Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A study and toolkit for asynchronous programming in c#

Asynchronous programming is in demand today, because responsiveness is increasingly important on all modern devices. Yet, we know little about how developers use asynchronous programming in practice. Without such knowledge, developers, researchers, language and library designers, and tool providers can make wrong assumptions. We present the first study that analyzes the usage of asynchronous programming in a large experiment. We analyzed 1378 open source Windows Phone (WP) apps, comprising 12M SLOC, produced by 3376 developers. Using this data, we answer 2 research questions about use and misuse of asynchronous constructs. Inspired by these findings, we developed (i) Asyncifier, an automated refactoring tool that converts callback-based asynchronous code to use async/await; (ii) Corrector, a tool that finds and corrects common misuses of async/await. Our empirical evaluation shows that these tools are (i) applicable and (ii) efficient. Developers accepted 314 patches generated by our tools.
Fast tile-based adaptive sampling with user-specified Fourier spectra

We introduce a fast tile-based method for adaptive two-dimensional sampling with user-specified spectral properties. At the core of our approach is a deterministic, hierarchical construction of self-similar, equi-area, tri-hex tiles whose centroids have a spatial distribution free of spurious spectral peaks. A lookup table of sample points, computed offline using any existing point set optimizer to shape the samples' Fourier spectrum, is then used to populate the tiles. The result is a linear-time, adaptive, and high-quality sampling of arbitrary density functions that conforms to the desired spectral distribution, achieving a speed improvement of several orders of magnitude over current spectrum-controlled sampling methods.
Multiresolution mesh segmentation based on surface roughness and wavelet analysis

During the last decades, the three-dimensional objects have begun to compete with traditional multimedia (images, sounds and videos) and have been used by more and more applications. The common model used to represent them is a surfacic mesh due to its intrinsic simplicity and efficacity. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for the segmentation of semi-regular triangle meshes, via multiresolution analysis. Our method uses several measures which reflect the roughness of the surface for all meshes resulting from the decomposition of the initial model into different fine-to-coarse multiresolution meshes. The geometric data decomposition is based on the lifting scheme. Using that formulation, we have compared various interpolant prediction operators, associated or not with an update step. For each resolution level, the resulting approximation mesh is then partitioned into classes having almost constant roughness thanks to a clustering algorithm. Resulting classes gather regions having the same visual appearance in term of roughness. The last step consists in decomposing the mesh into connex groups of triangles using region growing ang merging algorithms. These connex surface patches are of particular interest for adaptive mesh compression, visualisation, indexation or watermarking.
Facial expression recognition using entropy and brightness features

This paper proposes a novel framework for universal facial expression recognition. The framework is based on two sets of features extracted from the face image: entropy and brightness. First, saliency maps are obtained by state-of-the-art saliency detection algorithm i.e. “frequency-tuned salient region detection”. Then only localized salient facial regions from saliency maps are processed to extract entropy and brightness features. To validate the performance of saliency detection algorithm against human visual system, we have performed a visual experiment. Eye movements of 15 subjects were recorded with an eye-tracker in free viewing conditions as they watch a collection of 54 videos selected from Cohn-Kanade facial expression database. Results of the visual experiment provided the evidence that obtained saliency maps conforms well with human fixations data. Finally, evidence of the proposed framework's performance is exhibited through satisfactory classification results on Cohn-Kanade database.
DOBSON SPACE TELESCOPE THE FUTURE OF MICROSAT BASED OBSERVATION

The Dobson Space Telescope Project (DST) at the TU-Berlin develops foldable telescopes for micro satellite application. This technology will overcome the volume limits of secondary payloads and enable satellites of the 100kg class to carry 20inch (50cm) aperture optics. Using cost effective micro-satellites for 1m resolution imagery will cut down the price for the satellite to a tenth of existing super high resolution systems thereby initiating the long predicted remote sensing boom. In contrast to the James Webb Space Telescope DST does not use foldable mirrors which are not mature nor cost effective. Instead of this DST will fold the optical bench only. This will ease the volume limits of small spacecrafts. During the last 2 years the students of the DST Team formed a science network to develop foldable optics for micro-satellites. This work culminates in the construction of a scaled laboratory prototype. This prototype carries a deployable 14inch (35cm) f/9 Cassegrain telescope. After its completion at the end of this year it will be the world’s first optical telescope with automatic deployment and collimation.
Biosynthesis of biodegradable polymer by a potent soil bacterium from a stress-prone environment -

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), produced by many microorganisms during stress condition, is an eco-friendly biodegradable polymer which can completely replace the petroleum-based commercial plastics. The study was aimed to screen a potent PHB producing bacterium from municipal dumpsite areas and to analyse the effects of nutritional and environmental factors to enhance production of PHB. Acinetobacter sp. K3 was a potent PHB producing soil bacterium identified by morphological, biochemical and molecular techniques. The 16S rDNA nucleotide sequence of the bacterium was assigned the accession number: KT907046 in NCBI database. Effects of different carbon, nitrogen, pH and temperatures on PHB production were analysed to enhance its product yield. It grows at the rate of 0.105 g/h/L and PHB production achieved up to 4.8 g/L from 6.04 g/L DCW (dry cell weight) and PHB contents amounts to 79.4 % w/w of total DCW. The above accumulated PHB was obtained at pH 8, temperature 400C, mannitol and urea used as carbon and nitrogen sources respectively. Further, phbA, phbB and phbC genes responsible for PHB production was amplified which confirms the presence of PHB using the gene specific primers by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. This new strain could be used for further industrial production of biopolymer.
Growth and antioxidant responses of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. seedlings to lead and simulated acid rain exposure

Heavy metal pollution and acid rain are serious global environmental issues. The combined pollution of these two contaminants has become a new environmental issue where both stresses occur simultaneously. These abiotic stresses alter the plant growth and development, various metabolic activities and agricultural yield. However, studies on combined pollution of these remain limited. In the current study, the application of lead (Pb, 1200 mg l− 1) and/or simulated acid rain (SAR, pH 3.5) to fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) seedlings for 30 days resulted into various physiological and metabolic dysfunctions. Our experimental results revealed that treatments with Pb and/or SAR decreased growth attributes, membrane stability and contents of total chlorophyll and proteins, while enhanced the leakage of electrolytes, accretions of reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, along with lipoxygenase activity. In addition, in-gel activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, guaiacol peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase were seen to be amplified in Pb and/or SAR subjected tissues. Although, the activities of defensive enzymes were enhanced, they appeared to be insufficient for detoxification of overproduced ROS, consequently leading to reduced growth and enhanced oxidative stress in fenugreek seedlings. We also observed that fenugreek leaves were more sensitive to the combined treatment of SAR and Pb. However, the alone application of Pb generated comparatively more damage in roots, while leaves showed more susceptibility to SAR. In conclusion, our data suggested that the extent to which the test indexes decreased/increased in response to the combined treatment of SAR and Pb was relatively higher than in their alone applications.
Mapping Tightly-Coupled Applications on Volatile Resources

Platforms that comprise volatile processors, such as desktop grids, have been traditionally used for executing independent-task applications. In this work we study the scheduling of tightly-coupled iterative master-worker applications onto volatile processors. The main challenge is that workers must be simultaneously available for the application to make progress. We consider two additional complications: one should take into account that workers can become temporarily reclaimed and, for data-intensive applications, one should account for the limited bandwidth between the master and the workers. In this context, our first contribution is a theoretical study of the scheduling problem in its off-line version, i.e., when processor availability is known in advance. Even in this case the problem is NP-hard. Our second contribution is an analytical approximation of the expectation of the time needed by a set of workers to complete a set of tasks and of the probability of success of this computation. This approximation relies on a Markovian assumption for the temporal availability of processors. Our third contribution is a set of heuristics, some of which use the above approximation to favor reliable processors in a sensible manner. We evaluate these heuristics in simulation. We identify some heuristics that significantly outperform their competitors and derive heuristic design guidelines.
Surgical Outcomes and Efficacy of Isthmusectomy in Single Isthmic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Preliminary Retrospective Study

Abstract Background and Objectives The optimal extent of surgery needed for isthmic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is not well-defined, although total thyroidectomy is usually recommended. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of isthmusectomy in the surgical treatment of isthmic PTC. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively studied 121 patients who underwent thyroidectomy with or without central neck dissection (CND) for single isthmic PTC from January 2003 to June 2019. We excluded patients who were clinically suspected to have clinically positive cervical lymph node metastasis and gross extrathyroidal extension or to have cancers at sites other than the thyroid isthmus. Patients were divided into three groups according to the extent of thyroidectomy—total thyroidectomy, lobectomy with isthmusectomy (the lobectomy group), and isthmusectomy. Clinical and pathologic characteristics, surgical outcomes, recurrence rate, and survival were analyzed. Results: Of 121 isthmic PTC patients, 28 were men and 93 were women. Total thyroidectomy, lobectomy with isthmusectomy, and isthmusectomy were performed in 70 (57.8%), 40 (33.1%), and 11 (9.1%) patients, respectively. Prophylactic CND was performed in 104 (86%) patients. In a subgroup analysis, patients who underwent total thyroidectomy showed higher postoperative hypoparathyroidism (p < 0.001) than those who underwent lobectomy and isthmusectomy. However, there were no differences in the recurrence rate or survival between the three groups. Conclusion: Thyroid isthmusectomy may be effective in the surgical treatment of small single isthmic PTC. Further studies are necessary to verify this result.
Pathways to Mental Health Services and Perceptions about the Effectiveness of Treatment

The gap between need and effective treatment for mental health problems continues to be a challenge for researchers and policymakers. Much of the attention has been on differences in treatment rates, with insufficient attention to variation in pathways that people take into treatment. Individuals may choose to seek help but may also be substantially influenced by others or coerced into care. The chances of each type of pathway are influenced by social characteristics and may shape perceptions of effectiveness of care. This paper investigates variation in pathways into care and perceived effectiveness of care. We also examine whether choice or coercion into care are associated with whether individuals perceive care as effective and if severity of illness moderates this relationship. We use data from the 2010–2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 10,020). Persons who independently sought mental health care were more likely to rate treatment as effective compared to persons ordered into care. Among people with severe mental illnesses, the probability of rating treatment as effective is lowest among those who were ordered into care. Entry into mental health care is not sufficient for closing the treatment gap if coerced care leads to poorer quality outcomes.
Characterization of CaMKIIα holoenzyme stability

Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is a Ser/Thr kinase necessary for long‐term memory formation and other Ca2+‐dependent signaling cascades such as fertilization. Here, we investigated the stability of CaMKIIα using a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X‐ray crystallography, and mass photometry (MP). The kinase domain has a low thermal stability (apparent Tm = 36°C), which is slightly stabilized by ATP/MgCl2 binding (apparent Tm = 40°C) and significantly stabilized by regulatory segment binding (apparent Tm = 60°C). We crystallized the kinase domain of CaMKII bound to p‐coumaric acid in the active site. This structure reveals solvent‐exposed hydrophobic residues in the substrate‐binding pocket, which are normally buried in the autoinhibited structure when the regulatory segment is present. This likely accounts for the large stabilization that we observe in DSC measurements comparing the kinase alone with the kinase plus regulatory segment. The hub domain alone is extremely stable (apparent Tm ~ 90°C), and the holoenzyme structure has multiple unfolding transitions ranging from ~60°C to 100°C. Using MP, we compared a CaMKIIα holoenzyme with different variable linker regions and determined that the dissociation of both these holoenzymes occurs at a higher concentration (is less stable) compared with the hub domain alone. We conclude that within the context of the holoenzyme structure, the kinase domain is stabilized, whereas the hub domain is destabilized. These data support a model where domains within the holoenzyme interact.
Blind video temporal consistency

Extending image processing techniques to videos is a non-trivial task; applying processing independently to each video frame often leads to temporal inconsistencies, and explicitly encoding temporal consistency requires algorithmic changes. We describe a more general approach to temporal consistency. We propose a gradient-domain technique that is blind to the particular image processing algorithm. Our technique takes a series of processed frames that suffers from flickering and generates a temporally-consistent video sequence. The core of our solution is to infer the temporal regularity from the original unprocessed video, and use it as a temporal consistency guide to stabilize the processed sequence. We formally characterize the frequency properties of our technique, and demonstrate, in practice, its ability to stabilize a wide range of popular image processing techniques including enhancement and stylization of color and tone, intrinsic images, and depth estimation.
Synthesis, pharmacological evaluations and molecular docking studies on a new 1,3,4,11b-tetrahydro-1H-fluoreno[9,1-cd]azepine framework: rigidification of D1 receptor selective 1-phenylbenzazepines and discovery of a new 5-HT6 receptor scaffold.

The novel 1,3,4,11b-tetrahydro-1H-fluoreno[9,1-cd]azepine framework, a structurally rigidified variant of the 1-phenylbenzazepine template, was synthesized via direct arylation as a key reaction. Evaluation of the binding affinities of the rigidified compounds across a battery of serotonin, dopamine and adrenergic receptors indicates that this scaffold unexpectedly has minimal affinity for D1 and other dopamine receptors and is selective for the 5-HT6 receptor. The affinity of these systems at the 5-HT6 receptor is significantly influenced by electronic and hydrophobic interactions as well as the enhanced rigidity of the ligands. Molecular docking studies indicate that the reduced D1 receptor affinity of the rigidified compounds may be due in part to weaker H-bonding interactions between the oxygenated moieties on the compounds and specific receptor residues. Key receptor-ligand H-bonding interactions, salt bridges and p-p interactions appear to be responsible for the 5-HT6 receptor affinity of the compounds. Compounds 10 (6,7-dimethoxy-2,3,4,11b-tetrahydro-1H-fluoreno[9,1-cd]azepine) and 12 (6,7-dimethoxy-2-methyl-2,3,4,11b-tetrahydro-1H-fluoreno[9,1-cd]azepine ) have been identified as structurally novel, high affinity (Ki = 5 nM), selective 5-HT6 receptor ligands.
Psychometric properties of the Portuguese adaptation of General Functioning of Family Assessment Device: A comparative study.

INTRODUCTION The General Family Functioning is a subscale of the Family Assessment Device (FAD) that assess overall family functioning. This study analyzed the psychometric properties of the General Family Functioning subscale in Portuguese families with adolescents diagnosed with Type I Diabetes and healthy adolescents comparing also family functioning in both samples. METHOD A total of 100 parents of adolescents with Type I Diabetes and 106 parents of healthy adolescents participated in this study. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed for both samples to analyze the adequacy of each model. RESULTS Both confirmatory factor analyses maintained the design in one-factor models with good fit indexes. The internal consistency in both samples was good, but slightly higher in parents of healthy adolescents. The instrument also presented good convergent and divergent validity. DISCUSSION The Portuguese version of the General Family Functioning subscale showed good psychometric properties and reliability in healthy adolescents and in adolescent with Type I Diabetes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Role of Secretory Processes in Cardiac Fibroblasts in Heart Failure Development and ProgressionRole of Secretory Processes in Cardiac Fibroblasts in Heart Failure Development and Progression

Cardiac fibroblasts play a major role in fibrogenesis associated with heart failure, since they produce ECM components and secrete important fibrosis-associated mediators, such as connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). CTGF expression and secretion can be induced by the angiotensin II (Ang II) type1 receptor (AT1-R) activation. Within this thesis, the role of the Ca2+- and cytoskeleton-dependent signaling pathways elicited by Ang II on the regulation of CTGF were investigated in neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts (NRCF). Ang II was shown to induce a Ca2+ transient via the PLC-β canonical pathway with an EC50 in a physiological range. This transient was detectable in the absence of extracellular Ca2+ and in accordance, the depletion of intracellular Ca2+ by thapsigargin (TGN) completely suppressed it. Interestingly, the blockade of the transmembrane TRPC3 channels by pyrazole 3 increased this transient and strongly inhibited the Ang II-induced Ca2+ oscillations. In addition, the Ca2+ oscillation could be also blocked by TGN. Moreover, the NADPH oxidase and its accessory activator Rac1 were found to be involved in the regulation of the induced Ca2+ transient in the cytosol and in mitochondria. In the next step, the impact of Ca2+ and its effector proteins were studied on CTGF expression and secretion. First, to demonstrate the overall outcome of Ca2+ on the regulation of CTGF, BAPTA-AM was used and showed that the chelation of intracellular Ca2+ resulted in the inhibition of CTGF expression and secretion. Second, with help of the inhibitor Go 6983 the involvement of protein kinase C (PKC) as a downstream mediator could be established. Third, in contrast to the downregulation of CTGF expression by PKC inhibition, an increase in CTGF expression was found in response to calcineurin inhibition by cyclosporin A (CsA). Next, the role of the actin cytoskeleton and of microtubules were studied. Actin filament disruption by latrunculin A (LAT-A) led to a similar decrease in CTGF expression as BAPTA-AM, which also had an actin depolymerizing effect. Similar, PKC inhibition was found to disrupt the actin cytoskeleton. All three interventions led in addition to major morphological changes of the Golgi apparatus, which is the major storage place of CTGF. In contrast to the actin cytoskeleton, the integrity of the microtubules was not affected under most conditions. To finally determine the role of these thick filaments in CTGF regulation, the microtubules depolymerizing drug colchicine was applied, which dispersed the Golgi apparatus, increased the CTGF expression and uncoupled it from the AT1R signaling cascade. In summary, CTGF is regulated by a crosstalk of Ca2+-dependent signaling, involving PKC and calcineurin, and cytoskeleton-dependent pathways involving actin filaments and microtubules.
Hybrid models for lung nodule malignancy prediction utilizing convolutional neural network ensembles and clinical data

Abstract. Purpose: Due to the high incidence and mortality rates of lung cancer worldwide, early detection of a precancerous lesion is essential. Low-dose computed tomography is a commonly used technique for screening, diagnosis, and prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer. Recently, convolutional neural networks (CNN) had shown great potential in lung nodule classification. Clinical information (family history, gender, and smoking history) together with nodule size provide information about lung cancer risk. Large nodules have greater risk than small nodules. Approach: A subset of cases from the National Lung Screening Trial was chosen as a dataset in our study. We divided the nodules into large and small nodules based on different clinical guideline thresholds and then analyzed the groups individually. Similarly, we also analyzed clinical features by dividing them into groups. CNNs were designed and trained over each of these groups individually. To our knowledge, this is the first study to incorporate nodule size and clinical features for classification using CNN. We further made a hybrid model using an ensemble with the CNN models of clinical and size information to enhance malignancy prediction. Results: From our study, we obtained 0.9 AUC and 83.12% accuracy, which was a significant improvement over our previous best results. Conclusions: In conclusion, we found that dividing the nodules by size and clinical information for building predictive models resulted in improved malignancy predictions. Our analysis also showed that appropriately integrating clinical information and size groups could further improve risk prediction.