Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contribution au recalage d'images medicales multimodales : approches par fonctions de similarite robustes et modeles deformables sous contraintes statistiques

Nous abordons, dans cette these, le probleme du recalage rigide d'images medicales multimodales 3d du cerveau humain. Deux approches sont proposees pour rendre le recalage robuste aux dissimilarites entre images dues a des bruits non gaussiens, a l'evolution de lesions, a des acquisitions incompletes ou a des informations non redondantes. Une premiere approche repose sur des fonctions de similarite inter-images associees a des m-estimateurs robustes. La technique a ete evaluee dans le cadre d'un protocole comparatif et s'est averee performante pour le recalage d'images multimodales presentant des differences importantes d'information. Une seconde approche s'appuie sur des modeles deformables statistiquement contraints modelisant les relations spatiales entre les surfaces du crane et du cerveau chez le meme individu, ainsi que les variabilites anatomiques observees dans une population d'apprentissage. Ce modele permet non seulement de contraindre le recalage des structures anatomiques mais fournit aussi une prediction de la position spatiale d'autres structures anatomiques representees. Cette seconde approche a ete evaluee et comparee a l'approche par fonctions de similarite robuste. La comparaison a montre que l'approche par modele deformable conduit a une precision de recalage comparable a celle des techniques par fonctions de similarite. Sa capacite a traiter des donnees manquantes est en revanche plus grande, en raison des contraintes statistiques specifiques apportees par l'apprentissage du modele.
Evaluation of Insecticides in Protective Clothing

The exposure to insecticides causes several health problems, which can be aggravated by more toxicity. Therefore, to avoid this exposure, it is required to use protective clothing. The use of protective equipment against pesticides is indispensable and essential from the preparation/handling regulations of the pesticides spray to the application of diluted formulations. However, even with this protection, workers are not totally immune to the contamination of pesticides. There are several factors that contribute to the loss of efficiency of protective clothing against pesticides, such as field use, activity of application, the type of material, seam presence, clothing model, types of formulation used in the application, the process of washing, and the ironing of clothes after their use.
Comparative effects of 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 and EB 1089 on mouse renal and intestinal 25‐hydroxyvitamin D3‐24‐hydroxylase

EB 1089 is a vitamin D analog that is less potent than 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) in its calcemic action but more potent in its antiproliferative action. We characterized the interaction of 1,25(OH)2D3 and EB 1089 with renal 25‐hydroxyvitamin D3‐24‐hydroxylase (24‐hydroxylase), the first enzyme in the C‐24 oxidation pathway, and compared the effects of 1,25(OH)2D3 and EB 1089 on induction of 24‐hydroxylase mRNA in mouse kidney and intestine. 1,25(OH)2D3 and EB 1089 were competitive inhibitors of 24‐hydroxylase activity. However, the K1 for 1,25(OH)2D3 (5.2 ± 2.5 nM) was significantly lower than that for EB 1089 (286 ± 59 nM). In the kidney, the time course and extent of 24‐hydroxylase mRNA induction, relative to 18S rRNA, was similar for 1,25(OH)2D3 and EB 1089 with a peak response at ≈ 6 h that was sustained for at least 16 h. In the intestine, however, induction of 24‐hydroxylase mRNA, relative to 18S rRNA, was ∼50% lower for EB 1089 than for 1,25(OH)2D3 at 3 h (p < 0.05) and 6 h (p < 0.05) while at 16 h 24‐hydroxylase mRNA was no longer detectable. Moreover, while both 1,25(OH)2D3 and EB 1089 elicited a similar dose‐dependent induction of 24‐hydroxylase mRNA in the kidney (EC50 = 0.4 ± 0.13 and 0.3 ± 0.08 ng/g for EB 1089 and 1,25(OH)2D3, respectively), the EC50 for EB 1089 (6.6 ± 1.7 ng/g) was significantly higher than that for 1,25(OH)2D3 (0.9 ± 0.32 ng/g) in the intestine (p < 0.01). EB 1089 was also less effective than 1,25(OH)2D3 in the induction of intestinal but not renal calbindin‐D9k mRNA. To determine the mechanism for tissue‐specific differences in potency, we determined the binding affinity of 1,25(OH)2D3 and EB 1089 for the vitamin D receptor. In the kidney, Kd values for 1,25(OH)2D3 (0.40 ± 0.05 nM) and EB 1089 (0.48 ± 0.04 nM) were not different. However, in the intestine, the Kd for EB 1089 (1.43 ± 0.19 nM) was significantly higher than that for 1,25(OH)2D3 (0.85 ± 0.06 nM; p < 0.05). Our results demonstrate that: (i) EB 1089 has a 50‐fold lower affinity than 1,25(OH)2D3 for renal 24‐hydroxylase, suggesting that it is more resistant to catabolism by the C‐24 oxidation pathway; and (ii) EB 1089 and 1,25(OH)2D3 exhibit tissue‐specific differences in vitamin D receptor‐mediated responses in vivo that may be ascribed, at least in part, to differences in binding affinities for the vitamin D receptor.
Patterned CNT-PDMS nanocomposites for flexible pressure sensors

This paper reports the fabrication process and characterization of a flexible pressure sensor based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT-PDMS). The proposed approach relies on patterned CNT-PDMS nanocomposite strain gauges fabricated with SU-8 microstructures (with the micropatterns) in a low-cost and simple fabrication process. This nanocomposite polymer is mounted over a PDMS membrane, which, in turn, lies on top of a PDMS diaphragm like structure. This configuration enables the PDMS membrane to bend when pressure is applied, thereby affecting the nanocomposite strain gauges, effectively changing their electrical resistance. Carbon nanotubes have several advantages such as excellent mechanical properties, high electrical conductivity and thermal stability. Furthermore, the measurement range of the proposed sensor can be adapted according to the application by varying the CNTs content and geometry of microstructure. In addition, the sensor's biocompatibility, low cost and simple fabrication makes it very appealing for biomechanical strain sensing. The sensor's sensitivity was about 0.073%ΔR/mmHg.
Health Insurance Exchanges: A Panacea or A Band-aid?

In 2010, the 111th Congress passed the first national health care reform in the United States, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). This landmark legislation is intended to “fix” a health care system renowned for decreasi ng ccess and escalating costs. This paper examines one of the principal reforms in the ACA , the state health insurance exchanges. The author finds theoretical and empirical evidence to support the exchanges’ potential (in conjunction with other relevant ACA reforms) t o increase access, decrease insurers’ excess profits and shift health car e costs away from those least able to afford them. The exchanges fall short of becoming a panacea , however, as they leave a large number of people uninsured, even in optimal scenarios. Thus, the exchanges are essentially another band-aid for the system which cover s additional people, yet does not cure the U.S. health care system’s ills.
Face localization based on wavelet extrema

The human face localization task upon upright vertical frontal views faces in complex scenes is formulated as a wavelet-based problem and developed a novel approach using the extrema density aims to determine a single face position. Face-of-interest region is firstly located and framed by finding facial edges using the inter-orientation wavelet subbands and the anthropometric measure. Then, a refinement using the proposed head corner detection approach is carried to further improve the localization accuracy. Comparisons with existing state-of-the-art face detection works, showing that our system has a comparable performance in terms of face localization rate and quality.
Effects of Heparin and Its Desulfated Derivatives on Leukocyte-Endothelial Adhesion

The effect of heparin and partially desulfated heparin derivatives on thrombin and PAF-induced adhesion of PMNs to the endothelium was studied either by a fluorescence image analysis or by 111In-labeled PMNs. The results observed with these two techniques consistently indicated that heparin and O-des-heparin inhibited PMN adhesion in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, N-des-Hep and N-O-des-Hep, even if less effective, also inhibited the adhesion of PMNs when used at high concentrations. The effect of heparin and heparin derivatives was not directed to endothelial cells but rather to PMNs, as shown by the absence of inhibitory effects, when heparins were preincubated with endothelium.
New IL-15 receptor-α splicing variants identified in intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells

IL-15 is a pleiotropic cytokine related to IL-2 which acts at a broader level than its counterpart. It is presented through its specific high-affinity receptor, IL-15Rα. Both cytokine and receptor are tightly regulated at multiple levels and are widely distributed. Thus, deregulation of their expression leads to an inflammatory immune response. Variants of splicing of IL-15Rα have been described in immune and barrier cells; however, their presence has not been focused on intestinal epithelial cells. In this study, we describe five new alternative variants of splicing of IL-15Rα in Caco-2 cells. Four of them were expressed into proteins inside Caco-2 cells, but these were unable to bind IL-15 or to follow the secretory pathway. However, the expression of mRNA itself might be relevant to diseases such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer.
High voltage machines operating at high altitude — Dielectric considerations

Rotating electrical machines must be designed for the environment in which they operate. High voltage generators and larger motors are normally designed to run under standard environmental air pressure and humidity. Machines running in special conditions such as close to the sea, in underground caverns, under water or in high humidity require special designs. The specific conditions have to be considered from the beginning as they can influence the size, the sealing, the covering and several other components of the machine. The main influence of operating machines at higher altitudes is the reduced air density. This air density influences the cooling efficiency and the dielectric strength of the air. These two effects have a direct influence on the design of electric machines. The influence of air density on the dielectric strength of air gaps is investigated and described in this paper.
Genome Sequence of the Halotolerant Staphylococcus sp. Strain OJ82, Isolated from Korean Traditional Salt-Fermented Seafood

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus sp. strain OJ82 was isolated from a Korean traditional fermented squid seafood, ojingeo-jeotgal. Staphylococcus sp. OJ82 could grow and show extracellular protease and β-galactosidase activities in the presence of extremely high saline (20%). Here, we report the genome sequence of Staphylococcus sp. OJ82.
Cultural Interpretation: Reorienting New Testament Criticism

Blount's analysis demonstrates the social intent of every reading and shows the influence of communicative context in such diverse readings of the Bible as Rudolf Bultmann's, the peasants of Solentiname, the Negro spirituals, and black-church sermons. Blount then shows how his proposal helps in assessing the several readings of Mark's trial scenes and the figure of Jesus there.
Inactivation of ANGPTL3 reduces hepatic VLDL-triglyceride secretion1[S]

Humans and mice lacking angiopoietin-like protein 3 (ANGPTL3) have pan-hypolipidemia. ANGPTL3 inhibits two intravascular lipases, LPL and endothelial lipase, and the low plasma TG and HDL-cholesterol levels in ANGPTL3 deficiency reflect increased activity of these enzymes. The mechanism responsible for the low LDL-cholesterol levels associated with ANGPTL3 deficiency is not known. Here we used an anti-ANGPTL3 monoclonal antibody (REGN1500) to inactivate ANGPTL3 in mice with genetic deficiencies in key proteins involved in clearance of ApoB-containing lipoproteins. REGN1500 treatment consistently reduced plasma cholesterol levels in mice in which Apoe, Ldlr, Lrp1, and Sdc1 were inactivated singly or in combination, but did not alter clearance of rabbit 125I-βVLDL or mouse 125I-LDL. Despite a 61% reduction in VLDL-TG production, VLDL-ApoB-100 production was unchanged in REGN1500-treated animals. Hepatic TG content, fatty acid synthesis, and fatty acid oxidation were similar in REGN1500 and control antibody-treated animals. Taken together, our findings indicate that inactivation of ANGPTL3 does not affect the number of ApoB-containing lipoproteins secreted by the liver but alters the particles that are made such that they are cleared more rapidly from the circulation via a noncanonical pathway(s). The increased clearance of lipolytic remnants results in decreased production of LDL in ANGPTL3-deficient animals.
Avatar therapy reduces auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia, trial finds

An experimental form of therapy involving a conversation between a patient with schizophrenia and a computer generated avatar representing the patient’s auditory hallucinations reduces symptoms more effectively than standard counselling, a trial has shown.1 Auditory hallucinations are common in schizophrenia, as 60-70% of patients “hear voices” that are typically derogatory, and around a quarter of patients continue to experience them despite treatment. Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis is helpful, but this generally takes time to be effective and achieves only limited benefit in some patients. “A large proportion of people with schizophrenia continue to experience distressing voices despite lengthy treatment, so it is important that we look at newer, effective and shorter forms …
Farasa: A New Fast and Accurate Arabic Word Segmenter

In this paper, we present Farasa (meaning insight in Arabic), which is a fast and accurate Arabic segmenter. Segmentation involves breaking Arabic words into their constituent clitics. Our approach is based on SVMrank using linear kernels. The features that we utilized account for: likelihood of stems, prefixes, suffixes, and their combination; presence in lexicons containing valid stems and named entities; and underlying stem templates. Farasa outperforms or equalizes state-of-the-art Arabic segmenters, namely QATARA and MADAMIRA. Meanwhile, Farasa is nearly one order of magnitude faster than QATARA and two orders of magnitude faster than MADAMIRA. The segmenter should be able to process one billion words in less than 5 hours. Farasa is written entirely in native Java, with no external dependencies, and is open-source.
Methods and Models in Linguistic and Musical Computational Creativity

Computational creativity is an area of artificial intelligence that develops algorithms and simulations of creative phenomena, as well as tools for performing creative tasks. In this thesis, we present various computational methods and models of linguistic and musical creativity. The emphasis is on developing methods that are maximally unsupervised, i.e. methods that require a minimal amount of hand-crafted linguistic, world, or domain knowledge. This thesis consists of an introductory part and five original research articles. The introductory part outlines computational creativity as a research field and discusses some of the philosophical foundations underlying the current work. The research articles present specific methods and algorithms for automatic composition of poetry and songs. The first article proposes a corpus-based poetry generation method that relies on statistical language modelling and morphological analysis and synthesis. In the second article, we expand that basic model with constraint programming techniques to handle more aspects of the poetic structure and style. The third article presents a method for mining document-specific word associations and proposes using them in poetry generation to produce poems based, for instance, on a specific news story. The fourth article presents a song composition system that utilises constraint programming to produce songs with matching lyrics and music in a transformational way, i.e. is able to modify its
Long-Term Treatment of Alzheimer Disease: Efficacy and Safety of Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors

During the past 20 years, research on Alzheimer disease (AD) and other dementias has increased our understanding of these disorders and has opened doors to new methods of treatment. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) have been successful in reducing symptoms in patients with mild-to-moderate AD and led to the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of four AChEIs for the treatment of AD. Although these agents are approved for only mild-to-moderate AD, and the available data for most of them are from trials of only 6 months’ duration, long-term studies suggest that the benefits of AChEI treatment can endure for up to 4 years. A common pattern of response to treatment is initial improvement in cognition, followed by maintenance of cognitive gains above baseline for up to 1 year. Generally there is a decline in cognition to below baseline levels after approximately 1 year of treatment, but the level of cognition remains above that predicted for those not receiving pharmacologic treatment. Furthermore, long-term studies suggest that early diagnosis and treatment with AChEIs yield better long-term outcomes. Patients who received continuous pharmacologic treatment from the outset generally had better long-term outcomes than those who received placebo in the double-blind phase of these trials.
AMCIS2015 Puerto Rico Paper Submission Mismatched Understanding of IS Security Policy: A RepGrid Analysis

Professional and academic literature indicates that organizational stakeholders may hold different perceptions of security rules and policies. This discrepancy of perceptions may be rooted into a conflict between the compliance of stakeholders to organizational norms on the one hand, and security rules on the other. The paper argues that a mismatched understanding of security policy can have a devastating effect on the security of organizations, and should therefore be treated as a key reason for non-compliance to security policy. Using Personal Construct Theory and Repertory Grids we explore how different stakeholder groups within an organization can hold divergent views on the same security policies. Our findings have implications for the design of security policy training and awareness programs, as well as for the institution and internalization of good IS governance practices.
Vers un appariement dynamique d'images : conception, implantation et evaluation d'un algorithme de mise en correspondance d'images

Le projet de recherche porte sur deux aspects de la mise au point d'un dispositif electronique de guidage d'un robot aerien autonome. Il s'agit, grace a un capteur passif : une camera, de mettre au point un algorithme de vision, qui permette le recalage du robot par rapport a une trajectoire connue. Nous disposons d'images prises lors d'une phase de reconnaissance, qui devront etre appariees aux images de mission, afin de pouvoir situer le robot. Cette etude porte sur la conception d'un algorithme, en ayant pour but son implantation electronique dans un dispositif materiel embarquable permettant l'analyse temps reel des donnees captees. L'algorithme consiste en un recalage projectif, par une approximation bidimensionnelle du flot optique, grace a un modele geometrique explicite de transformation 2d. Pour les traitements de bas niveau, il a ete concu a partir de la reformulation de l'algorithme de programmation dynamique. Le but de cette formulation est la capacite a implanter celui-ci sur la maille d'un processeur systolique dont les performances temporelles soient satisfaisantes. L'architecture visee comporte un vlsi dedie au calcul du champ de deplacement et un processeur de traitement de signal (dsp) capable de calculer la transformation projective issue des deux images comparees. L'algorithme a ete concu et evalue avec la perspective de sa realisation materielle (methodologie d'adequation entre celui-ci et sa realisation) qui constitue la deuxieme phase de ce projet. La deuxieme phase consiste en la realisation materielle d'un prototype de calculateur permettant de satisfaire les contraintes strictes. Ce calculateur est valide grace a une implantation et une evaluation sur un fpga (field programmable gate array) a l'aide d'un langage de description materielle (vhdl). Des resultats temporels et qualitatifs sont obtenus. La portabilite et l'extensibilite du dispositif sont aussi prouvees, ce qui garanti la perennite des travaux.
Treatment of Grape Berries, a Nonclimacteric Fruit with a Synthetic Auxin, Retards Ripening and Alters the Expression of Developmentally Regulated Genes

Treatment of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berries with the synthetic auxin-like compound benzothiazole-2-oxyacetic acid (BTOA) caused a delay in the onset of ripening of approximately 2 weeks. This was manifested as a retardation of the increases in berry weight, color, deformability, and hexose concentration. BTOA treatment also delayed by 2 weeks the increase in abscisic acid level that normally accompanies ripening and altered the expression of a number of developmentally regulated genes. A putative vacuolar invertase, which is normally expressed from berry set until ripening and turned off after ripening commences, remained expressed throughout development in BTOA-treated grape berries. This elevated expression resulted in increased levels of invertase activity. In contrast, the up-regulation of four other genes normally switched on at the time of ripening was delayed in BTOA-treated fruit. These included chalcone synthase and UDP-glucose-flavonoid 3-O-glucosyl transferase, both of which are involved in anthocyanin synthesis, a chitinase, and a ripening-related gene of an unknown function. These observations support the view that auxins (perhaps in conjunction with abscisic acid) may have a role in the control of grape berry ripening by affecting the expression of genes involved in the ripening process.
Smart banking: Why it's important to take into account consumers' concerns?

The rapid development in recent years of the Internet of Things has fostered the emergence of new models and services. Despite the numerous opportunities that the Internet of Things offers for services, there still remain major challenges to be addressed by companies. The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of antecedents of consumers’ resistance to smart services. Our findings show that two categories of factors have a significant impact on consumer resistance: (1) functional barriers (unauthorized secondary use of personal information, perceived health risk, and perceived security risk) and psychological barriers (technology anxiety, need for human interaction, and consumer empowerment).
Measurement of Temperature-Dependent Polarization Parameters in Long-Wavelength VCSELs

Measurements of the polarization-resolved characteristics of a 1550-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) as a function of the temperature are presented. Type I (from the high-frequency to the low-frequency polarization mode) and Type II (from the low-frequency to the high-frequency polarization mode) polarization switchings (PS) are found in our device. Double PS (Type II followed by Type I and vice versa) are found when increasing the bias current for different device temperatures. Type II polarization switching to the gain disfavored mode is obtained. PS current, nonlinear dichroism, differential gain, and threshold current are measured as a function of the temperature. An expression relating these quantities to the spin-flip rate is derived. Using this expression, we have found large values of the spin-flip rate and its temperature dependence. The spin-flip rate increases with temperature except in a narrow temperature region in which a local minimum is observed. This behavior is mainly determined by the dependence of the inverse of the nonlinear dichroism on the temperature.