Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autonomous Glaucoma detection from fundus image using cup to disc ratio and hybrid features

Glaucoma is a non-curable optic disease which can cause irreversible blindness if not detected at early stage. Progression of glaucoma occurs due to an increase in intraocular pressure and results in the damage of optic nerve. Progression of glaucoma can be stopped if detected at an early stage. There are no early symptoms of glaucoma and the only source to detect glaucoma at an early stage is the structural change that arises in the internal eye. Fundoscopy is one of the modern medical imaging techniques that enable Ophthalmologists to observe structural changes in the Optic Disc to detect glaucoma. Many autonomous glaucoma detection systems analyze fundus image by calculating Cup to Disc Ratio (CDR) and categorize the image as glaucoma or healthy. Glaucoma detection using machine learning is also being used widely to aid ophthalmologists. The proposed methodology provides a novel algorithm to detect glaucoma using a fusion of CDR and hybrid textural and intensity features. Image categorization (glaucoma, non-glaucoma, suspect) is done based on the results from both CDR and classifier. This fusion of CDR with hybrid features has improved the sensitivity of system to 1, specificity 0.88 and accuracy 92%.
Learning to Effectively Select Topics For Information Retrieval Test Collections

While test collections are commonly employed to evaluate the effectiveness of information retrieval (IR) systems, constructing these collections has become increasingly expensive in recent years as collection sizes have grown ever-larger. To address this, we propose a new learning-to-rank topic selection method which reduces the number of search topics needed for reliable evaluation of IR systems. As part of this work, we also revisit the deep vs. shallow judging debate: whether it is better to collect many relevance judgments for a few topics or a few judgments for many topics. We consider a number of factors impacting this trade-off: how topics are selected, topic familiarity to judges, and how topic generation cost may impact both budget utilization and the resultant quality of judgments. Experiments on NIST TREC Robust 2003 and Robust 2004 test collections show not only our method's ability to reliably evaluate IR systems using fewer topics, but also that when topics are intelligently selected, deep judging is often more cost-effective than shallow judging in achieving the same level of evaluation reliability. Topic familiarity and construction costs are also seen to notably impact the evaluation cost vs. reliability tradeoff and provide further evidence supporting deep judging in practice.
An EL Capacitorless EV On-Board Charger Using Harmonic Modulation Technique

This paper suggests an electrolytic capacitorless on-board charger for electric vehicles. It has the cascade structure of a constant frequency resonant converter for electrical isolation and a discontinuous conduction mode boost converter for charging control and input harmonic regulation. To obtain a high power factor, the harmonic modulation technique is also proposed. The proposed charger uses a very simple algorithm to achieve harmonic regulation and charging control. Its feasibility has been verified with a 3-kW prototype.
Development and Validation of Node-Based Sample Units for Estimating Soybean Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) Densities in Field Cage Experiments

ABSTRACT The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is currently the most important insect threat to soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. , production in the North Central United States. Field cage studies are a key tool in investigating the potential of natural enemies and host plant resistance to control this pest. However, a major constraint in the use of cage studies is the limited number of treatments and replicates that can be used as aphid densities frequently become so large as to limit the number of experimental units that can be quantified. One way to overcome this limitation is to develop methods that estimate whole-plant aphid densities based on a reduced sampling plan. Here, we extend an existing method, node-sampling, used for estimating aphid populations in open field conditions and apply it to caged populations. We show that parameters calculated under open field conditions are inappropriate to estimate caged populations. In contrast, using four independent data sets of caged populations and a cross-validation technique, we demonstrate that a three-node sampling unit and a weighted formula provide accurate and robust estimates of whole-plant aphid density. This method reduced the number of aphids counted per plant by and average of 60%, with greater reductions at higher aphid densities. We further demonstrate that nearly identical statistical results were obtained when whole-plant or node-sampling estimates were used in the analysis of two case studies. The reduced sample unit method developed here saves time without sacrificing efficiency so that more plants, replications, or studies can be conducted that will lead to improved soybean aphid management.
Harmony and Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Investigation in China and Australia

Study 1 identified three distinct harmony factors in Hong Kong: disintegration avoidance, harmony enhancement, and harmony as hindrance. Furthermore, disintegration avoidance was found to relate positively to conflict avoidance and negatively to negotiation in a conflict situation. Study 2 examined how the harmony factors were related to various conflict styles in China and Australia. The three harmony factors were identifiable in Australia, but the Chinese scored higher in both disintegration avoidance and harmony enhancement. For the two groups, disintegration avoidance was related positively to avoiding and dominating and negatively to integrating, whereas harmony enhancement was related positively to compromising and integrating. Compromising was related more strongly to harmony enhancement than to disintegration avoidance. Finally, disintegration avoidance was positively related to compromising and obliging for Chinese but not for Australians. The study extends the current conflict management research by incorporating the Chinese notion of harmony.
From chemical analysis of the body...to metabolic insights provided by the new methodology

It is by no means an exaggeration to say that Dr Widdowson is one of the pioneers of body composition research and her studies in the 1940s and 1950s have laid the foundations of body composition science today. These have included both animal and human studies, although this paper will focus only on the latter. Together with Professor McCance and Christine Spray she was responsible for the analysis of three entire adult human cadavers and that of a 4-year-old child (Widdowson et al. 1951). Further work with Dr Dickerson explored the composition of specific tissues and organs of the body (Widdowson & Dickerson, 1964). These studies provide some of the best direct data on human body composition. Moreover the findings from this work form the basis of the indirect techniques which are used so widely today.
Epithelial Cell Shedding and Barrier Function

The intestinal epithelium is a critical component of the gut barrier. Composed of a single layer of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) held together by tight junctions, this delicate structure prevents the transfer of harmful microorganisms, antigens, and toxins from the gut lumen into the circulation. The equilibrium between the rate of apoptosis and shedding of senescent epithelial cells at the villus tip, and the generation of new cells in the crypt, is key to maintaining tissue homeostasis. However, in both localized and systemic inflammation, this balance may be disturbed as a result of pathological IEC shedding. Shedding of IECs from the epithelial monolayer may cause transient gaps or microerosions in the epithelial barrier, resulting in increased intestinal permeability. Although pathological IEC shedding has been observed in mouse models of inflammation and human intestinal conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, understanding of the underlying mechanisms remains limited. This process may also be an important contributor to systemic and intestinal inflammatory diseases and gut barrier dysfunction in domestic animal species. This review aims to summarize current knowledge about intestinal epithelial cell shedding, its significance in gut barrier dysfunction and host-microbial interactions, and where research in this field is directed.
What Influences Where They Give Birth? Determinants of Place of Delivery among Women in Rural Ghana

Background. There is a paucity of empirical literature in Ghana on rural areas and their utilisation of health facilities. The study examined the effects of the sociodemographics of rural women on place of delivery in the country. Methods. The paper made use of data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Women from rural areas who had given birth within five years prior to the survey were included in the analysis. Descriptive analyses and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. Results. Wealth, maternal education, ecological zone, getting money for treatment, ethnicity, partner's education, parity, and distance to a health facility were found as the determinants of place of delivery among women in rural Ghana. Women in the richest wealth quintile were three times (OR = 3.04, 95% CI = 0.35–26.4) more likely to deliver at a health facility than the poorest women. Conclusions. It behoves the relevant stakeholders including the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health to pay attention to the wealth status, maternal education, ecological zone, ethnicity, partner's education, parity, and distance in their planning regarding delivery care in rural Ghana.
Efficacy of Stomatognathic Alignment Exercise Program on Mouth Opening Limitation Improvement in Spastic Myogenic Temporomandibular Disorder of Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy Children

Objectives: The aim of this work was to show the efficacy of stomatognathic alignment exercise program on mouth opening limitation improvement in spastic myogenic temporomandibular disorder of hemiparetic cerebral palsy children. Method: Thirty children were enrolled in this study and randomly assigned into two groups; group A (traditional physiotherapy program plus stomatognathic alignment exercise program), and group B (traditional physiotherapy program only). I used the standard ruler for detecting and follow up mouth opening limitation depends on the ratio between maximum comfortable mouth opening and maximum assisted mouth opening. This measurement was taken before initial treatment and after 12 weeks of treatment. The children parents in both groups A and B were instructed to complete 1 hour of home routine program. Results: Data analysis was available on the 30 hemiplegic cerebral palsy children participated in the study. The mean value of mouth opening in both groups (assessed by C.M) at baseline measurement (pre-treatment) and (post-treatment) was insignificant (p>0.05). Both groups had a significant improvement in mouth opening posttreatment. The average improvement of mouth opening tended to being highly significant in the study group than in the control group. The percentage of improvement of mouth opening were (16%) in the study group compared to the control group (4%). Conclusion: According the results of this study it can be concluded that the combined effect of physiotherapy training program in addition to stomatognathic alignment exercise program can be recommended in improvement mouth opening ratio in hemiplegic cerebral palsy children.
Single-channel recordings of three K+-selective currents in cultured chick ciliary ganglion neurons

Multiple distinct K+-selective channels may contribute to action potential repolarization and afterpotential generation in chick ciliary neurons. The channel types are difficult to distinguish by traditional voltage-clamp methods, primarily because of coactivation during depolarization. I have used the extracellular patch-clamp technique to resolve single-channel K+ currents in cultured chick ciliary ganglion (CG) neurons. Three unit currents selective for K+ ions were observed. The channels varied with respect to unit conductance, sensitivity to Ca2+ ions and voltage, and steady-state gating parameters. The first channel, GK1, was characterized by a unit conductance of 14 pico- Siemens (pS) under physiological recording conditions, gating that was relatively independent of membrane potential and intracellular Ca2+ ions, and single-component open-time distributions with time constants of approximately 9 msec. The second channel, GK2, was characterized by a unit conductance of 64 pS under physiological recording conditions and gating that was affected by membrane potential but was not dependent on the activity of intracellular Ca2+ ions. Open-time distributions indicated 2 open states, with open-time constants of 0.09 (61%) and 0.35 (39%) msec, at +40 mV membrane potential. The third channel, GKCa2+, was identified in isolated patch recordings in which the concentration of internal Ca2+ was 10(-7) M or greater, which was an absolute prerequisite for channel opening. GKCa2+ was characterized by a unit conductance of 193 pS in symmetrical 0.15 M KCl solutions, an open-state probability that was a function not only of [Ca2+]i, but also of membrane potential, and single-component open-time distribution with a time constant of 1.11 msec at -10 mV patch potential. These results suggest the presence of at least 3 distinct K+ channel populations in the membrane of cultured chick CG neurons.
Characterization and parameterized generation of synthetic combinational benchmark circuits

The development of new field-programmed, mask-programmed, and laser-programmed gate-array architectures is hampered by the lack of realistic test circuits that exercise both the architectures and their automatic placement and routing algorithms. In this paper, we present a method and a tool for generating parameterized and realistic synthetic circuits. To obtain the realism, we propose a set of graph-theoretic characteristics that describe a physical netlist, and have built a tool that can measure these characteristics on existing circuits. The generation tool uses the characteristics as constraints in the synthetic circuit generation. To validate the quality of the generated netlists, parameters that are not specified in the generation are compared with those of real circuits and with those of more "random" graphs.
Product, process, and profit: the politics of usability in a software venture

In research and in practice,usability specialists commonly target thetechnology user-interfaces and help as the main arena for bringing about usability improvements. However, usability improvements depend on more than innovative and user-centered technical designs and implementations. Equally important for creating useful and usable software are the social and political forces that shape the development context. These forces give rise to leadership conflicts, factional disputes, renegade efforts, alliances and betrayals, all of which profoundly influence whether usability improvements will be supported and sustained within and across projects. This essay presents and analyzes a case history of a software start-up company in which usability achieved a Pyrrhic victory, triumphing only in the short run because of social and political forces.
School athletic participation : mostly gain with little pain

Participation in high school sports had positive effects on many Grade 12 and postsecondary outcomes (e.g., school grades, coursework selection, homework, educational and occupational aspirations, self-esteem, university applications, subsequent college enrollment, and eventual educational attainment) after controlling background variables and parallel outcomes from Grades 8 and 10 in a large, nationally representative, 6-year longitudinal study. In contrast to Zero-Sum and Threshold Models, these positive effects generalized across academic and nonacademic outcomes, across the entire range of athletic participation levels, and across different subgroups of students (e.g., SES, gender, ethnicity, ability levels, educational aspirations). Sport participation is hypothesized to increase identification/commitment to school and school values which mediate the participation effects, particularly for narrowly defined academic outcomes not directly related to sport participation. Consistent with this Identificat.
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Influence of Process Parameters in Incremental Sheet Metal Forming on Residual Stresses

The aim of this study is to analyze the co-relation between the geometrical accuracy of parts formed by single-point incremental forming (SPIF) and the resulting distribution of the residual stresses induced in the material as a function of the different process parameters of the SPIF process. The study was performed for a pyramidal frustum manufactured by varying the process parameters of SPIF, i.e., tool diameter, tool step-down, and wall-angle. The hole-drilling strain gage method was used to determine the residual stresses in the manufactured pyramids. Further, small strips were laser cut from the pyramids, and the curvature of the strips was measured. The curvature of the strips is a result of the intensity and distribution of the residual stresses, which in turn depends on the selected values of the process parameters. A validated numerical model of SPIF was used to determine the residual stresses parallel and perpendicular to the direction of tool motion at the center of a strip cut from the numerical model in clamped, unclamped, and trimmed states. Further, the change in the bending moment of a strip that occurred upon unclamping and trimming was calculated. Experimental and numerical investigations reveal that the most significant parameter in residual stress build-up and the reduction of geometrical accuracy is the wall angle. Upon unclamping, the highest change in the residual stresses and bending moment occurred with the largest tool step-down and tool diameter. Upon trimming, the magnitude of the residual stresses and bending moment changed the most with the largest tool step-down in both directions, whereas the change was highest with the smallest tool diameter in the transverse direction of the tool motion. Furthermore, upon trimming, the geometric deviations were highest with the large wall angles in the transverse direction of the tool motion. Overall, the effect of changing process parameters on the residual stress state and geometrical accuracy was more pronounced in the transverse direction of the tool motion.
Transcribing continuous speech using mismatched crowdsourcing

Mismatched crowdsourcing was recently proposed as a potential approach to deriving moderately accurate speech transcriptions using crowd workers unfamiliar with the language being spoken. In introducing this approach, we demonstrated its promise with the help of an isolated word recovery task for Hindi. However, it remained open whether mismatched crowd sourcing can yield non-trivial accuracy in a continuous speech task. In this work, we focus on this question and demonstrate a word error rate of under 45% in a large-vocabulary task (again for Hindi). In achieving this, we develop several new techniques capable of scaling effectively to continuous speech. We also provide an information theoretic analysis and estimate the amount of information lost in transcription by the mismatched crowd workers to be under 5 bits.
Application of Quantum Process Calculus to Higher Dimensional Quantum Protocols

We describe the use of quantum process calculus to describe and analyze quantum communication protocols, following the successful field of formal methods from classical computer science. We have extended the quantum process calculus to describe d-dimensional quantum systems, which has not been done before. We summarise the necessary theory in the generalisation of quantum gates and Bell states and use the theory to apply the quantum process calculus CQP to quantum protocols, namely qudit teleportation and superdense coding.
“Not Everyone is Cut Out to be the Entrepreneur Type”: How Finnish School Teachers Construct the Meaning of Entrepreneurship Education and the Related Abilities of the Pupils

The present study set out to explore how a group of Finnish school teachers constructs the meaning of entrepreneurship education and produces related characterizations of the abilities of the pupils in their interviews. In their discussions, the teachers deployed the discourses of ‘internal entrepreneurship’ and ‘external entrepreneurship’. Internal entrepreneurship was associated with the pupils' responsible attitude to (school) work; it was represented as an ideal subjectivity for all and accepted as the natural aim of schooling. The promotion of external entrepreneurship, however, was seen to be beyond the aims of basic education. Within the discourse of external entrepreneurship, the teachers explicated the differences between the pupils' abilities; they saw potential for entrepreneurship particularly in those boys who are not academically accomplished but are socially talented, creative, easygoing and risk-taking or competent at practical things. High-performing students, especially girls, were not included in the characterizations of “the entrepreneur type of pupil”.
A Simple Nonadditive Model of Water

Liquid water has rich thermodynamic behavior over a range of temperatures and pressures[1]. Models of water used in protein folding simulations must be fast and reflect the underlying hydrogen bond network accurately. Although greatly simplified, current models of water can account for more then 99% of the CPU time during numerical simulations[2]. Current models assume simple additivity of free energy which is incorrect over coupled degrees of freedom[3], [4] and in the liquid state all of the water is coupled. A novel statistical mechanical model of water is presented encapsulating the essential nonadditive free energies without recourse to computationally expensive
Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. I. The MBH-σ Relation at z = 0.36

We test the evolution of the correlation between black hole mass and bulge velocity dispersion (MBH-σ), using a carefully selected sample of 14 Seyfert 1 galaxies at z = 0.36 ± 0.01. We measure velocity dispersion from stellar absorption lines around Mg b (5175 Å) and Fe (5270 Å) using high-S/N Keck spectra and estimate black hole mass from the Hβ line width and the optical luminosity at 5100 Å, based on the empirically calibrated photoionization method. We find a significant offset from the local relation, in the sense that velocity dispersions were smaller for given black hole masses at z = 0.36 than locally. We investigate various sources of systematic uncertainties and find that those cannot account for the observed offset. The measured offset is Δ log MBH = 0.62 ± 0.10 ± 0.25; i.e., Δ log σ = 0.15 ± 0.03 ± 0.06, where the error bars include a random component and an upper limit to the systematics. At face value, this result implies a substantial growth of bulges in the last 4 Gyr, assuming that the local MBH-σ relation is the universal evolutionary endpoint. Along with two samples of active galaxies with consistently determined black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion taken from the literature, we quantify the observed evolution with the best-fit linear relation: Δ log MBH = (1.66 ± 0.43)z + (0.04 ± 0.09) with respect to the local relationship of Tremaine and coworkers, and Δ log MBH = (1.55 ± 0.46)z + (0.01 ± 0.12) with respect to that of Ferrarese. This result is consistent with the growth of black holes predating the final growth of bulges at these mass scales (⟨σ⟩ = 170 km s-1).