Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noisy deep dictionary learning: Application to Alzheimer's Disease classification

A recent work introduced the concept of deep dictionary learning. In deep dictionary learning, the first level proceeds like standard dictionary learning; in sub-sequent layers the (scaled) output coefficients from the previous layer are used as inputs for dictionary learning. This is an unsupervised deep learning approach. The features from the final / deepest layer are employed for subsequent analysis and classification. The seminal paper of stacked denoising autoencoders have shown that robust deep models can be learnt when noisy data is used for training stacked autoencoders instead of clean data. We adopt this idea into the deep dictionary learning framework; instead of using only clean data we augment the training dataset by adding noise; this improves robustness. Experimental evaluation on benchmark deep learning datasets and real world problem of AD classification show that our proposal yields considerable improvement.
METABOLISM OF BRAIN SPHINGOMYELINS: HALF‐LIVES OF SPHINGOSINE, FATTY ACIDS AND PHOSPHATE FROM TWO TYPES OF RAT BRAIN SPHINGOMYELIN

Abstract— The metabolism of rat brain sphingomyelins containing short‐chain (C16‐C18) and long‐chain (C20‐ C24) fatty acids has been studied by determination of the content of radioactivity in the sphingo‐sinc. fatty acids and phosphate of the sphingomyelins over a period of 60 days following the intracisternal injection of [14C]acetate and [32P]phosphate. From the rate of decrease of the specific radioactivities of the different constituents of short‐chain fatty acid sphingomyelins, we have calculated a half‐life of 65 days for sphingosine. 41 days for fatty acids and 62 days for phosphate. For the long‐chain fatty acid sphingomyelins the half‐life of sphingosine was approximately 465 days. The fatty acids and phosphate from these sphingomyelins had fast and slow turnover pools. The half‐life for the fast pool was 7 days for the two constituents and the estimated half‐lives for the slow pool were 220 days for fatty acids and 480 days for phosphate.
Vestibular, Visual Acuity, and Balance Outcomes in Children With Cochlear Implants: A Preliminary Report

Objectives: There is a high incidence of vestibular loss in children with cochlear implants (CCI). However, the relationship between vestibular loss and various outcomes is unknown in children. The objectives of this study are to (1) determine whether age-related changes in peripheral vestibular tests occur; (2) quantify peripheral vestibular function in children with normal hearing and CCI; and (3) determine whether amount of vestibular loss predicts visual acuity and balance performance. Design: Eleven CCI and 12 children with normal hearing completed the following tests of vestibular function: ocular and cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential to assess utricle and saccule function and the video head impulse test to assess semicircular canal function. The relationship between amount of vestibular loss and the following balance and visual acuity outcomes was assessed: dynamic gait index, single-leg stance, the sensory organization test, and tests of visual acuity, including dynamic visual acuity and the gaze stabilization test. Results: (1) There were no significant age-related changes in peripheral vestibular testing with the exception of the n23 cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential latency, which was moderately correlated with age. (2) CCI had significantly higher rates of vestibular loss for each test of canal and otolith function. (3) Amount of vestibular loss predicted performance on single-leg stance, the dynamic gait index, some conditions of the sensory organization test, and the dynamic visual acuity test. Age was also a contributing factor for predicting the performance of almost all outcomes. Conclusions: Preliminarily, children with vestibular loss do not recover naturally to levels of their healthy peers, particularly with activities that utilize vestibular input; they have poorer visual acuity and balance function.
Mitochondrial NAD+‐linked State 3 respiration and complex‐I activity are compromised in the cerebral cortex of 3‐nitropropionic acid‐induced rat model of Huntington’s disease

Mitochondrial complex‐I dysfunction has been observed in patients of Huntington’s disease (HD). We assessed whether such a defect is present in the 3‐nitropropionic acid (3‐NP) model of HD. Rats treated with 3‐NP (10–20 mg/kg i.p., for 4 days) exhibited weight loss, gait abnormalities, and striatal lesions with increased glial fibrillary acidic protein immunostaining on fifth and ninth days, while increase in striatal dopamine and loss of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity were observed on fifth day following treatment. We report for the first time a dose‐dependent reduction in complex‐I activity in the cerebral cortex when analyzed spectrophotometrically and by blue native‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis following 3‐NP treatment. The citrate synthase normalized activities of mitochondrial complex‐I, ‐II, ‐(I + III) and ‐IV were decreased in the cortex of 3‐NP treated rats. In addition, succinate driven State 3 respiration was also significantly inhibited in vivo and in the isolated mitochondria. These findings taken together with the observation of a significant decrease in vivo but not in vitro of State 3 respiration with NAD+‐linked substrates, suggest complex‐I dysfunction in addition to irreversible inhibition of complex‐II and succinate dehydrogenase activity as a contributing factor in 3‐NP‐induced cortico‐striatal lesion.
Single channel speech enhancement using ideal binary mask technique based on computational auditory scene analysis

Single channel speech enhancement is necessary where the multichannel speech enhancement is not feasible due to space constraints in the intended device and cost-effectiveness. However, the problem of having limited information from single channel sound signal mixtures or unavailability of the speech source signals makes it more difficult to separate the target speech from the background maskers in the acoustic environment of low signal to noise ratio, in various background noises and in less temporal duration of speech signals. To address these problems, computational auditory analysis became popular from the last decade as a new concept for speech enhancement. In this paper, ideal binary mask which is inspired by the computational auditory analysis is used to analyze and synthesize the input speech signals and masker signals in the time-frequency domain, where all the signals usually overlap. Synthesized signals are evaluated for speech quality measurement in terms of segmental signal-to-noise ratio. This study uses Malay language based speech as input speech signals. These input speech signals vary in duration due to their word structure. Large crowd babble speech and two talker competing speech are employed as masker signals. The input signal-to-noise ratio is varied from -5 dB to +15 dB in steps of 5 dB to vary the difficulty level of acoustic environment. Results show that ideal binary mask algorithm reconstructs the target speech signals efficiently from the degraded and noisy speech signals. This is signified by the high segmental signal-to-noise ratio even in the lowest input signal-to-noise ratio. This type of high noise reduction is necessary to lessen the burden of elderly listener’s listening effort in noisy environment.
Incentive spirometry performance. A reliable indicator of pulmonary function in the early postoperative period after lobectomy?

OBJECTIVES The purpose of our study was to validate the incentive spirometry (IS) as a simple mean to follow pulmonary function at the bedside after lung surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS We studied prospectively 19 patients (16 men, 3 women; mean +/- SE age, 60 +/- 2.8 years) undergoing lobectomy for lung cancer. All the patients had an obstructive pattern with FEV1/FVC below 75%. Lung volumes, including functional residual capacity (FRC) and residual volume (RV), measured using spirometry and the helium dilution technique, and IS were measured preoperatively and postoperatively at days 1, 2, 3, and 8, and at 2 months. RESULTS Our results showed that in the postoperative period after lung resection, IS performance was well correlated (R) during the first 8 postoperative days with vital capacity (VC) (R between 0.667 and 0.870) mainly due to the excellent correlation with the inspiratory reserve volume (IRV, R between 0.680 and 0.895) but was poorly correlated with expiratory reserve volume (R below 0.340), RV (R below 0.180), and FRC (R below 0.470). CONCLUSIONS IS can be used as a simple mean to follow lung function, especially VC and IRV, in the postoperative period in spontaneously breathing patients. IS is noninvasive and can be performed repeatedly at the bedside in the intensive care setting.
Improvement of RISE Mobile Robot Operator Training Tool

In the chapter the framework for RISE (Risky Intervention and Environmental Surveillance) mobile robot operator training design is presented. The basic idea of the framework is to provide advanced software tools to improve the performance of the mobile robot simulation design that are applicable for operator training. The simulator is the end product of the framework. To achieve realistic rigid body simulation and realistic rendering the NVIDIA PhysX engine and the OGRE (Open Graphic Rendering Engine) are used. The compatibility between the framework software and CAD modeling tools such as SolidWorks was essential, therefore virtual models are exchangeable using COLLADA format. The simulator can be integrated with control panel of the mobile robot. It is possible to simulate the behavior of several types of robots such as caterpillar or wheeled. The improvement presented in this chapter is related to the problem of automatic environment model generation based on autonomous mobile robot observations. The approach related to semantic mapping is used and in consequence semantic simulation engine is implemented. Semantic simulation engine is composed by data registration module, semantic entities identification module and environment model generation module. Presented result is a new approach related to mobile robots applications and potentially can improve the process of advanced mobile robot application design and professional training of the operators. Training of the mobile robot operators is very difficult task not only because of the complexity of the mobile robot but also because of several factors related to different task execution. The study of the human-robot interactions (HRI) during a real rescue is presented in Casper & Murphy (2003) Bedkowski, Kowalski & Piszczek (2009). Several robotic systems are developed for rescue tasks Wei et al. (2009) Zhang et al. (2009). The research on simulation and training systems for mobile robots is shown in Xuewen et al. (2006). In the field of robotics applied for medical purposes such as surgery the simulation and training environments are developed and described in Schlaefer et al. (2008). The problem of learning via Web is common application used in several cases and as remote experiment system for distance training is discussed in Hong et al. (2007). Virtual labs have been meaningful and very popular in distance education in engineering oriented fields of study, since they allow to perform interesting experiments with the equipment in the labs remotely available through Internet Masar et al. (2004). An advance computer techniques such augmented reality approach applied in training robotics is shown in Kowalski et al. (2008)Bravo & Alberto (2009). The simulation environment used as a testbed for simulation based approach for 17
The Kinetic Luminosity Function and the Jet Production Efficiency of Growing Black Holes

We derive the kinetic luminosity function for flat-spectrum radio jets, using the empirical and theoretical scaling relation between jet power and radio core luminosity. The normalization for this relation is derived from a sample of flat-spectrum cores in galaxy clusters with jet-driven X-ray cavities. The total integrated jet power at z = 0 is Wtot ≈ 3 × 1040 ergs s-1 Mpc-3. By integrating Wtot over redshift, we determine the total energy density deposited by jets as etot ≈ 2 × 1058 ergs Mpc-3. Both Wtot and etot are dominated by low-luminosity sources. Comparing etot to the local black hole mass density ρBH gives an average jet production efficiency of ϵjet = ejet/ρBHc2 ≈ 3%. Since black hole mass is accreted mainly during high-luminosity states, ϵjet is likely much higher during low-luminosity states.
Evaluation of United Arab Emirates WRF two-way nested model on a set of thick coastal fog situations

United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is suffering almost all the year by the consequences of visibility reduction caused either by persistent dust and haze episodes or by the occurrence of thick fogs especially over marine and costal regions. Visibility drop due to fog usually happens during late night and early morning and could last several hours before dissipation. The U.A. E coastal fogs are generally advective caused by the north westerly surface flow draining huge amounts of moisture from the Arabian Gulf sea strait to the 600 km U.A. E western and southern coasts. The large contrast in temperature between land and sea especially during winter season accelerates the condensation process over land near the surface, and contributes to the formation of low stratiform clouds close to the surface since the very beginning of night time. The Weather Research and Forecasting model is among the tools used by the forecasters for fog prediction. It offers a large number of prognostic and diagnostic fog predictability parameters. However, UAE WRF is not always successful in predicting fog formation. Recently, during February and March 2008, among more than 10 thick fog situations, only 6 were correctly predicted. This study aims the scientific evaluation of multiple WRF fog ingredients like physical parameterizations schemes (microphysics, radiation, planetary boundary layer, surface, horizontal diffusion), horizontal and vertical resolution, assimilation techniques (3D-Var, Nudging), over a series of 2008 winter and spring fog situations. It has been found that the inner most nest with very fine resolution (1.4km), an adapted microphysics scheme (Lin et al.), an adequate planetary boundary scheme (Yonsei University) interfaced with Noah surface scheme and RRTM and Dudhia respectively long wave and short wave radiation schemes constitutes a satisfying scientific environment for WRF with respect to fog prediction. An improvement of fog patches location is noted also when 3D-Var warm initialization using the FGAT technique is used.
Protection Provided by a Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) Glycoprotein C and D Subunit Antigen Vaccine against Genital HSV-2 Infection in HSV-1-Seropositive Guinea Pigs

ABSTRACT A prophylactic vaccine for genital herpes disease remains an elusive goal. We report the results of two studies performed collaboratively in different laboratories that assessed immunogenicity and vaccine efficacy in herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1)-seropositive guinea pigs immunized and subsequently challenged intravaginally with HSV-2. In study 1, HSV-2 glycoproteins C (gC2) and D (gD2) were produced in baculovirus and administered intramuscularly as monovalent or bivalent vaccines with CpG and alum. In study 2, gD2 was produced in CHO cells and given intramuscularly with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) and alum, or gC2 and gD2 were produced in glycoengineered Pichia pastoris and administered intramuscularly as a bivalent vaccine with Iscomatrix and alum to HSV-1-naive or -seropositive guinea pigs. In both studies, immunization boosted neutralizing antibody responses to HSV-1 and HSV-2. In study 1, immunization with gC2, gD2, or both immunogens significantly reduced the frequency of genital lesions, with the bivalent vaccine showing the greatest protection. In study 2, both vaccines were highly protective against genital disease in naive and HSV-1-seropositive animals. Comparisons between gD2 and gC2/gD2 in study 2 must be interpreted cautiously, because different adjuvants, gD2 doses, and antigen production methods were used; however, significant differences invariably favored the bivalent vaccine. Immunization of naive animals with gC2/gD2 significantly reduced the number of days of vaginal shedding of HSV-2 DNA compared with that for mock-immunized animals. Surprisingly, in both studies, immunization of HSV-1-seropositive animals had little effect on recurrent vaginal shedding of HSV-2 DNA, despite significantly reducing genital disease.
Ranking and Clustering of Software Cost Estimation Models

In today's software industries there are many software cost estimation models are there to estimate the financial need to develop a software. The result of the models typically requires obtaining approval to proceed, and factored into business plans, budgets, and other financial planning and tracking mechanisms. Many of the models are providing irrelevant output thereby putting the organization in confusion. So to choose a perfect cost estimation model becomes higher priority for the companies. In our research to rank the cost estimation models proposed system uses previous performance data sets as the evidence. System uses correlation similarity and preference model to identify the rank of the model and thereby cluster the cost estimation models. In our proposed model we have taken many parameters to perform ranking and clustering. In this paper we are demonstrating abilities of software cost estimation method and clustering them; based on their features. It helps us to rank together for further usage of software.
Phenotypic variation and differentiated gene expression of Australian plants in response to declining rainfall

Declining rainfall is projected to have negative impacts on the demographic performance of plant species. Little is known about the adaptive capacity of species to respond to drying climates, and whether adaptation can keep pace with climate change. In fire-prone ecosystems, episodic recruitment of perennial plant species in the first year post-fire imposes a specific selection environment, offering a unique opportunity to quantify the scope for adaptive response to climate change. We examined the growth of seedlings of four fire-killed species under control and drought conditions for seeds from populations established in years following fire receiving average-to-above-average winter rainfall, or well-below-average winter rainfall. We show that offspring of plants that had established under drought had more efficient water uptake, and/or stored more water per unit biomass, or developed denser leaves, and all maintained higher survival in simulated drought than did offspring of plants established in average annual rainfall years. Adaptive phenotypic responses were not consistent across all traits and species, while plants that had established under severe drought or established in years with average-to-above-average rainfall had an overall different physiological response when growing either with or without water constraints. Seedlings descended from plants established under severe drought also had elevated gene expression in key pathways relating to stress response. Our results demonstrate the capacity for rapid adaptation to climate change through phenotypic variation and regulation of gene expression. However, effective and rapid adaptation to climate change may vary among species depending on their capacity to maintain robust populations under multiple stresses.
Management of allergic rhinitis in the era of effective over-the-counter treatments

ABSTRACT Allergic rhinitis (AR) may be regarded as a trivial issue unworthy of the doctor’s time, and with the availability of many different over-the-counter (OTC) treatments, up to two thirds of patients self-manage AR before seeking medical care. Yet, AR can have a significant impact on health-related quality of life and is associated with a greater detriment to work productivity than other chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. For many patients, the impact on quality of life is greater than suggested by reported symptoms and should also be a focus of treatment. Although many patients can effectively manage AR symptoms independently, a significant percentage will need direction from a physician to obtain optimal results. The availability of several different classes of treatment – including decongestants, sedating and non-sedating antihistamines, and more recently intranasal corticosteroids (INS) – has increased the complexity of self-management, leaving patients confused about the best approach to treatment. Treatment guidelines universally classify INS as the most effective medical agents available for use in the OTC and primary care settings. Many patients are unaware that INS are available OTC and that they are more effective than other therapies. Patients may have negative perceptions about the safety of INS and may have experienced unpleasant taste, scent, and feel with nasal sprays. Unless a patient volunteers the information, healthcare professionals (HCPs) may be unaware that the patient has significant AR and is using one or more OTC AR therapies. To address this gap in communication, HCPs must be proactive in identifying, assessing, and advising patients with AR, including best strategies to assess allergen trigger symptoms, which treatments are appropriate, and when and how to use them. Proper use of delivery devices is especially important. This article reviews the primary care management of AR in the context of the availability of effective OTC medicines.
Review of neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia

Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT), with an incidence of one in 1000 live births, is the most common cause of severe thrombocytopenia and intra‐cerebral haemorrhage in term neonates. NAIT results from trans‐placental passage of maternal antibodies against a paternally derived fetal platelet alloantigen. Clinical presentation varies from unexpected thrombocytopenia on a blood film in a well newborn to intracranial haemorrhage (ICH). In contrast to haemolytic disease of the newborn, NAIT can present in a first pregnancy, and subsequent pregnancies are usually more severely affected. The role of antenatal screening for maternal alloantibodies instead of fetal blood sampling to identify at‐risk fetuses remains uncertain, but there is a trend towards less invasive maternally directed treatment for at‐risk pregnancies. Neonatal management is aimed at preventing or limiting thrombocytopenic bleeding with transfusion of antigen‐matched platelets.