Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nutritional influences on illness

Folic acid nutriture has been shown to be directly related to gingival health, [none study, following 30 days during which patients with normal plasma folate levels ingested 2 mg folic acid twice daily or placebo under double-blind conditions, folate increased the resistance ot" the gingiva to local irritants leading to a reduction in inflammation - even though plasma folate levels were unchanged. * Folate mouthwash is also effective, and may be even more effective than dietary supplements,* Vitamin A A deficiency of vitamin A is well known to predispose to periodontal disea.se. " For example, a group of pregnant women was found to show maximal inflammatory changes of the periodontium in the 8th month when the mean physiologic level of vitamin A declined. Shortly after delivery, by contrast, vitamin A levels became markedly elevated and periodontal inflammation improved, raising the question of whether periodontitis of pregnancy is related to changes in the levels of the vitamin,' Vitamin C Ascorbic acid protects the oral mucosal epithelium against the infiltration of antigenic materials such as bacterial endotoxins," so it is not surprising that serum vitamin C levels have a significant (although weak) inverse association with periodoniitis,'' Dietary vitamin C intake shows a similar relationship, at least up to an intake of 180 mg daily,'" Also. 500 mg daily ofthe vitamin for 90 days has been shown to reduce both dental plaque and stain,"
Some empirical issues in the grammar of extraction

This paper compares transformation-based and constraint-based treatments of unbounded filler-gap dependencies, the latter specifically as articulated in terms of HPSG, and argues, contrary to the commonly made allegations of notational variance , that there is purely empirical evidence that is consistent with only the constraint-based account. Recent proposals to deal with parasitic gaps in terms of null pronominals and empty operators are unable to account for the phenomenon of symbiotic gaps, the apparent case mismatches found in parasitic gap constructions, or (in general) for the well-known across-the-board effects within coordinate structures.
Optimized pH and Its Control Strategy Lead to Enhanced Itaconic Acid Fermentation by Aspergillus terreus on Glucose Substrate

Biological itaconic acid production can by catalyzed by Aspergillus terreus (a filamentous fungi) where the fermentation medium pH is of prominent importance. Therefore, in this work, we investigated what benefits the different pH regulation options might offer in enhancing the process. The batch itaconic acid fermentation data underwent a kinetic analysis and the pH control alternatives were ranked subsequently. It would appear that the pH-shift strategy (initial adjustment of pH to 3 and its maintenance at 2.5 after 48 h) resulted in the most attractive fermentation pattern and could hence be recommended to achieve itaconic acid production with an improved performance using A. terreus from carbohydrate, such as glucose. Under this condition, the itaconic acid titer potential, the maximal itaconic acid (titer) production rate, the length of lag-phase and itaconic acid yield were 87.32 g/L, 0.22 g/L/h, 56.04 h and 0.35 g/g glucose, respectively.
Adsorption of Methyl Orange on Syzygium cumini Seed Powder : Kinetics , Isotherms , and Thermodynamic Studies

Synthetic dyes are widely used in textiles, leather, paper, cosmetics, photoelectron chemical cells, and other similar industries to color their products. Based on the chemical structures and applied methods, synthetic dyes are classified as basic dyes, acid dyes, reactive dyes, direct dyes, azo dyes, mordant dyes, vat dyes, disperse dyes, and sulfur dyes. Azo derivatives are the major class of dyes used in industries [1]. These types of dyes are characterized by the existence of nitrogennitrogen double bonds (azo bonds), and the bright colors are due to the azo bonds and the related chromospheres. Even at low concentrations (lower than 1 mg/L), an azo dye in water is clearly visible and therefore undesirable.
Airborne radio-frequency interference studies at C-band using a digital receiver

Corruption of C-band microwave brightness observations by radio-frequency interference (RFI) has been reported in recent data from orbiting radiometers; methods for mitigating these effects are of great importance for the design of future spaceborne microwave radiometers. One approach that has been suggested involves the use of multiple subchannels at C-band as opposed to a single channel; the use of multiple subchannels allows RFI to be detected and mitigated by analyzing relationships among subchannel brightnesses. While this approach has been utilized in previous airborne measurements, demonstrations of the RFI mitigation performance achieved have been difficult to obtain. To address this issue, an enhanced airborne system for observing radio-frequency interference effects on C-band microwave radiometers was developed, and is described in this paper. The system includes a traditional microwave radiometer with four C-band subchannels, so that RFI removal is possible using a subchannel mitigation algorithm. In addition, the system includes a digital receiver with the capability of providing high temporal and spectral resolution observations of interference. This high-resolution data allows improved understanding of RFI sources to be obtained, and also allows analysis of subchannel mitigation algorithm performance. Observations using the system in a test flight near Wallops Island, VA are described. Results show the four subchannel approach generally to be effective in mitigating the observed RFI sources, although examples are also illustrated using the digital receiver data to demonstrate failure of this approach. While studies of the digital receiver data alone could be performed to demonstrate further improvements in RFI mitigation, issues with this initial dataset limit the extent of such studies. Nevertheless, the results obtained still demonstrate qualitatively the improved RFI mitigation that can be achieved in brightness observations through the use of digital receivers
EVALUATION OF DUCKWEED BASED WASTE STABILIZATION POND SYSTEM FOR DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Natural systems of wastewater treatment are regarded as sustainable ecotechnologies specially for the developing countries. In this study performance of a natural treatment system, namely, duckweed (S. Polyrrhiza) based waste stabilization pond system for domestic wastewater treatment was investigated. The domestic wastewater was collected from an outlet of a residential building at Dhamondi area in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The domestic wastewater was poured in a small-scale glass reactor that was subjected to atmospheric conditions with 5 days Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT). Once in a week 20 liters raw domestic wastewater was used as influent; the experiment was carried out for 8 consecutive weeks. Total 16 samples (08 for influent and 08 for effluent) were collected and analyzed to evaluate pollutant removal performances accross the experimental system. In domestic wastewater the average concentrations of PH , DO, TDS, TSS, COD, PO4-P, NO3-N, NO2N and NH3-N were found to be 7.4, 1.7 mg/L, 443.3 mg/L, 170.0 mg/L, 257.0 mg/L, 26.6 mg/L, 1.0 mg/L, 26.3 mg/L and 23.6 mg/L respectively. Whereas, in effluent the average concentrations of such parameters were found 8.34, 6.60 mg/L, 367.75 mg/L, 29.13 mg/L, 49.26 mg/L, 6.14 mg/L, 1.75 mg/L, 5.61 mg/L and 13.65 mg/L respectively. Consequently, the system achieved 17%, 82.9%, 80.8%, 76.9% and 42.0% removal efficiencies of TDS, TSS, COD, PO4-P, and NH3-N respectively. These results indicate that duckweed based wastewater stabilization pond system might be successfully employed for treating domestic wastewater in developing countries as a decentralized treatment unit.
Multi-Planar Segmentation for Left Atrial MR Image in a Few Seconds Using 3 D-like Fully Convolutional Network and Transfer Learning

Precisely segmenting left atrium in 3D MR images can benefit the ablation procedure of atrial fibrillation. However, traditional automated solutions often fail in relieving experts from the labor-intensive manual labeling. In this paper, we propose an automated segmentation method based on multi-planar segmentation network with a 3D fusion strategy, able to use complementary information from different axes of the 3D scans. First, we use 3 successive 2D slices in MR volume as input (3D-like) and VGG-16 pre-trained on ImageNet for natural image classification as base network of fully convolutional network (FCN). Compared to fully 3D FCN, the 3D-like method can be trained quickly and do not have memory limit problems. Then, this base network is trained on axial, coronal, and sagittal axis. 3D fusion strategy is used by combining the segmentation results of each axis. Finally, we evaluate the proposed method with 5-fold-cross-validation on the MICCAI 2018 atrial segmentation challenge dataset, and obtain a average dice index of 0.904 on validation set.
EPOXY FLUX MATERIAL AND PROCESS FOR ENHANCING ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTIONS

There are two main drivers that are causing electronic device manufacturers to look into methods other than solder paste to form electrical interconnection on area array devices. The first driver is the move to smaller and smaller pitch. On hand-held devices it is very common to see 0.5mm and 0.4mm pitch CSPs, with 0.3mm pitch WLCSPs becoming more prevalent. While there are solder paste materials that can be used to print these fine features, these materials (and the accompanying stencil thickness) are not always suitable for the other components on the assembly. The other driver is the stacking of CSPs. Package on package (PoP) process has been well studied and documented over the past few years [3 – 5], here once again, printing solder paste for the second level interconnect is not practical. In both cases there have been studies looking at tacky flux and/or dipping solder paste in order to form the solder joints [1,2, & 6]. Both of these methods can be used to produce good solder joints, but due to the end nature of these devices these solder joints typically need to be enhanced against drop and vibration by the use of an additional underfill process. In this paper we outline the material and the processes used to produce devices with a novel epoxy based fluxing system. This material provides the wetting and activity to create a solder joint as well as providing some reliability enhancement due to the epoxy adhesive portion without the use of harmful solvents. In addition, we will also discuss the process capability of this material with respect to repeatability.
Data Mining Based Collaborative Analysis of Microarray Data

Biomedical research has recently seen a vast growth in publicly and instantly available information, which are often complementary or overlapping. As the available resources become more specialized, there is a growing need for multidisciplinary collaborations between biomedical researchers to address complex research questions. We present an application of a data-mining algorithm to gene-expression data in a collaborative decision-making support environment, as a typical example of how multidisciplinary researchers can collaborate in analyzing and biologically interpreting gene-expression micro array data. Through the proposed approach, researchers can easily decide about which data repositories should be considered, analyze the algorithmic results, discuss the weaknesses of the patterns identified, and set up new iterations of the data mining algorithm by defining other descriptive attributes or integrating other relevant data.
Thermal comfort requirements for different occupants in Malaysian hospital in-patient wards

It is important and challenging to provide suitable thermal comfort conditions in hospital building due to widely varying conditions requirements by different types of occupants. The precise control of temperature and humidity is vital in hot-humid hospitals as these affect diseases, infections and allergies etc. indirectly. A field study comprising of thermal environment evaluation and thermal comfort survey, has been conducted in one Malaysian hospital in-patient wards with 315 respondents. Thermal comfort requirements of patients, visitors and nurses have been investigated. The patient rooms as well as nurse workstations were found bit overcooled by patients, visitors and nurses. Thermal preference of no change by patients and visitors whereas lower temperature was observed by nursing staff in wards. A bit humid air was preferred by all respondents as mean humidity sensation vote was bit drier for all of them. The air movement was acceptable for all respondents in wards as mean percentage of acceptance for every group was more than 91%. Comfort temperatures based on operative temperature for patients, visitors and nurses have been found as 25.7, 25.5 and 23.5°C which can be used as deign guides for hospital HVAC system by local building service engineers and researchers.
Worldwide Survey on the Methods, Efficacy, and Safety of Catheter Ablation for Human Atrial Fibrillation

Background—The purpose of this study was to conduct a worldwide survey investigating the methods, efficacy, and safety of catheter ablation (CA) of atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods and Results—A detailed questionnaire was sent to 777 centers worldwide. Data relevant to the study purpose were collected from 181 centers, of which 100 had ongoing programs on CA of AF between 1995 and 2002. The number of patients undergoing this procedure increased from 18 in 1995 to 5050 in 2002. The median number of procedures per center was 37.5 (range, 1 to 600). Paroxysmal AF, persistent AF, and permanent AF were the indicated arrhythmias in 100.0%, 53.0%, and 20.0% of responding centers, respectively. The most commonly used techniques were right atrial compartmentalization between 1995 and 1997, ablation of the triggering focus in 1998 and 1999, and electrical disconnection of multiple pulmonary veins between 2000 and 2002. Of 8745 patients completing the CA protocol in 90 centers, of whom 2389 (27.3%) required >1 procedure, 4550 (52.0%; range among centers, 14.5% to 76.5%) became asymptomatic without drugs and another 2094 (23.9%; range among centers, 8.8% to 50.3%) became asymptomatic in the presence of formerly ineffective antiarrhythmic drugs over an 11.6±7.7-month follow-up period. At least 1 major complication was reported in 524 patients (6.0%). Conclusions—The findings of this survey provide a picture of the variable and evolving methods, efficacy, and safety of CA for AF as practiced in a large number of centers worldwide and may serve as a guide to clinicians considering therapeutic options in patients suffering from this arrhythmia.
The interpretation of contingent values with measures of attitude and motivation: An empirical case study of alternative water quality improvement schemes in a lake with amenity

The application of the contingent valuation method to environmental resources has been criticised on the grounds that individuals’ responses are thought to be motivated by considerations not strictly relevant to economic valuation, thus leading to observed anomalies such as scope insensitivity. This study investigates the validity of contingent values in this context by reference to measures of attitude and of individuals’ perceived motivation using a set of nested environmental goods (various levels of water quality improvement). Endorsement of the “new ecological paradigm” is found to be a good predictor of the perceived importance of certain motives for WTP (deriving from existence, anthropocentric intrinsic and bequest values), and of WTP for environmental improvement itself to the extent that these motives are perceived as important. The importance of these motives dominates that of others, such as those linked to private or social use value, and is positively associated with WTP, as is the extent of perceived personal responsibility. Moreover, all these relationships with WTP are reflected in an enhanced sensitivity of WTP to the scope of the good provided. However, WTP values are unaffected by the extent to which the individual feels under some general moral obligation to contribute to “good causes”. The findings support the internal validity of the WTP values elicited and suggest that the importance of motives deriving from certain nonuse values are more significant determinants of WTP than others, at least for the resource studied here.
RECOMMENDATION ITU-R BS.1534-1 - Method for the subjective assessment of intermediate quality level of coding systems

The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly, considering a) that Recommendations ITU-R BS.1116, ITU-R BS.1284, ITU-R BT.500, ITU-R BT.710 and ITU-R BT.811 as well as ITU-T Recommendations P.800, P.810 and P.830, have established methods for assessing subjective quality of audio, video and speech systems; b) that new kinds of delivery services such as streaming audio on the Internet or solid state players, digital satellite services, digital short and medium wave systems or mobile multimedia applications may operate at intermediate audio quality; c) that Recommendation ITU-R BS.1116 is intended for the assessment of small impairments and is not suitable for assessing systems with intermediate audio quality; d) that Recommendation ITU-R BS.1284 gives no absolute scoring for the assessment of intermediate audio quality; e) that ITU-T Recommendations P.800, P.810 and P.830 are focused on speech signals in a telephone environment and proved to be not sufficient for the evaluation of audio signals in a broadcasting environment; f) that the use of standardized subjective test methods is important for the exchange, compatibility and correct evaluation of the test data; g) that new multimedia services may require combined assessment of audio and video quality, recommends 1 that the testing and evaluation procedures given in Annex 1 of this Recommendation be used for the subjective assessment of intermediate audio quality.
Mutation in TTI2 Reveals a Role for Triple T Complex in Human Brain Development

Tel2‐interacting proteins 1 and 2 (TTI1 and TTI2) physically interact with telomere maintenance 2 (TEL2) to form a conserved trimeric complex called the Triple T complex. This complex is a master regulator of phosphoinositide‐3‐kinase‐related protein kinase (PIKKs) abundance and DNA damage response signaling. Using a combination of autozygosity mapping and high‐throughput sequencing in a large consanguineous multiplex family, we found that a missense c.1307T>A/p.I436N mutation in TTI2 causes a human autosomal recessive condition characterized by severe cognitive impairment, microcephaly, behavioral troubles, short stature, skeletal anomalies, and facial dysmorphic features. Immunoblotting experiment showed decreased amount of all Triple T complex components in the patient skin fibroblasts. Consistently, a drastically reduced steady‐state level of all PIKKs tested was also observed in the patient cells. Combined with previous observations, these findings emphasises the role of the TTI2 gene in the etiology of intellectual disability and further support the role of PIKK signaling in brain development and functioning.
The making of Kyongju VR Theatre

Recently we have built the largest Virtual Reality (VR) theatre in the world for the Kyongju World Culture EXPO 2000. Unlike single user VR systems, the VR theatre is characterized by a single shared screen and controlled by a kind of tightly coupled user inputs from several hundreds of people in the audience. The large computer-generated stereo images by the huge cylindrical screen provide the immersive feeling augmenting the physical audience space with of 3D virtual space. In addition to the visual immersion, the theatre provides 3D audio, vibration and olfactory display as well as keypads for the audience in their seats interactively controlling the virtual environment. This paper introduces the issues raised and addressed during the design of making such a versatile VR theatre, production and presentation of the virtual heritage at Kyongju, one thousand years ago.
Smoothing along Frequency in Online Neural Network Supported Acoustic Beamforming

We present a block-online multi-channel front end for automatic speech recognition in noisy and reverberated environments. It is an online version of our earlier proposed neural network supported acoustic beamformer, whose coefficients are calculated from noise and speech spatial covariance matrices which are estimated utilizing a neural mask estimator. However, the sparsity of speech in the STFT domain causes problems for the initial beamformer coefficients estimation in some frequency bins due to lack of speech observations. We propose two methods to mitigate this issue. The first is to lower the frequency resolution of the STFT, which comes with the additional advantage of a reduced time window, thus lowering the latency introduced by block processing. The second approach is to smooth beamforming coefficients along the frequency axis, thus exploiting their high interfrequency correlation. With both approaches the gap between offline and block-online beamformer performance, as measured by the word error rate achieved by a downstream speech recognizer, is significantly reduced. Experiments are carried out on two copora, representing noisy (CHiME-4) and noisy reverberant (voiceHome) environments.
Variations in practice admission rates: the policy relevance of regression standardisation

Objectives: To explore variations in general practice admission rates, comparing standardisation by regression with direct standardisation of the data to identify explained and unexplained variation. Methods: Data from hospital episode statistics and the attribution dataset on 8048 cataract admissions from 109 practices in an English health district (North Yorkshire) between 1995 and 1998. Multiple regression was used to estimate the effect of practice characteristics, socio-economic factors, waiting times and distance on practice admission rates. Rankings of practices by the residuals from the regression were compared with rankings by directly standardised admission rates. Results: The regression model yielded intuitively plausible results and explained 35% of the cross-practice variation in directly standardised admission rates. Standardisation by regression, compared with direct standardisation, made as least as much difference to the ranking of practices as direct standardisation compared with crude admission rates. Regression standardisation suggested that 10 practices not identified as 'unusual' by comparison of their rates to the district mean were in fact 'unusual', and that six practices identified as unusual by comparison with the district mean were not unusual once allowing for the explanatory factors used in the regression model. Conclusions: Given the increasing importance of systematic performance assessment to support quality improvement, care must be taken when interpreting variations in health care activity even after conventional standardisation of the data. If significant variations are detected, regression analysis can assist in explaining some of it, which is the starting point in informing discussions about whether variations are justified or unjustified.
Texture Features and Decision Trees based Vegetables Classification

The proposed work deals with an approach to perform texture extraction of vegetables images for classification. The work has been carried out using watershed for segmentation. The vegetables textures features like red component, green component, skewness, kurtosis, variance, and energy are extracted. The method has been employed to normalize vegetable images and hence eliminating the effects of orientation using image resize technique with proper scaling. Finally, Decision Tree classifier is applied to the above features which return the results of the classification.