Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sclera recognition: on the quality measure and segmentation of degraded images captured under relaxed imaging conditions

The authors propose a new method for sclera quality measure and segmentation under relaxed imaging constraints. In particular, for sclera image, they propose a new quality measure approach based on a focus measure. In addition, they propose a new fusion method for sclera segmentation which uses pixel properties of both the sclera area and the skin around the eye. Furthermore, sclera template rotation alignment and distance scaling methods are proposed to minimise the error rates when noisy eye images are captured at-a-distance and on-the-move, together with overcoming head pose rotation. Then, a performance analysis on exploited eye images using the Excellent, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (EGBU) classification technique for image quality is used to evaluate system performance. Eye images captured under relaxed imaging constraints using four camera devices within the UBIRIS.v2 and MICHE mobile databases are utilised to evaluate the proposed sclera recognition system, with the UBIRIS.v1 database as a reference. Results in terms of sclera image quality measure and sclera segmentation are promising and describe the effect and challenges of using relaxed imaging conditions on sclera recognition system.
Histopathology of chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology in Salvadoran agricultural communities.

INTRODUCTION For at least a decade, a chronic kidney disease unassociated with diabetes mellitus, hypertension or any of the more common traditional causes, has been reported in Salvadoran agricultural communities. OBJECTIVE Characterize histopathology of chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology in patients from Salvadoran agricultural communities, describe renal damage associated with each disease stage, and assess associations between histopathological alterations and sociodemographic variables. METHODS The study involved 46 patients of both sexes, aged =18 years. After clinical, laboratory and imaging examinations, kidney biopsies were performed and renal tissue assessed for interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, interstitial inflammatory infiltration, sclerosis, increase in glomerular size and extraglomerular vascular lesions (according to the Banff 97 classification used for kidney transplant rejection). Special staining was done: Schiff periodic acid, Masson trichrome and methenamine silver. Immunofluorescence techniques were used to evaluate IgA, IgG, IgM, complement C1q and C3, fibrin, and kappa and lambda light chain deposits. RESULTS The main findings were interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy with or without inflammatory monocyte infiltration. In addition, generalized sclerosis, increased glomerular size, collapse of some glomerular tufts, and lesions of extraglomerular blood vessels (such as intimal proliferation and thickening and vacuolization of the tunica media) were observed. Interstitial fibrosis and glomerulosclerosis were associated with male sex. Sugarcane workers showed more interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy and less glomerulomegaly than other occupational groups. CONCLUSION The morphological pattern in all biopsies was one of chronic tubulointerstitial nephropathy with secondary glomerular and vascular damage, in different stages of evolution of chronic kidney disease, independent of age, sex or occupation.
Changes in the hypophysial-gonadal axis during the onset of puberty in young bulls.

The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of changes in concentrations of testosterone, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) concentrations in blood plasma and to characterize the respective plasma-binding proteins of these two peptides during the onset of puberty in male calves. The jugular veins of six male Holstein calves (11-weeks-old) were catheterized and blood was collected every 3 days (one sample every 30 min for 8 h). Hormone concentrations in plasma were determined by specific radioimmunoassay. After incubation with [125I]IGF-I, IGF-I-binding proteins (IGFBPs) were separated by gel filtration; radioactivity was determined in each fraction. Western ligand blotting using radiolabelled hormones as ligand was also used to characterize the IGF-I- and GH-binding proteins in plasma. Puberty was characterized by a rapid (in 1 or 2 days) increase in mean concentrations of testosterone in plasma (from 0.5 to > 2 ng ml-1) and a pulsatile release of the hormone. During puberty, IGF-I concentrations also increased rapidly in 8-10 days from +/- 50 ng ml-1 to > 150 ng ml-1, whereas concentrations of GH in plasma remained relatively stable during the experimental period. A significant correlation was observed between IGF-I and testosterone concentrations (r = 0.77; P < 0.001) throughout the experimental period. Three different IGF-I-binding protein fractions with apparent molecular masses of > 200, 150-170 and 45-65 kDa were found in plasma using gel filtration. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Serum Lipids and Lipoproteins in Insulin-dependent Diabetic Subjects During High-Carbohydrate, High-Fiber Diet

The response of blood glucose and serum lipids and lipoproteins to a high-carbohydrate, high-fiber, low-fat diet was assessed in 10 insulin-dependent diabetic subjects. The diet contained approximately 60% of calories as carbohydrate (CHO) and 20% as fat. The patients were followed for 2 wk in a metabolic ward and subsequently for 4 wk at home without changing insulin dosage. During this 6-wk period, the fasting blood glucose fell from 10.6 ± 1.1 to 8.9 ± 1.3 mmol/L (NS); HbA1 fell from 11.7 ± 0.5 to 11.0 ± 0.7% (P < 0.05). Serum total triglyceride and very-low-density lipoprotein levels remained unchanged. After 2 wk in the ward on a high-CHO diet, total cholesterol fell by 15% (P < 0.01), LDL cholesterol by 16% (P < 0.001), and HDL cholesterol by 10% (P < 0.05). The fall of HDL cholesterol was due to a decrease of HDL3 cholesterol only. After the 4-wk home period on a high-CHO diet, the observed lipoprotein changes were reversed. Heparin-releasable adipose tissue LPL activity was not influenced by a high-CHO diet. In conclusion, a high-carbohydrate, high-fiber, low-fat diet did not deteriorate the diabetic control, and it had no unfavorable effects on serum lipids or lipoproteins.
Estimating Plasmodium falciparum Transmission Rates in Low-Endemic Settings Using a Combination of Community Prevalence and Health Facility Data

As some malaria control programs shift focus from disease control to transmission reduction, there is a need for transmission data to monitor progress. At lower levels of transmission, it becomes increasingly more difficult to measure precisely, for example through entomological studies. Many programs conduct regular cross sectional parasite prevalence surveys, and have access to malaria treatment data routinely collected by ministries of health, often in health management information systems. However, by themselves, these data are poor measures of transmission. In this paper, we propose an approach for combining annual parasite incidence and treatment data with cross-sectional parasite prevalence and treatment seeking survey data to estimate the incidence of new infections in the human population, also known as the force of infection. The approach is based on extension of a reversible catalytic model. The accuracy of the estimates from this model appears to be highly dependent on levels of detectability and treatment in the community, indicating the importance of information on private sector treatment seeking and access to effective and appropriate treatment.
Optimal Shape Design of a Two-dimensional Asymmetric Diffsuer in Turbulent Flow

An optimal shape of two-dimensional asymmetric diffuser in turbulent flow with maximum pressure recovery at the exit is numerically obtained using a mathematical theory. The Reynolds number based on the bulk mean velocity and the channel height at the diffuser entrance is 18,000 . The optimality condition for maximum pressure recovery is obtained to be zero skin friction along the diffuser wall. The turbulent flow inside the diffuser is predicted using the 2 k v f ε − − − model and optimal shapes are obtained through iterative procedures to satisfy the optimality condition for six different geometric constraints. For one of the optimal diffuser shapes obtained, large eddy simulation is carried out to validate the result of shape design. Keyword: optimal shape design, maximum pressure recovery, zero skin friction.
The Performance of a Grammar Checker with Deviant Language Input

This paper reports on an evaluation performed on the Grammar Checker for Norwegian (NGC), developed at The Text Laboratory, University of Oslo. The ability of the NGC to find errors made by different "non-standard" linguistic groups is analysed and compared to its performance when tested on texts written by "standard" users. Then possible ways of adapting the NGC for use on deviant language input are discussed.
Endogenous arginine vasopressin–positive retinal cells in arginine vasopressin–eGFP transgenic rats identified by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction

Purpose Recently, arginine vasopressin (AVP) has been revealed to have diverse functional roles in nervous tissues beyond that of a vasoconstrictor. Several previous studies have indicated the existence of AVP in the retina, but the source of AVP has not been determined. The objective of the present study was to address the question of whether retinal cells have the ability to synthesize endogenous AVP to act in a paracrine or autocrine manner. Methods We used AVP-eGFP transgenic rats to find endogenous AVP-positive cells in the retina by immunohistochemistry with an AVP antibody and a GFP antibody. We also examined AVP mRNA and AVP receptor genes by reverse transcriptase (RT)–PCR of dissociated GFP-positive cells and whole retinas. Results Endogenous AVP-positive cells were found in the ganglion cell layer and inner nuclear layer of the retina of AVP-eGFP transgenic rats by immunohistochemistry. As indicated by the results of RT–PCR of dissociated GFP-positive cells, these cells have the ability to synthesize endogenous AVP, as well as transgenic AVP-eGFP. In addition, the V1a and V1b AVP receptors were found in the wild-type rat retina by whole retina RT–PCR, but the V2 receptor was not detectable. In dissociated AVP-eGFP-positive cells, no AVP receptor was detected by RT–PCR. Moreover, AVP secretion was not detected by stimulation with a high potassium (50 mM) solution. Conclusions In the rat retina, we found retinal cells that have the ability to synthesize endogenous AVP, and that the retina possesses V1a and V1b AVP receptors. Taken together, these results suggest that the retina has an intrinsic AVP-synthesizing and -receiving mechanism that can operate in a paracrine manner via V1a and V1b receptors.
Ultra-dense edge caching under spatio-temporal demand and network dynamics

This paper investigates a cellular edge caching design under an extremely large number of small base stations (SBSs) and users. In this ultra-dense edge caching network (UDCN), SBS-user distances shrink, and each user can request a cached content from multiple SBSs. Unfortunately, the complexity of existing caching controls' mechanisms increases with the number of SBSs, making them inapphcable for solving the fundamental caching problem: How to maximize local caching gain while minimizing the replicated content caching? Furthermore, spatial dynamics of interference is no longer negligible in UDCNs due to the surge in interference. In addition, the caching control should consider temporal dynamics of user demands. To overcome such difficulties, we propose a novel caching algorithm weaving together notions of mean-field game theory and stochastic geometry. These enable our caching algorithm to become independent of the number of SBSs and users, while incorporating spatial interference dynamics as well as temporal dynamics of content popularity and storage constraints. Numerical evaluation validates the fact that the proposed algorithm reduces not only the long run average cost by at least 24% but also the number of replicated content by 56% compared to a popularity-based algorithm.
Speech Bandwidth Extension Using Recurrent Temporal Restricted Boltzmann Machines

In this paper, we present a new speech bandwidth extension method (BWE) using recurrent temporal restricted Boltzmann machine (RTRBM). The conventional Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based and deep neural networks (DNNs)-based BWE methods perform stably and effectively. However, the mapping function of GMM-based methods is a piecewise linear transformation, which is insufficient to model the complex nonlinear mapping relationship between the spectral envelope features of low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF). In the conventional DNNs methods, temporal correlations across speech frames are ignored, resulting in spectral detail loss of the reconstructed speech by BWE. To counter these issues, a multilayer DNN which is composed of two RTRBMs and a feedforward neural network (NN) is employed to obtain time information and model deep nonlinear relationships between the spectral envelope features of LF and HF. The proposed method takes advantage of the strong ability of RTRBM in discovering the temporal correlation in the high-order space and modeling deep nonlinear relationships between input and output. Both the objective and subjective evaluations indicate that our proposed method outperforms the conventional GMM-based methods and other NN-based methods.
Hypothalamic regulation of female sexual behaviour; establishment of behavioural oestrus in spayed guinea-pigs following hypothalamic lesions.

Individual characteristics of sexual behaviour were empirically determined for twenty-seven spayed female guinea-pigs given three standardized tests after injection with 0 034 mg ofoestradiol benzoate and, 36 hr later, 0-4 mg of progesterone. Following this pre¬ operative series of tests, hypothalamic lesions were produced electrolytically at different loci with various parameters of current duration and intensity. Alterations in the patterns of sexual behaviour displayed on three postoperative tests with identical hormonal treatments were evaluated statistically for each individual. Posteroventral hypothalamic lesions involving mammillary and premammillary structures were not associated with significant behavioural changes (JV equals 4). Mid-ventral lesions were associated with altera¬ tions in response patterns in all but two animals. The behavioural changes were not correlated with size of lesions. Nine females with complete behavioural losses failed to display any signs of receptivity postoperatively. Ten showed statistically significant but incomplete losses in one or more of the components comprising the pattern of sexual behaviour, and two females displayed behavioural oestrus post¬ operatively in the absence of exogenous hormone. Lesions in females with behavioural oestrus appear to be more anterior and possibly more medial than those which eliminate sexual behaviour. Uteri of behavioural-oestrous females were atrophie suggesting that no oestrogen
Studies on the Symmetry and Sequence Context Dependence of the HIV-1 Proteinase Specificity*

Two major types of cleavage sites with different sequence preferences have been proposed for the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proteinase. To understand the nature of these sequence preferences better, single and multiple amino acid substitutions were introduced into a type 1 cleavage site peptide, thus changing it to a naturally occurring type 2 cleavage site sequence. Our results indicated that the previous classification of the retroviral cleavage sites may not be generally valid and that the preference for a residue at a particular position in the substrate depends strongly on the neighboring residues, including both those at the same side and at the opposite side of the peptide backbone of the substrate. Based on these results, pseudosymmetric (palindromic) substrates were designed. The retroviral proteinases are symmetrical dimers of two identical subunits; however, the residues of naturally occurring cleavage sites do not show symmetrical arrangements, and no obvious symmetrical substrate preference has been observed for the specificity of HIV proteinase. To examine the role of the asymmetry created by the peptide bonds on the specificity of the respective primed and nonprimed halves of the binding site, amino acid substitutions were introduced into a palindromic sequence. In general, the results suggested that the asymmetry does not result in substantial differences in specificity of the S3 and S3′ subsites, whereas its effect is more pronounced for the S2 and S2′ subsites. Although it was possible to design several good palindromic substrates, asymmetrical arrangements may be preferred by the HIV proteinase.
Age-appropriate feeding practices and nutritional status of infants attending child welfare clinic at a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria

Background: Appropriate infant feeding is the key to optimum infant and child development and survival. This study investigates age-appropriate infant feeding practices and nutritional status of infants attending the immunization and child welfare clinic at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: Using a cross-sectional descriptive design, a sample of 300 sets of infants (age ≤12 months) and caregivers was systematically selected and studied. The data were analyzed using the MINITAB® 12.21 (USA) statistical software. Results: All the infants studied were still on breast milk. Most of the mothers demonstrated correct body positioning (89.9) and attachment (78.7%) during breastfeeding, and effective suckling was demonstrated in 77.0%. Interestingly, none of the infants was either exclusively breastfed for 6 months or currently on exclusive breastfeeding. Furthermore, only 64 (58.2%) of the 110 infants that were more than 6 months of age had appropriately been started on complementary feeding from 6 months of age. Overall, most caregivers (88.7%) had “fair” to “good” infant feeding practices. The practices were significantly associated with their level of education, and their relationship with the infants. Up to 40.0% and 73.7% of the infants had varying degrees of wasting and stunting respectively. Infant feeding practices and the age of the infants emerged as the only factors significantly associated with stunting, while both the caregivers’ practices and age of the infants emerged as significant predictors of wasting in the infants. Conclusion and Recommendations: Barely 3 years to the 2015 target of the millennium development goals (MDGs), infant feeding and nutritional status still poses a serious threat to the dream of realizing the MDG-4. The Ministry of Health and relevant developing partners in this region should as a matter of urgency, formulate and implement a strong community-based public health intervention program to improve the knowledge and practices of mothers on infant feeding.
Voluntary Association Membership in Fifteen Countries : a Comparative Analysis

We test the hypothesis, dating from the work of Weber and Tocqueville, that Americans are more likely to become involved in voluntary associations than people of other nations. Compared to previous work, we employ more recent data and consider more countries. We also examine several different measures of membership levels : all memberships versus working memberships as well as membership including and excluding church or union memberships. Cross-national differences are examined before and after controls for education, employment status, size of community, gender, marital status, and age. Results show Americans at or near the top on most measures of membership, although this ranking drops significantly when church membership is excluded and drops even further when only working memberships are examined. In these instances, people from several countries, including Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, equal or surpass the membership levels of Americans, especially when controls are introduced. Some alternative intepretations of the cross-national differences in voluntary association activity are considered
Impact of anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur deposition on ocean acidification and the inorganic carbon system

Fossil fuel combustion and agriculture result in atmospheric deposition of 0.8 Tmol/yr reactive sulfur and 2.7 Tmol/yr nitrogen to the coastal and open ocean near major source regions in North America, Europe, and South and East Asia. Atmospheric inputs of dissociation products of strong acids (HNO3 and H2SO4) and bases (NH3) alter surface seawater alkalinity, pH, and inorganic carbon storage. We quantify the biogeochemical impacts by using atmosphere and ocean models. The direct acid/base flux to the ocean is predominately acidic (reducing total alkalinity) in the temperate Northern Hemisphere and alkaline in the tropics because of ammonia inputs. However, because most of the excess ammonia is nitrified to nitrate (NO3−) in the upper ocean, the effective net atmospheric input is acidic almost everywhere. The decrease in surface alkalinity drives a net air–sea efflux of CO2, reducing surface dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC); the alkalinity and DIC changes mostly offset each other, and the decline in surface pH is small. Additional impacts arise from nitrogen fertilization, leading to elevated primary production and biological DIC drawdown that reverses in some places the sign of the surface pH and air–sea CO2 flux perturbations. On a global scale, the alterations in surface water chemistry from anthropogenic nitrogen and sulfur deposition are a few percent of the acidification and DIC increases due to the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2. However, the impacts are more substantial in coastal waters, where the ecosystem responses to ocean acidification could have the most severe implications for mankind.
Instrument recognition in accompanied sonatas and concertos

A system for musical instrument recognition is introduced. In contrast to most existing systems, it can identify a solo instrument even in the presence of an accompanying keyboard instrument or orchestra. To enable recognition in the presence of a highly polyphonic background, we use features based solely on the partials of the target tone. The approach is based on the assumption that it is possible to extract the most prominent fundamental frequency and the corresponding harmonic overtone series, and that these most often belong to the solo instrument. Classification is carried out using a Gaussian classifier trained on examples of monophonic music. Testing our system on accompanied sonatas and concertos we achieved a recognition rate of 86% for 5 different instruments, an accuracy comparable to that of systems limited to monophonic music only.