Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Juxta-Vascular Nodule Segmentation Based on Flow Entropy and Geodesic Distance

Computed aided diagnosis of lung CT data is a new quantitative analysis technique to distinguish malignant nodules from benign ones. Nodule growth rate is a key indicator to discriminate between benign and malignant nodules. Accurate nodule segmentation is the essential for calculating the nodule growth rate. However, it is difficult to segment juxta-vascular nodules, due to the similar gray levels in nodule and attached blood vessels. To distinguish the nodule region from the adjacent vessel region, a flowing direction feature, referred to as the direction of the normal vector for a pixel, is introduced. Since blood is flowing in one single direction through a vessel, the normal vectors of pixels in the vessel region typically point in similar orientations while the directions of those in the nodule region can be viewed as disorganized. The entropy value of the flowing direction features in a neighboring region for a vessel pixel is smaller than that for a nodule pixel. Moreover, vessel pixels typically have a larger geodesic distance to the nodule center than nodule pixels. Based on k -means clustering method, the flow entropy, combined with the geodesic distance, is used to segment vessel attached nodules. The validation of the proposed segmentation algorithm was carried out on juxta-vascular nodules, identified in the Chinalung-CT screening trial and on Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC) dataset. In fully automated mode, accuracies of 92.9% (26/28), 87.5%(7/8), and 94.9% (149/157) are reached for the outlining of juxta-vascular nodules in the Chinalung-CT, and the first and second datasets of LIDC, respectively. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed method has low time complexity and high accuracies.
Molecular Mechanisms and Genome-Wide Aspects of PPAR Subtype Specific Transactivation

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are central regulators of fat metabolism, energy homeostasis, proliferation, and inflammation. The three PPAR subtypes, PPARα, β/δ, and γ activate overlapping but also very different target gene programs. This review summarizes the insights into PPAR subtype-specific transactivation provided by genome-wide studies and discusses the recent advances in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying PPAR subtype specificity with special focus on the regulatory role of AF-1.
Leveraging Information in Parking Assistance Systems

This paper systematically explores the efficiency of uncoordinated parking space allocation in urban environments with two types of parking facilities. Drivers decide whether to go for inexpensive but limited on-street parking spots or for expensive yet overdimensioned parking lots, incurring an additional cruising cost when they decide for on-street parking spots but fail to actually acquire one. Their decisions are made under perfect knowledge of the total parking supply and costs and different levels of information about the parking demand, i.e., complete/probabilistic information and uncertainty. We take a game-theoretic approach and analyze the parking-space allocation process in each case as resource selection game instances. We derive their equilibria, compute the related price-of-anarchy (PoA) values, and study the impact of pricing on them. It is shown that, under typical pricing policies on the two types of parking facilities, drivers tend to overcompete for the on-street parking space, giving rise to redundant cruising cost. However, this inefficiency can be alleviated through systematic manipulation of the information that is announced to the drivers. In particular, counterintuitive less-is-more effects emerge regarding the way that information availability modulates the resulting efficiency of the process, which underpin general competitive service provision settings.
Trafficking of the NMDAR2B Receptor Subunit Distal Cytoplasmic Tail from Endoplasmic Reticulum to the Synapse

NMDA receptor NR2A/B subunits have PDZ-binding domains on their extreme C-termini that are known to interact with the PSD-95 family and other PDZ proteins. We explore the interactions between PSD-95 family proteins and the NR2A/B cytoplasmic tails, and the consequences of these interactions, from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through delivery to the synapse in primary rat hippocampal and cortical cultured neurons. We find that the NR2A/B cytoplasmic tails cluster very early in the secretory pathway and interact serially with SAP102 beginning at the intermediate compartment, and then PSD-95. We further establish that colocalization of the distal C-terminus of NR2B and PSD-95 begins at the trans-Golgi Network (TGN). Formation of NR2B/PSD-95/SAP102 complexes is dependent on the PDZ binding domain of NR2B subunits, but association with SAP102 and PSD-95 plays no distinguishable role in cluster pre-formation or initial targeting to the vicinity of the synapse. Instead the PDZ binding domain plays a role in restricting cell-surface clusters to postsynaptic targets.
The Identification of a Time Dependent Sorption Parameter from Soil Column Experiments

Soil column studies are used frequently in seeking to understand the behavior of a particular contaminant in a saturated homogeneous soil of a given type. The concentration of the contaminant is modeled by a parabolic partial differential equation. We seek to identify the sorption partitioning coefficient as a function of time from limited boundary data. We discuss an output least squares formulation of the problem with Tikhonov regularization. We explicitly characterize a source condition that determines the rate of convergence of the method. Numerical examples are presented.
Text Categorization for Intellectual Property: Comparing Balanced Winnow with SVM on Different Document Representations

This study investigates the effect of training different categorization algorithms on various patent document representations. The automation of knowledge and content management in the intellectual property domain has been experiencing a growing interest in the last decade [Cai and Hofmann, 2004, Fall et al., 2003, Koster et al., 2003, Krier and Zacca, 2002], since the first patent classification system was presented in 1999 by Larkey [Larkey, 1999]. Typical applications of patent classification systems are: (1) the automatic assignment of a new patent to the group of patent examiners concerned with the topic, (2) the search for prior art in fields similar to the incoming patent application and (3) the reclassification of patent specifications. By means of machine learning techniques, a collection of 1 270 185 patents is used to build a classifier that is able to classify documents with varyingly large feature spaces. The two algorithms that are compared are Balanced Winnow and Support Vector Machines (SVMs). A previous study [Zhang, 2000] found that Winnow achieves a similar accuracy to SVM but it is much faster as the execution time for Winnow is linear in the number of terms and the number of classes. This primary finding is verified on a feature space 100 times the size using patent documents instead of news paper articles. Results show that SVM outperforms Winnow considerably on all considered measures. Moreover, SVM is found to be a much more robust classifier than Winnow. The parameter tuning that was carried out for both algorithms confirms this result.
Probabilistic BPRRC: Robust Change Detection against Illumination Changes and Background Movements

This paper presents PrBPRRC (Probabilistic Bipolar Radial Reach Correlation), a change detection method that is robust against illumination changes and background movements. Most of the traditional change detection methods are robust against either illumination changes or background movements; BPRRC is one of the illumination-robust change detection methods. We introduce a probabilistic background texture model into BPRRC and add the robustness against background movements and foreground invasions such as moving cars, walking pedestrians, swaying trees , and falling snow. We show the superiority of our PrBPRRC under the environment with illumination changes and background movements by using public datasets: ATON Highway data, Karlsruhe traffic sequence data, and PETS 2007 data.
Finding conspirators in criminal network

In recent years we have witnessed that the crime presents the gang characteristic. In many cases, we are able to obtain the communication messages of the suspicious conspirators. However, it is rather difficult to find out most conspirators with limited information, especially when the number of suspicious conspirators is large. In fact, to find out the conspirators and non-conspirators is equivalent to separate the network into two communities. There are some successful algorithms to separate an unweighted network into several communities. But they are of little use to our problem since the network of our problem is a weighted graph. In order to better solve the problem, we creatively convert the network into a circuit and use Kirchhoff's Voltage Law (KVL) to figure out the result by iteration. This method meets with the features of our problem very well. And it turns out to be reasonable and effective theoretically considering its strict process of mathematical derivation.
Using MIMO linear control for load balancing in computing systems

Load balancing is widely used in computing systems as a way to optimize performance by equalizing loads to reduce delays, such as adjusting the size of memory pools to balance resource demands in a database management system. Load balancing is generally approached as a nonlinear constrained optimization in which dynamics are ignored. We approach load balancing differently - as a feedback controller design problem using a multiple input multiple output linear quadratic regulator (LQR) that achieves the constrained optimization objective. Such an approach allows us to exploit well-established techniques for handling disturbances (e.g., due to changes in workloads) and to incorporate the cost of control (e.g., throughput reductions due to resizing buffer pools) by properly selecting the LQR Q and R matrices. From studies of DB2 Universal Database Server using industry standard benchmarks, we show that the controller obtains a factor of three increases in throughput for an OLTP workload and a 59% reduction in response times for a DSS workload.
The Decision-Scope Approach to Specialization of Business Rules: Application in Business Process Modeling and Data Warehousing

It is common in organizational contexts and in law to apply a decision-scope approach to decision making. Higher organization levels set a decision scope within which lower organization levels may operate. In case of conflict the regulations and rules of a higher level (e.g. European Union) take precedence over those of a lower level (e.g. a member state). This approach can also be beneficially applied to the specialization of the most important kind of business rules in information systems, action rules. Such rules define under which conditions certain actions may, must not, or need to be taken. Applying the decision scope approach to business process modeling based on BPMN means that business rules should not be buried in decision tasks but be made explicit at the flow level. This requires a rethinking of the current BPMN modeling paradigm in that several aspects in conditional flow so far modeled jointly are separately captured: (a) potential ordering of tasks, (b) conditions under which a task may or may not be invoked, and (c) conditions under which a particular task needs to be invoked. Rather than re-defining BPMN as such, an appropriate extension may be provided on-top of BPMN and mapped to standard BPMN primitives. Applying the decision scope approach to active data warehousing, where analysis rules express actionable knowledge, requires to consider two alternative hierarchies: (1) hierarchies of sets of points at the same granularity and (2) the roll-up hierarchy of points in multi-dimensional space. This paper presents the decision scope approach, outlines how it complements inheritance and specialization approaches typically followed in object-oriented systems, and introduces consistency rules for business rule specialization as well as auto-correction rules, which rectify an inconsistent lower-level business rule such that it becomes consistent with higher-level business rules.
Cohort Profile of the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study at Final Follow-up

The Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk (JACC Study) was established in the late 1980s to evaluate the risk impact of lifestyle factors and levels of serum components on human health. During the 20-year follow-up period, the results of the study have been published in almost 200 original articles in peer-reviewed English-language journals. However, continued follow-up of the study subjects became difficult because of the retirements of principal researchers, city mergers throughout Japan in the year 2000, and reduced funding. Thus, we decided to terminate the JACC Study follow-up at the end of 2009. As a final point of interest, we reviewed the population registry information of survivors. A total of 207 (0.19%) subjects were ineligible, leaving 110 585 eligible participants (46 395 men and 64 190 women). Moreover, errors in coding date of birth and sex were found in 356 (0.32%) and 59 (0.05%) cases, respectively, during routine follow-up and final review. Although such errors were unexpected, their impact is believed to be negligible because of the small numbers relative to the large total study population. Here, we describe the final cohort profile at the end of the JACC Study along with selected characteristics of the participants and their status at the final follow-up. Although follow-up of the JACC Study participants is finished, we will continue to analyze and publish study results.
Purification and characterization of β-glucosidase from Melanocarpus sp. MTCC 3922

This study reports the purification and characterization of β-glucosidase from a newly isolated thermophilic fungus, Melanocarpus sp. Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC) 3922. The molecular weight of β-glucosidase was determined to be ~ 92 and 102 kDa with SDS PAGE and gel filtration, respectively, and p I of ~ 4.1. It was optimally active at 60oC and pH 6.0, though was stable at 50oC and pH 5.0 - 6.0. The presence of DTT, mercaptoethanol and metal ions such as Na + , K + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Zn 2+ positively influenced the activity of β-glucosidase but the activity was inhibited in the presence of CuSO 4 . β-glucosidase recognized pNP- β-glucopyranoside (pNPG) as the preferred substrate, and showed very low affinity for pNP- β-D-cellobioside. K m and V max for the hydrolysis of pNPG by β-glucosidase was calculated as 3.3 mM and 43.68 µmolmin -1 mg protein -1 , respectively and k cat was quantified as 4 x 10 3 min -1 . β-glucosidase activity was enhanced appreciably in the presence of alcohols (methanol and ethanol) moreover, purified β-glucosidase showed putative transglycosylation activity that was positively catalyzed in presence of methanol as an acceptor molecule.
Similar Manga Retrieval Using Visual Vocabulary Based on Regions of Interest

Manga, a kind of graphic novels expressed by sequential line drawings, is an important document image publication which is invoking more and more attentions for their copyright protection. Because of simple constructions and abstract expression styles, similar copies are always applied in plagiarisms of mangas. In addition, the enormous volume of copyrighted manga publications issues a challenge to the task of detecting suspicious images. Considering only some regions of interests (ROIs) require copyright protection, we propose a bag-of-features method using visual words based on ROIs for similar manga retrieval. In the experiments, we applied real manga publications as data and proved the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Analysis and Design of an Organic High Speed Digital Electro-Optic Switch

We have analyzed and designed an organic high speed digital optical switch (DOS) based on transverse electro-optic effect. In analysis section, we proposed a quantum photonic model (QPM) to explain linear electro-optic (EO) effect. This model interpret this effect by photon-electron interaction in attosecond regime. We simulate applied electric field on molecule and crystal by Monte-Carlo method in time domain. We show how a waveguide response to an optical signal with different wavelengths when a transverse electric field applied to the waveguide. In design section, we configure conceptually a 2 * 2 EO switch with full adiabatic coupler. In this DOS, we use a rib waveguides that its core has been constructed from NPP crystal. This switch is smaller at least to one-half of similar DOS in dimensions.
IMU-aided SURF feature matching for relative pose estimation

Vision based navigation systems for robotic applications often make use of corresponding feature points between image frames. For robust relative pose estimation between captured images, it is necessary to extract distinctive features, typically with large descriptors, leading to slow feature matching. Feature matching is always subject to false matches, reducing the efficiency of relative pose estimation. In this paper we propose a method for improving the speed and outlier rejection of the feature matching step by making use of information from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The use of an approximate relative camera pose provided by the IMU is shown to reduce the search space for each feature correspondence, improving computation time, and reducing incorrect feature matches.
Baker Center Journal of Applied Public Policy, Vol. III No. I

Recommended Citation Graham, Thomas Jr.; Caprioli, Mary; Hudson, Valerie M. ; McDermott, Rose; Emmett, Chad; Ballif-Spanvill, Bonnie; Reynolds, Glenn Harlan; Scheb, John M. II; Young, Sarah; Barnett, Thomas P.M. ; Hunter, Melissa C. ; and Sutterfield, Lauren E. , "Baker Center Journal of Applied Public Policy, Vol. I No. I" (2007). Baker Center: Publications and Other Works. https://trace.tennessee. edu/utk_bakecentpubs/2
A Research on Sentence Similarity for Question Answering System Based on Multi-feature Fusion

If just consider one feature of sentences to calculate sentences similarity, the performance of system is difficult to reach a satisfactory level. This paper presents a method of combining the features of semantic and structural to compute sentences similarity. It first discusses the methods of calculating the semantic similarity of sentences through word embedding and Tongyici Cilin. Next, it discusses the methods of calculating the morphological similarity and order similarity of sentences, and then combines the features through the neutral network to calculate the total similarity of the sentences. We include results from an evaluation of the system's performance and show that a combination of the features works better than any single approach.
Closed-form approximation for the outage capacity of orthogonal STBC

In this letter we derive a tight analytical approximation for the outage capacity of orthogonal space-time block codes (STBC's). The proposed expression is a simple closed-form function of the power covariance matrix of the channel. In the case of uncorrelated channels, the expression only depends on the variances of the channel power gains that can be expressed analytically for the most common fading distributions: Rayleigh, Rice, Nakagami, Weibull, etc. Furthermore, the approximation encompasses different fading distributions and gains between different pairs of transmit and receive antennas, which can occur in distributed STBC networks.
Scaling Policy Positions From Coded Units of Political Texts

Applying a coding scheme to discrete text units has long been the most common method for estimating substantive quantities of interest about the authors of these texts, whether for political, social, economic, or other substantive reasons. In political analysis, researchers typically build scales of policy positions from the relative frequencies of text units coded as left versus right policy categories. In this paper we reexamine the theoretical and linguistic basis for such scales, proposing a new alternative based on the logarithm of odds-ratios that is consistent with this underlying political and linguistic mechanism. We contrast this scale to previous approaches using text units coded into political categories from the discipline’s longest-running content analysis dataset, that of the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP). We demonstrate that the logit scale avoids widely acknowledged flaws in previous approaches and validate it through comparison to independent expert surveys of policy positions. Applied to existing CMP data, without requiring any estimation or inferential procedures, we show how to unlock more policy dimensions, for more years, than have ever been provided before, and we make this new dataset available along with estimates of uncertainty for each measure. Finally, we draw some lessons for the future design of coding schemes for political texts.
Elodie metallicity-biased search for transiting Hot Jupiters I. Two Hot Jupiters orbiting the slig

We report the discovery of a new planet candidate orbiting the subgiant star HD118203 with a period of P=6.1335 days. The best Keplerian solution yields an eccentricity e=0.31 and a minimum mass m2sin(i)=2.1MJup for the planet. This star has been observed with the ELODIE fiber-fed spectrograph as one of the targets in our planet-search programme biased toward high-metallicity stars, on-going since March 2004 at the Haute-Provence Observatory. An analysis of the spectroscopic line profiles using line bisectors revealed no correlation between the radial velocities and the line-bisector orientations, indicating that the periodic radial-velocity signal is best explained by the presence of a planet-mass companion. A linear trend is observed in the residuals around the orbital solution that could be explained by the presence of a second companion in a longer-period orbit. We also present here our orbital solution for another slightly evolved star in our metal-rich sample, HD149143, recently proposed to host a 4-d period Hot Jupiter by the N2K consortium. Our solution yields a period P=4.09 days, a marginally significant eccentricity e=0.08 and a planetary minimum mass of 1.36MJup. We checked that the shape of the spectral lines does not vary for this star as well.
Classification with cooperative semi-supervised learning using bridge structural health data

In the process of bridge structural health monitoring, the parameters monitored by sensors includes strain, vibration, distortion, cable tension etc. Classification of each parameter can reflect the change of bridge structural health to some extent. According to feature of parameter data, solving methods, namely, improved single-view cooperative-training semi-supervised learning method and multi-view cooperative-training semi-supervised learning method with disagreement are proposed based on problems of single parameter classification and multiple parameters classification separately. The former exploits single-view cooperative-training semi-supervised learning method to classify for single parameter data. The latter takes multiple parameters classification by using different single-view to constitute multi-view, the key of which is to exploit Co-training with disagreement to deal with the problem of two views classification. Bridge structural health information can be obtained effectively through bridge structural data classification with these methods, based on which bridge would be maintained effectively.