Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated annotation of corals in natural scene images using multiple texture representations

Current coral reef health monitoring programs rely on biodiversity data obtained through the acquisition and annotation of underwater photographs. Manual annotation of these photographs is a necessary step, but has become problematic due to the high volume of images and the high cost of human resources. While automated and reliable multi-spectral annotation methods exist, coral reef images are often limited to visible light, which makes automation difficult. Much of the previous work has focused on popular texture recognition methods, but the results remain unsatisfactory when compared to human performance for the same task. In this work, we present an improved automatic method for coral image annotation that yields consistent accuracy improvements over existing methods. Our method builds on previous work by combining multiple feature representations. We demonstrate that the aggregation of multiple methods outperforms any single method. Furthermore, our proposed system requires virtually no parameter tuning, and supports rejection for improved results. Firstly, the complex texture diversity of corals is handled by combining multiple feature representations: local binary patterns, hue and opponent angle histograms, textons, and deep convolutional activation feature. Secondly, these multiple representations are aggregated using a score-level fusion of multiple support vector machines. Thirdly, rejection can optionally be applied to enhance classification results, and allows efficient semi-supervised image annotation in collaboration with human experts.
Pulmonary Gas Exchange in Coronary Artery Surgery Patients During Sevoflurane and Isoflurane Anesthesia

As the surgical population ages, the number of patients presenting with coronary artery disease and age-related loss of pulmonary recoil will increase. Although their influence on gas exchange in this population remains unknown, sevoflurane and isoflurane are used for an increasing variety of surgical procedures. We examined pulmonary gas exchange (multiple inert gas elimination technique) in 30 patients presenting for coronary artery bypass grafting. After a baseline measurement taken during midazolam anesthesia, patients were continued on sevoflurane (n = 10), isoflurane (n = 10), or midazolam (n = 10) for 20 min, then a second measurement was taken. During sevoflurane and isoflurane anesthesia, blood flow to lung areas with a low ventilation/perfusion ratio (&OV0312;a/&OV0422;) was significantly increased in comparison with control. During sevoflurane anesthesia, blood flow to lung areas with a normal &OV0312;a/&OV0422; ratio (76 ± 12 versus control: 89 ± 5, mean ± sd) and Pao2 (138 ± 31 versus control: 156 ± 35 mm Hg, mean ± sd) were depressed, whereas an increase in &OV0312;a/&OV0422;-dispersion (log sdQ) was observed during isoflurane anesthesia. We conclude that both sevoflurane and isoflurane alter the distribution of perfusion in the lung, but only sevoflurane significantly depresses Pao2.
Outcomes in implanted teenagers who do not meet the adult candidacy criteria

Severe to profoundly deaf adults who score 50% or over on the Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) sentence test currently cannot obtain NHS funding for a cochlear implant according to the NICE guidelines (NICE Technical Appraisal Guidance (TAG166), 2009. Cochlear implants for children and adults with severe to profound deafness. NICE technology appraisal guidance [TAG166]. http://www.nice. org.uk/ta166 accessed 08/02/2016). There is no cut-off restriction from the BKB score for children. This study challenges this restrictive criteria for adults, by presenting the outcomes of cochlear implantation in older children who scored over 50% on BKB sentence testing pre-implantation and therefore would not have been implanted under the adult NICE guidelines. Outcomes are presented using the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale Version C (SSQ-C) (Gatehouse, S., Noble, W. 2004. The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ). International Journal of Audiology, 43: 85–99. ). This study suggests a greater proportion of adults who are currently being restricted from having a cochlear implant would benefit from implantation.
A high-efficiency matching technique for low power levels in RF harvesting

Radiofrequency (RF) energy can be harvested in order to power autonomous sen- sors either from the surrounding environment or from dedicated sources. A conventional RF harvester is mainly composed by an antenna, a matching network and a rectifler. At low power levels, e.g., i10dBm and below, the corresponding voltage amplitude at the antenna is low and comparable to the voltage drop of the diodes used in the rectifler. In order to boost the voltage at the rectifler input and thus the rectifler e-ciency, an L-network optimized for an input power of i10dBm at 868MHz is proposed in this work. As for the rectifler, a half-wave rectifler with a single zero-bias Schottky diode (HSMS2850) was selected. First, a theoretical analysis was performed followed by simulations with ADS (Harmonic Balance). Simulations show e-ciencies of 75% for an input power of i10dBm with ideal components but using the actual model of the diode rectifler. The incorporation of the PCB layout efiects and the actual components decreases the e-ciency to below 50%. Finally, a PCB implementation was performed using a 0.5pF capac- itor and a 27nH inductor for the L network. The input power was generated by an RF generator. The RF-to-DC e-ciency was of 45% at 868MHz with an optimum load of 2.5k›. E-ciencies of 34.5% and 22.5% were achieved at i15dBm and i20dBm, respectively.
Mexican manufacturing and its integration into global value chains

This paper studies the value added contributions to final manufacturing output produced in Mexico. It distinguishes between contributions originating from foreign producers located in different major regions of the world economy and contributions made by domestic producers. The analysis is performed for the main two components of Mexican manufacturing: assembly plants producing for export markets (Maquiladora industry) and manufacturing firms mainly producing for the domestic market (Domestic Manufacturing). To this end, Mexico (Maquiladora) and Mexico (Domestic Manufacturing) are separately included into World Input-output Tables (WIOT) from 1998 to 2011. The empirical analysis shows that the structure of value added contributions with regard to the final output of the Mexican domestic sector has remained unaltered, while the structure of value added contributions to the final output of the Maquiladora sector has drastically changed over time. For its own final output, Mexico (Domestic) has the largest share of value added contributions with some increase in the value added contributions of producers in foreign countries (notably, the USA). With regard to the final output of Mexico (Maquiladora) there was a shift from a dominance of US value added in all the manufacturing sectors (70% in 1998) to a much more diversified structure of value added contributions. By 2011, the East Asian share in value added was the largest in the Electrical and Optical equipment sector. Mexico (Domestic Manufacturing) and Mexico (Maquiladora) had the largest value added contributions in the Transport Equipment sector, while the US continued to account for the lion's share of value added in the textile industry. In our view, those changes in the structure of value added contributions have to do with decisions by US firms to reallocate production to low-cost countries in Asia. They reflect changing patterns of the integration of Mexico in global value chains.
Operation, Control, and Applications of the Modular Multilevel Converter: A Review

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been a subject of increasing importance for medium/high-power energy conversion systems. Over the past few years, significant research has been done to address the technical challenges associated with the operation and control of the MMC. In this paper, a general overview of the basics of operation of the MMC along with its control challenges are discussed, and a review of state-of-the-art control strategies and trends is presented. Finally, the applications of the MMC and their challenges are highlighted.
Modeling of a variable speed wind turbine with a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator

The aim of this work is to analyze a typical configuration of a Wind Turbine Generator System (WTGS) equipped with a Variable Speed Generator. Nowadays, doubly-fed induction generators are being widely used on WTGS, although synchronous generators are being extensively utilized too. There are different types of synchronous generators, but the multi-pole Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) is chosen in order to obtain its model. It offers better performance due to higher efficiency and less maintenance since it does not have rotor current and can be used without a gearbox, which also implies a reduction of the weight of the nacelle and a reduction of costs. Apart from the generator, the analyzed WTGS consists of another three parts: wind speed, wind turbine and drive train. These elements have been modeled and the equations that explain their behavior have been introduced. What is more, the whole WTGS has been implemented in MATLAB/Simulink interface. Moreover, the concept of the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) has been presented in terms of the adjustment of the generator rotor speed according to instantaneous wind speed.
Signal-dependent Binding of the Response Regulators PhoP and PmrA to Their Target Promoters in Vivo*

Low Mg2+ promotes phosphorylation of the response regulators PhoP and PmrA and transcription of their activated genes in Salmonella enterica. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we have now determined that the PhoP and PmrA proteins are recruited to the regulatory region of their target genes when bacteria experience low Mg2+ but not when they are grown in high Mg2+. Even when the PhoP protein was artificially produced at 4-fold higher levels than the wild-type strain, promoter occupancy required the low Mg2+ signal. Substitution of the predicted phosphorylation site Asp-52 with a valine residue abolished phosphorylation of the PhoP protein, resulting in loss of PhoP binding to target promoters and transcription of PhoP-activated genes. Our results indicate that the promoter binding ability of the PhoP and PmrA proteins occurring in low Mg2+ is correlated with phosphorylation of these proteins in vivo.
The Relationship between Governance Effectiveness and Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is an essential element for job creation and economic growth. It is therefore important to better understand the conditions under which entrepreneurship flourish. This research tests the relationship between perceptions of government's effectiveness, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, and the extent that entrepreneurship exists on a national level. The data for this study were collected internationally by the World Bank (World Governance Indicators) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project via extensive interviews and surveys to citizens and national experts, respectively. Contrary to expectations, perceived government effectiveness was significantly negatively related to entrepreneurship on a national level. Study implications are presented with suggestions for future research.
ANALYSIS OF THE LONDON UNDERGROUND PPP FAILURE

The London Underground Public Private Partnership (PPP) allowed for private sector consortiums to take over infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation of the London Underground system. Private financing was arranged to fund the infrastructure rehabilitation programs and the PPPs also received annual grants from the government. The PPP arrangements were contracted for a 30 year period beginning in 2004, yet by early 2010 both private consortiums had failed and control of the infrastructure had returned to the government. This paper is a literature survey of the many problems that beset the London PPP, as well as current thinking about PPPs in general. Topics considered include the financing of the PPPs, the PPP contract, construction management issues that affected rehabilitation projects, and the contracting relationships between the PPP consortiums and their parent companies.
Somatic mutations predict poor outcome in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome after hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation.

PURPOSE Recurrently mutated genes in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are pathogenic drivers and powerfully associated with clinical phenotype and prognosis. Whether these types of mutations predict outcome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) in patients with MDS is not known. PATIENTS AND METHODS We used massively parallel sequencing to examine tumor samples collected from 87 patients with MDS before HSCT for coding mutations in 40 recurrently mutated MDS genes. RESULTS Mutations were identified in 92% of patients, most frequently in the ASXL1 (29%), TP53 (21%), DNMT3A (18%), and RUNX1 (16%) genes. In univariable analyses, only TP53 mutations were associated with shorter overall (OS; hazard ratio [HR], 3.74; P < .001) and progression-free survival (HR, 3.97; P < .001). After adjustment for clinical variables associated with these end points, mutations in TP53 (HR, 2.30; P = .027), TET2 (HR, 2.40; P = .033), and DNMT3A (HR, 2.08; P = .049) were associated with decreased OS. In multivariable analysis including clinical variables, complex karyotype status, and candidate genes, mutations in TP53 (HR, 4.22; P ≤ .001) and TET2 (HR, 1.68; P = .037) were each independently associated with shorter OS. Nearly one half of patients (46%) carried a mutation in TP53, DNMT3A, or TET2 and accounted for 64% of deaths. Three-year OS in patients without these mutations was 59% (95% CI, 43% to 72%), versus 19% (95% CI, 9% to 33%) in patients with these mutations. CONCLUSION Mutations in TP53, TET2, or DNMT3A identify patients with MDS with shorter OS after HSCT.
Diurnal variation and short-term pre-analytical stability of serum soluble α-klotho in healthy volunteers: a pilot study

Aim To investigate the diurnal variability and pre-analytical stability of soluble α-klotho in serum. Background Recent evidence suggests that the cleaved extracellular domain of the α-klotho receptor, soluble α-klotho, affects phosphate homeostasis, ion channel regulation and antifibrotic/antioxidant pathways. However, soluble α-klotho measurements have yielded inconsistent results when related to renal function, markers of mineral metabolism and patient outcomes. Pre-analytical factors such as biological variation and analyte stability may affect the interpretation of soluble α-klotho results but are yet to be formally assessed. Methods Clotted blood samples were collected from 10 healthy adult volunteers at three time-points during the day to assess diurnal change. Additional samples were collected and allowed to stand at room temperature for 30, 60 and 120 min, prior to centrifugation and analysis to evaluate analyte stability. Serum soluble α-klotho was measured using a validated commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Delayed processing of samples had no significant effect on serum soluble α-klotho concentrations over a 2-h period. Serum soluble α-klotho concentrations remained stable over morning, midday and afternoon time-points in this pilot study. Conclusion Serum soluble α-klotho demonstrates short-term pre-analytical stability and minimal diurnal variability in this pilot study. Larger studies are warranted to confirm these findings.
Genetic learning of neural networks and its applications

The paper presents a constructive method, which combines the architectural feature of the cascade correlation algorithm (CCA) and genetic algorithms for building the neural network and training the corresponding connection weights. Comparisons between the proposed method and the cascade correlation algorithm are made by applying it to SAR image classification. Experimental results showed that the proposed genetic learning method has higher classification rate and can create more compact networks in terms of number of hidden nodes, than that of the standard cascade correlation algorithm.
Mechanism of directional selectivity in simple neurons of the cat's visual cortex analyzed with stationary flash sequences.

The properties of simple neurons showing selectivity to direction of motion in area 17 of the cat cortex were examined. We analyzed in particular a sample of cells receiving a projection from 0 to 10 degrees in visual angle from the area centralis of the cat retina. Three categories of simple neurons were examined: directionally asymmetric (DA) neurons, directionally selective neurons of the unimodal type (DS1), and bimodal types (DS2). Poststimulus time histograms (PSTH) were obtained to moving white and black bars as well as to static onset sequences and static offset sequences. Our analysis involves a comparison of responses to single static flashes at various receptive-field locations with responses to sequence pairs of static flashes at those same locations. We find that DA neurons are not sensitive to the direction in which a pair of stimuli are presented. Inhibitory and excitatory responses show properties of linear summation whatever the direction of the stimulus sequence. Their behavior is reminiscent of retinal and LGN neurons. The synergy model accounts well for a DA neurons's directional asymmetry. If pairs of stimuli are close enough (usually an interstimulus distance of 20' or less for the central 10 degrees of the cat's visual field), then DS neurons show striking departures from linear summation. Specifically, this departure entails an anisotropic distribution of inhibition. The directional selectivity of DS neurons cannot be explained on the basis of a simple linear combination of their on and off region's responses. Directional selectivity is produced entirely within an on-excitatory discharge region or entirely within an off-excitatory discharge region. The excitatory discharge center of even the simplest unimodal DS neuron can be shown to be decomposable into subunits smaller than that discharge center. The fact that the spread of this anisotropy of inhibition is often much more restricted than the entire extent of the DS neuron's excitatory discharge center argues strongly that underlying subregions or modules are contributing their inputs to DS neurons. A DS neuron does not analyze motion as an isolated unit; to the contrary, it is probably embedded in a pool of mutually "cooperative" DS neurons. The basic module of directional analysis is responsive either to an on-on sequence or an off-off sequence but not to both. It is not selective to an on-off sequence. Therefore, unimodal DS neurons (DS1) are performing an analysis of single moving edges. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Automatic speech recognition fusion approach to unsupervised speaker clustering and labeling

This paper describes a fully unsupervised approach to speaker clustering and labeling employing speech recognition (ASR) technology to bootstrap speaker identification (SID). An algorithm that combined these two technologies was able to correctly cluster and label 299 NATO ship-to-ship transmissions with an accuracy of 89% in an on-line (no a priori training) scenario. This fusion approach out-performed ASR alone by 23.6%, and outperformed manually-trained VQ-SID by 12.7% and GMM/UMB-SID by 8.6%. This paper demonstrates that, under certain circumstances, unsupervised, self-organizing systems can be more effective than manually-trained ones
MAGIC in practice: Experience of peri‐operative ECF/X chemotherapy in gastro‐esophageal adenocarcinomas

The MAGIC trial demonstrated the perioperative regimen of Epirubicin (E), Cisplatin (C) and 5‐Fluorouracil (F) to have an overall survival benefit for patients with gastro‐esophageal adenocarcinomas. We present our experience of the peri‐operative regimen of ECF/ECX(X = Capecitabine) in operable gastro‐esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Spatial, polarized and cross-polarized correlation measurements for single-BS MIMO and multi-BS cooperative MIMO

It is expected that MIMO and CoMP technologies will be able to improve user throughput at the cell edge and indeed the whole cell. Since the performance of these technologies greatly depends on the spatial, polarized and cross-polarized correlation characteristics, it is important to analyze them in sufficient detail. This paper clarifies these correlation characteristics for single-BS MIMO and multi-BS cooperative MIMO based on measured data in outdoor NLOS environments.
Background Subtraction with Dynamic Noise Sampling and Complementary Learning

Background subtraction is a popular technique used in accurate foreground extraction with a stationary background. Since most outdoor surveillance videos are taken in complex environments, their "stationary" backgrounds change in some unknown patterns, which make the perfect foreground extraction very difficult. Based on visual background extractor (ViBe) scheme, in this paper we propose a new background subtraction algorithm which includes two innovative mechanisms and several other improved technique tricks. The paper inherits and develops background modeling based on pixel sample values, and use dynamic noise sampling and complementary learning to overcome the pixel-wise background model's intrinsic shortcomings. Besides, the algorithm works on the quantitative analysis without any estimation of the probability density function (pdf). Hence, it takes relatively low computational cost. Extensive experiments on a popular public dataset show that the proposed method has much better precision than ViBe, and could get the best precision and the highest average ranking compared with 27 state-of-the-art algorithms presented on the change detection website.
The effect of breast milk and lanolin on sore nipples.

OBJECTIVE To compare the effect of rubbing breast milk versus lanolin in the treatment of symptoms of sore nipples. METHODS We carried out this randomized clinical trial on 225 mothers with sore nipples in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran from April 2001 for 2 years. We randomly divided the patients into 3 groups. The first group rubbed the hind milk on their nipples at the end of each breast-feeding session, and the second group used lanolin locally on the nipple 3 times a day, and cleaned the nipple with a wet cloth before infant feeding. The third group did not use anything (control group). We corrected the breast-feeding technique of all mothers throughout the study. After the first visit, we reexamined the patient on the third, fifth, seventh and tenth days. We obtained information with interviewing and physical examination by using a questionnaire. We based the sore nipple improvement on absence of irritation according to mothers opinions. We analyzed the obtained information using the SPSS version 11.5 software, and the used tests were Chi-Square test, Mann-Whitney test, and Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS The first group (breast milk users) included 78 patients, the second group (lanolin users) included 74 patients, and the third group (control group) included 73 patients. The 3 groups were similar in gravidity, delivery method, pre-delivery breast feeding education, the beginning time of the first breast feeding, prior success breast feeding experiences, detergent agents usage for nipples, use of formula, and pacifier. Clinical manifestations, such as appearance time of symptoms, irritation and breast wound were not significantly different. The healing time was different in these 3 groups (p=0.038) according to the mean ranking in the groups. The healing time in the lanolin group was longer than the breast milk group (p=0.029) and the control group (p=0.028). No side effects were noted during the study. CONCLUSION This study suggests that, due to the better healing of the sore nipple with breast milk, its availability, without payment and side effect, breast milk is recommended for the treatment of sore nipples.