Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiwavelet feature sets for ECG beat classification

In this study, heart beats are classified as normal, right branch block, left branch block, and paced rhythm using electro cardiographic (ECG) signals obtained from the MIT-BIH cardiac arrhythmia database. Average, standard deviation, energy and entropy of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients are proposed as the features for the classification. The classification was performed by selecting the appropriate train function of artificial neural network. It has been observed that the combined use of two different feature sets from two wavelet families with the appropriate train function of neural network is better than use of individual wavelets features.
Singular Unit Restoration in Interferograms Based on Complex-Valued Markov Random Field Model for Phase Unwrapping

In generating a digital elevation map from an interferogram obtained by interferometric synthetic aperture radar, the filtering process is as important as the phase unwrapping process. Before unwrapping, we usually have to restore the data image by reducing so-called singular points (SPs) by filtering process without destroying or smearing delicate fringes. Previously, an effective SP restoration method was proposed based on the complex-valued Markov random field (CMRF) model. However, there is still room for improvement in the definition of SPs and in the formulation of CMRF parameter estimation. In this letter, we propose a novel scheme by introducing a new concept, namely, the ldquosingular unit.rdquo We also estimate CMRF parameters locally as a weighted sum by taking the distance and SP numbers in sample sites into account. By using this restoration method, we demonstrate a high-performance removal of SPs. We also find that delicate landscape features, which are often lost in conventional filtering, are preserved appropriately. We confirm the quality in higher signal-to-noise ratios obtained against actual height data.
A Comprehensive Framework for Conducting Client Assessments : Highlighting Strengths , Environmental Factors and Hope

Consultants are often asked to conduct comprehensive assessments of clients, which must be conducted in a way that affords the most complete and accurate data to inform the ensuing recommendations. Appropriate and effective assessments require comprehensive examination of both the individual and the setting. Attending to strengths and weaknesses within clients and the client’s environment allows for a more complete understanding of a client’s situation. Specifically, professionals must attend to four aspects of a client: (a) the client’s psychological and behavioral strengths, (b) the client’s psychological and behavioral weaknesses, (c) the strengths in the client’s environment and (d) the weaknesses in the client’s environment (Wright, 1991). In addition, this approach can be enhanced by using hope theory (Snyder, 1994) as a framework for understanding client goals, along with the routes to those goals (pathways thinking) and the motivation to use those pathways (agency thinking). Finally, the advantages of using this innovative assessment approach to inform the recommendations and professional interactions are considered.
First-line treatment in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: the emerging role of the histologic subtype

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. During the past quarter of a century, there have been definite steps forward in understanding the biology of this disease. However, progress in the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been more elusive and has not been associated with a realistic probability of long-term survival. For this disease, platinum-based chemotherapy is currently the standard treatment. Numerous studies have compared various platinum doublets and have concluded that all such combinations are comparable in their clinical efficacy. Moreover, several trials evaluating different chemotherapy regimens in NSCLC have failed to document a difference based on histology. Recent evidence suggests that histology represents an important variable in the decision making. This review will discuss this new evidence in the first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC, focusing on different possible therapeutic approaches according to histologic subtype.
Design of Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles for Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI)

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a promising medical imaging technique producing quantitative images of the distribution of tracer materials (superparamagnetic nanoparticles) without interference from the anatomical background of the imaging objects (either phantoms or lab animals). Theoretically, the MPI platform can image with relatively high temporal and spatial resolution and sensitivity. In practice, the quality of the MPI images hinges on both the applied magnetic field and the properties of the tracer nanoparticles. Langevin theory can model the performance of superparamagnetic nanoparticles and predict the crucial influence of nanoparticle core size on the MPI signal. In addition, the core size distribution, anisotropy of the magnetic core and surface modification of the superparamagnetic nanoparticles also determine the spatial resolution and sensitivity of the MPI images. As a result, through rational design of superparamagnetic nanoparticles, the performance of MPI could be effectively optimized. In this review, the performance of superparamagnetic nanoparticles in MPI is investigated. Rational synthesis and modification of superparamagnetic nanoparticles are discussed and summarized. The potential medical application areas for MPI, including cardiovascular system, oncology, stem cell tracking and immune related imaging are also analyzed and forecasted.
Comparison of Debris Flow Characteristics Obtained by Using Video Materials and Modeling

Velocity of debris flow is one of the most important characteristics for the protective construction design. Since debris flows are rare events, and observations are conducted only on stations in Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Switzerland, USA, China, Japan and New Zealand, the velocity is calculated rather than measured. Nowadays, a large number of videos with passing debris flows have appeared on the Internet. Scientists can use such video materials to obtain qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the debris flow. Therefore, the aim of our research is an attempt to measure the debris flow velocity using video materials and compare the obtained results with the calculated values using various methods. The debris flow that came down in Firgen, Austria on August 4, 2012 was chosen as the object of our study. The video was carried out from several angles, so it was possible to select a section of the channel, through which we could measure the debris flows waves velocity. In addition, we calculated the velocities of waves by formulas adopted in the regulatory documents and compared with the measured by video values. During the video analysis, debris flow velocities at different sites were observed: minimum—7.2 m/s and maximum—10 m/s. The calculated values varied from 4.5 m/s to 11.4 m/s. Moreover, we applied model of the transport-shear process of debris flow formation developed by Yu. B. Vinogradov. When we were comparing the obtained debris flow discharges with results from Austrian colleagues, we found out that the values were similar to each other. However, internal scatter in the model changed from 151 to 190 m3/s, while in the report of Austrian colleagues the discharges were from 80 to 250 m3/s.
Induction immunosuppressive therapies in renal transplantation.

PURPOSE Induction immunosuppressive therapies for patients undergoing renal transplantation are reviewed. SUMMARY The goal of induction therapy is to prevent acute rejection during the early posttransplantation period by providing a high degree of immunosuppression at the time of transplantation. Induction therapy is often considered essential to optimize outcomes, particularly in patients at high risk for poor short-term outcomes. All of the induction immunosuppressive agents currently used are biological agents and are either monoclonal (muromonab-CD3, daclizumab, basiliximab, alemtuzumab) or polyclonal (antithymocyte globulin [equine] or antithymocyte globulin [rabbit]) antibodies. Although antithymocyte globulin (rabbit) is not labeled for induction therapy, it is used for this purpose more than any other agent. Basiliximab is not considered as potent an immunosuppressive agent but has a much more favorable adverse-effect profile compared with antithymocyte globulin (rabbit) and is most commonly used in patients at low risk for acute rejection. Rituximab is being studied for use as induction therapy but to date has not demonstrated any significant benefits over placebo. While head-to-head data are available comparing most induction agents, the final decision on the most appropriate induction therapy for a transplant recipient is highly dependent on preexisting medical conditions, donor characteristics, and the maintenance immunosuppressive regimen to be used. CONCLUSION No standard induction immunosuppressive regimen exists for patients undergoing renal transplantation. Antithymocyte globulin (rabbit) is the most commonly used agent, whereas basiliximab appears safer. The choice of regimen depends on the preferences of clinicians and institutions.
Adenosine in the tuberomammillary nucleus inhibits the histaminergic system via A1 receptors and promotes non-rapid eye movement sleep

Adenosine has been proposed to promote sleep through A1 receptors (A1R's) and/or A2A receptors in the brain. We previously reported that A2A receptors mediate the sleep-promoting effect of prostaglandin D2, an endogenous sleep-inducing substance, and that activation of these receptors induces sleep and blockade of them by caffeine results in wakefulness. On the other hand, A1R has been suggested to increase sleep by inhibition of the cholinergic region of the basal forebrain. However, the role and target sites of A1R in sleep–wake regulation remained controversial. In this study, immunohistochemistry revealed that A1R was expressed in histaminergic neurons of the rat tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN). In vivo microdialysis showed that the histamine release in the frontal cortex was decreased by microinjection into the TMN of N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CPA), an A1R agonist, adenosine or coformycin, an inhibitor of adenosine deaminase, which catabolizes adenosine to inosine. Bilateral injection of CPA into the rat TMN significantly increased the amount and the delta power density of non-rapid eye movement (non-REM; NREM) sleep but did not affect REM sleep. CPA-promoted sleep was observed in WT mice but not in KO mice for A1R or histamine H1 receptor, indicating that the NREM sleep promoted by A1R-specific agonist depended on the histaminergic system. Furthermore, the bilateral injection of adenosine or coformycin into the rat TMN increased NREM sleep, which was completely abolished by coadministration of 1,3-dimethyl-8-cyclopenthylxanthine, a selective A1R antagonist. These results indicate that endogenous adenosine in the TMN suppresses the histaminergic system via A1R to promote NREM sleep.
Gabor Feature-Based Face Recognition Using Riemannian Manifold Learning

This paper introduces a novel Gabor-based Riemannian manifold learning (GRML) method for face recognition. Riemannian manifold learning (RML) is a recently proposed framework which formulates the dimensionality reduction of a set of unorganized data points as constructing normal coordinate charts for an underlying Riemannian Manifold. In this paper, we investigate its practical version for face recognition,which is characterized both by the selection of the coordinate chart and by the out-of-sample testing. The GRML method applies the RML to an augmented Gabor feature vector derived from the Gabor wavelet representation of face images. Experiments show that compared with Gabor-based PCA (GPCA), our GRML achieves better recognition performance.
Selective Inhibition of Topoisomerase I and Various Steps of Spliceosome Assembly by Diospyrin Derivatives

Pre-mRNA splicing is an essential step of the expression of most metazoan protein-coding genes, which is often regulated in a cell type-specific or developmental manner. We have demonstrated previously that human DNA topoisomerase I, an extensively studied target for anticancer drugs, also has an intrinsic protein kinase activity that specifically phosphorylates proteins involved in splice site selection. Therefore, DNA topoisomerase I was recently shown to play a critical role in alternative splicing. Here, we have exploited these novel properties of DNA topoisomerase I to develop entirely novel diospyrin derivatives targeting its protein kinase activity and thereby modulating pre-mRNA splicing. Although some derivatives indeed inhibit kinase activity of topoisomerase I, they did not block reactions of topoisomerase I on DNA. However, these drugs interfere with camptothecin-dependent topoisomerase I-mediated DNA cleavage, implying that diospyrin derivatives mediate a conformational change of topoisomerase I. It is note-worthy that in vitro splicing reactions revealed that diospyrin derivatives alter various steps of splicing. Some diospyrin derivatives inhibit either the first or the second catalytic step of splicing but not spliceosome assembly, whereas diospyrin itself prevents the formation of full spliceosome. Our data revealed for the first time that diospyrin derivatives are able to stall the dynamic assembly of the spliceosome and open the exciting possibility of using these derivatives to correct aberrant splicing in human genetic diseases.
Decoherence in qubits due to low-frequency noise

The efficiency of the future devices for quantum information processing will be limited mostly by the finite decoherence rates of the qubits. Recently, substantial progress was achieved in enhancing the time within which a solid-state qubit demonstrates coherent dynamics. This progress is based mostly on a successful isolation of the qubits from external decoherence sources. Under these conditions, the material-inherent sources of noise start to play a crucial role. In most cases, the noise that the quantum device demonstrates has a 1/f spectrum. This suggests that the environment that destroys the phase coherence of the qubit can be thought of as a system of two-state fluctuators, which experience random hops between their states. In this short review, the current state of the theory of the decoherence due to the qubit interaction with the fluctuators is discussed. The effect of such an environment on two different protocols of the qubit manipulations, free induction and echo signal, is described. It turns out that in many important cases the noise produced by the fluctuators is non-Gaussian. Consequently, the results of the interaction of the qubit with the fluctuators are not determined by the pair correlation function alone. We describe the effect of the fluctuators using the so-called spin-fluctuator model. Being quite realistic, this model allows one to exactly evaluate the qubit dynamics in the presence of one fluctuator. This solution is found, and its features, including non-Gaussian effects, are analyzed in detail. We extend this consideration to systems of large numbers of fluctuators, which interact with the qubit and lead to the 1/f noise. We discuss existing experiments on the Josephson qubit manipulation and try to identify non-Gaussian behavior.
HIV infection and contraceptive need among female Ethiopian voluntary HIV counseling and testing clients

Abstract Despite political endorsement of voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT), and family planning integration in Ethiopia, little is known about the reproductive health needs of VCT clients. We estimated contraceptive prevalence and need among 646 Ethiopian female VCT clients. We compared socio-demographic characteristics of contracepting VCT clients to those with unmet need and examined how these characteristics are associated with having unmet contraceptive need and being HIV-positive using multinomial logistic regression. We also assessed the quality of VCT services from clients' reports of reproductive health topics discussed in VCT sessions. Nearly 34% of female VCT clients have unmet contraceptive need. Three socio-demographic characteristics are consistently associated with both risk for unintended pregnancy and HIV: older age, marriage, and lower education. In the multivariate analysis, older age, marriage, and belonging to a minority ethnic group are significantly associated with being both HIV-positive and having unmet contraceptive need. Conversely, higher education, larger families, and frequent sexual activity are associated with reduced likelihood of experiencing these two adverse health outcomes. VCT clients report infrequent reproductive health counseling, although HIV-positive women are more likely than HIV-negative women to have discussions about contraception with VCT counselors. At the time of this study, family planning was not offered as part of VCT programs, although VCT clients demonstrate considerable need for contraceptive services.
Developing Multi-touch Software through Creative Destruction

Tangible and Gesture-Based Interfaces are made possible by hardware like the Microsoft® Surface Device. Despite the commitment of big business, the killer application is yet to be found. To address this challenge, we investigate the innovation process. Against this background, a workshop was set up and conducted. The clarification of focuses during brainstorming is achieved by introducing a triad of innovation, which revealed potentials for entertaining multi-touch applications. We respond to these potentials with the custom-made solutions realized during our workshop.
The Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorder and Association with Productivity Loss: A Preliminary Study among Labour Intensive Manual Harvesting Activities in Oil Palm Plantation

Production agriculture such as harvesting in oil palm plantation has been frequently associated with MSD and significant loss of productivities. This study tends to evaluate from the viewpoint of health, the association between self-reported prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and productivities; the impact of musculoskeletal disorders on productivity. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 143 harvesters in oil palm plantation. A general questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic background data while Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to determine the prevalence of MSD. Expressed in 4 different indicators; daily harvesting quantity, efficiency score, sick leave and presenteeism, the productivity data were analysed for association. There is significant association between reported acute prevalence of MSD (within 7 d) and productivity loss in terms of presenteeism (χ2=5.088; p<0.05) as well as quantity of daily harvest (χ2=7.406; p<0.01). Logistic regression adjusted for age, BMI and smoking indicate that harvesters with MSD (past seven days) were more likely to be engaged in presenteeism (OR=2.87 95% CI=1.34, 6.14) and had lower daily productivity (OR=2.09 95% CI=1.02, 4.29) compared to harvesters without MSD (past 7 d). This study reveals that oil palm harvesters suffering acute MSD (for the past week) were likely to be still present to work and produce half lesser than their healthy counterparts. Thus, further study with comprehensive surveillance strategy is essential in order to determine the urgency or need of appropriate intervention.
Rotated Profile Signatures for robust 3D feature detection

While recent years have seen progress in face recognition from 3D images, nonfrontal head pose is still a challenge to existing techniques. We introduce a new system for 3D face recognition that is robust to facial pose variation. Large degrees of facial pose variation may lead to a significant fraction of the features visible in frontal images being occluded. High accuracy automatic feature and pose detection is performed by a new technique called rotated profile signatures (RPS). Experiments are performed on the largest available database of 3D faces acquired under varying pose. This database contains over 7,300 total images of 406 unique subjects gathered at the University of Notre Dame. Experimental results show that the RPS detection algorithm is capable of performing nose detection with greater than 96.5% accuracy across the pose variation represented in the data set used.
Bidirectional light transport with vertex merging

We present vertex merging -- a bidirectional path sampling technique for Monte Carlo light transport integration. Vertex merging is simple and more computationally efficient for specular-diffuse-specular effects than the currently available techniques in bidirectional path tracing. It brings the advantages of photon mapping to the path integral framework, while avoiding the concept of density estimation altogether. This makes it possible for the first time to quantitatively reason about the efficiency of two rendering approaches that have been historically considered conceptually different. The practical result is a combined bidirectional rendering algorithm that efficiently handles a wide variety of lighting conditions, ranging from direct illumination and diffuse inter-reflections to the notoriously problematic reflected caustics. This algorithm also has a higher order of convergence than progressive photon mapping.
Localization of StarD5 cholesterol binding protein Published, JLR Papers in Press, March 13, 2006.

Human StarD5 belongs to the StarD4 subfamily of START (for steroidogenic acute regulatory lipid transfer) domain proteins. We previously reported that StarD5 is located in the cytosolic fraction of human liver and binds cholesterol and 25-hydroxycholesterol. After overexpression of the gene encoding StarD5 in primary rat hepatocytes, free cholesterol accumulated in intracellular membranes. These findings suggested StarD5 to be a directional cytosolic sterol transporter. The objective of this study was to determine the localization of StarD5 in human liver. Western blot analysis confirmed StarD5's presence in the liver but not in human hepatocytes. Immunohistochemistry studies showed StarD5 localized within sinusoidal lining cells in the human liver and colocalized with CD68, a marker for Kupffer cells. Western blot analyses identified the presence of StarD5 in monocytes and macrophages as well as mast cells, basophils, and promyelocytic cells, but not in human hepatocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, osteocytes, astrocytes, or brain tissue. Cell fractionation and immunocytochemistry studies on THP-1 macrophages localized StarD5 to the cytosol and supported an association with the Golgi. The presence of this cholesterol/25-hydroxycholesterol-binding protein in cells related to inflammatory processes provides new clues to the role of this protein in free sterol transport in the cells and in lipid-mediated atherogenesis.