Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Wavelet Transform for the Detection of Microaneurysms in Retina Photographs

In this paper, we propose an automatic method to detect microaneurysms in retina photographs. Microaneurysms are the most frequent and usually the first lesions to appear as a consequence of diabetic retinopathy. So, their detection is necessary for both screening the pathology and follow up (progression measurement). Automating this task, which is currently performed manually, would bring more objectivity and reproducibility. We propose to detect them by locally matching a lesion template in sub- bands of wavelet transformed images. To improve the method performance, we have searched for the best adapted wavelet within the lifting scheme framework. The optimization process is based on a genetic algorithm followed by Powell's direction set descent. Results are evaluated on 120 retinal images analyzed by an expert and the optimal wavelet is compared to different conventional mother wavelets. These images are of three different modalities: there are color photographs, green filtered photographs, and angiographs. Depending on the imaging modality, microaneurysms were detected with a sensitivity of respectively 89.62%, 90.24%, and 93.74% and a positive predictive value of respectively 89.50%, 89.75%, and 91.67%, which is better than previously published methods.
The High‐risk Angina Patient: Identification by Clinical Features, Hospital Course, Electrocardiography and Technetium‐99m Stannous Pyrophosphate Scintigraphy

We evaluated 193 consecutive unstable angina patients by clinical features, hospital course and electrocardiography. All patients were managed medically. Of the 193 patients, 150 (78%) had a technetium‐99m pyrophosphate (Tc‐PYP) myocardial scintigram after hospitalization. Of these, 49 (33%) had positive scintigrams. At a follow‐up of 24.9 ± 10.8 months after hospitalization, 16 of 49 patients (33%) with positive scintigrams died from cardiac causes, compared with six of 101 patients (6%) with negative scintigrams (p < 0.001). Of 49 patients with positive scintigrams, 11 (22%) had had nonfatal myocardial infarction at follow‐up, compared with seven of 101 patients (7%) with negative scintigrams (p < 0.01). Age, duration of clinical coronary artery disease, continuing angina during hospitalization, ischemic ECG, cardiomegaly and a history of heart failure also correlated with cardiac death at follow‐up. Ischemic ECG and a history of angina with a crescendo pattern also correlated with nonfatal infarction at follow‐up. Patients with continuing angina, an ischemic ECG and a positive scintigram constituted a high‐risk unstable angina subgroup with a survival rate of 58% at 6 months, 47% at 12 months and 42% at 24 and 36 months. We conclude that the assessment of clinical features, hospital course, ECG and Tc‐PYP scintigraphy may be useful in identifying high‐risk unstable angina patients.
Automatic performance degradation prediction by use of field data with noise

This paper proposes an automatic performance degradation prediction approach for equipment by use of field data with noise. In this method, the auto-regression model is employed for making performance degradation prediction by means of field data in order to fit the change process of equipment. The order determination for auto-regression model is according to the FSIC criteria which not only consider the covariance of prediction error by use of different auto-regression estimation algorithms, but also consider the covariance of model parameter estimation. It therefore can modify the over fitness quite well. In the parameter identification for auto-regression model, the conventional least square method has been improved. It not only modifies the influence from white noise to the parameter estimation, but also can obtain improved auto-regression model by means of the selection of optimal value. In this research, the field data of the temperature of gas engine are adopted to analyze the performance degradation of gas engine. Through the simulation, the effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified, which also proves that the improved least square method (ILS) has great application value.
Data indexing in peer-to-peer DHT networks

Peer-to-peer distributed hash table (DHT) systems make it simple to discover specific data when their complete identifiers - or keys - are known in advance. In practice, however, users looking up resources stored in peer-to-peer systems often have only partial information for identifying these resources. We describe techniques for indexing data stored in peer-to-peer DHT networks, and discovering the resources that match a given user query. Our system creates multiple indexes, organized hierarchically, which permit users to locate data even using scarce information, although at the price of a higher lookup cost. The data itself is stored on only one (or few) of the nodes. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of our indexing techniques on a distributed peer-to-peer bibliographic database with realistic user query workloads.
A molecular communication link for monitoring in confined environments

In this paper, we consider a molecular diffusion based communications link that can reliably transport data over-the-air. We show that the system can also reliably transport data across confined structural environments, especially in cases where conventional electromagnetic (EM) wave based systems may fail. In particular, this paper compares the performance of our proprietary molecular communication test-bed with Zigbee wireless sensors in a metal pipe network that does not act as a radio wave-guide. The paper first shows that a molecular-based communication link's performance is determined primarily by the delay time spread of the pulse response. The paper go on to show that molecular-based systems can transmit more reliably in complex and confined structural environments than conventional EM-based systems. The paper then utilizes empirical data to find relationships between the received radio signal strength, the molecular pulse spread, data rate (0.1 bits/s) and the structural propagation environment.
IntentFuzzer: detecting capability leaks of android applications

Capability leak is a vulnerability in Android applications, which violates the enforcement of permission model and threatens the secure usage of Android phone users. Malicious applications can launch permission escalation attacks with this vulnerability. In this paper, we propose a dynamic Intent fuzzing mechanism to uncover vulnerable applications in both Android markets and closed source ROMs. We built a prototype called IntentFuzzer. With it, we analyzed more than 2000 Android applications in Google Play and hundreds of in-rom applications inside two closed source ROMs. We found that 161 applications in Google Play have at least one permission leak, and 26 permissions in Xiaomi Hongmi phone and 19 permissions in Lenovo K860i stock phone are leaked. Finally, we give several cases of exploitation to verify our analysis result.
Learning Non-linear Reconstruction Models for Image Set Classification

We propose a deep learning framework for image set classification with application to face recognition. An Adaptive Deep Network Template (ADNT) is defined whose parameters are initialized by performing unsupervised pre-training in a layer-wise fashion using Gaussian Restricted Boltzmann Machines (GRBMs). The pre-initialized ADNT is then separately trained for images of each class and class-specific models are learnt. Based on the minimum reconstruction error from the learnt class-specific models, a majority voting strategy is used for classification. The proposed framework is extensively evaluated for the task of image set classification based face recognition on Honda/UCSD, CMU Mobo, YouTube Celebrities and a Kinect dataset. Our experimental results and comparisons with existing state-of-the-art methods show that the proposed method consistently achieves the best performance on all these datasets.
Progression of HPV infection to detectable cervical lesions or clearance in adult women: Analysis of the control arm of the VIVIANE study

The control arm of the phase III VIVIANE (Human PapillomaVIrus: Vaccine Immunogenicity ANd Efficacy; NCT00294047) study in women >25 years was studied to assess risk of progression from cervical HPV infection to detectable cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). The risk of detecting CIN associated with the same HPV type as the reference infection was analysed using Kaplan–Meier and multivariable Cox models. Infections were categorised depending upon persistence as 6‐month persistent infection (6MPI) or infection of any duration. The 4‐year interim analysis included 2,838 women, of whom 1,073 (37.8%) experienced 2,615 infections of any duration and 708 (24.9%) experienced 1,130 6MPIs. Infection with oncogenic HPV types significantly increased the risk of detecting CIN grade 2 or greater (CIN2+) versus non‐oncogenic types. For 6MPI, the highest risk was associated with HPV‐33 (hazard ratio [HR]: 31.9 [8.3–122.2, p < 0.0001]). The next highest risk was with HPV‐16 (21.1 [6.3–70.0], p < 0.0001). Similar findings were seen for infections of any duration. Significant risk was also observed for HPV‐18, HPV‐31, and HPV‐45. Concomitant HPV infection or CIN grade 1 or greater associated with a different oncogenic HPV type increased risk. Most women (79.3%) with an HPV infection at baseline cleared detectable infections of any duration, and 69.9% cleared a 6MPI. The risk of progression of HPV infection to CIN2+ in women >25 years in this study was similar to that in women 15–25 years in PATRICIA.
Reset Control for Passive Bilateral Teleoperation

Communication delays are problematic for teleoperated systems. They give rise to a tradeoff between speed and robustness, which cannot be overcome by means of linear controllers. In order to solve this problem, in this paper, we present a novel approach that combines passivity-based techniques and reset-control principles. In this way, it is possible to obtain simultaneously the robust stability properties of passive control and the performance improvement enabled by reset strategies. Experimental and simulation results are presented, which confirm the good behavior achieved with this method.
USENIX Association Proceedings of the Third USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies

In benchmarking I/O systems, it is important to generate, accurately, the I/O access pattern that one is intending to generate. However, timing accuracy ( issuing I/Os at the desired time) at high I/O rates is difficult to achieve on stock operating systems. We currently lack tools to easily and accurately generate complex I/O workloads on modern storage systems. As a result, we may be introducing substantial errors in observed system metrics when we benchmark I/O systems using inaccurate tools for replaying traces or for producing synthetic workloads with known inter-arrival times. In this paper, we demonstrate the need for timing accuracy for I/O benchmarking in the context of replaying I/O traces. We also quantitatively characterize the impact of error in issuing I/Os on measured system parameters. For instance, we show that the error in perceived I/O response times can be as much as 350% or 15% by using naive benchmarking tools that have timing inaccuracies. To address this problem, we present Buttress, a portable and flexible toolkit that can generate I/O workloads with microsecond accuracy at the I/O throughputs of high-end enterprise storage arrays. In particular, Buttress can issue I/O requests within 100μs of the desired issue time even at rates of 10000 I/Os per second (IOPS).
Interactive Distributed Ray Tracing of Highly Complex Models

Many disciplines must handle the creation, visualization, and manipulation of huge and complex 3D environments. Examples include large structural and mechanical engineering projects dealing with entire cars, ships, buildings, and processing plants. The complexity of such models is usually far beyond the interactive rendering capabilities of todays 3D graphics hardware. Previous approaches relied on costly preprocessing for reducing the number of polygons that need to be rendered per frame but suffered from excessive precomputation times —often several days or even weeks. In this paper we show that using a highly optimized software ray tracer we are able to achieve interactive rendering performance for models up to 50 million triangles including reflection and shadow computations. The necessary preprocessing has been greatly simplified and accelerated by more than two orders of magnitude. Interactivity is achieved with a novel approach to distributed rendering based on coherent ray tracing. A single copy of the scene database is used together with caching of BSP voxels in the ray tracing clients.
Modeling and PD Control of a Quadrotor VTOL Vehicle

In this paper, we present a model of a four rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle known as quadrotor aircraft. And we explained its control architecture including vision based control. Quadrotors have generated considerable interest in both the control community due to their complex dynamics and military because of their advantages over regular air vehicles. The proposed dynamical model which comprises gyroscopic effects and its control strategies can be source for future works.
Anwering Recursive Queries under Keys and Foreign Keys is Undecidable

Query answering in the presence of integrity constraints is a fundamental problem in several settings, such as information integration. Keys, foreign keys and inclusion dependencies are the most common forms of constraints used in databases. It has been established recently that, in the presence of such constraints, query answering is decidable for non-recursive queries. Obviously, in the absence of constraints, query answering is also decidable for recursive queries, which are a powerful querying mechanism that subsumes query languages for semistructured data and the semantic web. It was open whether answering recursive queries in the presence of the above classes of constraints is decidable. In this paper we show that this is indeed not the case. In particular, we show that answering recursive queries under keys and foreign keys or under inclusion dependencies is undecidable, both for unrestricted and for finite databases.
Mathematical Model for the Hemodynamic Response to Venous Occlusion Measured With Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in the Human Forearm

We propose a mathematical model to describe the hemodynamic changes induced by a venous occlusion in a human limb. These hemodynamic changes, which include an increase in blood volume, a reduction in blood flow, and modifications to the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin, can all be measured noninvasively with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). To test the model, we have performed NIRS measurements on the human forearm, specifically on the brachioradialis muscle, during venous occlusion induced by a pneumatic cuff inflated around the upper arm to pressures within the range 10-60 mmHg. We have found a good agreement between parameters measured by NIRS (total hemoglobin concentration and hemoglobin saturation) and the corresponding model parameters (capacitor voltage and arterial/capillary branch current). In particular, model and experiment indicate that the time constant for blood accumulation during venous occlusion (~73-79 s) is much slower than the time constant for blood drainage following cuff release (~5 s). These results indicate that this mathematical model can be a valuable analytical tool to characterize, optimize, and further develop diagnostic measurement schemes that use venous occlusion approaches
Lack of Association between Intact/Deletion Polymorphisms of the APOBEC3B Gene and HIV-1 Risk

Objective The human APOBEC3 family of proteins potently restricts HIV-1 replication APOBEC3B, one of the family genes, is frequently deleted in human populations. Two previous studies reached inconsistent conclusions regarding the effects of APOBEC3B loss on HIV-1 acquisition and pathogenesis. Therefore, it was necessary to verify the effects of APOBEC3B on HIV-1 infection in vivo. Methods Intact (I) and deletion (D) polymorphisms of APOBEC3B were analyzed using PCR. The syphilis, HBV and HCV infection rates, as well as CD4+ T cell counts and viral loads were compared among three APOBEC3B genotype groups (I/I, D/I, and D/D). HIV-1 replication kinetics was assayed in vitro using primary cells derived from PBMCs. Results A total of 248 HIV-1-infected Japanese men who have sex with men (MSM) patients and 207 uninfected Japanese MSM were enrolled in this study. The genotype analysis revealed no significant differences between the APOBEC3B genotype ratios of the infected and the uninfected cohorts (p = 0.66). In addition, HIV-1 disease progression parameters were not associated with the APOBEC3B genotype. Furthermore, the PBMCs from D/D and I/I subjects exhibited comparable HIV-1 susceptibility. Conclusion Our analysis of a population-based matched cohort suggests that the antiviral mechanism of APOBEC3B plays only a negligible role in eliminating HIV-1 in vivo.
The expression of recombinant genes from bacteriophage lambda strong promoters triggers the SOS response in Escherichia coli

The production of several non‐related heterologous proteins in recombinant Escherichia coli cells promotes a significant transcription of recA and sfiA SOS DNA repair genes. The activation of the SOS system occurs when the expression of plasmid‐encoded genes is directed by the strong lambda lytic promoters, but not by IPTG‐controlled promoters either at 37 or at 42°C, and it is linked to an extensive degradation of the proteins after their synthesis. The triggering signal for the SOS response could be an important arrest of cell DNA replication observed within the first hour after the induction of recombinant gene expression. The stimulation of this DNA repair system can partially account for the toxicity exhibited by recombinant proteins on actively producing E. coli cells. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 60: 551–559, 1998.
A genome-wide view of the spectrum of spontaneous mutations in yeast

The mutation process ultimately defines the genetic features of all populations and, hence, has a bearing on a wide range of issues involving evolutionary genetics, inheritance, and genetic disorders, including the predisposition to cancer. Nevertheless, formidable technical barriers have constrained our understanding of the rate at which mutations arise and the molecular spectrum of their effects. Here, we report on the use of complete-genome sequencing in the characterization of spontaneously arising mutations in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our results confirm some findings previously obtained by indirect methods but also yield numerous unexpected findings, in particular a very high rate of point mutation and skewed distribution of base-substitution types in the mitochondrion, a very high rate of segmental duplication and deletion in the nuclear genome, and substantial deviations in the mutational profile among various model organisms.
Intestinal Absorption of Macromolecules during Viral Enteritis: An Experimental Study on Rotavirus-Infected Conventional and Germ-Free Mice

ABSTRACT: Epithelial transport and degradation of horseradish peroxidase (HRP), a macromolecular tracer, was studied in conventional and germ-free suckling mice following an experimental infection with rotavirus. Conventional and germ-free mice developed diarrhea from days 2 to 8 postinfection (pi), with growth failure. In mucosal homogenates, infectious virus detected by immunofluorescence on MA 104 cells was present from day 2 through day 8 pi in germ-free mice, but persisted longer (day 13 pi) in conventional mice. Only mild histological lesions were observed during diarrhea, but obvious macrovacuolation of epithelial cells and increased cellular density occurred during the convalescence period (days 9 to 13 pi). Intact and degraded HRP fluxes from mucosa to serosa were measured in vitro on segments of jejunum mounted in Ussing chambers. Both groups of mice developed increased HRP permeability during the experimental period, but at different times after inoculation: during the diarrheal period (days 2 and 3 pi) conventional mouse epithelium absorbed five times more HRP than noninfected controls and during the convalescence period (days 9 to 13 pi) HRP absorption in germ-free mice rose 10-fold as compared to its level before infection. In both cases, this increase in HRP permeability was entirely due to an increase in intact HRP absorption, probably via a transcellular route, and occurred without any alteration in degraded HRP transport. These results indicate that in mice, rotavirus infection causes a transient rise in gut permeability to undegraded proteins. The intestinal microflora seems to affect the timing, magnitude, and duration of this increased permeability.
Determinants of atherosclerosis susceptibility in the C3H and C57BL/6 mouse model: evidence for involvement of endothelial cells but not blood cells or cholesterol metabolism.

Lipids, monocytes, and arterial wall cells are primary components involved in atherogenesis. Using the inbred mouse strains C57BL/6J (B6) and C3H/HeJ (C3H), which have been extensively studied as models of the genetic control of diet-induced atherosclerosis, we examined which of these components determine genetic susceptibility. To test whether dietary responsiveness is involved, a congenic strain of C3H carrying an apoE-null allele (apoE(-/-)) was constructed. Although C3H.apoE(-/-) mice had higher plasma cholesterol levels, they developed much smaller lesions than their B6.apoE(-/-) counterpart on either chow or Western diets. Reciprocal bone marrow transplantation between the strains, with congenics carrying the same H-2 haplotype, was performed to examine the role of monocytes. The atherosclerosis susceptibility was not altered in the recipient mice, indicating that variations in monocyte function were not involved. Endothelial cells isolated from the aorta of B6 mice exhibited a dramatic induction of monocyte chemotactic protein-1, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and heme oxygenase-1 in response to minimally modified LDL, whereas endothelial cells from C3H mice showed little or no induction. In a set of recombinant inbred strains derived from the B6 and C3H parental strains, endothelial responses to minimally modified LDL cosegregated with aortic lesion size. These data provide strong evidence that endothelial cells, but not monocytes or plasma lipid levels, account for the difference in susceptibility to atherosclerosis between the 2 mouse strains.
Statistical Techniques for Detecting Traffic Anomalies Through Packet Header Data

This paper proposes a traffic anomaly detector, operated in postmortem and in real-time, by passively monitoring packet headers of traffic. The frequent attacks on network infrastructure, using various forms of denial of service attacks, have led to an increased need for developing techniques for analyzing network traffic. If efficient analysis tools were available, it could become possible to detect the attacks, anomalies and to take action to contain the attacks appropriately before they have had time to propagate across the network. In this paper, we suggest a technique for traffic anomaly detection based on analyzing correlation of destination IP addresses in outgoing traffic at an egress router. This address correlation data are transformed using discrete wavelet transform for effective detection of anomalies through statistical analysis. Results from trace-driven evaluation suggest that proposed approach could provide an effective means of detecting anomalies close to the source. We also present a multidimensional indicator using the correlation of port numbers and the number of flows as a means of detecting anomalies.