Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A-and B-modes echobiometry in cataractous and noncataractous eyes of English Cocker Spaniel dogs

Aand B-modes ultrasonographic changes in the thickness of various structures of the eyeball in male and female English Cocker Spaniel dogs with and without nondiabetic cataracts were evaluated. Sixteen dogs with cataracts (32 eyes) and seven normal dogs (14 eyes) older than eight years were selected. Aand B-modes ultrasonography was performed with a 10MHz transducer. Data was statistically evaluated by one way ANOVA. Mean and standard deviations of various ocular structures for dogs with and without cataracts were, respectively, anterior chamber: 3.041±0.828mm, 3.373±1.040mm; lens: 6.817±1.117mm, 7.062±0.477mm; vitreous: 10.056±0.754mm, 9.523±0.705mm; and axial length: 19.909±1.103mm, 19.958±1.050mm. Ocular measurements between right and left eyes, males and females, as well as in eyes with and without cataract were not different (P>0.05).
SHERPA: A Flexible &amp; Responsive Small Satellite Transport Vehicle

SHERPA1,2, the Shuttle Expendable Rocket for Payload Augmentation, is a highly capable propulsive satellite. The SHERPA is currently approaching a PDR level design. The SHERPA can perform a wide range of missions including orbit transfers, small satellite maneuvers, space situational awareness missions, and serve as a platform for experiments. The SHERPA has three versions: The Mark I, is a propulsion unit, the Mark II is a standalone propulsive satellite, and the Mark III, a self contained long-duration propulsive satellite. Each version can support either an electric or chemical propulsion module. The SHERPA integrates several Air Force Research Laboratory developed technologies into one unique package. The SHERPA can also fulfil a number of other mission needs as a low cost satellite bus for the DoD Space Test Program
VOIP for Telerehabilitation: A Risk Analysis for Privacy, Security and HIPAA Compliance: Part II

In a previous publication the authors developed a privacy and security checklist to evaluate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) videoconferencing software used between patients and therapists to provide telerehabilitation (TR) therapy. In this paper, the privacy and security checklist that was previously developed is used to perform a risk analysis of the top ten VoIP videoconferencing software to determine if their policies provide answers to the privacy and security checklist. Sixty percent of the companies claimed they do not listen into video-therapy calls unless maintenance is needed. Only 50% of the companies assessed use some form of encryption, and some did not specify what type of encryption was used. Seventy percent of the companies assessed did not specify any form of auditing on their servers. Statistically significant differences across company websites were found for sharing information outside of the country (p=0.010), encryption (p=0.006), and security evaluation (p=0.005). Healthcare providers considering use of VoIP software for TR services may consider using this privacy and security checklist before deciding to incorporate a VoIP software system for TR. Other videoconferencing software that is specific for TR with strong encryption, good access controls, and hardware that meets privacy and security standards should be considered for use with TR.
A Compact Ultrawideband Diversity Antenna With High Isolation

A compact ultrawideband (UWB) polarization diversity antenna with high isolation is designed in this letter. It comprises a step-tapered slot antenna (S-TSA) and a small square monopole antenna with an inverted H-shaped slot and an H-shaped conductor-backed plane. The isolation between the two ports is improved due to the orthogonality of E-field of two elements. The designed antenna has a small size of 26 × 38 mm2. The measured results show that it can operate from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, in which the average isolation is better than 30 dB.
On Firehoses, Windows, and Business Rules: Towards a Successful Fast Data Organisation

Due to the enormous growth of data and the increasing speed at which organisations are required to respond to it, Fast data is the latest trend in data science. In this study, we set out to answer the question what Fast data is and how organisations can deal with it in a successful way. We define Fast data as: the ability to gain insights from (near) real-time data streams and derive value from these insights. We argue that successful Fast data organisations are built on four pillars: (i) technology, (ii) strategy, (iii) culture, and (iv) skills & experience. We conclude with a critical discussion of our results, for instance touching upon whether Fast data is really ‘new’.
Personality and Emotions in Decision Making and Recommender Systems

In this paper we survey the work on the usage of personality and emotions in recommender systems. Recommender systems are designed to support humans making better decisions. It has been shown that personality and emotions account for the variance in human decision making. We present various models and acquisition methods for emotions and personality. Furthermore, we showcase examples of effective exploitation of personality and emotions in RS. We present in more details an example of the usage of emotions as implicit feedback for serendipitous recommendations.
Mixture model based color clustering for psoriatic plaque segmentation

This paper presents a mixture model based color clustering and then applies this technique for psoriatic plaque segmentation in skin images. For clustering image pixels, two mostly relevant colorspaces namely, CIE Luv(cubic) and CIE Lch(equivalent cylindrical) are considered. Gaussian Mixture Model(GMM) is used for clustering in Luv space. However, Lch space being a circular-linear space does not support the use of GMM. Hence, clustering in Lch makes use of a novel mixture model known as Semi-Wrapped Gaussian Mixture Model(SWGMM). The performance of these clustering methods is evaluated for psoriatic plaque segmentation and results are compared with those obtained by the commonly used Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering algorithm. The comparative study shows that the clustering in Lch using SWGMM outperforms the other approaches. For localizing the plaques, we consider von Mises distribution to find a suitable confidence interval and thereby defining skin and non-skin models. The UCI Skin Segmentation dataset is used for this purpose. This localization approach achieves an average accuracy 79.53%. A real clinical dataset of Psoriasis images is used in this experiment.
Application of Neural Network in Ranking Police Alarms

It is a practical need to handle police alarms reported effectively to realize automatic ranking. In this paper, we proposed a police alarm-reporting classification framework involving rough set attribute reduction, genetic algorithm and back propagation neural network. In this framework, we first obtain the reduction of redundant attribute with the theory of rough set, then combine the genetic algorithm and back propagation algorithm to train the network model. A case study on classification of public alarm rank demonstrates the usability of the framework.
Network coding for security and error correction

of thesis entitled: Network Coding for Security and Error Correction Submitted by NGAI, Chi Kin for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in July 2008 Network coding is one of the most important breakthroughs in information theory in recent years. The theory gives rise to a new concept regarding the role of nodes in a communication network. Unlike in existing networks where the nodes act as switches, in the paradigm of network coding, every node in the network can act as an encoder for the incoming information. With this new infrastructure, it is possible to utilize the full capacity of the network where it is impossible to do so without network coding. In the seminar paper by Ahlswede et al. [1] where network coding was introduced, the achievability of the maxflow bound for every single source multicast network by using network coding was also proved. By further exploring the possibility of linear network coding, Cai and Yeung introduced the idea of error-correcting network coding and secure network coding in [5] and [18] respectively. These papers launched another two important research areas in the field of network coding. In this work, we consider the possibility and the effectiveness of implementing secure network coding and error-correcting network coding at the same time. Upon achieving this goal, information can be multicast securely to the sink nodes through a noisy network. Toward this end, we propose constructions of such codes and prove their optimality. After that, we extend the idea of generalized Hamming Weight [9] for the classical point-to-point communication channel to linear network
Detection of fetal ECG with IIR adaptive filtering and genetic algorithms

The continuous monitoring of the fetal heart condition during pregnancy and labor is of great clinical importance. The cardiac electrical activity of the fetus (FECG) may be recorded by means of surface abdominal electrodes. The signal is severely contaminated by the maternal cardiac signal (MECG). FECG enhancement is usually performed by FIR adaptive filtering. A new IIR FECG enhancement system is suggested and evaluated. In order to avoid convergence into local extrema, the system employs a genetic algorithm (GA). Two architectures are considered. The first is a combination of an adaptive filter and GA where the GA is recruited whenever the adaptive filter is suspected of reaching a local extremum. The second is an independent GA search. The hybrid IIR-GA was shown to be superior to the conventional FIR adaptive filtering.
Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) Degrades Soluble Vasculotropic Amyloid-β E22Q and L34V Mutants, Delaying Their Toxicity for Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells*

Patients carrying mutations within the amyloid-β (Aβ) sequence develop severe early-onset cerebral amyloid angiopathy with some of the related variants manifesting primarily with hemorrhagic phenotypes. Matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) are typically associated with blood brain barrier disruption and hemorrhagic transformations after ischemic stroke. However, their contribution to cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related hemorrhage remains unclear. Human brain endothelial cells challenged with Aβ synthetic homologues containing mutations known to be associated in vivo with hemorrhagic manifestations (AβE22Q and AβL34V) showed enhanced production and activation of MMP-2, evaluated via Multiplex MMP antibody arrays, gel zymography, and Western blot, which in turn proteolytically cleaved in situ the Aβ peptides. Immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry analysis highlighted the generation of specific C-terminal proteolytic fragments, in particular the accumulation of Aβ-(1–16), a result validated in vitro with recombinant MMP-2 and quantitatively evaluated using deuterium-labeled internal standards. Silencing MMP-2 gene expression resulted in reduced Aβ degradation and enhanced apoptosis. Secretion and activation of MMP-2 as well as susceptibility of the Aβ peptides to MMP-2 degradation were dependent on the peptide conformation, with fibrillar elements of AβE22Q exhibiting negligible effects. Our results indicate that MMP-2 release and activation differentially degrades Aβ species, delaying their toxicity for endothelial cells. However, taking into consideration MMP ability to degrade basement membrane components, these protective effects might also undesirably compromise blood brain barrier integrity and precipitate a hemorrhagic phenotype.
Essais de matériel agricole à traction animale

Recueil pratique des techniques d'essais des materiels les plus frequemment rencontres dans les exploitations agricoles utilisant la traction animale. Les ingenieurs et techniciens plus specialement charges de la realisation des essais y trouveront un guide destine a faciliter leurs tâches : conditions d'execution, principe, technique et personnel necessaires pour les essais en general, protocoles d'essais particuliers (puissance des attelages, charrues, faucheuses.). L'auteur a voulu elargir ce cadre en enumerant les principales dispositions a adopter, tant sur le plan materiel que sur le plan humain, avant d'entreprendre des essais et en etablissant une regle de conduite generale a appliquer lors d'un essai d'une machine quelconque. Ainsi il sera desormais possible d'eviter un choix de materiel de culture attelee uniquement lie a de vagues impressions subjectives portant sur la qualite de ce materiel, a la condition toutefois que les differentes mesures soient faites avec un minimum de soin et d'attention et en suivant le plus possible les quelques regles tres simples rassemblees dans ce manuel
Emergency Navigation in Confined Spaces Using Dynamic Grouping

The performance of Emergency Management Systems (EMS) in confined spaces is highly dependent on the decision algorithm employed for the safe navigation of the evacuees to the available exits. In the algorithm proposed in this paper, we have considered evacuees under two groups, based on their age and physical condition, and we tailor two routing metrics, one for each group, in finding suitable paths for the evacuees. A dynamic grouping mechanism that can adjust an evacuee's group, and therefore routing metric, according to its on-going health condition is employed during the evacuation. To implement the routing metrics, we have used the Cognitive Packet Network (CPN) with random neural networks (RNN) and reinforcement learning. The CPN is an adaptive routing protocol that is loop-free at all times and easily handles multiple quality of service (QoS) metrics. Simulation results show that allowing the navigation system to be sensitive to the on-going health conditions and mobility of the evacuees, using our proposed dynamic grouping, can achieve higher survival rates.
The Co-estimation of State of Charge, State of Health, and State of Function for Lithium-Ion Batteries in Electric Vehicles

This paper proposes a co-estimation scheme of state of charge (SOC), state of health (SOH), and state of function (SOF) for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. The co-estimation denotes that the SOC, SOH, and SOF are estimated simultaneously in real-time application. The model-based SOC estimation is fulfilled by the extended Kalman filter. The battery parameters related with the battery SOH and SOF are online identified using the recursive least square algorithm with a forgetting factor. The capacity and the maximum available output power are then estimated based on the identified parameters. The online update of the capacity and correlated parameters help improve the accuracy of the state estimation but with limited increase in the computation load, by making good use of the correlations among the states. The co-estimation scheme is validated in a real battery management system with good real-time performance and convincible estimation accuracy.
Oral immunization of mice with a live recombinant Yersinia enterocolitica O:9 strain that produces the cholera toxin B subunit

The 70-kilobase pYV plasmid of Yersinia enterocolitica encodes a set of proteins called Yops that are produced during infection. To use Y. enterocolitica as a live carrier to present the cholera toxin B (CT-B) subunit to the immune system, we constructed an operon fusion between ctxB and the yop51 gene. This operon fusion was either cloned on an RSF1010-derived plasmid or integrated into the pYV plasmid itself. In Y. enterocolitica, both constructions directed the synthesis of free CT-B only under conditions of Yops production, i.e., at 37 degrees C in a medium deprived of Ca2+. Bacteria containing both types of recombinant plasmids were given orally to mice. A serum antibody response against CT-B was detected in both cases. A secretory immunoglobulin A activity specific to CT-B was also observed in the intestinal secretions. According to immunoblot analysis, the serum antibody response was only directed against the polymeric form of the B subunit. The ctxB gene was also inserted in frame within yop51, giving a chimeric Yop51-CT-B protein that was secreted into the surrounding medium. In this case, however, no antibody response was observed after oral inoculation of mice. This lack of response probably results from the inability of the hybrid protein to assemble into the polymeric form of the B subunit.
Nonparametric Bayesian Line Detection - Towards Proper Priors for Robotic Computer Vision

In computer vision there are many sophisticated methods to perform inference over multiple lines, however they are quite ad-hoc. In this paper a fully Bayesian approach is used to fit multiple lines to a point cloud simultaneously. Our model extends a linear Bayesian regression model to an infinite mixture model and uses a Dirichlet process as a prior for the partition. We perform Gibbs sampling over non-unique parameters as well as over clusters to fit lines of a fixed length, a variety of orientations, and a variable number of data points. The performance is measured using the Rand Index, the Adjusted Rand Index, and two other clustering performance indicators. This paper is mainly meant to demonstrate that general Bayesian methods can be used for line estimation. Bayesian methods, namely, given a model and noise, perform optimal inference over the data. Moreover, rather than only demonstrating the concept as such, the first results are promising with respect to the described clustering performance indicators. Further research is required to extend the method to inference over multiple line segments and multiple volumetric objects that will need to be built on the mathematical foundation that has been laid down in this paper.
The Impact of an Internet Shopping Infomediary on Channel Competition with Multiple Brands

This paper builds a game-theoretic model to examine the impact of the Internet shopping infomediary on the competition between the product or service supplier’s direct online channel and the independent online multibrand retailer. It is found that by facilitating cross-channel competition, the infomediary may even help the supplier to place its brand on the retailer’s shelf. The main insight is that when competing with the supplier’s direct channel, the independent retailer may prefer to engage in inter-brand competition (i.e., to promote the competitive substitute brand). In this case, the retailer may decline to carry the supplier’s brand to avoid direct competition with the direct channel over the same brand. However, by joining an infomediary, the supplier can make its direct channel more competitive and limit the retailer’s strategic benefit from the inter-brand competition. This may increase the possibility that the retailer gives up the inter-brand competition and agrees to carry the supplier’s brand.
Characterization of humic substances in landfill leachate and impact on the hydraulic conductivity of geosynthetic clay liners

A detailed characterization was performed on the humic substances present in landfill leachate derived from the older (10-year) and younger (6-month) municipal landfill cells at a site in Inchion, Korea. The characterization focused on the humic and fulvic acid components of the leachate, relying on information gleaned from the UV/visible spectroscopy, molecular weight distribution, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The effect of the leachates, and specific components of the leachates, on the hydraulic conductivity of a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL), was evaluated. The humic acid extracted from the older leachate was composed primarily of high molecular weight and aromatic compounds, which is typical for humic acids. However, the humic acid extracted from the younger leachate showed characteristics more similar with fulvic acids, indicating that the younger humic acid was at the initial stage of humification. The hydraulic conductivity of the GCLs to the humic and fulvic acids of the older and younger leachate was similar to those permeated with the distilled deionized water (DI). However, the hydraulic conductivity of the samples tested with the raw leachate was more than 200 times the DI value. This fact suggests that cations present in leachate, rather than humic substances, are the key factor in the increase of the permeability.
The Influence of eHealth Literacy on Perceived Trust in Online Health Communication Channels and Sources

Disparities in online health information accessibility are partially due to varying levels of eHealth literacy and perceived trust. This study examined the relationship between eHealth literacy and perceived trust in online health communication channels and sources among diverse sociodemographic groups. A stratified sample of Black/African Americans (n = 402) and Caucasians (n = 409) completed a Web-based survey that measured eHealth literacy and perceived trustworthiness of online health communication channels and information sources. eHealth literacy positively predicted perceived trust in online health communication channels and sources, but disparities existed by sociodemographic factors. Segmenting audiences according to eHealth literacy level provides a detailed understanding of how perceived trust in discrete online health communication channels and information sources varies among diverse audiences. Black/African Americans with low eHealth literacy had high perceived trust in YouTube and Twitter, whereas Black/African Americans with high eHealth literacy had high perceived trust in online government and religious organizations. Older adults with low eHealth literacy had high perceived trust in Facebook but low perceived trust in online support groups. Researchers and practitioners should consider the sociodemographics and eHealth literacy level of an intended audience when tailoring information through trustworthy online health communication channels and information sources.
Analysis of Behavioral Disturbances Among Community-Dwelling Elderly With Alzheimer Disease

One hundred seven community-dwelling elderly patients with Alzheimer disease were enrolled in a study to evaluate the characteristics specific to the patients' and caregivers' situations that are associated with behavioral disturbances and to examine how these disturbances are related to caregiving stress. The frequencies of the disturbance were assessed by using the Troublesome Behavior Scale according to its three categories, agitation, hyperactivity, and miscellaneous. The patients' characteristics found to contribute most to their own behavioral disturbances were visual and speech function, activities of daily living, years of education, cognitive function, and sex, whereas the caregivers' characteristics contributing to these disturbances were duration of caregiving, age of caregiver, and relationship to the patient. In addition, a mutual relation among the three categories was found. Among the three categories, agitation was most strongly related to the caregivers' psychologic health status rated by use of the General Health Questionnaire. Behavioral disturbance as a whole was the only predictor of the patient's institutionalization within 2 years after baseline examination. Thus, behavioral disturbances were found to be influenced by the personal characteristics and situational circumstances of both the patient and caregiver, influencing, in turn, the caregivers' psychologic health status.