Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase contrast cell detection using multilevel classification

In this paper, we propose a fully automated learning‐based approach for detecting cells in time‐lapse phase contrast images. The proposed system combines 2 machine learning approaches to achieve bottom‐up image segmentation. We apply pixel‐wise classification using random forests (RF) classifiers to determine the potential location of the cells. Each pixel is classified into 4 categories (cell, mitotic cell, halo effect, and background noise). Various image features are extracted at different scales to train the RF classifier. The resulting probability map is partitioned using the k‐means algorithm to form potential cell regions. These regions are expanded into the neighboring areas to recover some missing or broken cell regions. To validate the cell regions, another machine learning method based on the bag‐of‐features and spatial pyramid encoding is proposed. The result of the second classifier can be a validated cell, a merged cell, or a noncell. In the case that the cell region is classified as a merged cell, it is split by using the seeded watershed method. The proposed method is demonstrated on several phase contrast image datasets, ie, U2OS, HeLa, and NIH 3T3. In comparison to state‐of‐the‐art cell detection techniques, the proposed method shows improved performance, particularly in dealing with noise interference and drastic shape variations.
Anomaly detection in smart grids with imbalanced data methods

The research of anomaly-based intrusion detection within smart grids is a current topic and is investigated by many researchers. Thus, little experience is available on how to address the problem of detecting anomalies in smart grids. Another problem emerges when one tries to use common approaches of pattern recognition. As the data in such systems is typically highly imbalanced — there are many more normal instances than attack instances — there is often a high rate of misclassification when considering the attack, or minority class. In order to study this issue, this paper investigates the use of resampling techniques for intrusion detection inside of a hierarchical, three-layer smart grid communication system using a relatively new data set called ADFA-LD (this dataset includes contemporary attacks and is well-known for evaluating the performance of anomaly-based intrusion detection systems). Results compare the performance of typical and resampled techniques, demonstrating that the use of resampling leads to improved detection of attacks with a smart grid communication system.
Interaction of Insulin Receptor Substrate-1 with the ς3A Subunit of the Adaptor Protein Complex-3 in Cultured Adipocytes*

Signaling through the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase involves its autophosphorylation in response to insulin and the subsequent tyrosine phosphorylation of substrate proteins such as insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1). In basal 3T3-L1 adipocytes, IRS-1 is predominantly membrane-bound, and this localization may be important in targeting downstream signaling elements that mediate insulin action. Since IRS-1 localization to membranes may occur through its association with specific membrane proteins, a 3T3-F442A adipocyte cDNA expression library was screened with non-tyrosine-phosphorylated, baculovirus-expressed IRS-1 in order to identify potential IRS-1 receptors. A cDNA clone that encodes ς3A, a small subunit of the AP-3 adaptor protein complex, was demonstrated to bind IRS-1 utilizing this cloning strategy. The specific interaction between IRS-1 and ς3A was further verified by in vitro binding studies employing baculovirus-expressed IRS-1 and a glutathione S-transferase (GST)-ς3A fusion protein. IRS-1 and ς3A were found to co-fractionate in a detergent-resistant population of low density membranes isolated from basal 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Importantly, the addition of exogenous purified GST-ς3A to low density membranes caused the release of virtually all of the IRS-1 bound to these membranes, while GST alone had no effect. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that ς3A serves as an IRS-1 receptor that may dictate the subcellular localization and the signaling functions of IRS-1.
Evaluation of glucose as a cryoprotectant for boar semen

Fertility parameters of boar spermatozoa were evaluated in vitro, after freeze-thawing the semen in three different extenders containing permeable and non-permeable cryoprotectants: A (111-OmM Tris, 31.4mM citric acid, 185.0mM glucose, 20 per cent egg yolk, 3 per cent glycerol and 100 iu/ml penicillin G); B (200mM Tris; 70.8mM citric acid, 55.5mM glucose, 20 per cent egg yolk, three per cent glycerol and 100 iu/ml penicillin G); C (200mM Tris, 70.8mM citric acid, 55.5mM fructose, 20 per cent egg yolk, 3 per cent glycerol and 100 iu/ml penicillin G). The freeze-thawing techniques were the same for each extender. Eight ejaculates from four boars were obtained; the sperm-rich fraction of each ejaculate was extended in each of the three media at a final concentration of 400 x 106 sperm/ml, loaded into 0.5 ml straws and frozen at a rate of 30°C/minute to - 196°C. The straws were thawed at 60°C for eight seconds. Sperm motility, acrosomal integrity and in vitro sperm penetration through the zona pellucida of gilt oocytes matured in vitro were evaluated. The motility of unfrozen spermatozoa was 93.1 per cent compared with 60.7 per cent, 48.2 per cent and 35 per cent for sperm frozen in extenders A, B and C respectively; these values were all significantly different (P<0.05). There was no significant decline in sperm motility after incubation for 30 minutes in extender A, but there were significant decreases in sperm motility after 30 minutes of incubation in B and C. The percentage acrosomal integrities were 97.2 per cent for the control and 45.5 per cent, 30.3 per cent and 16.8 per cent for the frozen-thawed spermatozoa in extenders A, B and C respectively. The results of the in vitro penetration assay were 80.7 per cent when using control spermatozoa, and 42.2 per cent, 18.4 per cent and 3.3 per cent when using frozen-thawed spermatozoa in extenders A, B and C respectively
The invariance of the total direct DNA strand break yield.

PURPOSE The invariance of the total direct strand break yield when DNA is irradiated by different types of particles and energies has been reported by previous works. This study is intended to explain the physical causes of this behavior. METHODS The GEANT4-DNA extension of the GEANT4 general purpose Monte Carlo simulation toolkit has been used to determine direct strand break yields induced by protons and alpha particles impacting on a B-DNA geometrical model, including five organization levels of the human genetic material. The linear energy transfer (LET) of such particles ranges from 4.8 keV/microm (10 MeV protons) to about 235 keV/microm (2 MeV alpha particles), at 5.225 pm depth (near the center of the region of interest). Direct total, single and double strand break probabilities have been determined in a liquid water homogeneous medium with a 1.06 g/cm3 density. The energetic spectra of single strand breaks (SSB), the number of energy deposition events, and the SSB/event ratio were determined. RESULTS The target-hit probability was found to be independent of both the type and the energy of the incident particle, even if this latter is a secondary electron. This probability is determined by the geometrical properties of the system. The total strand break yield and the number of energy deposition events required to reach a certain absorbed dose were found nearly independent of the type and energy of the incident ion (proton or alpha). In contrast, the double strand break (DSB) yield was found strongly dependent on the LET of the incident radiation. CONCLUSIONS The SSB generation process is homogeneous and independent of the LET of the particles involved, at least within the proton and alpha particle energy range here studied. The target-hit probability is only determined by the ratio between the total volume occupied by targets and that of the ROI where the radiation deposits its energy. The maximum separation distance between two adjacent SSBs to produce a DSB is the parameter that breaks the homogeneity of the target-hit process, making the DSB production process strongly heterogeneous.
Prevalence and stability of the DSM-III-R personality disorders in a community-based survey of adolescents.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence, concurrent validity, and stability of DSM-III-R personality disorders in a large community-based sample of adolescents. METHOD A randomly selected community sample of 733 youths ranging in age from 9 to 19 years was followed over a 2-year period. The protocol consisted of structured interviews with the adolescents and their mothers and self-report questionnaires. Algorithms for 10 DSM-III-R axis II disorders were developed to produce diagnoses at two levels of severity; these were validated against multiple indicators of distress and functional impairment. RESULTS The overall prevalence of personality disorders peaked at age 12 in boys and at age 13 in girls and declined thereafter. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder was the most prevalent moderate axis II disorder, narcissistic personality disorder the most prevalent severe disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder the least prevalent axis II disorder, based on both moderate and severe diagnostic thresholds. All moderate axis II disorders were associated with significantly greater odds for at least five of 12 diagnostic validators. Longitudinal follow-up revealed that although most axis II disorders did not persist over a 2-year period, subjects with disorders identified earlier remained at elevated risk for receiving a diagnosis again at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that a substantial minority of adolescents who are not in treatment qualify for DSM-III-R personality disorder diagnoses and that these diagnoses are associated with increased risk of psychological distress and functional impairment.
Can linking executive compensation to sustainability performance lead to a sustainable business model? Evidence of implementation from enterprises around the world

Making top executives accountable for their companies' sustainability performance demonstrates the seriousness of those companies' efforts to combat adverse environmental impacts caused by business practices and become sustainable corporate citizens. Corporations' sustainability goals should be reflected in top executives' remuneration and not merely in reports. Linking executive compensation with a company's sustainability goals may result in a better model for sustainable corporate health. Decision makers (CEO, CFO) that fail to support the mission of sustainability are unlikely to frame optimum policies for their companies.
A large-scale study on epidemiology and risk factors for chronic ankle instability in young adults.

Up to 40% of ankle sprains can result in chronic ankle instability (CAI). The prevalence of CAI and its association with body mass index (BMI) and height in the general young adult population has not been reported. The database records of young adults before recruitment into mandatory military service were studied. Information on the disability codes associated with CAI was retrieved. Logistic regression models were used to assess the association between the BMI and body height with various grades of CAI severity. The study cohort included 829,791 subjects (470,125 males and 359,666 females). The prevalence was 0.7% for mild CAI and 0.4% for severe instability in males and 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively, for females (p < .001). An increased BMI was associated with ankle instability in males (overweight, odds ratio [OR] 1.249, p < .001; obese, OR 1.418, p < .001) and females (overweight, OR 1.989 p < .001; obese, OR 2.754, p < .001). The body height was associated with an increased risk of CAI when the highest height quintile was compared with the lowest height quintile in both males (OR 2.443, p < .001) and females (OR 1.436, p < .001) for all levels of instability severity. The present study has shown a greater prevalence of CAI among males than females in a general healthy young adult population. CAI was associated with an increased BMI and greater body height for all grades of instability severity.
Public finance, foreign aid and political incentives

This thesis consists of three studies on foreign aid and its allocation by political leaders within recipient countries. It explores whether this allocation depends on personal motives and political purposes. The first study focuses on the effect of aid on government spending using country-level data, distinguishing between several types of foreign aid that are expected to impact spending in different ways. The impact of institutional quality on aid fungibility is also considered since receiving foreign aid could promote corrupt or illegal activities on behalf of the recipient government by diverting aid into private pockets. The results suggest that aid fungibility depends on institutional quality, especially for off-budget aid. The second study focuses on the effect of aid on tax revenues using country-level data, distinguishing between two types of finance to investigate whether or not aid pays for tax reductions. The results show that aggregate aid, aid in the form of grants or in the form of loans leaves tax revenues unaffected at all levels of institutional quality. These results suggest that aid is not fungible in the context of tax revenues and that aid does not finance tax reductions. The third study focuses on the sub-national allocation of foreign aid flows from China and the World Bank using district-level data. This allocation of aid across regions is up to the discretion of the political leader. This study attempts to identify the strategy leaders use to maximise their vote share, or whether or not leaders favour co-ethnic regions. The results show that in competitive electoral environments, leaders divert aid away from their core voters and towards supporters of the opposition. In contrast, in non-competitive electoral environments without strong political motivations leaders favour their co-ethnic regions.
Enhanced fast retina keypoint descriptor

The design of efficient and effective feature matching descriptors for image processing tasks in computation and memory restricted devices has gained lots of attention recently. Binary descriptors perform well when compared with floating point descriptors like SURF, SIFT etc. and still there is a scope for more improvement considering the sampling patterns and sampling pairs considered while constructing the descriptor. In this work, we proposed a new descriptor inspired from the existing descriptors FREAK, DAISY and RETOP. The human retina pattern with the concentric circular pattern along with the sampling pair selection used for the new descriptor has clear advantages in terms of memory footprint and improved running time. The new descriptor is designed to capture existing complex correlations among the pixels in the image effectively. The proposed descriptor also perform well in terms of changes in scale, rotation and intensity variations when compared with the descriptors considered in the study. The experimental results obtained in terms of the design and comparison has been promising.
Credit Misallocation, Endogenous TFP Changes, and Economic Fluctuation in China

ABSTRACT In 2009, to cope with the economic slowdown China initiated a large-scale stimulus mainly in the form of bank credit that favored the state-owned sector. Data shows that during the policy easing episodes the credits allocated to the private enterprises (PE) are crowded out by the state-owned enterprises (SOE). I then incorporate SOE and PE into a standard dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model without imposing any ex ante asymmetry to the two sectors. The calibration exercise reveals two findings from a static view: (i) while on average the leverage of SOE is close to that of PE, the credit constraint is much smaller for SOE than PE, consistent with the well accepted views; (ii) the credit misallocation exists in the sense that by deleveraging the SOE can lead to aggregate efficiency gains. On the dynamic side, however, numerical simulations indicate that endogenous TFP changes brought about by the asymmetric credit shocks that are consistent with the data are in fact quantitatively unimportant to economic fluctuations.
Competências em promoção da saúde: o domínio parceria na residência multiprofissional em saúde

Objetivo: Conhecer como o domínio parceria manifesta-se nas ações de promoção da saúde realizadas na Residência Multiprofissional em Saúde da Família. Métodos: Pesquisa qualitativa, de caráter exploratório, baseada no manual Competências Principais em Promoção da Saúde do projeto “Desenvolvendo competências e padrões profissionais para a construção de capacidades e do fortalecimento institucional em promoção da saúde na Europa (CompHP)”. Ocorreu de janeiro a março de 2016, e teve como cenário um programa de residência multiprofissional em saúde do estado do Ceará, Brasil, com foco em seu componente comunitário. Participaram do estudo 16 residentes e obtiveram-se os dados através de entrevista semiestruturada, com base nas seguintes perguntas condutoras: Quais as competências necessárias para desenvolver ações de promoção da saúde? Como a parceria manifesta-se nas ações de promoção da saúde desenvolvidas na residência multiprofissional em saúde? Os dados foram organizados e avaliados por meio da análise de conteúdo. Resultados: Os discursos elucidam fortes parcerias na residência para construção de redes de trabalho que contribuem com a efetivação dos princípios da promoção da saúde. A intersetorialidade representa o desejo de concretude enquanto manifestação efetiva de parcerias entre setores e serviços afins para alcance de objetivos conjuntos. As ações que promovem a integração ensino-serviço-comunidade possibilitam a constituição de espaços dialógicos entre universidades/instituições formadoras, instituições de saúde e comunidade. Nesse contexto, os preceptores da residência multiprofissional são fundamentais na constituição de parcerias e no fortalecimento das ações. Conclusão: A residência multiprofissional mostra-se como espaço favorável ao desenvolvimento da parceria enquanto competência para a realização de ações promotoras de saúde.
The application of C12 biochip in the diagnosis and monitoring of colorectal cancer: systematic evaluation and suggestion for improvement.

BACKGROUND The 12 tumor markers' (TMs) biochip diagnostic (C12) system has been proven useful in some previous studies but its value for colorectal cancer (CRC) only was not systematically investigated. AIMS To evaluate the value of C12 system for CRC. SETTINGS AND DESIGN The associations between TMs and clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated. The most relevant TMs, the most useful combinations, and the correlations between TM levels were assessed. MATERIALS AND METHODS The TMs detected by the C12 system in the sera of 170 pathologically confirmed CRC patients were analyzed. One or more TMs higher than or equal to reference value were defined as positive. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Chi-square test, Spearman rank correlation test and Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used for the analysis. RESULTS The overall positive rate was 41.76%, and was low in stage 0-I (12.90%). Carcinoembryonic cantigen (CEA) had the highest positive rate of 36.47%. The positive rates were significantly correlated to clinical stages and lymph node status, but not to age, sex, tumor location and pathological types. Any combinations of the five highest positive TMs did not have significantly improvements. The levels of three most related TMs (CEA, CA19-9, CA242) of CRC had positive correlation with each other. CA242 and beta-HCG levels were associated with lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSIONS C12 system has some value in advanced CRC, but not in early CRC.
Prostate alpha/beta revisited – an analysis of clinical results from 14 168 patients

Abstract Purpose. To determine the dose response parameters and the fractionation sensitivity of prostate tumours from clinical results of patients treated with external beam radiotherapy. Material and methods. The study was based on five-year biochemical results from 14 168 patients treated with external beam radiotherapy. Treatment data from 11 330 patients treated with conventional fractionation have been corrected for overall treatment time and fitted with a logit equation. The results have been used to determine the optimum α/β values that minimise differences in predictions from 2838 patients treated with hypofractionated schedules. Results. Conventional fractionation data yielded logit dose response parameters for all risk groups and for all definitions of biochemical failures. The analysis of hypofractionation data led to very low α/β values (1–1.7 Gy) in all mentioned cases. Neglecting the correction for overall treatment time has little impact on the derivation of α/β values for prostate cancers. Conclusions. These results indicate that the high fractionation sensitivity is an intrinsic property of prostate carcinomas and they support the use of hypofractionation to increase the therapeutic gain for these tumours.
Enhancement of Information Transmission with Stochastic Resonance in Hippocampal CA1 Neuron Models: Effects of Noise Input Location

Stochastic resonance (SR) has been shown to enhance the signal to noise ratio or detection of signals in neurons. It is not yet clear how this effect of SR on the signal to noise ratio affects signal processing in neural networks. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the location of background noise input on information transmission in a hippocampal CA1 neuron model. In the computer simulation, random sub-threshold spike trains (signal) generated by a filtered homogeneous Poisson process were presented repeatedly to the middle point of the main apical branch, while the homogeneous Poisson shot noise (background noise) was applied to a location of the dendrite in the hippocampal CA1 model consisting of the soma with a sodium, a calcium, and five potassium channels. The location of the background noise input was varied along the dendrites to investigate the effects of background noise input location on information transmission. The computer simulation results show that the information rate reached a maximum value for an optimal amplitude of the background noise amplitude. It is also shown that this optimal amplitude of the background noise is independent of the distance between the soma and the noise input location. The results also show that the location of the background noise input does not significantly affect the maximum values of the information rates generated by stochastic resonance.