Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Superresolution imaging: a survey of current techniques

Imaging plays a key role in many diverse areas of application, such as astronomy, remote sensing, microscopy, and tomography. Owing to imperfections of measuring devices (e.g., optical degradations, limited size of sensors) and instability of the observed scene (e.g., object motion, media turbulence), acquired images can be indistinct, noisy, and may exhibit insuffcient spatial and temporal resolution. In particular, several external effects blur images. Techniques for recovering the original image include blind deconvolution (to remove blur) and superresolution (SR). The stability of these methods depends on having more than one image of the same frame. Differences between images are necessary to provide new information, but they can be almost unperceivable. State-of-the-art SR techniques achieve remarkable results in resolution enhancement by estimating the subpixel shifts between images, but they lack any apparatus for calculating the blurs. In this paper, after introducing a review of current SR techniques we describe two recently developed SR methods by the authors. First, we introduce a variational method that minimizes a regularized energy function with respect to the high resolution image and blurs. In this way we establish a unifying way to simultaneously estimate the blurs and the high resolution image. By estimating blurs we automatically estimate shifts with subpixel accuracy, which is inherent for good SR performance. Second, an innovative learning-based algorithm using a neural architecture for SR is described. Comparative experiments on real data illustrate the robustness and utilization of both methods.
Kannada named entity recognition and classification (nerc) based on multinomial naïve bayes (mnb) classifier

Named Entity Recognition and Classification (NERC) is a process of identification of proper nouns in the text and classification of those nouns into certain predefined categories like person name, location, organization, date, and time etc. NERC in Kannada is an essential and challenging task. The aim of this work is to develop a novel model for NERC, based on Multinomial Na\"ive Bayes (MNB) Classifier. The Methodology adopted in this paper is based on feature extraction of training corpus, by using term frequency, inverse document frequency and fitting them to a tf-idf-vectorizer. The paper discusses the various issues in developing the proposed model. The details of implementation and performance evaluation are discussed. The experiments are conducted on a training corpus of size 95,170 tokens and test corpus of 5,000 tokens. It is observed that the model works with Precision, Recall and F1-measure of 83%, 79% and 81% respectively.
Initial Experience With a Gasless Unilateral Axillo-Breast or Axillary Approach Endoscopic Thyroidectomy for Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: Comparison With Conventional Open Thyroidectomy

The efficacy of various endoscopic thyroidectomy has not been determined for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). We compared 31 consecutive patients with PTMC who underwent endoscopic thyroidectomy by a gasless unilateral axillo-breast or axillary approach, and the 36 PTMC patients who underwent conventional open thyroid lobectomy from August 2005 to December 2008. There were more female patients (P=0.004) in the endoscopic group, and the mean age of endoscopic group was younger than that of the open thyroidectomy group (P=0.006). The entire endoscopic thyroidectomy was successfully completed in all the patients. The operative time was longer for those undergoing endoscopic thyroidectomy (P<0.001). The complication rate did not differ between the 2 groups. The cosmetic satisfaction, as evaluated by questionnaire, was greater in the endoscopic group (P<0.001). Endoscopic thyroidectomy by a gasless unilateral axillo-breast or axillary approach for selected cases of PTMC is a feasible, safe, and cosmetically superior procedure.
Predicting Arterial Stiffness From the Digital Volume Pulse Waveform

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is currently the biggest single cause of mortality in the developed world, hence, the early detection of its onset is vital for effective prevention therapies. Aortic stiffness as measured by aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) has been shown to be an independent predictor of CVD, however, the measurement of PWV is complex and time consuming. Recent studies have shown that pulse contour characteristics depend on arterial properties such as arterial stiffness. This paper presents a method for estimating PWV from the digital volume pulse (DVP), a waveform that can be rapidly and simply acquired by measuring the transmission of infra-red light through the finger pulp. PWV and DVP were measured on 461 subjects attending a clinic in South East London. Techniques for extracting features from the DVP contour based on physiology and information theory were compared. Low and high stiffness were defined according to a threshold level of PWV chosen to be 10 m/s. Using a support vector machine-based classifier, it is possible to achieve high overall classification rates on unseen data. Further, the use of support vector regression techniques lead to a direct real-valued estimate of PWV which outperforms previous methods based on multilinear regression. We, therefore, conclude that support vector machine-based classification and regression techniques provide effective prediction of arterial stiffness from the simple measurement of the digital volume pulse. This technique could be usefully employed as a cheap and effective CVD screening technique for use in general practice clinics.
Nasal neuroblastoma secreting vasopressin. A case report

A patient with a nasal neuroblastoma was found to have hypertension and severe hyponatraemia. Radiotherapy and cytotoxic chemotherapy were ineffective in reducing the size and vascularity of the neoplasm. Assay of tumor tissue post mortem revealed high levels of arginine vasopressin. The possibility of vasopressin formation has to be added to the better known potential hormonal secretory activities of neuroblastomas.
An alternative rectenna design approach for wirelessly powered energy autonomous systems

In this paper, we propose a new perspective for the rectenna design aiming to provide the start-up conditions, for the power management unit (PMU), even if the available RF power is very low. By theoretical and numerical results we demonstrate that energy autonomy of state-of-the-art PMU can be supported by RF received power levels as low as 20 μW. To ensure the best system efficiency for the PMU regime a two-rectifier switched-topology is introduced to operate alternatively in the start-up and in the regime phases of the PMU. This design is carried out by a CAD procedure based on the concurrent use of EM simulation, harmonic balance (HB) and time domain techniques. This way the actual nonlinear behavior of the rectenna in the time-domain design of the PMU is rigorously accounted for.
Social Data Offloading in D2D-Enhanced Cellular Networks by Network Formation Games

Recently, cellular networks have become severely overloaded by social-based services, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, in which thousands of clients subscribe to a common content provider (e.g., a popular singer) and download his/her content updates all the time. Offloading such traffic through complementary networks, such as a delay tolerant network formed by device-to-device (D2D) communications between mobile subscribers, is a promising solution to reduce the cellular burdens. In the existing solutions, mobile users are assumed to be volunteers who selflessly deliver the content to every other user in proximity while moving. However, practical users are selfish and they will evaluate their individual payoffs in the D2D sharing process, which may highly influence the network performance compared to the case of selfless users. In this paper, we take user selfishness into consideration and propose a network formation game to capture the dynamic characteristics of selfish behaviors. In the proposed game, we provide the utility function of each user and specify the conditions under which the subscribers are guaranteed to converge to a stable network. Then, we propose a practical network formation algorithm in which the users can decide their D2D sharing strategies based on their historical records. Simulation results show that user selfishness can highly degrade the efficiency of data offloading, compared with ideal volunteer users. Also, the decrease caused by user selfishness can be highly affected by the cost ratio between the cellular transmission and D2D transmission, the access delays, and mobility patterns.
Iterative True Motion Estimation for Motion-Compensated Frame Interpolation

This paper proposes a new motion-compensated frame interpolation (MCFI) method. The performance of MCFI is highly dependent on the accuracy of the estimated motion vectors (MVs). The proposed iterative motion estimation (ME) method estimates reliable MVs using linearity checking and restricted search areas. An adaptive interpolation method is also proposed to obtain MVs for blocks that do not have reliable MVs in the iterative ME process. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional MCFI methods in terms of the quality of the interpolated frames. Furthermore, the MVs from the proposed method are more accurate than those from the conventional methods.
Importance of teeth in maintaining the morphology of the adult mandible in humans.

Edentulism can negatively affect both masticatory performance and dietary intake by altering the patterns of biomechanical stress and strain, which in turn modifies the morphology of the different regions of the mandible. The morphological changes in the mandible caused by these stressors are unknown when comparing mandibles across varying dentition states. This study investigated differences in the morphology of human mandibles across various states of the dentition. In total, 498 mandibles of individuals between 20 and 80 yr of age at death were sourced from the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons. These included fully dentate (n = 95), partially edentulous (n = 333), and fully edentulous (n = 70) mandibles. Twelve linear anthropometric measurements of the mandible were derived from digitized landmarks located on its external surface. Data analysis included geometric morphometrics and multivariate analyses. Compared with dentate and partially edentulous mandibles, fully edentulous mandibles showed a shorter alveolar height (-0.4 mm), a shorter mandibular body length (-4 mm), a larger gonial angle (+4°), a more obtuse mental angle (+4.7°), a broader bicondylar width (+3.8 mm), and a taller ramus height (+1.6 mm). Thus, edentulous states are associated with an altered mandibular morphology, which may result from a reduction in jaw function.
Within- and Between-Home Variability in Indoor-Air Insecticide Levels during Pregnancy among an Inner-City Cohort from New York City

Background Residential insecticide use is widespread in the United States, but few data are available on the persistence and variability in levels in the indoor environment. Objective The study aim was to assess within- and between-home variability in indoor-air insecticides over the final 2 months of pregnancy among a cohort of African-American and Dominican women from New York City. Methods Women not employed outside the home were enrolled between February 2001 and May 2004 (n = 102); 9 insecticides and an adjuvant were measured in 48-hr personal air samples and 2-week integrated indoor air samples collected sequentially for 7.0 ± 2.3 weeks (n = 337 air samples). Results Sixty-one percent of the women reported using pest control during the air samplings. Chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and propoxur were detected in 99–100% of personal and indoor samples (range, 0.4–641 ng/m3). Piperonyl butoxide (a pyrethroid adjuvant) was detected in 45.5–68.5% (0.2–608 ng/m3). There was little within-home variability and no significant difference in air concentrations within homes over time (p ≥ 0.2); between-home variability accounted for 88% of the variance in the indoor air levels of propoxur, 92% in chlorpyrifos, 94% in diazinon, and 62% in piperonyl butoxide (p < 0.001). Indoor and maternal personal air insecticide levels were highly correlated (r = 0.7–0.9, p < 0.001). Diazinon and chlorpyrifos levels declined 5-fold between 2001 and 2004 but were detected in all homes 1.5 and 2.5 years, respectively, after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ban on their residential use. Conclusion Results showed that the insecticides were persistent in the home with little variability in air concentrations over the 2 months and contributed to chronic maternal inhalation exposures during pregnancy.
Biochemical correlates of longevity in two closely related rodent species.

The objective of this study was to explore the basis of variations in the life span and metabolic potential, i.e., total amount of energy consumed during life, between different species, in context of the free radical hypothesis of aging. A comparison was made between the house mouse (Mus musculus) and the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus): the latter has > 2-fold greater life span and metabolic potential than the former. Longer life span and higher metabolic potential of Peromyscus were associated with low rates of mitochondrial O2. - and H2O2 generation, higher activities of catalase and glutathione peroxidase and low levels of protein oxidative damage as well as low susceptibility to oxidative damage in response to experimental oxidative stress. Results support the role of oxidative stress in aging.
Esterase Heterogeneity: Dynamics of a Polymorphism

In the freshwater fish Catostomus clarkii, the frequency of alleles for polymorphic serum esterase varies with latitude. The activity of the allele more frequent in southern populations increases as temperature increases from 0 � to 37 �C, whereas activity of the allele more frequent in northern populations increases as temperature decreases. Coefficients of selection used to calculate allelic equilibrium within populations are derived from the activity profiles of the genotypes.
Specification of the somatic musculature in Drosophila

The somatic muscle system formed during Drosophila embryogenesis is required for larvae to hatch, feed, and crawl. This system is replaced in the pupa by a new adult muscle set, responsible for activities such as feeding, walking, and flight. Both the larval and adult muscle systems are comprised of distinct muscle fibers to serve these specific motor functions. In this way, the Drosophila musculature is a valuable model for patterning within a single tissue: while all muscle cells share properties such as the contractile apparatus, properties such as size, position, and number of nuclei are unique for a particular muscle. In the embryo, diversification of muscle fibers relies first on signaling cascades that pattern the mesoderm. Subsequently, the combinatorial expression of specific transcription factors leads muscle fibers to adopt particular sizes, shapes, and orientations. Adult muscle precursors (AMPs), set aside during embryonic development, proliferate during the larval phases and seed the formation of the abdominal, leg, and flight muscles in the adult fly. Adult muscle fibers may either be formed de novo from the fusion of the AMPs, or are created by the binding of AMPs to an existing larval muscle. While less is known about adult muscle specification compared to the larva, expression of specific transcription factors is also important for its diversification. Increasingly, the mechanisms required for the diversification of fly muscle have found parallels in vertebrate systems and mark Drosophila as a robust model system to examine questions about how diverse cell types are generated within an organism. WIREs Dev Biol 2015, 4:357–375. doi: 10.1002/wdev.182
Evolutionary routes to non-kin cooperative breeding in birds

Cooperatively breeding animals live in social groups in which some individuals help to raise the offspring of others, often at the expense of their own reproduction. Kin selection—when individuals increase their inclusive fitness by aiding genetic relatives—is a powerful explanation for the evolution of cooperative breeding, particularly because most groups consist of family members. However, recent molecular studies have revealed that many cooperative groups also contain unrelated immigrants, and the processes responsible for the formation and maintenance of non-kin coalitions are receiving increasing attention. Here, I provide the first systematic review of group structure for all 213 species of cooperatively breeding birds for which data are available. Although the majority of species (55%) nest in nuclear family groups, cooperative breeding by unrelated individuals is more common than previously recognized: 30% nest in mixed groups of relatives and non-relatives, and 15% nest primarily with non-relatives. Obligate cooperative breeders are far more likely to breed with non-kin than are facultative cooperators, indicating that when constraints on independent breeding are sufficiently severe, the direct benefits of group membership can substitute for potential kin-selected benefits. I review three patterns of dispersal that give rise to social groups with low genetic relatedness, and I discuss the selective pressures that favour the formation of such groups. Although kin selection has undoubtedly been crucial to the origin of most avian social systems, direct benefits have subsequently come to play a predominant role in some societies, allowing cooperation to persist despite low genetic relatedness.
VERBAL HALLUCINATIONS AND ACTIVITY OF VOCAL MUSCULATURE

1. The demonstration of increase of muscle potential of the vocal organs in a case of schizophrenia experiencing verbal hallucinations suggested further investigation. Accordingly, electromyograms of the vocal musculature were obtained from 100 patients and 100 normal controls by means of an electroencephalograph machine. 2. Forty of a group of 48 patients experiencing verbal hallucinations (83%) had increased potential. Of a combined group of 64 having or probably having auditory hallucinations, 53 (82%) had increased potential. 3. Of the group of 33 patients not experiencing hallucinations, 30 (90%) had no increase of muscle potential. Of the combined group of 36 not experiencing or probably not experiencing hallucinations, 31 (86%) showed no increase of muscle potential. 4. In the group of 56 schizophrenic patients who were hallucinating or probably hallucinating, 45 (85%) had an increase of muscle potential. 5. Tension in the "throat" exists in 28% of a sampling of the normal population, whereas it is.
The optimization of cosine window function using Genetic Algorithm and its application in plane wave synthesis

With the infinitely long current filament as the probe, the application of cosine window function with the parameters optimized by Genetic Algorithm (GA) in plane-wave synthesis technique is studied by the method of computer simulation. Cosine window function with the parameters optimized by GA is utilized to weight the amplitude and phase distribution of the linear array made up of the infinitely long current filament elements obtained by the method of Physical Optic (PO) so as to effectively improve the uniform degree of the amplitude and phase of the quasi-plane-wave synthesized in the near zone of the array. The results of computer simulation show that weighting method of cosine window function with the parameters optimized by GA can greatly improve the quality of the quasi-plane-wave synthesized and make the distribution of the amplitude and phase of the quasi-plane-wave more uniform than that obtained by the traditional weighting method of Physical Optics and the weighting method of cosine window function with the parameters arbitrarily selected respectively.
Multiview virtual image synthesis for auto-stereoscopic display based on two views

In this paper, an efficient depth image based view rendering method for high quality multiview virtual images synthesis is proposed, which utilizes two color images with their associated depth maps. The proposed method consists of four main steps. The first step is virtual camera parameters design by using shift-sensor camera model to avoid the keystone distortion. Secondly, the mixed color pixels around the boundary of image objects is detected and skipped in the following rendering step, which can eliminate the “ghost” artifacts. Then the two input color images are rendered to multiple virtual view positions on the basis of depth-image-based rendering (DIBR) and merged into one image. Finally, an oriented exemplar-based inpainting algorithm is proposed to fill the disoccluded areas. Experiment results are shown to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method compared to other traditional DIBR methods.
Immune Sensing of Lipopolysaccharide in Plants and Animals: Same but Different

Defense of attempted infection depends on the host’s ability to sense invading pathogens and rapidly activate immune responses. Pathogens, in turn, use a repertoire of evasion strategies and virulence factors to circumvent the host’s surveillance and defense systems. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a complex glycolipid covering the cell surface of gram-negative bacteria, is a virulence factor shielding bacteria from adverse host environments and is sensed by animal as well as plant immune receptors [1,2].
SINCRONIZACIÓN CÍCLICA DEL SECTOR MANUFACTURERO DE MÉXICO Y ESTADOS UNIDOS DESDE UNA PERSPECTIVA NO LINEAL AUTORREGRESIVA CON TRANSICIÓN SUAVE

The aim of this paper is to validate the Smooth Transition Auto Regressive (STAR) model for the analysis of cyclical synchronization of the manufacturing sector in the United States with Mexico, from trade liberalization in the latter. To this end the literature on the STAR methodology is reviewed and theoretical and practical contributions regarding this are described. Theoretically it is concluded that due to its inherent linear structure, the STAR models are able to guide the researcher toward choosing the appropriate methodology to model the real behavior of the data; also thanks to its non-linear component they have the ability to model asymmetric cyclical behavior of the series.
Introduction of a general model for the resonance parameters of fluid sensors and validation with recent sensor setups

A comprehensive investigation and comparison of recently published resonant viscosity and mass density sensors are presented. This investigation is based on the application of a generalized model and a subsequent interpretation of results. The devised model relates the measured resonant parameters (resonance frequency and quality factor) of the frequency response to the physical parameters of the fluid (mass density, shear viscosity and temperature). The presented model is applied to eight different resonant sensors in a frequency range from 400 Hz to 3.7 MHz and quality factors between 0.7 to 500.