Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simultaneous determination of some dihydroxybenzenesulphonic acid derivatives and their degradation product and main impurity (hydroquinone) by ion-pair liquid chromatography.

A simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validated for the determination of calcium dobesilate (DOB) or ethamsylate (ETM) in the presence of their degradation product, hydroquinone (HQ). The analyses were carried out on Promosil C18 column (4.6 mM × 250 mM, 5 µm particle size) using an ion-pair mobile phase consisting of methanol-1.5 mM tetra-butyl ammonium bromide in 0.06 M phosphate buffer (25 : 75, v/v) at pH 6.0 with fluorescence detection at 286/333 nm. Pindolol was used as an internal standard. The proposed method was found to be rectilinear over the concentration ranges of 0.05-0.5 µg/mL for DOB, 0.1-0.8 µg/mL for ETM and 0.005-0.1 µg/mL for HQ. The method was applied for the determination of the studied drugs in different dosage forms and biological fluids. The results of the proposed method were statistically compared with those obtained by the comparison methods revealing no significance differences in the performance of the methods regarding accuracy and precision. Moreover, applying a time-programmed fluorescence technique was valuable for the detection of trace amounts of HQ as an impurity and allowed purity testing of ETM or DOB within the BP pharmacopeial limit (0.1%).
People detection in complex scene using a cascade of boosted classifiers based on Haar-like-features

Pedestrian detection in a real scene is an interesting application for video surveillance systems. This paper presents our contribution to improve the work of Viola and Jones, originally designed to detect faces. This work uses a cascade of classifiers based on Adaboost using Haar features. It improves the learning step by including a decision tree presenting the different poses and possible occlusions. The method has been tested on real and complex sequences and has given a good detection despite occlusions and poses variation.
Eurographics/siggraph Symposium on Computer Animation (2003) Advected Textures

Game and special effects artists like to rely on textures (image or procedural) to specify the details of surface aspect. In this paper, we address the problem of applying textures to animated fluids. The purpose is to allow artists to increase the details of flowing water, foam, lava, mud, flames, cloud layers, etc. Our first contribution is a new algorithm for advecting textures, which compromises between two contradictory requirements: continuity in space and time and preservation of statistical texture properties. It consist of combining layers of advected (periodically regenerated) parameterizations according to a criterion based on the local accumulated deformation. To correctly achieve this combination, we introduce a way of blending procedural textures while avoiding classical interpolation artifacts. Lastly, we propose a scheme to add and control small scale texture animation amplifying the low resolution simulation. Our results illustrate how these three contributions solve the major visual flaws of textured fluids.
An Attempt to Understand Kidney's Protein Handling Function by Comparing Plasma and Urine Proteomes

Background With the help of proteomics technology, the human plasma and urine proteomes, which closely represent the protein compositions of the input and output of the kidney, respectively, have been profiled in much greater detail by different research teams. Many datasets have been accumulated to form “reference profiles” of the plasma and urine proteomes. Comparing these two proteomes may help us understand the protein handling aspect of kidney function in a way, however, which has been unavailable until the recent advances in proteomics technology. Methodology/Principal Findings After removing secreted proteins downstream of the kidney, 2611 proteins in plasma and 1522 in urine were identified with high confidence and compared based on available proteomic data to generate three subproteomes, the plasma-only subproteome, the plasma-and-urine subproteome, and the urine-only subproteome, and they correspond to three groups of proteins that are handled in three different ways by the kidney. The available experimental molecular weights of the proteins in the three subproteomes were collected and analyzed. Since the functions of the overrepresented proteins in the plasma-and-urine subproteome are probably the major functions that can be routinely regulated by excretion from the kidney in physiological conditions, Gene Ontology term enrichment in the plasma-and-urine subproteome versus the whole plasma proteome was analyzed. Protease activity, calcium and growth factor binding proteins, and coagulation and immune response-related proteins were found to be enriched. Conclusion/Significance The comparison method described in this paper provides an illustration of a new approach for studying organ functions with a proteomics methodology. Because of its distinctive input (plasma) and output (urine), it is reasonable to predict that the kidney will be the first organ whose functions are further elucidated by proteomic methods in the near future. It can also be anticipated that there will be more applications for proteomics in organ function research.
A Comparison of Pivot Methods for Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation

We compare two pivot strategies for phrase-based statistical machine translation (SMT), namely phrase translation and sentence translation. The phrase translation strategy means that we directly construct a phrase translation table (phrase-table) of the source and target language pair from two phrase-tables; one constructed from the source language and English and one constructed from English and the target language. We then use that phrase-table in a phrase-based SMT system. The sentence translation strategy means that we first translate a source language sentence into n English sentences and then translate these n sentences into target language sentences separately. Then, we select the highest scoring sentence from these target sentences. We conducted controlled experiments using the Europarl corpus to evaluate the performance of these pivot strategies as compared to directly trained SMT systems. The phrase translation strategy significantly outperformed the sentence translation strategy. Its relative performance was 0.92 to 0.97 compared to directly trained SMT systems.
Misleading Online Content: Recognizing Clickbait as "False News"

Tabloid journalism is often criticized for its propensity for exaggeration, sensationalization, scare-mongering, and otherwise producing misleading and low quality news. As the news has moved online, a new form of tabloidization has emerged: ? clickbaiting. Clickbait? refers to ? content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page? [? clickbait,? n.d. ] and has been implicated in the rapid spread of rumor and misinformation online. This paper examines potential methods for the automatic detection of clickbait as a form of deception. Methods for recognizing both textual and non-textual clickbaiting cues are surveyed, leading to the suggestion that a hybrid approach may yield best results.
Compact Wavelength-Selective Functions in Silicon-on-Insulator Photonic Wires

We present a number of compact wavelength-selective elements implemented in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonic wires. These include arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs), Mach-Zehnder lattice filters (MZLFs), and ring resonators. The circuits were fabricated with deep UV lithography. We also address the sensitivity of photonic wires to phase noise by selectively broadening the waveguides, and demonstrate this in a compact AWG with -20 dB crosstalk and an insertion loss of 2.2 dB for the center channels
First language attrition: The sociolinguistic and patholinguistic attrition of Breton phonology, morphology, and morphonology

Introduction This contribution is based on empirical field research in two areas of Celtic Lower Britanny in western France: in the local Tregorrois (Treg.) dialect of Buhulien south-east of Lannion (western fringe of the Departement Cotes du Nord), cf. Dressler (1972a, b), in the South Bigouden (Big.) subdialect of the Cornouaillais dialect, south-west of Quimper (southwesternmost part of the Departement Finistere), cf. Dressler & Hufgard (1980). Similar to Dorian (1981), I distinguish six groups of speakers according to qualitative and quantitative criteria of their competence in Breton (birth dates are only approximative): (I) Healthy Breton speakers corresponding to Dorian's “older fluent speakers,” born between 1892 and 1932 (with clusters around 1896-1900 and 1912-1920). My descriptions of dialects (Dressler 1972a; Dressler & Hufgard 1980) are based on these speakers. (II) Weaker Breton speakers, approximately corresponding to Dorian's “younger fluent speakers,” born between 1911 and 1942. The only reduction they show are consequences of a certain shrinkage of their Breton lexicon. (III) Preterminal speakers, born between 1938 and 1951, show reductions and generalizations also in grammar. (IV) Better terminal speakers, born between 1936 and 1952, exhibit even more reductions and generalizations. (V) Worse terminal speakers, born between 1933 and 1962, have a severely reduced lexicon and a still more reduced grammar. (VI) Rememberers recall only isolated items (they are not considered in the present study). In Sections 2–4 I am going to deal with sociolinguistic attrition in the phonology, morphology, and morphonology of the two dialects of Breton mentioned above – not with literary Breton, which has experienced a certain renaissance since the early 1970s – and in Section 5 with patholinguistic, i.e. aphasic, attrition.
Homing of a group II intron in yeast mitochondrial DNA is accompanied by unidirectional co‐conversion of upstream‐located markers.

Group II introns ai1 and ai2 of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial COXI gene encode proteins having a dual function (maturase and reverse transcriptase) and are mobile genetic elements. By construction of adequate donor genomes, we demonstrate that each of them is self‐sufficient and practises homing in the absence of homing‐type endonucleases encoded by either group I introns or the ENS2 gene. Each of the S. cerevisiae group II self‐mobile introns was tested for its ability to invade mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from two related Saccharomyces species. Surprisingly, only ai2 was observed to integrate into both genomes. The non‐mobility of ai1 was clearly correlated with some polymorphic changes occurring in sequences flanking its insertion sites in the recipient mtDNAs. Importantly, studies of the behaviour of these introns in interspecific crosses demonstrate that flanking marker co‐conversion accompanying group II intron homing is unidirectional and efficient only in the 3′ to 5′ direction towards the upstream exon. Thus, the polar co‐conversion and dependence of the splicing proficiency of the intron reported previously by us are hallmarks of group II intron homing, which significantly distinguish it from the strictly DNA‐based group I intron homing and strictly RNA‐based group II intron transposition.
Channel selection procedure using riemannian distance for BCI applications

This article describes a new algorithm to select a subset of electrodes in BCI experiments. It is illustrated on a two-class motor imagery paradigm. The proposed approach is based on the Riemannian distance between spatial covariance matrices which allows to indirectly assess the discriminability between classes. Sensor selection is automatically done using a backward elimination principle. The method is tested on the dataset IVa from BCI competition III. The identified subsets are both consistent with neurophysiological principles and effective, achieving optimal performances with a reduced number of channels.
Renal dopaminergic defect in C 57 Bl / 6 J mice

Crisanto S. Escano, Ines Armando, Xiaoyan Wang, Laureano D. Asico, Annabelle Pascua, Yu Yang, Zheng Wang, Yuen-Sum Lau, and Pedro A. Jose Children’s National Medical Center, Center for Molecular Physiology Research, Department of Pediatrics, George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC; and Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
Templates in French

As must be clear from the variety of analyses and approaches proposed in the literature on phonological acquisition, there is no straightforward way to establish the format of children’s first phonological units or the conditions that shape them, independent of target language. This Chapter presents a proposal to account for the acquisition of French within a template model.
Noise Reduction in Brainwaves by Using Both EEG Signals and Frontal Viewing Camera Images

Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been used in various applications, including human–computer interfaces, diagnosis of brain diseases, and measurement of cognitive status. However, EEG signals can be contaminated with noise caused by user's head movements. Therefore, we propose a new method that combines an EEG acquisition device and a frontal viewing camera to isolate and exclude the sections of EEG data containing these noises. This method is novel in the following three ways. First, we compare the accuracies of detecting head movements based on the features of EEG signals in the frequency and time domains and on the motion features of images captured by the frontal viewing camera. Second, the features of EEG signals in the frequency domain and the motion features captured by the frontal viewing camera are selected as optimal ones. The dimension reduction of the features and feature selection are performed using linear discriminant analysis. Third, the combined features are used as inputs to support vector machine (SVM), which improves the accuracy in detecting head movements. The experimental results show that the proposed method can detect head movements with an average error rate of approximately 3.22%, which is smaller than that of other methods.
Natural history and effectiveness of early detection of Parkinson's disease: results from two community-based programmes in Taiwan (KCIS no. 11).

OBJECTIVES The natural course of Parkinson's disease (PD), as measured on the Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) scale, and the impact that early detection would have on prognosis for those with the disease, has barely been addressed since the introduction of L-dopa. This study aimed to elucidate the natural history of PD and effectiveness of early detection in reducing advanced disability and mortality. METHOD A total of 21 362 participants aged 40 years or older were invited to two community-based programmes for the early detection of PD. The step-by-step annual progression rates from H-Y stage I to stage IV or V, and cumulative survival rates, by the H-Y scale, were estimated and applied to simulated data to assess the impact of different screening intervals upon stage at diagnosis and subsequent survival. RESULTS The average duration in stages I, II and III was estimated as 2.83, 6.62 and 1.41 years, respectively. The average delay time before deteriorating into H-Y stage III was 9.45 year. Application of these parameters to simulated model predicted a 36% (95% CI: 28-39%), 26% (95% CI: 20-32%) and 19% (95% CI: 13-24%) reduction in death for annual, 5-yearly and 10-yearly screening programmes, respectively. CONCLUSION The present study recommended a 5-yearly screening programme, with 74% of PD cases prevented from progressing to H-Y stage III or worse within 10 years of diagnosis, and leading to a corresponding 26% reduction in mortality.
Multi-objective Weighted Sampling

Key value data sets of the form {(x, wx)} where wx > 0 are prevalent. Common queries over such data are segment f-statistics Q(f, H) = Σx∈H f(wx), specified for a segment H of the keys and a function f. Different choices of f correspond to count, sum, moments, capping, and threshold statistics. When the data set is large, we can compute a smaller sample from which we can quickly estimate statistics. A weighted sample of keys taken with respect to f(wx) provides estimates with statistically guaranteed quality for f-statistics. Such a sample S(f) can be used to estimate g-statistics for g ≠ f, but quality degrades with the disparity between g and f. In this paper we address applications that require quality estimates for a set F of different functions. A naive solution is to compute and work with a different sample S(f) for each f ∈ F. Instead, this can be achieved more effectively and seamlessly using a single multi-objective sample S(F) of a much smaller size. We review multi-objective sampling schemes and place them in our context of estimating f-statistics. We show that a multi-objective sample for F provides quality estimates for any f that is a positive linear combination of functions from F. We then establish a surprising and powerful result when the target set M is all monotone non-decreasing functions, noting that M includes most natural statistics. We provide efficient multi-objective sampling algorithms for M and show that a sample size of k ln n (where n is the number of active keys) provides the same estimation quality, for any f ∈ M, as a dedicated weighted sample of size k for f.
Activity‐dependent secretion of alpha‐synuclein by enteric neurons

There is growing evidence supporting a role of extracellular alpha‐synuclein in the spreading of Parkinson's disease (PD) pathology. Recent pathological studies have raised the possibility that the enteric nervous system (ENS) is one of the initial sites of alpha‐synuclein pathology in PD. We therefore undertook this survey to determine whether alpha‐synuclein can be secreted by enteric neurons. Alpha‐synuclein secretion was assessed by immunoblot analysis of the culture medium from primary culture of ENS. We show that alpha‐synuclein is physiologically secreted by enteric neurons via a conventional, endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi‐dependent exocytosis, in a neuronal activity‐regulated manner. Our study is the first to evidence that enteric neurons are capable of secreting alpha‐synuclein, thereby providing new insights into the role of the ENS in the pathophysiology of PD.
A clinically oriented system for melanoma diagnosis using a color representation

Computer Aided-Diagnosis (CAD) systems have been proposed to help dermatologists diagnose melanomas. However, these systems fail to provide a medical explanation for the diagnosis. This makes the dermatologists unsure about their use, since they are not easy to understand. In this paper we propose a CAD system that extracts a clinically inspired color description of the lesion and then, uses this information to discriminate melanomas from benign lesions. The proposed system is also capable of showing the extracted color features, making the system and its decisions more comprehensible for practitioners. The development of this system is hampered by the lack of a database of detailed annotate dermoscopy images. Nonetheless, we are able to tackle this issue using an image annotation framework based on the Correspondence-LDA algorithm. This method is applied with success to the identification of relevant colors in dermoscopy images, obtaining an average Precision of 84.9% and a Recall of 85.5%. The proposed color representation is then used to classify skin lesions, resulting in a Sensitivity of 78.9% and Specificity of 76.7%, these values are promising and comparable with the state-of-the art.
The pruritus of cholestasis

liver cell dysplasia and clear cell foci. Small encapsulated clusters of necrotic tumoral hepatocytes were found in the peritoneum. Slides of the ruptured tumor were reviewed, and the diagnosis of a macrotrabecular, well-differentiated HCC (Edmondson grade 2) was confirmed. None of the following attributable risk factors for HCC were found: hepatitis B virus (serum DNA), hepatitis C virus (serum RNA), iron overload, alcohol, tobacco, oral contraceptive pills or drugs, diabetes, or personal or family history of liver or biliary disease. Ectopic liver, often linked to the liver by a stalk, should be differentiated from a pedonculated tumor. In our experience, we found 3 cases of pedonculated HCC out of 67 cases of HCC developed on noncirrhotic liver. According to Arakawa, ectopic liver could be more prone to malignant transformation because of metabolic dysfunction. Although this is a possibility, one must remember that in HCC developed on so-called normal liver (without cirrhosis, chronic active hepatitis, or fibrosis), absence of known risk factors is not a rare event. The presence of foci of large liver cell dysplasia and clear cells, lesions shown to be associated with the occurrence of HCC in cirrhosis, could indicate that this patient, even in the absence of cirrhosis, is more prone to develop an HCC.
Theory, Simulations, and Experiments of the Dispersion and Interaction Impedance for the Double-Slot Coupled-Cavity Slow Wave Structure in TWT

In this paper, a theoretical model is presented for the double-slot coupled-cavity slow wave structure (CCSWS). By matching boundary conditions in conjunction with Green's function technique and moment method, the formulas for discussing the high frequency characteristics of the SWS, including dispersion and interaction impedance, are given. This model is validated by comparing its results of two typical double-slot CCSWS operating in X-band, one with inline slots and the other with staggered slots, with those obtained by computer simulation using Ansoft HFSS code. Comparison is also made with the experimental data as well as the equivalent circuit model of a particular double-slot CCSWS. The results show that the theoretical method strikes a better balance between the accuracy and the calculation efficiency than other methods.
A prototype chip of multicontext FPGA with DRAM for virtual hardware

DRAM-type multicontext FPGA has potential for virtual hardware, since it is possible to implement a large number of contexts in a single chip. However, only a few examples have been reported because of the difficulty of the mixed process involving DRAM and logic. Here we try to implement a prototype multicontext FPGA with DRAM for virtual hardware.
Learning to anticipate a temporarily hidden moving object

In this paper we provide a robot with the ability to anticipate the location of reappearance of a moving target, usually a ball, which is temporarily hidden behind a wall. The images taken by the robot are simplified and transformed into a smaller number of sector views, whereby each sector is assigned to one of the states ”target”, ”wall” or ”background”. Based on the current observed sector view an action sequence is started, which is either followed until a different sector view has occurred or a pre-defined number of steps has elapsed. We need to add a simple memory, if the object is allowed to pass behind the wall from both ends. The goal for the robot is to attain a distance to the object, which is lower than a given threshold, possibly in the smallest number of steps. During training rewards are derived from the average number of steps needed to reach a new sector view and a matrix of estimated transition probabilities is updated with every transition. Bumping into walls is penalized. Accessible states which belong to views with the so far observed maximum number of target sectors are declared as goal states. We alter the transition and the reward matrices to allow the application of known optimization algorithms to find a path to the goal states. We demonstrate the applicability of our algorithm with simulation experiments.