Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model Predictive Hierarchical Rate Control With Markov Decision Process for Multiview Video Coding

This paper presents a novel hierarchical rate control (HRC) for the Multiview Video Coding standard targeting improved bandwidth usage and high video quality. The HRC is designed to jointly address the rate control at both frame level and basic unit (BU) level. The proposed scheme is able to exploit the bitrate distribution correlation with neighboring frames to efficiently predict the future bitrate behavior by employing a model predictive control that defines a proper control action through quantization parameter (QP) adaptation. To provide a fine-grained tuning, the QP is further adapted within each frame by a Markov decision process implemented at BU level able to take into consideration a map of the regions of interest. A coupled frame/BU level feedback is performed in order to guarantee the system consistency. Experimental results show the superiority of our HRC compared to state-of-the-art solutions in terms of bitrate allocation accuracy and rate distortion while delivering smooth video quality at frame and BU levels.
Intensity of Long-Term Treatment with Warfarin Is Influenced by Seasonal Variations

In a prospective study, which lasted 1 year and was performed on a large cohort of 800 patients treated at an outpatient anticoagulant clinic, we investigated possible seasonal variations in the intensity of the effect of warfarin treatment. For every season – winter, spring, summer and autumn – the mean prothrombin time reported as an international normalised ratio (INR) and the percentages of INR below 2.0 and above 4.0 were calculated. Significant seasonal variations in mean INR measurements were found, with the lowest values in summer and the highest values in autumn (F = 14.2, p < 0.0001). In addition, a trend toward a higher percentage of INR below 2.0 in summer and above 4.0 in autumn was observed. No significant differences were found between older (>65 years) and younger (<65 years) patients, although there was a trend toward more pronounced variations in younger patients. Consideration of seasonal variations might result in more accurate and safe guidance of warfarin treatment.
Sensor-less direct torque control using inductance peak detection for switched reluctance motor

The technique for direct torque control (DTC) without position sensor is proposed in this paper. In DTC system, the rotor position information is important factor to calculate torque and know commutation point. Basic sensorless DTC system includes Look-Up Table (LUT) to get the information of rotor position or torque value. Instead of the LUT, the rotor position information can be substituted to interval time between the inductance minimum peak points of each phase to achieve the position sensorless technique. Through the inductance maximum and minimum peak detection, the point of commutation can be calculated. Therefore, commutation point, instantaneous torque and Torque Sharing Function (TSF) period are calculated using inductance peak detection algorithm. The computer simulations and experiments are used to verify the proposed techniques.
Cognitive Impairment, Depressive Symptoms, and Functional Decline in Older People

OBJECTIVES: Although cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms are associated with functional decline, it is not understood how these risk factors act together to affect the risk of functional decline. The purpose of this study is to determine the relative contributions of cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms on decline in activity of daily living (ADL) function over 2 years in an older cohort.
Periapical healing of mandibular molars after root-end sealing with dentine-bonded composite.

AIM The purpose was to present the frequency of periapical healing in first and second/third mandibular molars, after root-end resections sealed with a dentine-bonded resin composite. METHODOLOGY Root-end sealing of resected mandibular molar roots was made with dentine-bonded composite (Gluma-Retroplast) as a cover on the entire slightly hollowed root-end, in an attempt to prevent leakage. RESULTS Out of the 834 roots recalled between 6 months and 12.5 years postoperatively, 92% showed complete apical healing, 1% uncertain healing and 7% exhibited failure. The healing result of 681 first molar roots was not significantly different (P = 0.21) from that of 153 second/third molar roots, and there was no significant difference in healing between mesial and distal roots (P = 0.32 for first molars, P = 0.86 for second/third molars) or amongst six age groups (P = 0.94). In the patient group: 71-89 years, 36 roots showed an average of 97% with complete healing. Out of 25 failures who were retreated surgically, 80% showed complete healing when examined subsequently. CONCLUSION Root-end sealing of mandibular molars with dentine-bonded resin composite is a promising technique giving 92% complete healing in cases examined between 6 months and 12 years postoperatively.
Flow Cytometric Testing of Susceptibilities ofMycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates to Ethambutol, Isoniazid, and Rifampin in 24 Hours

ABSTRACT Susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is seriously limited by the time required to obtain results. We show that susceptibility testing of clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis can be accomplished rapidly with acceptable accuracy by using flow cytometry. The susceptibilities of 35 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis to various concentrations of isoniazid, rifampin, and ethambutol were tested by the agar proportion method and by flow cytometry. Agreement between the results from the two methods was 95, 92, and 83% for isoniazid, ethambutol, and rifampin, respectively. Only 11 discrepancies were detected among 155 total tests. The results of flow cytometric susceptibility tests were available within 24 h of inoculation of drug-containing medium, while the proportion method required 3 weeks to complete. The flow cytometric method is also simple to perform.
New method of purification for establishing primary cultures of ensheathing cells from the adult olfactory bulb

Ensheathing cells exclusively enfold olfactory axons. The ability of olfactory axons to reinnervate the adult mammalian olfactory bulb throughout the lifetime of an organism is believed to result from the presence of this unique glial cell in the olfactory system. This theory has been substantiated by research demonstrating the ability of transplanted ensheathing cells to promote axonal regrowth in areas of the central nervous system that are normally nonpermissive. A simple method for purifying ensheathing cells resulting in a large yield of cells is therefore invaluable for transplantation studies. We have developed such a method based on the differing rates of attachment of the various harvested cell types. The greatest percentage of cells (70.4%) that attached during the first step of the separation was determined to be fibroblasts. The remainder of the cells were classified as astrocytes (20.8%) and ensheathing cells (6.8%). The percentage of attached astrocytes (67.6%) was greatly increased during the second purification step while the percentage of fibroblasts decreased greatly (27.9%) and the percentage of ensheathing cells (5.3%) slightly decreased. In the final cultures, 93.2 % of the attached cells were ensheathing cells, while astrocytes (5.9%) and fibroblasts (1.4%) were only minor components. This simple, inexpensive method of purifying ensheathing cells will facilitate their use in central nervous system regeneration research. GLIA 34:81–87, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Region-based image retrieval using the semantic cluster matrix and adaptive learning

An image retrieval system, which reduces the semantic gap between the low level image features and the high level semantic concepts, using the semantic cluster matrix (SCM) and adaptive learning during testing, is proposed. This mechanism retrieves semantically relevant images for both trained and untrained image categories. The SCM groups the new categories into semantic clusters, records the cluster's semantic information, gets the relevance feedback (RF) from the user, and records this in the SCM. Thus, the SCM adaptively learns about the new categories during the testing time, and is able to retrieve semantically relevant images for untrained categories also. Experiments were conducted using the Caltech image dataset consisting of 101 categories of images. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves good performance in terms of retrieval accuracy.
Genetic factors influencing lignin peroxidase activity in Phanerochaete chrysosporium ME446

Haploid recombinant progeny of Phanerochaete chrysosporium ME446, genome compositions of which had been defined by RFLP‐mapping, vary in their idiophasic behaviour. This allowed us to formulate a model of the sequence of idiophasic activities. One component of this variation, the amount of lignin peroxidase activity, is independent of the allele distributions of the lignin peroxidase gene clusters, but correlates with the allele distribution of another locus. This locus appears to control the spread of the lignin peroxidase‐active state within the idiophasic mycelial mat and may be the mating‐type locus. The successful determination of linkage relied on analysis of chromosome intervals rather than linkage to single markers; this approach should be generally useful for analysing quantitative characters by RFLP mapping.
High incidence of t(7;12)(q36;p13) in infant AML but not in infant ALL, with a dismal outcome and ectopic expression of HLXB9

The t(7;12)(q36;p13) is a recurrent translocation involving the ETV6/TEL gene (12p13) and a heterogeneous breakpoint at 7q36. A fusion transcript between HLXB9 and ETV6 in AML with t(7;12) is occasionally found. To study the incidence of t(7;12) in infant and childhood acute leukemia, we screened 320 cases <36 months using FISH. Additionally, 28 pediatric cases >36 months with cytogenetic breakpoints at 12p and 7q were investigated. We studied the presence of an HXLB9‐ETV6 fusion transcript and quantified the expression of various genes located in the 7q36 breakpoint region. In total, six AML patients carried the t(7;12) of which five were infants and one child of 18 months. Only one out of 99 infant ALL patients harbored the t(7;12). No t(7;12) was found in older children with AML or ALL. AML patients carrying a t(7;12) had a poor outcome with a 3‐year EFS of 0%. A fusion of HLXB9 to ETV6 was found in four AML cases with t(7;12). The 7q36 genes NOM1, LMBR1, RNF32, and SHH were equally expressed among t(7;12)‐positive AML versus t(7;12)‐negative AML, t(7;12)‐negative ALL, or normal bone marrow. However, the HLXB9 expression was highly increased in t(7;12)‐positive cases, including those with an HLXB9‐ETV6 fusion. We conclude that the t(7;12) is almost exclusively present in infant AML and covers 30% of infant AML, while it is extremely rare in infant ALL and older children. The t(7;12) is associated with a poor outcome and an ectopic expression of HLXB9 is commonly involved in this genetic subtype of leukemia. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Interaction of HIV‐1 Reverse Transcriptase Ribonuclease H with an Acylhydrazone Inhibitor

HIV‐1 reverse transcriptase is a bifunctional enzyme, having both DNA polymerase (RNA‐ and DNA‐dependent) and ribonuclease H activities. HIV‐1 reverse transcriptase has been an exceptionally important target for antiretroviral therapeutic development, and nearly half of the current clinically used antiretrovirals target reverse transcriptase DNA polymerase. However, no inhibitors of reverse transcriptase ribonuclease H are on the market or in preclinical development. Several drug‐like small molecule inhibitors of reverse transcriptase ribonuclease H have been described, but little structural information is available about the interactions between reverse transcriptase ribonuclease H and inhibitors that exhibit antiviral activity. In this report, we describe NMR studies of the interaction of a new ribonuclease H inhibitor, BHMP07, with a catalytically active HIV‐1 reverse transcriptase ribonuclease H domain fragment. We carried out solution NMR experiments to identify the interaction interface of BHMP07 with the ribonuclease H domain fragment. Chemical shift changes of backbone amide signals at different BHMP07 concentrations clearly demonstrate that BHMP07 mainly recognizes the substrate handle region in the ribonuclease H fragment. Using ribonuclease H inhibition assays and reverse transcriptase mutants, the binding specificity of BHMP07 was compared with another inhibitor, dihydroxy benzoyl naphthyl hydrazone. Our results provide a structural characterization of the ribonuclease H inhibitor interaction and are likely to be useful for further improvements of the inhibitors.
[Effects of airborne pollution on cardiopulmonary function of healthy person].

OBJECTIVE To understand the effects of airborne pollution on cardiopulmonary function in healthy person. METHODS 15 healthy workers were selected from heavily polluted area as the experimental group (EG) and 15 healthy workers were selected from relatively clean area as control group (CG). The blood pressure were measured with sphygmomanometer and the vital capacity (VC) were detected with FHL-II type spirometer at rest status. Cardiopulmonary functions in different exercise states were measured by using the cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). RESULTS It showed that heart rate of EG was more higher than those of the CG at rest status (P < 0.01), and VC was more lower than those of the CG (P < 0.05). While the load increased to AT, the results of VO2, VO2/kg, O2P and METS in CG were more higher than these indexes in EG (P < 0.05, P < 0.01) . While the load increased to VO2 max, the results of VO2 max, VO2 max/kg, O2P, METS and DT in CG were more higher than these indexes in EG (P < 0.01), and the recovery of heart rate in EG was slow in comparison with CG. CONCLUSION Airborne pollution could have adverse effects on the cardiopulmonary function, reserve ability and function potential. The chronic adverse effects of airborne pollution on the health could be easy to reflect at static state. Therefore CPET could roundly evaluate the damage of airborne pollution to cardiorespiratory function.
The role of mechanical and neural restraints to joint range of motion during passive stretch.

UNLABELLED Musculoskeletal flexibility is typically characterized by maximum range of motion (ROM) in a joint or series of joints. Resistance to passive stretch in the mid-range of motion is a function of the passive mechanical restraints to motion. However, an active contractile response may contribute resistance at terminal ROM. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine whether maximum straight leg raise (SLR) ROM was limited by passive mechanical forces or stretch-induced contractile responses to stretch. METHODS An instrumented SLR stretch was applied to the right leg of 16 subjects ending at the point of discomfort. Torque was measured with a load cell attached to the ankle. An electrogoniometer was placed on the hip, and the knee was braced in extension. Surface electrodes were placed over the rectus and biceps femoris muscles. Following the instrumented SLR test, maximum ROM was measured goniometrically by a physical therapist using the standard SLR test (PT SLR ROM). Torque/ROM curves were plotted for each subject. RESULTS PT SLR ROM was positively related to total energy absorbed (area under the curve) (r = 0.49, P = 0.044), negatively related to the increase in torque from 20 to 50 degrees (r = -0.81, P < 0.0001) and negatively related to energy absorbed from 20 to 50 degrees (r = -0.73, P < 0.001). Minimal stretch-induced hamstring activity was elicited (3 +/- 1% MVC), and the EMG activity was unrelated to PT SLR ROM (r = -0.06, P = 0.8). A combination of the increase in torque from 20 to 50 degrees and total energy absorbed improved the relationship to PT SLR ROM (r = 0.89, P = 0.001). Seventy-nine percent of the variability in maximum SLR ROM could be explained by the passive mechanical response to stretch. CONCLUSIONS These data lend support to the concept that musculoskeletal flexibility can be explained in mechanical terms rather than by neural theories.
Coronary microvascular dysfunction in male patients with Anderson-Fabry disease and the effect of treatment with α galactosidase A

Objective: To measure coronary flow reserve (CFR), an index of microvascular function, in Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) at baseline and after enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). Methods and results: Mean (SD) myocardial blood flow (MBF) at rest and during hyperaemia (adenosine 140 μg/kg/min) was measured in 10 male, non-smoking patients (53.8 (10.9) years, cholesterol 5.5 (1.3) mmol/l) and in 24 age matched male, non-smoking controls (52.0 (7.6) years, cholesterol 4.5 (0.6) mmol/l) by positron emission tomography (PET). Resting and hyperaemic MBF and CFR (hyperaemic/resting MBF) were reduced in patients compared with controls (0.99 (0.17) v 1.17 (0.25) ml/g/min, p < 0.05; 1.37 (0.32) v 3.44 (0.78) ml/g/min, p < 0.0001; and 1.41 (0.39) v 3.03 (0.85), p < 0.0001, respectively). This coronary microvascular dysfunction was independent of cholesterol concentrations. PET was repeated in five patients after 10.1 (2.3) months of ERT; resting and hyperaemic MBF and CFR were unchanged after ERT (0.99 (0.16) v 0.99 (0.16) ml/g/min; 1.56 (0.29) v 1.71 (0.3) ml/g/min; and 1.6 (0.37) v 1.74 (0.28), respectively; all not significant). Conclusions: The results of the present study show that patients with AFD have very abnormal coronary microvascular function. These preliminary data suggest that ERT has no effect on coronary microvascular dysfunction. Further work is necessary to determine whether treatment at an earlier stage in the course of the disease may improve coronary microvascular function in patients with AFD.
Secure Estimation in the Presence of Integrity Attacks

We consider the estimation of a scalar state based on m measurements that can be potentially manipulated by an adversary. The attacker is assumed to have full knowledge about the true value of the state to be estimated and about the value of all the measurements. However, the attacker has limited resources and can only manipulate up to l of the m measurements. The problem is formulated as a minimax optimization, where one seeks to construct an optimal estimator that minimizes the “worst-case” expected cost against all possible manipulations by the attacker. We show that if the attacker can manipulate at least half the measurements (l ≥ m/2), then the optimal worst-case estimator should ignore all measurements and be based solely on the a-priori information. We provide the explicit form of the optimal estimator when the attacker can manipulate less than half the measurements (l <; m/2), which is based on (m2l) local estimators. We further prove that such an estimator can be reduced into simpler forms for two special cases, i.e., either the estimator is symmetric and monotone or m = 2l + 1. Finally we apply the proposed methodology in the case of Gaussian measurements.
Incremental depth upscaling using an edge weighted optimization concept

Precise scene depth information is a pre-requisite in three-dimensional television (3DTV), e.g. for high quality view synthesis in autostereoscopic multiview displays. Unfortunately, this information is not easily obtained and often of limited quality. Dedicated range sensors, such as time-of-flight (ToF) cameras, can deliver reliable depth information where (stereo-)matching fails. Nonetheless, since these sensors provide only restricted spatial resolution, sophisticated upscaling methods are sought-after, to match depth information to corresponding texture frames. Where traditional upscaling fails, novel approaches have been proposed, utilizing additional information from the texture for the depth upscaling process. We recently proposed the Edge Weighted Optimization Concept (EWOC) for ToF upscaling, using texture edges for accurate depth boundaries. In this paper we propose an important update to EWOC, dividing it into smaller incremental upscaling steps. We predict two major improvements from this. Firstly, processing time should be decreased by dividing one big calculation into several smaller steps. Secondly, we assume an increase in quality for the upscaled depth map, due to a more coherent edge detection on the video frame. In our evaluations we can show the desired effect on processing time, cutting down the calculation time more than in half. We can also show an increase in visual quality, based on objective quality metrics, compared to the original implementation as well as competing proposals.
Markers of lipid oxidative damage among office workers exposed intermittently to air pollutants including nanoTiO2 particles

Abstract Nanoscale titanium dioxide (nanoTiO2) is a commercially important nanomaterial used in numerous applications. Experimental studies with nanotitania have documented lung injury and inflammation, oxidative stress, and genotoxicity. Production workers in TiO2 manufacturing with a high proportion of nanoparticles and a mixture of other air pollutants, such as gases and organic aerosols, had increased markers of oxidative stress, including DNA and protein damage, as well as lipid peroxidation in their exhaled breath condensate (EBC) compared to unexposed controls. Office workers were observed to get intermittent exposures to nanoTiO2 during their process monitoring. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of such short-term exposures on the markers of health effects in office workers relative to production workers from the same factory. Twenty-two office employees were examined. They were occupationally exposed to (nano)TiO2 aerosol during their daily visits of the production area for an average of 14±9 min/day. Median particle number concentration in office workers while in the production area was 2.32×104/cm3. About 80% of the particles were <100 nm in diameter. A panel of biomarkers of lipid oxidation, specifically malondialdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxy-trans-hexenal (HHE), 4-hydroxy-trans-nonenal (HNE), 8-isoprostaglandin F2α (8-isoprostane), and aldehydes C6−C12, were studied in the EBC and urine of office workers and 14 unexposed controls. Nine markers of lipid oxidation were elevated in the EBC of office employees relative to controls (p<0.05); only 8-isoprostane and C11 were not increased. Significant association was found in the multivariate analysis between their employment in the TiO2 production plant and EBC markers of lipid oxidation. No association was seen with age, lifestyle factors, or environmental air contamination. The EBC markers in office employees reached about 50% of the levels measured in production workers, and the difference between production workers and office employees was highly significant (p<0.001). None of these biomarkers were elevated in urine. The approach presented here seems to be very sensitive and useful for non-invasive monitoring of employees exposed to air pollutants, including gases, organic aerosols, and nanoTiO2, and may prove useful for routine biomonitoring purposes. Among them, aldehydes C6, C8, C9, and C10 appear to be the most sensitive markers of lipid oxidation in similar occupational cohorts. One major challenge with sensitive biomonitoring techniques, however, is their non-specificity and difficulty in interpreting the meaning of their physiological values in the context of chronic disease development and damage-repair kinetics.