Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image Restoration of Motion Blur Image using Alternating Direction Balanced Regularization Method

--In this research, two different schemes are proposed to estimate the motion blur parameters. Two dimensional Gabor filter has been used to calculate the direction of the blur. Radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) has been utilized to find the length of the blur. Subsequently, Alternating Direction Balanced Regularization method has been used to restore the images. Noise robustness of the proposed scheme is tested with different noise strengths. The visual as well as the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR in dB) of restored images are compared with competent recent schemes .
Signalling or binding: the role of the platelet‐activating factor receptor in invasive pneumococcal disease

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is an opportunistic human pathogen, which causes serious invasive disease such as pneumonia, bacteraemia and meningitis. The interaction of the bacteria with host receptors precedes the development of invasive disease. One host receptor implicated in pneumococcal adhesion to, invasion of and ultimately translocation of cell layers is the platelet‐activating factor receptor (PAFR). PAFR is a G‐protein coupled receptor which binds PAF, a potent phospholipid activator involved in many leucocyte functions, platelet aggregation and inflammation. PAFR has been proposed to bind S. pneumoniae and as such facilitate adhesion to, uptake by and transcytosis of endothelial cells leading to invasive disease. However, there is a shortage of biochemical data supporting direct interaction between PAFR and the bacteria, in addition to conflicting data on its role in development of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). In this review, we will discuss current literature on PAFR and S. pneumoniae and other pathogens,including data concerning human PAFR genetic variation related to IPD clinical aspects, to shed light on the importance of PAFR in IPD. Clarification of the role of this receptor in IPD development has the potential to enable the development of novel therapeutic strategies for treating pneumococcal disease by interfering with the PAFR.
Experience establishing tuberculosis laboratory capacity in a developing country setting.

OBJECTIVE To describe the experience of strengthening laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in a resource-limited country with high TB-HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) prevalence. METHODS In the Kingdom of Lesotho, which is confronted with high levels of TB, MDR-TB and HIV prevalence, between 2006 and 2008 a coalition of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Partners In Health and the World Health Organization renovated the National TB Reference Laboratory and reinforced microscopy services, streamlined conventional culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) and introduced modern TB diagnostic methods. FINDINGS It was feasible to establish a biosafety level three facility for solid culture and DST and an external quality assessment programme for smear microscopy within 4 months, all in 2007. Liquid culture and DST were introduced a month later. Preliminary results were comparable to those found in laboratories in industrialised countries. A year later, line-probe assay for the rapid detection of MDR-TB was introduced. DISCUSSION Through strong political commitment and collaboration, it is possible to rapidly establish quality assured TB diagnostic capacity, including current methods, in a resource-limited setting. Case detection and management for TB and MDR-TB have been greatly enhanced. From a low baseline, TB culture throughput in the laboratory increased ten-fold and has been sustained. This experience has served as a catalyst to translate policy into practice with new diagnostic technologies. It supports global policy setting to enhance and modernise laboratory work in developing countries.
Six additional cases of SEDC due to the same and recurrent R989C mutation in the COL2A1 gene—the clinical and radiological follow‐up

Six Additional Cases of SEDC Due to the Same and Recurrent R989C Mutation in the COL2A1 Gene— the Clinical and Radiological Follow-up Karina C. Silveira, Luciana C. Bonadia, Andrea Superti-Furga, Débora R. Bertola, Alexander A.L. Jorge, and Denise P. Cavalcanti* Skeletal Dysplasia Group, Department of Medical Genetic, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil Department of Pediatrics, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland Genetics Unit, Children’s Institute, Clinical Hospital, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil Department of Endocrinology, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Improved scatter correction using adaptive scatter kernel superposition

Accurate scatter correction is required to produce high-quality reconstructions of x-ray cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. This paper describes new scatter kernel superposition (SKS) algorithms for deconvolving scatter from projection data. The algorithms are designed to improve upon the conventional approach whose accuracy is limited by the use of symmetric kernels that characterize the scatter properties of uniform slabs. To model scatter transport in more realistic objects, nonstationary kernels, whose shapes adapt to local thickness variations in the projection data, are proposed. Two methods are introduced: (1) adaptive scatter kernel superposition (ASKS) requiring spatial domain convolutions and (2) fast adaptive scatter kernel superposition (fASKS) where, through a linearity approximation, convolution is efficiently performed in Fourier space. The conventional SKS algorithm, ASKS, and fASKS, were tested with Monte Carlo simulations and with phantom data acquired on a table-top CBCT system matching the Varian On-Board Imager (OBI). All three models accounted for scatter point-spread broadening due to object thickening, object edge effects, detector scatter properties and an anti-scatter grid. Hounsfield unit (HU) errors in reconstructions of a large pelvis phantom with a measured maximum scatter-to-primary ratio over 200% were reduced from −90 ± 58 HU (mean ± standard deviation) with no scatter correction to 53 ± 82 HU with SKS, to 19 ± 25 HU with fASKS and to 13 ± 21 HU with ASKS. HU accuracies and measured contrast were similarly improved in reconstructions of a body-sized elliptical Catphan phantom. The results show that the adaptive SKS methods offer significant advantages over the conventional scatter deconvolution technique.
Attitude Formation—Contact or Information?

posed action. 4. Evaluation-summarizing the effect of intervention and developing a proposal for continuation. The present project areas include work with children and adults labeled mentally retarded, disadvantaged, and behaviorally disordered. Two of the projects involve recreation for disadvantaged children in inner city areas. One project's aim is to develop an afterschool recreation program in conjunction with a newly organized community recreation advisory group and with other related groups. The second project involves interdisciplinary efforts with recreation students to survey another urban area and develop a program based on this information for future use. Three of these projects involved persons labeled mentally retarded. One project has developed and is implementing a social awareness curriculum involving topics presented by a variety of community people. This project works with adults living in a small group residence which serves as a transition from life in a state institution to an independent life in the community. A second project set up a student organization to match children labeled retarded with big sister companions and is making plans to merge with the new local unit of Big Sisters. A third project helped to develop the outpatient rehabilitation program at a local state hospital for adults labeled retarded. Another recent project has developed a manual to list appropriate ways to approach local media for dissemination of information about current issues in special education and the START Project. At present, START is directly involved in coordinating these six projects. By planning and implementing these projects through START guidelines, students have learned appropriate methods of community action to broaden their experience with persons in difficulty with current social institutions.
Total internal reflection mirror-based InGaAsP ring resonators integrated with optical amplifiers

Novel ring resonators combining very small multimode interference (MMI) couplers, low loss total internal reflection (TIR) mirrors, and a semiconductor optical amplifier in InGaAsP material system are reported for the first time. The MMI length of 113 /spl mu/m is among the shortest reported. Average TIR mirror loss is about 1.1 dB per mirror. The material platform and fabrication process used are the same used for other active and passive devices except for a deep etch step. Hence, such resonators are easily integrated with other active and passive devices. A free spectral range of approximately 2 nm is observed near 1568 nm along with an on-off ratio of 14 dB, a full-width at half-maximum of about 0.3 nm, a finesse of more than 6, and a Q-factor of more than 4900.
State of the Art Mock Circulation Loop and a Proposed Novel Design

A novel fully-automated systemic mock human circulation loop (MCL) design is proposed with a wide literature review of MCL and left ventricular (LV) form and function. Drawbacks and strengths of current MCLs and their pumping systems are investigated and an inference has been made for requirements of a novel MCL design. It has been found that proposed MCL design should not only capable of replicating wide range of cardiac operating scenarios, but also pumping system should better represent LV for simulating various cardiovascular diseases particularly muscular dysfunctions. Also, the proposed MCL design should be fullyautomated that controls essential MCL parameters such as compliance, resistance. Medical papers showed that LV has principal functionalities such as elastance, torsional and twisting motion of ventricular wall, which play important role on motion and contraction of LV. These features are implemented on a proposed pneumatic muscle actuated LV.
Toward sustainable networking: coded storage and high-traffic networks

Current projections indicate that the worldwide data center (DC) industry will require a quadrupling of capacity by the year 2020 [1]. Modern DCs can manage up to hundreds of thousands of servers, storing petabytes of data and concurrently serving thousands of users. Coded storage is a strategy proposed in the last decade, which may be able to improve performance of these growing systems. Broadly, we classify storage systems into those that can be modeled as static, or as traffic-agnostic, and those that are modeled as high-traffic networks, which experience significant traffic congestion. Prior work on coded storage has focused on code construction and traffic-agnostic performance analysis. " Traffic-agnostic coded storage: Significant work exists on code construction and on traffic-agnostic performance analysis of coded storage at the network level. Intuitive examples, problem frameworks, performance bounds, and a plethora of practical codes exist in this setting. The vast majority of work in this area considers coded storage for single data repair events, in which drives permanently fail, as per the seminal work of Dimakis et al. [2, 3], and recent work considers probabilistic drive failures, where failures are independent of incoming traffic. " Coded storage in high-traffic networks: This thesis proposes coded storage as a traffic congestion mitigation strategy, and seeks to explore the potential benefits in doing so. To the author's knowledge, this is the first thesis on coded storage in high-traffic networks, by which we mean networks with significant traffic congestion. When this thesis began, this sub-area had no prior work. In particular, this area had no intuitive examples, problem formulations, models, nor results. We will argue that some kind of queueing model can be applied to high-traffic networks that use coded storage. Strictly speaking, such queueing models could also be applied to networks without significant traffic congestion, but they may not be necessary for analytical purposes. As of May 2014, a handful of papers on coded storage to reduce traffic congestion have been published by various authors. Each paper will be referenced and discussed in the most closely relevant technical thesis chapter. This thesis combines academic literature from queueing theory, coding theory, and storage systems engineering. Broadly, in each technical chapter, contributions are threefold: " We develop models and tools for high-traffic networks that allow tractable analysis of coded storage. " Using various queueing models, we explore mechanisms by which coded storage could improve user management, and quantify this potential. The coded storage schemes we propose code across chunks as they are commonly laid out on drives today, and are generally application-agnostic. Coding structures are not optimized (with the exception of Chapter 5). " In addition, in Chapter 5, we explore coded storage structures that are application-specific, and propose a multi-resolution coding approach for video streaming. Metrics considered…
Automatic Sound Scene Control Using Image Sensor Network

We proposed the automatic sound scene control system using the image sensor network for preserving the constant sound scene without respect to the users' movement. In the proposed system, the image sensor network detects the human location in the multichannel playback environment and the SSC (sound scene control) module automatically controls the sound scene of the multichannel audio signals according to the estimated human location which is the angle information. To estimate the direction of the human face, we used the normalized RGB (red, green, and blue) and the HSV (hue, saturation, and value) calculated from the images obtained by the image sensor network. The direction of the human face can be easily decided as the image sensor to capture the image with the highest number of pixels to satisfy the thresholds of the normalized RGB and the HSV. The estimated direction of the human face is directly fed to the SSC module, and the controlled sound scene can be simply generated. Experimental results show that the image sensor network successfully detected the human location with the accuracy of about 98% and the controlled sound scene by the SSC according to the detected human location was perceived as the original sound scene with the accuracy of 95%.
Unique structural features of the monomeric Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase from Escherichia coli, revealed by X-ray crystallography.

The first three-dimensional structure of a functional monomeric Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (from Escherichia coli, E_SOD) is reported at 2.0 A resolution (R-factor=16.8%). Compared to the homologous eukaryotic enzymes, E_SOD displays a perturbed antiparallel beta-barrel structure. The most striking structural features observed include extended amino acid insertions in the surface 1, 2-loop and S-S subloop, modification of the disulfide bridge connection, and loss of functional electrostatic residues, suggesting a modified control of substrate steering toward the catalytic center. The active site Cu2+ displays a distorted coordination sphere due to an unusually long bond to the metal-bridging residue His61. Inspection of the crystal packing does not show regions of extended contact indicative of a dimeric assembly. The molecular surface region involved in subunit dimerization in eukaryotic superoxide dismutases is structurally altered in E_SOD and displays a net polar nature.
An Overview of Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) Lasers

The primary purpose of text is to explain the mutual influences between the physical and dynamic processes in solids and their lasing properties. It begins with a brief overview of historical developments and the basics of solid state laser materials and design, then describes optical dynamics and energy transfer in solids and analyzes the properties of rare earth and transition metal ion doped crystals, glasses and ceramics. Diode laser pumps for solid state lasers are reviewed with special emphasis on current and future capabilities. The text also outlines the factors that influence the development of new laser materials, and reports on recent developments and technological advances in solid state lasers and photonics that use novel materials and techniques. Included are discussions of pumps for continuous wave or pulsed and side pumping configurations. The use of diode lasers instead of flashlamps as optical pump sources for solid state lasers offers significant advantages such as higher efficiency and longer lifetime. The potential applications of this technology to device singulation for electronic and power generation devices will be described.
The Effects of Social and Political Openness on the Welfare State in 18 OECD Countries

Studies examining the relationship between globalisation and the welfare state tend to focus on the effects of economic dimensions of globalisation, the extent to which a country is part of the world market. Globalisation also has social and political dimensions and the effects of these on welfare states - in terms of social security transfers and generosity - are studied in this article. Data from the KOF Index of Globalisation, the OECD Historical Statistics and the Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset are used to analyse the effects of social and political openness on the welfare states of 18 countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development between 1970 and 2000. The analyses show that social security transfers and generosity have increased less in countries with the highest increase in social openness and that the welfare state is not affected by political openness.
Epigenetically regulated microRNAs and their prospect in cancer diagnosis

Epigenetic alterations have been reported to deregulate the expression of many transcripts, including noncoding RNAs that have no apparent protein-coding capacity. Recently, as the result of numerous studies focused on miRNAs, novel sequencing technologies have made available the transcription profile of the entire human genome. miRNAs as drivers of tumor-suppressive and oncogenic functions have been found to be dysregulated in numerous cancer types. However, the functions of epigenetically regulated genetic elements other than protein-coding genes are still a matter of debate. In this review, the authors focus mainly on describing the epigenetic regulation of miRNAs in cancer. They also discuss the role of miRNAs as potential diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers.
Characterization of Novel Atrazine-Degrading Klebsiella sp. isolated from Thai Agricultural Soil

Atrazine, a herbicide widely used in sugarcane and corn production, is a frequently detected groundwater contaminant. An atrazine-degrading bacterium, strain KB02, was obtained from long-term atrazine-treated sugarcane field soils in Kanchanaburi province of Thailand. Strain KB02 had a rod-to-coccus morphological cycle during growth. Sequence analysis of the PCR product indicated that the 16S rRNA gene in strain KB02 was ranging from 97-98% identical to the same region in Klebsiella sp. Based on biochemical, physiological analysis and 16S rDNA sequence analysis of one representative isolate, strain KB02, the isolates belong to the genus Klebsiella in the family Enterobacteriaceae. Interestingly that the various primers for atzA, B and C failed to amplify genomic DNA of strain KB02. Whereas the expected PCR product of atzA, B and C were obtained from the reference strain, Arthrobacter sp. strain KU001. Keywords—Atrazine; atz gene; Biodegradation; bioremediation ; Klebsiella
Regulation of the Phosphotyrosine Content of Human Sperm Proteins by Intracellular Ca2+: Role of Ca2+-Adenosine Triphosphatases1

Abstract An increase in the concentration of intracellular free Ca2+ and in the phosphotyrosine content of specific proteins characterizes human sperm capacitation. Whether tyrosine phosphorylation regulates the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration through modulation of Ca2+-ATPase activity or the phosphotyrosine content is under Ca2+ regulation was investigated using Ca2+-ATPase modulators and tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The presence of the Ca2+-ATPase-inhibitor thapsigargin during human sperm capacitation caused an increase in the cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentration and was associated with an increase in the phosphotyrosine content of specific sperm proteins. Conversely, a decrease in protein tyrosine phosphorylation was observed when gingerol, a Ca2+-ATPase activator, was present during the incubation period. On the other hand, thapsigargin had no effect on the phosphotyrosine content or the cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration when spermatozoa were incubated in the presence of the phosphodiesterase-inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX). However, the effect of IBMX on phosphotyrosine-containing proteins appears to be a Ca2+-dependent phenomenon, because it was partly inhibited in spermatozoa pretreated with 1,2-bis-(o-aminophenoxy)-ethane-N,N,N,N-tetraacetic acid tetra-(acetoxymethyl)-ester (BAPTA-AM) even though, by itself, BAPTA-AM caused an increase in sperm protein phosphotyrosine content. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors prevented the increase in the phosphotyrosine content without affecting the cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentration. Based on these findings, the present study suggests that Ca2+-ATPases are involved in the filling of internal Ca2+ stores, such as the acrosome, and are inhibited later during capacitation. Their inhibition allows an increase in cytoplasmic free Ca2+, which is involved in the subsequent increase in the phosphotyrosine content of specific sperm proteins.
The effects of the Pendulum distalising appliance and cervical headgear on the dentofacial structures

Abstract Background: Headgears are effective in distalising maxillary molars, but success depends on patient compliance and tolerance. Intra-oral distalising appliances are simple to construct and use and may be a better alternative for patients who are non-compliant or cannot tolerate headgear. Aims: To compare the Pendulum (PEN) appliance and cervical headgear (CHG) on distal movement of maxillary first molars in patients requiring maxillary molar distalisation. Methods: Thirty patients were randomly divided into two groups. Both groups had comparable occlusal and cephalometric characteristics before treatment. Fifteen patients (9 girls, 6 boys) with a mean age of 11.45 ± 1.54 years (Range: 8.58–13.50 years) were treated with Pendulum appliances and 15 patients (10 girls, 5 boys) with a mean age of 11.72 ± 1.24 years (Range: 9.58–13.33 years) were treated with a Ricketts-type CHG. A pilot study of four patients estimated that the time required to distalise the maxillary molars with the Pendulum appliance was five months. Therefore, the end of treatment records for the CHG group were taken after 4.96 ± 0.35 months. Lateral and postero-anterior cephalometric radiographs were taken of both groups at the start (T1) and end of distalisation/treatment (T2). Changes in cephalometric measurements in the two groups were compared with Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Measurements indicated that U6-ANS distance, overjet and U1-APo distance increased, U6-PP angle and U6-PTV distance reduced, and the molar relationship improved more in the PEN group compared with the CHG group. Statistically, significant right molar – left molar differences were found between the two groups. Distalisation produced significant side effects, resulting in distal tipping of the first molars and an increase in overjet, whereas the CHG reduced the overjet. Conclusion: The Pendulum appliance was more effective than the CHG in distalising the maxillary first molars.