Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of intersubject variability in activation: An application to the incidental episodic retrieval during recognition test

Since the brain may engage different neuronal systems for a single behavioral goal, activation may show intersubject variability expressed in the systematic recruitment of multiple distinct networks. We apply a principal component analysis (PCA) to activation over task conditions and subjects to reveal cortical networks that may underlie this intersubject variability. Normal subjects were presented with novel meaningless objects, which appeared in personally familiar or unfamiliar places. During a subsequent, event‐related functional MRI (fMRI) experiment, each subject was presented with learned or novel objects in isolation and performed a learned/novel judgment. Recollection of places was not essential for the task, and may exhibit large intersubject variations. The right posterodorsal posterior cingulate cortex (pPCC) and left retrosplenial cortex, whose involvement in place‐recognition has been previously established, were selected as regions of interest for the PCA. Neural responses to objects associated with familiar relative to unfamiliar places in pPCC, but not in the retrosplenial cortex, were negatively correlated with task‐related activation (common over all objects) in the right anterolateral prefrontal cortex and the left intraparietal sulcus. The latter areas have been implicated previously in cognitive control and object recognition, respectively. These results suggest right prefrontal control over neural processes both in the left parietal cortex, related to object‐recognition (enhancement), and pPCC, related to nonessential recollection of place‐memory (suppression), but not in the retrosplenial cortex, related to the sense of familiarity. This analysis revealed an important aspect of functional anatomy that was not detectable using a conventional analysis of average activations. Hum. Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Important differences in management policies for children with end-stage renal disease in the Netherlands and Belgium--report from the RICH-Q study.

BACKGROUND The low prevalence of childhood end-stage renal disease and the small centre sizes have been a barrier for clinical studies and the development of evidence-based guidelines for chronic renal replacement therapy (cRRT) in children. Few data exist on the quality of care for these patients and the applicability of existing guidelines. The aim of this study is to quantify variation in treatment policies and actually delivered care in nine centres that deliver cRRT for children. METHODS We surveyed treatment policies in all nine centres in the Netherlands and Belgium and compared them with the actually provided therapies and with recommendations from available guidelines. Data on treatment policies were gathered by questionnaires; actually provided care and outcomes were registered prospectively from 2007 to 2010. RESULTS Data on policies and actual patient care were obtained from all nine centres. We found relevant differences between centres in treatment policies on various topics, e.g. estimated glomerular filtration rate threshold as an indication for initiation of cRRT, preferred initial mode of cRRT, peritoneal dialysis catheter care, haemodialysis frequency and vascular access. Discrepancies were seen between stated treatment policies and actual performed therapies. For the majority of policies, no evidence-based guidelines are available. CONCLUSIONS Health care disparities exist due to large and unwanted variation in treatment policies between hospitals providing cRRT for children. Delivered care does not live up to stated policies, for which clear and internationally accepted guidelines are lacking.
Towards Quranic reader controlled by speech

In this paper we describe the process of designing a task-oriented continuous speech recognition system for Arabic, based on CMU Sphinx4, to be used in the voice interface of Quranic reader. The concept of the Quranic reader controlled by speech is presented, the collection of the corpus and creation of acoustic model are described in detail taking into account a specificities of Arabic language and the desired application.
Digitally assisted EMI-reduction techniques for Class-D amplifiers with digital control

Class-D amplifiers are known for their excellent efficiency but also for their high potential to produce electromagnetic interference (EMI). Typically Class-D amplifiers operate in the analog domain, but there is a clear trend to replace some of the functionality by digital circuitry, requiring new approaches to reduce their emissions. In this paper a prototype of a digitally controlled Class-D amplifier is used to present digital techniques to reduce EMI with various methods. A new method is realized and the advantages of digitally assisted EMI reduction methods are demonstrated. Measurement results show that a considerable (up to 17.8 dB) reduction of EMI is possible taking advantage of digitally assisted EMI reduction techniques while delivering state-of-the art audio performance.
A Novel Volume Constrained Smoothing Method for Meshes

In general, mesh smoothing is performed by minimizing the discrete energy function for the surface. One of the major problems in mesh smoothing is to prevent the mesh from shrinking. In this paper, we propose a novel volume constraint to address the shrinking problem in mesh smoothing. Our key observation is that the mesh can be efficiently smoothed patch by patch in a signal processing manner, and then a local volume preserving constraint can be easily imposed to the energy minimization problem associated with the small patch, called the smoothing stencil, so as to effectively avoid the mesh shrinkage. In our implementation, the smoothing stencil is the 1-ring neighboring region of an edge or a triangle. And the constrained minimization problem is solved by a 2-step approximation method for efficiency. A series of examples demonstrate that the proposed smoothing method can be applied to remove noise from a mesh or remove rough detail from an original mesh to generate a smooth model in object reconstruction and geometry modeling.
Bag-of-Genres for Video Genre Retrieval

This paper presents a higher level representation for videos aiming at video genre retrieval. In video genre retrieval, there is a challenge that videos may comprise multiple categories, for instance, news videos may be composed of sports, documentary, and action. Therefore, it is interesting to encode the distribution of such genres in a compact and effective manner. We propose to create a visual dictionary using a genre classifier. Each visual word in the proposed model corresponds to a region in the classification space determined by the classifier's model learned on the training frames. Therefore, the video feature vector contains a summary of the activations of each genre in its contents. We evaluate the bag-of-genres model for video genre retrieval, using the dataset of MediaEval Tagging Task of 2012. Results show that the proposed model increases the quality of the representation being more compact than existing features.
A New Approach of Minimizing Commutation Torque Ripple for Brushless DC Motor Based on DC–DC Converter

Brushless dc motor still suffers from commutation torque ripple, which mainly depends on speed and transient line current in the commutation interval. This paper presents a novel circuit topology and a dc link voltage control strategy to keep incoming and outgoing phase currents changing at the same rate during commutation. A dc-dc single-ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) and a switch selection circuit are employed in front of the inverter. The desired commutation voltage is accomplished by the SEPIC converter. The dc link voltage control strategy is carried out by the switch selection circuit to separate two procedures, adjusting the SEPIC converter and regulating speed. The cause of commutation ripple is analyzed, and the way to obtain the desired dc link voltage is introduced in detail. Finally, simulation and experimental results show that, compared with the dc-dc converter, the proposed method can obtain the desired voltage much faster and minimize commutation torque ripple more efficiently at both high and low speeds.
Myeloperoxidase cytochemistry using 2, 7-fluorenediamine.

The myeloperoxidase cytochemical reaction has been well established as a valuable tool in the characterisation of various types of leucocytes. This method helps in the distinction between acute myeloid leukaemias (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukaemias (ALL) as suggested in the French, American, and British (FAB) classification (Bennett et al., 1976). The most common substrates used are benzidine derivatives (Graham, 1918; Goodpasture, 1919). We have been using benzidine dihydrochloride (BDC) according to Kaplow's (1965) technique. However, the known carcinogenic potential of these substrates has led to the widespread removal of these reagents for clinical use in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan. Inagaki et al. (1976) reported the use of the diamine derivative of fluorene: 2,7-fluorenediamine (2,7-FDA) as a good substitute of benzidine for the demonstration of myeloperoxidase in peripheral blood and bone marrow samples. We have compared qualitatively and quantitatively both reactions in order to assess objectively the usefulness of the new reagent.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SYLLABLE BASED TAMIL SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM

Automatic Speech Recognition has been a goal of research for many decades. Many research works have been developed successfully for automatic speech recognition (ASR) of English language. ASR for European languages has not reached their height as ASR in English language. In this work, an implementation of Tamil based automatic speech Recognition System is developed. The ASR has many phases to perform the recognition process. A novel Tamil speech recognition system has been proposed in this work which reduces the complexity and the vocabulary size of the recognition model by applying segmentation at different phases. The temporal features like short term energy, zero crossing rate and the feature vectors based techniques like Mel frequency Cepstral coefficient, linear predictive coding are used for the segmentation. The sound attributes such as Sound Intensity Level, Time Duration and Root Mean Square are used to enhance the effectiveness of the Tamil speech recognition system.
Selenium in Germinated Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Increases the Stability of Its Oil Fraction

Selenium is an essential mineral in human nutrition. In order to assess its effect on the stability of chickpea oil, seeds were germinated and tested with different amounts of sodium selenite (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/100g seeds) for four days. Oil was extracted from sprouted chickpea and its physical properties, fatty acid profile (FAME), oxidative stability index (OSI), lipase and lipoxygenase (LOX) activities, cellular antioxidant activity (CAA), and phenolics and carotenoids were assessed and compared to chickpea seed oil. The amount of chickpea oil and its acid value (AV) increased during germination. The OSI increased by 28%, 46% and 14% for 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/100g compared with non-selenium treated sprouts. Phenolics increased up to 36% and carotenoids reduced by half in germinated sprouts with and without selenium compared to seeds. Carotenoids increased by 16% in sprouts treated with 1.0 mg/100 g selenium compared to their counterparts without selenium. FAME was not affected by treatments but samples with the highest selenium concentration increased lipase activity by 19% and decreased lipoxygenase activity by 55% compared with untreated sprouts. The CAA of oils increased by 43% to 66% in all germinated treatments compared with seeds. Results suggest that Se-enriched chickpea sprouts could represent an excellent source of oil with a high OSI and CAA, associated with a reduction in LOX activity and an increase in phenolics, respectively.
SpoT-Triggered Stringent Response Controls usp Gene Expression in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT The universal stress proteins (Usps) UspK (PA3309) and UspN (PA4352) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are essential for surviving specific anaerobic energy stress conditions such as pyruvate fermentation and anaerobic stationary phase. Expression of the respective genes is under the control of the oxygen-sensing regulator Anr. In this study we investigated the regulation of uspN and three additional P. aeruginosa usp genes: uspL (PA1789), uspM (PA4328), and uspO (PA5027). Anr induces expression of these genes in response to anaerobic conditions. Using promoter-lacZ fusions, we showed that P uspL -lacZ, P uspM -lacZ, and P uspO -lacZ were also induced in stationary phase as described for P uspN -lacZ. However, stationary phase gene expression was abolished in the P. aeruginosa triple mutant Δanr ΔrelA ΔspoT. The relA and spoT genes encode the regulatory components of the stringent response. We determined pppGpp and ppGpp levels using a thin-layer chromatography approach and detected the accumulation of ppGpp in the wild type and the ΔrelA mutant in stationary phase, indicating a SpoT-derived control of ppGpp accumulation. Additional investigation of stationary phase in LB medium revealed that alkaline pH values are involved in the regulatory process of ppGpp accumulation.
Differential dependence of phasic transmitter release on synaptotagmin 1 at GABAergic and glutamatergic hippocampal synapses

Previous studies revealed that synaptotagmin 1 is the major Ca2+ sensor for fast synchronous transmitter release at excitatory synapses. However, the molecular identity of the Ca2+ sensor at hippocampal inhibitory synapses has not been determined. To address the functional role of synaptotagmin 1 at identified inhibitory terminals, we made paired recordings from synaptically connected basket cells (BCs) and granule cells (GCs) in the dentate gyrus in organotypic slice cultures from wild-type and synaptotagmin 1-deficient mice. As expected, genetic elimination of synaptotagmin 1 abolished synchronous transmitter release at excitatory GC–BC synapses. However, synchronous release at inhibitory BC–GC synapses was maintained. Quantitative analysis revealed that elimination of synaptotagmin 1 reduced release probability and depression but maintained the synchrony of transmitter release at BC–GC synapses. Elimination of synaptotagmin 1 also increased the frequency of both miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (measured in BCs) and miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (recorded in GCs), consistent with a clamping function of synaptotagmin 1 at both excitatory and inhibitory terminals. Single-cell reverse-transcription quantitative PCR analysis revealed that single BCs coexpressed multiple synaptotagmin isoforms, including synaptotagmin 1–5, 7, and 11–13. Our results indicate that, in contrast to excitatory synapses, synaptotagmin 1 is not absolutely required for synchronous release at inhibitory BC–GC synapses. Thus, alternative fast Ca2+ sensors contribute to synchronous release of the inhibitory transmitter GABA in cortical circuits.
Toxic effects of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) on human embryonic kidney cells

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widely used as flame-retardant additives in consumer and household products and can escape into the environment over time. PBDEs have become a global environmental organic pollutant due to the properties of persistence, toxicity, and bioaccumulation. The well-studied toxic effects of PBDEs mainly include thyroid hormone disruption and neurotoxicity. There is no consistent conclusions on the carcinogenic potential of PBDEs to date. Here, we explored the toxic effects of BDE-209 on human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293T). The comparison of the gene expression profiles of HEK293T cells with BDE-209 treatment and the negative control found that BDE-209 exposure may alter nucleosome organization through significantly changing the expression of histone gene clusters. The remodeled chromatin structure could further disturb systemic lupus erythematosus as one of the toxic effects of BDE-209. Additionally, gene sets of different cancer modules are positively correlated with BDE-209 exposure. This suggests that BDE-209 has carcinogenic potential for a variety of tumors. Collectively, BDE-209 has a broader toxicity not limited to disruption of thyroid hormone-related biological processes. Notably, the toxic effects of BDE-209 dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is not the simply additive effects of BDE-209 and DMSO alone.
Introduction to the Shared Task on Comparing Semantic Representations

Seven groups participated in the STEP 2008 shared task on comparing semantic representations as output by practical wide-coverage NLP systems. Each of this groups developed their own system for producing semantic representations for texts, each in their own semantic formalism. Each group was requested to provide a short sample text, producing a shared task set of seven texts, allowing participants to challenge each other. Following this, each group was asked to provide the raw system output for all texts, which are made available on http://www.sigsem. org. Two groups were extremely inspired by the shared task and also provided gold-standard semantic representations for the seven texts, together with evaluation measures. The STEP 2008 workshop itself will continue the discussion, focusing on the feasibility of a theory-neutral gold standard for deep semantic representations.
Development of the facial feature extraction and emotion recognition method based on ASM and Bayesian network

In the facial image, emotions are most widely represented with eye and mouth expressions. If we want to recognize the human's emotion via the facial image, we need to extract features of the facial image. Active Shape Model (ASM) is one of the most popular methods for facial feature extraction. Regarding the traditional ASM depends on the setting of the initial parameters of the model, in this paper we propose a facial emotion recognizing method based on ASM and Bayesian Network. Firstly, we obtain the reconstructive parameters of the new gray-scale image by sample-based learning and use them to reconstruct the shape of the new image and calculate the initial parameters of the ASM by the reconstructed facial shape. Then reduce the distance error between the model and the target contour by adjusting the parameters of the model. Finally get the model which is matched with the facial feature outline after several iterations and use them to recognize the facial emotion by using Bayesian Network.
Detecting Stylistic Deception

Whistleblowers and activists need the ability to communicate without disclosing their identity, as of course do kidnappers and terrorists. Recent advances in the technology of stylometry (the study of authorial style) or "authorship attribution" have made it possible to identify the author with high reliability in a non-confrontational setting. In a confrontational setting, where the author is deliberately masking their identity (i.e. attempting to deceive), the results are much less promising. In this paper, we show that although the specific author may not be identifiable, the intent to deceive and to hide his identity can be. We show this by a reanalysis of the Brennan and Greenstadt (2009) deception corpus and discuss some of the implications of this surprising finding.
Demonstration of IlluMe: Creating Ambient According to Instant Message Logs

We present IlluMe, a software tool pack which creates a personalized ambient using the music and lighting. IlluMe includes an emotion analysis software, the small space ambient lighting, and a multimedia controller. The software analyzes emotional changes from instant message logs and corresponds the detected emotion to the best sound and light settings. The ambient lighting can sparkle with different forms of light and the smart phone can broadcast music respectively according to different atmosphere. All settings can be modified by the multimedia controller at any time and the new settings will be feedback to the emotion analysis software. The IlluMe system, equipped with the learning function, provides a link between residential situation and personal emotion. It works in a Chinese chatting environment to illustrate the language technology in life.
A complete processing chain for ship detection using optical satellite imagery

Ship detection from remote sensing imagery is a crucial application for maritime security, which includes among others traffic surveillance, protection against illegal fisheries, oil discharge control and sea pollution monitoring. In the framework of a European integrated project Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Security/Land and Sea Integrated Monitoring for European Security (LIMES), we developed an operational ship detection algorithm using high spatial resolution optical imagery to complement existing regulations, in particular the fishing control system. The automatic detection model is based on statistical methods, mathematical morphology and other signal-processing techniques such as the wavelet analysis and Radon transform. This article presents current progress made on the detection model and describes the prototype designed to classify small targets. The prototype was tested on panchromatic Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) 5 imagery taking into account the environmental and fishing context in French Guiana. In terms of automatic detection of small ship targets, the proposed algorithm performs well. Its advantages are manifold: it is simple and robust, but most of all, it is efficient and fast, which is a crucial point in performance evaluation of advanced ship detection strategies.
CRISPR‐Cas targeted plasmid integration into mammalian cells via non‐homologous end joining

Mammalian cells are widely used for the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins, as these cells facilitate accurate folding and post‐translational modifications often essential for optimum activity. Targeted insertion of a plasmid harboring a gene of interest into the genome of mammalian cells for the expression of a desired protein is a key step in production of such biologics. Here we show that a site specific double strand break (DSB) generated both in the genome and the donor plasmid using the CRISPR‐Cas9 system can be efficiently used to target ∼5 kb plasmids into mammalian genomes via nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ). We were able to achieve efficiencies of up to 0.17% in HEK293 cells and 0.45% in CHO cells. This technique holds promise for quick and efficient insertion of a large foreign DNA sequence into a predetermined genomic site in mammalian cells. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2015;112: 2154–2162. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.