Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of melatonin on the histomorphometry of the pancreas, liver and kidney of rats on antiretroviral treatment

The administration of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in HIV positive patients has shown to cause side histologically observable effects in the pancreas, liver and kidneys. These conditions include acute pancreatitis, cellular injury, oxidative stress, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, which presents as inflammation and cellular injury. Melatonin has been successful in the prevention and reduction of inflammatory markers, oxidative stress and cellular damage, and has been observed as a treatment option in various conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the observable morphometric changes caused by cART as well as the potential therapeutic effects of melatonin on the pancreas, liver and kidney of the control (C/ART-), cART (C/ART+), melatonin (C/M+) and cART and melatonin (ART+/M+) groups in the absence of HIV in a rat model. Tissue samples (N=40) of the ventral part of the pancreas, the median lobe of the liver and the right kidney male Wistar rats were collected. The blood samples (n=37) were collected from the abdominal aorta after euthanasia. Samples of the pancreas, liver and kidney were stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and evaluated for histopathology. The pancreas was labelled with anti-insulin and anti-glucagon to determine αand β-cell areas in the pancreatic islets. Blood samples were collected for liver enzyme tests to evaluate hepatotoxicity. The kidneys were stained with periodic acid Schiff (PAS) and the area, perimeter, diameter and radius of 30 renal corpuscles, with their associated glomeruli and 90 proximal convoluted tubules (PCTs) were measured per rat. The pancreas, liver and kidney showed no significant histologically observable changes in histology. The mean islets per mm in the pancreas was significantly higher in the C/Mgroup than in the C/ARTand ART+/M+ groups. Melatonin stimulated the abundance of pancreatic islets and thus indirectly the availability of α-cells. The haemoglobin value in the C/ART+ group was significantly higher than in the C/ARTgroup, which indicates that the mechanism in which cART increases serum haemoglobin is possibly still active in the absence of immune compromise. The C/M+ group showed a decrease in serum lipaemia compared to the C/ARTgroup, due to melatonin’s its inhibitory effect on peroxidation of cellular lipids by free radicals. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
Some Commonly Used Speech Feature Extraction Algorithms

Speech is a complex naturally acquired human motor ability. It is characterized in adults with the production of about 14 different sounds per second via the harmonized actions of roughly 100 muscles. Speaker recognition is the capability of a software or hardware to receive speech signal, identify the speaker present in the speech signal and recognize the speaker afterwards. Feature extraction is accomplished by changing the speech waveform to a form of parametric representation at a relatively minimized data rate for subsequent processing and analysis. Therefore, acceptable classification is derived from excellent and quality features. Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC), Linear Prediction Coefficients (LPC), Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients (LPCC), Line Spectral Frequencies (LSF), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP) are the speech feature extraction techniques that were discussed in these chapter. These methods have been tested in a wide variety of applications, giving them high level of reliability and acceptability. Researchers have made several modifications to the above discussed techniques to make them less susceptible to noise, more robust and consume less time. In conclusion, none of the methods is superior to the other, the area of application would determine which method to select.
Heroin hell their own making‘: construction of heroin users in the Australian press 1992–97

The ACT heroin trial was a proposal to evaluate the efficacy of prescription heroin as a treatment for heroin-dependent people. The trial was actively debated within the press by proponents and opponents but ultimately did not proceed due to a lack of required political support. Previous research indicates that public perceptions of the nature of drug users can influence the direction of policy responses. This paper analyses the construction of heroin users within press debate about the proposed ACT heroin trial, comparing and contrasting trial proponent and opponent views. The primary constructions of the user embraced models of users as people with health problems who were dying; who were criminals; classic deviance distinctions between us and them; that users posed costs and a threat to society; that users were victims; and discourse about 'ruined' selves. Despite attempts by trial proponents to construct the user as an 'ill us', the cultural value of abstinence from drug use and the ideology of indivi.
Active Shoulder Range of Motion in Persons Aged 60 Years and Older

The purpose of this study was to present active shoulder range of motion (ROM) measurements obtained from healthy personsaged 60 years and older. One hundred two volunteers participated this study. The right shoulder of these subjects was examined for active shoulder flexion, abduction, internal and external rotation. Measurements were recorded from a full round plastic goniometer. Results showed that the mean active shoulder ROM was significantly different (p < .0001) than the known American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' standard for this age group. From the sixth through ninth decade ROM decreased linearly, statistically significant for abduction and external rotation by some decades. Additionally, women had statistically significant greater ROM than men for flexion, abduction and internal rotation. From a clinical perspective it is apparent that individuals sixty years of age and older have less active shoulder ROM than the known standard. These findings should prove useful to clinicians when evalua.
Les races de chevaux en France au XVIIIe siècle. Et les idées relatives à leur amélioration

Dans un premier temps, l’histoire du cheval et de l’Administration des Haras jusqu’a la fin de l’Ancien Regime est brossee a grands traits. Apres avoir admis que l’on peut, prudemment, parler de races de chevaux au XVIIIe siecle, l’auteur consacre un expose aux races francaises proprement dites, qui n’ont guere attire l’attention des hippiatres et des scientifiques de l’epoque. Pour eux, seules comptaient les races etrangeres qui etaient censees, grâce au croisement, ameliorer les populations autochtones. Les idees relatives a l’amelioration des races de chevaux sont ensuite abordees. Bien qu’apparaissant largement discutables au regard des connaissances actuelles, elles n’ont pas empeche que les conseils d’elevage emanant des scientifiques et des praticiens soient empreints d’un certain bon sens, qui aurait pu permettre d’obtenir de bons resultats. Si ce ne fut pas le cas, c’est avant tout a cause du retard de la France en matiere d’agronomie. Il faudra attendre le XIXe siecle et une nouvelle periode de croisements pour que cela devienne evident.
Beurteilung der UX Qualität durch Experten

Experten-Reviews sind eine sehr schnell durchfuhrbare und kostengunstige Methode, um die User Experience einer Anwendung zu beurteilen. Allerdings sind die bekannten Review-Verfahren stark auf das Auffinden von konkreten Nutzungsproblemen fokussiert. Heute hat sich aber eine deutlich weitere Sicht auf UX etabliert, d.h. es spielen auch nicht-aufgabenbezoge Aspekte, z.B. Fun of Use, originelle Gestaltung oder Schonheit der Benutzeroberflache eine zentrale Rolle fur den Gesamteindruck. Die bekannten Review-Verfahren sind nicht darauf angelegt, diese hedonischen Aspekte angemessen zu berucksichtigen. Wir stellen eine Variante des Experten-Reviews vor, die versucht hedonische und pragmatische Qualitatsaspekte gleichermasen zu berucksichtigen. Wir stellen mehrere Studien vor, in denen dieses Verfahren praktisch ausprobiert wurde. Zusatzlich werden Informationen zum zeitlichen Aufwand fur Planung und Auswertung des Verfahrens gegeben und alle notwendigen Materialien vorgestellt.
Multi-camera tracking algorithm study based on information fusion

Intelligent video surveillance technology is a part of pattern recognition used for analyzing, extracting and recognizing behavior characteristics of a moving target basing on computer algorithms. The target tracking algorithm combines particle filter and Mean-shift in overlapping multi-camera environment on the intelligent video surveillance system. Multicamera tracking is studied using a fusion of SURF characteristics, color characteristics and geometric characteristic in Matlab. Experimental results show that the method of tracking between multiple cameras has good accuracy and stability.
Peran Teknologi Digital dalam Perkembangan Dunia Perancangan Arsitektur

Di era yang modern ini teknologi digital telah memasuki berbagai aspek kehidupan. Hal ini dipengaruhi oleh perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan yang diiringi dengan perkembangan teknologi digital yang begitu pesat selama beberapa dekade terakhir. Dunia perancangan arsitektur baik itu di bidang profesional maupun di bidang pendidikan arsitektur tidak luput dari pengaruh teknologi digital. Teknologi digital telah menggeser metode tradisional dalam dunia desain arsitektur walaupun pada faktanya masih ada beberapa arsitek atau desainer yang menggunakan metode tradisional. Hal ini disebabkan dengan menggunakan teknologi digital proses perancangan arsitektur menjadi lebih efisien dan mudah. Disamping itu dengan menggunakan teknologi digital dalam proses desain arsitektur juga memungkinkan arsitek atau desainer untuk bereksplorasi terhadap bentuk-bentuk geometri yang tingkat kompleksitasnya lebih tinggi. Hal ini dimungkinkan karena dengan perkembangan teknologi digital yang begitu pesat, komputer tidak hanya digunakan sebagai media untuk menghasilkan produk gambar atau mempercepat proses desain saja (komputerisasi) , akan tetapi komputer sudah berperan aktif dan dijadikan bagian dalam proses perancangan arsitektur (komputasi). Dengan demikian arsitek ataupun desainer dengan bantuan teknologi digital mampu menciptakan inovasi - inovasi baru dalam dunia perancangan arsitektur. Kata Kunci : Teknologi digital, perancangan arsitektur, komputasi dalam arsitektur
Possibilidades de Desenho e construção digital em tijolo a partir da Obra de Raúl Hestnes Ferreira

O tijolo tem acompanhado a construcao desde os primordios dasua existencia - pode‐se considerar o material mais basico naconstrucao. O seu fabrico evoluiu acompanhando as grandesrevolucoes tecnologicas; no entanto, o seu assentamento manualmanteve‐se. Nas ultimas decadas tem‐se vindo a investigar edesenvolver processos de assemblagem de tijolo automatizadosrecorrendo a robotica.A presente dissertacao procura investigar como essas tecnologiaspodem interferir no desenho e na construcao em tijolo e foca acompreensao do potencial das tecnologias de fabricacao emtermos estruturais e formais, na construcao em tijolo. Para tal,recorre‐se a obra do Arquitecto portugues Raul Hestnes Ferreiracom este material. Com o objectivo de perceber o potencialconstrutivo dos elementos pontuais na obra de Hestnes Ferreira,e feita uma analise mais especifica, recorrendo a desenhos depormenores dos elementos mais relevantes para o estudo bemcomo o testemunho do proprio Hestnes Ferreira. Paracomplementar o estudo, sao apresentadas experimentacoes queevidenciam o encontro da arquitectura em tijolo dos casos deestudo, com as tecnologias de fabricacao robotica e digital.Atraves da identificacao de situacoes construtivas especificas -cunhal pilar e abobada - procurou‐se perceber como astecnologias de digitais podem influenciar no desenho dessassituacoes. Esta investigacao pretende dar a conhecer o potencialdestas tecnologias, mesmo quando se usa um material standard.Nao pretende condenar a construcao manual mas demonstrar apossibilidade de construir alem de alguns limites inerentes aconstrucao tradicional; expondo uma perspectiva actual doscasos de estudo e expondo alternativas de construcao dessesmesmos pormenores.
Nonlinear filtering and multiscale texture discrimination for mammograms

A general method for computer aided diagnosis (CAD) of mammograms using a multiscale decomposition is proposed and implemented using several different techniques. The first is the now classic wavelet decomposition in which the smoothed versions of the image at coarser resolutions are given by appropriate orthogonal projections. Then two distinct nonlinear filters are used to provide a decomposition into simplified resumes and corresponding details at several different `scales. ' One filter uses a nonlinear partial differential equation to provide smoothing and the other uses a robust weighted majority-minimum range (WMMR) algorithm. Results indicate that these methods will prove valuable in the design of a software package to assist the radiologist.
A Novel Steganography-Cryptography System

This paper presents a new suggested Steganography system. This system hides a message into a stego-image by using a mapping table and some other tables to map different values of pixels in the image to the alphabetic letters of the message. One of the strong points in the system is that the system does not make any changes/distortion in the stego-image, where most steganography systems suffer from this point. Also the system tries, in its operations, to mix the properties of some Cryptographic systems to provide additional security to the hidden message. The experiments on the suggested system proved that it is an easy and efficient Steganography system with a good security for the message. Therefore, this system can be considered as a Steganograpgy-Cryptograpgy system and it can be used effectively in these two fields.
Practicing What We Preach: A case Study on the Application of Evidence-Based Practice to Inform Decision Making for Public Services Staffing in an Academic Health Sciences Library

When a new director of the Health Sciences Library at McMaster was appointed in April 2008, part of her mandate was to carry out an operational review of the library. A recent physical renovation had updated the library space to meet the needs of the twenty-first century learning environment; the next priority was to look at “renovating” the services and resources offered in the space. Since McMaster is the birthplace of evidence-based practice, the decision was made to gather enough data to provide sound evidence to support the outcome of the operational review and to inform staffing and service design decisions. A mixed method strategy was devised to be flexible enough to meet both the short time frame and shifting data gathering demands of the project. Many of the tools used where influenced by observational study techniques. Although not statistically significant, the results provided enough evidence about who was using the library and how they interact with physical service points to make informed decisions. The design and use of data collection tools illustrate the first steps towards building a model for the implementation of evidence based decision making.
Stereotyping: improving particle swarm performance with cluster analysis

Individuals in the particle swarm population were "stereotyped" by cluster analysis of their previous best positions. The cluster centers then were substituted for the individuals' and neighbors' best previous positions in the algorithm. The experiments, which were inspired by the social-psychological metaphor of social stereotyping, found that performance could be generally improved by substituting individuals', but not neighbors', cluster centers for their previous bests.
Urinary catheter use in older people

Long-term indwelling urinary catheters can be an effective means of managing bladder dysfunction for some older people, where alternative strategies are unsuitable or unsatisfactory, and where careful assessment of the patient and their particular problem has been undertaken. However, catheter-associated risks are well known and, consequently, catheters should be avoided wherever possible. Although prevalence of catheterization varies widely in different settings and different cultures of care, there is evidence that many older people are catheterized inappropriately and also remain catheterized unnecessarily. This paper discusses issues to be considered in decision-making processes regarding long-term catheterization. It examines catheter-associated problems, their management and factors influencing the quality of evidence to guide clinical practice.
Activity and culture—the contribution to health and well-being in later life: A needs analysis

A nurse-led multi-agency team worked with older people to develop a model of activity and culture, and evaluate its impact to health and well-being. Underpinned by a needs analysis, the project sought to identify the range of activities that older people used to engage in, currently undertake and what they aspire to engage with both inside their home and in the community. Initial findings revealed that lack of confidence, restricted opportunities and physical barriers such as transport, limited tenants' involvement with physical, social and cultural activities that could improve their health and wellbeing. The project has therefore aimed to develop a more diverse and accessible programme of activities that better reflects individual and collective needs. Following early positive evaluations, the project team are now considering how the centre could be accessed by, and benefit, a wider group of community dwelling older people and would hope to collaborate with other groups to explore how this model can be developed for use with a wider range of older people.
Unexplained Early Neurological Deterioration After Intravenous Thrombolysis

Background and Purpose—Early neurological deterioration (END) after anterior circulation stroke is a serious clinical event strongly associated with poor outcome. Regarding specifically END occurring within 24 hours of intravenous recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator, apart from definite causes such as symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and malignant edema whose incidence, predictors, and clinical management are well established, little is known about END without clear mechanism (ENDunexplained). Methods—We analyzed 309 consecutive patients thrombolysed intravenously ≤4.5 hours from onset of anterior circulation stroke. ENDunexplained was defined as a ≥4-point deterioration on 24-hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, without definite mechanism on concomitant imaging. ENDunexplained and no-END patients were compared for pretreatment clinical and imaging (including magnetic resonance diffusion and diffusion/perfusion mismatch volumes) data and 24-hour post-treatment clinical (including .
Delivering Performance-Portable Stencil Computations on CPUs and GPUs Using Bricks

Achieving high performance on stencil computations poses a number of challenges on modern architectures. The optimization strategy varies significantly across architectures, types of stencils, and types of applications. The standard approach to adapting stencil computations to different architectures, used by both compilers and application programmers, is through the use of iteration space tiling, whereby the data footprint of the computation and its computation partitioning are adjusted to match the memory hierarchy and available parallelism of different platforms. In this paper, we explore an alternative performance portability strategy for stencils, a data layout library for stencils called bricks, that adapts data footprint and parallelism through fine-grained data blocking. Bricks are designed to exploit the inherent multi-dimensional spatial locality of stencils, facilitating improved code generation that can adapt to CPUs or GPUs, and reducing pressure on the memory system. We demonstrate that bricks are performance-portable across CPU and GPU architectures and afford performance advantages over various tiling strategies, particularly for modern multi-stencil and high-order stencil computations. For a range of stencil computations, we achieve high performance on both the Intel Knights Landing (Xeon Phi) and Skylake (Xeon) CPUs as well as the NVIDIA P100 (Pascal) GPU delivering up to a 5x speedup against tiled code.
Elliptic Filter Implementation using Xilinx system Generator for Processing of ECG Signal

Now a day’s research has explore in development of prototype devices using different technology. The ECG processing is remained a important research topic as it is useful for the human being directly. Present paper deals with design and implementation of IIR Elliptic digital filter on FPGA for noise reduction in ECG Signal. In this paper filter designed with specifications like order 2, cutoff frequency 100Hz. The simulated results and complete step by step design of the filter is depicted in the paper. The results obtained shows the implementation is advantages considering area, power and Speed. General Terms Digital signal Processing, ECG, FPGA Technology.
Real-time synchronisation of multiaxis high-speed machines, from SFC specification to Petri net verification : Systems engineering for automation

The paper considers the co-ordination and control of flexible, independently driven, multiaxis, high-speed machinery in which mechanical complexity has been exchanged for sophistication in control. The control of such machines is a hybrid control problem and the paper addresses the specification and design of the discrete event part of the controller. It focuses on the design of synchronisation logic for the event-driven real-time co-ordination and synchronisation of the machine. For such time-critical and system-critical applications, it is imperative that system behaviour is fully understood and unambiguous. The paper proposes a method for inferring system behaviour and performing formal verification of machine systems specified using a subset of the industry standard IEC 1131 sequential function charts (SFC). It shows how an SFC-based design can be translated to an equivalent Petri net model, thereby allowing Petri net theory and analysis techniques to probe its behaviour and verify its functionality. The approach is demonstrated by considering the design of synchronisation logic for a prototype six-axis high-speed packaging machine which incorporates both time-critical and system-critical functions.
Environmental surfaces in healthcare setting: a great potential risk of pathogens transmission

The aim of our study is to estimate bacterial contamination of the surfaces surrounding hospitalized patients. This study was achieved from March to June 2014, in an internal medicine ward at the Hospital University Hassan II in Fez. By using the swab technique, the samples were taken from different surfaces surrounding hospitalized patients. Bacterial analysis was performed according to conventional culture and identification techniques. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined for each isolate by the disk diffusion method. During the study period, 112 samples were collected from different sites in 10 rooms. The bedrails are the most contaminated sites (100%), followed by bedsides tables (60%). Toilets door knobsand room knobs come in third place (50%). We identified 200 isolates of bacteria: Coagulase Negative Staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter sp. , Pantoea sp. , Klebsiella sp. , Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas sp. , Stenotrophomonas sp. and Enterococcus sp. Different antibiotic resistance profiles were registered for isolated bacteria of which 1 isolate of Enterobacter aerogenes and 1 E. coli are ESBL. We report in this study that hospital environment is contaminated by a variety of pathogenic and opportunist, resistant and sensitive bacteria isolated from many surfaces sites of patients rooms. Hospital must implement evidence-based infection prevention measures that will reduce the risk of transmission of pathogens via contaminated hospital surfaces and medical equipment.