Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast and reliable stereopsis measurement at multiple distances with iPad

Purpose: To present a new fast and reliable application for iPad (ST) for screening stereopsis at multiple distances. Methods: A new iPad application (app) based on a random dot stereogram was designed for screening stereopsis at multiple distances. Sixty-five subjects with no ocular diseases and wearing their habitual correction were tested at two different distances: 3 m and at 0.4 m. Results were compared with other commercial tests: TNO (at near) and Howard Dolman (at distance) Subjects were cited one week later in order to repeat the same procedures for assessing reproducibility of the tests. Results: Stereopsis at near was better with ST (40 arcsec) than with TNO (60 arcsec), but not significantly (p = 0.36). The agreement was good (k = 0.604) and the reproducibility was better with ST (k = 0.801) than with TNO (k = 0.715), in fact median difference between days was significant only with TNO (p = 0.02). On the other hand, poor agreement was obtained between HD and ST at far distance (k=0.04), obtaining significant differences in medians (p = 0.001) and poorer reliability with HD (k = 0.374) than with ST (k = 0.502). Conclusions: Screening stereopsis at near with a new iPad app demonstrated to be a fast and realiable. Results were in a good agreement with conventional tests as TNO, but it could not be compared at far vision with HD due to the limited resolution of the iPad.
New Method for the Approximation of Corrected Calcium Concentrations in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

The following conventional calcium correction formula (Payne) is broadly applied for serum calcium estimation: corrected total calcium (TCa) (mg/dL) = TCa (mg/dL) + (4 – albumin (g/dL)); however, it is inapplicable to chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. A total of 2503 venous samples were collected from 942 all‐stage CKD patients, and levels of TCa (mg/dL), ionized calcium ([iCa2+] mmol/L), phosphate (mg/dL), albumin (g/dL), and pH, and other clinical parameters were measured. We assumed corrected TCa (the gold standard) to be equal to eight times the iCa2+ value (measured corrected TCa). Then, we performed stepwise multiple linear regression analysis by using the clinical parameters and derived a simple formula for corrected TCa approximation. The following formula was devised from multiple linear regression analysis: Approximated corrected TCa (mg/dL) = TCa + 0.25 × (4 − albumin) + 4 × (7.4 − p H) + 0.1 × (6 − phosphate) + 0.3. Receiver operating characteristic curves analysis illustrated that area under the curve of approximated corrected TCa for detection of measured corrected TCa ≥ 8.4 mg/dL and ≤ 10.4 mg/dL were 0.994 and 0.919, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient demonstrated superior agreement using this new formula compared to other formulas (new formula: 0.826, Payne: 0.537, Jain: 0.312, Portale: 0.582, Ferrari: 0.362). In CKD patients, TCa correction should include not only albumin but also pH and phosphate. The approximated corrected TCa from this formula demonstrates superior agreement with the measured corrected TCa in comparison to other formulas.
Crowdsourcing Salient Information from News and Tweets

The increasing streams of information pose challenges to both humans and machines. On the one hand, humans need to identify relevant information and consume only the information that lies at their interests. On the other hand, machines need to understand the information that is published in online data streams and generate concise and meaningful overviews. We consider events as prime factors to query for information and generate meaningful context. The focus of this paper is to acquire empirical insights for identifying salience features in tweets and news about a target event, i.e., the event of “whaling”. We first derive a methodology to identify such features by building up a knowledge space of the event enriched with relevant phrases, sentiments and ranked by their novelty. We applied this methodology on tweets and we have performed preliminary work towards adapting it to news articles. Our results show that crowdsourcing text relevance, sentiments and novelty (1) can be a main step in identifying salient information, and (2) provides a deeper and more precise understanding of the data at hand compared to state-of-the-art approaches.
Splatting without the blur

Splatting is a volume rendering algorithm that combines efficient volume projection with a sparse data representation. Only voxels that have values inside the iso-range need to be considered, and these voxels can be projected via efficient rasterization schemes. In splatting, each projected voxel is represented as a radially symmetric interpolation kernel, equivalent to a fuzzy ball. Projecting such a basis function leaves a fuzzy impression, called a footprint or splat, on the screen. Splatting traditionally classifies and shades the voxels prior to projection, and thus each voxel footprint is weighted by the assigned voxel color and opacity. Projecting these fuzzy color balls provides a uniform screen image for homogeneous object regions, but leads to a blurry appearance of object edges. The latter is clearly undesirable, especially when the view is zoomed on the object. In this work, we manipulate the rendering pipeline of splatting by performing the classification and shading process after the voxels have been projected onto the screen. In this way volume contributions outside the iso-range never affect the image. Since shading requires gradients, we not only splat the density volume, using regular splats, but we also project the gradient volume, using gradient splats. However alternative to gradient splats, we can also compute the gradients on the projection plane using central differencing. This latter scheme cuts the number of footprint rasterization by a factor of four since only the voxel densities have to be projected.
High temperature isothermal oxidation behaviour of an oxide dispersion strengthened derivative of IN625

Abstract Gas atomised IN625 powder was mechanically alloyed with <1·0 Wt. % nano-yttria and consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) to produce an oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy. The isothermal oxidation rate constant of the ODS alloy, and wrought IN625, was determined by thermogravimetric analysis. This was performed at 900 °C in static laboratory air for exposure times of up to 1000 h. It was found that the ODS alloy oxidised ~40x slower than wrought IN625, which is attributed to the reactive element effect. It is further proposed that the improvement in oxidation resistance of the ODS alloy, and the superior morphology of the oxide scale formed on the ODS alloy, may be related to the presence of Nb carbide, rather than δ-phase, in the ODS alloy.
Hardware-accelerated reconstruction of polygonal isosurface representations on unstructured grids

Volume visualization using isosurface extraction is a well-researched topic. Research demonstrated that even for unstructured grids peak performances of millions of tetrahedra per second can be achieved by exploiting the parallel processing capabilities of modern GPUs. In this paper we present a hardware-accelerated solution that further improves the extraction performance. In contrary to existing approaches, our technique explicitly extracts the isosurface geometry in a fragment program by rendering only a single screen-sized quadrilateral. The extracted geometry is directly written to an on-board graphics memory object allowing for direct rendering without further bus transfers. Additionally, the geometry can be manipulated by shader programs or read back to the application for further processing. Examples and application scenarios are given that can benefit from our approach.
Silicone elastomer map: design the ideal elastomer

Soft, stretchable and light-weight transducers are most sought after for research on advanced applications like stretchable electronics, soft robotics and energy harvesters. Stretchable electronics require elastomers that have high elongation at break, high dielectric permittivity and high breakdown strength. Commercial silicone elastomer formulations often do not encompass all the necessary properties required to function effectively as stretchable transducers but they are used out of familiarity. In this study, most commonly used commercial silicone formulations are formulated with different stoichiometry and also blends of these formulations are made in order to manipulate their resulting properties. The properties of these blends like ultimate stress and strain, Young’s modulus, dielectric permittivity and breakdown strength are investigated and mapped to identify those that have the best suited properties for fabricating soft stretchable devices. On a research level, Sylgard 184, Sylgard 186, Ecoflex 00-50, Ecoflex 00-30 and Ecoflex 00-10 are widely used for fabricating such soft devices and hence they will be worked upon in this study. The elastomers obtained using the methods of mixing illustrated here can act as a starting point for conceptualizing the feasibility of a product on research level.
Linking Morphology and Multi-Physical Transport in Structured Photoelectrodes

Semiconductors with complex anisotropic morphologies in solar to chemical energy conversion devices enhance light absorption and overcome limiting charge transport in the solid. However, structuring the solid–liquid interface also has implications for concentration distributions and diffusive charge transport in the electrolyte. Quantifying the link between morphology and those multi-physical transport processes remains a challenge. Here we develop a coupled experimental-numerical approach to digitalize the photoelectrodes by high resolution FIB-SEM tomography, quantitatively characterize their morphologies and calculate multi-physical transport processes for the exact geometries. We demonstrate the extraction of the specific surface, shape, orientation and dimension of the building blocks and the multi-scale pore features from the digital model. Local current densities at the solid–liquid interface and ion concentration distributions in the electrolyte have been computed by direct pore-level simulations. We have identified morphology-dependent parameters to link the incident-light-to-charge-transfer-rate-conversion to the material bulk properties. In the case of a structured lanthanum titanium oxynitride photoelectrode (Eg = 2.1 eV), with an absorbance of 77%, morphology-induced mass transport performance limitations have been found for low bulk ion concentrations and diffusion coefficients.
Identification and characterization of PEBP as a calpain substrate

Calpains are calcium‐ and thiol‐dependent proteases whose dysregulation has been implicated in a number of diseases and conditions such as cardiovascular dysfunction, ischemic stroke, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the effects of calpain activity are evident, the precise mechanism(s) by which dysregulated calpain activity results in cellular degeneration are less clear. In order to determine the impact of calpain activity, there is a need to identify the range of specific calpain substrates. Using an in vitro proteomics approach we confirmed that phosphatidylethanolamine‐binding protein (PEBP) as a novel in vitro and in situ calpain substrate. We also observed PEBP proteolysis in a model of brain injury in which calpain is clearly activated. In addition, with evidence of calpain dysregulation in AD, we quantitated protein levels of PEBP in postmortem brain samples from the hippocampus of AD and age‐matched controls and found that PEBP levels were approximately 20% greater in AD. Finally, with previous evidence that PEBP may act as a serine protease inhibitor, we tested PEBP as an inhibitor of the proteasome and found that PEBP inhibited the chymostrypsin‐like activity of the proteasome by ∼30%. Together these data identify PEBP as a potential in vivo calpain substrate and indicate that increased PEBP levels may contribute to impaired proteasome function.
Wheat and barley differently affect porcine intestinal microbiota.

BACKGROUND Diet influences the porcine intestinal microbial ecosystem. Barrows were fitted with ileal T-cannulas to compare short-term effects of eight different wheat or barley genotypes and period-to-period effects on seven bacterial groups in ileal digesta and faeces by qPCR. RESULTS Within genotypes of wheat and barley, there was no difference (P > 0.05) in contents of analysed NSP, yet cereal types differed (P < 0.001) except for soluble arabinoxylans. Genotypes showed no effect on bacterial gene copy numbers. In ileal digesta of barley- compared to wheat-fed pigs, log10 copy numbers were lower (P < 0.05) for total eubacteria (9.6-9.8), Bacteroides-Prevotella-Porphyromonas (6.5-6.8), Clostridium cluster IV (6.7-6.9), and Roseburia spp. (6.6-7.2), while higher copy numbers were found for Lactobacillus spp. (9.4-8.8). Enterobacteriaceae (7.0-7.8) and Bifidobacterium spp. (7.0-7.7) were lower (P < 0.001) in faeces of barley compared to wheat-fed pigs. Ileal eubacteria, Clostridium cluster IV and Roseburia spp. linearly increased from period 1 to 8 for both cereals (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Wheat and barley differently influence microbial composition particularly in the small intestine, with barley increasing the Lactobacillus spp. :Enterobacteriaceae ratio, underlining its potential to beneficially manipulate the intestinal microbial ecosystem.
Disseminated arteriolar and capillary platelet thrombosis; a morphologic study of its histogenesis.

IRA GORE, M.D. (From the Central Laboratory, Veterans Administration, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.) The report of 4 cases of disseminated arteriolar and capillary platelet thrombosis by Baehr, Klemperer, and Schifrin' in I936 established the disease as a clinical as well as a pathologic entity, although Moschcowitz2 had reported the first instance in I925. To date a total of i6 cases have been described in the literature. However, the increasing frequency with which the reports have appeared suggests that the condition is not so rare as that figure would indicate. Four of the cases were published in two excellent reviews3'4 in I947; the most recent case was that of Muirhead, Crass, and Hill,5 in I948. The significant features of the syndrome, as it has been described, are insidious onset of vague non-localizing symptoms, fever, purpura, anemia, and a rapidly progressive fatal course in which severe nonlocalizing mental and neurologic signs are prominent. Thrombocytopenia, moderate and variable leukocytosis, reticulocytosis, and immature red cells characterize the blood picture. Often the differential count exhibits a distinct "leftward shift" of the myeloid cells, which impressed one group of investigators sufficiently to cause them to designate it a leukemoid reaction.4 Tests of the clotting mechanism demonstrate increased bleeding time and defective clot retraction; the coagulation time is usually normal. Osmotic fragility of the red cells is unaltered; there is increased capillary fragility; and icterus, generally of a mild degree, occurred in 8 of the I6 reported cases. Contrary to an earlier impression,6 males, both white and colored, are affected as well as females.3 The ages in the published cases range from 9 to 66 years. The duration of the terminal illness varied from i week to 2 months. The gross features at autopsy, save for widespread petechiae and ecchymoses, are not distinctive. Histologically, widely disseminated occluding "thrombi" in arterioles and capillaries have been described in almost all organs of the body. It is the consensus of the reporting authors that agglutinated platelets provide the bulk of the occluding
On ZK-Crypt, Book Stack, and Statistical Tests

The algorithms submitted to the ECRYPT Stream Cipher Project (eSTREAM) were tested using the recently suggested statistical test named “Book Stack”. All the ciphers except ZK-Crypt have passed the tests. The paper briefly describes the essence of the test. Computer implementation of the test in C++ language is supplied.
HIV-1 Full-Genome Phylogenetics of Generalized Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Impact of Missing Nucleotide Characters in Next-Generation Sequences

Abstract To characterize HIV-1 transmission dynamics in regions where the burden of HIV-1 is greatest, the “Phylogenetics and Networks for Generalised HIV Epidemics in Africa” consortium (PANGEA-HIV) is sequencing full-genome viral isolates from across sub-Saharan Africa. We report the first 3,985 PANGEA-HIV consensus sequences from four cohort sites (Rakai Community Cohort Study, n = 2,833; MRC/UVRI Uganda, n = 701; Mochudi Prevention Project, n = 359; Africa Health Research Institute Resistance Cohort, n = 92). Next-generation sequencing success rates varied: more than 80% of the viral genome from the gag to the nef genes could be determined for all sequences from South Africa, 75% of sequences from Mochudi, 60% of sequences from MRC/UVRI Uganda, and 22% of sequences from Rakai. Partial sequencing failure was primarily associated with low viral load, increased for amplicons closer to the 3′ end of the genome, was not associated with subtype diversity except HIV-1 subtype D, and remained significantly associated with sampling location after controlling for other factors. We assessed the impact of the missing data patterns in PANGEA-HIV sequences on phylogeny reconstruction in simulations. We found a threshold in terms of taxon sampling below which the patchy distribution of missing characters in next-generation sequences (NGS) has an excess negative impact on the accuracy of HIV-1 phylogeny reconstruction, which is attributable to tree reconstruction artifacts that accumulate when branches in viral trees are long. The large number of PANGEA-HIV sequences provides unprecedented opportunities for evaluating HIV-1 transmission dynamics across sub-Saharan Africa and identifying prevention opportunities. Molecular epidemiological analyses of these data must proceed cautiously because sequence sampling remains below the identified threshold and a considerable negative impact of missing characters on phylogeny reconstruction is expected.
Statistical shape modeling of pathological scoliotic vertebrae: A comparative analysis

Statistical shape models (SSMs) have been used widely as a basis for segmenting and interpreting complex anatomical structures. The robustness of these models are sensitive to the registration procedures, i.e., establishment of a dense correspondence across a training data set. In this work, two SSMs based on the same training data set of scoliotic vertebrae, and registration procedures were compared. The first model was constructed based on the original binary masks without applying any image pre- and post-processing, and the second was obtained by means of a feature preserving smoothing method applied to the original training data set, followed by a standard rasterization algorithm. The accuracies of the correspondences were assessed quantitatively by means of the maximum of the mean minimum distance (MMMD) and Hausdorf distance (HD). Anatomical validity of the models were quantified by means of three different criteria, i.e., compactness, specificity, and model generalization ability. The objective of this study was to compare quasi-identical models based on standard metrics. Preliminary results suggest that the MMMD distance and eigenvalues are not sensitive metrics for evaluating the performance and robustness of SSMs.
On Codd Families of Keys over Incomplete Relations

Keys allow a database management system to uniquely identify tuples in a database. Consequently, the class of keys is of great significance for almost all data processing tasks. In the relational model of data, keys have received considerable interest and are well understood. However, for efficient means of data processing most commercial relational database systems deviate from the relational model. For example, tuples may contain only partial information in the sense that they contain so-called null values to represent incomplete information. Codd's principle of entity integrity says that every tuple of every relation must not contain a null value on any attribute of the primary key. Therefore, a key over partial relations enforces both uniqueness and totality of tuples on the attributes of the key. On the basis of these two requirements, we study the resulting class of keys over relations that permit occurrences of Zaniolo's null value ‘no-information’. We show that the interaction of this class of keys is different from the interaction of the class of keys over total relations. We establish a finite ground axiomatization, and an algorithm for deciding the associated implication problem in linear time. Further, we characterize Armstrong relations for an arbitrarily given sets of keys; that is, we give a sufficient and necessary condition for a partial relation to satisfy a key precisely when it is implied by a given set of keys. We also establish an algorithm that computes an Armstrong relation for an arbitrarily given set of keys. While the problem of finding an Armstrong relation for a given key set is precisely exponential in general, our algorithm returns an Armstrong relation whose size is at most quadratic in the size of a minimal Armstrong relation. Finally, we settle various questions related to the maximal size of a family of non-redundant key sets. Our results help to bridge the gap between the existing theory of database constraints and database practice.
Soft-output trellis waveform coding

In this paper, we exploit the similarity between source compression and channel decoding to provide a new encoding algorithm for trellis vector quantization (TVQ). We start by drawing the analogy between TVQ and the process of sequence-ML channel decoding. Then, the new search algorithm is derived based on the symbolMAP decoding algorithm, which is used in soft-output channel decoding applications. Given a block of source output vectors, the new algorithm delivers a set of probabilities that describe the reliability of the different symbols at the encoder output for each time instant, in the minimum distortion sense. The performance of both the new algorithm and the Viterbi algorithm is compared using memoryless Gaussian and Gauss-Markov sources. The two algorithms provide expected similar distortionrate results. This behavior is due to the fact that sequence-ML decoding is equivalent to symbol-MAP decoding of independent and identically distributed data symbols. In other words, delivering the sequence of minimum distortion symbols is equivalent to delivering the minimum distortion sequence of symbols.