Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shape description from imperfect and incomplete data

Usually, shape description systems assume that a scene has been segmented into objects and that object boundaries are given. This, however, is not realistic when working with intensity images; the resulting boundaries are fragmented and contain surface markings, and shadow and noise boundaries. A system is described which works with such input and computes shape descriptions of complex objects. Scene segmentation takes place through shape description. Generalized cones or, more precisely, their 2D analogs of ribbons are used as the basic shape representation scheme. Results for synthetic and real examples are shown. The output of the system is useful for object recognition, learning, further inference of 3D shape, grasping, and navigation. <<ETX>>
An efficient charge recovery logic circuit

Efficient charge recovery logic (ECRL) is proposed as a candidate for low-energy adiabatic logic circuit. Power comparison with other logic circuits is performed on an inverter chain and a carry lookahead adder (CLA). ECRL CLA is designed as a pipelined structure for obtaining the same throughput as a conventional static CMOS CLA. Proposed logic shows four to six times power reduction with a practical loading and operation frequency range. An inductor-based supply clock generation circuit is proposed. Circuits are designed using 1.0-/spl mu/m CMOS technology with a reduced threshold voltage of 0.2 V.
Multiple Viewpoint Systems for Music Classification

Abstract This paper describes a new statistical modelling method for music classification. The method is an extension of the multiple viewpoint method for music prediction and generation. A multiple viewpoint system significantly outperforms all component viewpoints on the tasks of folk tune genre and region classification. The method is successfully applied to predict the genres of unlabelled Basque folk tunes.
Design and Implementation of an Extensible Learner-Adaptive Environment

This paper describes the design and implementation of a flexible architecture that is capable of extending the functions of a learner-adaptive self-learning environment. A “courseware object”, which is a program module that is used to implement various educational functionalities, has been newly introduced to ensure both function extensibility as well as content reusability. A prototype system was designed and implemented to investigate the feasibility of the proposed architecture and to identify the core behavior and interaction schema of courseware objects. The results from this trial indicated that several learner-adaptive functionalities including the SCORM 2004 standard specifications will be able to be successfully implemented into the proposed architecture. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel. 2010.02. 018
Impact of a Mobile Health Application on User Engagement and Pregnancy Outcomes Among Wyoming Medicaid Members

Abstract Background: Pregnancy and birth outcomes are a critical area of healthcare, yet negative outcomes like C-sections and preterm births remain widespread. Studies show that early and ongoing prenatal care can improve outcomes; however, in-person care is difficult to deliver in rural areas. This article examines the impact of mobile health technology on user engagement and birth outcomes in a Wyoming pilot study. The pilot did face some limitations; namely, the small app user group size and scant demographic information collected from users. Materials and Methods: Wyoming Medicaid contracted with Xerox State Healthcare to launch WYhealth Due Date Plus, a pregnancy application by Wildflower Health. Pregnant Medicaid members registering for the app and providing a Medicaid ID were assigned to the app user group (N = 85). The non-app user group consisted of other pregnant Medicaid members with delivery outcome records (N = 5,158). Downloads and utilization frequency were tracked to gauge user engagement.
Unique Property: A Supplemental Annotated Bibliography

This bibliography covers law review articles and supplemental A.L. R. entries published after 2002 on a variety of topics all within the characterization of “unique property”. For literature published from 1997-2002, see Nancy Levit & Robert R.M. Verchick, Unique Property: An Annotated Bibliography, 18 J. AM. ACAD. MATRIM. LAW. 589 (2004). A.L. R. entries, the titles of which are usually self-explanatory, are cited, but not annotated. Similarly, articles that concern only a single case or a single state are cited, but not annotated. Illustrative topics include: Businesses, Career Assets, Educational and Professional Degrees, Intellectual Property, Pets, Gifts, Reproductive Material and Tort Damages.
Modified LSB Audio Steganography Approach

In this era of emerging technologies, the rapid spread in Digital data usages in many real life applications have urged new and effective ways to ensure their security. Efficient secrecy can be achieved, at least in part, by implementing steganography techniques. Steganography is a technique of sending the messages in such a way that the existence of the message is concealed. In this, an image/audio/text file is chosen as carrier or cover in which the secret message is hidden. The resulting file (containing message in hidden form) thus obtained is called stego file. The focus in this paper is on digital audio steganography (where digital audio file is used as carrier), which has emerged as a prominent source of data hiding. The proposed method is a variant of well-known LSB method. Due to less robustness and more vulnerability to be attacked LSB method is not proffered. Instead two bits (2 nd and 3 rd LSB's) are used for hiding message. This will increase the data hiding capacity also. A custom filter is designed so as to minimize the changes occurred in stego file. The stego file along with the filtered file thus obtained is used to generate a unique key. The filtered file and the generated key will be transmitted to receiver. The key will derive to extract the correct message at receiver's end.
Optimal Scheduling Techniques for Charging theBatteries of Electric Vehicles under Time-Of-UsePricing Using Binary Integer Programming

This paper presents new optimal scheduling technique for charging the batteries of Electrical Vehicles (EVs) where the electric supply companies offer differential pricing depending on the Time-of-Use (TOU). The optimal schedule minimizes the total chargingcost of the battery of a specific EV. At the charging station, the arrival and departure time of the EV is taken into consideration along with the required charging power sequence.
Diagnostic value of Omniview technique on the agenesis of corpus callosum

Abstract Objective: This study aimed to discuss the diagnostic value of Omniview technique on the agenesis of corpus callosum. Methods: A total of 43 pregnant women with no obvious structural abnormality and eight pregnant women who diagnosed with agenesis of corpus callosum (ACC) were included in this study. The 2D ultrasonography and the 3D ultrasonography Omniview technique were used to carry out ultrasonic examination on 43 normal fetuses and eight fetuses with agenesis of corpus callosum (as verified through magnetic resonance), respectively. Results: The Omniview technique visually displayed the median sagittal plane of the fetus. The ROC curve of Omniview (0.999) was much higher than that of 2D ultrasonography (0.817). Rating of ACC and normal fetuses showed that the diagnostic efficiency of 3D ultrasonography Omniview technique was much higher than 2D ultrasonography. Conclusion: 3D ultrasonography Omniview technique has certain advantage in the diagnosis of agenesis of corpus callosum, and is of great significance in the prenatal screening of callosum.
Data connectivity for the composite information system/tool kit

The Composite Information System / Tool Kit (CIS/TK) is a prototype being developed at the MIT Sloan School of Management for providing connectivity among information systems. At the core of CIS/TK is a distributed database management system called MERGE. MERGE provides a uniform interface for retrieving and combining data from pre-existing, heterogeneous databases. This is achieved without any additions to the databases or its related programs. Through a global schema, the user is presented with an integrated view of the data. Data is referenced using a common query language called the Global Retrieval Language (GRL). A global query processor executes GRL, and is responsible for retrieving data from local databases and merging data. MERGE also provides facilities for interfacing with modules which can handle data reconciliation. This thesis describes the design and implementation of MERGE. An application for demonstrating MERGE, the Placement Assistant System, is also presented. Thesis Supervisor: Stuart E. Madnick Title: Professor of Management Science
Optimal Power Distortion Using Awgn In Sensor Network

In this paper, We have investigated the estimation of a memory less source by a wireless sensor network when the underlying random process is Gaussian where ‘ L’ distributed sensors transmit noisy observation of the source through a Gaussian multiple access channel to a single fusion center. In this paper, we consider the problem of source channel coding with a Fidelity criterion. Fidelity is measured by a distortion function. Simulation result shows that the gap between upper and lower bounds of distortion D is small as comparedwith the existing implementation[1]. This paper analyze the fundamental tradeoff between number of sensors, total transmit power, number of degrees of freedom of source and distortion. This paper shows that as the number of sensor increases distortion is exactly optimal in case of symmetric environment and almost optimal in asymmetric case.
Evaluation of a circuit training program for people with Parkinson’s disease: a pilot study

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, degenerative and progressive disorder of movement. It results in a high burden of disease for the individual [1] and carries with it a significant economic burden and social cost [1,2]. This raises concern about the future management of PD, particularly given that the prevalence of the disease is predicted to increase by 85% by 2025 due to the ageing population [2].
Motion Compensated Deinterlacing

A new algorithm to convert interlaced video sequences to a progressive format is proposed. The algorithm is based on motion detection, simple motion compensation, and adaptive weighted median filtering. The weights are adapted to emphasize temporal information in stationary areas and spatial information in the moving areas. Compensation of commonly occuring horizontal motion is used to improve the performance without adding the extra complexity of full motion compensation. A novel improvement to direction dependent processing is used to enchance the interpolation result on diagonal edges. The method can be used in advanced television receivers.
White matter abnormalities and multivariate pattern analysis in anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis

Objective This study aimed to investigate white matter (WM) microstructural alterations and their relationship correlation with disease severity in anti-NMDA receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was applied to discriminate between patients and healthy controls and explore potential imaging biomarkers. Methods Thirty-two patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis and 26 matched healthy controls underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Tract-based spatial statistics and atlas-based analysis were used to determine WM microstructural alterations between the two groups. MVPA, based on a machine-learning algorithm, was applied to classify patients and healthy controls. Results Patients exhibited significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in the corpus callosum, fornix, cingulum, anterior limb of the internal capsule, and corona radiata. Moreover, mean diffusivity was increased in the anterior corona radiata and body of the corpus callosum. On the other hand, radial diffusivity was increased in the anterior limb of the internal capsule, cingulum, corpus callosum, corona radiata, and fornix. WM changes in the cingulum, fornix, and retrolenticular part of the internal capsule were correlated with disease severity. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of fractional anisotropy-based classification were each 78.33%, while they were 67.71, 65.83, and 70% for radial diffusivity. Conclusion Widespread WM lesions were detected in anti-NMDAR encephalitis. The correlation between WM abnormalities and disease severity suggests that these alterations may serve a key role in the pathophysiological mechanisms of anti-NMDAR encephalitis. The combination of tract-based spatial statistics and MVPA may provide more specific and complementary information at the group and individual levels.
A neural network for the blind separation of non-Gaussian sources

In this paper, a two-layer neural network is presented, which organizes itself to perform blind source separation. The inputs to the network are prewhitened linear mixtures of unknown independent source signals. An unsupervised nonlinear Hebbian learning rule is used for training the network. After convergence, the network is able to extract the source signals from the mixtures, provided that the source signals do not have Gaussian distributions.
Hand pose estimation for vision-based human interface

Proposes a method for hand pose estimation that can be used for vision-based human interfaces. The aim of the method is to estimate all joint angles to manipulate an object in the virtual space. In this method, the hand regions are extracted from multiple images obtained by the multi-viewpoint camera system. By integrating these multi-viewpoint silhouette images, a hand pose is reconstructed as a "voxel model". Then all joint angles are estimated using three dimensional model fitting between hand model and voxel model. An experiment was performed in which the joint angles were estimated,from the silhouette images by the hand-pose simulator. The experimental result indicates the feasibility of the proposed algorithm for vision-based interfaces.
Outcomes from the Northeast England cohort of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) patients on tolvaptan

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). The vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist tolvaptan has been shown within randomized clinical trials to slow down decline of kidney function in patients with ADPKD at risk of rapid progression. We performed a retrospective review of a Northeast England cohort of adult ADPKD patients who had been established on tolvaptan therapy to determine its efficacy in a real-world clinic setting. Other inclusion criteria involved a pre-treatment decline in greater than 2.5 ml/min/1.73m2/year based on readings for a 3 year period, and ability to tolerate and maintain tolvaptan treatment for at least 12 months. We calculated based on eGFR slopes, predicted time to reach ESKD with and without tolvaptan therapy. The cohort of patients included 21 from the Northeast of England. The mean rate of eGFR decline prior to treatment was -6.02 ml/min/1.73m2/year for the cohort. Following tolvaptan treatment, the average decline in eGFR was reduced to -2.47 ml/min/1.73m2/year, gaining a mean 8 years and 4 months delay to reach ESKD. The majority of patients (n=19) received and tolerated full dose tolvaptan (90 mg/30 mg). The real-life use of tolvaptan gave a dramatic improvement in eGFR slopes, much more than previously reported in clinical studies. These effects may be in part due to careful patient identification, selection and inclusion of patients who were able to tolerate tolvaptan therapy, excellent compliance with medication and a “tolvaptan clinic” effect where great personal care was given to these patients.
Improving the Speed and Performance of Point-of-Care Diagnostics with Microfluidics

Microfluidic devices play an important role in improving global health because they reduce the study of biological phenomena into physiological scales and lay the foundation for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. Health is improved and lives are saved because POC diagnostics can enable earlier diagnosis of diseases and therefore more effective treatment. Accurate and available diagnostics also prevent accelerated drug resistance that stems from overtreatment or mistreatment with antibiotics, which is projected to cause up to $100 trillion in lost economic output and 10 million deaths by 2050. This work details new diagnostic assays and theoretical analysis of microfluidic devices that can be implemented at the point-of-care to improve global health.
A New Method Based on Spectral Subtraction for Speech Dereverberation

Summary A new monaural method for the suppression of late room reverberation from speech signals, based on spectral subtraction, is presented. The problem of reverberation suppression differs from classical speech de-noising in that the “reverberation noise” is non stationary. In this paper, the use of a novel estimator of the non-stationary reverberationnoise power spectrum, based on a statistical model of late reverberation, is presented. The algorithm is tested on real reverberated signals. The performances for different RIRs with ranging from 0.34 s to 1.7 s consistently show significant noise reduction with little signal distortion. Moreover, when used as a front end to an automatic speech recognition system, the algorithm brings about dramatic improvements in terms of automatic speech recognition scores in various reverberant environments.
A Reassessment of the Self-Perception Profile for Children: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Convergent Validity of a French Version among Second through Sixth Grade Children

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the factor structure, reliability, and convergent validity of a French version of the Self-Perception Profile for Children among primary schoolchildren. The study was conducted during the spring term and entailed group administration of a French version of Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children to 466 second grade, 350 third grade, 274 fourth grade children, and 247 sixth grade children. Teacher evaluations, individual sociometric interviews, and collective administration of a peer assessment measure were also collected but for second, third, and fourth grade samples only. The factor structure was evaluated by means of the confirmatory factor analytic procedure. The convergent validity of each subscale was tested by correlating self-assessment scores with teachers' and peers' assessments on similar dimensions for each age group. The results generally supported the five factor solution for all age groups (similar to the English version) although the magnitudes of the phi estimates indicated a substantial lack of self-concept differentiation among second and third grade children. The internal consistency values also indicated that each dimension could be reliably measured at each age level. Significant convergent validity was evidenced for all dimensions with the exception of physical appearance.
Approximate methods for dynamic ecological models

This document is due to appear as a chapter of the forthcoming Handbook of Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) by S. Sisson, L. Fan, and M. Beaumont. Here we describe some of the circumstances under which statistical ecologists might benefit from using methods that base statistical inference on a set of summary statistics, rather than on the full data. We focus particularly on one such approach, Synthetic Likelihood, and we show how this method represents an alternative to particle filters, for the purpose of fitting State Space Models of ecological interest. As an example application, we consider the prey-predator model of Turchin and Ellner (2000), and we use it to analyse the observed population dynamics of Fennoscandian voles.
Association and Prognostic Implication of C-Reactive Protein with Risk of 1-Year Death or Disabling Stroke After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

ABSTRACT Background : Recent data suggest that serum biomarkers may predict worse outcomes in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). We examined the association and predictive value of preprocedural levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) with clinical outcomes after TAVR. Methods : We evaluated 243 patients who had undergone successful TAVR and had a valid measurement of baseline CRP level between March 2010 and February 2017. The primary endpoint was the composite of death from any cause or disabling stroke at 12 months. Results : During follow-up (median, 13.7 months), primary outcome events occurred in 18 patients (8.2%), including 14 deaths (6.7%) and 5 disabling strokes (2.1%). Patients with high serum levels of CRP (≥3.0 mg/L) had a significantly higher 1-year rate of death or disabling stroke compared to those with normal CRP levels (16.7% vs. 5.5%, P = 0.009). In the multivariate Cox-proportional hazard model, an elevated level of CRP was identified as an independent predictor of 1-year death or disabling stroke (hazard ratio, 2.84; 95% confidence interval, 1.10–7.34; P = 0.03). After the addition of information about CRP concentration to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score model, the C-index for the prediction of death or disabling stroke substantially increased from 0.655 to 0.710, and a continuous net reclassification improvement of 0.529 (0.054–1.004) was noted. And there was no significant relationship between the primary outcome and other biomarkers, included B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and troponin I, in our study. Conclusions : In patients undergoing TAVR, elevated CRP levels were significantly associated with an increased risk of death or disabling stroke and also augmented event prediction, suggesting that CRP could be used as biomarker into a risk prediction model for TAVR.
Membrane Permeability in Biological Systems: A Systems Biology Perspective

A full understanding of biological function emerges only if we are able to integrate all relevant information at multiple levels of organization to recreate dynamic interactions. These dynamic interactions cannot be recreated purely by experimental observation and the only feasible approach is to develop mathematical and computational models which couple together the underlying complex interacting non-linear processes. It is thus particularly encouraging to revisit the force field parameterization on the basis of extended QM calculations (structures, energetics and phase transitions) in conjunction with available experimental information. Further levels of approximation can be built with the combination of important advances in methodology and computer codes. Moreover, the error controlled strategy applied for optimizing an empirical method for phospholipids is novel in this domain. Combining these strengths in an approach that builds membrane models, integrating adequate atomistic and electronic information, will represent a huge advance towards describing real membrane systems on a solid basis.
Blind adaptive interference-reject linear detectors for CDMA receivers

We take into consideration a low-complexity blind adaptive interference-rejection detector (BAID) scheme that minimizes the detrimental effect of the multiple access interference (MAI) on the bit-error rate (BER) performance of the data demodulator for direct-sequence/spread-spectrum (DS/SS) signals in CDMA radio networks. Specifically, we describe a few modifications to the original algorithm that make it more suitable to a practical implementation with QPSK-modulated DS/SS signals and asynchronous multiplexing, and we evaluate the performance of such extended detector in the case of coherent signal detection.