Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subspace Ensembles for Face Recognition

In many cases, the statistical learning methods used for solving the face recognition problem tend to be overfitted to the training data. It is because of small number of individual faces and large number of features in the face space. Utilizing a single subspace, these methods can also suffer from different intra-personal variations. One way for handling these problems is to construct multiple subspaces from the original face space. In this paper a novel ensemble framework based on random subspace method is presented. We focus on Fisherface-based face recognition approach and propose to use classifier selection methodology to improve the random subspace LDA technique. Our method uses a small subset of complementary classifiers from the pool of randomly generated classifiers and by combining their decisions via a trainable combiner (Mixture of Experts), tries to achieve high classification accuracy with lower operating complexity. Experiments on the Cohn-Kanade Expression Database demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the proposed method as compared to Eigenface, Fisherface and random subspace LDA methods.
Epilithic and aerophilic diatoms in the artificial environment of Kungsträdgården metro station, Stockholm, Sweden

The Kungstradgarden metro station is an artificial and urban subsurface environment illuminated with artificial light. Its ecosystem is almost completely unknown and as a first step to better understand the biology and rock wall habitats the diatom flora was investigated. A total of 12 species were found growing on the rock walls of Kungstradgarden metro station. The results show the diatom flora in Kungstradgarden to be dominated by e.g. Diadesmis contenta, Diadesmis perpusilla, Pinnularia appendiculata, Nitzschia amphibia, Nitzschia sinuata and Diploneis ovalis. One species, Caloneis cf. aerophila, has never been reported from Sweden before. Significant differences in the species composition between the sampling sites indicate Kungstradgarden metro station to be a heterogeneous habitat that provides different microhabitats.
Adenosine A1 and A2A receptors are not upstream of caffeine’s dopamine D2 receptor‐dependent aversive effects and dopamine‐independent rewarding effects

Caffeine is widely consumed throughout the world, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying its rewarding and aversive properties. We show that pharmacological antagonism of dopamine not only blocks conditioned place aversion to caffeine, but also reveals dopamine blockade‐induced conditioned place preferences. These aversive effects are mediated by the dopamine D2 receptor, as knockout mice showed conditioned place preferences in response to doses of caffeine that C57Bl/6 mice found aversive. Furthermore, these aversive responses appear to be centrally mediated, as a quaternary analog of caffeine failed to produce conditioned place aversion. Although the adenosine A2A receptor is important for caffeine’s physiological effects, this receptor seems only to modulate the appetitive and aversive effects of caffeine. A2A receptor knockout mice showed stronger dopamine‐dependent aversive responses to caffeine than did C57Bl/6 mice, which partially obscured the dopamine‐independent and A2A receptor‐independent preferences. Additionally, the A1 receptor, alone or in combination with the A2A receptor, does not seem to be important for caffeine’s rewarding or aversive effects. Finally, excitotoxic lesions of the tegmental pedunculopontine nucleus revealed that this brain region is not involved in dopamine blockade‐induced caffeine reward. These data provide surprising new information on the mechanism of action of caffeine, indicating that adenosine receptors do not mediate caffeine’s appetitive and aversive effects. We show that caffeine has an atypical reward mechanism, independent of the dopaminergic system and the tegmental pedunculopontine nucleus, and provide additional evidence in support of a role for the dopaminergic system in aversive learning.
Therapeutic angiogenesis for cardiovascular disease: biological context, challenges, prospects

Since the discovery of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), therapeutic angiogenesis has attracted interest as an alternative treatment for ischaemic heart and peripheral disease. In parallel, the view has also gained ground that angiogenesis has an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic disease and its clinical sequelae. These conflicting perspectives have both been based on a large quantity of preclinical data obtained from mainly small rodent models of disease. However, in recent years further research and the results of clinical trials of pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic treatments have provided new insights into the impact of VEGF and other angiogenesis-based approaches on human health and disease. This review discusses therapeutic angiogenesis in the light of recent scientific advances and clinical evidence, and considers the future challenges and prospects for therapeutic angiogenesis.
Use of Autologous Scleral Graft in Ahmed Glaucoma Valve Surgery

Purpose:To compare the efficacy of an autoscleral free-flap graft versus an autoscleral rotational flap graft in Ahmed glaucoma valve (AGV) surgery. Patients and Methods:Medical records (2005 to 2012) of 51 consecutive patients (51 eyes) who underwent AGV surgery with the use of either an autoscleral free-flap graft or an autoscleral rotational flap graft to cover the external tube at the limbus were retrieved for review. The main outcome measure was the incidence of tube exposure associated with each surgical approach. Results:Twenty-seven consecutive patients (27 eyes) received a free-flap graft and 24 consecutive patients (24 eyes) received a rotational flap graft. The mean follow-up time was 55.6±18.3 months for the former and 24.2±5.0 months for the latter (P<0.0001). Two patients in the free-flap group (8.9%) developed tube exposure at 24 and 55 months postoperatively compared with none of the patients in the rotational flap group. Graft thinning without evidence of conjunctival erosion was observed in 15 patients (55%) in the free-flap group and in 7 patients (29.1%) in the rotational flap group. Conclusions:The use of an autoscleral rotational flap graft is an efficacious technique for primary tube patch grafting in routine AGV surgery, and yielded better results than an autoscleral free-flap graft. Its main advantages over donor graft material are availability and lower cost.
abies virus distribution in tissues and molecular characterization of strains from aturally infected non-hematophagous bats usan

Bats are main reservoirs for Lyssavirus worldwide, which is an important public health issue because it constitutes one of the big challenges in rabies control. Yet, little is known about how the virus is maintained among bats, and the epidemiological relationships remain poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the distribution of the rabies virus (RABV) in bat tissues and organs and to genetically characterize virus isolates from naturally infected non-hematophagous bats. The heminested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (hnRT-PCR) and sequencing using primers to the
Association of total cholesterol versus other serum lipid parameters with the short-term prediction of cardiovascular outcomes: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the role of lipid markers including total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol with lipid indices (total/HDL cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol and non-HDL-cholesterol) as predictors of cardiovascular outcomes in adults over 30 years. Research design and method In a nested case-control study, 207 cardiovascular events among participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) were documented during 3 years of follow-up. Those cases that were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline (132 subjects) were matched to 264 controls for age and sex. In all subjects, demographic and clinical data including blood pressure and anthropometric measurements as well as serum lipids, fasting and 2-h plasma glucose were obtained from the database of the TLGS. We estimated the relative risk for each lipid parameter in a multiple stepwise regression model after adjustment for family history of premature coronary heart disease, smoking, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting and 2-h plasma glucose and waist-to-hip ratio. Results The relative risks associated with an increase of approximately 1 SD of independent lipid predictors in the multivariate model were as follows: total cholesterol, 1.6 (1.2–2.1), SD = 1.3 mmol/l; LDL-cholesterol 1.5 (1.1–2.0), SD = 1 mmol/l; non-HDL-cholesterol 1.6 (1.2–2.1), SD = 1.2 mmol/l and cholester ol/HDL-cholesterol 1.5 (1.1–2.0), SD = 1.8. Comparison of these four independent variables with receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed no significant difference in their predictive power for cardiovascular outcome. There was no association between HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL/HDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease outcomes in multivariate analysis. Conclusion It seems that for short-term prediction of cardiovascular disease outcome, serum total cholesterol is the preferred lipid parameter to measure in the Iranian population.
A mobile EMF sensor for appliance identification

This paper explores the feasibility of using a mobile electromagnetic field (EMF) sensor for appliance identification. This sensor uses the EMF radiated by appliances as a signature for appliance identification. It has been prototyped and implemented for data collection. Our mobile EMF sensor will be used for occupant-specific energy measurement in the later phase of the project. This phase, however, focuses on signal extraction and appliance identification using the EMF radiated by the appliances. Using data from the sensor, we compared the performances of k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Naïve Bayes classifiers for signature extraction and appliance identification. These classifiers were trained and tested using spike train data obtained from the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the EMF radiated by appliances. We obtained classification accuracies of 96.47% with k-NN and 94.86% with an SVM classifier.
Problematic video game use scale: initial psychometric properties with psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents.

OBJECTIVE Excessive video game use among youth has been a growing concern in the United States and elsewhere. The aims of this study are to establish validity of a video game measure in a large adolescent inpatient sample, identify clinical factors underlying problem video game use, and identify associations with measures of psychopathology. METHOD Three hundred eighty participants admitted to an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit between November 2007 and March 2009 were administered a battery of self-report measures, including a questionnaire developed for this study that assessed reinforcers and consequences of past-year video game use (ie, Problematic Video Game Use Scale). Factor analysis was used to identify the underlying structure of behaviors associated with problem video game use. RESULTS A factor analysis of the Problematic Video Game Use Scale indicated 2 primary factors. One was associated with engaging in problem behaviors that impaired the adolescent's functioning as a result of playing video games and one reflected the reinforcing effects of playing video games. Both factors were associated with measures of psychopathology, although associations were generally stronger for impairment in functioning than for reinforcing effects. Both factors were significantly correlated with self-reported daily video game use (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Two underlying factors emerged to account for problem video game playing: impairment in functioning and reinforcing effects. Initial evidence of the content validity of the video game measure was established. Findings highlight the importance of assessing video game use among an adolescent population, the factors associated with video game use, and associations with symptoms of psychopathology. Limitations include a common reporter for multiple measures and cross-sectional data that do not allow for causal links to be made.
Warmth in Groups and Satisfaction with Supervision

Most previous studies of Person-Environment fit have failed to use objective measures of the work environment that are independent of the person examined. This study aims to further develop and improve the operationalisation of Person-Environment fit by investigating objective fit and the interaction effect of group size on the relationship between the personality trait of warmth and satisfaction with supervision. Group size (obtained from company records) was the objective measure of the work environment and warmth was measured by the 16PF (Cattel et al 1987). On the basis of data from 257 shop-floor workers in a factory in Wales, UK, results of hierarchical multiple regression generally indicated that the relationship between warmth and satisfaction with supervision are moderated by group size such that the relationship is positive in small groups and negative in large groups.
Forcing the system: a configuration analysis of a regionalized neonatal-perinatal health network.

BACKGROUND : Health care transformations often involve the development of networks to ensure smooth and safe patient flows throughout the care continuum. However, more empirical information is needed on the workings of health networks and on how their structures, processes, and systems influence access to high-quality patient care. PURPOSE : Using Miller's concept of configuration, we describe the workings of a health network specialized in the provision of neonatal-perinatal care, a specialty where accessibility issues are quite problematic. We aimed to generate evidence that will assist policy makers, network managers, and clinicians in facilitating access to high-quality neonatal-perinatal care. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : From late 2007 to early 2008, we conducted a case study of all (N = 7) neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the province of Quebec (Canada). We performed field work into two purposefully selected NICUs. This involved 450 hours of nonparticipant observation and 56 semistructured interviews with various actors. Data from these sources were triangulated with data collected during informal interviews with key actors from the other five NICUs in the province and from administrative databases. FINDINGS : We found that the elements of this health network are pulled together by a core orchestrating theme: "Forcing the system. " Indeed, in attempting to fulfill the network mission of providing access to high-quality neonatal-perinatal care, clinicians and managers must implement various strategies to compensate for the misfit of the configuration. Although these strategies are successful in providing access to neonatal-perinatal care, they, however, have adverse effects that are paradoxically in contradiction with the network's core mission. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS : This configuration analysis enabled us to identify a set of modifiable elements that contribute to the misfit of the configuration and its suboptimal functioning. The comprehensiveness of the configuration approach was proven useful for the analysis of such a complex organizational form.
QoS-aware Service Composition Based on Sequences of Services

Service composition is an important part of developing Service-oriented Systems. There are two basic approaches for service composition. First, the developer identifies and searches for individual services that can be composed. In the second approach, the developer identifies the global input(s) and output(s) of the entire composition and searches for a composition with the best match. We propose a ``middle of the road'' approach, where we identify and search for ``sequences of services'', each of which is a consecutively executed service that appears within an existing composition stored in a database. Our approach utilizes a database containing Service-oriented Systems. The developer specifies a query containing functional and non-functional requirements in XML format. Then the query is used to search within the database for a sequence of services that matches the requirements. We show the results of an experiment that indicates our approach enabled subjects to find more executable compositions than a tool that searches for services individually.
CHEMOPREVENTION: MOUSE COLON AND LUNG TUMOR BIOASSAY AND MODULATION OF DNA METHYLATION AS A BIOMARKER

Lung and colon tumors were induced in A/J, C3H, and A/J × C3H (AC3) mice by administering 16 mg/kg vinyl carbamate followed by 6 weekly doses of 12 mg/kg azoxymethane (AOM). Beginning 1 week after carcinogen treatment, the mice received the chemopreventive agents, dexamethasone or piroxicam, at 0.1 and 75 mg/kg in the diet, respectively. Both AOM and vinyl carbamate induced lung tumors, but only AOM induced colon tumors. The strain sensitivity for both colon and lung tumors was A/J > AC3 > C3H mice. Dexamethasone and piroxicam reduced the multiplicity of colon and lung tumors in A/J and AC3 mice, demonstrating the advantage of a combined colon and lung bioassay. The ability of budesonide, a drug that prevents mouse lung tumors, to modulate DNA methylation in vinyl carbamate–induced lung tumors was also determined. Budesonide administered for only 7 days prior to sacrifice caused a dose-dependent (0.6 to 2.4 mg/kg diet) reversal in tumors of DNA hypomethylation and hypomethylation of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-II gene in the differentially methylated region (DMR) 2 region of exons 4 to 5. Longer treatment with budesonide reversed hypomethylation when administered up to the time of sacrifice. These results indicate that reversal of the hypomethylation of DNA and of specific genes in lung tumors may be applicable as a surrogate end-point biomarker for chemoprevention.
Linear estimation for system with unknown measurement input and missing measurement

This paper is devoted to solving the state estimation problem for systems with unknown measurement input and missing measurement. The missing measurement phenomenon is described by a series of mutually independent random variables obeying a certain Bernoulli distribution. Firstly, our aim is to design an linear filter by applying the minimum variance unbiased estimation technique. Then, we also derive a suboptimal estimator by utilizing the time stamp technology in sensor networks. Finally, an example is supplied to show the effectiveness of the proposed filters.
Energy aware network coding in wireless networks

Energy is one of the most important considerations in designing reliable low-power wireless communication networks. We focus on the problem of energy aware network coding. In particular, we investigate practical energy efficient network code design for wireless body area networks (WBAN). We first consider converge-cast in a star-shaped topology, in which a central base station (BS), or hub, manages and communicates directly with a set of nodes. We then consider a wireless-relay channel, in which a relay node assists in the transmission of data from a source to a destination. This wireless relay channel can be seen as a simplified extended star network, where nodes have relay capabilities. The objective is to investigate the use of network coding in these scenarios, with the goal of achieving reliability under low-energy and lower-power constraints. More specifically, in a star network, we propose a simple network layer protocol, study the mean energy to complete uploads of given packets from the nodes to the BS using a Markov chain model, and show through numerical examples that when reception energy is taken into account, the incorporation of network coding offers reductions in energy use. The amount of achievable gains depends on the number of nodes in the network, the degree of asymmetry in channel conditions experienced by different nodes, and the relative difference between transmitting and receiving power at the nodes. We also demonstrate the compatibility of the proposed scheme with the IEEE 802.15. 6 WBAN standard by describing ways of incorporating network coding into systems compliant to the standard. For a wireless relay channel, we explore the strategic use of network coding according to both throughput and energy metrics. In the relay channel, a single source communicates to a single sink through the aid of a half-duplex relay. The fluid flow model is used to describe the case where both the source and the relay are coding, and Markov chain models are proposed to describe packet evolution if only the source or only the relay is coding. Although we do not attempt to explicitly categorize the optimal network coding strategies in the relay channel under different system parameters, we provide a framework for deciding whether and where to code, taking into account of throughput maximization and energy depletion constraints.
Neutrophil IL-1β Processing Induced by Pneumolysin Is Mediated by the NLRP3/ASC Inflammasome and Caspase-1 Activation and Is Dependent on K+ Efflux

Although neutrophils are the most abundant cells in acute infection and inflammation, relatively little attention has been paid to their role in inflammasome formation and IL-1β processing. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism by which neutrophils process IL-1β in response to Streptococcus pneumoniae. Using a murine model of S. pneumoniae corneal infection, we demonstrated a requirement for IL-1β in bacterial clearance, and we showed that Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase activation and recruitment domain (ASC), and caspase-1 are essential for IL-1β production and bacterial killing in the cornea. Neutrophils in infected corneas had multiple specks with enzymatically active caspase-1 (YVAD-FLICA 660), and bone marrow neutrophils stimulated with heat-killed S. pneumoniae (signal 1) and pneumolysin (signal 2) exhibited multiple specks when stained for NLRP3, ASC, or Caspase-1. High–molecular mass ASC complexes were also detected, consistent with oligomer formation. Pneumolysin induced K+ efflux in neutrophils, and blocking K+ efflux inhibited caspase-1 activation and IL-1β processing; however, neutrophils did not undergo pyroptosis, indicating that K+ efflux and IL-1β processing is not a consequence of cell death. There was also no role for lysosomal destabilization or neutrophil elastase in pneumolysin-mediated IL-1β processing in neutrophils. Taken together, these findings demonstrate an essential role for neutrophil-derived IL-1β in S. pneumoniae infection, and they elucidate the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in cleavage and secretion of IL-1β in neutrophils. Given the ubiquitous presence of neutrophils in acute bacterial and fungal infections, these findings will have implications for other microbial diseases.
Surgical Techniques: Minimally Invasive Infrapubic Inflatable Penile Implant

A surgical procedure was developed, designed to minimize time and maximize efficiency. The hope is that this procedure reduces the morbidity of penile prosthesis implantation. In all drawings, the primary skin incision will be represented larger than reality in order to facilitate schematic identification of vital structures. The artificial erection serves three purposes in expediting the implant process: (i) identify pathology needing correction; (ii) “true” dilation of the corpora supplanting serial dilations; and (iii) facilitate the identification of the dorsal nerve and lateral placement of stay sutures. The 1.5-cm corporotomy accommodates the widest part of the implant. Placement of color-coded stay sutures lateral to the dorsal nerve Corporotomy incision using #12 blade Dorsal nerves within neurovascular bundle medial to corporotomy incisions