Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-Cost GPS Receivers for the Monitoring of Sunflower Cover Dynamics

The aim of this research is to analyze the potential use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals for the monitoring of in situ vegetation characteristics. An instrument, based on the use of a pair of low-cost receivers and antennas, providing continuous measurements of all the available Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals is proposed for the determination of signal attenuation caused by a sunflower cover. Experimental campaigns with this instrument, combined with ground truth measurements of the vegetation, were performed over a nonirrigated sunflower test field for a period of more than two months, corresponding to a significant portion of the vegetation cycle. A method is proposed for the analysis of the signal attenuation data as a function of elevation and azimuth angles. A high correlation is observed between the vegetation’s water content and the GPS signals attenuation, and an empirical modeling is tested for the retrieval of signal behavior as a function of vegetation water content (VWC). The VWC was estimated from GNSS signals on a daily basis, over the full length of the study period.
Quantification of changes in surface texture of thermally-aged kraft paper using orthogonal wavelets

Samples of plain Kraft cellulose paper, normally used in power transformer winding turn insulation, were thermally aged in controlled laboratory experiments to obtain a sample set with varying levels of thermal deterioration. Microscopy images from the samples were analyzed using a texture analysis method where wavelet energies at different decomposition levels were calculated. Analysis of our results indicates that as the paper fibers breakdown, the wavelet energies of the texture details are reduced in value in proportion to this deterioration in the paper.
Neuroimaging biomarkers of cognitive decline in healthy older adults via unified learning

Cognitive aging in healthy adults exhibits significant and heterogeneous variability. In this study, we apply a robust unified learning framework to cluster subgroups using neuroimaging data (brain volume and white matter), to identify neurological phenotypes that can sort out the heterogeneity in cognitive aging and help identify potential risk factors for suboptimal brain aging. Using machine learning analytics, results revealed two unique subgroups in healthy older adults with different patterns of white matter integrity and brain volumetric measures. The classification of phenotypical subgroups in healthy older adults may inform the understanding of the complexity of brain changes before the onset of clinical symptoms. The identified neuroimaging features that defined group classification are recognized as important structures that subserve cognitive performance. Further analysis of these potential biomarkers that help predict trajectory of cognitive decline in symptom free individuals could lead to the detection of early stages of neurodegenerative diseases.
Childhood Trauma and Distress Tolerance in a Trauma-Exposed Acute-Care Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

Objective: Distress tolerance (DT; the perceived or actual ability to withstand negative internal states) has emerged as a promising transdiagnostic risk factor in clinically severe populations. However, little is known about etiological factors associated with the development of DT. We hypothesized that greater levels of childhood trauma would be associated with lower perceived and behavioral DT, beyond theoretically relevant covariates. Method: The current investigation evaluated several childhood trauma types (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect) in relation to perceived (i.e., self-report) and behavioral DT in a sample of 87 trauma-exposed adults in acute-care psychiatric inpatient treatment. Results: Results of hierarchical linear regression models indicated that greater childhood physical abuse and emotional neglect were significantly associated with higher perceived DT. Greater levels of emotional abuse were associated with lower perceived DT, and greater physical neglect was associated with lower behavioral DT. Conclusions: DT may be differentially influenced by different forms of childhood trauma.
Représenter pour suivre : Exploitation de représentations parcimonieuses pour le suivi multi-objets. (Representing to follow: Exploitation of parsimonious representations for multi-object tracking)

Le suivi multi-objets, malgre les avancees recentes en detection d'objets, presente encore plusieurs difficultes specifiques et reste ainsi une problematique difficile. Au cours de cette these nous proposons d'examiner l'emploi de representations parcimonieuses au sein de methodes de suivi multi-objets, dans le but d'ameliorer les performances de ces dernieres. La premiere contribution de cette these consiste a employer des representations parcimonieuses collaboratives dans un systeme de suivi en ligne pour distinguer au mieux les cibles. Des representations parcimonieuses structurees sont ensuite considerees pour s'adapter plus specifiquement aux approches de suivi a fenetre glissante. Une derniere contribution consiste a employer des dictionnaires denses, prenant en consideration un grand nombre de positions non detectees au sein des images, de maniere a etre plus robuste vis-a-vis de la performance du detecteur d'objets employe.
Comparative evaluation of the amount of debris extruded apically using conventional syringe, passive ultrasonic irrigation and EndoIrrigator Plus system: An in vitro study

Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the effects of conventional syringe, passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI), and EndoIrrigator Plus on the amount of apically extruded debris. Materials and Methods: Thirty extracted human mandibular premolars were selected and randomly assigned to three groups (n = 10). The root canals were irrigated with conventional syringe, PUI, and EndoIrrigator Plus. Sodium hypochlorite was used as an irrigant, and debris was collected in a previously described experimental model (Myers and Montgomery 1991). It was then stored in an incubator at 37°C for 10 days to evaporate the irrigant before weighing the dry debris. The mean weight of debris was assessed, one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of values, and post hoc Tukey's test was used between groups (P = 0.05). Results: The EndoIrrigator Plus group extruded significantly less debris than PUI and conventional syringe groups (P < 0.05). Furthermore, PUI group extruded significantly less debris than conventional syringe irrigation group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: 1. All the three irrigation systems were associated with apical extrusion of debris, 2. EndoIrrigator Plus system extruded significantly less debris than the PUI system and the conventional syringe irrigation system, 3. PUI system extruded significantly less debris than the conventional syringe irrigation system.
A new data-driven band-weighting function for predicting the intelligibility of noise-suppressed speech

An understanding of the contribution of different spectral bands to perceptual information in speech is necessary to design objective measures for the prediction of speech intelligibility. Existing band-weighting functions (BWFs) perform well in the prediction of the intelligibility of noise- masked speech. However, there is a lack of suitable BWF for noise-suppressed speech, which suffers from nonlinear distortions introduced by noise-suppression processing. This work introduces a new data-driven BWF for improving the intelligibility prediction performance of the frequency-weighted segmental signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) (fwSNRseg) measure. The data-driven BWF is designed by assigning weights to each band using band-specific correlation coefficients between accumulated segmental SNRs and speech intelligibility scores from a training dataset. When evaluated using noise-suppressed speech samples processed by eight different noise-suppression algorithms, the proposed data-driven BWF yielded significantly better speech intelligibility prediction performance than the articulation index weight.
Traffic sign detection — A new approach and recognition using convolution neural network

Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) system is a component of Driving Assistance System (ADAS). The TSR system assists the drivers in safe driving as road signs provide important information of the road. This research focuses to design and develop a TSR system by using color cues and Convolution Neural Network (CNN) as both features extractor and classifier for Bangladeshi traffic signs. In the first step, after image acquisition, some pre-processing task is performed. Then the image is segmented using color information of HSV color model. After that, morphological closing is executed to fine the segmented image. Consequently, after filtering the image by using region properties and shape signature, the desired region is cropped. Finally, the extracted sign area is classified by means of automatic features extraction with deep CNN. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm shows comparable performance with good recognition accuracy.
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research Sowing the Wind and Reaping the Whirlwind ? The Effect of Wind Turbines on Residential Well-Being

We investigate the effect of the physical presence of wind turbines on residential wellbeing in Germany, using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and a unique novel panel data set on more than 20,000 wind turbines for the time period between 2000 and 2012. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS), we calculate the proximity between households and the nearest wind turbine as the most important determinant of their disamenities, e.g. visual interference into landscape aesthetics. Our unique novel panel data set on wind turbines, which was collected at the regional level, includes their exact geographical coordinates and construction dates. This allows estimating the causal effect of the physical presence of wind turbines on residential wellbeing, using a difference-in-differences design. To ensure comparability of the treatment and control group, we apply propensity-score and novel spatial matching techniques based on exogenous weather data and geographical locations of residence, respectively. We show that the construction of a wind turbine within a treatment radius of 4,000 metres around households has a significantly negative effect on life satisfaction. For larger treatment radii, no negative externalities can be detected. Moreover, the effect is transiPreprint submitted to Elsevier June 2, 2015 tory, vanishing after five years at the latest. As wind turbines are addressed at avoiding negative externalities of local pollutant and global greenhouse gas emissions, they fulfil an important role in the de-carbonization of electricity systems world-wide. Comparing the imposed spatially and temporally limited externalities with the avoided externalities from emissions, the positive impact of wind turbines is by several magnitudes higher than the negative.
Design of 3D printed porous additive manufactured cages using a computer model of T10-S1 multilevel spine

Porous additive manufactured (AM) cages were a new selection for posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) surgery due to their low rigidity. Past studies had investigated porous AM cages; however, their structural designs and performances were evaluated using oversimplified numerical models. Thus, the purpose of this research was to investigate the porous structure of the AM cages using a realistic spine model. Three-dimensional finite element models of T10-S1 multilevel spine were developed using ANSYS Workbench. Eleven types of the AM cages were analyzed and compared to understand their strengths and limitations. The results showed that the sparse density in microstructure geometry would increase the intersegmental rotation but the von Mises stress of cage becomes enlarge simultaneously. Adding a PEEK layer to the microstructure is not a good choice to prevent the cage stress getting higher value. The outcomes of this study can help surgeons to understand the biomechanics of PLIF surgery combined with the use of porous AM cages.
Childhood Sexual Abuse and Suicidal Ideation Among Bipolar Patients: Existential But Not Religious Well‐Being as a Protective Factor

Individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD) are at an increased risk of Suicidal ideation, attempts, and death. Moreover, a strong association exists between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and suicidal ideation among individuals with BD. Yet growing evidence suggests that existential well-being (EWB) may be a protective factor against suicidality. In this study, adult BD patients (N = 112) provided data on CSA, religious well-being (RWB; spiritual life in relation to God), EWB (purpose/meaning in life), and suicidal ideation. Participants were between 19 and 65 years of age. The majority was female and described their race/ethnicity as African American. Results indicated that CSA was negatively associated with EWB and was not related to RWB. Further, EWB mediated the association between CSA and suicidal ideation, whereas RWB did not. Having meaning/purpose in life may serve as a protective factor against suicidal ideation among individuals with BD who experienced CSA, whereas having a relationship/belief in God may not serve the same function.
Collaborative Location Recommendation by Integrating Multi-dimensional Contextual Information

Point-of-Interest (POI) recommendation is a new type of recommendation task that comes along with the prevalence of location-based social networks and services in recent years. Compared with traditional recommendation tasks, POI recommendation focuses more on making personalized and context-aware recommendations to improve user experience. Traditionally, the most commonly used contextual information includes geographical and social context information. However, the increasing availability of check-in data makes it possible to design more effective location recommendation applications by modeling and integrating comprehensive types of contextual information, especially the temporal information. In this article, we propose a collaborative filtering method based on Tensor Factorization, a generalization of the Matrix Factorization approach, to model the multi-dimensional contextual information. Tensor Factorization naturally extends Matrix Factorization by increasing the dimensionality of concerns, within which the three-dimensional model is the one most popularly used. Our method exploits a high-order tensor to fuse heterogeneous contextual information about users’ check-ins instead of the traditional two-dimensional user-location matrix. The factorization of this tensor leads to a more compact model of the data that is naturally suitable for integrating contextual information to make POI recommendations. Based on the model, we further improve the recommendation accuracy by utilizing the internal relations within users and locations to regularize the latent factors. Experimental results on a large real-world dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Control of Postpartum Hemorrhage Using Vacuum-Induced Uterine Tamponade

BACKGROUND: Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. Vacuum-induced uterine tamponade is a possible alternative approach to balloon tamponade systems for the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage resulting from atony. METHOD: In a prospective proof-of-concept investigation of 10 women with vaginal deliveries in a hospital setting who failed first-line therapies for postpartum hemorrhage, tamponade was used. Vacuum-induced uterine tamponade was created through a device inserted transvaginally into the uterine cavity. An occlusion balloon built into the device shaft was inflated at the level of the external cervical os to create a uterine seal. Negative pressure was created by attaching a self-contained, mobile, electrically powered, pressure-regulated vacuum pump with a sterile graduated canister. EXPERIENCE: In all 10 cases, the suction created an immediate seal at the cervical os, 50–250 mL of residual blood was evacuated from the uterine cavity, the uterus collapsed and regained tone within minutes, and hemorrhaging was controlled. The device remained in place for a minimum of 1 hour and up to 6.5 hours in one case while vaginal and perineal lacerations were easily repaired. CONCLUSION: This preliminary investigation suggests that a device designed to create vacuum-induced uterine tamponade may be a reasonable alternative to other devices used to treat atonic postpartum hemorrhage.
Diffusion of radiotracers in human dental plaque.

A method for the determination of the diffusion coefficient, D, of solutes in the separated aqueous and residual phases of 24-hour human dental plaque is described. The separated plaque components were placed in tubing (inner diameter 0.49 mm), pulsed at one end with radiotracer, and horizontal diffusion was continued at 37 or 5 °C for 5–17 h. The results indicate that the diffusion of 14C-sucrose and 14C-inulin in plaque fluid was similar to that in water, while the diffusion of 14C-starch was unexpectedly greater than in water. The D values for the three carbohydrates studied were inversely related to their molecular weights. In plaque fluid, the diffusion of ionic species, bicarbonate, acetate, lactate, butyrate as sodium salts, was less than in water. In the plaque residue, the diffusion was restricted in relation to the packing density of the residue. While the diffusion into plaque of readily fermentable carbohydrate was not restricted, that of their bacterial metabolic products was impeded, consistent with the rapid fall and slow rise in plaque pH, known to occur after exposure to fermentable carbohydrate.
Generalized Approximate Message Passing Detection with Row-Orthogonal Linear Preprocessing for Uplink Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, we investigate the uplink multi-user generalized approximate message passing (GAMP) detection for massive MIMO system. As practical channels are spatially correlated, the conventional GAMP performs poorly and its fixed points fall into locally-optimal solutions. In order to analyse the fixed points of GAMP, we regard the detection problem of massive MIMO systems as the Gibbs free energy minimization and derive GAMP by Bethe method to upper-bound Gibbs free energy. To improve the convergence performance of GAMP detection, we propose linear preprocessing with row-orthogonalization for GAMP (RO-GAMP) at the receiver before GAMP detection is executed. Firstly, we derive the structure of linear preprocessing consisted of four design principles: orthogonality of rows of sensing matrices, irrelevance of noise, low-dimension of observation vector and equivalence of Bethe free energy minimization. Secondly, some conditions are presented on preprocessing matrix to satisfy these design principles. Then, we propose two optimal preprocessing matrices for RO-GAMP. When these two matrices are used for massive MIMO OFDM with slow-varying channels, a low-complexity preprocessing method is presented finally. Our numerical results demonstrate the advantage of RO- GAMP over GAMP, in terms of symbol error rate (SER) and convergence rate, for practical massive MIMO channels which exhibits spatial correlation.
Ancient Wisdom in the age of the new science: Histories of philosophy in England, c. 1640-1700. by DmitriLevitin. Oxford University Press, 2015, xii + 670 ISBN: 9781107513747. pbk. £26.99: Book Review

Review Number: 2023 Publish date: Thursday, 17 November, 2016 Author: Dmitri Levitin ISBN: 9781107105881 Date of Publication: 2016 Price: £89.99 Pages: 694pp. Publisher: Cambridge University Press Publisher url: http://admin.cambridge. org/an/academic/subjects/history/history-ideas-and-intellectual-history/ancientwisdom-age-new-science-histories-philosophy-england-ici-16401700? format=HB Place of Publication: Cambridge Reviewer: William Bulman
Fluoride Uptake to Demineralised Enamel: A Comparison of Sampling Techniques

Fluoride uptake is a recognised way of assessing the potential anticaries efficacy of fluoride (F) treatments. The aim of the present study was to compare an abrasion method of sampling treated enamel, based on that of Weatherell et al. [Caries Res 1985;19:97–102], with the acid–etch method of Raven et al. [Caries Res 1991;25:130–137]. Two adjacent demineralised areas were created on the polished surfaces of bovine incisors using an acid gel system. One artificial lesion from each tooth was subsequently treated for 6 h at 37°C with one of two fluoridated dentifrice slurries (1 part: 3 parts water), whereas the other was treated similarly with a slurry of non–F control dentifrice. One set of treated lesions was then separated, the base of each enamel block polished until planoparallel with the demineralised surface and the lesions isolated by cutting away the adjacent sound enamel. Each block was mounted on the probe of a digital micrometer and the demineralised surface abraded with silicon carbide lapping film until sound material was reached. Abraded material was dissolved in perchloric acid and the buffered solution analysed for fluoride by ion–selective electrode. Each lesion of a second set of treated, demineralised enamel blocks was etched by 20μl acid and the resulting solutions analysed for F. Mean F uptakes [μg cm–2 (SD)] were: abrasion (n = 7/treatment); F dentifrice A = 1.39 (0.89) and B = 0.86 (0.45) relative to non–F controls = 0.11 (0.12), 0.14 (0.06), respectively; and acid–etch (n = 14/treatment); A = 1.27 (0.49), B = 0.69 (0.23), controls = 0.12 (0.06), 0.12 (0.06), respectively. Significant differences (p<0.05) for both data sets were: A>B> control. The results show good agreement between the sampling methods and demonstrate the ability of the abrasion technique to distinguish between F treatments.
Indocyanine Green Angiography and Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography of Choroidal Neovascularization in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose To compare the capability of indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in detecting choroidal neovascularization (CNV). Methods In this prospective study, patients with CNV detected with fluorescein angiography (FA) underwent ICGA and OCTA, spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT), and infrared or fundus color photographs. CNV lesions were outlined on ICGA and OCTA images, and the composition and size of the CNV was documented. Results One hundred eighty-two eyes were included. With ICGA, well-defined lesions were observed in 37.9%, partly defined in 44.5%, and undefined in 17% of eyes. On OCTA, well-defined, partly defined, and undefined vessels were observed in 53.8%, 27.5%, and 18.7% of eyes, respectively. There was a good correlation between CNV size measured with the two instruments (r = 0.84). However, OCTA underestimated CNV area by about 4.5% (slope coefficient with linear regression: 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.46 to 0.65; intercept: 0.27, 95% CI: -0.2 to 0.56). On ICGA, CNV composition was capillary in 28%, mature in 14.3%, and mixed (capillary and major neovascular complex) in 57.7% of eyes. Similarly, OCTA revealed capillary, mature, and mixed CNV in 28.9%, 15.9%, and 55.5% of eyes, respectively. Conclusions OCTA provides the clinician the ability to perform precise structural and vascular assessment of CNV noninvasively. Our study is, to our knowledge, the largest OCTA analysis to date of CNV secondary to neovascular AMD analyzed simultaneously by ICGA and OCTA.