Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rician compressed sensing for fast and stable signal reconstruction in diffusion MRI

The advent of the theory of compressed sensing (CS) has revolutionized multiple areas of applied sciences, a particularly important instance of which is medical imaging. In particular, the theory provides a solution to the problem of long acquisition times, which is intrinsic in diffusion MRI (dMRI). As a specific instance of dMRI, this work focuses on high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI), which is known to excel in delineating multiple diffusion flows through a given voxel within the brain. Specifically, to reduce the acquisition time, CS allows undersampling the HARDI data by employing fewer diffusion-encoding gradients than it is required by the classical sampling theory. Subsequently, the undersampled data is used to recover the original signals by means of non-linear decoding. In earlier reconstruction methods, such decoding has been carried out under a Gaussian model for measurement noises, instead of the Rician model which is known to prevail in MRI. Accordingly, the main contribution of the present work is twofold. First, we introduce a way to substantially improve the stability of the CS-based reconstruction of HARDI signals under the assumption of Gaussian noises. Second, we extend this approach to the case of Rician noise statistics. In addition to providing formal developments of the reconstruction algorithm based on Rician statistics, we also detail a computationally efficient numerical scheme which can be used to implement the above reconstruction. Finally, the methods based on the Gaussian and the Rician noise models are compared using both simulated and in-vivo MRI data under various measurement conditions.
Free flowing robot for automatic pipeline leak detection using piezoelectric film sensors

Pipeline transportation of fluid is controlled by many laws to avoid failure and therefore serious disasters. This paper presents a cost optimum solution to small leaks in pipelines through the use of an array of piezoelectric film sensors embedded in a mobile robot. It's common in the industry to use an automatic system, which is installed at all joints along the pipeline, to detect a large leak and send its location wirelessly to the main controller. From time to time, the new robot is passed through the pipeline to detect small leakage precisely before detrimental corrosion and then major failure occurs.
Physiological and Metabolic Changes During the Transition Period and the Use of Calcium Propionate for Prevention or Treatment of Hypocalcemia and Ketosis in Periparturient Cows

The transition from late gestation to early lactation is regarded as the most critical period of the production cycle in dairy cows. Most of metabolic disorders and infectious diseases occur during the transition period because of metabolic and physiological changes, metabolic stress of pregnancy, calving and lactation, a sudden and marked increase of nutrient requirements for milk production and a lack of dry matter intake. Milk fever, subclinical hypocalcemia, ketosis, fatty liver syndrome, retained fetal membranes, metritis, mastitis and displaced abomasum primarily affect dairy cows during this period. Calcium propionate, as a source of both calcium and energy, has been used for preventing or treating hypocalcemia and ketosis in dairy cows. In this review, different administration ways of calcium propionate in transition dairy cows were summarized and efficacy of calcium propionate in prevention or treatment of metabolic disorders was evaluated.
The effects of increased attentional demand on the perception of visual vertical

Balance and locomotion involve multi-sensory integration while meeting environmental demands. In addition, increased task complexity negatively affects postural control in aging and patient populations. The goal of this pilot study was to examine the effects of aging and cognitive load on the visual perception of vertical. Four young and 3 older individuals participated. Subjective visual vertical (SVV) performance deteriorated more in the older individuals as the task complexity increased. However, within group variability was high. The expected increase in sample size should further clarify the role of each sensory system in the perception of SVV.
A scattering model for field prediction of multiple transmitting antennas in urban environments

In this paper, we will study the performance of a model when multiple transmitting antennas are used. The study has demonstrated that the efficiency of the model is independent of the number of transmitting antennas. This is because we have a compressed storage of matrices, and hence the fields can be solved directly by forward and backward substitutions instead of solving the matrix equations repeatedly. Numerical simulations validate the conclusion.
Quality Quandaries: Studying Input-Output Relationships, Part II

In the previous column (Bisgaard and Kulahci, 2006) we discussed process thinking, a key concept in quality engineering and Six Sigma. Specifically, we showed that the functional relationship between an input and an output, y 1⁄4 f ðxÞ, sometimes is more complex than a simple linear regression relationship, yt 1⁄4 aþ bxt þ e, implying that a change in x at time t is immediately followed by proportional change in y. Sometimes the response may be delayed and distributed over time. Another problem with analyzing process data is that we may sometimes find relationships where none exists. This is called spurious regression. This problem is easy to deal with when the relationship obviously does not make sense. The well-known example of the correlation between number of storks and the population of Oldenburg, Germany, comes to mind; see Box, Hunter, and Hunter (2005, p. 8). However, in other cases it can be difficult to know if the relationship is real or not. In this column we demonstrate with a simulated example the problem of spurious regression for autocorrelated data. This is another problem quality engineers may encounter when investigating possible input-output relationships. For example, suppose the process is an industrial furnace and we want to see if there is a possible relationship between an input variable xt, such as fuel rate at a given time t, and the temperature yt in the furnace. REVIEW OF REGRESSION THEORY AND ASSUMPTIONS
The role of physicians in hospital transfusion services

From the Department of Pathology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire. Address reprint requests to: Zbigniew M. Szczepiorkowski, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03782; e-mail: zbigniew.m. szczepiorkowski@hitchcock.org. Received for publication December 6, 2005; revision received December 28, 2005, and accepted December 28, 2005. doi: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2006. 00808.x TRANSFUSION 2006;46:862-867. C O M M E N T A R Y
Distribution of Archaeal Communities along the Coast of the Gulf of Finland and Their Response to Oil Contamination

The Baltic Sea is vulnerable to environmental changes. With the increasing shipping activities, the risk of oil spills remains high. Archaea are widely distributed in many environments. However, the distribution and the response of archaeal communities to oil contamination have rarely been investigated in brackish habitats. Hence, we conducted a survey to investigate the distribution, diversity, composition, and species interactions of indigenous archaeal communities at oil-contaminated sites along the coast of the Gulf of Finland (GoF) using high-throughput sequencing. Surface water and littoral sediment samples were collected at presumably oil-contaminated (oil distribution facilities) and clean sites along the coastline of the GoF in the winter 2015 and the summer 2016. Another three samples of open sea surface water were taken as offshore references. Of Archaea, Euryarchaeota dominated in the surface water and the littoral sediment of the coast of the GoF, followed by Crenarchaeota (including Thaumarchaeota, Thermoprotei, and Korarchaeota based on the Greengenes database used). The unclassified sequences accounted for 5.62% of the total archaeal sequences. Our study revealed a strong dependence of the archaeal community composition on environmental variables (e.g., salinity, pH, oil concentration, TOM, electrical conductivity, and total DNA concentration) in both littoral sediment and coastal water in the GoF. The composition of archaeal communities was season and ecosystem dependent. Archaea was highly diverse in the three ecosystems (littoral sediment, coastal water, and open sea water). Littoral sediment harbored the highest diversity of archaea. Oil was often detected in the littoral sediment but rarely detected in water at those presumably contaminated sites. Although the composition of archaeal community in the littoral sediment was sensitive to low-input oil contamination, the unchanged putative functional profiles and increased interconnectivity of the archaeal core species network plausibly revealed resilience and the potential for oil degradation. Halobacteriaceae and putative cytochrome P450 pathways were significantly enriched in the oil-contaminated littoral sediment. The archaeal taxa formed highly interconnected and interactive networks, in which Halobacteriaceae, Thermococcus, and methanogens were the main components, implying a potential relevant trophic connection between hydrocarbon degradation, methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, and/or fermentative growth.
Proactive failure recovery scheme for data traffic in software defined networks

Software-defined networking (SDN) is under consideration for deployment of carrier-grade networks (CGN). SDN must meet the critical network reliability requirement without incurring high complexity and network resource usage. Local detouring of disrupted flows from the failed network component to a preconfigured alternative path enables rapid recovery. Preconfigured alternate paths reduce the recovery time, however, result in storing thousands of flow entries per switch. Furthermore, the reliance on the controller for per-flow detouring would overwhelm the controller and increases the recovery time. To address these issues, we propose a proactive recovery scheme to repair an OpenFlow-based network from a node or a link failure without overburdening the controller and the flow tables memory. The proactive scheme aggregates the disrupted flows using virtual Local area network (VLAN) tagging to conserve the flow table memory requirement. A fast failover (FF) feature of OpenFlow is used to perform rapid local detouring. Our extensive simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme achieves the recovery around 4 ms and satisfies the CGN's 50 ms recovery requirement. Additionally, the proactive recovery scheme reduces the alternate path flow storage requirement by up to 99%.
A Programming Assessment Software Artefact Enhanced with the Help of Learners

 Abstract — The demands of an ever changing and complex higher education environment, along with the profile of modern learners challenge current approaches to assessment and feedback. More learners enter the education system every year. The younger generation expects immediate feedback. At the same time, feedback should be meaningful. The assessment of practical activities in programming poses a particular problem, since both lecturers and learners in the information and computer science discipline acknowledge that paper-based assessment for programming subjects lacks meaningful real-life testing. At the same time, feedback lacks promptness, consistency, comprehensiveness and individualisation. Most of these aspects may be addressed by modern, technology-assisted assessment. The focus of this paper is the continuous development of an artefact that is used to assist the lecturer in the assessment and feedback of practical programming activities in a senior database programming class. The artefact was developed using three Design Science Research cycles. The first implementation allowed one programming activity submission per assessment intervention. This pilot provided valuable insight into the obstacles regarding the implementation of this type of assessment tool. A second implementation improved the initial version to allow multiple programming activity submissions per assessment. The focus of this version is on providing scaffold feedback to the learner – allowing improvement with each subsequent submission. It also has a built-in capability to provide the lecturer with information regarding the key problem areas of each assessment intervention.
Black Rocks Protruding Up: The Navajo Volcanic Field

The mid-Tertiary-age volcanoes, dikes, and sills of the Navajo volcanic field are classic and geologically-distinctive landforms of the Colorado Plateau. They are the products of structurally-controlled magma ascent, explosive eruptions, and deep post-eruptive exhumation. Igneous rock types include potassic lamprophyres, serpentinized tuffs, and exotic mafic and ultramafic intrusives. These rocks, along with a variety of crustal and mantle xenoliths that they have brought to the surface, have been used to map the petrology and history of the lithosphere and upper mantle beneath the Colorado Plateau. The landforms of the Navajo volcanic field also figure prominently in the empirical knowledge and culture of the indigenous Navajo people.
High-efficiency, temperature-sensitive suppression of amber mutations in Escherichia coli

We have constructed a high-copy-number plasmid carrying an allele of the supD gene (supD43,74). The plasmid conferred temperature-sensitive suppression of amber mutations. Strains carrying the plasmid exhibited 50 to 60% suppression at 30 degrees C but little or no suppression at 42 degrees C. After a temperature shift from 30 to 42 degrees C the efficiency of suppression decreased gradually over a 60- to 90-min period before reaching the 42 degrees C steady-state level of suppression.
Full Azimuth Multiple Sound Source Localization with 3-Channel Microphone Array

This paper describes a method for estimating Direction Of Arrival (DOA) of multiple sound sources in full azimuth with three microphones. Estimating DOA with paired microphone arrays creates imaginary sound sources because of time delay of arrival (TDOA) being identical between real and imaginary sources. Imaginary sound sources can create chronic problems in multiple Sound Source Localization (SSL), because they can be localized as real sound sources. Our proposed approach is based on the observation that each microphone array creates imaginary sound sources, but the DOA of imaginary sources may be different depending on the orientation of the paired microphone array. With the fact that a real source would always be localized in the same direction regardless of the array orientation, we can suppress the imaginary sound sources by minimum filtering based on Steered Response Power — Phase Transform (SRP-PHAT) method. A set of experiments conducted in a real noisy environment showed that the proposed method was accurate in localizing multiple sound sources.
Model‐Based Prediction of Nephropathia Epidemica Outbreaks Based on Climatological and Vegetation Data and Bank Vole Population Dynamics

Wildlife‐originated zoonotic diseases in general are a major contributor to emerging infectious diseases. Hantaviruses more specifically cause thousands of human disease cases annually worldwide, while understanding and predicting human hantavirus epidemics pose numerous unsolved challenges. Nephropathia epidemica (NE) is a human infection caused by Puumala virus, which is naturally carried and shed by bank voles (Myodes glareolus). The objective of this study was to develop a method that allows model‐based predicting 3 months ahead of the occurrence of NE epidemics. Two data sets were utilized to develop and test the models. These data sets were concerned with NE cases in Finland and Belgium. In this study, we selected the most relevant inputs from all the available data for use in a dynamic linear regression (DLR) model. The number of NE cases in Finland were modelled using data from 1996 to 2008. The NE cases were predicted based on the time series data of average monthly air temperature (°C) and bank voles’ trapping index using a DLR model. The bank voles’ trapping index data were interpolated using a related dynamic harmonic regression model (DHR). Here, the DLR and DHR models used time‐varying parameters. Both the DHR and DLR models were based on a unified state‐space estimation framework. For the Belgium case, no time series of the bank voles’ population dynamics were available. Several studies, however, have suggested that the population of bank voles is related to the variation in seed production of beech and oak trees in Northern Europe. Therefore, the NE occurrence pattern in Belgium was predicted based on a DLR model by using remotely sensed phenology parameters of broad‐leaved forests, together with the oak and beech seed categories and average monthly air temperature (°C) using data from 2001 to 2009. Our results suggest that even without any knowledge about hantavirus dynamics in the host population, the time variation in NE outbreaks in Finland could be predicted 3 months ahead with a 34% mean relative prediction error (MRPE). This took into account solely the population dynamics of the carrier species (bank voles). The time series analysis also revealed that climate change, as represented by the vegetation index, changes in forest phenology derived from satellite images and directly measured air temperature, may affect the mechanics of NE transmission. NE outbreaks in Belgium were predicted 3 months ahead with a 40% MRPE, based only on the climatological and vegetation data, in this case, without any knowledge of the bank vole’s population dynamics. In this research, we demonstrated that NE outbreaks can be predicted using climate and vegetation data or the bank vole’s population dynamics, by using dynamic data‐based models with time‐varying parameters. Such a predictive modelling approach might be used as a step towards the development of new tools for the prevention of future NE outbreaks.
Genomic Structure and Promoter Analysis of the Bovine Leptin Gene

The product of the leptin gene is a 16‐kDa protein secreted by adipose tissue and regulates adiposity. The leptin gene could be a potential candidate gene controlling some proportion of adipose and lean accretion in cattle, and thus, may be referred to as one of genetic factor controlling meat quality determinants such as marbling. We have isolated the bovine leptin gene including its promoter region. We have determined the exon‐intron organization of the bovine leptin gene, which consisted of three exons and two introns and spanned about 18.9 kb, equivalent to that of human or mouse gene. A ∼3‐kb 5'‐flanking region upstream from the putative transcription start site of the gene contained consensus Sp1 and CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein (C/EBP) motifs, and transient transfection assay with secreted alkaline phosphatase reporter confirmed the promoter activity in 3T3‐L1 cells that possessed expression of the cotransfected C/EBP αexpression plasmid. Cotransfection with C/EBP αcaused 24‐fold activation in leptin reporter expression, as compared to cotransfection with control plasmid, consistent with existence of the putative C/EBP αbinding site in the proximal 5'‐flanking region of the bovine leptin gene.
Developmental action of estrogen receptor-alpha feminizes the growth hormone-Stat5b pathway and expression of Cyp2a4 and Cyp2d9 genes in mouse liver.

We have studied the roles of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha) and the Stat5b form of STAT (signal transducers and activators of transcription) in sex-specific expression of Cyp2a4 (steroid 15alpha-hydroxylase) and Cyp2d9 (steroid 16alpha-hydroxylase) genes using ERalpha-deficient mice. ERalpha deficiency resulted in the repression of the female-specific Cyp2a4 and expression of the male-specific Cyp2d9 genes, respectively in females. In ERalpha-deficient males, the Cyp2d9 gene continued to be expressed. Nuclear localization of Stat5b occurs in both sexes of ERalpha-deficient mice, although it is normally observed in only wild-type males. Nuclear localization of Stat5b correlates with the repression of Cyp2a4 and expression of Cyp2d9, respectively. Because Stat5b was not detectable in liver nuclear extracts prepared from hypophysectomized ERalpha-deficient females, the regulation by ERalpha appeared to be mediated through a pituitary hormone (i.e., growth hormone). Thus, ERalpha appears to play a key role in the mechanism that inhibits nuclear localization of Stat5b in female mice, leading to feminization of a ERalpha-GH-Stat5b pathway and Cyp expression. Defaulting to this ERalpha-dependent mechanism results in localization of Stat5b to nuclei, which masculinizes the expression of Cyp genes in male mice.
A Memory Efficient Regular Expression Matching by Compressing Deterministic Finite Automata

Regular expressions are very meaningful and now-a-days broadly used to represent signatures of various attacks. The focal component of today’s security systems like intrusion detection and prevention system is a signature based regular expression matching. Deterministic finite automaton is often used to represent regular expressions. In regular expression matching, storage space of Deterministic finite automata is very important concern. A massive amount of memory is essential to store transition function of Deterministic finite automata. The method described in this paper reduces size of Deterministic finite automata which is in regular expression format. The performance of the regular expression matching by compressing Deterministic finite automata is evaluated by using regular expression set. General Terms Pattern matching algorithms, Network Security, Theory of Computations.
Perinatal outcome after in vitro fertilisation

A prospective series of 90 consecutive pregnancies (70 singleton, 16 twin and 4 triplet pregnancies) resulting in births of 114 infants after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) at Rigshospitalet were compared to a control group of pregnancies and deliveries in 70 non‐IVF infertility patients with singleton pregnancies and 20 women with normal fertility with twin (n=16) or triplet (n=4) pregnancies. No differences in the incidence of third trimester pregnancy complications, abnormal fetal karyotypes or malformations were found. The number of women with spontaneous onset of labor and the gestational age at delivery were similar in the IVF and control groups. In singleton deliveries, the birth weight was lower (p<0.025) in the IVF group (median 3145 g, range 8904300 g) than in the control group (3399 g, 2592–4850 g), whereas in multiple gestation similar birth weights were found in the IVF and control groups. We conclude that the birth weight in singleton deliveries after IVF is lower than the birth weight in infertility patients treated differently. The cause of this difference remains obscure.