Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Segmentation spatio-temporelle et codage oriente-regions de sequences video bases sur le formalisme mdl

Dans le cadre des services de video-communication numeriques, ce travail de these vise a definir de nouvelles techniques de segmentation spatio-temporelle de sequences d'images pour un schema de codage oriente-regions. Le but est de definir le partitionnement en regions optimal d'une image numerique, au sens du moindre cout de codage, utilise au sein d'un schema de codage predictif oriente-regions de sequences d'images video. Pour ce faire, nous avons utilise le formalisme mdl issu de la theorie de l'information dont le but est de rechercher le modele de representation le plus adequat d'une information a coder afin d'obtenir un cout de codage minimal. Dans notre cas d'etude, le modele de representation est considere comme etant la donnee du partitionnement en regions et du champ de mouvement associe. Le probleme de la segmentation spatio-temporelle d'une image extraite d'une sequence est alors reformule comme etant un probleme d'etiquetage sur une sursegmentation initiale quelconque d'une image. Un algorithme est alors propose afin de realiser cet etiquetage de facon optimale par l'intermediaire de fusions et de relaxations d'etiquettes de regions. Les cartes de segmentation spatio-temporelles ainsi obtenues sont par la suite utilisees dans un schema de codage preditif oriente-regions utilisant le partitionnement en regions afin de definir une prediction basee sur une compensation en mouvement effectuee sur chaque region. Une comparaison de ce schema de codage par rapport a des techniques de codage normalisees (mpeg1,2, h261, h263) est alors proposee et montre le gain potentiel que l'on peut obtenir avec une approche orientee-regions. Un schema de representation optimal de cartes de segmentation est egalement propose dans cette etude, permettant d'effectuer un codage efficace, avec ou sans pertes, des cartes de segmentations ; le codage avec pertes etant controle par l'intermediaire du formalisme mdl. L'utilisation du formalisme mdl permet de prendre en compte le gain obtenu par l'utilisation d'un codage avec pertes de la carte de segmentation, mais egalement le surcout introduit dans le codage des erreurs residuelles de prediction, assurant ainsi au final un gain global.
Interspecific variation in primary seed dispersal in a tropical forest

1 We investigated the relationships of seed size, dispersal mode and other species characteristics to interspecific variation in mean primary seed dispersal distances, mean annual seed production per unit basal area, and clumping of seed deposition among 41 tropical tree species on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. 2 A hierarchical Bayesian model incorporating interannual variation in seed production was used to estimate seed dispersal, seed production, and clumping of seed rain for each species from 19 years of data for 188 seed traps on a 50‐ha plot in which all adult trees were censused every 5 years. 3 Seed dispersal was modelled as a two‐dimensional Student's T distribution with the degrees of freedom parameter fixed at 3, interannual variation in seed production per basal area was modelled as a lognormal, and the clumping of seed rain around its expected value was modelled as a negative binomial distribution. 4 There was wide variation in seed dispersal distances among species sharing the same mode of seed dispersal. Seed dispersal mode did not explain significant variation in seed dispersal distances, but did explain significant variation in clumping: animal‐dispersed species showed higher clumping of seed deposition. 5 Among nine wind‐dispersed species, the combination of diaspore terminal velocity, tree height and wind speed in the season of peak dispersal explained 40% of variation in dispersal distances. Among 31 animal‐dispersed species, 20% of interspecific variation in dispersal distances was explained by seed mass (a negative effect) and tree height (a positive effect). 6 Among all species, seed mass, tree height and dispersal syndrome explained 28% of the variation in mean dispersal distance and seed mass alone explained 45% of the variation in estimated seed production per basal area. 7 Synthesis. There is wide variation in patterns of primary seed rain among tropical tree species. Substantial proportions of interspecific variation in seed production, seed dispersal distances, and clumping of seed deposition are explained by relatively easily measured plant traits, especially dispersal mode, seed mass, and tree height. This provides hope for trait‐based generalization and modelling of seed dispersal in tropical forests.
Customer-Centric IS Application Development: Lessons From a Case of Developing an Online Auction Site

Recent years have witnessed many organizations switching from function-oriented to customer-centric in their information systems applications designs. This paradigm shift has attracted growing attention among researchers in better understanding the design process of customer-centric IS applications – an area that has not been investigated adequately so far. This paper examines the processes of gathering and segmenting customer-centric attributes during the design stage of an IS application development by analyzing data extracted from a successful case of developing an online property auction site. The findings reveal that gathering and segmenting customer-centric attributes during the design stage of a customer-centric IS application development encompass four phases: (1) Identify customer requirements; (2) Structure customer requirements; (3) Link customer requirements to system design attributes; and (4) Review the level of customer satisfaction with the new system. We discuss the implications of our findings for both research and practice.
A Systems Orientation to Research Capacity Development: A South African Perspective

Research capacity development is essential for quality and cost-effective healthcare, and well-prepared healthcare professionals. This case study used an exploratory design to gain insight into the contributions that a novice researcher programme makes towards research capacity development. Data were collected from reports to the board of a professional organisation acting as custodian of the project and three reflection workshops. The case was deductively analysed using the literature on research capacity development as the point of departure. The Cooke integrated framework for research capacity building in healthcare was used to evaluate the development that took place. The findings of the analysis are described and discussed according to the eight dimensions of the Cooke integrated framework indicating that this novice programme fulfilled all the dimensions of the framework.
Governing through the market: SASAC and the resurgence of central state-owned enterprises in China

This thesis argues that the Chinese political economy is best understood as a hybrid form of governance in the context of a differentiated developmental state. This argument is developed through an analysis of China’s central state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and in particular the complex relationship between central SOEs and the ministerial institution created by the Chinese state to oversee them, the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). Central SOEs have experienced a significant rise and expansion under the SASAC’s leadership since 2003. However, the state’s role in the promotion of this institutionalisation process is rarely explored. This research starts with a theoretical investigation of the developmental state. It then explores principal-agent relations among the central SOEs, the SASAC and the market. After this, the research moves to an empirical analysis that provides a detailed examination of the SASAC, a competitive central SOE – the China National Building Material Group Corporation (CNBM) – and a monopolistic central SOE – the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Based on government policy papers, company annual reports, financial disclosures, and semi-structured interviews with more than 30 SASAC officials, SOE senior managers and government research staff, the conclusion reached is that the SASAC’s management of central SOEs follows a developmental state path, partially adopting market forces and market competition while rejecting neoliberal ideology. Ultimately, this research suggests that the Chinese central state’s practice of “governing through the market” is a strategy that benefits both the state and the central SOEs: the state can strengthen its principal’s control more effectively, whilst the enterprises can function as market actors to increase their competitiveness and profitability.
Evaluation of a clinically applicable mutation screening technique for genetic diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia and familial defective apolipoprotein B

We have recently developed a simple mutation screening assay based on the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique for detection of mutations in the coding and regulatory regions of the low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene and the codon 3500 region of the apolipoprotein (apo) B‐100 gene leading to familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and familial defective apo B‐100 (FDB), respectively. To evaluate the assay, 14 Danish families suspected of FH were studied. In ten families, the DGGE assay detected seven different point mutations, including mutations undescribed prior to establishing the assay. In addition, in one of these ten families and in one of the remaining four families, Southern blotting detected the FH‐DK3 exon 5 deletion. Based on segregation analysis and clinical data, the FH diagnosis was dubious in the remaining three families without DGGE or Southern blotting detectable mutations.
Fast Bi-directional SIFT Algorithm and Application

SIFT (Scale invariant feature transform) descriptor is one of the most effective local features that is used for scale, rotation and illumination invariant of automatic image registration. In this paper a fast bi-directional matching algorithm based on SIFT was proposed for improving match accuracy and reducing match time. Firstly the single-feature points and multi-feature points in two images were extracted, and then matched all these feature points respectively by using the BBF (Best Bin First)-based bi-directional matching algorithm. The integrated matching correspondences were the final matches. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm can reduce mismatch probability and decrease the matching time.
Producción latinoamericana en biblioteconomía y documentación en el Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) 1966-2003

Introduccion. Se realiza una revision de algunos estudios sobre produccion cientifica latinoamericana en biblioteconomia y documentacion, y se constata la carencia de trabajos que traten el tema desde una perspectiva de analisis de dominio. Material y Metodos. Se utilizo como revistas fuente las pertenecientes a la categoria tematica "Information Science & Library Science", recogidas en el Journal Citation Reports (1992-2002) y se utilizo la version en linea del Social Science Citation Index (1966-2003). Ademas para las posteriores modificaciones de registros el programa Bibexcel. Analisis. Se analiza la produccion cientifica de dicha area en la base de datos SSCI durante el periodo antes mencionado, presentando algunos indicadores bibliometricos, tales como produccion, coautoria, instituciones y departamentos mas productivos, entre otros. Este analisis es una continuacion de un estudio anteriormente realizado sobre visibilidad internacional de la produccion cientifica en iberoamerica. Conclusiones. La participacion de los cientificos latinoamericanos en esta area es muy poca, sobresaliendo los paises que en terminos generales son mas productivos de la region. La institucion mas productiva es la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, dentro de la cual se destaca el Centro de Informacion Cientifica y Humanistica (CICH), y el Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas (CUIB).
Horizontal Reputation and Strategic Audience Management

We study how a decision maker uses his reputation to simultaneously influence the actions of multiple receivers with heterogenous biases. The reputational payoff is single-peaked around a bliss reputation at which the incentives of the average receiver are perfectly aligned. We establish the existence of two equilibria characterized by repositioning toward this bliss reputation that only differ through a multiplier capturing the efficiency of reputational incentives. Repositioning is moderate in the more efficient equilibrium, but the less efficient equilibrium features overreactions, and welfare may then be lower than in the no-reputation case. We highlight how strategic audience management (e.g., centralization, delegation to third parties with dissenting objectives) alleviates inefficient reputational incentives, and how multiple organizational or institutional structures may arise in equilibrium as a result.
Tissue Density Mapping of Cone Beam CT Images for Accurate Dose Calculations

Purpose: To improve the accuracy in megavoltage photon beam dose calculation in CBCT-based radiation treatment (RT) plans, using a kilovoltage cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-to-density-step (CBCT-SF) function. Materials and Methods: The CBCT-SF table is constructed from differential histograms of the voxel values of CBCT and Fan-beam CT (FBCT). From the CBCT histograms, frequency peaks representing air, lung, soft tissue and bone are observed and their widths in CT numbers are assigned to the lower and higher bounds of the steps in the CBCT-SF. The CBCT-SF is entered into a planning system as an alternative to the clinical CT-to-density table. The CT image sets studied in this work consist of FBCT and CBCT scans of three patients: a prostate cancer patient, a lung cancer patient and a head and neck patient; and of a humanoid phantom at sections of the pelvis, the thorax and the head. Deformable image registration is used to map the patient FBCT scans to the corresponding CBCT images to minimize anatomical variations. Three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans are made on the FBCT image sets of the patients and the phantom. The plans are recalculated on the CBCT scans using both the conventional CT-to-density table and the CBCT-SF. Dose calculations on the CBCT images and FBCT images are compared using dose differences, distance to agreement (DTA), Gamma analyses and dose volume histogram (DVH) analyses. Results: The results show that IMRT plans optimized using CBCT scans and FBCT scans agree dosimetrically within 1% when the CBCT-SF is used for the CBCT-based plans, including thoracic IMRT plan. In contrast, up to 5% dose difference is observed between IMRT plans optimized on FBCT scans and CBCT scans for thoracic cases if conventional CT-to-density table is used on CBCT images. Conclusions: The simple stepwise mapping of the CBCT numbers to density using the CBCT-SF resolves the inaccuracies in dose calculations previously reported in CBCT-based RT plans. CBCT-SF can be used in Image-Guided adaptive radiotherapy planning.
Injury‐induced apoptosis of neurons in adult brain is mediated by p53‐dependent and p53‐independent pathways and requires bax

The mechanisms of injury‐induced apoptosis of neurons within the CNS are not understood. We used a model of cortical injury in rat and mouse to induce retrograde neuronal apoptosis in thalamus. In this animal model, unilateral ablation of the occipital cortex causes unequivocal apoptosis of corticopetal projection neurons in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) by 7 days postlesion. We tested the hypothesis that p53 and Bax regulate this retrograde neuronal apoptosis. We found, by using immunocytochemistry, that p53 accumulates in nuclei of neurons destined to undergo apoptosis. By immunoblotting, p53 levels increase (∼150% of control) in nuclear‐enriched fractions of the ipsilateral LGN by 5 days after occipital cortex ablation. p53 is functionally activated in nuclear fractions of the ipsilateral LGN at 5 days postlesion, as shown by DNA binding assay (∼fourfold increase) and by immunodetection of phosphorylated p53. The levels of procaspase‐3 increase at 4 days postlesion, and caspase‐3 is activated prominently at 5 days postlesion. To identify whether neuronal apoptosis in the adult brain is dependent on p53 and Bax, cortical ablations were done on p53 and bax null mice. Neuronal apoptosis in the dorsal LGN is significantly attenuated (∼34%) in p53−/− mice. In lesioned p53+/+ mice, Bax immunostaining is enhanced in the ipsilateral dorsal LGN and Bax immunoreactivity accumulates at perinuclear locations in dorsal LGN neurons. The enhancement and redistribution of Bax immunostaining is attenuated in lesioned p53−/− mice. Neuronal apoptosis in the dorsal LGN is blocked completely in bax−/− mice. We conclude that neuronal apoptosis in the adult thalamus after cortical injury requires Bax and is modulated by p53. J. Comp. Neurol. 433:299–311, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A data warehouse as an infrastructure to mine molecular descriptors for virtual screening

In a Rational Drug Design (RDD) one important step is the receptor-ligand interaction evaluation through molecular docking simulations. How it is a way impossible to test all available compounds for a target receptor, there is a need to select the most promising. One possible approach for such selection is to consider characteristics like a set of molecular properties called molecular descriptors. Aiming at describing these characteristics, we introduce a Data Warehouse (DW) model that integrates molecular descriptors from different public databases of compounds, as well as relates them with Virtual Screening (VS) experiments data. With the proposed DW we are able to produce proper data sets for classification mining experiments. We performed a case study with a VS considering as receptor the HIV-1 Protease receptor and 76 compounds. The data sets produced from our DW are composed by 7 molecular descriptors as the predictive attributes, and as a target attribute the discretized Free Energy of Binding (FEB) value between the ligands and the target receptor. By performing C4.5 algorithm over the generated data sets, we got decision-trees models that indicates which molecular descriptors and their respective values are relevant to influence on good FEB results.
Genetic Analysis of Glycopeptide-Resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis Strains from Bone and Joint Infections

ABSTRACT Glycopeptide-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (GRSE) strains are of increasing concern in bone and joint infections (BJIs). Using multilocus sequence typing and multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis, we show that BJI-associated GRSE strains are genetically diverse but arise from related, multiresistant hospital sequence types (STs), mostly ST2, ST5, and ST23.
A hybrid algorithm of improved case-based reasoning and multi-attribute decision making in fuzzy environment for investment loan evaluation

This paper presents a model to support the banking managerial decisions in the evaluation of investment plans, especially on rejecting inappropriate plans that can be done in short time (less than hour) and with minimal cost. Because there are some uncertainties in the evaluation process, our proposed model utilises fuzzy set theory to define the problem space in which an acceptance or rejection decision for a submitted investment plan is made. The model is based on lessons-learned concept and developed through the combination of case-based reasoning (CBR) and multiple attribute decision making in fuzzy environment. The model uses an enhanced version of CBR in which a novel concept as solution's truth value is implemented. A set of investment plans is evaluated to show the applicability and efficiency of the model. Different scenarios in terms of sensitivity analysis are also mentioned to capture managerial insights. Comparing the obtained results of the model with those of other algorithms shows its better proximity to human reasoning and decision making.
A two-stage human body detector on depth data

Detection of human body is one of the essential stages for human robot interaction. As the depth data is available with low cost recently, design of depth data based detector is of more significance. Previous works regarded the depth data as pure 3D point cloud or 2D depth images for this task. This paper proposes a two-stage detector, which makes full use of the depth data. The detector segments the scene and selects the potential human body point cluster using the statistics and classification on the 3D information. For the second stage on 2D re-projected depth image, a Haar-based AdaBoost classifier is employed for further performance promotion. The experiment showed that the proposed two-stage detector is more effective than the two stages used in separated way as well as a popular RGB image based detector Histogram of gradient (HOG).
Optimal subclasses with dichotomous variables for feature selection and discrimination

The authors present an efficient algorithm for finding optimal subclasses of a class whose members are represented by several dichotomous features with 0 or 1. Each subclass is expressed by a logical formula with common features among its members. It is shown that some typical subclasses, which contain a large number of samples from a class, consist of a few features. Thus one can select these features as a small subset of all features in problems of feature selection. The selection of best subclasses, when subclasses found by the algorithm is a moderate size, is discussed. >
Preschool oscillometry and lung function at adolescence in asthmatic children

Reduced lung function in early childhood is associated with persistent symptoms and low lung function later in life. Impulse oscillometry (IOS) is feasible for assessing lung function also in preschool children, and some of the parameters, such as respiratory resistance at 5 Hz (Rrs5) and the frequency dependence of resistance (dRrs/df), have been suggested to reflect small airway dysfunction. Whether changes in preschool IOS predict later lung function remains unknown.
A three-year study of the Astrand-Ryhming step test.

Abstract The primary purpose of this project was to develop norms and refine procedure for the Astrand-Ryhming (A-R) Step Test to obtain accurate cardiorespiratory (CR) assessments of entering first-year students at North Carolina State University. Additional objectives were to measure the accuracy of 2 pulse counting methods and the effectiveness of the A-R test in screening and classifying large numbers of students. Heart rate was measured in the 15- to 30-sec period following completion of the test. The norms are based on data collected from 6688 freshmen, 5287 men and 1401 women, with the average age for men being 18.0 ± . 65 yr and that for women 17.9 ± . 53 yr. The mean heart rate for the men's distribution is 34.9 ± 4.9 bps15 while that for the women's is 35.8 ± 4.7 bps15. It was concluded that the A-R test is usable as a CR fitness testing instrument for screening and classifying large numbers of students and that a pulse counting method which employs 2 counters, in addition to the testee, is the mo.