Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tests of global haemostasis and their applications in bleeding disorders

Summary. There is a potential for significant paradigm shift in the assessment of haemostasis from the conventional plasma recalcification times, such as prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), which correspond to artificially created compartments of haemostasis to tests that assess the entire process in a more physiological and holistic manner. These include the thrombin generation test, thromboelastogram and the clot wave form analysis. While these tests have been described many years ago, there is renewed interest in their use with modified technology for assessing normal haemostasis and its disorders. Although early data suggest that they can provide much greater information regarding the overall haemostasis process and its disorders, many challenges remain. Some of them are possible only on instruments that are proprietary technology, expensive and are not widely available. Furthermore, these tests need to be standardized with regard to their reagents, methodology and interpretation, and finally, much more data need to be collected regarding clinical correlations with the parameters measured.
Development of Automatic Kannada Speech Recognition System

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is the technology that allows human being to use their voices to speak with a computer interface in a way that, in its most sophisticated variations, resembles normal human conversation. Automatic speech recognition is an area of research which deals with the recognition of speech by machine in several conditions. This paper presents a brief survey on Automatic Kannada Speech Recognition Systems. Many research and developments are made to improve the performance of ASR to work more efficient by the researchers. The criteria for designing Speech Recognition system are data preparation, pre-processing filter, end-point detection, feature extraction techniques, speech classifiers, and performance evaluation. Speech recognition system for Kannada language has been implemented using the Hidden Markov Tool Kit (HTK). The objective of this review paper is to summarize the researches made by researchers in the recent year.
Application of the Socio-Ecological Model to predict physical activity behaviour among Nigerian University students

Introduction Physical activity among university students is a catalyst for habitual physical activity in adulthood. Physical activity has many health benefits besides the improvement in academic performance. The present study assessed the predictors of physical activity among Nigerian university students using the Social Ecological Model (SEM). Methods This cross-sectional study recruited first-year undergraduate students in the University of Uyo, Nigeria by multistage sampling. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) short-version was used to assess physical activity in the study. Factors were categorised according to the Socio-Ecological Model which consisted of individual, social environment, physical environment and policy level. Data was analysed using the IBM SPSS statistical software, version 22. Simple and multiple logistic regression were used to determine the predictors of sufficient physical activity. Results A total of 342 respondents completed the study questionnaire. Majority of the respondents (93.6%) reported sufficient physical activity at 7-day recall. Multivariate analysis revealed that respondents belonging to the Ibibio ethnic group were about four times more likely to be sufficiently active compared to those who belonged to the other ethnic groups (AOR = 3.725, 95% CI = 1.383 to 10.032). Also, participants who had a normal weight were about four times more likely to be physically active compared to those who were underweight (AOR = 4.268, 95% CI = 1.323 to 13.772). Conclusion This study concluded that there was sufficient physical activity levels among respondents. It is suggested that emphasis be given to implementing interventions aimed at sustaining sufficient levels of physical activity among students.
On the use of cheap talk in hypothetical product valuation: a field experiment

On the Use of Cheap Talk in Hypothetical Product Valuation: A Field Experiment. (December 2007) Andres Silva Montes, B.S., Universidad Catolica de Chile Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr. Experimental willingness to pay (WTP) studies can be classified as hypothetical or non-hypothetical. In a hypothetical study, such as conjoint analysis, a subject does not need to make a real economic commitment. In contrast, in a non-hypothetical task such as in experimental auctions, a subject may need to actually buy the product. Subjects in hypothetical studies tend to overstate their true WTP. Consequently, researchers need to correct hypothetical values to obtain reliable WTP estimates. Recently, incentive-aligned and cheap talk approaches have been proposed as ways to correct for hypothetical bias. In a hypothetical task, a cheap talk script explicitly reminds the subject about the hypothetical nature of the task and its expected consequences. In an incentive-aligned task (nonhypothetical), subjects are randomly selected to physically buy the product. The objective of our study is to assess and compare the reduction of hypothetical bias in consumers’ willingness to pay for novel products by applying a generic, short, and neutral cheap talk script in a retail setting. To accomplish this objective, we employ non-hypothetical, hypothetical, and hypothetical with cheap talk treatments in our experimental design. We conducted our experimental retail study using conjoint analysis and open-ended elicitation mechanisms, utilizing Becker DeGroot Marshak (BDM) mechanism for the incentive-aligned treatments. Consistently in both elicitation mechanisms, using seemingly unrelated and random-effect Tobit techniques, we find that our cheap talk script is effective in eliminating the hypothetical bias. As expected, the hypothetical WTP values are significantly higher than the non-hypothetical values but the hypothetical values with cheap talk are not significantly different from incentive-aligned or non-hypothetical estimates. In addition, we find that open-ended estimates are significantly higher than conjoint analysis estimates and that emotions and familiarity can have significant impacts on WTP estimates.
Robust Navigation and Mapping Architecture for Large Environments

AbstractThis paper addresses the problem of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for very largeenvironments. A Hybrid architecture is presented that makes use of the Extended Kalman Filter toperform SLAM in a very eﬃcient form and a Monte Carlo localiser to resolve data association problemspotentially present when returning to a known location after a large exploration period. Algorithmsto improve the convergence of the Monte Carlo ﬁlter are presented that consider vehicle and sensoruncertainty. The proposed algorithm incorporates signiﬁcant integrity to the standard SLAM algorithmsby providing the ability to handle multimodal distributions over robot pose in real time while themapping process is on hold. Experimental results in outdoor environments are presented to demonstratethe performance of the algorithm proposed.KeywordsBayes Estimation, Bootstrap Filter, SLAM, Navigation I. IntroductionReliable autonomous navigation in highly unstructured outdoor environments presentsformidable problems in terms of sensing, perception and navigation algorithms [1]. Theproblem of localization given a map of the environment or estimating the map knowingthe vehicle position is known to be a solved problem and has been in fact applied in manyresearch and industrial applications [2] [3]. Outdoor environments present additionalchallenges due to the lack of sensors and perception algorithms that can work reliably inall environments and under all weather conditions.This is starting to change with sensors like Laser and Radars capable of returning 2-Dand 3-D reliable and consistent information and with important progress in perceptionalgorithms [4] [5]. Once the sensing and perception problem is addressed, the localizationproblem can be solved using a number of approaches. Some methods are based on thenon-linear version of the Kalman Filter, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). Othermethods use approximations of the probabilistic density of the states conditioned to themeasures obtained. These approaches can be classiﬁed into three categories: the mixtureof densities [6], the grid based methods [7] and the Monte Carlo methods [8]. 2
Blind Image Restoration by using PCA-Subspace Generation and Image Quality Optimization

Image blurring process is commonly formulated as two-dimensional convolution between the latent image and the blurring system. Blind image restoration problem is to estimate the latent image only from the blurred image. Conventional blind image restoration techniques tend to solve this problem by estimating the blurring system and therefore their effectiveness are dependent to the accuracy of their estimation. Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-based restoration technique, however, do not employ PSF estimation and still gives high restoration quality. PCA-based techniques have two different roots. The first is to boost the high-frequency component lost during the blurring process by maximizing the image variance. The other comes from source-separation using PCA. Previously we proposed a PCA-generated subspace for blind restoration and proved its superiority to conventional methods. However, the algorithm should be improved. This study proposes a signdetermination method and modify the image quality optimization technique. The noise robustness and the application to other blurs are also investigated in this paper. From the experiments, we can see that the proposed method gives higher restoration quality both for simulated blur images and real images than conventional methods. Keywords—Blind image restoration; Single image restoration; Principal Component Analysis; Image enhancement; Image quality
Observation of Eunotia enigmatica (Bacillariophyta), a rare South-American diatom species, in the Congo Basin, tropical Africa

ABSTRACT In material collected in the Losambila river, a small tributary of the Congo River at Yangambi (Tshopo Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo), an unusual Eunotia species was observed. The same taxon was also detected in material taken at the beginning of 2018 in a small tributary of the Luapula river in the Haut-Katanga Province in the South of DR Congo. We could identify it as Eunotia enigmatica, recently described from reservoirs in south-eastern Brazil. The valve morphology of the Congolese material is compared with the Brazilian. E. enigmatica was not observed frequently but was not rare either. In two samples of the Losambila river this taxon reached up to 5.6 and 5.4 % of the total diatom assemblage. It is not the only species with a distribution known from Africa and South-America observed in the Losambila River. Encyonopsis frequentis, also described from South America, was more common than E. enigmatica in samples collected in the Tshopo Province, and reached up to 16.8% of the total diatom composition in the Losambila river. However, Encyonopsis frequentis was not observed in the samples where E. enigmatica was present. The same applies to the material from the tributary of the Luapula river where Encyonopsis frequentis was not found in the sample where E. enigmatica was present.
Saccadometry: a new tool for evaluating presymptomatic Huntington patients

Saccadic reaction time or latency reflects the operation of the largely cortical mechanisms that decide where to look. An unusual feature of latency is that it varies randomly from trial to trial. In the past, this variation has been regarded as a nuisance, but analysis of its statistical properties has turned out to provide much insight into the underlying cerebral decision mechanisms. Thanks to recent technological improvements, large number of data can be gathered quickly and noninvasively using miniature, portable devices, offering the possibility of using saccadometry as a biomarker to enhance the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological conditions. Here we show that this technique can robustly distinguish genetically identified presymptomatic and symptomatic Huntington's disease patients from age-matched controls, largely through an increase in the number of unusually early responses, which might reflect an impairment of the tonic suppression of the colliculus normally mediated by pathways through the basal ganglia.
Numerical Integration Scheme for the Near-Singular Green Function Gradient on General Triangles

A new near-singularity cancellation transformation quadrature scheme for triangle domains is presented. It is tailored to the Green function gradient kernel (static and dynamic) multiplied with higher-order weighting functions on curvilinear triangles. The transformation is analytically invertible. Attention is paid to ensuring accuracy in both tangential and normal components. Such integrals must be routinely evaluated in modern method of moments (MoM) implementations. The scheme follows the standard three subtriangle splitting approach of which the benefits are single-parameter accuracy control, a geometry-independent total number of quadrature points and implementation simplicity. Extensive numerical results show superior efficiency and reliability to existing three-subdomain schemes. Consistent, dependable error convergence is demonstrated, with very low variation in accuracy for fixed quadrature order and singularity height. The scheme is suitable for practical use by MoM developers.
History and Practice of Thyroid Fine-Needle Aspiration in China, Based on Retrospective Study of the Practice in Shandong University Qilu Hospital

Cytology in China developed from nothing and underwent a long journey from gynecologic cytology to that of all organs, laying a solid foundation for new developments in the 21st century. Thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) was primarily developed in an endocrinology department and then in the clinical laboratory department or pathology department in the 1970–80s. Wrights staining is popular in endocrine and clinical laboratory departments, while hematoxylin and eosin staining is common in pathology. Liquid based cytology is not common in thyroid FNA cytology, while BRAFV600E mutation analysis has been the most popular molecular test. The history and practice of thyroid FNA practice in China were reviewed based on retrospective study of the practice in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University.
Effect of nanoparticles loading on electrical tree propagation in polymer nanocomposites

The incorporation of nanoparticles into polymer materials is pivotal on electrical tree behavior, as nanoparticles seem to form barriers delaying and/or preventing tree growth. Even with a small nanoparticles loading, the polymer acquires great resistance to tree initiation and growth. In this paper, a cellular automaton model is used in order to investigate how different nanoparticles loadings affect tree growth in nanocomposites. Simulations are performed for dc voltage, which is applied to the needle of a needle-plane electrode arrangement. Epoxy/TiO2 nanocomposites with different nanoparticles loadings are used as samples. The simulation results show that tree growth is limited as nanoparticles loading increases. Moreover, the tree length depends on the nanoparticles loading and it is smaller in the epoxy/TiO2 nanocomposite with the higher nanoparticles loading.
Cytokinins in the Phloem Sap of White Lupin (Lupinus albus L.).

Cytokinin-like activity in samples of xylem and phloem sap collected from field-grown plants of white lupin (Lupinus albus L.) over a period of 9 to 24 weeks after sowing was measured using the soybean hypocotyl callus bioassay following paper chromatographic separation. The phloem sap was collected from shallow incisions made at the base of the stem, the base of the inflorescence (e.g. stem top), the petioles, and the base and tip of the fruit. Xylem sap was collected as root exudate from the stump of plants severed a few centimeters above ground level. Concentration of cytokinin-like substances was highest in phloem sap collected from the base of the inflorescence and showed an increase over the entire sampling period (from week 10 [61 nanogram zeatin equivalents] to week 24 [407 nanogram zeatin equivalents]). Concentrations in the xylem sap and in the other phloem saps were generally lower. Relatively high concentrations of cytokinin-like substances in petiole phloem sap (70 to 130 nanogram zeatin equivalents per milliliter) coincided in time with high concentrations in sap from the base of the inflorescence (see above). Concentrations in sap (phloem or xylem) from the base of the stem were very much lower. This finding is consistent with movement of cytokinins from leaves into the developing inflorescence and fruit, rather than direct input to the fruit from xylem sap. However, an earlier movement of cytokinins from roots into leaves via the xylem cannot be ruled out. Sap collected at an 18-week harvest was additionally separated by sequential C(18) reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography --> NH(2) normal phase high performance liquid chromatography, bioassayed, and then analyzed by electron impact gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Identification of zeatin riboside and dihydrozeatin as two of the major cytokinins in combined sap samples was accomplished by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring.
A novel framework for extraction of landscape areas and automatic building detection in satellite images

Identification and Classification of satellite image for the extraction of landscapes and automatic extraction of building remains a critical issues in digital photogrammetric. It plays a challenging role for the remote sensing application. Many approaches for extraction of building provides less satisfactory concert with high-resolution satellite images. In this proposal a novel framework for consistent and correct structure extraction of landscape from high-resolution panchromatic images were obtained. The proposed approach uses classification and automatic detection process for finding out accurate extraction of building and also to analyze the landscape areas using internal image gray variance (IGV). Detection process is carried out using Image shadow detection and False alarm reduction technique. The evaluation of classification and detection algorithm is demonstrated and the proposed algorithm provides the quality of services in accuracy and efficiency for remote sensing application.
Lattice-Boltzmann Simulation and Experimental Validation of a Microfluidic T-Junction for Slug Flow Generation

We investigate the interaction of two immiscible fluids in a head-on device geometry, where both fluids are streaming opposite to each other. The simulations are based on the two-dimensional (2D) lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) using the Rothman and Keller (RK) model. We validate the LBM code with several benchmarks such as the bubble test, static contact angle, and layered flow. For the first time, we simulate a head-on device by forcing periodicity and a volume force to induce the flow. From low to high flow rates, three main flow patterns are observed in the head-on device, which are dripping-squeezing, jetting-shearing, and threading. In the squeezing regime, the flow is steady and the droplets are equal. The jetting-shearing flow is not as stable as dripping-squeezing. Moreover, the formation of droplets is shifted downstream into the main channel. The last flow form is threading, in which the immiscible fluids flow parallel downstream to the outlet. In contrast to other studies, we select larger microfluidic channels with 1-mm channel width to achieve relatively high volumetric fluxes as used in chemical synthesis reactors. Consequently, the capillary number of the flow regimes is smaller than 10−5. In conclusion, the simulation compares well to experimental data.
Identification of an Aspartic Residue in the P-loop of the Vanilloid Receptor That Modulates Pore Properties*

Vanilloid receptor subunit 1 (VR1) is a nonselective cation channel that integrates multiple pain-producing stimuli. VR1 channels are blocked with high efficacy by the well established noncompetitive antagonist ruthenium red and exhibit high permeability to divalent cations. The molecular determinants that define these functional properties remain elusive. We have addressed this question and evaluated by site-specific neutralization the contribution on pore properties of acidic residues located in the putative VR1 pore region. Mutant receptors expressed inXenopus oocytes exhibited capsaicin-operated ionic currents akin to those of wild type channels. Incorporation of glutamine residues at Glu648 and Glu651 rendered minor effects on VR1 pore attributes, while Glu636 slightly modulated pore blockade. In contrast, replacement of Asp646by asparagine decreased 10-fold ruthenium red blockade efficacy and reduced 4-fold the relative permeability of the divalent cation Mg2+ with respect to Na+ without changing the selectivity of monovalent cations. At variance with wild type channels and E636Q, E648Q, and E651Q mutant receptors, ruthenium red blockade of D646N mutants was weakly sensitive to extracellular pH acidification. Collectively, our results suggest that Asp646 is a molecular determinant of VR1 pore properties and imply that this residue may form a ring of negative charges that structures a high affinity binding site for cationic molecules at the extracellular entryway.
Finite element modeling of corneal biomechanical behavior.

PURPOSE To optimize the construction details of corneal numerical models while maintaining efficiency and reliability of predictions. METHODS Nonlinear finite element analysis of corneal models was carried out to assess the importance of considering the cornea's hyperelastic, hysteretic and anisotropic behavior, multi-layer construction, weak inter-lamellar adhesion, non-uniform thickness, elliptical topography, and connection to the sclera. The effect of each of these parameters was determined by removing it from the numerical models and assessing the effect on the results. This exercise was carried out under two load cases--a uniform posterior pressure subjecting the cornea to predominantly membrane tension stresses, and a concentrated anterior pressure as applied by the Ocular Response Analyzer (Reichert Ophthalmic Instruments), which creates mainly bending stresses. RESULTS Corneal models subjected to mainly bending stresses were particularly sensitive to simplifications in modeling corneal nonuniform thickness, weak interlamellar adhesion, and multi-layer construction. On the other hand, models under mainly membrane tension were more sensitive to simplifications in elliptical profile and connection to the sclera. Considering hyper-elasticity was important in both cases. Hysteresis was also important, but only in applications involving load reversal. CONCLUSIONS Although simplifications may be necessary to reduce the cost of numerical model construction and analysis, the selection of which simplifications to adopt should be done with care. They should only be considered when their effect on results is acceptably small, and their inclusion does not make the model significantly different from real-life conditions.
Improved Abusive Comment Moderation with User Embeddings

Experimenting with a dataset of approximately 1.6M user comments from a Greek news sports portal, we explore how a state of the art RNN-based moderation method can be improved by adding user embeddings, user type embeddings, user biases, or user type biases. We observe improvements in all cases, with user embeddings leading to the biggest performance gains.