Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sturm-Liouville operator controlled by sectional curvature on Riemannian manifolds

The purpose of this paper is fourfold: (1) to introduce and study a second order PDE, determined accidentally by a Riemann wave, reflecting the connection between oriented parallelograms area and sectional curvature on Riemannian manifolds; (2) to introduce and study the asymptotic behavior of oriented parallelograms area controlled by the sectional curvature; (3) to study some partial differential inequalities describing the evolution of parallelogram area on pinched manifolds; (4) to find controlled minimum of total sectional curvature. This means to control some geometric quantities associated to a Riemannian metric as it evolves with respect to a parameter via a geometric PDE (partial differential equation) or PDI (partial differential inequality). This approach and our PDEs/PDIs on Riemannian manifolds inaugurate new understandings of certain interrelationships among fundamental geometrical concepts. M.S.C. 2010: 53C20, 53C44, 53C21.
CRYPTOSPORIDIUM SUIS N. SP. (APICOMPLEXA: CRYPTOSPORIDIIDAE) IN PIGS (SUS SCROFA)

Molecular and biological characteristics of a new species of Cryptosporidium from the feces of pigs (Sus scrofa) is described. Oocysts are structurally indistinguishable from those of Cryptosporidium parvum; they are passed fully sporulated, lack sporocysts, and measure 4.9–4.4 μm (mean = 4.6 μm) × 4.0–4.3 μm (mean = 4.2 μm); length to width ratio 1.1 (n = 50). Cryptosporidium suis is not transmissible to nude mice and is poorly infectious for cattle. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses at the 18S ribosomal RNA, heat shock protein 70, and actin gene loci demonstrate C. suis to be genetically distinct from all known species and genotypes of Cryptosporidium, and thus is named as Cryptosporidium suis.
Resolution of Syntactic Ambiguity: the Case of New Subjects

I review evidence for the claim that syntactic ambiguities are resolved on the basis of the meaning of the competing analyses, not their structure. I identify a collection of ambiguities that do not yet have a meaning-based account and propose one which is based on the interaction of discourse and grammatical function. I provide evidence for my proposal by examining statistical properties of the Penn Treebank of syntactically annotated text.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Words that make pills easier to swallow : a communication typology to address practical and perceptual barriers to medication intake behavior

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#hayfever; A Longitudinal Study into Hay Fever Related Tweets in the UK

This paper describes a longitudinal study that has collected and analysed over 512,000 UK geolocated tweets over 2 years from June 2012 that contained instances of the words "hayfever" and "hay fever". The results indicate that the temporal distribution of the tweets collected in 2014 correlates strongly (r=0.97, p<0.01) with incidents of hay fever reported by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in the same year. An analysis of the content of the tweets indicates that users are self-reporting common, often severe symptoms as well as the uses of medication. We conclude that hay fever related tweets provide a real-time, free and easily accessible source of data at a finer level of granularity than currently available data sets. The implications for researchers, health professionals and sufferers are also discussed.
Molecular Electrophoretic Technique for Authentication of the Fish Genetic Diversity

Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) is the sole representative of their family, the Rachycentridae They are distributed worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas, as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (Miao, et al., 2009). There are several species, including cobia, seabream, red progy, snappers, scads and groupers that are raised by cage culture in Taiwan. Among these cagecultured fishes, cobia certainly takes a leading distribution in both annual total production (81.9%) and total value production (75.4%) as compared to the rest in Taiwan (Fisheries Agency 2006).
Genome diversity in wild grasses under environmental stress

Patterns of diversity distribution in the Isa defense locus in wild-barley populations suggest adaptive selection at this locus. The extent to which environmental selection may act at additional nuclear-encoded defense loci and within the whole chloroplast genome has now been examined by analyses in two grass species. Analysis of genetic diversity in wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) defense genes revealed much greater variation in biotic stress-related genes than abiotic stress-related genes. Genetic diversity at the Isa defense locus in wild populations of weeping ricegrass [Microlaena stipoides (Labill.) R. Br. ], a very distant wild-rice relative, was more diverse in samples from relatively hotter and drier environments, a phenomenon that reflects observations in wild barley populations. Whole-chloroplast genome sequences of bulked weeping ricegrass individuals sourced from contrasting environments showed higher levels of diversity in the drier environment in both coding and noncoding portions of the genome. Increased genetic diversity may be important in allowing plant populations to adapt to greater environmental variation in warmer and drier climatic conditions.
Paradigms for the shaping of surfaces in a virtual environment

This paper describes several paradigms for the direct manipulation of a surface in computer graphics. The surface is considered as a collection of points in three-dimensional space. These points may be the vertices of polygons, the control points of splines, and so on. Three paradigms are described and evaluated: direct grabbing of the surface at a single point and moving a neighborhood of that point; pushing on the surface with a tool; and pushing on the surface with a model of the user's hand. These paradigms are based on a spatially weighted transformation. This transformation is based on a 'bump' weight function on the surface which is shaped and placed by the user. Construction of the bump function and the definition of the weighted transformation is described. An interface for these paradigms in a virtual environment is also described. <<ETX>>
Automatic Generation of Synthetic Retinal Fundus Images

This study aims to generate synthetic and realistic retinal fundus colour images, similar in characteristics to a given dataset, as well as the values of all morphological parameters. A representative task could be, for example, the synthesis of a retinal image with the corresponding vessel tree and optic nerve head binary map, measurement of vessel width in any position, fovea localisation and so on. The presented paper mainly focuses on the generation of non-vascular regions (i.e. retinal background, fovea and optic disc) and it is complemented by a parallel study on the generation of structure and texture of the vessel network. To synthesise convincing retinal backgrounds and foveae, a patchbased algorithm has been developed; model-based texture synthesis techniques have also been implemented for the generation of realistic optic discs. The validity of our synthetic retinal images has been demonstrated by visual inspection and quantitative experiments.
[The new WHO classification of liver tumors--what is really new?].

The new WHO (2000) Classification comprises all gastrointestinal tumours including tumours of the liver and intrahepatic bile ducts. The differences between the old edition from 1994 and the new classification will be outlined. A comparison was made with regard to new entities, definitions and tumor subtypes. The eight tumour subgroups of the 1994 classification have been reduced to seven in the 2000 WHO edition, omitting the "unclassified tumors" and changing the group's terms. The 2000 classification shows some minor changes in the ICD-O numbers and in terminology. An important change and hopefully beneficial progress has been achieved by introducing more detailed definitions of epithelial abnormalities, namely liver cell dysplasia and its different subtypes (large cell type dysplasia, small cell type dysplasia, dysplastic nodules low-grade and high-grade). The miscellaneous lesions (former called tumour-like lesions) have been reduced in number. In contrast to the 1994 classification which only contained definitions and short descriptions of macroscopic and microscopic findings as well as only sparse clinical information, the 2000 classification offers much more text with new information on epidemiology, aetiology, clinical features, spread, macroscopy, microscopy, genetic susceptibility, and genetics. Some minor differences between the old and new WHO classification can be recognized. Major changes comprise the extended terminology in precancerous epithelial changes, e.g., liver cell dysplasia and reduction of the amount of text.
An Integrated Model for the Versioning of Image Objects

Problem statement: The efficient management and retrieval of the enormous volumes of information generated by many imaging applications is still a challenging problem. Approach: In this study we are particularly interested with the use o f object oriented techniques for the management of digital images. Indeed, it is widely accepted that the use of data abstraction in object oriented mode ling enables real world objects to be well represented i n information systems. Results: Object orientation is well suited for digital images management systems, which require the ability to handle multiple type content. This study proposes a conceptual model, ba sed on object versioning techniques, which represents the semantics in order to allow the cont inuity and pattern of changes of images to be determined over time. Conclusion/Recommendations: By first storing a generic image object and then storing any changes to the object as versions, a major reduction in storage can be achieved.
Reliable GALS Implementation of MPEG-4 Encoder with Mixed Clock FIFO on Standard FPGA

Globally asynchronous locally synchronous (GALS) is a paradigm for complexity management and re-use of large system-on-chip (SoC) architectures. GALS is most often based on specific ASIC design components or special FPGA platforms with custom development tools. In this paper we present a multiprocessor GALS implementation on a standard commercial FPGA with standard development tools. The key building block is a novel, reliable RTL mixed clock FIFO. A complete MPEG-4 video encoder with four processors is implemented for proofing the concept. The area overhead compared to a fully synchronous design is shown to be only 2% and the performance overhead is 3%. This is negligible compared to the benefits that are much better flexibility, ASIC or FPGA vendor independency, and reduced design time. Furthermore, the mixed-clock interfaces allow easy re-usability, since the RTL-level blocks do not need to be re-verified in design iterations
Response Surface Methodology for Optimum Hardness of TiN on Steel Substrate

Abstract—Hard coatings are widely used in cutting and forming tool industries. Titanium Nitride (TiN) possesses good hardness, strength, and corrosion resistance. The coating properties are influenced by many process parameters. The coatings were deposited on steel substrate by changing the process parameters such as substrate temperature, nitrogen flow rate and target power in a D.C planer magnetron sputtering. The structure of coatings were analysed using XRD. The hardness of coatings was found using Micro hardness tester. From the experimental data, a regression model was developed and the optimum response was determined using Response Surface Methodology (RSM).
Joint estimation of short-term and long-term predictors in speech coders

In low bit-rate coders, the near-sample and far-sample redundancies of the speech signal are usually removed by a cascade of a short-term and a long-term linear predictor. These two predictors are usually found in a sequential and therefore suboptimal approach. In this paper we propose an analysis model that jointly finds the two predictors by adding a regularization term in the minimization process to impose sparsity constraints on a high order predictor. The result is a linear predictor that can be easily factorized into the short-term and long-term predictors. This estimation method is then incorporated into an Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction scheme and shows to have a better performance than traditional cascade methods and other joint optimization methods, offering lower distortion and higher perceptual speech quality.
Anidulafungin Does Not Require Dosage Adjustment in Subjects With Varying Degrees of Hepatic or Renal Impairment

Two open‐label studies assessed the effects of hepatic and renal impairment on anidulafungin pharmacokinetics. A single 50‐mg dose was administered intravenously to subjects with varying degrees of hepatic or renal insufficiency or with end‐stage renal disease; all were matched to normal healthy controls. Anidulafungin was well tolerated. AUC, CL, Cmax, tmax, t1/2, and Vss between renally impaired subjects and controls were not significantly different (P .05), and no measurable amounts of drug were found in dialysate. The same pharmacokinetic parameters were also not affected (P .05) by mild or moderate hepatic insufficiency, with respective mean AUCs of 50.6 ± 11.7 μg·h/mL and 68.6 ± 14.5 μg·h/mL, compared to 70.0 ± 13.4 μg·h/mL in controls. Statistically significant decreases (P < 05) of AUC (33% change) and Cmax (36% change) in severely hepatically impaired subjects compared to controls—most likely secondary to ascites and edema—were not clinically relevant. Anidulafungin can be safely administered to patients with any degree of hepatic or renal impairment without dosage adjustment and without regard to hemodialysis schedules.
FPGA implementation of constrained LMS algorithm

The use of adaptive systems in a wide variety of applications is one of the factor to update the current research. For building and realizing the adaptive filters, Digital Signal Processors and Application specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are the common and popular medium. For such adaptive systems Least Mean Square(LMS) algorithm has occupied an important space for its simplicity and robustness. Practically step size parameter as a constraint, is a key parameter of LMS algorithm. Simultaneously Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) has become attractive for the purpose of realization. In this paper, an approach has been proposed to realize the constrained LMS (CLMS) in FPGA Variable step size parameter is considered as the constraint. Simulation results for system identification are provided to support the theoretical analysis. The result shows the efficacy of the approach.
Endothelial PAS Domain Protein 1 Gene Promotes Angiogenesis Through the Transactivation of Both Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Its Receptor, Flt-1

Endothelial PAS domain protein 1 (EPAS1) is a basic-helix–loop–helix/PAS domain transcription factor that is expressed preferentially in vascular endothelial cells. EPAS1 shares high homology with hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; (HIF-1&agr;) and is reported to transactivate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fetal liver kinase-1 (Flk-1), and Tie2 promoters. In this study, we analyzed the role of EPAS1 in the process of angiogenesis. Using microarray technology, we looked for target genes regulated by EPAS1 in vascular endothelial cells. A total of 130 genes were upregulated by EPAS1, including fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (Flt-1). Reporter analysis using human Flt-1 promoter and gel mobility shift assays showed that the heterodimer of EPAS1 and aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator binds directly to HIF-1–binding site upstream of Flt-1 promoter and transactivates it. Small interfering RNA targeted to EPAS1 but not HIF-1&agr; attenuated desferrioxamine-induced Flt-1 mRNA expression, thus EPAS1 is thought to play an essential role in hypoxic induction of Flt-1 gene. Furthermore, using mouse wound healing models, we demonstrated that adenovirus-mediated delivery of EPAS1 gene significantly induced the expression of VEGF, Flt-1, Flk-1, and Tie2 mRNA at the wound site and promoted mature angiogenesis. The proportion of the number of mural cells in newly formed vessels was significantly higher in EPAS1-treated wound area than VEGF-treated area. In conclusion, EPAS1 promotes Flt-1 gene expression and induces mRNA expression of VEGF, Flk-1, and Tie2, leading to enhancement of mature angiogenesis in vivo. Thus, EPAS1 may contribute to the construction of mature vessels by modulating the coordinated expressions of VEGF, Flt-1, Flk-1, and Tie2.
Noise in HMM-Based Speech Synthesis Adaptation: Analysis, Evaluation Methods and Experiments

This work describes experiments on using noisy adaptation data to create personalized voices with HMM-based speech synthesis. We investigate how environmental noise affects feature extraction and CSMAPLR and EMLLR adaptation. We investigate effects of regression trees and data quantity and test noise-robust feature streams for alignment and NMF-based source separation as preprocessing. The adaptation performance is evaluated using a listening test developed for noisy synthesized speech. The evaluation shows that speaker-adaptive HMM-TTS system is robust to moderate environmental noise.
A Prospective Study of Panic and Anxiety in Agoraphobia with Panic Disorder

The features of panic and anxiety in the natural environment were studied by prospective self-monitoring in 39 patients with chronic agoraphobia and panic disorder. Panics overlapped greatly with anxiety episodes but were more intense. Panics occurred more often in public places than did anxiety episodes, but had otherwise similar symptom profile, time of occurrence, and antecedents. Most panics surged out of a pre-existing plateau of tonic anxiety which lasted most of the day. Spontaneous panics were less frequent than situational panics and occurred more often at home but were otherwise similar. These findings do not support the sharp distinction between panic and anxiety in DSM–III–R, not its emphasis on spontaneous panic in classifying anxiety disorders. Thoughts of dying and ‘going crazy’/losing control accompanied only a minority of panic/anxiety episodes and seemed to be a product of intense panic rather than a cause.
Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory The LEM 3 System for Non-Darwinian Evolutionary Computation and Its Application to Complex Function Optimization

LEM3 is the newest implementation of Learnable Evolution Model ( LEM), a non-Darwinian evolutionary computation methodology that employs machine learning to uide evolutionary processes. Due to a deep integration of different modes of operati n and the use of the advanced machine learning system AQ21, the LEM3 system is a highly eff icient and effective implementation of the methodology. LEM3 supports different attribute types for de scribing individuals in the population, such as nominal, rank, structured, interval and ratio, whi ch makes it applicable to a wide range of practical problems. It also implements very effic i nt methods for switching between different modes of operation and operators controlling the generat ion of new individuals. This paper describes the underlying LEM3 algorithm, results from LEM3 testing on sele cted benchmark function optimization problems (with the number of variables varying from 10 to 1000), and its comparison with EA, a conventional, Darwinian-type evolutionary computation progra m. In every experiment, without exception, LEM3 outperformed EA in terms of the evolution lengt h (the number of fitness evaluations needed to achieved a desired solution), sometimes very significantly. It also outperformed the previous LEM2 implementation.
Objective classification system for sagittal craniosynostosis based on suture segmentation.

PURPOSE Spring-assisted surgery is an effective and minimally invasive treatment for sagittal craniosynostosis (CSO). The principal barrier to the advancement of spring-assisted surgery is the patient-specific spring selection. The selection of spring force depends on the suture involved, subtypes of sagittal CSO, and age of the infant, among other factors. Clinically, physicians manually judge the subtype of sagittal CSO patients based on their CT image data, which may cause bias from different clinicians. An objective system would be helpful to stratify the sagittal CSO patients and make spring choice less subjective. METHODS The authors developed a novel informatics system to automatically segment and characterize sutures and classify sagittal CSO. The proposed system is composed of three phases: preprocessing, sutures segmentation, and classification. First, the three-dimensional (3D) skull was extracted from the CT images and aligned with the symmetry of the cranial vault. Second, a "hemispherical projection" algorithm was developed to transform 3D surface of the skull to a polar two-dimensional plane. Through the transformation, an "effective" projected region can be obtained to enable easy segmentation of sutures. Then, the different types of sutures, such as coronal sutures, lambdoid sutures, sagittal suture, and metopic suture, obtained from the segmented sutures were further identified by a dual-projection technique of the midline of the sutures. Finally, 108 quantified features of sutures were extracted and selected by a proposed multiclass feature scoring system. The sagittal CSO patients were classified into four subtypes: anterior, central, posterior, and complex with the support vector machine approach. Fivefold cross validation (CV) was employed to evaluate the capability of selected features in discriminating the four subtypes in 33 sagittal CSO patients. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were used to assess the robustness of the developed system. RESULTS The segmentation results of the proposed method were clinically acceptable for the qualitative evaluation. For the quantitative evaluation, the fivefold CV accuracy of the classification for the four subtypes was 72.7%. This classification system was reliable with the area under curve (in ROC analysis) being greater than 0.8 for four two-class problems. CONCLUSIONS The proposed hemispherical projection algorithm based on backtracking search can successfully segment sutures of the cranial vault. The classification system can also offer a desirable performance. As a result, the proposed segmentation and classification system is expected to bring insights into clinic research and the selection of the spring force to facilitate widespread application of this minimally invasive treatment.