Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Universität Des Saarlandes Fachrichtung 6.1 – Mathematik Highly Accurate Schemes for Pde-based Morphology with General Structuring Elements Highly Accurate Schemes for Pde-based Morphology with General Structuring Elements

The two fundamental operations in morphological image processing are dilation and erosion. These processes are defined via structur-ing elements. It is of practical interest to consider a variety of struc-turing element shapes. The realisation of dilation/erosion for convex structuring elements by use of partial differential equations (PDEs) allows for digital scalability and subpixel accuracy. However, numerical schemes suffer from blur by dissipative artifacts. In our paper we present a family of so-called flux-corrected transport (FCT) schemes that addresses this problem for arbitrary convex structuring elements. The main characteristics of the FCT-schemes are: (i) They keep edges very sharp during the morphological evolution process, and (ii) they feature a high degree of rotational invariance. We validate the FCT-scheme theoretically by proving consistency and stability. Numerical experiments with diamonds and ellipses as structuring elements show that FCT-schemes are superior to standard schemes in the field of PDE-based morphology.
C-blink: a hue-difference-based light signal marker for large screen interaction via any mobile terminal

To enable common mobile terminals to interact with contents shown on large screens, we propose "C-Blink", a new light signal marker method that uses the color liquid-crystal display of a mobile terminal as a visible light source. We overcome the performance limitations of such displays by developing a hue-difference-blink technique. In combination with a screen-side sensor, we describe a system that detects and receives light signal markers sent by cell phone displays. Evaluations of a prototype system confirm that C-Blink performs well under common indoor lighting. The C-Blink program can be installed in any mobile terminal that has a color display, and the installation costs are small. C-Blink is a very useful way of enabling ubiquitous large screens to become interfaces for mobile terminals.
Prostate Cancer Education in African American Barbershops

There have been very few studies to rigorously evaluate the potential of African American barbers to educate men about prostate cancer in the barbershop setting. This research brief presents baseline data from a cross-sectional survey identifying differences in decisional conflict and stage of decision making by screening status from an efficacy trial to educate African American men about informed decision making for prostate cancer screening. Those men who had already received the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test were more advanced in their stage of decision making and had less decisional conflict about the PSA test than those men who had never received a PSA test. Educational interventions to increase informed decision making with prostate cancer screening must consider previous PSA test history as a mediating variable affecting decision self-efficacy.
Image retrieval for identification of insects based on saliency map and distance metric learning

This paper presents an image retrieval method for insect identification based on saliency map and distance metric learning. First, the proposed method extracts regions of insects from target images by using saliency map and calculates visual features from the extracted insect regions. Next, in order to realize accurate retrieval of insects based on the calculated features, distance metric learning is newly adopted. Consequently, through users' evaluation in the retrieval, optimal distance can be obtained for the calculated visual features to obtain successful retrieval results, and the identification of insects becomes feasible. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our method.
Extended Mortality and Chronic Kidney Disease After Septic Acute Kidney Injury

Purpose: To evaluate 1-year mortality in patients with septic acute kidney injury (AKI) and to determine association between initial AKI recovery patterns (reversal within 5 days, beyond 5 days but recovery, or nonrecovery) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. Methods: Prospective observational study, with retrospective evaluation of initial nonconsenters, of critically ill patients with septic AKI. Results: We studied 207 patients (age, mean [SD]: 64 [16] years, 39% males), of which 56 (27%), 18 (9%), and 9 (4%) died in intensive care unit (ICU), post-ICU in hospital, and posthospitalization, respectively. Infections (including pneumonia) and major adverse cardiac events accounted for 64% and 12% of deaths, respectively. Factors independently associated with 1-year mortality include older age, ischemic heart disease, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, central nervous system or musculoskeletal primary infections, higher daily fluid balance (FB), and frusemide administration during ICU stay (all P < .05). Among 63 patients receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT), hospital mortality was higher with cumulative median FB >8 L versus ≤8 L at RRT initiation (57% vs 24%; P = .009); there was trend for less ICU- and RRT-free days at day 28 in patients with higher FB pre-RRT (P = NS). Chronic kidney disease progression over 1 year developed in 21%, 30%, and 79% of 105 initial survivors with AKI reversal, recovery, and nonrecovery, respectively (P < .001). Acute kidney injury nonrecovery during hospitalization independently predicted CKD progression (P = .001). Conclusions: Patients with septic AKI had 40% 1-year mortality, mainly associated with infections. High FB and frusemide administration were modifiable risk factors. Risk of CKD progression is high especially with initial AKI nonrecovery.
Predictors of Violent Behaviours in Young Adults Dating Relationships

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of dating violence and jealousy among university students. The role of situational and background factors of risk in explaining violent behaviour was examined. The study included 33 men and 89 women participants, from 20 to 24 years of age, from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Mostar. For the assessment of dating violence, The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) Partner-to-Partner was used. Males and females estimated the intensity of their jealousy in hypothetical situations presenting scenarios of emotional and sexual infidelity. The results of the analyses of the total sample showed that boys and girls differ significantly with respect to the frequency of committing and exposure to violent behaviour in a dating relationship. Men were more often the perpetrators of sexual abuse and threatening behaviour in relation to women. At the same time they were more often exposed to various forms of examined abuse in comparison to women. No differences in the intensity of jealousy between men and women were found. However, a regression analysis showed that jealousy, as a contextual variable, and earlier violent behaviour, as well as a situational variable, is a significant predictor of the exposure and perpetration of dating violence. The results of this study should be taken into account in the development and implementation of programmes for the prevention of violent behaviour in youth adults dating relationships.
Mitochondrial-related consequences of heat stress exposure during bovine oocyte maturation persist in early embryo development

Hyperthermia during estrus has direct consequences on the maturing oocyte that carries over to the resultant embryo to compromise its ability to continue in development. Because early embryonic development is reliant upon maternal transcripts and other ooplasmic components, we examined impact of heat stress on bovine oocyte transcripts using microarray. Oocytes were matured at 38. 5ºC for 24 h or 41. 0ºC for the first 12 h of in vitro maturation; 38. 5ºC thereafter. Transcriptome profile was performed on total (adenylated + deadenylated) RNA and polyadenylated mRNA populations. Heat stress exposure altered the abundance of several transcripts important for mitochondrial function. The extent to which transcript differences are coincident with functional changes was evaluated by examining reactive oxygen species, ATP content, and glutathione levels. Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species levels were increased by 6 h exposure to 41. 0ºC while cytoplasmic levels were reduced compared to controls (P < 0.0001). Exposure to 41. 0ºC for 12 h increased total and reduced glutathione levels in oocytes at 12 h but reduced them by 24 h (time × temperature P < 0.001). ATP content was higher in heat-stressed oocytes at 24 h (P < 0.0001). Heat-induced increases in ATP content of matured oocytes persisted in early cleavage-stage embryos (8- to 16-cell embryos; P < 0.05) but were no longer apparent in blastocysts (P > 0.05). Collectively, results indicate that direct exposure of maturing oocytes to heat stress may alter oocyte mitochondrial processes/function, which is inherited by the early embryo after fertilization.
A Comparative Study of Data Skew in Hadoop

MapReduce which has been a well-known programming model processes numerous raw data in large scale clusters. However, great challenges have been brought to MapReduce programming model while routinely handling the big data. To mitigate the process time of the clusters through minimizing the makespan is one of the key challenges. For now, (data) skew is partly responsible for that and there are some methods presented by research teams from different perspectives. In order to fully understand and utilize the state-of-the-art of data skew problem, in this paper, we compare six algorithms: Hadoop default (speculative execution), SkewReduce, SkewTune, iShuffle, LEEN and LIBRA. They are compared in terms of architecture and main features, core algorithms, performance metrics and evaluation methods. Finally, a few challenging problems as future research trends are summarized.
A Qualitative Exploration of the Role of Vape Shop Environments in Supporting Smoking Abstinence

E-cigarettes are the most popular method of quitting smoking in England and most are purchased in specialist vape shops. This qualitative study explores how the vape shop environment is experienced by quitters to support smoking abstinence. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted to elicit experiences of e-cigarette use, including experiences of vape shops, in 40 people who had used e-cigarettes in a quit attempt. Observations of six shops in a range of locations were also undertaken. Interview and observation data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and triangulated. At an individual level, smoking abstinence was supported through shop assistants’ attempts to understand customers’ smoking preferences in order to: (i) tailor advice about the most appropriate product; and (ii) offer an ongoing point of contact for practical help. At an interpersonal level, shops offered opportunity to socialise and reinforce a vaping identity, although the environment was perceived as intimidating for some (e.g., new and female users). At a structural level, shops ensured easy access to products perceived to be good value by customers and had adapted to legislative changes. Vape shops can provide effective behavioural support to quitters to maintain smoking abstinence. Health professionals could capitalise on this through partnership working with shops, to ensure best outcomes for clients wanting to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking.
Self-reported stress and psychophysiological reactivity in paramedics

ABSTRACT Background: As an important group of health care professionals, paramedics accomplish sophisticated and frequently stressful tasks. Design: The study investigated self-reported stress burden, self-reported health status, coping strategies, personality traits and psychophysiological reactivity in paramedics. Methods: 30 paramedics were compared with 30 professionals from other disciplines, in terms of self-reported stress, physical complaints, coping strategies, personality traits and psychophysiological reactivity during aversive visual and acoustic stimuli, and cognitive challenge. Regression analyses were performed for the prediction of stress burden and physical complaints in paramedics according to coping and personality factors. Results: Paramedics reported lower stress and less somatic complaints, and exhibited reduced electrodermal activity and heart rate responses to experimental stimuli, as well as higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia. They indicated less negative coping strategies, reduced empathy, and higher conscientiousness and sensation seeking. Higher self-reported stress burden and more physical symptoms were associated inter alia with more negative coping strategies, less conscientiousness and lower empathy. Conclusion: The findings support the notion of reduced self-reported stress burden, and improved general health and stress resistance in paramedics. In addition to health benefits, stress tolerance may contribute to the prevention of performance decline during situations in which health and life are at stake.
Characterization of Amylolysin, a Novel Lantibiotic from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens GA1

Background Lantibiotics are heat-stable peptides characterized by the presence of thioether amino acid lanthionine and methyllanthionine. They are capable to inhibit the growth of Gram-positive bacteria, including Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus or Bacillus cereus, the causative agents of food-borne diseases or nosocomial infections. Lantibiotic biosynthetic machinery is encoded by gene cluster composed by a structural gene that codes for a pre-lantibiotic peptide and other genes involved in pre-lantibiotic modifications, regulation, export and immunity. Methodology/Findings Bacillus amyloliquefaciens GA1 was found to produce an antimicrobial peptide, named amylolysin, active on an array of Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin resistant S. aureus. Genome characterization led to the identification of a putative lantibiotic gene cluster that comprises a structural gene (amlA) and genes involved in modification (amlM), transport (amlT), regulation (amlKR) and immunity (amlFE). Disruption of amlA led to loss of biological activity, confirming thus that the identified gene cluster is related to amylolysin synthesis. MALDI-TOF and LC-MS analysis on purified amylolysin demonstrated that this latter corresponds to a novel lantibiotic not described to date. The ability of amylolysin to interact in vitro with the lipid II, the carrier of peptidoglycan monomers across the cytoplasmic membrane and the presence of a unique modification gene suggest that the identified peptide belongs to the group B lantibiotic. Amylolysin immunity seems to be driven by only two AmlF and AmlE proteins, which is uncommon within the Bacillus genus. Conclusion/Significance Apart from mersacidin produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strains Y2 and HIL Y-85,544728, reports on the synthesis of type B-lantibiotic in this species are scarce. This study reports on a genetic and structural characterization of another representative of the type B lantibiotic in B. amyloliquefaciens.
Fetal Growth and Prenatal Exposure to Bisphenol A: The Generation R Study

Background: Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, but findings of previous studies have been inconsistent. Objective: We investigated the relation of prenatal BPA exposure with intrauterine growth and evaluated the effect of the number of measurements per subject on observed associations. Methods: This study was embedded in a Dutch population-based prospective cohort study, with urine samples collected during early, mid-, and late pregnancy. The study comprised 219 women, of whom 99 had one measurement, 40 had two measurements, and 80 had three measurements of urinary BPA. Fetal growth characteristics were repeatedly measured by ultrasound during pregnancy and combined with measurements at birth. Linear regression models for repeated measurements of both BPA and fetal growth were used to estimate associations between urinary concentrations of creatinine-based BPA (BPACB) and intrauterine growth. Results: The relationship between BPACB and fetal growth was sensitive to the number of BPA measurements per woman. Among 80 women with three BPA measurements, women with BPACB > 4.22 μg/g crea (creatinine) had lower growth rates for fetal weight and head circumference than did women with BPACB < 1.54 μg/g crea, with estimated differences in mean values at birth of –683 g (20.3% of mean) and –3.9 cm (11.5% of mean), respectively. When fewer measurements were available per woman, the exposure–response relationship became progressively attenuated and statistically nonsignificant. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that maternal urinary BPA may impair fetal growth. Because previous studies have shown contradictory findings, further evidence is needed to corroborate these findings in the general population.
A Hybrid Approach to High Availability in Stream Processing Systems

Stream processing is widely used by today’s applications such as financial data analysis and disaster response. In distributed stream processing systems, machine fail-stop events are handled by either active standby or passive standby. However, existing high availability (HA) schemes have not sufficiently addressed the situation when a machine becomes temporarily unavailable due to data rate spikes, intensive analysis or job sharing, which happens frequently but lasts for short time. It is not clear how well active and passive standby fare against such transient unavailability. In this paper, we first critically examine the suitability of active and passive standby against transient unavailability in a real testbed environment. We find that both approaches have advantages and drawbacks, but neither is ideal to provide fast recovery at low overhead as required to handle transient unavailability. Based on the insights gained, we propose a novel hybrid HA method that switches between active and passive standby modes depending on the occurrence of failure events. It presents a desirable tradeoff that is different from existing HA approaches: low overhead during normal conditions and fast recovery upon transient or permanent failure events. We have implemented our hybrid method and compared it with existing HA designs with comprehensive evaluation. The results show that our hybrid method can reduce two-thirds of the recovery time compared to passive standby and 80% message overhead compared to active standby, allowing applications to enjoy uninterrupted processing without paying a high premium.
Exploring Iranian β-Thalassemia major patients’ perception of barriers and facilitators of adherence to treatment: A qualitative study

Background Despite the clinical importance of adherence to treatment in β-Thalassemia Major (β-TM) patients, poor adherence remains a prevalent and persistent problem in these patients. Objective The aim of this study was to explore Iranian β-TM patients’ perception regarding the barriers and facilitators of adherence to their treatments. Methods In this qualitative study, data were collected using purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews with 18 β-TM patients, 3 family members and 5 healthcare professionals (total=26) in Sari, northern Iran, between August 2015 and May 2017. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis with the support of MAXQDA software. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were coded and grouped under specific categories. Results We identified and classified the perceived barriers of patients’ adherence to treatment into six main categories including: (I) long distance challenges, (II) delayed occurrence of complications, (III) fatigue of healthcare providers, (IV) staff workload, (V) insufficient follow-up of healthcare workers, and (VI) busy everyday life. Also, nine main categories emerged as facilitators including: (I) concern of appearance changing, (II) outcomes of treatment, (III) good awareness, (IV) parental monitoring, (V) fear of complications, (VI) social activity, (VII) marriage as a facilitator, (VIII) friendly interaction with the medical staff, and (IX) trusting the medical staff. Conclusion Our findings provide a broad range of context-specific facilitators and barriers to treatment adherence perceived by Iranian β-TM patients. These factors improve our understanding of the complex and multifactorial nature of adherence to treatments. Health care providers can use these findings in designing and implementing appropriate interventions to promote β-TM patients’ adherence to treatment.
Automatic Optimum Atlas Selection for Multi-Atlas Image Segmentation using Joint Label Fusion-Kofi Agyeman

4 2 Background and Introduction . 5 2.1 Manual image segmentation 2.2 Automatic image segmentation 2.3 Multi-atlas image segmentation 2.4 Label Fusion 2.5 Atlas selection 2.6 Automatic Optimum Atlas Selection (OAS) 3 Materials and Methods . 8 3.1 Data and setup 3.1. 1 Magnetic Resonance (MR) brain images dataset 3.1. 2 Atlases and labels dataset 3.1. 3 Computing and software infrastructure 3.2 OAS via global majority voting fusion image similarity score selection criteria 3.2.1 Atlas and target image pre-processing 3.2.2 Image registration and transformation 3.2.3 Global voting fusion image Optimum Atlas Selection (OAS) Framework 3.2.3.1 Consensus majority voting fusion segmentation 3.2.3.2 Dice similarity coefficient calculation (dSc) 3.2.3.3 Atlas selection criteria 3.2.4 OAS plus joint label fusion implementation 3.2.4.1 JLF Alpha (α) and Beta (β) parameters optimization 3.2.4.2 JLF search (rs) and patch (rp) size optimization 3.3 Leave-one out validation 4 Schematic . 12 5 Results . 13 5.1 Optimum atlas selection framework 5.1. 1 Optimum image registration and label fusion image pad size 5.1. 2 Image registration and transformation parameters optimization 5.1. 3 Global Voting Optimum Atlas Selection (OAS) 5.1. 3.1 Consensus Majority Segmentation 5.1. 3.2 Atlas Selection 5.1. 4 OAS plus joint label fusion implementation 5.1. 4.1 Alpha (α) and Beta (β) parameters optimization 5.1. 4.2 Search (rs) and patch (rp) radii size parameters optimization 5.1. 4.3 Optimum Atlas Selection Result (Segmentation of LM Head MR Image) 5.2 Leave-one out validation 6 Discussion and Conclusions . 23 Automatic Optimum Atlas Selection for Multi-Atlas Image Segmentation using Joint Label Fusion Kofi Agyeman Acknowledgements . 26 Bibliography . 26 7 Appendices . 29 Appendix A – Table of Figures . 29 Appendix B Software installation instructions . 30 Appendix C – Scripts . 33 Automatic Optimum Atlas Selection for Multi-Atlas Image Segmentation using Joint Label Fusion Kofi Agyeman
Using Suffix Tray and Longest Previous Factor for Pattern Searching

Finding patterns in genomic sequences needs an effective searching algorithm. Although there are different types of string repetition such as tandem repeat, palindrome, or clumps, we are interested in searching for the pattern occurrences in a sequence which can be overlapped. We propose a new algorithm constructed with the suffix tray data structure to ensure the linear time running. We present the algorithm to compute the Longest Previous Factor of a string from its suffix tray. We also apply the notion of suffix links and the attribute m. The proposed algorithm to compute the Longest Previous Factor table of the text, t, of length n requires O(n) time.