Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy: toward real‐time quantification of steatosis in liver

Assessment of fatty liver grafts during orthotopic liver transplantation is a challenge due to the lack of real‐time analysis options during surgery. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) could be a new diagnostic tool to quickly assess steatosis. Eight hundred and seventy‐eight optical measurements were performed in vivo in 17 patients in liver tissue during surgery and ex vivo on liver resection specimens from 41 patients. Liver steatosis was quantified from the collected optical spectra and compared with the histology analysis from the measurement location by three independent pathologists. Twenty two patients were diagnosed with <5% steatosis, 15 patients had mild steatosis, and four had moderate steatosis. Severe steatosis was not identified. Intraclass correlation between the pathologists analysis was 0.949. A correlation of 0.854 was found between the histology and DRS analyses of liver steatosis ex vivo. For the same liver tissue, a correlation of 0.925 was demonstrated between in vivo and ex vivo DRS analysis for steatosis quantification. DRS can quantify steatosis in liver tissue both in vivo and ex vivo with good agreement compared to histopathology analysis. This analysis can be performed real time and may therefore be useful for fast objective assessment of liver steatosis in liver surgery.
A Dynamically Reconfigurable RF NoC for Many-Core

With the growing number of cores on chips, conventional electrical interconnects reach scalability limits, leading the way for alternatives like Radio Frequency (RF), optical and 3D. Due to the variability of applications, communication needs change over time and across regions of the chip. To address these issues, a dynamically reconfigurable Network on Chip (NoC) is proposed. It uses RF and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) to create communication channels whose allocation allows dynamic reconfiguration. We describe the NoC architecture and the distributed mechanism of dynamic allocation. We study the feasibility of the NoC based on state of the art components and analyze its performances. Static analysis shows that, for point to point communications, its latency is comparable with a 256-node electrical mesh and becomes lower for wider networks. A major feature of this architecture is its broadcast capacity. The RF~NoC becomes faster with 32 nodes, achieving a x3 speedup with 1024. Under realistic traffic models, its dynamic reconfigurability provides up to x6 lower latency while ensuring fairness.
Computational community interest for ranking

Ranking documents with respect to users' information needs is a challenging task, due, in part, to the dynamic nature of users' interest with respect to a query, which can change over time. In this paper, we propose an innovative method for characterizing the interests of a community of users at a specific point in time and for using this characterization to alter the ranking of documents retrieved for a query. By generating a community interest vector (CIV) for a given query, we measure the community interest by computing a score in a specific document or web page retrieved by the query. This score is based on a continuously updated set of recent (daily or past few hours) user-oriented text data. When applying our method in ranking Yahoo! Buzz results, the CIV score improves relevant results by 16% as determined by real-world user evaluation.
Accessible Pareto-Improvements: Using Market Information to Reform Inefficiencies

We study Pareto improvements whose implementation requires knowledge of only market prices and traded quantities, not utility and demand functions. Quantity stabilization gives agents the right to repeat the net trades they previously conducted, but requires policymakers to have records of those trades. While reasonable in some partial equilibrium contexts, such an assumption is implausible in general equilibrium. To diminish informational requirements further, we also consider price stabilization, which holds constant the relative prices that consumers face. Although price stabilizations do not achieve first-best efficiency, they lead to Pareto-improvements and production efficiency. Moreover, the production efficiency advantage persists under price stabilization but not under quantity stabilization when some firms are not profit-maximizers; this difference can be critical in transition policies for planned economies. In addition to planning, we consider several other applications of quantity and price stabilization, both partial equilibrium and general equilibrium: removal of rent controls, deregulation of a cross-subsidizing public utility, and the entry of an autarkic economy into world trade.
Reading Difficulties and Dyslexia: An Interpretation for Teachers

Preface PART I: UNDERSTANDING READING DIFFICULTIES Good and Poor Readers From Nursery Rhymes to Phonological Coding Stages of Reading Development Explaining Reading by Intelligence Reading and Comprehension Spelling and Writing PART II: REMEDIATION OF READING AND LEARNING DIFFICULTIES Theory and Practice COGENT Program: Getting Ready to Read A Taste of COGENT: Program Modules COGENT Works: Early Evidence How Does Reading Readiness Work? A Taste of COGENT PREP: A Remediation Program Based on PASS A Taste of PREP in Words and Pictures Case Histories PART III: THE NEXT STEPS The Way Forward Integration of Contemporary Views on Reading Epilogue: New Horizons in Understanding Reading Bibliography
Analyses of Old “Prokaryotic” Proteins Indicate Functional Diversification in Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa

During evolution, various processes such as duplication, divergence, recombination, and many other events leads to the evolution of new genes with novel functions. These evolutionary events, thus significantly impact the evolution of cellular, physiological, morphological, and other phenotypic trait of organisms. While evolving, eukaryotes have acquired large number of genes from the earlier prokaryotes. This work is focused upon identification of old “prokaryotic” proteins in Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa genome, further highlighting their possible role(s) in the two genomes. Our results suggest that with respect to their genome size, the fraction of old “prokaryotic” proteins is higher in Arabidopsis than in Oryza sativa. The large fractions of such proteins encoding genes were found to be localized in various endo-symbiotic organelles. The domain architecture of the old “prokaryotic” proteins revealed similar distribution in both Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa genomes showing their conserved evolution. In Oryza sativa, the old “prokaryotic” proteins were more involved in developmental processes, might be due to constant man-made selection pressure for better agronomic traits/productivity. While in Arabidopsis, these proteins were involved in metabolic functions. Overall, the analysis indicates the distinct pattern of evolution of old “prokaryotic” proteins in Arabidopsis and Oryza sativa.
Aggression and social interest in behavior disordered students

This study investigated whether behavior disordered children would decrease aggressive behavior if their social interest were developed. Three hypotheses that were tested predicted that there would be a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on adjusted mean scores on aggressive behavior on post test scores. The measuring instruments used were the Child Behavior Checklist Parent Report Form, the Child Behavior Checklist Teacher Report Form, and the Child Behavior Checklist Director Observation Form. It was also predicted that there would be a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on post test adjusted mean scores as measured on the Social Interest Scale. An analysis of covariance was employed to test the data. Behavior disordered students in the experimental group participated in three activities designed to develop their social interest. They participated in peer tutoring, socialization with nursing home residents, and group discussions. Data were collected from parents, teachers, and observers of behavior disordered students in an elementary school in Northwest Louisiana during the summer term of 1987. Teachers did report a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control groups in the decrease of aggressive behavior. These results are in accord with predictions generated by Adlerian theory and with naturalistic data. Parents and observers did not report a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the decrease of aggressive behavior. Significant differences were not found between the experimental and control groups in the development of social interest. Since the teachers did report statistically significant results in this study, it is recommended that these same activities to develop social interest be repeated, that counseling sessions be designed to be more therapeutic, and that additional modeling and role playing be included. It is further recommended that an instrument be developed to measure social interest in children, and that parents and teachers of the children be provided with education and training in Adlerian theory and its application to their interactions with children.
Structure and in situ development of the microlichen Gyalectidium paolae (Gomphillaceae, Ascomycota), an overlooked colonist on palm leaves in southwest Florida.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Nondeciduous leaves of warm, humid climates can host highly specialized communities of diminutive lichens. The rarely reported Gyalectidium paolae, locally abundant on palm leaves in southwest Florida, may reproduce when as small as 0.15 mm diameter. We examined structural and developmental features to better understand the lifestyle of this extreme ephemeral. METHODS Blocks containing resin-embedded thalli were sectioned and examined with TEM and SEM-BSE. Propagule development was studied with light microscopy applied to inoculated and naturally colonized plastic coverslips placed in the field. KEY RESULTS Thallus areolae showed a heterogeneous covering that varied from cellular cortex to a simpler structure derived from fungal wall materials and sparse fungal cells of reduced diameter. Plates of crystalline deposits seemed to interrupt thallus structure, elevating the surface layer. No organized algal layer was present. Symbiont interactions were limited to appositional wall contacts with no haustorial penetration observed. Symbiotic propagules germinated promptly, but relative growth of fungal vs. algal components varied considerably. Smaller photobiont cells released from sporangia were present at the periphery of the thallus, or escaped to some distance. Fully formed hyphophores with abundant propagules appeared within 5 months, although there was evidence that propagule formation in Gyalectidium might occur much sooner. CONCLUSIONS Gyalectidium paolae builds relatively simple thalli with limited fungal structure, prioritizing rapid formation of asexual propagules. Codispersal of algal symbionts permitted propagules to develop directly into thalli, but microenvironmental conditions may strongly influence survival and developmental equilibrium between the two symbionts necessary for success as a lichen.
Deep Adaptive Log-Demons: Diffeomorphic Image Registration with Very Large Deformations

This paper proposes a new framework for capturing large and complex deformation in image registration. Traditionally, this challenging problem relies firstly on a preregistration, usually an affine matrix containing rotation, scale, and translation and afterwards on a nonrigid transformation. According to preregistration, the directly calculated affine matrix, which is obtained by limited pixel information, may misregistrate when large biases exist, thus misleading following registration subversively. To address this problem, for two-dimensional (2D) images, the two-layer deep adaptive registration framework proposed in this paper firstly accurately classifies the rotation parameter through multilayer convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and then identifies scale and translation parameters separately. For three-dimensional (3D) images, affine matrix is located through feature correspondences by a triplanar 2D CNNs. Then deformation removal is done iteratively through preregistration and demons registration. By comparison with the state-of-the-art registration framework, our method gains more accurate registration results on both synthetic and real datasets. Besides, principal component analysis (PCA) is combined with correlation like Pearson and Spearman to form new similarity standards in 2D and 3D registration. Experiment results also show faster convergence speed.
Exploiting Error Estimating Codes for Packet Length Adaptation in Low-Power Wireless Networks

We propose Plena, a packet length adaptation scheme exploiting recently proposed error estimating codes (EEC) for low-power wireless networks. We carefully consider two low-power MAC protocols in modeling the energy consumption of different packet lengths. Based on the modeling and analysis, we give closed form solutions for the optimal packet length in terms of energy efficiency. EEC allows for instant estimation of the bit error rate (BER) in a partially correct packet, making it possible for predicting packet reception ratios (PRRs) at different packet lengths without the need of direct measurement in an iterative process. Fast convergence of Plena makes it suitable for mobile environments in which the channel characteristics are frequently changing. We evaluate Plena's computation overhead based on the commonly used TelosB nodes. Results show that the computation overhead of Plena is acceptably small. We also perform extensive simulations and testbed experiments to study the performance of Plena under different configurations. Results show that Plena achieves better energy efficiency than existing works.
The perception of the environment : essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill

The Perception Of Environment Essays Recent Examples on the Web. The perception was that AMD’s own outlook was relatively rosy, and straightforward. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "AMD upends GPU tradition by launching 'Navi' as a lower-end part," 30 Apr. 2019 One of the first brands to change this perception for me is the incredibly chic Herbivore Botanicals. — Glamour, "Herbivore’s Prism Glow Potion Gives You Radiant Skin .
Estimating the Probability of a Major Outbreak from the Timing of Early Cases: An Indeterminate Problem?

Conservation biologists, as well as veterinary and public health officials, would benefit greatly from being able to forecast whether outbreaks of infectious disease will be major. For values of the basic reproductive number (R 0) between one and two, infectious disease outbreaks have a reasonable chance of either fading out at an early stage or, in the absence of intervention, spreading widely within the population. If it were possible to predict when fadeout was likely to occur, the need for costly precautionary control strategies could be minimized. However, the predictability of even simple epidemic processes remains largely unexplored. Here we conduct an examination of simulated data from the early stages of a fatal disease outbreak and explore how observable information might be useful for predicting major outbreaks. Specifically, would knowing the time of deaths for the first few cases allow us to predict whether an outbreak will be major? Using two approaches, trajectory matching and discriminant function analysis, we find that even in our best-case scenario (with accurate knowledge of epidemiological parameters, and precise times of death), it was not possible to reliably predict the outcome of a stochastic Susceptible-Exposed–Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) process.
Th1 Cytokines and the Prothrombinase fgl2 in Stress‐triggered and Inflammatory Abortion

PROBLEM: The immune system contributes to the outcome of pregnancy by complex immunological interactions. Cytokines especially influence the immune milieu pro or contra pregnancy. T helper 1 (Th1) cytokines [tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) and interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ)] cause inflammation and together are thought to threaten the maintenance of pregnancy. It has been proposed that increased levels of these Th1 cytokines activate coagulation via up‐regulating the novel prothrombinase, fgl2. This study further investigates the Th1 cytokine up‐regulation of fgl2 expression in a pathophysiological, stress induced abortion model, and an inflammatory, interleukin‐12 (IL‐12) triggered abortion model.
Service Provider and Beneficiary Perceptions of Collectivist Domestic Violence Social Issues

Service Provider and Beneficiary Perceptions of Collectivist Domestic Violence Social Issues in Jordan Annie Mohsen Taher Samhouri Department of Sociology Master of Science In this research I have focused on beneficiary and service providers’ perceptions toward Arab social obstacles to help-seeking, appropriate intervention methods and obstacles to reintegration into the community after seeking assistance. Through semi-structured interviews and content analysis of local policies, laws and specific service offerings, I sought to contribute to the limited literature that explores how formal institutions that originate from a Western context are adapted to meet the unique needs of Arab victims of domestic violence. I found that the main social obstacles to help-seeking were attributed to a dearth of knowledge about existing services, a lack of confidence in formal institutions such as non-governmental and government agencies, a fear of rejection or punishment from their families and communities, concerns about laws that might increase a woman’s vulnerability and limited economic resources.
HapticHead: A Spherical Vibrotactile Grid around the Head for 3D Guidance in Virtual and Augmented Reality

Current virtual and augmented reality head-mounted displays usually include no or only a single vibration motor for haptic feedback and do not use it for guidance. We present HapticHead, a system utilizing multiple vibrotactile actuators distributed in three concentric ellipses around the head for intuitive haptic guidance through moving tactile cues. We conducted three experiments, which indicate that HapticHead vibrotactile feedback is both faster (2.6 s vs. 6.9 s) and more precise (96.4% vs. 54.2% success rate) than spatial audio (generic head-related transfer function) for finding visible virtual objects in 3D space around the user. The baseline of visual feedback is as expected more precise (99.7% success rate) and faster (1.3 s) in comparison, but there are many applications in which visual feedback is not desirable or available due to lighting conditions, visual overload, or visual impairments. Mean final precision with HapticHead feedback on invisible targets is 2.3° compared to 0.8° with visual feedback. We successfully navigated blindfolded users to real household items at different heights using HapticHead vibrotactile feedback independently of a head-mounted display.
A Perfect Storm: Care Transitions for Vulnerable Older Adults Discharged Home From the Emergency Department Without a Hospital Admission.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study was to describe, from the perspectives of emergency department (ED) providers, factors that influence quality and safety of transitions home from the ED for vulnerable older adults. DESIGN AND METHODS A grounded theory approach was used to analyze data from 9 focus groups conducted with ED staff that included representatives from nursing, medicine, pharmacy, social work, and respiratory therapy. RESULTS From the perspectives of these care providers, 5 antecedent concepts contribute to the perceived quality and safety of transitions from the ED to home. These 5 concepts include the nature of geriatric presentations, provider knowledge, consumer knowledge, the ED resource base, and health care system fractures. Co-occurrence and interaction among the 5 identified antecedents set up conditions for what one focus group participant described as a perfect storm. IMPLICATIONS Older adults discharged home from the ED without a hospital admission are an increasingly important but understudied group within the transitional care literature. Although they share some similarities with those undergoing different health transitions, their unique needs and the specific characteristics of ED care require a novel approach. The model that emerged in this study provides direction for understanding the complex and interrelated aspects of their transitional care needs.
How to use: nutritional assessment in neonates

Adequate nutrition and growth during the neonatal period are important, especially for preterm infants, for whom there is evidence of poor nutrient intakes and growth, and this has important implications for their health in later life. Increased nutritional support while on the neonatal intensive care unit has been shown to improve growth, but such support is not universally available. Being able to carry out and interpret a nutritional assessment is therefore an important skill for paediatricians caring for neonates. This article aims to explain how to use nutritional assessment in neonates and provides some tools to make this process as straightforward as possible.
The impact of polycystic ovary syndrome on the health-related quality of life: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been shown to cause a reduction in health-related quality of life (HRQOL). However, the relative degree of impairment in each domain differed among samples, and it was not clear which aspect of disease-specific HRQOL (modified polycystic ovary syndrome health-related quality of life questionnaire) was most negatively affected. Objective: To systematically review the effects of PCOS on specific domains of HRQOL. Materials and Methods: Literature search using search engine of database (PubMed, PsychInfo, CINAHL, CENTRAL, and Scopus) between 1998 to December 2013 yields 6 relevant publications. Pairs of raters used structural tools to analyze these articles, through critical appraisal and data extraction. The scores of each domain of polycystic ovarian syndrome questionnaire (PCOSQ) or modified version (MPCOSQ) of 1140 women with PCOS were used in meta-analysis. Results: The combine mean of emotional (4.40; 95% CI 3.77-5.04), infertility (4.13; 95% CI 3.81-4.45) and weight (3.88; 95% CI 2.33-5.42) dimensions were better, but menstruation (3.84; 95% CI 3.63-4.04) and hirsutism (3.81; 95% CI 3.26-4.35) domains were lower than the mean score of PCOSQ/MPCOSQ in related dimension. Conclusion: The meta-analysis showed that the most affected domains in specific HRQOL were hirsutism and menstruation. Based on these findings, we recommend healthcare providers to be made aware that HRQOL impairment of PCOS is mainly caused by their hirsutism and menstruation, which requires appropriate management.
Primitives extraction based on structured-light images

Geometric attributes such as curvature or surface orientation are additional information of the 3D points obtained after the scanning of an object. In the classic 3D chain, characterized by a sequential structure, these information are determined from the dense point cloud (from a 3D scanner). Then, they are used to reduce the amount of information and allows to obtain a simplified model. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to extract some geometric attributes, directly from 2D images obtained by the camera of a structured-light system.