Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A shape prior-based MRF model for 3D masseter muscle segmentation

Medical image segmentation is generally an ill-posed problem that can only be solved by incorporating prior knowledge. The ambiguities arise due to the presence of noise, weak edges, imaging artifacts, inhomogeneous interior and adjacent anatomical structures having similar intensity profile as the target structure. In this paper we propose a novel approach to segment the masseter muscle using the graph-cut incorporating additional 3D shape priors in CT datasets, which is robust to noise; artifacts; and shape deformations. The main contribution of this paper is in translating the 3D shape knowledge into both unary and pairwise potentials of the Markov Random Field (MRF). The segmentation task is casted as a Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) estimation of the MRF. Graph-cut is then used to obtain the global minimum which results in the segmentation of the masseter muscle. The method is tested on 21 CT datasets of the masseter muscle, which are noisy with almost all possessing mild to severe imaging artifacts such as high-density artifacts caused by e.g. the very common dental fillings and dental implants. We show that the proposed technique produces clinically acceptable results to the challenging problem of muscle segmentation, and further provide a quantitative and qualitative comparison with other methods. We statistically show that adding additional shape prior into both unary and pairwise potentials can increase the robustness of the proposed method in noisy datasets.
Factors Contributing to Urban Malaria Transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

Sub-Saharan Africa suffers by far the greatest malaria burden worldwide and is currently undergoing a profound demographic change, with a growing proportion of its population moving to urban areas. Urbanisation is generally expected to reduce malaria transmission; however the disease still persists in African cities, in some cases at higher levels than in nearby rural areas. Objective. This paper aims to collate and analyse risk factors for urban malaria transmission throughout sub-Saharan Africa and to discuss their implications for control. Methods. A systematic search on malaria and urbanisation was carried out focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. Particular interest was taken in vector breeding sites in urban and periurban areas. Results. A variety of urban vector breeding sites were catalogued, the majority of which were artificial, including urban agriculture, tyre tracks, and ditches. Natural breeding sites varied according to location. Low socioeconomic status was a significant risk factor for malaria, often present in peri-urban areas. A worrying trend was seen in the adaptation of malaria vector species to the urban environment. Urban malaria is highly focused and control programs should reflect this. Conclusion. As urbanisation continues and vector species adapt, continued monitoring and control of urban malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is essential.
Implications for Cosmic Reionization from the Optical Afterglow Spectrum of the Gamma-Ray Burst 050904 at z = 6.3

The gamma-ray burst (GRB) 050904 at z =6 . 3 provides the first opportunity to probe the intergalactic medium (IGM) by GRBs at the epoch of reionization. Here, we present a spectral modeling analysis of the optical afterglow spectrum taken by the Subaru Telescope, aiming to constrain the reionization history. The spectrum shows a clear damping wing at wavelengths redward of the Lyman break, and the wing shape can be fitted either by a damped Lyα system with a column density of log[NHI(cm −2 )] ∼ 21.6 at a redshift close to the detected metal absorption lines (zmetal =6 .295), or by almost neutral IGM extending to a slightly higher redshift of zIGM,u ∼ 6.36. In the latter case, the difference between the two redshifts may be explained by the acceleration of metal absorbing shells in the activities of the GRB or its progenitor. However, we exclude this possibility by using the light transmission feature around the Lyβ resonance, leading to a firm upper limit of zIGM,u ≤ 6.314. We then show evidence that the IGM was already largely ionized at z =6 . 3 with the best-fit neutral fraction of IGM, xHI (≡ nHI/nH )=0 . 00, and upper limits of xHI 6. Various systematic uncertainties are examined, but none of them appears large enough to change our conclusion. To get further information on the reionization, it is important to increase the sample size of z 6 GRBs, in order to find GRBs with low column densities (log NHI 20) within their host galaxies and to make statistical studies of Lyα line emission from host galaxies.
Inhibition of Th17 Cells Regulates Autoimmune Diabetes in NOD Mice

OBJECTIVE The T helper 17 (Th17) population, a subset of CD4-positive T-cells that secrete interleukin (IL)-17, has been implicated in autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and lupus. Therapeutic agents that target the Th17 effector molecule IL-17 or directly inhibit the Th17 population (IL-25) have shown promise in animal models of autoimmunity. The role of Th17 cells in type 1 diabetes has been less clear. The effect of neutralizing anti–IL-17 and recombinant IL-25 on the development of diabetes in NOD mice, a model of spontaneous autoimmune diabetes, was investigated in this study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS AND RESULTS Although treatment with either anti–IL-17 or IL-25 had no effect on diabetes development in young (<5 weeks) NOD mice, either intervention prevented diabetes when treatment was started at 10 weeks of age (P < 0.001). Insulitis scoring and immunofluorescence staining revealed that both anti–IL-17 and IL-25 significantly reduced peri-islet T-cell infiltrates. Both treatments also decreased GAD65 autoantibody levels. Analysis of pancreatic lymph nodes revealed that both treatments increased the frequency of regulatory T-cells. Further investigation demonstrated that IL-25 therapy was superior to anti–IL-17 during mature diabetes because it promoted a period of remission from new-onset diabetes in 90% of treated animals. Similarly, IL-25 delayed recurrent autoimmunity after syngeneic islet transplantation, whereas anti–IL-17 was of no benefit. GAD65-specific ELISpot and CD4-positive adoptive transfer studies showed that IL-25 treatment resulted in a T-cell–mediated dominant protective effect against autoimmunity. CONCLUSIONS These studies suggest that Th17 cells are involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes. Further development of Th17-targeted therapeutic agents may be of benefit in this disease.
An attempt to model globular cluster red giant abundance anomalies with a simulated hydrogen shell instability

It has been suggested that the anomalous abundances of Na, Mg and Al observed in globular cluster red giant stars could be the result of a thermally unstable hydrogen shell. Currently accepted reaction rates indicate that temperatures of approximately 70-75 × 10 6 K are required to produce the observed enhancements in Na and Al along with depletions in Mg. The work presented here attempts to model the H shell instability by a simple mechanism of altering the energy production in the region of the H shell. We show that even extreme cases only give rise to small intermittent temperature increases that have minimal effect on the surface abundances. Full evolutionary modelling incorporating this technique simply accelerates the evolution of the red giant branch (RGB) phase, producing the same surface abundances as other models but at an earlier time. We conclude that, unless hydrogen shell instabilities manifest themselves quite differently, they are unlikely to lead to the required temperatures and alternative explanations of the abundance anomalies are more promising.
Performance Evaluation of Data Aggregation Functions using Markov Decision Processes

Aggregation functions are intended to save energy and capacity in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), by avoiding unnecessary transmissions. Aggregation functions take benefits from spatial and/or temporal correlations to forecast or to compress the real data which are collected. Although several works have focused on data aggregation in WSNs, there is a lack of a formal unified framework that can compare several aggregation functions suitable for a given network topology, a given application and a target accuracy. We address this question in this paper by proposing a Markov Decision Process (MDP) that can help to evaluate the performances of aggregation functions. The performances are expressed using two new proposed metrics, which can assess the energy and capacity saving of aggregation functions. As illustrative examples, we use our MDP to evaluate and analyse the performances of basic aggregation functions (e.g. average) and more complex ones (time series, polynomial functions).
Série Scientifique Scientific Series Favoritism in Vertical Relationship: Input Prices and Access Quality Favoritism in Vertical Relationship: Input Prices and Access Quality

CIRANO Le CIRANO est un organisme sans but lucratif constitué en vertu de la Loi des compagnies du Québec. Le financement de son infrastructure et de ses activités de recherche provient des cotisations de ses organisations-membres, d'une subvention d'infrastructure du ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie, de même que des subventions et mandats obtenus par ses équipes de recherche. CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams. ASSOCIÉ AU :. Institut de Finance Mathématique de Montréal (IFM 2). Laboratoires universitaires Bell Canada. Réseau de calcul et de modélisation mathématique [RCM 2 ]. Réseau de centres d'excellence MITACS (Les mathématiques des technologies de l'information et des systèmes complexes) Les cahiers de la série scientifique (CS) visent à rendre accessibles des résultats de recherche effectuée au CIRANO afin de susciter échanges et commentaires. Ces cahiers sont écrits dans le style des publications scientifiques. Les idées et les opinions émises sont sous l'unique responsabilité des auteurs et ne représentent pas nécessairement les positions du CIRANO ou de ses partenaires. This paper presents research carried out at CIRANO and aims at encouraging discussion and comment. The observations and viewpoints expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily represent positions of CIRANO or its partners. Résumé / Abstract On étudie le favoritisme qui existe dans la relation verticale entre une firme à l'amont et plusieurs firmes à l'aval. On démontre que le favoritisme est le résultat de la maximisation de profit. On considère les questions suivantes. Premièrement, si la firme à l'amont peut fixer des prix différents pour le même produit qu'elle vend aux firmes à l'aval, est-ce qu'elle traite mieux les firmes qui sont moins efficaces? Deuxièmement, si la firme à l'amont peut offrir aux firmes à l'aval des niveaux de qualité d'accès à son réseau, est-ce que la qualité sera uniforme? La réponse à la première question dépend de l'aptitude de l'auto-provision des firmes à l'aval. Quant à la deuxième question, on montre que certaines firmes sont favorisées. Favoritism in vertical relationship is a situation in which an upstream firm sets favorable exchange conditions to some agents at the expense of …
The Teaching Excellence Framework: What's the Purpose?

Throughout the summer of 2015, the newly appointed British Minister of State for Science and Universities, Jo Johnson, affirmed his intent to introduce what he has called the ‘Teaching Excellence Framework’ (TEF). The general ambition of the TEF has been expressed as ‘rebalancing the relationship between teaching and research’ in universities and ‘putting teaching at the heart of the system’, by introducing a metrics‐based teaching quality assessment mechanism. In exchange, universities deemed to have ‘excellent’ teaching will be rewarded with the right to increase undergraduate fees in line with inflation. On November 6th 2015, the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills published a Green Paper on higher education, entitled, Fulfilling our Potential: teaching excellence, social mobility, and student choice, outlining various reforms in higher education, one of which is the introduction of the TEF. This report aims to offer an academically informed rapid‐response analysis of the policy proposal, focusing on the TEF by engaging with the Green Paper as well as the Minister for Science and Universities’ public statements regarding the general ambition, objectives, and implementation mechanisms for the TEF. Moreover, this report aims to cast a critical eye upon the proposals made in the consultation paper relating to teaching excellence, by focusing on the question of purpose. More specifically, it will argue that there is a fundamental set of political and ethical questions about the purposes and social value of higher education that needs to be at the heart of this debate.
Spots and plages on a young main-sequence solar-type star: HD 206860 ?

The young solar type star HD 206860 is known to be a photometric variable with emission in the core of Ca ii H& K lines, several times more intense than the Sun when observed as a star. The photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of HD 206860 from near contemporaneous observations at Serra La Nave (Catania, Italy) and at the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP, France) shows that chromospheric spectral-line flux and photometric variations follow the same period (4.74 days). From Str¨ omgren photometry and Ca ii and H chromo- spheric emission clearly anti-correlated variations have been found. This result suggests that spots and plages in this single solar- type star are spatially associated, as frequently observed for the largest sun-spot groups and for some very active RS CVn systems. A spot/plage model applied to the observed flux curves al- lows a crude reconstruction of the 3D structure of the external atmosphere of this star.
Cerebral blood flow response to acute hypoxic hypoxia

Hypoxic hypoxia (inspiratory hypoxia) stimulates an increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) maintaining oxygen delivery to the brain. However, this response, particularly at the tissue level, is not well characterised. This study quantifies the CBF response to acute hypoxic hypoxia in healthy subjects. A 20‐min hypoxic (mean PETo2 = 52 mmHg) challenge was induced and controlled by dynamic end‐tidal forcing whilst CBF was measured using pulsed arterial spin labelling perfusion MRI. The rate constant, temporal delay and magnitude of the CBF response were characterised using an exponential model for whole‐brain and regional grey matter. Grey matter CBF increased from 76.1 mL/100 g/min (95% confidence interval (CI) of fitting: 75.5 mL/100 g/min, 76.7 mL/100 g/min) to 87.8 mL/100 g/min (95% CI: 86.7 mL/100 g/min, 89.6 mL/100 g/min) during hypoxia, and the temporal delay and rate constant for the response to hypoxia were 185 s (95% CI: 132 s, 230 s) and 0.0035 s–1 (95% CI: 0.0019 s–1, 0.0046 s–1), respectively. Recovery from hypoxia was faster with a delay of 20 s (95% CI: –38 s, 38 s) and a rate constant of 0.0069 s–1 (95% CI: 0.0020 s–1, 0.0103 s–1). R2*, an index of blood oxygenation obtained simultaneously with the CBF measurement, increased from 30.33 s–1 (CI: 30.31 s–1, 30.34 s–1) to 31.48 s–1 (CI: 31.47 s–1, 31.49 s–1) with hypoxia. The delay and rate constant for changes in R2* were 24 s (95% CI: 21 s, 26 s) and 0.0392 s–1 (95% CI: 0.0333 s–1, 0.045 s–1 ), respectively, for the hypoxic response, and 12 s (95% CI: 10 s, 13 s) and 0.0921 s–1 (95% CI: 0.0744 s–1, 0.1098 s–1/) during the return to normoxia, confirming rapid changes in blood oxygenation with the end‐tidal forcing system. CBF and R2* reactivity to hypoxia differed between subjects, but only R2* reactivity to hypoxia differed significantly between brain regions. © 2013 The Authors. NMR in Biomedicine published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thioester derivatives of the natural product psammaplin A as potent histone deacetylase inhibitors

Summary There has been significant interest in the bioactivity of the natural product psammaplin A, most recently as a potent and isoform selective HDAC inhibitor. Here we report our preliminary studies on thioester HDAC inhibitors derived from the active monomeric (thiol) form of psammaplin A, as a means to improve compound delivery into cells. We have discovered that such compounds exhibit both potent cytotoxicity and enzymatic inhibitory activity against recombinant HDAC1. The latter effect is surprising since previous SAR suggested that modification of the thiol functionality should detrimentally affect HDAC potency. We therefore also report our preliminary studies on the mechanism of action of this observed effect.
Joint angle and delay estimation using shift-invariance techniques

In a multipath communication scenario, it is often relevant to estimate the directions and relative delays of each multipath ray. We derive a closed-form subspace-based method for the simultaneous estimation of these parameters from an estimated channel impulse response, using knowledge of the transmitted pulse shape function. The algorithm uses a two-dimensional (2-D) ESPRIT-like shift-invariance technique to separate and estimate the phase shifts due to delay and direction of incidence with automatic pairing of the two parameter sets. Improved resolution is obtained by enlarging the data matrix with shifted and conjugated copies of itself.
A Slow Merger History of Field Galaxies since z ~ 1

Using deep infrared observations conducted with the CISCO imager on the Subaru Telescope, we investigate the field-corrected pair fraction and the implied merger rate of galaxies in redshift survey fields with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging. In the redshift interval, 0.5 < z < 1.5, the fraction of infrared-selected pairs increases only modestly with redshift to 7% ± 6% at z ≈ 1. This is nearly a factor of 3 less than the fraction, 22% ± 8%, determined using the same technique on HST optical images and as measured in a previous similar study. Tests support the hypothesis that optical pair fractions at z ~ 1 are inflated by bright star-forming regions that are unlikely to be representative of the underlying mass distribution. By determining stellar masses for the companions, we estimate the mass accretion rate associated with merging galaxies. At z ~ 1, we estimate this to be 2 × 109±0.2 M☉ galaxy-1 Gyr-1. Although uncertainties remain, our results suggest that the growth of galaxies via the accretion of preexisting fragments remains as significant a phenomenon in the redshift range studied as that estimated from ongoing star formation in independent surveys.
Using bioacoustic signals and Support Vector Machine for automatic classification of insects

This work presents a new approach for automatic recognition of insects through intelligent systems. Insect species employ a set of sound signals for communication purposes which are specie-specific. Based on this fact, an acoustic signal recognition method has been designed to allow an efficient taxonomic classification of this animal group. In this paper, the sound signals have been characterized by Mel and Linear Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs and LFCCs) to compare their efficacy. Then, a Support Vector Machine algorithm has been used for classification achieving an average success rate of 99.08% over 88 insect species.
Dix ans d'union monétaire : une rétrospective

Il y a dix ans environ, le 1er janvier 1999, démarrait en Europe la troisième phase de l’union économique et monétaire (UEM). Onze pays y ont d’emblée participé, à savoir la Belgique, les Pays-Bas, le Luxembourg, l’Allemagne, la France, l’Autriche, l’Espagne, l’Italie, le Portugal, l’Irlande et la Finlande. À cette date, ils ont introduit avec succès une toute nouvelle monnaie commune : l’euro. Une banque centrale a aussi été créée, la BCE, qui, avec les banques centrales nationales des pays participants, forme l’Eurosystème. Ensemble, celles-ci sont chargées de défi nir et de mettre en œuvre la politique monétaire commune de la zone euro, dont l’objectif principal est, conformément au traité de Maastricht, (de maintenir) la stabilité des prix. Entre-temps, la Grèce, la Slovénie, Malte et Chypre sont elles aussi devenues membres de l’union monétaire, et la Slovaquie la rejoindra le 1er janvier 2009. A partir de cette date quelque 330 millions d’Européens utiliseront une seule et même monnaie.
Potentiation of C1 Esterase Inhibitor by StcE, a Metalloprotease Secreted by Escherichia coli O157:H7

The complement system is an essential component of host defense against pathogens. Previous research in our laboratory identified StcE, a metalloprotease secreted by Escherichia coli O157:H7 that cleaves the serpin C1 esterase inhibitor (C1-INH), a major regulator of the classical complement cascade. Analyses of StcE-treated C1-INH activity revealed that surprisingly, StcE enhanced the ability of C1-INH to inhibit the classical complement-mediated lysis of sheep erythrocytes. StcE directly interacts with both cells and C1-INH, thereby binding C1-INH to the cell surface. This suggests that the augmented activity of StcE-treated C1-INH is due to the increased concentration of C1-INH at the sites of potential lytic complex formation. Indeed, removal of StcE abolishes the ability of C1-INH to bind erythrocyte surfaces, whereas the proteolysis of C1-INH is unnecessary to potentiate its inhibitory activity. Physical analyses showed that StcE interacts with C1-INH within its aminoterminal domain, allowing the unaffected serpin domain to interact with its targets. In addition, StcE-treated C1-INH provides significantly increased serum resistance to E. coli K-12 over native C1-INH. These data suggest that by recruiting C1-INH to cell surfaces, StcE may protect both E. coli O157:H7 and the host cells to which the bacterium adheres from complement-mediated lysis and potentially damaging inflammatory events.
The Multicast Capacity Region of Large Wireless Networks

We study the problem of determining the multicast capacity region of a wireless network of n nodes randomly located in an extended area and communicating with each other over Gaussian fading channels. We obtain an explicit information- theoretic characterization of the scaling of the multicast capacity region for n nodes in terms of 2n weighted cuts. These cuts only depend on the geometry of the locations of the source nodes and their destination nodes and the traffic demands between them, and thus can be readily evaluated. The results are constructive and provide a two-layer architecture for achieving nearly the entire multicast capacity region in the scaling sense: The top layer routes traffic from each of the source nodes to its set of destination nodes, and the bottom layer physically distributes/concentrates traffic among appropriate nodes through one of the two cooperative communication schemes - hierarchical relaying and multi-hopping - depending on the wireless-channel characteristics.