Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extraction of Retinal Blood Vessel Using Curvelet Transform and Fuzzy C-Means

This paper addresses the automatic blood vessel detection problem in retinal images using matched filtering in an integrated system design platform that involves curve let transform and fuzzy c-means. Although noise is kept constant in medical CCD cameras, due to a number of factors, the contrast between the background and the blood vessels in retinal images and consequently the visual quality of the images looks very poor. Some form of pre-processing operation is therefore essential for the accurate extraction of these blood vessels. Since curve let transform can represent lines, edges and curvatures very well as compared to other multi-resolution techniques, this paper uses curve let transform to enhance the retinal vasculature. Matched filtering is then used to intensify the blood vessels which is further employed by fuzzy c-means algorithm to extract the vessel silhouette from the background. Performance is evaluated on publicly available DRIVE database and is compared with the existing blood vessel extraction methodology that uses curve let transform. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method is very much efficient in detecting long and thick as well as short and thin vessels, wherein the existing methods fail to extract tiny and thin vessels.
Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research

With "Inclusion", Steven Epstein argues that strategies to achieve diversity in medical research mask deeper problems, ones that might require a different approach and different solutions. Formal concern with this issue, Epstein shows, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the mid-1980s, scientists often studied groups of white, middle-aged men - and assumed that conclusions drawn from studying them would apply to the rest of the population. But struggles involving advocacy groups, experts, and Congress led to reforms that forced researchers to diversify the population from which they drew for clinical research. While the prominence of these inclusive practices has offered hope to traditionally undeserved groups, Epstein argues that it has drawn attention away from the tremendous inequalities in health that are rooted not in biology but in society.
On New View Synthesis Using Multiview Stereo

We show that application of modern multiview stereo techniques to the newview synthesis (NVS) problem introduces a number of non-trivial complexities. By simultaneously solving for the colour and depth of the new-view pixels we can eliminate the visual artefacts that conventional NVS-via-stereo suffers. The global occlusion reasoning which has led to considerable improvements in recent stereo algorithms can easily be included in the new algorithm, using a recently improved graph-cut-based optimizer for general multi-label conditional random fields (CRFs). However, the CRF priors that are important to success in stereo cannot be easily applied if the reconstruction is to be computed in the reference frame of the novel view. We address this problem by extending recent work on the fast optimization of texture priors in NVS to model the image edge structure, yielding a synthesis of the two approaches which yields good results on difficult image sequences.
On the Computation of $\lambda$- Contractive Sets for Linear Constrained Systems

We present two theoretical results on the computation of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda$</tex-math></inline-formula>- contractive sets for linear systems with state and input constraints. First, we show that it is possible to a priori compute a number of iterations that is sufficient to approximate the maximal <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda$</tex-math></inline-formula>- contractive set with a given precision using 1-step sets. Second, based on the former result, we provide a procedure for choosing <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda$</tex-math></inline-formula> so that the associated maximal <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda$</tex-math></inline-formula>- contractive set is guaranteed to approximate the maximal controlled invariant set with a given accuracy.
Design and evaluation of sustained release spherical agglomerates of Fluvastatin sodium by crystallo-co-agglomeration -

Prime objective of present study was to design and evaluate ready to compress sustained release spherical agglomerates of Fluvastatin sodium. Crystallo-co-agglomeration technique of spherical crystallization utilizing acetone-acetonitrile system was used to prepare spherical agglomerates of drug in presence of Eudragit RS100 and RL100 as release retardant polymers. Prepared agglomerates were subjected for evaluation of flow, packing, mechanical, compaction properties as well as in-vitro dissolution study. Morphology of spherical agglomerates was evaluated by SEM and drug-polymer compatibility was carried out by DSC, FTIR and XRD. Matrix beads were generated having uniform dispersion of drug with enhanced flow, packing, compaction and mechanical properties which can be attributed to spherical shape of agglomerates as revealed in SEM photomicrographs. Higher crushing strength of agglomerates was indication of good mechanical strength. Improved compressibility of agglomerates was indicated by lower values of σ0, improved tensile strength and reduced elastic recovery. DSC, FTIR and XRD showed that drug did not undergo structural or polymorphic alterations in presence of polymers. In-vitro dissolution study suggested utilization of process for sustained release of fluvastatin sodium for sufficiently prolonged period of time depending on polymer concentration. Thus, crystallo-co-agglomeration method can be successfully utilized for development of directly compressible sustained release agglomerates.
Afamin and Apolipoprotein A-IV: Novel Protein Markers for Ovarian Cancer

Comparative proteomics identified the vitamin E-binding plasma protein afamin as a potential novel tumor marker for ovarian cancer. In addition, we observed in a previous small study decreased plasma concentrations of apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) in preoperative patients with kidney cancer. The aim of this study was therefore to analyze afamin and apoA-IV in a large case-control study to evaluate the diagnostic utility of the two potential novel tumor markers in ovarian cancer patients. We measured plasma concentrations of afamin and apoA-IV by means of a specific sandwich-type ELISA using affinity-purified polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies in 181 ovarian cancer patients of various clinical stages, 399 patients with benign gynecologic diseases, including endometriosis, and 177 controls and compared results with those for the conventional ovarian cancer tumor marker cancer antigen 125 (CA125). Afamin concentrations decreased from a median of 70.7 mg/L (range, 34.6-116.1 mg/L) in healthy controls to 65.2 mg/L (range, 20.2-206.6 mg/L) in patients with benign gynecologic diseases to 56.0 mg/L (range, 4.7-96.0 mg/L) in ovarian cancer patients (P < 0.001 for all pairwise comparisons). Similar results were obtained with apoA-IV concentrations decreasing from 13.0 mg/dL (range, 5.5-34.0 mg/dL) in controls to 11.7 mg/dL (range, 2.0-32.3 mg/dL) in benign conditions to 9.4 mg/dL (range, 0.3-29.5 mg/dL) in ovarian cancer (all P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis for differentiating ovarian cancer patients from healthy controls revealed for a specificity of 90% sensitivity values of 92.4%, 42.4%, and 40.8% for CA125, afamin, and apoA-IV, respectively. Afamin, but not apoA-IV, added independent diagnostic information to CA125 and age for differentiating ovarian cancer from benign and healthy samples; the odds ratio of ovarian cancer was reduced by 44% for each doubling of afamin (P = 0.032). The relatively low sensitivity, however, clearly indicates that afamin and apoA-IV alone are not sufficiently suitable as diagnostic markers for ovarian cancer. Afamin contributes, however, independent diagnostic information to CA125, thus establishing its potential as an adjunct marker to CA125. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(4):1127–33)
Managed floating in a small open economy

More recently however, there have been suggestions that perhaps academics and policy-makers may have been too hasty in ruling out all but the corner solutions. Fischer (2001), for instance, suggests that ‘the choice between a hard peg and floating depends in part on the characteristics of the economy, and in part on its inflationary history’, and admits that ‘proponents of what is known as the bipolar view – myself included – probably have exaggerated their point for dramatic effect’. This has occurred even as studies are increasingly demonstrating that the corner hypothesis is not consistent with reality. Calvo and Reinhart (2000) show that despite countries’ de jure stances, an inherent de facto ‘fear of floating’ still persists. The reality is that most countries, in fact, continue to adhere to some interior solution between the corner solutions of rigid fixity and free float.
The senior discount: biases against older career changers

This study examined age discrimination in between- vs. within-career job transitions. We expected that older workers transitioning into a new field would experience greater age discrimination than those who change jobs within the same field, particularly when amount of prior job experience is not made salient, and particularly when decision-makers were highly prejudiced. Results suggested that younger job applicants received higher suitability ratings than older job applicants, and job applicants making a within-career transition were rated higher than those making a between-career transition. As hypothesized, older job applicants making between-career transitions would receive the lowest ratings of suitability for hire when no information regarding experience was presented, and when decision-makers were highly prejudiced. Implications for the aging workforce are discussed.
Compact, Popularity-Aware and Adaptive Hybrid Data Placement Schemes for Heterogeneous Cloud Storage

Cloud storage systems frequently have a large user base that requires huge cloud resources. Sometimes, cloud devices become overloaded because of an imbalance in input/output (I/O) or space demand. How can data with different popularity be distributed over heterogeneous devices? The key to resolving this problem is to balance the workload of multi-dimension resources. A consistent hash-aware cloud storage system constitutes a good solution for data placement. It can achieve only 1-D balance, usually the balance of the space resource. However, it is not straightforward to obtain a balance of space, I/O, and other resources simultaneously. Many users have experienced the overloading of devices in these systems. We focus mainly on this problem in this paper. In this paper, we discuss the factors that cause the overload of devices that occurs in the hash-aware cloud. Furthermore, we design some schemes with three algorithms to facilitate the assignment of hybrid data of different size and popularity to the heterogeneous cloud. The system can reduce the probability of an overload occurring. Most systems do not easily accommodate the movement of data. However, we argue that relocating part of the necessary data is helpful. This relocation can achieve a balance of resource usage and use fewer resources, without the need for replicas. Our system can provide a better quality of service, because the imbalance in the usage of resources is reduced. We performed an evaluation using extensive simulations driven by real-world traces. We demonstrate that our system can effectively reduce the overload probability of devices in cloud storage systems.
Recent progress in the research of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein

Cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRP) is a cold-shock protein which can be induced after exposure to a moderate cold-shock in different species ranging from amphibians to humans. Expression of CIRP can also be regulated by hypoxia, UV radiation, glucose deprivation, heat stress and H2O2, suggesting that CIRP is a general stress-response protein. In response to stress, CIRP can migrate from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and regulate mRNA stability through its binding site on the 3′-UTR of its targeted mRNAs. Through the regulation of its targets, CIRP has been implicated in multiple cellular process such as cell proliferation, cell survival, circadian modulation, telomere maintenance and tumor formation and progression. In addition, CIRP can also exert its functions by directly interacting with intracellular signaling proteins. Moreover, CIRP can be secreted out of cells. Extracellular CIRP functions as a damage-associated molecular pattern to promote inflammatory responses and plays an important role in both acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. Here, we summarize novel findings of CIRP investigation and hope to provide insights into the role of CIRP in cell biology and diseases.
Immunogenicity and Serological Cross-Reactivity of Saliva Proteins among Different Tsetse Species

Tsetse are vectors of pathogenic trypanosomes, agents of human and animal trypanosomiasis in Africa. Components of tsetse saliva (sialome) are introduced into the mammalian host bite site during the blood feeding process and are important for tsetse’s ability to feed efficiently, but can also influence disease transmission and serve as biomarkers for host exposure. We compared the sialome components from four tsetse species in two subgenera: subgenus Morsitans: Glossina morsitans morsitans (Gmm) and Glossina pallidipes (Gpd), and subgenus Palpalis: Glossina palpalis gambiensis (Gpg) and Glossina fuscipes fuscipes (Gff), and evaluated their immunogenicity and serological cross reactivity by an immunoblot approach utilizing antibodies from experimental mice challenged with uninfected flies. The protein and immune profiles of sialome components varied with fly species in the same subgenus displaying greater similarity and cross reactivity. Sera obtained from cattle from disease endemic areas of Africa displayed an immunogenicity profile reflective of tsetse species distribution. We analyzed the sialome fractions of Gmm by LC-MS/MS, and identified TAg5, Tsal1/Tsal2, and Sgp3 as major immunogenic proteins, and the 5'-nucleotidase family as well as four members of the Adenosine Deaminase Growth Factor (ADGF) family as the major non-immunogenic proteins. Within the ADGF family, we identified four closely related proteins (TSGF-1, TSGF-2, ADGF-3 and ADGF-4), all of which are expressed in tsetse salivary glands. We describe the tsetse species-specific expression profiles and genomic localization of these proteins. Using a passive-immunity approach, we evaluated the effects of rec-TSGF (TSGF-1 and TSGF-2) polyclonal antibodies on tsetse fitness parameters. Limited exposure of tsetse to mice with circulating anti-TSGF antibodies resulted in a slight detriment to their blood feeding ability as reflected by compromised digestion, lower weight gain and less total lipid reserves although these results were not statistically significant. Long-term exposure studies of tsetse flies to antibodies corresponding to the ADGF family of proteins are warranted to evaluate the role of this conserved family in fly biology.
The moral awareness of future accounting and business professionals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moral awareness and ethical virtue of current university students with a view to identifying whether there are any gender differences.Design/methodology/approach – The study analysed undergraduate responses from final year honours student cohorts, one from a degree in accounting and finance (n=51), the other from a programme in business studies (n=79), to a series of value statements and a number of academic and business‐related scenarios. The study employed a Kantian approach to ethics.Findings – Accounting students who had been exposed to ethical educational interventions do not display a higher level of moral awareness or ethical intention than their business counterparts. Whilst gender differences were apparent, this was only evident for moral awareness not ethical virtue and only the case for business students, thus suggesting that gender id may have more explanatory power than biological gender.Research limitations/implications – The sample size .
Effect of Biocontrol Agent Pseudomonas fluorescens 2P24 on Soil Fungal Community in Cucumber Rhizosphere Using T-RFLP and DGGE

Fungi and fungal community play important roles in the soil ecosystem, and the diversity of fungal community could act as natural antagonists of various plant pathogens. Biological control is a promising method to protect plants as chemical pesticides may cause environment pollution. Pseudomonas fluorescens 2P24 had strong inhibitory on Rastonia solanacearum, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani, etc., and was isolated from the wheat rhizosphere take-all decline soils in Shandong province, China. However, its potential effect on soil fungal community was still unknown. In this study, the gfp-labeled P. fluorescens 2P24 was inoculated into cucumber rhizosphere, and the survival of 2P24 was monitored weekly. The amount decreased from 108 to 105 CFU/g dry soils. The effect of 2P24 on soil fungal community in cucumber rhizosphere was investigated using T-RFLP and DGGE. In T-RFLP analysis, principle component analysis showed that the soil fungal community was greatly influenced at first, digested with restriction enzyme Hinf I and Taq I. However, there was little difference as digested by different enzymes. DGGE results demonstrated that the soil fungal community was greatly shocked at the beginning, but it recovered slowly with the decline of P. fluorescens 2P24. Four weeks later, there was little difference between the treatment and control. Generally speaking, the effect of P. fluorescens 2P24 on soil fungal community in cucumber rhizosphere was just transient.
Involvement of an Intracellular Oligogalacturonate Hydrolase in Metabolism of Pectin by Clostridium thermosaccharolyticum

The enzymes pectin methylesterase and polygalacturonate hydrolase, which are responsible for the initial steps of pectin degradation by Clostridium thermosaccharolyticum, were shown to be induced on the polymeric substrates pectin and pectate, as well as on oligogalacturonates, and to be repressed in the presence of glucose. The digalacturonate and trigalacturonate produced by the extracellular pectin methylesterase-polygalacturonate hydrolase complex were transported across the cytoplasmic membrane and hydrolyzed by an inducible oligogalacturonate hydrolase to galacturonate. The oligogalacturonate hydrolase was separated from the polygalacturonate hydrolase and characterized. Its temperature optimum was 65�C, and its pH optimum was 6. The native molecular size was 90 kDa, and the enzyme was stable for more than 1 h at 65�C. The maximum reaction rate on oligomers decreased with the increasing degree of polymerization. Galacturonate was released by hydrolysis from the nonreducing end of the oligomer. The amounts of pectinolytic enzymes produced were all strictly correlated to the amount of biomass formed. Galacturonate was metabolized via a modified Entner-Doudoroff route.
Growth performance of affluent Indian children is similar to that in developed countries.

OBJECTIVE A cross-sectional survey was conducted in order to determine whether an affluent population in south Delhi had a growth performance similar to that in developed countries and to identify socioeconomic factors that militated against optimal growth in this group. METHODS The weights and lengths of 395 children aged 12-23 months and the heights of 331 mothers and 153 grandmothers were measured and information was obtained on family socioeconomic status and child-feeding practices. Children born prematurely, i.e. before 37 weeks of gestation, and those with illness adversely affecting growth, were excluded from the analysis, as with the NCHS/WHO reference population. RESULTS In 341 children included in the analysis, the mean Z-scores for weight-for-age, length-for-age and weight-for-length were -0.45, -0.28 and -0.32 respectively. About 6% of the children were underweight (weight-for-age Z-score < or =-2), 3% were stunted (length-for-age Z-score < or =-2), and 4% were wasted (weight-for-length Z-score < or =-2). The factors that were significantly associated with higher length-for-age were one or both parents having 17 years or more of education (mean length-for-age Z-score -0.17) and non-vegetarian diet (mean length-for-age Z-score - 0.18). No socioeconomic factors were associated with mean weight-for-length. CONCLUSION The children in this affluent population were close to the NCHS/WHO reference population with regard to anthropometric indicators. The subpopulation with higher parental education had even better growth. It is intended to include this subpopulation in the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study.
Superoxide Is Involved in the Central Nervous System Activation and Sympathoexcitation of Myocardial Infarction–Induced Heart Failure

Abstract— Increased angiotensin II signaling in the brain has been shown to play a critical role in the excessive sympathoexcitation and development of heart failure (HF) after myocardial infarction (MI). We have recently demonstrated that reactive oxygen species mediate the actions of angiotensin II in the brain. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that increased redox signaling in central cardiovascular control regions is a key mechanism in the neurocardiovascular dysregulation that follows MI. Ligation of the left coronary artery induced a large MI and subsequent HF in adult C57BL/6 mice, as demonstrated by cardiac hypertrophy, hydrothorax, and ascites. Immunohistochemical analysis of Fos, a marker of neuronal activation, revealed a significant increase in the number of Fos-positive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and supraoptic nucleus at 2 and 4 weeks after MI compared with sham mice. Intracerebroventricular injection of an adenoviral vector encoding superoxide dismutase (Ad-Cu/ZnSOD) caused a significant decrease in the number of Fos-positive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and supraoptic nucleus at 2 weeks after MI compared with mice receiving either saline or a control vector (Ad-LacZ). There was also a diminished role of sympathetic drive in post-MI mice treated centrally with Ad-Cu/ZnSOD, as demonstrated by significantly attenuated falls in heart rate and mean arterial pressure to the ganglionic blocker hexamethonium and decreased urinary norepinephrine levels in these mice compared with Ad-LacZ–treated MI mice. These results suggest that superoxide plays a key role in the central activation and sympathetic hyperactivity after MI in mice and that oxygen radicals in the brain may be important new targets for therapeutic treatment of heart failure.
Semantic Image Analysis for Cervical Neoplasia Detection

This paper presents an automated semantic image analysis method for cervical cancerous lesion detection. We model colposcopic image semantics in a novel probabilistic manner using conditional random fields. We extract the anatomical structure of the cervix from colposcopic images, and identify and summarize different tissue types and their locations in an image semantics map. The conditional random field model uses the semantic information to model the unique optical properties of each tissue type and the diagnostic relationships between neighboring regions. We validate our method using clinical data from 48 patients, and the results demonstrate its diagnostic potential in detecting neoplastic areas. Our automated diagnostic approach has the potential to support or substitute for conventional colposcopy. Furthermore, our generalized framework can be applied to other cancers such as skin, oral and colon cancer.