Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ethnography with Intercultural Competence and Visual Thinking for Real Life Problem Solving

This paper studies the positive effect of ethnographic methods in natural environments, and the significance of symbolic interpretation of research by adopting Viktor Chklovski’s conception, defamiliarization. This literary term is reoriented here to overcoming learned helplessness through direct contact and intensive face-to-face involvement with research subjects as a way to reach self-actualization. This paper explores the influence of culture and the necessity of fostering intercultural competence in face-to-face interpersonal encounters. Contextual intelligence, the ability to understand the limits of knowledge and to adapt knowledge to an environment different from the one in which it was developed, must all be considered to establish richer heuristics based upon ethnographic research. Additionally, it studies the power of visual thinking in an inspiration space and an ideation space in which every possible source of idea is explored. By merging visual thinking with ethnography, we can effectively capture the hidden nature of the research subjects and realize our utmost potentials.
Burden and needs of 487 caregivers of patients in vegetative state and in minimally conscious state: Results from a national study

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the burden of caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness (DOCs), considering psychosocial difficulties, health condition and financial aspects. Design: This is an observational multi-centre study. Four hundred and eighty-seven participants were assessed using the Caregiver Needs Assessment, Family Strain Questionnaire, Short Form 12, Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory-Y, Beck Depression Inventory, Prolonged Grief Disorder Questionnaire and Coping Orientations to Problem Experiences. Outcomes and results: The sample had lower scores both in Physical (M = 49.85, SD = 7.66) and Mental (M = 39.37, SD = 12.90) health and a higher level of anxiety (p < 0.001) in comparison to the Italian normative sample. More than half of the sample manifested a high level of depressive symptoms (59.5%) and 27.6% satisfied criteria for Prolonged Grief Disorder. This sample reported needs to know the disease of their beloved, high needs for information and communication, several problems in social involvement and in emotional burden. The most frequently adopted coping strategies are acceptance, turning to religion, positive reinterpretation and planning. Finally, 40.2% of caregivers report to earn a net income of less than 17 000 euros per year. Conclusions: These results showed a high burden related to providing care to patients with DOCs. This study sets the scene to plan comprehensive support strategies for caregivers in order to diminish level of burden.
Successful Learner Perspectives on Success , Intelligence and Nutrition in a Turkish State Secondary School

The primary aim of this study was to examine the preferences about success, intelligence and nutrition of 8th grade students who had high academic grades. The study group consisted of 23 8th grade students who were attending a state secondary school in the province of Adana, Turkey, during the 2012/2013 academic year. The research method was qualitative. Content analysis and descriptive analysis were used to analyze the data. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with interview forms. All interviews were audio-recorded, and learners gave written consent to participate and consent orally to the interview and audio recording. The audio recordings were transcribed. In conclusion, the views of the students who had high academic grades about success, intelligence and nutrition were compatible with the literature that was covered by study skills that include effective learning, efficient studying, time management, motivation, studying, planning, reviewing, choosing a study space and managing stress.
University of Birmingham Free light chains in patients with acute coronary syndromes

Publisher Rights Statement: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published as Shantsila Eduard, Tapp Luke D. , Lip Gregory Y.H. , Free Light Chains in patients with acute coronary syndromes: Relationships to inflammation and renal function, International Journal of Cardiology (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard. 2015.03. 105
Département Universitaire d ' ophtalmologie Unité du Glaucome ln vivo study comparing an X-shaped polymethylmethacrylate and a cylindrical collagen implant for deep sclerectomy THESE préparée sous la direction du Docteur

Background: Study in vivo characteristics of a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) implant compared to the standard cylindrical collagen implant for deep sclerectomy (D S). Design: Six-month comparative study. Samples: Twenty eyes of ten rabbits. Methods: Eyes were randomized to have DS with PMMA implant in one eye and collagen implant in the opposite eye. The growth of the new subconjunctival drainage vessels was assessed by combined fluorescein and indocyanin green anterior segment angiography; intrascleral and subconjunctival blebs were imaged by ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM). At six months, outflow facility (C) was measured by anterior chamber perfusion and portions of one side of the D S were compared to portions on the 180° opposite side and native sclera on histology. Results: The mean IOP preoperatively and at one, four, twelve, and twenty-four weeks was comparable in both groups (P> 0.1). UBM showed a statistically insignificant quicker regression of the subconjunctival bleb as well as a durable intrascleral lake in the PMMA group (P> 0.05). New drainage vessels were initially observed one month after surgery; they were more numerous in the PMMA group on angiographie and histological findings at 6 months (P < 0.05). The mean C increased significantly after surgery compared to preoperative values (P < 0.05) and no difference was observed between the implants (0.24 ± 0.06 μl/min/mmHg [PMMA] and 0.23 ± 0.07 μl/min/mmHg [collagen implant]) (P= 0.39). Conclusions: Deep sclerectomy performed with PMMA or collagen implants showed similar IOP lowering effects, outflow facility increase, and degree of inflammatory reaction.
Build watson: An overview of DeepQA for the Jeopardy! Challenge

Computer systems that can directly and accurately answer peoples' questions over a broad domain of human knowledge have been envisioned by scientists and writers since the advent of computers themselves. Open domain question answering holds tremendous promise for facilitating informed decision making over vast volumes of natural language content. Applications in business intelligence, healthcare, customer support, enterprise knowledge management, social computing, science and government would all benefit from deep language processing. The DeepQA project (www.ibm.com/deepqa) is aimed at illustrating how the advancement and integration of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval (IR), Machine Learning (ML), massively parallel computation and Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR&R) can greatly advance open-domain automatic Question Answering. An exciting proof-point in this challenge is to develop a computer system that can successfully compete against top human players at the Jeopardy! quiz show (www.jeopardy.com). Attaining champion-level performance Jeopardy! requires a computer to rapidly answer rich open-domain questions, and to predict its own performance on any given category/question. The system must deliver high degrees of precision and confidence over a very broad range of knowledge and natural language content and with a 3-second response time. To do this DeepQA generates, evidences and evaluates many competing hypotheses. A key to success is automatically learning and combining accurate confidences across an array of complex algorithms and over different dimensions of evidence. Accurate confidences are needed to know when to “buzz in” against your competitors and how much to bet. Critical for winning at Jeopardy! , High precision and accurate confidence computations are just as critical for providing real value in business settings where helping users focus on the right content sooner and with greater confidence can make all the difference. The need for speed and high precision demands a massively parallel compute platform capable of generating, evaluating and combing 1000's of hypotheses and their associated evidence. In this talk I will introduce the audience to the Jeopardy! Challenge and describe our technical approach and our progress on this grand-challenge problem.
Modelling Heteregeneous and Distributed Spatial Datasets in an Update Context

The update of distributed geographic data still poses many problems due essentially to the data’s specific characteristics (spatial constituent, topology, for example). We propose a metadata model to aid in the management of different actors located at several sites handling heterogeneous data that are regularly updated. This model is based on the ISO 19115 standard, which is the metadata standard for geographic information.
Jordan ANALYSIS , MODELING AND IMPROVEMENT OF STAMPED PARTS QUALITY USING GENERALIZED LINEAR MODELS

This paper presents an approach used for improving the visual quality of body panels produced in an automated press shop of a car manufacturer. To solve the complex problem of panels’ visual defects, the optimal values of process parameters based on Generalized Linear Models (GLZ) were identified and deployed. The project focused on parts exhibiting excessive rejection rates. To deal effectively with the case in which the distribution function representing the number of defects in the panels was found to be binomial with presence of some covariates in the model, the research approach focused on development of Logit Models. After identifying the potential causes of defects and selecting the most significant process factors from typical factor sets varying from 20 to 40 for each part, the levels of factors, number of replications and appropriate methods for running the experiments regarding to practical limitations and shop floor scheduling were established. Finally, the optimal values for process variables minimizing number of defects and used effectively to set up action plans for improving the panels’ quality were identified. Implementing the plans, the process capability was increased by 0.25 for those non-satisfactory parts and production costs fell between 3-7% among them.
A MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATION FOR INTERACTIVE PAINTING RECOLORING

We present a mobile augmented reality application that allows its users to modify colors of paintings via simple touch interactions. Our method is intended for museums and art exhibitions and aims to provide an entertaining way for interacting with paintings in a non-intrusive manner. Plausible color edits are achieved by utilizing a set of layers with corresponding alpha channels, which needs to be generated for each individual painting in a pre-processing step. Manually performing such a layer decomposition is a tedious process and makes the entire system infeasible for most practical use cases. In this work, we propose the use of a fully automatic soft color segmentation algorithm for content generation for such an augmented reality application. This way, we significantly reduce the amount of manual labor needed for deploying our system and thus make our system feasible for real-world use.
CHARACTERIZATION , IDENTIFICATION AND ANTIBIOGRAM STUDIES OF ENDOPHYTIC BACTERIA FROM COWPEA [ Vigna unguiculata ( L . ) Walp ]

This study included isolation, characterization and identification of endophytic bacteria from cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp] roots from Hathazari upazilla, Chittagong, Bangladesh and three specis of bacteria, Staphylococcus intermedius, Staphylococcus caprae and Staphylococcus saprophyticus were finally identified based on their morphological and biochemical characteristics according to established protocol. Results of antibiotic sensitivity pattern of those endophytic bacteria suggested that they can be utilized as a cost-effective biological control agent in future applications, such as delivery of enzymes for controlling certain plant diseases against various pathogens. The findings of this study may help to determine the potential application of those endophytic bacteria in biotechnology, medicine and agriculture.
The error exponent of the binary symmetric channel for asymmetric random codes

In this paper, we consider asymmetric binary codes from Shannon's random code ensemble and also from the random linear code ensemble (LCE), used over the the binary symmetric channel (BSC). The asymmetry is in the sense that the codeword symbols are not necessarily chosen in an equiprobable manner. One possible motivation for such asymmetry is mismatch, where the user uses asymmetric codes over the BSC, leading to a degradation in performance. Accordingly, we derive the distance distribution and the error exponents of a typical random code (TRC) from the RCE, and of a typical linear code (TLC) from the LCE. The derivation is based on a fine large-deviation analysis of some distance enumerators, contrary to the usual bounding technique by Gallager. Later, we propose a “time-varying” BSC model, in which the crossover probability of the BSC is time-dependent, and use our results for providing a lower bound on the error exponent of this channel model.
Early increase in marker of neuronal integrity with antidepressant treatment of major depression : 1 H magnetic resonance spectroscopy of

Increasing interest surrounds potential neuroprotective or neurotrophic actions of antidepressants. While growing evidence points to important early clinical and neuropsychological effects of antidepressants, the time-course of any effect on neuronal integrity is unclear. This study used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to assess effects of short-term treatment with escitalopram on N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), a marker of neuronal integrity. Thirty-nine participants with major depression were randomly assigned to receive either 10 mg escitalopram or placebo daily in a double-blind, parallel group design. On the seventh day of treatment, PRESS data were obtained from a 30r30r20 mm voxel placed in medial frontal cortex. Age and gender-matched healthy controls who received no treatment were also scanned. Levels of NAA were significantly higher in patients treated with escitalopram than in either placebo-treated patients (p<0.01) or healthy controls (p<0.01). Our findings are consistent with the proposition that antidepressant treatment in depressed patients can produce early changes in neuronal integrity. Received 30 November 2011 ; Reviewed 4 January 2012 ; Revised 23 February 2012 ; Accepted 27 February 2012 ; First published online 26 March 2012
A systematic approach to therapeutic target selection in oesophago-gastric cancer

Objective The success of personalised therapy depends on identification and inhibition of the oncogene(s) on which that tumour is dependent. We aimed to determine whether a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) array could be used to select the most effective therapeutic strategies in molecularly heterogeneous oesophago-gastric adenocarcinomas. Design Gene expression profiling from oesophago-gastric tumours (n=75) and preinvasive stages (n=57) identified the active signalling pathways, which was confirmed using immunohistochemistry (n=434). RTK arrays on a cell line panel (n=14) determined therapeutic targets for in vitro cytotoxic testing. Feasibility of this personalised approach was tested in tumour samples (n=46). Results MAPK was the most frequently activated pathway (32/75 samples (42.7%)) with progressive enrichment in preinvasive disease stages (p<0.05) and ERK phosphorylation in 148/434 (34.3%) independent samples. Cell lines displayed a range of RTK activation profiles. When no RTKs were activated, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and a Mek inhibitor were not useful (MKN1). In lines with a dominant phosphorylated RTK (OE19, MKN45 and KATOIII), selection of this TKI or Mek in nM concentrations induced cytotoxicity and inhibited Erk and Akt phosphorylation. In cells lines with complex activation profiles (HSC39 and OE33), a combination of TKIs or Mek inhibition (in nM concentrations) was necessary for cytotoxicity and inhibition of Erk and Akt phosphorylation. Human tumours demonstrated diverse activation profiles and 65% of cases had two or more active RTKs. Conclusions The MAPK pathway is commonly activated in oesophago-gastric cancer following activation of a variety of RTKs. Molecular phenotyping can inform a rational choice of targeted therapy.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Grasp : Randomised Semiring Parsing

We present a suite of algorithms for inference tasks over (finite and infinite) context-free sets. For generality and clarity, we have chosen the framework of semiring parsing with support to the most common semirings (e.g. Forest, Viterbi, k-best and Inside). We see parsing from the more general viewpoint of weighted deduction allowing for arbitrary weighted finite-state input and provide implementations of both bottom-up (CKY-inspired) and top-down (Earley-inspired) algorithms. We focus on approximate inference by Monte Carlo methods and provide implementations of ancestral sampling and slice sampling. In principle, sampling methods can deal with models whose independence assumptions are weaker than what is feasible by standard dynamic programming. We envision applications such as monolingual constituency parsing, synchronous parsing, context-free models of reordering for machine translation, and machine translation decoding.
Comparison of phenotypic methods and DNA hybridization for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

One hundred thirty-eight Staphylococcus aureus isolates from patients with severe staphylococcal infections were collected in 15 French hospitals. Detection of the mec gene was performed by dot blot hybridization with a specific DNA probe. Dot blot results were used to characterize the isolates as methicillin susceptible (77 isolates) or resistant (61 isolates). The isolates were screened for methicillin resistance by an agar spread method on Mueller-Hinton plates containing oxacillin (2 and 10 micrograms/ml) and were incubated at 37 degrees C, with 10(8) CFU as the inoculum. MICs of oxacillin and methicillin were determined by the agar dilution method on Mueller-Hinton plates without NaCl, by using 10(5) CFU per spot, after 24 and 48h of incubation at 30 or 37 degrees C. Moderately elevated MICs were found for 20 isolates (14.5%). The mec gene was detected in six (30%) of the isolates expressing a low level of resistance to methicillin and/or oxacillin. As determined by comparison with probe hybridization results, the spread plate method with oxacillin at 2 micrograms/ml was more sensitive (sensitivity, 100%) and specific (specificity, 100%) than agar dilution with either methicillin or oxacillin in identifying methicillin resistance or susceptibility. Determinations of methicillin and oxacillin MICs by the agar dilution method had a specificity of 99 to 100% depending on the conditions of incubation, but the sensitivity was below 85% whatever the duration or temperature of incubation.
Risking marriage and family : maintaining women seafarers ’ gender identities

This paper focuses upon how women seafarers maintain their gender identities in relation to their marriage and family lives. Seafaring is traditionally male dominated and women seafarers are likely to feel a need to minimise signs of femininity onboard the ship. This results in their development of gender identity management at sea and women seafarers also have to adjust to the shore culture where they are expected to play a certain gender role, for example, being a wife or mother. This study examines the ways in which women seafarers maintain their gender identities between ship and ashore and describes some of the difficulties which they have to deal with. Although there are a lot of challenges for women seafarers to work at sea, this paper concludes that some of the difficulties faced by women working onboard the ship could be ameliorated with appropriate support from the industry and wider community.
The Doherty power amplifier: review of recent solutions and trends

In this work, an extensive review of the most up-todate papers on microwave Doherty power amplifiers is presented. The main applications are discussed, together with the employed semiconductor technologies. The different research trends, all aimed to improve the advantages of the Doherty scheme and to solve its inherent drawbacks, are presented. The first considered topic is the maximization of efficiency and/or linearity, where analog and digital techniques are exploited. Another important trend is the bandwidth enlargement of the Doherty architecture, that involves a large number of papers. Multi-band, multi-mode solutions are also considered, using either fixed or reconfigurable solutions. The final section is dedicated to the most significant Doherty integrated implementation.
A feasibility study of wind turbine blade surface crack detection using an optical inspection method

A new image processing technique was investigated to assess its ability to detect surface flaws on an on-tower wind turbine blade (WTB). The method was tested by varying the parameters of the surface flaws as well as the parameters of the method. It was found that detecting and quantifying cracks as small as hair thickness with computer-based optical inspection is feasible and the orientation of a crack was not sensitive to image processing so that the inspection camera does not need to be set up at a specific angle to detect cracks. It was also found that uneven background illumination was significantly reduced by optimizing the threshold value using the Canny method. In addition, the accuracy of quantifying a crack was improved by reducing noise with the intersection of two processed images from Sobel and Canny methods. Keywords—gel coat cracks, optical inspection, blades, O&M
Modified Email Header Steganography Using LZW Compression Algorithm

— Email Header Steganography or HeadStega is a technique in Noiseless Steganography that utilizes the header part of an email such as subject, to, cc, etc. to hide secret messages. However, HeadStega has a low hiding capacity. An email is only capable of hiding 4 to 11 bits of secret message. This paper propose a new technique to improve the hiding capacity of HeadStega. By using LZW compression algorithm and modifying the message-hiding process, the capacity of HeadStega can be improved. The experiment results show that HeadStega hiding capacity increased by 39.72% for text message and increased by 58.80% for binary messages.
SRR Loaded Dual Band Notched Ultra Wideband Microstrip Antenna

In this paper a compact ultra-wideband (UWB) microstrip antenna with dual band-notched characteristics is presented. The proposed antenna isdesigned on an FR-4 epoxy substrate with thickness of 1.6 mm, loss tangent of 0.02 and dielectric constant εr =4.4. The proposed antenna has used split ring resonator slot theory to create dual band-notched characteristics in, 3.2 3.5 GHz for WiMAX (widely used in Asia Pacific) and 5.1-5.8 GHz for WLAN, respectively. A vector surface current distribution is used to show the effect of SRR slots. The antenna is designed to show broad bandwidth and good omnidirectional radiation patterns in the passband, with a compact size. The proposed antenna is operated over 3 to 11GHz for VSWR < 2. All simulations in this work have been carried out by using the electromagnetic software Ansoft HFSS 13.