Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An MRF based technique for speckle reduction in SAR images

SAR images are affected by speckle that affects radiometric resolution and class discrimination capabilities. Recently, different speckle reduction techniques based on maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation have been proven to have very good performances. These techniques are based on the introduction of an a priori statistical model of the speckle free image to be estimated. We propose a MAP method using more than one sub-band filtered intensity images and a Markov random field (MRF) a priori model. The method has been experimented on simulated and real images
Randomized trials for the real world: making as few and as reasonable assumptions as possible

The strength of the randomized trial to yield conclusions not dependent on assumptions applies only in an ideal setting. In the real world various complications such as loss-to-follow-up, missing outcomes, noncompliance and nonrandom selection into a trial force a reliance on assumptions. To handle real world complications, it is desirable to make as few and as reasonable assumptions as possible. This article reviews four techniques for using a few reasonable assumptions to design or analyse randomized trials in the presence of specific real world complications: 1) a double sampling design for survival data to avoid strong assumptions about informative censoring, 2) sensitivity analysis for partially missing binary outcomes that uses the randomization to reduce the number of parameters specified by the investigator, 3) an estimate of the effect of treatment received in the presence of all-or-none compliance that requires reasonable assumptions, and 4) statistics for binary outcomes that avoid some assumptions for generalizing results to a target population.
Application of Four-Switch-Based Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverter to Connect Renewable Energy Source to a Generalized Unbalanced Microgrid System

In this paper, a four-power-semiconductor-switch-based three-phase inverter is proposed for renewable energy source integration to a generalized microgrid system. The proposed topology b-4 of three-phase inverter is investigated to make the commercial microgrid system to be cost effective and hardware optimized. A simple sine-pulse-width-modulation-based (SPWM) control strategy is proposed for the b-4 inverter topology instead of the traditional complex four-switch-based space vector techniques. The overall control structure is implemented using the Lyapunov function-based nonlinear controller to track the inverter current directly in the a-b-c frame so that a specific amount of active and reactive grid power flow to the grid can be controlled in a decoupled manner along with low total harmonic distortion of grid currents in the presence of nonlinear load at the point of common coupling (PCC). A novel technique of using the spatial repetitive controller (SRC) is also proposed to eliminate the effect of midpoint voltage fluctuation of the dc link even in the case of asymmetrically split dc-link capacitors without any extra voltage or current sensors unlike conventional methods. Detailed experimental results are provided to show the efficacy of the proposed hardware system for grid-connected applications in the microgrid.
Dataset Classification Combining Wide-coverage Lexical Resources and Text Features

In this paper we describe our participation in TASS 2017 shared task on polarity classification of Spanish tweets. For this task we built a classification model based on the Lingmotif Spanish lexicon, and combined this with a number of formal text features, both general and CMC-specific, as well as single-word keywords and n-gram keywords, achieving above-average results across all three datasets. We report the results of our experiments with different combinations of said feature sets and machine learning algorithms (logistic regression and SVM).
Caveolin 1-Mediated Regulation of Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Associated Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Activity by Ceramide

ABSTRACT Previous studies have indicated that proapoptotic stresses downregulate the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase [PI(3)K]/Akt survival pathway via the activation of acid-sphingomyelinase (A-SMase) and ceramide production. Ceramide induces apoptosis and inhibits PI(3)K activity without altering expression, association, or phosphorylation of receptors, adapter proteins, or PI(3)K subunits. PI(3)K inhibition by ceramide is associated with recruitment of caveolin 1 to PI(3)K-associated receptor complexes within lipid raft microdomains. Overexpression of caveolin 1 alone is sufficient to alter PI(3)K activity and sensitizes fibroblasts to ceramide-induced cell death. Most importantly, antisense expression of caveolin 1 dramatically reduces ceramide-induced PI(3)K deregulation and results in a loss-of-function stress response similar to that in A-SMase-deficient cells. Stress-induced recruitment of caveolin 1 to receptor complexes was found to be dependent on A-SMase since cell lines deficient in A-SMase did not exhibit caveolin 1 association with PI(3)K receptor complexes. Thus, a genetic link between A-SMase activation and caveolin 1-induced inhibition of PI(3)K activity exists. These results led us to propose that stress-induced changes in raft microdomains lead to altered receptor tyrosine kinase signal transduction through the modulation of caveolin 1 by ceramide.
Mechanisms Associated with Cellular Desiccation Tolerance in the Animal Extremophile Artemia

Using differential scanning calorimetry, we demonstrated the presence of biological glasses and measured the transition temperatures in dry encysted embryos (cysts) of the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. Cysts from the following three geographic locations were studied: San Francisco Bay (SFB); the Great Salt Lake, Utah (GSL); and the Mekong Delta, Vietnam (VN; these cysts were produced from previous sequential inoculations of SFB cysts into growth ponds). Values for the glass transition temperature, Tg, were highest in VN cysts. This study indicates that the composition and properties of these biological glasses can be altered by natural selection and thermal adaptation. To our knowledge, Tg values for all three kinds of cysts were significantly higher than those for any other desiccation-tolerant animal system. To gain insight into the significance of Tg, we examined the thermal stability of these dry cysts at 80°C. GSL cysts were the least tolerant, by far, with VN cysts being extremely tolerant and SFB cysts not far behind. Those results correlated with the thermal transition values. Also measured were alcohol-soluble carbohydrates, ∼90% of which is the disaccharide trehalose, a known component of biological glasses. Amounts in the GSL cysts were significantly less than those in the other two kinds of cysts. Several stress proteins were measured in the three groups of cysts, with all of them being in lesser amounts in GSL cysts compared with the SFB and VN cysts. We interpret the data in terms of mechanisms involved with desiccation tolerance and thermal conditions at the sites of cyst collection.
Transfusion policy: when to stop the use of extremely rare blood for an allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell transplant recipient with a history of red cell alloimmunization

BACKGROUND: Decisions for when to select, and when to discontinue, antigen‐negative blood in hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation (HPCT) recipients with red blood cell (RBC) antibodies can be confusing. In HPCT performed for sickle cell anemia patients who require extremely rare antigen‐negative blood, the balance of caution and practicality is further complicated.
The Enduring Employment Impact of Your Great Recession Location

This paper asks whether Americans were jobless in 2014 because of where they were living in 2007. In the cross section, employment rates diverged across U.S. local areas 2007-2009 and—in contrast to history—have barely converged. This “great divergence” could reflect spatial differences in human capital, rather than causal location effects. I therefore use administrative data to compare two million workers with very similar pre2007 human capital: those who in 2006 earned the same amount from the same retail firm, at establishments located in different local areas. I find that conditional on 2006 firm-x-wages fixed effects, living in 2007 in a below-median 2007-2009-fluctuation area caused those workers to have a 1.3%-lower 2014 employment rate. Hence, U.S. local labor markets are limitedly integrated: location has caused long-term joblessness and exacerbated within-skill inequality. The enduring impact is not explained by enduringly high unemployment, more layoffs, more disability enrollment, or reduced migration. Instead, the employment outcomes of cross-area movers are consistent with severe fluctuation areas continuing to depress residents’ labor force participation. Impacts are correlated with housing busts but not manufacturing busts, possibly reconciling current experience with history. If recent trends continue, employment rates are estimated to remain diverged into the 2020s—adding up to over a relative lost decade for half the country. Employment models should allow market-wide shocks to cause persistent labor force exit, leaving employment depressed even after unemployment recovers.
Subtyping Listeria monocytogenes isolates genetically related to the Swiss epidemic clone

Macrorestriction analysis by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was used to assess the diversity of strains within the epidemic-associated electrophoretic type 1 (ET1) clone of Listeria monocytogenes. For this purpose, a total of 144 isolates from Switzerland shown by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis to belong to the ET1 were examined. These isolates were subtyped by macrorestriction analysis using the enzymes ApaI and SmaI and field inversion gel electrophoresis. Among these 144 isolates, 45 were isolated in human listeriosis cases of the postepidemic period of 1988 to 1993 and 44 were isolated in animal listeriosis cases of the same period. Forty-seven isolates were from the epidemic period of 1983 to 1987, and eight additional isolates were from cattle from two different farms. Twenty-nine different subtypes could be identified among the 144 isolates tested. Five major subtypes were found more frequently than the others during the postepidemic period, both in humans and in animals. Two of these subtypes had been previously implicated in outbreaks of listeriosis, thus suggesting that particular pulsed-field gel electrophoresis subtypes may be frequently associated with disease in humans and animals. Two of these frequent subtypes were also suspected to be related to small clusters of listeriosis cases during the postepidemic period. The results obtained by typing epidemiologically related isolates from different animals within the same farms and from different body sites of a given patient confirmed the potential of macrorestriction analysis for epidemiological studies restricted to short periods of time and to small number of isolates. The analysis of 47 isolates related to the Swiss listeriosis epidemic period of 1983 to 1987 and the use of Southern blotting and hybridization experiments show that the interpretation of relatedness between isolates presenting slightly different macrorestriction patterns may be more complex than commonly accepted. In such cases, careful interpretation of the potential molecular mechanisms leading to the differences observed between patterns is necessary.
Disruption in Platform‐Based Ecosystems

We study intergenerational platform-technology transitions as instances of potentially disruptive innovation at the ecosystem level. Examining the launch of 12 platform technologies in the U.S. videogame industry covering three console generations from 1993 until 2010, we show that incumbents introducing next-generation platform technologies with advanced capabilities increase the challenges of developing complements for the platform technology, steepening complementors’ learning curves and disrupting the very same complementors that platform owners need to thrive in the next-generation competition. We find that, because of these struggles, platforms with advanced capabilities but high complement-development challenges show a pattern of defection of complementors toward rival, less challenging platforms. Our study extends mainstream disruptive-innovation theory to the context of platform-based ecosystems by offering a systemic view that accounts for disaffection on the part of technology complementors—rather than end users—as the main reason for disruption.
Liver iron content assessment by routine and simple magnetic resonance imaging procedure in highly transfused patients

Abstract: Background: Liver iron content (LIC) assessment by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is validated but not standardized. In a single center, we tried to assess the accuracy of a specific, simple MRI procedure adapted to high LIC from a well‐established simple and routine procedure known to quantify LIC. Methods: In 27 cases of monthly transfused patients, we compared biochemical values of LIC assessed on liver biopsy specimens and results obtained by two signal intensity ratio of gradient echo imaging (R2*) MRI protocols. The first was Gandon's routine procedure previously validated in liver disease and the second, our own method, was an addition of a gradient echo sequence specifically adapted to high LIC encountered in hematology practice. Results: Twenty‐seven liver biopsies were performed in 18 adult patients (myelodysplastic syndrome = 5, β‐thalassemia = 13). LIC by biopsy ranged from 1.4 to 54 mg/g liver dry weight (mg/g dw) (median 9.4 mg/g dw). Correlation between LIC by biopsy and by MRI with Gandon's procedure was good (R = 0.80) in patients with LIC falling within the range reported by Gandon. By contrast, a weak correlation was demonstrated (R = 0.52) in patients with high LIC (above 11.2 mg/g dw). With our sequences, the correlation was good both in the entire group of patients (R = 0.83) and in patients with LIC above 11.2 mg/g dw (R = 0.85). Conclusion: Our results suggest that the addition of a specific shorter‐gradient echo sequence to a very simple, fast technique produces an accurate estimation of LIC in post‐transfusional iron overload.
Effect of the size of yeast flocs and zinc supplementation on continuous ethanol fermentation performance and metabolic flux distribution under very high concentration conditions

Taking continuous ethanol fermentation with the self‐flocculating yeast SPSC01 under very high concentration conditions as an example, the fermentation performance of the yeast flocs and their metabolic flux distribution were investigated by controlling their average sizes at 100, 200, and 300 µm using the focused beam reflectance online measurement system. In addition, the impact of zinc supplementation was evaluated for the yeast flocs at the size of 300 µm grown in presence or absence of 0.05 g L−1 zinc sulfate. Among the yeast flocs with different sizes, the group with the average size of 300 µm exhibited highest ethanol production (110.0 g L−1) and glucose uptake rate (286.69 C mmol L−1 h−1), which are in accordance with the increased flux from pyruvate to ethanol and decreased flux to glycerol. And in the meantime, zinc supplementation further increased ethanol production and cell viability comparing with the control. Zinc addition enhanced the carbon fluxes to the biosynthesis of ergosterol (28.6%) and trehalose (43.3%), whereas the fluxes towards glycerol, protein biosynthesis, and tricarboxylic acid cycle significantly decreased by 37.7%, 19.5%, and 27.8%, respectively. This work presents the first report on the regulation of metabolic flux by the size of yeast flocs and zinc supplementation, which provides the potential for developing engineering strategy to optimize the fermentation system. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;105: 935–944. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Malmö diet and cancer study: representativity, cancer incidence and mortality in participants and non‐participants

In order to investigate potential selection bias in population‐based cohort studies, participants (n = 28 098) and non‐participants (n = 40 807) in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDCS) were compared with regard to cancer incidence and mortality. MDCS participants were also compared with participants in a mailed health survey with regard to subjective health, socio‐demographic characteristics and lifestyle. Cancer incidence prior to recruitment was lower in non‐participants, Cox proportional hazards analysis yielded a relative risk (RR) with a 95% confidence interval of 0.95 (0.90–1.00), compared with participants. During recruitment, cancer incidence was higher in non‐participants, RR: 1.08 (1.01–1.17). Mortality was higher in non‐participants both during, 3.55 (3.13–4.03), and following the recruitment period, 2.21 (2.03–2.41). The proportion reporting good health was higher in the MDCS than in the mailed health survey (where 74.6% participated), but the socio‐demographic structure was similar. We conclude that mortality is higher in non‐participants than in participants during recruitment and follow‐up. It is also suggested that non‐participants may have a lower cancer incidence prior to recruitment but a higher incidence during the recruitment period.
A Comparative Performance Evaluation Between Large-Cap and Mid-Cap Mutual Fund Returns

In Indian capital market provide various investment avenues to the investors, to help them to invest in various industries and ensure the profitable return. Among various financial products, a mutual fund ensures minimum risks and maximum return to the investor. Mutual fund industry has grown extensively in the last five years and has become a popular mode of investment. There are umpteen numbers of schemes available to the investor based on capitalisation of the company such as large cap, mid cap and micro cap funds. This study attempts to measures the risk adjusted performance of large cap and mid cap funds based on several parameters and know which fund has performed better and led to better wealth creation for an investor in the last five years. For this purpose, five different Asset Management Companies have been chosen for the study and under each Asset Management Company, two funds- one large cap fund and one midcap fund have been studied. Based on the study conducted , it is clear that Mid cap funds have shown better performance than Large cap funds in the last five years and it is likely that the same trend will continue in the next five years. Keywords: Large-cap and Mid-cap mutual funds, Absolute returns, Performance, Risk.
Application of Bandwidth EMD and Adaptive Multiscale Morphology Analysis for Incipient Fault Diagnosis of Rolling Bearings

This paper presents a novel signal processing scheme, bandwidth empirical mode decomposition, and adaptive multiscale morphological analysis (BEMD-AMMA) for early fault diagnosis of rolling bearings. In this scheme, we propose a bandwidth based method to select the best envelope interpolation method. First, multiple envelope algorithms are defined and separately subtracted from the original data to obtain the preintrinsic mode functions (PIMFs). Second, an IMF with the smallest frequency bandwidth is selected to be the optimal IMF (OIMF). Third, this OIMF is subtracted from the original signal, and then repeat the sifting process until the residual is a constant or monotonic. Since the OIMF has the smallest frequency bandwidth, the mode mixing phenomenon can be significantly weakened. After that the OIMFs with clear fault information are used to construct the main component of the original signal. Then, the AMMA is introduced to demodulate the constructed main component. Simulation and experimental vibration signals are employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results show that the proposed method outperforms EMD-AMMA, ensemble empirical mode decomposition-AMMA, and generalized empirical mode decomposition-empirical envelope demodulation in detecting early inner race fault.
Elite Investments in Party Institutionalization in New Democracies: A Two-Dimensional Approach

This article conceptualizes party institutionalization and theorizes the conditions under which party elites invest in institutionalized parties in new democracies. We specify routinization and value infusion as two central dimensions of party institutionalization and theorize conditions relevant for party institutionalization across three central spheres: the party system, the state, and society. Constructing measures for routinization and value infusion based on expert survey data, we test our framework through multivariate regression models across parties in 18 Latin American democracies. As theoretically expected, some conditions (access to executive office, a party’s formative environment, and group ties) significantly relate to both dimensions, while others (party system polarization and fragmentation, permanent state subsidies, and legislative office) relate to one dimension only. This highlights the multidimensionality of party institutionalization as a phenomenon and the complexity of the empirical conditions associated with it.
Redonner du contrôle aux usagers : évaluation des effets d’une intervention comportementale sur la réduction du gaspillage en restauration collective

Dans la presente etude, la theorie du comportement planifie (TCP) a ete mobilisee afin de mettre en place et evaluer une intervention comportementale visant a reduire le gaspillage alimentaire dans un restaurant d’entreprise. S’appuyant sur un plan quasi-experimental, deux questionnaires ont permis de mesurer les motivations personnelles de 216 participants, avant et apres l’intervention. Les reponses ont ete reliees aux comportements observes et a une mesure du controle reel. Nos resultats valident l’efficacite de l’action mise en œuvre avec une reduction du gaspillage de l’ordre de 20%. Par ailleurs, notre etude soutient l’utilite de la TCP pour modeliser des comportements, mais font apparaitre des faiblesses dans sa capacite a expliquer des evolutions : en particulier, la relation entre l’evolution du controle percu et du comportement.
Urban/rural differences in prevalence and risk factors for intestinal helminth infection in southern Malawi

Urbanization may increase the risk of human infection with intestinal helminths. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence, intensity and potential risk factors of acquiring such infection, among children aged 3–14 years in similar urban and rural communities in southern Malawi. Stool samples were collected from 553 children (273 urban and 280 rural). The overall prevalence of helminth infection was significantly higher in the urban subjects than in the rural (16.5% v. 3.6%; P<0.001), mostly because of differences in the prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides infection. Living in an urban community was associated with a significantly higher risk of infection [odds ratio (OR)=5.3; 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.6–12.1], even after controlling for potential confounding factors. In the urban community, risk factors included having pools of water/sewage around houses (OR=3.0; CI=1.4–6.5), not wearing shoes (OR=7.1; CI=2.7–19.2), not attending school (OR=2.8; CI=1.2–6.5), having mothers with 4–8 years of education (OR=5.2; CI=2.0–14.0), and having mothers below 35 years of age (OR=4.09; CI=1.39–16.28). In this part of Africa, efforts to reduce helminth infections may best be focused on reducing geohelminth burden in urban areas.