Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image sharpening by coupled nonlinear - Diffusion on the chromaticity - Brightness color representation

Previously we presented a selective image sharpening method with a coupled nonlinear diffusion process, and it sharpens only blurred edges without enhancing noise. Our prototypal color-image sharpening methods were formulated on the linear color models, namely, the channel-by-channel model and the 3D vector model. Our prototypal methods sharpen blurred color edges, but they do not necessarily enhance contrasts of signal variations in complex texture regions so well as in simple step-edge regions. To remedy the drawback, we extend our coupled nonlinear-diffusion sharpening method to the nonlinear non-flat color model, namely, the chromaticity-brightness model, which is known to be closely relating to human color perception. We modify our time-evolution PDE's for the non-flat space of the chromaticity vector, and present its digital implementations.
The Laboratory Response Network for Bioterrorism

OBJECTIVE: To describe the function and levels of analysis performed by members of the Laboratory Response Network in coping with biological agents of terrorism. DATA SOURCES: Current literature and the Internet. CONCLUSIONS: The Laboratory Response Network is designed to enable rapid, safe, and accurate diagnosis of disease in order to mobilize the nation's response to acts of bioterrorism. ABBREVIATIONS: APHL = Association of Public Health Laboratories; BSC = biological safety cabinet; BSL = biosafety level; BT = bioterrorism; CDC = Centers for Disease Control; LRN = Laboratory Response Network; SOP = standard operating procedure.
The impact of different proportions of knitting elements on the resistive properties of conductive fabrics

Conductive yarn is the key factor in fabricating electronic textiles. Generally, three basic fabric production methods (knit, woven, and non-woven) combined with two finishing processes (embroidery and print) are adopted to embed conductive yarns into fabrics to achieve flexible electronic textiles. Conductive yarns with knit structure are the most flexible and effective form of electronic textiles. Electronic textiles present many advantages over conventional electronics. However, in the process of commercialization of conductive knitted fabrics, it is a great challenge to control the complicated resistive networks in conductive knitted fabrics for the purpose of cost saving and good esthetics. The resistive networks in conductive knitted fabrics contain length-related resistance and contact resistance. The physical forms of conductive yarns in different fabrication structures can be very different and, thus, the contact resistance varies greatly in different fabrics. So far, study of controlling the resistive property of conductive fabrics has not been conducted. Therefore, establishing a systematic method for the industry as a reference source to produce wearable electronics is in great demand. During the industrialization of conductive knitted fabrics, engineers can estimate the resistive property of the fabric in advance, which makes the production process more effective and cost efficient. What is more, the resistive distribution in the same area of knitted fabrics can be fully controlled.
MODEL-BASED QUANTIFICATION OF THE TIME-VARYING MICROSTRUCTURE OF SLEEP EEG SPINDLES : POSSIBILITY FOR EEG-BASED DEMENTIA BIOMARKERS

The time-varying microstructure of sleep EEG spindles may have clinical significance in dementia studies and can be quantified with a number of techniques. In this paper, the sleep spindle is modeled as an AM-FM signal in terms of six parameters, three quantifying the instantaneous envelope (IE) and three quantifying the instantaneous frequency (IF) of the spindle model. An application of such parameterization is proposed, in search of EEG-based biomarkers in dementia. The IE and IF waveforms of actual sleep spindles were estimated using the time-frequency technique of Complex Demodulation (CD). Sinusoidal curve-fitting using a matching pursuit (MP) approach was applied to the IE and IF waveforms, from which the six model parameters were subsequently estimated. Preliminary results indicate that the proposed parameterization may be promising, since it quantified specific differences in sleep spindle instantaneous frequency dynamics between spindles from dementia subjects and spindles from normal controls.
Sable Research Group Adaptive Software Return Value Prediction Sable

Return value prediction (RVP) is a useful technique that enables a number of program optimizations and analyses. Potentially high overhead, however, as well as a dependence on novel hardware support remain significant barriers to method level speculation and other applications that depend on low cost, high accuracy RVP. Here we investigate the feasibility of software-based RVP through a comprehensive software study of RVP behaviour. We develop a structured framework for RVP design and use it to experimentally analyze existing and novel predictors in the conte xt of non-trivial Java programs. As well as measuring accuracy, time, and memory overhead, we show that an objectoriented adaptive hybrid predictor model can significantly improve performance while maintaining high accuracy levels. We consider the impact on speculative parallelism, and show further application of RVP to program understanding. Our results suggest that software return value prediction c an play a practical role in further program optimization and analysis.
Minimal Lagrangian diffeomorphisms between domains in the hyperbolic plane

Let N be a complete, simply-connected surface of constant curvature \kappa \leq 0. Moreover, suppose that \Omega and \tilde{\Omega} are strictly convex domains in N with the same area. We show that there exists an area-preserving diffeomorphism from \Omega to \tilde{\Omega} whose graph is a minimal submanifold of N \times N.
Recovery Rates after Stroke and Their Impact on Outcome Prediction

Current assessments do not provide reliable factors predictive of outcome from stroke for stroke survivors of intermediate age and severity of deficit. We sought to investigate whether early rate of functional improvement can facilitate prediction of functional outcome, length of stay, and disposition beyond that afforded by age and initial severity of deficit. Prospective study of consecutive admissions to acute rehabilitation (N = 244) with diagnosis of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Independent measures were age, marital status, living situation, social situation, lag from symptom onset to rehabilitation, stroke type, admission score on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), rate of FIM change (ROFC) as assessed by the best weekly FIM change in the first 3 weeks of rehabilitation. Dependent measures were functional status on discharge as assessed by a modification of Steinman's method, length of stay, and discharge disposition. Logistic regression analyses on each of the dependent measures identified significant factors, and interactions of significant factors were assessed by analysis of variance on continuous dependent variables. Cross-tabulations using significant factors from the logistic regression analyses were performed to identify groups with homogeneous outcomes. Groups with >80% homogeneity were considered likely to have predictive value. Discharge functional status: Admission FIM (AFIM) again fractionated the population into groups with poor outcome (AFIM <50 remained dependent), good outcome (AFIM >70 achieved nondependence), and an intermediate group with unpredictable outcome. In this intermediate group, ROFC had significant effect only for a small number of patients (n = 9) with rapid improvement (ROFC >25) who achieved nondependence. LOS: AFIM >70 had less than average LOS, ROFC = 10–15 FIM/week had longer than average LOS. LOS was significantly prolonged in patients with poor outcomes. Disposition: AFIM >70 and age <60 were strongly associated with home discharge. Patients not living at home before admission were not discharged home. Married patients had a greater tendency to home discharge than did those not married. ROFC had no bearing on disposition. ROFC has an independent influence on outcome but was sufficiently powerful in our sample to identify reliably only a very small subset of patients with otherwise indeterminate prognosis. LOS seems inordinately prolonged in patients with poor outcomes. Both of these results can guide efficient rehabilitation management.
Comparisons between Membrane, Bridge and Cantilever Miniaturized Resistive Vacuum Gauges

Using bulk micromachining, meander-shaped resistor elements consisting of 20 nm Cr and 200 nm Au were fabricated on 1 μm thick silicon nitride membranes, bridges, and cantilevers. The resistance change as a function of pressure depends strongly on the thermal resistance of the two metal lines connecting the heated resistor to the silicon bulk (cold junction) and on the thermal resistance of the silicon nitride. Relative resistance changes ranging from about 3% (small membrane) to 20% (bridge) per mW of input power were obtained when operating the devices in constant voltage mode. The pressure where maximum sensitivity of these gauges occurs depends on the distance ‘d’ between the periphery of the heated resistor element and the silicon cold junction. Devices with ‘d’ ranging from 50 μm to 1,200 μm were fabricated. Assuming that pressures can be reliably measured above the 10% and below the 90% points of the resistance versus pressure curve, the range of these devices is about two orders of magnitude. By integrating two devices, one with d = 65 μm and one with d = 1,200 μm on the same chip and connecting them in series, the range can be increased by about a factor of three. By fabricating the cantilever devices so that they curl upon release, it will be shown that these devices also exhibit larger range due to varying ‘d’.
Glycosaminoglycan-dependent restriction of FGF diffusion is necessary for lacrimal gland development

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) play a central role in embryonic development by regulating the movement and signaling of morphogens. We have previously demonstrated that GAGs are the co-receptors for Fgf10 signaling in the lacrimal gland epithelium, but their function in the Fgf10-producing periocular mesenchyme is still poorly understood. In this study, we have generated a mesenchymal ablation of UDP-glucose dehydrogenase (Ugdh), an essential biosynthetic enzyme for GAGs. Although Fgf10 RNA is expressed normally in the periocular mesenchyme, Ugdh mutation leads to excessive dispersion of Fgf10 protein, which fails to elicit an FGF signaling response or budding morphogenesis in the presumptive lacrimal gland epithelium. This is supported by genetic rescue experiments in which the Ugdh lacrimal gland defect is ameliorated by constitutive Ras activation in the epithelium but not in the mesenchyme. We further show that lacrimal gland development requires the mesenchymal expression of the heparan sulfate N-sulfation genes Ndst1 and Ndst2 but not the 6-O and 2-O-sulfation genes Hs6st1, Hs6st2 and Hs2st. Taken together, these results demonstrate that mesenchymal GAG controls lacrimal gland induction by restricting the diffusion of Fgf10.
A Simple Question About Falls to Distinguish Balance and Gait Difficulties in Parkinson's Disease

ABSTRACT Although gait and balance difficulties often occur together in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, it is believed that they are actually two separate symptoms. However, there are no simple tests to distinguish them. We have developed the self-administered Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) question to distinguish between gait and balance issues in PD and it was tested in 102 consecutive PD patients. The responses were compared with those of the walking and balance question (item # 2.12) of the Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), and the MDS-UPDRS motor examination and its subsets such as gait and postural stability (PS). Fifty-five patients reported balance difficulty on the BNI question and 64 reported walking and balance difficulty on the MDS-UPDRS question. Of the patients who reported balance difficulty on the BNI question, 74.5% had a PS score ≥2 and 25.4% fell at least three times per month. Of the patients who reported walking and balance difficulty on the MDS-UPDRS question, only 59.4% had a PS score ≥2 and only 10.9% fell three or more times per month. These statistically significant results suggest that the BNI question is better able to detect balance difficulty and its associated falls in PD and can be a supplement to the MDS-UPDRS or a stand-alone question to evaluate balance difficulty and its associated falls in PD.
ECON: An Approach to Extract Content from Web News Page

This paper provides a simple but effective approach, named ECON, to fully-automatically extract content from Web news page. ECON uses a DOM tree to represent the Web news page and leverages the substantial features of the DOM tree. ECON finds a snippet-node by which a part of the content of news is wrapped firstly, then backtracks from the snippet-node until a summary-node is found, and the entire content of news is wrapped by the summary-node. During the process of backtracking, ECON removes noise. Experimental results showed that ECON can achieve high accuracy and fully satisfy the requirements for scalable extraction. Moreover, ECON can be applied to Web news page written in many popular languages such as Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic. ECON can be implemented much easily.
Infusion of ex vivo expanded T regulatory cells in adults transplanted with umbilical cord blood: safety profile and detection kinetics.

Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is associated with high risk of morbidity and mortality and is a common complication after double umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation. To reduce these risks, we established a method of CD4(+)CD25(+)FoxP3(+) T regulatory cell (Treg) enrichment from cryopreserved UCB followed by a 18 (+) 1-day expansion culture including anti-CD3/anti-CD28 antibody-coated beads and recombinant human interleukin-2. In a "first-in-human" clinical trial, we evaluated the safety profile of UCB Treg in 23 patients. Patients received a dose of 0.1-30 × 10(5)UCB Treg/kg after double UCB transplantation. The targeted Treg dose was achieved in 74% of cultures, with all products being suppressive in vitro (median 86% suppression at a 1:4 ratio). No infusional toxicities were observed. After infusion, UCB Treg could be detected for 14 days, with the greatest proportion of circulating CD4(+)CD127(-)FoxP3(+) cells observed on day (+)2. Compared with identically treated 108 historical controls without Treg, there was a reduced incidence of grade II-IV aGVHD (43% vs 61%, P = .05) with no deleterious effect on risks of infection, relapse, or early mortality. These results set the stage for a definitive study of UCB Treg to determine its potency in preventing allogeneic aGVHD. This study is registered at http://www.clinicaltrials. gov as NCT00602693.
Text Readability Assessment for Second Language Learners

This paper addresses the task of readability assessment for the texts aimed at second language (L2) learners. One of the major challenges in this task is the lack of significantly sized level-annotated data. For the present work, we collected a dataset of CEFR-graded texts tailored for learners of English as an L2 and investigated text readability assessment for both native and L2 learners. We applied a generalization method to adapt models trained on larger native corpora to estimate text readability for learners, and explored domain adaptation and self-learning techniques to make use of the native data to improve system performance on the limited L2 data. In our experiments, the best performing model for readability on learner texts achieves an accuracy of 0.797 and PCC of $0.938$.
Intrinsic, nondeterministic circadian rhythm generation in identified mammalian neurons

Circadian rhythms are modeled as reliable and self-sustained oscillations generated by single cells. The mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) keeps near 24-h time in vivo and in vitro, but the identity of the individual cellular pacemakers is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that circadian cycling is intrinsic to a unique class of SCN neurons by measuring firing rate or Period2 gene expression in single neurons. We found that fully isolated SCN neurons can sustain circadian cycling for at least 1 week. Plating SCN neurons at <100 cells/mm2 eliminated synaptic inputs and revealed circadian neurons that contained arginine vasopressin (AVP) or vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) or neither. Surprisingly, arrhythmic neurons (nearly 80% of recorded neurons) also expressed these neuropeptides. Furthermore, neurons were observed to lose or gain circadian rhythmicity in these dispersed cell cultures, both spontaneously and in response to forskolin stimulation. In SCN explants treated with tetrodotoxin to block spike-dependent signaling, neurons gained or lost circadian cycling over many days. The rate of PERIOD2 protein accumulation on the previous cycle reliably predicted the spontaneous onset of arrhythmicity. We conclude that individual SCN neurons can generate circadian oscillations; however, there is no evidence for a specialized or anatomically localized class of cell-autonomous pacemakers. Instead, these results indicate that AVP, VIP, and other SCN neurons are intrinsic but unstable circadian oscillators that rely on network interactions to stabilize their otherwise noisy cycling.
Isolation of a matrix that binds medial Golgi enzymes

Rat liver Golgi stacks were extracted with Triton X-100 at neutral pH. After centrifugation the low speed pellet contained two medial-Golgi enzymes, N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I and mannosidase II, but no enzymes or markers from other parts of the Golgi apparatus. Both were present in the same structures which appeared, by electron microscopy, to be small remnants of cisternal membranes. The enzymes could be removed by treatment with low salt, leaving behind a salt pellet, which we term the matrix. Removal of salt caused specific re-binding of both enzymes to the matrix, with an apparent dissociation constant of 3 nM for mannosidase II. Re-binding was abolished by pretreatment of intact Golgi stacks with proteinase K, suggesting that the matrix was present between the cisternae.
Analysis of switching effects in DC-DC converters via bias point computation

The paper describes a method for finding steady states in switched DC-DC converters, which is based on the SPICE bias point computation rather than a time-consuming transient analysis. The switched converter is modeled by unified substitutive circuits whose DC analysis determines directly the limit values of steady-state circuit variables at time instants when switches change their states. From these values one can derive e.g. the output voltage ripple or restore completely the steady-state signals.
Accelerated time integrator for multiple time scale homogenization

This manuscript presents an accelerated time domain homogenization methodology for prediction of material and structural failure under fatigue loading. The methodology is based on mathematical homogenization theory applied to the time domain. The method addresses the computational challenge associated with the scale disparity between the characteristic fatigue load period and the overall fatigue life. Cycle sensitive continuum damage mechanics modeling is used to describe the progressive damage accumulation under fatigue loading. The original initial boundary value problem is decomposed into coupled fast and slow time scale problems. A quasilinear approximation to the fast time scale problem is introduced to efficiently evaluate the response under a fatigue load cycle. The effect of the new time integrator on the thermodynamic consistency of the resulting system of discrete equations is demonstrated for a general class of continuum damage mechanics models. The proposed method is numerically verified based on a scalar damage model and a spatially multiscale damage model used for predicting fatigue life of composite materials. The proposed accelerated time integrator is shown to have reasonable accuracy and is orders of magnitude more computationally efficient when compared with previously proposed time homogenization methods. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Blind steganalysis with high generalization capability for different image databases using L-GEM

Steganography hides secret messages in images (stego images) and create a huge security thread to society. In contrast, steganalysis is a technique to determine whether there are secret messages being embedded in images. Differences in image databases have great influences to the performance of steganalysis. In real world applications, images from different sources could have large differences and it is impossible to train the classifier with all image databases available on the Internet. Therefore, a steganalysis system generalizing well with respect to differences among different image databases is important to real applications. In this paper, we expand the Markov features and apply L-GEM based neural network in our method to enhance the generalization capability of steganalysis. Experimental results show that the generalization capability of our method is noticeably better than the existing steganalysis for different training and testing image databases.
One Step Preparation of Fe–FeO–Graphene Nanocomposite through Pulsed Wire Discharge

The Fe–FeO–graphene nanocomposite material was produced successfully by pulsed wire discharge in graphene oxide (GO) suspension. Pure iron wires with a diameter of 0.25 mm and a length of 100 mm were used in the experiments. The discharge current and voltage were recorded to analyze the process of the pulsed wire discharge. The as-prepared samples—under different charging voltages—were recovered and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Curved and loose graphene films that were anchored with spherical Fe and FeO nanoparticles were obtained at the charging voltage of 8–10 kV. The present study discusses the mechanism by which the Fe–FeO–graphene nanocomposite material was formed during the pulsed wire discharge process.
SVD-EBP Algorithm for Iris Pattern Recognition

This paper proposes a neural network approach based on Error Back Propagation (EBP) for classification of different eye images. To reduce the complexity of layered neural network the dimensions of input vectors are optimized using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). The main objective of this work is to prove usefulness of SVD to form a compact set of features for classification by EBP algorithm. The results of our work indicate that optimum classification values are obtained with SVD dimensions of 20 and maximum number of classes as 9 with the state-of-the art computational resources The details of this combined system named as SVD-EBP system for Iris pattern recognition and the results thereof are presented in this paper.
Specificity of experience-dependent pitch representation in the brainstem

Crosslanguage comparisons of brainstem-evoked potentials have revealed experience-dependent plasticity in pitch representation for curvilinear f0 contours representative of Mandarin tones. To assess the tolerance limits of this experience-dependent selectivity, we evaluated cross-linguistically (Chinese, English) the pitch strength and tracking accuracy of linear rising and falling f0 ramps representative of Mandarin tones 2 and 4. No crosslanguage differences in pitch strength or accuracy were observed for either tone, indicating that stimuli with linear rising/falling ramps elicit homogeneous pitch representations at the level of the brainstem regardless of language experience. We conclude that pitch extraction at the brainstem level is critically dependent on specific dimensions of pitch contours that native speakers have been exposed to in natural speech contexts.