Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A fast background scene modeling and maintenance for outdoor surveillance

We describe fast background scene modeling and maintenance techniques for real time visual surveillance system for tracking people in an outdoor environment. It operates on monocular gray scale video imagery or on video imagery from an infrared camera. The system learns and models background scene statistically to detect foreground objects, even when the background is not completely stationary (e.g. motion of tree branches) using shape and motion cues. Also, a background maintenance model is proposed for preventing false positives, such as, illumination changes (the sun being blocked by clouds causing changes in brightness), or false negative, such as, physical changes (person detection while he is getting out of the parked car). Experimental results demonstrate robustness and real-time performance of the algorithm.
Comparing definitions of purging disorder on point prevalence and associations with external validators.

OBJECTIVE We varied two defining features of Purging Disorder (PD): breadth of "purging" behaviors (purging only [narrow] vs. purging and nonpurging [broad]) and minimum behavioral frequency (once vs. twice per week) to examine their impact on syndrome validity. METHOD Survey data from 1736 women and 755 men were used for analyses. RESULTS PD point prevalence was higher in women versus men, and prevalence was lowest for the narrow definition requiring purging twice per week. The narrow definition was associated with significant psychosocial impairment and increased effect sizes in validation analyses. Changing minimum behavioral frequencies did not impact associations with external validators. DISCUSSION A broad definition of PD that included any compensatory behavior reduced distinctions between PD and normality. Reducing minimum frequency to once per week did not reduce homogeneity or evidence of syndrome severity. Purging once per week may represent the optimal starting point in defining the central behavioral feature of PD.
Development of Forensic Assay Signatures for Ebolaviruses

Ebolaviruses are a diverse group of RNA viruses comprising five different species, four of which cause fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans. Because of their high infectivity and lethality, ebolaviruses are considered major biothreat agents. Although detection assays exist, no forensic assays are currently available. Here, we report the development of forensic assays that differentiate ebolaviruses. We performed phylogenetic analyses and identified canonical SNPs for all species, major clades and isolates. TaqMan‐MGB allelic discrimination assays based on these SNPs were designed, screened against synthetic RNA templates, and validated against ebolavirus genomic RNAs. A total of 45 assays were validated to provide 100% coverage of the species and variants with additional resolution at the isolate level. These assays enabled accurate forensic analysis on 4 “unknown” ebolaviruses. Unknowns were correctly classified to species and variant. A goal of providing resolution below the isolate level was not successful. These high‐resolution forensic assays allow rapid and accurate genotyping of ebolaviruses for forensic investigations.
p53 codon 72 polymorphism and breast cancer risk: A meta-analysis

p53 is a tumor suppressor gene and plays important roles in the etiology of breast cancer. Studies have produced conflicting results concerning the role of p53 codon 72 polymorphism (G>C) on the risk of breast cancer; therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to estimate the association between the p53 codon 72 polymorphism and breast cancer. Screening of the PubMed database was conducted to identify relevant studies. Studies containing available genotype frequencies of the p53 codon 72 polymorphism were selected and a pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association. Sixty-one published studies, including 28,539 breast cancer patients and 32,788 controls were identified. The results suggest that variant genotypes are not associated with breast cancer risk (Pro/Pro + Arg/Pro vs. Arg/Arg: OR=1.016, 95% CI=0.931–1.11, P=0.722). The symmetric funnel plot, Egger’s test (P=0.506) and Begg’s test (P=0.921) were all suggestive of the lack of publication bias. This meta-analysis suggests that the p53 codon 72 Pro/Pro + Arg/Pro genotypes are not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. To validate the association between the p53 codon 72 polymorphism and breast cancer, further studies with larger numbers of participants worldwide are required.
Information/Relevance Influence Diagrams

In this paper we extend the influence diagram (ID) representation for decisions under uncertainty. In the standard ID, arrows into a decision node are only informational; they do not represent constraints on what the decision maker can do. We can represent such constraints only indirectly, using arrows to the children of the decision and sometimes adding more variables to the influence diagram, thus making the ID more complicated. Users of influence diagrams often want to represent constraints by arrows into decision nodes. We represent constraints on decisions by allowing relevance arrows into decisions nodes. We call the resulting representation information/relevance influence diagrams (IRIDs). Information/ relevance influence diagrams allow for direct representation and specification of constrained decisions. We use a combination of stochastic dynamic programming and Gibbs sampling to solve IRIDs. This method is especially useful when exact methods for solving IDs fail.
Associations of instrumental activities of daily living and handgrip strength with oral self-care among home-dwelling elderly 75+.

OBJECTIVE To study the associations of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and the handgrip strength with oral self-care among dentate home-dwelling elderly people in Finland. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study analysed data for 168 dentate participants (mean age 80.6 years) in the population-based Geriatric Multidisciplinary Strategy for Good Care of the Elderly (GeMS) study. Each participant received a clinical oral examination and structured interview in 2004-2005. Functional status was assessed using the IADL scale and handgrip strength was measured using handheld dynamometry. RESULTS Study participants with high IADL (scores 7-8) had odds ratios (ORs) for brushing their teeth at least twice a day of 2.7 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.1-6.8], for using toothpaste at least twice a day of 2.0 (CI 0.8-5.2) and for having good oral hygiene of 2.8 (CI 1.0-8.3) when compared with participants with low IADL (scores ≤6). Participants in the upper tertiles of the handgrip strength had ORs for brushing the teeth at least twice a day of 0.9 (CI 0.4-1.9), for using the toothpaste at least twice a day of 0.9 (CI 0.4-1.8) and for good oral hygiene of 1.1 (CI 0.5-2.4) in comparison with the study subjects in the lowest tertile of handgrip strength. CONCLUSION The results of this study suggest that the functional status, measured by means of the IADL scale, but not handgrip strength, is an important determinant of oral self-care among the home-dwelling elderly.
Site-Specific Labeling of Protein Kinase CK2: Combining Surface Display and Click Chemistry for Drug Discovery Applications †

Human CK2 is a heterotetrameric constitutively active serine/threonine protein kinase and is an emerging target in current anti-cancer drug discovery. The kinase is composed of two catalytic CK2α subunits and two regulatory CK2β subunits. In order to establish an assay to identify protein-protein-interaction inhibitors (PPI) of the CK2α/CK2β interface, a bioorthogonal click reaction was used to modify the protein kinase α-subunit with a fluorophore. By expanding the genetic code, the unnatural amino acid para azidophenylalanine (pAzF) could be incorporated into CK2α. Performing the SPAAC click reaction (Strain-Promoted Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition) by the use of a dibenzylcyclooctyne-fluorophore (DBCO-fluorophore) led to a specifically labeled human protein kinase CK2α. This site-specific labeling does not impair the phosphorylation activity of CK2, which was evaluated by capillary electrophoresis. Furthermore a dissociation constant (KD) of 631 ± 86.2 nM was determined for the substrate αS1-casein towards CK2α. This labeling strategy was also applied to CK2β subunit on Escherichia coli, indicating the site-specific modifications of proteins on the bacterial cell surface when displayed by Autodisplay.
Impact of sweating on equivalent dose of patients treated with 131Iiodine

Background: Radioiodine therapy is used for the treatment of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) who undergo total thyroidectomy. After radioiodine administration, regulations require to quarantine these patients until their retained activity reduces to <33 mCi. Some of the injected radioiodine is excreted by perspiration which helps dose reduction so that performing the activities which stimulate sweating such as exercise may shorten the time of dose reduction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in the literature that has evaluated the impact of specific exercise program on the ambient equivalent dose of 131I gamma rays. Materials and Methods: Patients with DTC without metastasis who had undergone total thyroidectomy and were treated with radioiodine were included in this study. 30 patients were chosen among patients who were able to exercise, did not have renal failure, and did not use diuretics. Patients were divided into two control and intervention groups. Intervention group members walked on treadmills under a specific program, in 3 time intervals. The control group did not have any specific activity. Immediately after each exercise process, both groups took a shower, and their doses were measured by a survey dosimeter. Results: It was revealed that there was a significant difference between mean values before and after each exercise time. The calculated P value which evaluates the overall impact was 0.939 which revealed that there was no significant difference between total ambient equivalent dose reductions of both groups. Conclusion: According to the study, it may conclude that sweating is an effective alternative way for radioiodine excretion, and if sweating is accompanied with well-hydrated status they may have synergism effect to shorten quarantine period. This could be an important consideration in patients which over-hydration is intolerable especially those with cardiac, liver, or renal problems.
Blood Cell Segmentation Using EM Algorithm

We present a method for segmentation of cells from color images of blood smears in the frame work of statistical modeling. The 2-part approach results in locating each of the white blood cells (WBC) and identifying the regions corresponding to the nucleus and the cytoplasm, in the given blood smear. The given RGB image is first converted to its Hue (H), Saturation (S), Value (V) equivalent. Each pixel is treated as a vector of the three dimensions namely H, S and V. The components are weighted to give more importance to the most distinguishing features. We segment by modeling each of the above mentioned regions by a distinct 3-D Gaussian distribution. In the first step, K-means clustering is performed on the 3-D feature vectors. This results in partitioning of the image into distinct regions. The centroids and the variances obtained in the K-means step are used to initialize Gaussian parameters for ExpectationMaximization (EM) algorithm. The EM algorithm iterates between segmentation and parameter estimation till convergence. A total of 115 images of smears were analyzed using our algorithm and successful segmentation was achieved in 80% of the cells contained in the images. The most important feature of this technique is that there are no parameters to be tuned by the user.
Automatic Entity Relation Extraction Based on Maximum Entropy

Entity Relation Extraction (RE) is an very important research domain in Information Extraction, we can regard RE as a classification problem in this paper, RE is still original study field in Chinese language now, Maximum Entropy (ME)-based machine learning is the first time to be used to extract entity relations between named entities from Chinese texts, Thirteen features have been designed for entity relation extraction, which includes Morphology, grammar and semantic feature. The system architecture for RE has been constructed. Experiment shows that the performance is promising. So it is useful for ME-based machine learning to solve RE problem.
β-Adrenergic Agonists Mediate Enhancement of β1-Adrenergic Receptor N-terminal Cleavage and Stabilization In Vivo and In Vitro

The β1-adrenergic receptor (β1AR) is the predominant βAR in the heart and is the main target for β-adrenergic antagonists, widely used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Previously, we have shown that the human (h) β1AR is cleaved in its N terminus by a metalloproteinase, both constitutively and in a receptor activation–dependent manner. In this study, we investigated the specific events involved in β1AR regulation, focusing on the effects of long-term treatment with β-adrenergic ligands on receptor processing in stably transfected human embryonic kidney 293i cells. The key findings were verified using the transiently transfected hβ1AR and the endogenously expressed receptor in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. By using flow cytometry and Western blotting, we demonstrated that isoproterenol, S-propranolol, CGP-12177 [4-[3-[(1,1-dimethylethyl)amino]2-hydroxypropoxy]-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazol-2-one], pindolol, and timolol, which displayed agonistic properties toward the β1AR in either the adenylyl cyclase or the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways, induced cleavage of the mature cell-surface receptor. In contrast, metoprolol, bisoprolol, and CGP-20712 [1-[2-((3-carbamoyl-4-hydroxy)phenoxy)ethylamino]-3-[4-(1-methyl-4-trifluoromethyl-2-imidazolyl)phenoxy]-2-propanol], which showed no agonistic activity, had only a marginal or no effect. Importantly, the agonists also stabilized intracellular receptor precursors, possibly via their pharmacological chaperone action, and they stabilized the receptor in vitro. The opposing effects on the two receptor forms thus led to an increase in the amount of cleaved receptor fragments at the plasma membrane. The results underscore the pluridimensionality of β-adrenergic ligands and extend this property from receptor activation and signaling to the regulation of β1AR levels. This phenomenon may contribute to the exceptional resistance of β1ARs to downregulation and tendency toward upregulation following long-term ligand treatments.
Influence of Silica Nanofluid on CO2 Mass Transfer and Hydrocarbon Property Alteration in a Carbonated Water-Hydrocarbon System

The study investigates the impact of a nanofluid suspended in carbonated water (CW) on the CO2 mass transfer into hydrocarbon in a carbonated water/hydrocarbon system. Furthermore the study addresses into the influence of the nanofluid assisted CO2 mass transfer on the viscosity and density of hydrocarbon and its relevance to enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The experiments were carried out at 10-70 bar at 25°C and 45°C using an axisymmetric drop shape analysis (ADSA) for three concentrations of silica nanofluid (0, 0.05, 0.5, and 1.0 g/l). A pressure decay method was used to estimate the change in CO2 solubility in water in the presence of the nanofluid. A mathematical model coupled with experimental input was used to quantify the mass of CO2 transferred into the hydrocarbon from the CW. Although this work does not address the EOR process, it indicates its applicability for EOR. The results showed that the dispersed nanofluid in CW enhanced the CO2 mass transfer into the hydrocarbon, and reduced the hydrocarbon viscosity and density. The pressure decay experiments indicated that the nanofluid increases the mass of CO2 in water by 17% compared to that without nanofluid. Compared to CW, CNF (CW+nanofluid) increased the CO2 mass transfer into the hydrocarbon drop by approximately 2% at 10 bar and 45% at 60 bar, this leads to an increment in volume of the pendant drop by approximately 3% at 10 bar and 48% at 60 bar at 25°C. A similar observation was made at 45°C. The nanofluid through CO2 mass transfer was responsible for approximately 40% and 29% reduction in the viscosity and density respectively, when compared with CW. Compared to CO2/hydrocarbon the CNF/hydrocarbon lead to a 17.3% volume increase at 30 bar to 91.2% at 50 bar. The increase in the drop volume is unlikely to be due to the migration of nanofluid across the interface into the hydrocarbon drop as indicated by analysis done using UV spectrophotometry and may be due to increase in the CO2 concentration gradient across the interface due to increase in the CO2 solubility in CW.
Cardiovascular Mortality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and Recent Acute Coronary Syndromes From the EXAMINE Trial

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death in all Examination of Cardiovascular Outcomes with Alogliptin versus Standard of Care (EXAMINE) study participants and in those who experienced an on-study, major nonfatal CV event. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study randomly assigned 5,380 patients with type 2 diabetes to alogliptin or placebo within 15 to 90 days of an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Deaths and nonfatal CV events (myocardial infarction [MI], stroke, hospitalized heart failure [HHF], and hospitalization for unstable angina [UA]) were adjudicated. Patients were monitored until censoring or death, regardless of a prior postrandomized nonfatal CV event. Time-updated multivariable Cox models were used to estimate the risk of death in the absence of or after each nonfatal event. RESULTS Rates of CV death were 4.1% for alogliptin and 4.9% for placebo (hazard ratio [HR] 0.85; 95% CI 0.66, 1.10). A total of 736 patients (13.7%) experienced a first nonfatal CV event (5.9% MI, 1.1% stroke, 3.0% HHF, and 3.8% UA). Compared with patients not experiencing a nonfatal event, the adjusted HR (95% CI) for death was 3.12 after MI (2.13, 4.58; P < 0.0001) 4.96 after HHF (3.29, 7.47; P < 0.0001), 3.08 after stroke (1.29, 7.37; P = 0.011), and 1.66 after UA (0.81, 3.37; P = 0.164). Mortality rates after a nonfatal event were comparable for alogliptin and placebo. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and a recent ACS, the risk of CV death was higher after a postrandomization, nonfatal CV event, particularly heart failure, compared with those who did not experience a CV event. The risk of CV death was similar between alogliptin and placebo.
Design of a Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Method Used for an Automatic Bearing Tracking System

In this paper, we introduce a sub-band direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation method suitable for employment within an automatic bearing tracking system. Inspired by the magnitude-squared coherence (MSC), we extend the MSC to the sub-band and propose the sub-band magnitude-squared coherence (SMSC) to measure the coherence between the frequency sub-bands of wideband signals. Then, we design a sub-band DOA estimation method which chooses a sub-band from the wideband signals by SMSC for the bearing tracking system. The simulations demonstrate that the sub-band method has a good tradeoff between the wideband methods and narrowband methods in terms of the estimation accuracy, spatial resolution, and computational cost. The proposed method was also tested in the field environment with the bearing tracking system, which also showed a good performance.
Augmentation of cognitive function in epilepsy

parahippocampal (PHc),perirhinal (PRc), entrorhinal (ERc), and hippocampal (HC) functioning [the ‘Binding of Items and Context [BIC] Model (Diana et al., 2007)], suggests that these structures form an integrated circuit that supports recollection and familiarity. The PRc is proposed to be important in encoding and retrieving items (e.g., objects, words, and ideas), whereas the PHc is responsible for representing spatial, temporal, and semantic context. The HC supports memory for episodes by integrating these inputs and binding the item-based contextual information together as a unique event in space and time. In this view, the formation of new memories depends upon the integrated series of inputs from PRc and PHc components of the parahippocampal gyrus and their respective targets in the ERc and hippocampus. Despite extensive animal work, it is unknown in humans whether selective damage to these areas or their interconnections that produce subtypes of memory impairment might differentially respond to different types of memory training. Although some data exists on the eff icacy of memory rehabilitation programs, little is known about the neural basis of individualized rehabilitation responses from a mechanistic perspective (Wagner, 2011).
Phoneme and Word Scoring in Speech-in-Noise Audiometry.

PURPOSE Understanding speech in background noise is difficult for many individuals; however, time constraints have limited its inclusion in the clinical audiology assessment battery. Phoneme scoring of words has been suggested as a method of reducing test time and variability. The purposes of this study were to establish a phoneme scoring rubric and use it in testing phoneme and word perception in noise in older individuals and individuals with hearing impairment. METHOD Words were presented to 3 participant groups at 80 dB in speech-shaped noise at 7 signal-to-noise ratios (-10 to 35 dB). Responses were scored for words and phonemes correct. RESULTS It was not surprising to find that phoneme scores were up to about 30% better than word scores. Word scoring resulted in larger hearing loss effect sizes than phoneme scoring, whereas scoring method did not significantly modify age effect sizes. There were significant effects of hearing loss and some limited effects of age; age effect sizes of about 3 dB and hearing loss effect sizes of more than 10 dB were found. CONCLUSION Hearing loss is the major factor affecting word and phoneme recognition with a subtle contribution of age. Phoneme scoring may provide several advantages over word scoring. A set of recommended phoneme scoring guidelines is provided.
Cranial Nerve Seven Palsy and Its Influence on Meibomian Gland Function

Purpose: To investigate a possible relationship between cranial nerve seven (CN VII) palsy and meibomian gland dysfunction. Methods: A prospective case series of 16 patients with unilateral CN VII palsy was evaluated for meibomian gland function. Main outcome measures included the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System for CN VII palsy and a modified version of a noncontact, noninvasive meibomian gland evaluation by Arita et al.1,2 Unaffected contralateral eyes were used as the control group for comparison. Results: Sixteen affected eyes were evaluated. The mean Sunnybrook Facial Grading System composite score was 34.19 ± 24 (score = −15 to 100; maximum function = 100). A paired samples t test between affected and unaffected eyes demonstrated a significant difference between mean values for tear break-up time, eyelid abnormality, meiboscore for upper eyelid, meiboscore for lower eyelid, combined meiboscore, and digital pressure. No significant difference was found for superficial punctate keratopathy nor Schirmer’s test. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient found a significant negative correlation between the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System composite score and all aspects of meibomian gland function, except for the upper eyelid meiboscore, which only approached significance (p = 0.059). Conclusion: These findings suggest that a strong relationship exists between cranial nerve seven palsy and meibomian gland dysfunction. Clinical optimization of meibomian gland function may benefit cranial nerve seven palsy patients.