Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Methodology for mapping change in woody landcover over Queensland from 1999 to 2001 using Landsat ETM +

The Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) is currently in the process of mapping woody change across the State of Queensland for the era 1999 to 2001. SLATS covers such a large area that Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery was chosen as the most effective data for this purpose. Since 1995 the woody change in Queensland has been mapped every two years. The 1999 to 2001 change era is the first time that Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imagery has been available for both years of the SLATS change measurement era. A comprehensive review of the SLATS change detection methodology was carried out to determine an optimum methodology for woody change mapping in Queensland. The methodology adopted was based on a threshold decision tree classification of a simple three-band difference image, incorporating a newly developed “woody index”, ETM+ Band 2 and ETM+ Band 5. This paper describes this methodology and the field methodology for verifying the change classification. Introduction The study currently known as the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) commenced in 1995 to provide accurate information on rates of vegetation change and associated greenhouse gas emissions in Queensland. The rate of woody vegetation change has been mapped from 1991 to 1997 using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and from 1999 primarily using Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). The current 1999 to 2001 change era is the first time that ETM+ data has been used for both years of the change era. This, together with the desire to improve on and to overcome some of the limitations of the previous change detection methodology, prompted a comprehensive review of the methodology and image rectification techniques. Research has been conducted into: • Selecting the most appropriate Landsat 7 ETM+ Bands, • Developing new vegetation indices, • Adapting recent research into soil colour and brightness indices, • Developing a new Foliage Projective Cover (FPC) Index, • Semi-automated cloud and cloud shadow masking, • Improving the radiometric registration of the imagery both spatially and temporally, • Improving the geometric rectification accuracy of the imagery. This research has generated an improved change detection methodology. It uses a decision tree classification of a simple three-band difference image. It incorporates the new Multiple Regression Vegetation Index (MRVI), a woody FPC index (Goulevitch et al 2002) and ETM+ Bands 2 and 5. The new change detection methodology eliminates the need to geographically stratify the imagery to reduce soil colour and brightness effects and reduces the amount of time taken to manually edit change classifications.
Cinacalcet is effective in relapses of secondary hyperparathyroidism after parathyroidectomy.

BACKGROUND Relapses of secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPTH) after parathyroidectomy (PTx) in haemodialysis patients are relatively frequent. Calcimimetics (cinacalcet HCl) offer a new therapeutic opportunity for their treatment. However, no data about the treatment with cinacalcet of relapses of SHPTH after PTx are available in literature. The aim of this single-centre prospective study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of cinacalcet in this high-risk category of patients. METHODS Twelve haemodialysis patients of our Dialysis Unit had a relapse of SHPTH after PTx, defined as serum levels of immunoreactive intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH)>300 pg/ml. They were stratified into a treatment group (the six patients having the highest serum levels of iPTH) and a control group (the remaining six patients): the former were treated for 6 months with a dose of cinacalcet ranging from 30 mg every other day to 60 mg a day; the latter continued to be administered the conventional treatment. Serum levels of albumin, iPTH, calcium (Ca), phosphate (P) and alkaline phosphatase were determined monthly. The treatment group included four cases of nodular hyperplasia and two cases of carcinoma of parathyroid glands, whereas the control group included four cases of nodular hyperplasia and two cases of diffuse hyperplasia. RESULTS At the start of the study, the six patients treated with cinacalcet showed a more severe picture of biochemical abnormalities when compared with the control patients. After 6 months of treatment, a statistically significant reduction in the serum levels of iPTH, Ca, P and CaxP product was obtained only in the patients treated with cinacalcet. Symptomatic episodes of hypocalcaemia (serum Ca<7.0 mg/dl) were observed in three patients of this group. The six patients undergoing the conventional treatment showed at 6 months a not significant decrease in the mean serum levels of iPTH and a not significant increase in the mean serum levels of Ca, P and CaxP product, when compared with the baseline values. CONCLUSIONS Our single-centre prospective study, even though small and of short duration, shows that cinacalcet is effective also in controlling relapses of SHPTH after PTx, thus representing a solid, and sometimes unique, therapeutic opportunity for this high-risk category of patients.
Ozone air pollution and ischaemic stroke occurrence: a case-crossover study in Nice, France

Objectives Relationship between low-level air pollution and stroke is conflicting. This study was conducted to document the relationship between outdoor air pollution and ischaemic stroke occurrence. Design Time-stratified case-crossover analysis. Setting University Hospital of Nice, France. Participants All consecutive patients with ischaemic stroke living in Nice admitted in the University Hospital of Nice (France) between January 2007 and December 2011. Main outcome measure Association (adjusted OR) between daily levels of outdoor pollutants (ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM10) and sulfur dioxide (SO2)) and ischaemic stroke occurrence. Results 1729 patients with ischaemic stroke (mean age: 76.1±14.0 years; men: 46.7%) were enrolled. No significant association was found between stroke occurrence and short-term effects of all pollutants tested. In stratified analysis, we observed significant associations only between recurrent (n=280) and large artery ischaemic stroke (n=578) onset and short-term effect of O3 exposure. For an increase of 10 µg/m3 of O3 level, recurrent stroke risk (mean D-1, D-2 and D-3 lag) was increased by 12.1% (95% CI 1.5% to 23.9%) and large artery stroke risk (mean D-3 and D-4 lag) was increased by 8% (95% CI 2.0% to 16.6%). Linear dose–response relationship for both subgroups was found. Conclusions Our results confirm the relationship between low-level O3 exposure and ischaemic stroke in high vascular risk subgroup with linear exposure–response relation, independently of other pollutants and meteorological parameters. The physiopathological processes underlying this association between ischaemic stroke and O3 exposure remain to be investigated.
Maintaining K-Anonymity against Incremental Updates

K-anonymity is a simple yet practical mechanismto protect privacy against attacks of re-identifying individuals by joining multiple public data sources. All existing methods achieving k-anonymity assume implicitly that the data objects to be anonymized are given once and fixed. However, in many applications, the real world data sources are dynamic. In this paper, we investigate the problem of maintaining k-anonymity against incremental updates, and propose a simple yet effective solution. We analyze how inferences from multiple releases may temper the k-anonymity of data, and propose the monotonic incremental anonymization property. The general idea is to progressively and consistently reduce the generalization granularity as incremental updates arrive. Our new approach guarantees the k-anonymity on each release, and also on the inferred table using multiple releases. At the same time, our new approach utilizes the more and more accumulated data to reduce the information loss.
Using the cognitive walkthrough for operating procedures

Y Your system's interface is great. The users love it. But if they don't use it correctly, bad things could happen. Maybe people's lives are at stake. So you add a set of operating procedures for users to follow in order to ensure that the outcomes are good. Generating plants, hospitals, and aircraft cockpits are examples of settings in which procedures are used to reduce risks to extremely low levels. For instance, air-traffic controllers have many procedures, including standard time intervals and a spatial pattern for visually scanning their screens. Or maybe you've developed a kiosk interface for the general public, perhaps to charge fees at a parking garage. The kiosk has step-by-step instructions for use stenciled on its front. Of course, even if things go terribly in following the instructions, no one will get hurt. But the garage owners could lose customers if they keep getting frustrated or lose money, and if people tend to get confused while using the system, an increasingly long line of waiting patrons may show their impatience. The step-by-step instructions constitute an operating procedure, and you hope you've got a good one. So how, absent extensive late-process usability testing, can you improve your system's operating procedures so that safety and effectiveness are increased? Jonathan Grudin observed [3] that the user's interface to a computer does not consist of only the hardware and software. From the user's point of view, the interface includes an assortment of associated elements in the context of use, including documentation , training, and advice from colleagues. From this perspective, you can view the interface of a computer as including the usual screens, buttons, and knobs, as well as other users present, training received, documentation provided, and operating procedures prescribed. Indeed, it turns out that the guiding of users through their interactions in a computer interface can largely be allocated either to the interface itself or to a set of associated procedures. This is what Guy Boy [1] called the interface-procedure duality. To take a simple example, if the stenciled instructions on the garage kiosk were displayed on a computer screen, it would ordinarily be considered part of the computer interface. Consider designing procedures and documentation for a new, text-based air-traffic 32 control communications system for aircraft to complement the current voice-based system. Figure 1 is an example of a typical draft procedure that I developed for this kind of " …
Explaining Branchingness Effects in Phrasal Phonology

A wide variety of languages have been shown to have phonological rules whose domains of application are larger than words but smaller than intonational phrases or utterances. Within the theory of prosodic phonology, such rules correspond to the level of the Phonological Phrase, and for convenience I will use the cover termphrasal rulesfor them. However, the goal of this paper is to show that these rules do not comprise a single uniform class, but rather have two distinct sets of properties, which are argued to correspond to two separate stages of domain specification. This treatment offers some explanation for whydifferent phrasal rules have different properties, and brings to light several correlations of potential interest that are otherwise obscured.
Calcium release in HSY cells conforms to a steady-state mechanism involving regulation of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor Ca2+ channel by luminal [Ca2+]

In many cell types, low concentrations of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) release only a portion of the intracellular IP3-sensitive Ca2+ store, a phenomenon known as "quantal" Ca2+ release. It has been suggested that this effect is a result of reduced activity of the IP3- dependent Ca2+ channel with decreasing calcium concentration within the IP3-sensitive store ([Ca2+]s). To test this hypothesis, the properties of IP3-dependent Ca2+ release in single saponin-permeabilized HSY cells were studied by monitoring [Ca2+]s using the Ca(2+)-sensitive fluorescent dye mag-fura-2. In permeabilized cells, blockade of the sarco/ER Ca(2+)-ATPase pump in stores partially depleted by IP3 induced further Ca2+ release via an IP3-dependent route, indicating that Ca2+ entry via the sarco/ER Ca(2+)-ATPase pump had been balanced by Ca2+ loss via the IP3-sensitive channel before pump inhibition. IP3- dependent Mn2+ entry, monitored via quenching of luminal mag-fura-2 fluorescence, was readily apparent in filled stores but undetectable in Ca(2+)-depleted stores, indicating markedly reduced IP3-sensitive channel activity in the latter. Also consistent with reduced responsiveness of Ca(2+)-depleted stores to IP3, the initial rate of refilling of these stores was unaffected by the presence of 0.3 microM IP3, a concentration that was clearly effective in eliciting Ca2+ release from filled stores. Analysis of the rate of Ca2+ release at various IP3 concentrations indicated a significant shift of the IP3 dose response toward higher [IP3] with decreasing [Ca2+]s. We conclude that IP3-dependent Ca2+ release in HSY cells is a steady-state process wherein Ca2+ efflux via the IP3 receptor Ca2+ channel is regulated by [Ca2+]s, apparently via changes in the sensitivity of the channel to IP3.
An evaluation of independent component analyses with an application to resting‐state fMRI

We examine differences between independent component analyses (ICAs) arising from different assumptions, measures of dependence, and starting points of the algorithms. ICA is a popular method with diverse applications including artifact removal in electrophysiology data, feature extraction in microarray data, and identifying brain networks in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). ICA can be viewed as a generalization of principal component analysis (PCA) that takes into account higher‐order cross‐correlations. Whereas the PCA solution is unique, there are many ICA methods–whose solutions may differ. Infomax, FastICA, and JADE are commonly applied to fMRI studies, with FastICA being arguably the most popular. Hastie and Tibshirani (2003) demonstrated that ProDenICA outperformed FastICA in simulations with two components. We introduce the application of ProDenICA to simulations with more components and to fMRI data. ProDenICA was more accurate in simulations, and we identified differences between biologically meaningful ICs from ProDenICA versus other methods in the fMRI analysis. ICA methods require nonconvex optimization, yet current practices do not recognize the importance of, nor adequately address sensitivity to, initial values. We found that local optima led to dramatically different estimates in both simulations and group ICA of fMRI, and we provide evidence that the global optimum from ProDenICA is the best estimate. We applied a modification of the Hungarian (Kuhn‐Munkres) algorithm to match ICs from multiple estimates, thereby gaining novel insights into how brain networks vary in their sensitivity to initial values and ICA method.
Troubles psychiques, discernement et passage à l'acte. Une difficulté méthodologique

L'abandon de la reference a la notion de demence au moment des faits au profit de celle de discernement trouve son origine dans le souci des cliniciens d'arriver a une responsabilisation accrue des personnes atteintes de troubles psychiques. Il s'avere que l'introduction dans le Code penal de la reference au discernement appelle une modification notable de la demarche clinique, specifique a l'expert judiciaire. Cela implique une approche renovee de l'etude des composants du discernement ainsi que l'appreciation de l'incidence de troubles psychiques eventuels au moment de la realisation des faits.
Hierarchical reduction and partition of hypergraph

In this paper, a hierarchical reduction method of hypergraphs is proposed. A macro-vertex in a reduced hypergraph corresponds to an edge of the original hypergraph, and thus a reduced hypergraph can provide a partition of a system. The reduction is realized by the iterations and the sequence of hierarchical reduction gives a sequence of hierarchical partitions. The proposed method allows to reduce and decompose the complexity of the system represented by hypergraphs.
Strategic Price Complexity in Retail Financial Markets

There is mounting empirical evidence to suggest that the law of one price is violated in retail financial markets: there is significant price dispersion even when products are homogeneous. Also, despite the large number of firms in the market, prices remain above marginal cost and may even rise as more firms enter. In a non-cooperative oligopoly pricing model, I show that these anomalies arise when firms add complexity to their price structures. Complexity increases the market power of the firms because it prevents some consumers from becoming knowledgeable about prices in the market. In the model, as competition increases, firms tend to add more complexity to their prices as a best response, rather than make their disclosures more transparent. Because this may substantially decrease consumer surplus in these markets, such practices have important welfare implications.
Institute of Physics Publishing Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering an Electromechanical Interpretation of Electrowetting

Electrowetting on dielectric-coated electrodes involves two independently observable phenomena: (i) the well-known voltage dependence of the apparent contact angle and (ii) a central electromechanical force that can be exploited to move and manipulate small liquid volumes on a substrate. The electromechanical force does not depend upon field-mediated changes of the contact angle; it is operative even if the liquid surface is constrained. Forces on liquid volumes may be determined using capacitance or the Maxwell stress tensor with no reference made to liquid surface profiles. According to this interpretation, a nonlinear mechanism manifesting a voltage threshold is responsible for both contact angle saturation and the observed clamping of the electromechanical force.
The Price of Differential Privacy for Online Learning

We design differentially private algorithms for the problem of online linear optimization in the full information and bandit settings with optimal $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{T})$ regret bounds. In the full-information setting, our results demonstrate that $\epsilon$-differential privacy may be ensured for free -- in particular, the regret bounds scale as $O(\sqrt{T})+\tilde{O}\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon}\right)$. For bandit linear optimization, and as a special case, for non-stochastic multi-armed bandits, the proposed algorithm achieves a regret of $\tilde{O}\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon}\sqrt{T}\right)$, while the previously known best regret bound was $\tilde{O}\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon}T^{\frac{2}{3}}\right)$.
A novel fast noise robust Vietnamese speech recognition applied for robot control

Most of researches on speech recognition in the world concentrate on improving the large vocabulary of the corpus. In real-time robot control by speech commands, speech recognition is usually no need very large vocabulary but the fast implementation and the noise robust is prerequisite. This study proposes a novel fast noise robust wavelet-based Vietnamese speech recognition applied for robot control. The experimental results of a robot control simulations built in Matlab show that our proposal is superior to the other conventional speech recognizers for Vietnamese speech corpus with clean and white noisy speech. In addition, the computation cost of our proposal is much lower than the others.
Neuro-mechanical determinants of repeated treadmill sprints - Usefulness of an “hypoxic to normoxic recovery” approach

To improve our understanding of the limiting factors during repeated sprinting, we manipulated hypoxia severity during an initial set and examined the effects on performance and associated neuro-mechanical alterations during a subsequent set performed in normoxia. On separate days, 13 active males performed eight 5-s sprints (recovery = 25 s) on an instrumented treadmill in either normoxia near sea-level (SL; FiO2 = 20.9%), moderate (MH; FiO2 = 16.8%) or severe normobaric hypoxia (SH; FiO2 = 13.3%) followed, 6 min later, by four 5-s sprints (recovery = 25 s) in normoxia. Throughout the first set, along with distance covered [larger sprint decrement score in SH (−8.2%) compared to SL (−5.3%) and MH (−7.2%); P < 0.05], changes in contact time, step frequency and root mean square activity (surface electromyography) of the quadriceps (Rectus femoris muscle) in SH exceeded those in SL and MH (P < 0.05). During first sprint of the subsequent normoxic set, the distance covered (99.6, 96.4, and 98.3% of sprint 1 in SL, MH, and SH, respectively), the main kinetic (mean vertical, horizontal, and resultant forces) and kinematic (contact time and step frequency) variables as well as surface electromyogram of quadriceps and plantar flexor muscles were fully recovered, with no significant difference between conditions. Despite differing hypoxic severity levels during sprints 1–8, performance and neuro-mechanical patterns did not differ during the four sprints of the second set performed in normoxia. In summary, under the circumstances of this study (participant background, exercise-to-rest ratio, hypoxia exposure), sprint mechanical performance and neural alterations were largely influenced by the hypoxia severity in an initial set of repeated sprints. However, hypoxia had no residual effect during a subsequent set performed in normoxia. Hence, the recovery of performance and associated neuro-mechanical alterations was complete after resting for 6 min near sea level, with a similar fatigue pattern across conditions during subsequent repeated sprints in normoxia.
Conserved pathways within bacteria and yeast as revealed by global protein network alignment

We implement a strategy for aligning two protein–protein interaction networks that combines interaction topology and protein sequence similarity to identify conserved interaction pathways and complexes. Using this approach we show that the protein–protein interaction networks of two distantly related species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Helicobacter pylori, harbor a large complement of evolutionarily conserved pathways, and that a large number of pathways appears to have duplicated and specialized within yeast. Analysis of these findings reveals many well characterized interaction pathways as well as many unanticipated pathways, the significance of which is reinforced by their presence in the networks of both species.
THE LIMITS OF HEALTH SURVEYS FOR CONTEXTUAL OR MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS

medical sociology race has become one of the standard bases for dividing the US population. While, the approaches to explaining health differences between white and African-Americans are diverse the dominant perspectives in these disciplines have looked to differences in individual characteristics including differences in education, income, family organization, work history, and personal habits such as smoking, drinking and consumer tastes. In most, but not all, of these 7, 8