of semantic network analysis. Three interviews of approximately 45 min in length were conducted with each subject. Initial interviews began with a single question: "Tell me about sea kayaking. " Subsequent questions contained only concepts and terms used in the subjects' responses. RESULTS The subjects valued the novelty, challenge, safety, sociability, and natural environment aspects of sea kayaking. Perceptions of the self as able in the eyes of others and the need for support in pursuit of outdoor leisure activities were themes that figured prominently in the subjects' discourse. CONCLUSION Subjects' comments indicate that meaningful time use and the construction of an identity after injury are linked. This link has also been suggested in the rehabilitation literature. This information suggests the use of therapeutic intervention that supports a person's adjustment to an irreversible SCI.
Ieee 6th Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications Parallel Particle Filters for Tracking in Wireless Sensor Networks

An important application of wireless sensor networks is the tracking of objects moving through a monitored area. In some circumstances, a particle filter can perform substantially better than other tracking algorithms. A simple implementation is to transmit measurement data gathered at distributed sensors to a fusion centre and apply a single particle filter. The filter estimates the current position and predicts future locations so that appropriate sensors can be activated. This centralized approach can be energy-expensive and prone to failure: uncompressed data must be transmitted across multiple hops and there is a concentration of data transmission around the fusion site, which constitutes a single point of failure. This paper addresses these issues by proposing a distributed particle filter implementation in which parallel filters run at multiple nodes. These shared filters are used to quantize vectors of measurements. Simulations indicate that the scheme significantly reduces the energy expenditure of communication.
Generalized concatenated MIMO system with GMD decoding

In this paper we propose new coded modulation for multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems. This coded modulation is a generalized concatenated code. Its inner code is embedded Golden code which we introduce in this paper with a decoding algorithm. Its outer code is a product code with component Reed-Solomon code. We propose iterative decoding algorithm for this product code. We also propose an generalized minimum distance decoder for generalized concatenated code. The performance of the proposed system is estimated with a computer simulation.
Dynamic control of pushing operations

The goal of this paper is to present a new method to control pushing operations with several fingers. We take into account some dynamical aspects that have not yet been investigated in pushing studies such as the object's center of mass acceleration correction and optimal force distribution. To do this, we use a general method for multi-chain mechanisms based on a dynamical control with finger coordination. We first detail the problems encountered in this type of manipulation and the way to take these points into account with specific constraints definition for the support contact. According to the parameters of the model such as optimization criterion and object characteristics, we present simulation results of object pushing with two fingers for a rotational and translational motion.
A 6 A, 93% Peak Efficiency, 4-Phase Digitally Synchronized Hysteretic Buck Converter With ±1.5% Frequency and ±3.6% Current-Sharing Error

A four-phase, quasi-current-mode hysteretic buck converter with digital frequency synchronization, online comparator offset-calibration and, digital current-sharing control is presented. The switching frequency of the hysteretic converter is digitally synchronized to the input clock reference with less than ±1.5% error in the switching frequency range of 3–9.5 MHz. The online offset calibration cancels the input-referred offset of the hysteretic comparator and enables ±1.1% voltage regulation accuracy. Maximum current-sharing error of ±3.6% is achieved by a duty-cycle-calibrated delay line-based pulsewidth modulation generator, without affecting the phase synchronization timing sequence. In light-load conditions, individual converter phases can be disabled, and the final stage power converter output stage is segmented for high efficiency. The dc–dc converter achieves 93% peak efficiency for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{i}= 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> V and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{o}= 1.6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> V.
Capacity Value of Wind Power

Power systems are planned such that they have adequate generation capacity to meet the load, according to a defined reliability target. The increase in the penetration of wind generation in recent years has led to a number of challenges for the planning and operation of power systems. A key metric for generation system adequacy is the capacity value of generation. The capacity value of a generator is the contribution that a given generator makes to generation system adequacy. The variable and stochastic nature of wind sets it apart from conventional energy sources. As a result, the modeling of wind generation in the same manner as conventional generation for capacity value calculations is inappropriate. In this paper a preferred method for calculation of the capacity value of wind is described and a discussion of the pertinent issues surrounding it is given. Approximate methods for the calculation are also described with their limitations highlighted. The outcome of recent wind capacity value analyses in Europe and North America, along with some new analysis, are highlighted with a discussion of relevant issues also given.
Saliency Detection in Large Point Sets

While saliency in images has been extensively studied in recent years, there is very little work on saliency of point sets. This is despite the fact that point sets and range data are becoming ever more widespread and have myriad applications. In this paper we present an algorithm for detecting the salient points in unorganized 3D point sets. Our algorithm is designed to cope with extremely large sets, which may contain tens of millions of points. Such data is typical of urban scenes, which have recently become commonly available on the web. No previous work has handled such data. For general data sets, we show that our results are competitive with those of saliency detection of surfaces, although we do not have any connectivity information. We demonstrate the utility of our algorithm in two applications: producing a set of the most informative viewpoints and suggesting an informative city tour given a city scan.
The ROSAT Wide Field Camera Extragalactic Survey

We report the results of a new analysis of the ROSAT Wide Field Camera (WFC) all-sky survey data, designed to detect extragalactic sources of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation in regions of low Galactic NH. We identify a total of 19 active galactic nuclei (AGN), more than double the number of confirmed AGN in the published WFC (2RE) survey. Our sample contains eight narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies, making this the first reasonably sized, complete sample of these extreme AGN, along with six broad-line Seyfert 1s and five BL Lacertae objects. These EUV-selected sources typically have steep soft X-ray spectra with a mean power-law energy index αX≈−2. The derived AGN luminosity function is rather flat and appears to cut off above a luminosity of 1046 erg s−1 keV−1, measured monochromatically at 200 eV. Narrow-line Seyfert 1s account for roughly half of the local (z≈ 0) volume emissivity in the EUV band.