Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Lagged Diffusivity Method for Computing Total Variation Regularized Fluid Flow

There is a great deal of recent work using optical flow methods for analyzing the dynamics of fluids, and much attention has been paid to developing regularization schemes for variational approaches that are consistent with the physics of fluid flow. In this work we show that using total variation to regularize two different kinds of optical flow functionals leads to very good flow field reconstructions for the kinds of dynamical structures that appear in fluid flow. The first optical flow functional is the classical component-based conservation of intensity, and the second approach is to reconstruct the potential of the flow, rather than the flow components. In the two cases, total variation regularization corresponds to imposing different scientific priors on the solution, which we compute using a variation of the Lagged Diffusivity Fixed Point Iteration. Numerical details are presented, and the results are demonstrated on synthetic data and on a data-driven oceanic flow model.
Biomechanical Testing of Spinal Segment Fixed by Arcofix System on the Swine Spine

Study Design An in vitro biomechanical study. Purpose To evaluate the mechanical properties of the spinal segment in the intact, injured, and stabilized state after fixation by an Arcofix implant. Overview of Literature Several types of thoracolumbar spine injury necessitates anterior instrumentation. The Arcofix plate represents the latest generation of angular stablity systems. The biomechanical properties of these implants have not been sufficiently studied yet. Methods A total of ten porcine specimens (levels Th12-L3) were prepared. The tests were performed for intact, injured, and implanted specimens. In each state, the specimen was subjected to a tension load of a prescribed force, and subsequently, twisted by a given angle. The force load was 200 N. The torsion load had a deformation character, i.e., the control variable was the twisting angle and the measured variable was the moment of a couple. The amplitude of the load alternating cycle was 3°. Another parameter that was evaluated was the area of the hysteresis loop. The area corresponds to the deformation energy which is dissipated during the cycle. Results A statistically significant difference was found between the intact and injured states as well as between the injured and implanted specimens. The statistical evaluation also showed a statistically different value of the hysteresis loop area. In the case of instability, the area decreased to 33% of the physiological value. For the implanted sample, the area increased to 170% of the physiological value. Conclusions The Arcofix implant with its parameters appears to be suitable and sufficiently stable for the treatment of the anterior column of the spine.
Integrin-linked Protein Kinase Regulates Fibronectin Matrix Assembly, E-cadherin Expression, and Tumorigenicity*

Fibronectin (Fn) matrix plays important roles in many biological processes including morphogenesis and tumorigenesis. Recent studies have demonstrated a critical role of integrin cytoplasmic domains in regulating Fn matrix assembly, implying that intracellular integrin-binding proteins may be involved in controlling extracellular Fn matrix assembly. We report here that overexpression of integrin-linked kinase (ILK), a newly identified serine/threonine kinase that binds to the integrin β1 cytoplasmic domain, dramatically stimulated Fn matrix assembly in epithelial cells. The integrin-linked kinase activity is involved in transducing signals leading to the up-regulation of Fn matrix assembly, as overexpression of a kinase-inactive ILK mutant failed to enhance the matrix assembly. Moreover, the increase in Fn matrix assembly induced by ILK overexpression was accompanied by a substantial reduction in the cellular E-cadherin. Finally, we show that ILK-overexpressing epithelial cells readily formed tumors in nude mice, despite forming an extensive Fn matrix. These results identify ILK as an important regulator of pericellular Fn matrix assembly, and suggest a novel critical role of this integrin-linked kinase in cell growth, cell survival, and tumorigenesis.
Anomaly detection in hyperspectral images through spectral unmixing and low rank decomposition

Anomaly detection has been known to be a challenging, ill-posed problem due to the uncertainty of anomaly and the interference of noise. In this paper, we propose a novel low rank anomaly detection algorithm in hyperspectral images (HSI), where three components are involved. First, due to the highly mixed nature of pixels in HSI, instead of using the raw pixel directly for anomaly detection, the proposed algorithm applies spectral unmixing algorithms to obtain the abundance vectors and uses these vectors for anomaly detection. Second, for better classification, a dictionary is built based on the mean-shift clustering of the abundance vectors to better represent the highly-correlated background and the sparse anomaly. Finally, a low-rank matrix decomposition is proposed to encourage the sparse coefficients of the dictionary to be low-rank, and the residual matrix to be sparse. Anomalies can then be extracted by summing up the columns of the residual matrix. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on both synthetic and real datasets. Experimental results show that the proposed approach constantly achieves high detection rate while maintaining low false alarm rate regardless of the type of images tested.
BMW – A Systematic Process for Business Modelling Activity

This article presents a process flow (BMW – Business Modelling Workflow) to aid in the definition of a work system to accomplish business modelling activity. This process will serve as basis to focus on subjects related with business semantics and information technology, aiding the perception and the communication between the business area and software developers. It is also intended to minimize scope definition problems and software requirement, through larger emphasis in problem understanding, business process and goals. BMW has elements that structure and address its activities, which are guided essentially by phases that have guidelines and targets.
A semi-empirical representation of antenna diversity gain at cellular and PCS base stations

Predictions of uplink space-diversity gain in the cellular and personal communications systems (PCS) bands (near 850 MHz and 1.9 GHz, respectively), suffer from incomplete modeling of multipath angular spread /spl sigma/. Using previously published measurements to reduce the gap, we show that /spl sigma//spl sim/[distance]/sup -1/2/ and that diversity gains are about 2 dB higher for PCS than for cellular.
Dispersion of Clay From Some Salt‐Affected, Arid Land Soil Aggregates

The dispersion characteristics of five arid land soils were determined upon reaction with solutions having various levels of electrolyte concentration, C (C = 0, 1, 4, 10, 30, 50, and 100 mmolcL⁻¹), and sodium adsorption ratios, SAR (0, 5, 10, 20, and 40) with either Ca or Mg as the divalent counter-ion. With either divalent cation, clay dispersion increased as SAR increased and C decreased. Greater dispersion was observed with Mg as the divalent counter-ion due to the higher SAR and lower C levels, which resulted in the Mg systems compared to the Ca systems when the soils were reacted with comparable SAR and C treatment solutions. Dispersion threshold relations are concluded to be a useful criterion for screening soils for their sodicity hazard potentials.
A covarion-based method for detecting molecular adaptation: application to the evolution of primate mitochondrial genomes

A new method for detecting site–specific variation of evolutionary rate (the so–called covarion process) from protein sequence data is proposed. It involves comparing the maximum–likelihood estimates of the replacement rate of an amino acid site in distinct subtrees of a large tree. This approach allows detection of covarion at the gene or the amino acid levels. The method is applied to mammalian–mitochondrial–protein sequences. Significant covarion–like evolution is found in the (simian) primate lineage: some amino acid positions are fast–evolving (i.e. unconstrained) in non–primate mammals but slow–evolving (i.e. highly constrained) in primates, and some show the opposite pattern. Our results indicate that the mitochondrial genome of primates reached a new peak of the adaptive landscape through positive selection.
An improved coupling model for the lithosphere‐atmosphere‐ionosphere system

In our previous model for the lithosphere‐atmosphere‐ionosphere coupling, the background magnetic field was assumed to be perpendicular to the horizontal plane. In the present paper, we improve the calculation of currents in the atmosphere by solving the current density J directly from the current continuity equation ∇ • J = 0. The currents in the atmosphere can be solved for any arbitrary angle of magnetic field, i.e., any magnetic latitude. In addition, a large ratio (~10) of Hall to Pedersen conductivities is used to generate a large Hall electric field. The effects of atmospheric currents and electric fields on the ionosphere with lithosphere current source located at magnetic latitudes of 7.5°, 15°, 22.5°, and 30° are obtained. For upward (downward) atmospheric currents flowing into the ionosphere, the simulation results show that the westward (eastward) electric fields dominate. At magnetic latitude of 7.5° or 15°, the upward (downward) current causes the increase (decrease) of total electron content (TEC) near the source region, while the upward (downward) current causes the decrease (increase) of TEC at magnetic latitude of 22.5°or 30°. The dynamo current density required to generate the same amount of TEC variation in the improved model is found to be smaller by a factor of 30 as compared to that obtained in our earlier paper. We also calculate the ionosphere dynamics with imposed zonal westward and eastward electric field based on SAMI3 code. It is found that the eastward (westward) electric field may trigger one (two) plasma bubble(s) in the nighttime ionosphere.
STEREOSCOPIC DEPTH - A BIOLOGICAL INSPIRED JUDGMENT

The present paper aims to contribute to the research on depth perception mechanisms by using a biologically inspired model of stereoscopic vision. Stereogram images show that human beings are able to perceive depth just from the differences between the images coming from the retinas of both eyes. The research made aspires at finding support for the idea that the way stereogram images are perceived by human beings is just a consequence of the way they see on real world environments; that is, to show that the information received by the brain for generations is perfectly enough to make us interpret stereogram images as having differences on depth. Usually, to implement a stereoscopic depth mechanism on robots two parallel cameras are used. The images supplied by these cameras are very difficult to match by means of a biologically inspired algorithm since these ones require the use of local information, and the extension of information needed to mach the images from two parallel cameras is too large. Human beings have the ability to move their eyes and when they look at a real world object both eyes converge to that object. The disparity method built expected to make use of this behaviour (eye convergence) in order to reduce the disparity computation to local and much simpler algorithms.
Addition of milk does not affect the absorption of flavonols from tea in man

Tea is a major source of flavonols, a subclass of antioxidant flavonoids present in plant foods which potentially are beneficial to human health. Milk added to tea, a frequent habit in the United Kingdom, could inhibit absorption of tea flavonoids, because proteins can bind flavonoids effectively. Eighteen healthy volunteers each consumed two out of four supplements during three days: black tea, black tea with milk, green tea and water. A cup of the supplement was consumed every 2 hours each day for a total of 8 cups a day. The supplements provided about 100 micromol quercetin glycosides and about 60 70 micromol kaempferol glycosides. Addition of milk to black tea (15 ml milk to 135 ml tea) did not change the area under the curve of the plasma concentration-time curve of quercetin or kaempferol. Plasma concentrations reached were about 50 nM quercetin and 30 45 nM kaempferol. We conclude that flavonols are absorbed from tea and that their bioavailability is not affected by addition of milk.
A novel adder cell for ultra low voltage, ultra low power networks in nanoscale VLSI circuits

A novel full adder cell is designed so that it can overcome the challenges of circuit design in deep submicron (DSM) technology. The proposed adder cell utilizes multiplexing control input techniques (MCIT) for the sum operation and uses a new arrangement of pass transistors for carry operation. The adder is then used in an 8×8bit Braun-array multiplier to show its performance. The layout of multiplier is simulated in 32nm CMOS technology by Microwind31 (MW31) VLSI CAD TOOL. Simulated results show that our circuit operates properly in nanoscale and has a very small area.
Pulse-echo image sensitive segmentation in independent component basis of multiparameter complex space-zero imaging method

In the paper, we consider a new method of pulse-echo image analysis and its application for seismic prospecting of oil reservoir. The method has a high sensitivity in comparison with other well known techniques of seismic data analysis and consists of the following seven steps: 1) A moving window (3x3) slides on a seismic image and compares each pixel of analyzed image to unwrapped in a spiral order window. 2) Brightness of pixels into the window are considered as information features and ones is presented in a form of a same vector a of size (1x9). 3) Its complex analog b, obtained using a gradient transformation, which is compared to this vector. This step is needed for increasing a sensitivity of future segmentation procedure. 4) Coefficients of the vector b are considered as complex coefficients of some characteristic polynomial H(z). 5) Complex zeroes calculation of the polynomial H(z). This step gives a possibility for forming a new 3-D complex space of information features. 6) A new information basis is formed on the base of independent components, obtained after applying independent component analysis (ICA) to a magnitude of complex space-zero array. 7) The information fusion is used by means of Kohonen’s self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm. This step gives possibility to obtain one new resulting image. Experiments were made on the real-world pulse-echo image with known position of oil reservoir. The new method permitted to detect oil reservoir, while the known methods did not give any positive results.
Angular distribution of the submarine light field: modification by multiple scattering

A theoretical analysis is presented of the angular distribution of the submarine light field. The model, which includes the effect of multiple scattering, leads to a new expression for the upward scattering coefficient. It can be applied to calculation of the average cosine for description of the zenith angular distribution of the light field, and to calculation of the vertical attenuation coefficient for study of the transmission of downwelling irradiance. From a computational point of view, the new model is much more efficient than Monte Carlo calculations, which have been, until now, the most commonly used vehicle for characterization of the angular structure of the submarine light field in the presence of multiple scattering.
Reasoning and Representation : the Sketching of Organic Chemical Reaction Mechanisms Position paper for CHI 2006 Workshop entitled “ Sketching ” Nurturing Creativity : Commonalities in Art , Design , Engineering , and Research

For nearly a century organic chemists have developed a method of sketching chemical reaction mechanisms in order to reason-out the structural transformations that convert one set of molecules into another. Known informally as pushing electrons (or curly arrows), it is a form of chemical illustration in which a sequence of structures is drawn to represent the movement of electrons and nuclei from starting materials to final products. By pushing electrons, organic chemists use illustrations as a way of phrasing an idea or to argue what-if scenarios for chemical events.
Learning Mixtures of Submodular Shells with Application to Document Summarization

We introduce a method to learn a mixture of submodular "shells" in a large-margin setting. A submodular shell is an abstract submodular function that can be instantiated with a ground set and a set of parameters to produce a submodular function. A mixture of such shells can then also be so instantiated to produce a more complex submodular function. What our algorithm learns are the mixture weights over such shells. We provide a risk bound guarantee when learning in a large-margin structured-prediction setting using a projected subgradient method when only approximate submodular optimization is possible (such as with submodular function maximization). We apply this method to the problem of multi-document summarization and produce the best results reported so far on the widely used NIST DUC-05 through DUC-07 document summarization corpora.
Clarification on the detection of epoetin delta and epoetin omega using isoelectric focusing

To the Editor: In a recent article in your journal, Delanghe et al. [1]. reviewed both the indirect and direct methods for the detection of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) in doping analysis. However, some of the statements made are incorrect and some others deserve clarification. The direct detection of the misuse of rhEPO and analogues in sports is currently done in World Antidoping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratories following the method developed by Lasne [2], which is based on the differences in the isoelectric focusing (IEF) behavior between endogenously produced urinary EPO (uEPO) and the recombinant products (epoetin alpha, beta, etc.) and analogues (i.e., darbepoetin alpha). Those differences are claimed to reside in the glycans of those glycoproteins, resulting from the enzymatic endowment of the particular cell in which the protein is expressed as well as from the selective purification applied to obtain each pharmaceutical product. The article, however, is wrong in stating that epoetin omega is produced in human cells. Epoetin omega is produced in Baby Hamster Kidney (BHK) cells [3]. Its glycosylation profile is monitored using the same IEF method and it is perfectly distinguishable from endogenous EPO (Fig. 1). Epoetin delta (Dynepo, Shire Pharmaceuticals) is expressed in human cells, although it
Balloon Angioplasty for Intracranial Atherosclerotic Disease: Periprocedural Risks and Short-Term Outcomes in a Multicenter Study

Background and Purpose— Whether stenting is superior to angioplasty in the treatment of intracranial atherosclerotic disease is unknown. Dissections, vessel rupture, and lesion recoil observed with primary angioplasty using balloon catheters designed for coronary arteries have undermined the role of primary angioplasty as a preferred treatment for intracranial atherosclerotic disease. The goal of this study is to report the immediate and 3-month outcomes of treating patients with intracranial atherosclerotic disease with angioplasty balloon catheters in a multicenter study. Methods— This is a retrospective review of 74 patients from 4 institutions treated with primary angioplasty for intracranial atherosclerotic disease over a 6-year time period. Technical success (residual stenosis ≤50%), periprocedural success (no vascular complication within 72 hours), and 3-month outcomes are reported. Results— The mean degree of stenosis pretreatment was 79%±14% and reduced to 34%±18% after angioplasty. Technical success was achieved in 68 (92%; 95% CI, 83% to 97%) of the 74 patients. Periprocedural success was achieved in 65 (88%; 95% CI, 78% to 94%) of the 74 patients. There were 4 (5%; 95% CI, 1.5% to 13%) major procedure-related strokes, 2 of which resulted in death within 6 hours of the procedure. The 30-day stroke/death rate was 5% (4 of 74; CI, 1.5% to 13%). Three-month follow-up was available in 71 patients. In this interval, 2 patients had new stroke, 1 in the ipsilateral territory and the other in the contralateral territory. The 3-month stroke or death rate was 8.5% (6 of 71; CI, 3.1% to 17.5%); the retreatment rate was 2.8% (2 of 71; CI, 0.3% to 10%). Conclusion— Balloon angioplasty is a relatively safe alternative treatment for intracranial atherosclerotic disease. Its role in the long-term secondary prevention of recurrent stroke as compared with intracranial stenting and medical therapy remains to be determined, preferably in a randomized study.
Automated Extraction of Road Markings from Mobile Lidar Point Clouds

This paper proposes a method for extracting road markings from mobile lidar point clouds. Among implicit information of laser points, the strength of reflection of laser points is closely related to the property of road materials that helps in detecting road markings. An interpolation method is used first in order to generate a georeferenced feature image of the point clouds, which helps to isolate the points of road surfaces. An algorithm is used to separate these points within a range according to their strength of reflection. The separated points are further segmented to remove non-road points based on their height threshold. The outlines of road markings are extracted from the segmented points using the semantic knowledge of road markings. The results presented in the paper demonstrate that the method used was very promising for automatic extraction of road markings from lidar point clouds collected by a land-based mobile lidar system.
Genetic algorithm based new sequence of principal component regression (GA-NSPCR) for feature selection and yield prediction using hyperspectral remote sensing data

Recently, hyperspectral images are used to estimate the yield of food crops. The images consist of a large number of bands which requires sophisticated method for its analysis. One approach to reduce computational cost and to accelerate knowledge discovery is by eliminating bands that do not add value to the analysis. In this paper, a genetic algorithm based new sequence of principal component regression (GA-NSPCR) method is proposed and tested using 116 band HyMap airborne hyperspectral data and yield data collected from paddy fields. The proposed method uses GA to select an initial subset of hyperspectral bands, and subsequently generate a more accurate subset by measuring the minimum error of prediction model defined by principal component regression (PCR). Unlike standard PCR methods which order the features based on singular values, in each generation NSPCR orders the features based on squared multiple correlation coefficient R2. Yield data and spectral data are used to generate a separate training and testing dataset using 8 times bootstrap resampling (8-rounds BSR) to deal with limited number of samples in training data. Differed from standard GA impelementation, the fitness function evaluates three Lp-norms to obtain the best prediction model.