Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Parallel Implementation of 2-D/3-D Image Registration for Computer-Assisted Surgery

This paper presents the design and implementation of a parallel two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2-D/3-D) image registration method for computer-assisted surgery. Our method exploits data and speculative parallelism, aiming at making computation time short enough to carry out registration tasks during surgery. Our experiments show that exploiting both parallelisms reduces computation time on a cluster of 64 PCs from a few tens of minutes to less than a few tens of seconds
A Comparative Analysis of a Shared (Inter)National Story: How Brazilian and US Presses Covered Sean Goldman¡¯s Recovery

Journalists do not tell audiences the truth but versions of stories they understand to be true based on what they have seen and know. This comparative analysis of 41 US and Brazilian news reports investigates the first return of an international child abductee from the United States to Brazil and back: Sean Goldman. Framing theory along with the ideological level of the hierarchical model of news influences help clarify four salient latent news frames that arise when two somewhat similar nations with different press systems tell this (inter)national story: A game of high stakes; The muted prize; US citizen superhero; and Remember the press, forget the subject. That the players involved in the story come from the right race and class evidences how and why this one incident became a shared news event that rose to the highest offices of each land. More comparative studies about (inter)national journalistic practices and institutions are called for.
Sequencing and Assembly of the 22-Gb Loblolly Pine Genome

Conifers are the predominant gymnosperm. The size and complexity of their genomes has presented formidable technical challenges for whole-genome shotgun sequencing and assembly. We employed novel strategies that allowed us to determine the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) reference genome sequence, the largest genome assembled to date. Most of the sequence data were derived from whole-genome shotgun sequencing of a single megagametophyte, the haploid tissue of a single pine seed. Although that constrained the quantity of available DNA, the resulting haploid sequence data were well-suited for assembly. The haploid sequence was augmented with multiple linking long-fragment mate pair libraries from the parental diploid DNA. For the longest fragments, we used novel fosmid DiTag libraries. Sequences from the linking libraries that did not match the megagametophyte were identified and removed. Assembly of the sequence data were aided by condensing the enormous number of paired-end reads into a much smaller set of longer “super-reads,” rendering subsequent assembly with an overlap-based assembly algorithm computationally feasible. To further improve the contiguity and biological utility of the genome sequence, additional scaffolding methods utilizing independent genome and transcriptome assemblies were implemented. The combination of these strategies resulted in a draft genome sequence of 20.15 billion bases, with an N50 scaffold size of 66.9 kbp.
An Essential Component in Steroid Synthesis, the Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein, Is Expressed in Discrete Regions of the Brain

Recent data implicate locally produced steroids, termed neurosteroids, as regulators of neuronal function. Adrenal and gonadal steroidogenesis is controlled by changes in the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR); however, little is known about the regulation of neurosteroid production. We now demonstrate unequivocally that StAR mRNA and protein are expressed within glia and neurons in discrete regions of the mouse brain, and that glial StAR expression is inducible. Consistent with a role in de novoneurosteroidogenesis, StAR colocalizes with the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme P450scc in both mouse and human brains. These data support a role for StAR in the production of neurosteroids and identify potential sites of active de novo steroid synthesis in the brain.
Context-aware hybrid classification system for fine-grained retail product recognition

We present a context-aware hybrid classification system for the problem of fine-grained product class recognition in computer vision. Recently, retail product recognition has become an interesting computer vision research topic. We focus on the classification of products on shelves in a store. This is a very challenging classification problem because many product classes are visually similar in terms of shape, color, texture, and metric size. In shelves, same or similar products are more likely to appear adjacent to each other and displayed in certain arrangements rather than at random. The arrangement of the products on the shelves has a spatial continuity both in brand and metric size. By using this context information, the co-occurrence of the products and the adjacency relations between the products can be statistically modeled. The proposed hybrid approach improves the accuracy of context-free image classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs), by combining them with a probabilistic graphical model such as Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) or Conditional Random Fields (CRFs). The fundamental goal of this paper is using contextual relationships in retail shelves to improve the classification accuracy by executing a context-aware approach.
Design and verification of a collaborative task execution procedure using bpmn modeler

There are numerous situations in which collaboration of two or more agents is required to accomplish a task. The accomplishment of such task by physical agents (i.e., robots) is possible only when all the agents are at the location where the task is to be carried out. Even though, if multiple agents are available in an environment but, unlikely spread at different locations, they will not able to carry out the task. Hence, all the required agents must reach to the location where the task needs to be carried out. The current multi-agent system community assumes that the entire set of an agent is available for task execution. However, this assumption always needs not hold, as the new task may arrive at any location within the closed environment. This is an important and challenging problem to gather the required number of agents, especially when we don't know the location and time of task arrival. In this paper, we suggest a fully distributed algorithm based on explicit communication that ensures the collaborative task execution in mobile physical agent setting. Furthermore, we simulated the algorithm using Bizagi BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) modeler which allows checking almost all execution paths of the algorithm by taking different probability distributions. The experimental results validate the correctness of the algorithm.
Power law distributions in class relationships

Power law distributions have been found in many natural and social phenomena, and more recently in the source code and run-time characteristics of Object-Oriented (OO) systems. A power law implies that small values are extremely common, whereas large values are extremely rare. We identify twelve new power laws relating to the static graph structures of Java programs. The graph structures analyzed represented different forms of OO coupling, namely, inheritance, aggregation, interface, parameter type and return type. Identification of these new laws provides the basis for predicting likely features of classes in future developments. The research ties together work in object-based coupling and World Wide Web structures.
Regulation of Th17 Differentiation by Epidermal Fatty Acid-Binding Protein1

Epidermal fatty acid-binding protein, E-FABP, a lipid chaperone, has been shown to regulate the inflammatory function of macrophages and dendritic cells. Herein, we demonstrate that T cell expression of E-FABP promotes Th17 differentiation, while counterregulating development of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). In response to immunization with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein peptide (MOG35–55), E-FABP-deficient mice generated reduced levels of Th17 cells and elevated levels of Tregs, as compared with wild-type mice. Likewise, naive CD4+ T cells isolated from E-FABP-deficient mice showed reduced expression of IL-17 and enhanced expression of FoxP3, in vitro, when subjected to Th17 or Treg polarizing conditions, respectively. It has been demonstrated previously that IL-21, induced by IL-6, stimulates the expression of the nuclear receptors retinoic acid-related orphan receptor (ROR)γt and RORα, which in turn induce expression of IL-17. We found that the impaired Th17 differentiation by E-FABP-deficient CD4+ T cells was associated with lower levels of IL-21 expression in response to IL-6, as well as reduced expression of RORγt and RORα. However, E-FABP-deficient CD4+ T cells expressed significantly higher levels of the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activating receptor (PPAR)γ than did wild-type CD4+ T cells, and treatment with the PPARγ antagonist GW9662 restored expression of IL-21, RORγt, RORα, and IL-17 by E-FABP-deficient T cells to wild-type levels. The negative influence of E-FABP deficiency on IL-17 expression was attributed to PPARγ-mediated suppression of IL-6-induced STAT3 activity. Thus, taken together, our data indicate that expression of E-FABP by CD4+ T cells contributes to the control of IL-6 stimulation of the IL-21/ROR/IL-17 pathway and to the Th17/Treg counterbalance.
Mitigating the Impact of Hardware Variability for GPGPUs Register File

As technology keeps scaling down, hardware variability, such as process variations (PV) and negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), emerges as a growing challenge in the modern GPGPUs (general-purpose computing on graphics processing units). PV induces significant delay variations statically, while NBTI dynamically slows down the GPGPUs. Each computing core (i.e., streaming multiprocessor) in GPGPUs supports thousands of simultaneously active threads, and requires a large register file. Such a sizable register file is very sensitive to the hardware variability, and becomes one of the major units in determining the core frequency. In this study, we propose a set of techniques that mitigate both the PV and NBTI impacts on GPGPUs register file. In order to mitigate the susceptibility to PV, we first develop a novel mechanism that classifies registers into fast and slow categories in the highly-banked register architecture to maximize the frequency improvement. We then leverage the unique features in GPGPU applications to effectively tolerate the extra access delay to the slow registers. Moreover, we propose to dynamically balance the utilization across registers to further tolerate the NBTI degradation. Our experimental results show that our proposed techniques optimize GPGPUs performance by 22 percent on average under both PV and NBTI effects.
Use of Multimedia as a New Educational Technology Tool for Preparatory Students (The Case of Goro Preparatory School)

In this community service oriented research the problems of traditional teaching learning process are identified in case of preparatory level schools in Ethiopia. The traditional teaching learning process in the schools of Ethiopia is based on chalk duster system which has severe limitations in context of students as well as instructors. This teaching learning process provides limited opportunity for students to understand the complex formulas, scenes and underlying visualizations ofthe process steps. These limitations have direct effect on the performance of the students. Also, the traditional teaching learning process provides limited learning opportunity for instructors as it is primarily based on provided reference books and text books only. This work proposed a new multimedia enabled teaching learning process in which the combination of audio, video, text, graphics and animation is used to create the content. In the pilot study of the proposed system, the multimedia enabled content was provided to the students of Goro Preparatory School Adama and the critical evaluation of proposed teaching learning process was performed after the students have used the multimedia enabled lectures. The research team has found that the multimedia enabled teaching learning process is an effective tool in helping the students to improve the performance. The evaluation of the introduced system was performed by technology adoption model after the students have used the multimedia content. The perceived usefulness of the proposed multimedia enabled system is found to be statistically significant in terms of performance and motivations to use the system. It was found that the multimedia enabled teaching learning process is easy to use and students can watch video lectures on their mobile phones. It is also found that the perceived usefulness is positively related to the attitude of the students towards the use of multimedia enabled teaching learning process. The behavioral intention of use of the proposed system is found to be positively described by the perceived usefulness and the attitude towards the use.
Nationale Enquête Arbeidsomstandigheden 2011. Methodologie en globale resultaten

Dit rapport is bedoeld als methodologische verantwoording van de NEA 2017. Tevens presenteren we de globale resultaten. In hoofdstuk twee beschrijven we de herkomst van de verschillende vragen. In hoofdstuk drie wordt verslag gedaan van de dataverzameling en verwerking. Hoofdstuk vier gaat in op de kwaliteit en betrouwbaarheid van de NEA 2017-gegevens. Hoofdstuk vijf geeft ten slotte de globale resultaten van de NEA 2017 in tabelvorm. De bijlagen bevatten onder meer de vragenlijst en een vergelijking tussen respons en steekproef.
Power, politics, and performance : community participation in South African public works programs

". Through a study of seven public works programs implemented in Western Cape province, this report examines the benefits and challenges of pursuing community participation, together with the effects of participation on meeting the other objectives of the programs. Although aspects of South Africa's experience are unique to its political economy, the study's findings reveal insights, dilemmas, and possibilities of considerable relevance in the wider context of participatory or “community-driven” development programs, which have increasingly become integral to the development agenda throughout the world.and were not trained.Politics, conflicts of interest, struggles over resources, and processes of consultation and consensus-building are part of the landscape of community-driven development. If participatory development is to remain on South Africa's development agenda, all actors must commit to realizing this objective, including generating sufficient resources, creativity, and patience to see the process through. " from Authors' Summary
Are estimates of meaningful decline in mobility performance consistent among clinically important subgroups? (Health ABC study).

BACKGROUND Meaningful change criteria help determine if function has improved or declined, but their magnitudes may vary across clinically relevant subgroups. We estimate meaningful decline in four common measures of physical performance in subgroups of older adults based on initial performance, demographics, chronic conditions, and health status. METHODS We used baseline (Year 1) and Year 4 data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study, a well-functioning cohort at baseline of white and black men and women (age 70-79), to evaluate the magnitude of meaningful decline in performance (6 m gait speed, 400-m walk time (400MWT), Short Physical Performance Battery, and Health ABC Physical Performance Battery (PPB), based on self-reported perceived mobility anchors (climbing 10 steps and walking ¼ mile). Estimates were stratified by initial performance, demographics, health status, chronic conditions, and body mass index, and compared across strata. RESULTS For all four measures, small and substantial decline estimates were generally consistent among subgroups based on initial performance, demographics, health status, and chronic conditions. The only exception was for 400MWT, where men had greater estimates than women. For PPB, small change was 0.12 points, and substantial change was 0.22 points. CONCLUSIONS Estimates of small and substantial meaningful decline resemble those previously reported for gait speed, 400MWT, and SPPB. Magnitudes of meaningful performance decline appear to be generally consistent across strata of initial performance, demographics, health status, body mass index, and chronic conditions.
An N-of-1 randomized controlled trial ('N-of-1 trial') of donepezil in the treatment of non-progressive amnestic syndrome.

INTRODUCTION a professional man sustained a residual, persisting, isolated impairment of short-term memory secondary to severe carbon monoxide poisoning. Informal, open trial of the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil resulted in uncertain benefit. PROTOCOL an N-of-1 randomized, double-blind controlled trial of donepezil against placebo. Placebo-induced headache permitted evaluation of donepezil at only the 5 mg dose. RESULTS there was no improvement in short-term memory. CONCLUSION the trial excluded significant benefit of donepezil 5 mg in this patient, preventing long-term unnecessary prescription. Beneficial effects in other similar patients or at higher dosage cannot be excluded.
Anti-Tetherin Activities of HIV-1 Vpu and Ebola Virus Glycoprotein Do Not Involve Removal of Tetherin from Lipid Rafts

ABSTRACT BST-2/tetherin is an interferon-inducible host restriction factor that blocks the release of newly formed enveloped viruses. It is enriched in lipid raft membrane microdomains, which are also the sites of assembly of several enveloped viruses. Viral anti-tetherin factors, such as the HIV-1 Vpu protein, typically act by removing tetherin from the cell surface. In contrast, the Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP) is unusual in that it blocks tetherin restriction without apparently altering its cell surface localization. We explored the possibility that GP acts to exclude tetherin from the specific sites of virus assembly without overtly removing it from the cell surface and that lipid raft exclusion is the mechanism involved. However, we found that neither GP nor Vpu had any effect on tetherin's distribution within lipid raft domains. Furthermore, GP did not prevent the colocalization of tetherin and budding viral particles. Contrary to previous reports, we also found no evidence that GP is itself a raft protein. Together, our data indicate that the exclusion of tetherin from lipid rafts is not the mechanism used by either HIV-1 Vpu or Ebola virus GP to counteract tetherin restriction.
Temperature-sensitive cell-lethal mutants of drosophila: isolation and characterization.

One hundred and twenty-one sensitive (ts) sex-linked lethals were screened by means of X-ray-induced somatic crossing over to determine if any were ts cell-lethal mutants. Cell-lethal mutations were identified by their ability to block the development of homozygous clones when raised under restrictive conditions (29degrees). Twenty-two ts cell-lethal mutants were isolated and categorized into three classes, depending upon the patterns of damage observed in larval and imaginal tissues. The phenotypes produced by these mutations ranged from those which affected only a limited set of structures (i.e., genital discs only) to those which affected diverse tissues at all stages of the life cycle. Each mutation has its own characteristic time-dependent pattern, frequency, and type of damage. All the mutations affect imaginal tissue, but only one-third of the mutations affect both larval and imaginal tissue. The fastest-acting lethals need 15 hours at the restrictive temperature to kill the cells and the slowest-acting lethals require at least 48 hours. By choosing the appropriate mutant and by manipulating the times of exposure to the restrictive temperature, it has proven possible to produce duplications and deficiencies in specific structures of the adult. A mechanism by which lethality might yield such structures is suggested. In addition, 15 of the mutants are ts female sterile mutants. Only one of these 15 mutants can recover its fertility when shifted back down to the permissive temperature (22degrees).
Expert System Planning: German Federal Armed Forces Psychological Service

Abstract : The study requirement entailed a review of the existing products and research literature on expert systems, as applied to personnel management. Early in the study, it was determined that focusing solely on expert systems would exclude a vast amount of information that was relevant to the objectives of the study. Many computer based systems and models provide information that personnel decision makers find very useful. These systems and models, while not strictly speaking expert systems, are computer based Decision Support Systems (DSS). Therefore, it was decided to expand the scope of the study and address the broader subject of DSSs for personnel management. This would include, but not be limited to, expert systems.
Metacognitive Instruction: Trainers Teaching Thinking Skills.

Humans have the ability to monitor and control their conscious cognitive processes. This ability, called metacognition, implies that people can learn to optimize their cognitive processes. Recent research in metacognition provides new ways of accelerating learning and skill transfer through an improvement in the decision-making, problem solving, and attentional skills of trainees. This paper provides a critical review of recent research in metacognition and presents recommendations for assessing and facilitating metacognitive skills in trainees, using cognitive-based techniques for task analysis and instructional design.
Public Anticipation Yet Private Realisation: The Effects of Using Cases as an Approach to Developing Teacher Leaders

Recent research has begun to conceptualise the professional learning of practising teachers who take on leadership roles in schools. In this vein, this article draws on a qualitative interview-based study designed to investigate case writing as a professional learning approach. It focuses on the way in which writing of a published case encouraged teacher leaders to articulate their growing knowledge about leadership. Data indicate that teacher leaders' anticipation of a public audience for their case writing was the feature that compelled them to consolidate and articulate their knowledge. But teachers' traditional positioning as knowledge consumers (rather than as knowledge producers) led to their fragile confidence to later share the professional knowledge they had developed. The outcomes of this study hold implications for case writing as an approach to developing teacher leaders and for professional learning programs that seek to shift practitioner and public knowledge of teacher leadership into professional communities.
Latent variable modelling of recovery trajectories: sexual function following radical prostatectomy

As treatments improve and survival time lengthens, the course of recovery and long‐term quality of life (QoL) is of greater interest. The application of latent class growth models to longitudinal QoL data provides unique insights into recovery that are not evident with marginal analyses. We examine this approach in the context of a large population‐based observational study. This is the first attempt to characterize individuals' recovery over time following prostate cancer surgery, and to determine factors associated with varying recovery experiences of prostate cancer patients. Four major patterns emerged that illustrate typical patterns of recovery following radical prostatectomy. Given a man's baseline data, this method produces estimates of the probability of belonging to each recovery class. The method is presented as a useful tool for identifying hypotheses associated with recovery and potential antecedents of importance. Published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.