Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A faster color-based clustering method for summarizing photos in smartphone

Many people use smartphones which feature cameras and large storage capacities. They have comfortable features that allow the recording of daily life and encourage them to take hundreds of photos. However, their limited screen sizes cause browsing problems with large photo set. In addition, organizing photos by manual is a hard and tediuous work. Therefore, a way to classify photos to events and a better visualization method are needed. Much research has automatically classified photos to easily present and manage collections. However, most algorithm were designed for computers, not for smartphones which have limited computing power. This paper describes a fast and lightweight spatial clustering method to summarize and visualize smartphone photos by event. We defined a nearly identical photos which are taken by people in order to get better quality photos. These photos do not need to visualize duplicately since they show same event. We calculated each photo's similarity and focused on eliminating inefficient steps to measure it. The CIELAB color space was selected to accurately measure color differences and quantize colors. We extracted nearly identical photos and cut events by optimal matching with each photo's color histogram. Our method changed the color quantization technique and accelerated clustering speed by >;20 while retaining precision and recall.
Calcium Urolithiasis, Blood Pressure and Salt Intake

Objectives: To determine whether stone-formers have higher BP than controls drawn from the general population and matched for age, sex and ethnic origin and to compare the relationship between sodium and calcium excretion in the two groups. Patients and Methods: Thirty-six patients [mean (±standard deviation, SD) = 49.0 ± 11.7 years; range 27-70 years] with kidney or ureteric stones and 108 controls (mean age of 49.6 ± 6.8 years; range 39-61 years), matched for gender, ethnic origin and age group were studied. Patients and controls underwent physical measurements, a venous blood sample and they were asked to collect a 24-h urine sample for sodium, potassium, calcium and creatinine. Results: Stone-formers were significantly heavier and had higher BP than age-, sex- and ethnic-matched population controls. Whilst the difference in systolic BP was independent of the difference in body mass index [16.8 mmHg (7.2-26.4 mmHg), p = 0.001), the difference in diastolic BP was attenuated after adjustment for body mass [1.8 (-3.4 to 7.1), p = 0.49]. Stone-formers passed less urine than controls [-438 ml/day (95% CI -852 to -25), p = 0.038]. They had higher urinary calcium than controls [+3.7 mmol/day (2.8-4.6 mmol/day), p < 0.001], even when expressed as ratio to creatinine [+0.20 (0.11-0.29), p < 0.001]. Sodium excretion was positively associated with urinary calcium in both stone-formers and in controls. The slopes were comparable (0.92 vs 0.98 mmol Ca/100 mmol Na) so that for any level of sodium excretion (or salt intake), stone-formers had a higher calcium excretion than controls. Conclusions: In stone-formers, the BP is higher than in controls. Stone-formers excrete more calcium than controls do. In stone-formers and controls, the relationship between urinary sodium and calcium is similar. Since this relationship results from an effect of sodium on calcium, a reduction in salt intake may be a useful method of reducing urinary calcium excretion in stone-formers. However, the "relative" hypercalciuria seen in stone-formers is independent of salt intake and may well reflect an underlying genetic predisposition.
College Students’ Likelihood of “no-showing” for an Initial Hypothetical Counseling Appointment

ABSTRACT Using a vignette methodology, we examined college students’ likelihood of “no-showing” for a hypothetical initial appointment for counseling. Participants in a low level of distress condition were less likely to attend their appointment as compared to those in a high distress condition. Knowing they would see a male therapist and not knowing what counseling entails strongly influenced participants’ decision to not attend their appointment. We discuss the research and clinical implications of our findings.
Life without Foreclosures Adair Morse UC Berkeley and NBER

What happens to the availability of home loans if the contracts no longer allow for foreclosures? Using a natural experiment that halted foreclosures of homes, we apply a difference-indifferences test using the loan supply of collateralized car loans as a counterfactual. We find a price effect of at least 42-80 basis points increase in loan rates. The supply effect, is much larger. Our baseline estimate is that lenders reject an additional 30% of applicants. We also find a more than 30% increase in probability of default after the law was enacted. Finally we document a steep jump in modification rates. The ratio of loan modifications go from less than 2% of the loans in default, to more than 16% after the moratorium. These modifications are favorable to the lenders as they offer not only higher duration but also lower rates. Our results on modifications provide new evidence to resolve the puzzle of why lenders do not modify loans: lenders are unwilling to weaked or erode the credibility of the threat of foreclosures that inhibits moral hazard in repayments.
High Performance Commodity Network

As commodity workstations become faster with increases in processor technology, the need for higher performance network interfaces becomes more pressing. While current commodity network interface cards provide ample bandwidth for bulk data transfers, the latency imposed on small messages can be large. However, to attempt to harness the potential compute power of a cluster of workstations at commodity prices, attention must be paid to the way in which the nodes are interconnected. The high latency incurred by standard protocol stacks on commodity hardware makes clusters of workstations appropriate only for problems that exhibit extremely high computation to communication ratios. Projects such as GAMMA from the University of Genoa 8] have shown that by reducing the operating system overhead, the latency associated with communications can be signiicantly reduced, even on commodity hardware. Other projects, such as Myricom's Myrinet 6], and DEC/Compaq's Memory Channel 14], show that a different network interface architecture can also yield significant performance gains. By taking advantage of modern, high performance, highly integrated microcontrollers, future network card designs could realize even higher performance through lower operating system overhead and more capable network interfaces. 1 Introduction In recent years, the interest in achieving high performance computing on networks of workstations 2] has grown, as the power of commodity processors has increased. Even though processors continue to increase in performance as predicted by Moore's Law, the price of machines has dropped, making the cost-eeectiveness of cluster computing, as measured in compute performance per dollar spent, increase even faster. However, to exploit the high performance potential of modern processors, it is necessary to nd a way to interconnect the processing elements so that they may communicate ef-ciently to work together on large problems. In a custom designed highly parallel computer, a signiicant portion of time and resources goes into the design of the interconnec
Performance analysis of FMAC in wireless sensor networks

The set of different sensor nodes randomly deployed in sensor area to capture the environmental changes. Sensor nodes are working with specific routing and MAC Protocols in the network. Performance of the network is depends upon the network traffic and congestion in the network. Throughput, latency, loss ratio, delivery ratio, energy consumption, reliability are the QoS of the sensor network that has to considered for performance of WSN. In this paper performance of the different MAC protocols like CSMA, TDMA, 802.15. 4 and FMAC for different node density is included. Effect of traffic and congestion on performance of the network is also tested. Behavior of different MAC for heavy traffic load and congestion is checked. Results are taken using NS2 simulation tool for various QoS in WSN.
The Relationship of Internalized Homonegativity to Sexual Health and Well-Being Among Men in 38 European Countries Who Have Sex With Men

The objective of this article is to examine internalized homonegativity (IH) in relation to aspects of well-being and several measures of clinical importance among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in 38 countries. The data were collected as part of the EMIS project. The multivariable regression analysis identified independent associations with IH for nongay identity, younger age, being closeted, limited gay social affiliation, and sexual unhappiness. IH was also positively associated with loneliness, inability to decline unwanted sex, and being less knowledgeable about HIV and HIV testing. These results provide evidence that homonegative internalization merits consideration as a predisposing factor in several aspects of ill health. There are also several clinical implications of this project, including: (1) Treatment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons should address gay self-acceptance, as internalized homonegativity seems to be a predisposing factor in several aspects of ill health among this population, and (2) therapy that is used to help LGB persons accept and integrate a gay or lesbian identity seems particularly important for younger, nongay identified persons.
Simulation of a microstrip antenna array conformal to a conical surface

Conformal arrays have important application whenever an antenna must be located on a curved surface, be it the kin of a missile, an RPV or air-craft, or the nose of an artillery round or re-entry vehicle. In today's electronic communications technologies, conformal array antenna occupied a very important position. A model of a microstrip antenna array which located on a conical surface is presented in this paper. The designed parameters of the antenna array and the feed network were shown firstly. Then simulated results on HFSS and contrasted to it on a plane, the slightly increased operation frequency was observed, the harmonic wave had been restrained. We used three substrates in the simulation, where the different thickness were h=1.0, 1.5, 2.0mm respectively.
Lost in translation: an assessment and perspective for computational microRNA target identification

UNLABELLED MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short endogenously expressed RNA molecules that regulate gene expression by binding directly to the messenger RNA of protein coding genes. They have been found to confer a novel layer of genetic regulation in a wide range of biological processes. Computational miRNA target prediction remains one of the key means used to decipher the role of miRNAs in development and disease. Here we introduce the basic idea behind the experimental identification of miRNA targets and present some of the most widely used computational miRNA target identification programs. The review includes an assessment of the prediction quality of these programs and their combinations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Contour Detection of Gradient Images Using Morphological Operator and Transform Domain Filtering

In this work, an improved computational approach based on gradient image and transform domain filtering has been proposed. The proposed technique effectively detects contours of objects while suppressing the low frequency edges in natural scene images. To accomplish this, a novel morphological operator has been designed which generates the gradient image. This image is filtered using transform domain filtering by spectrum distribution of low frequency edges and contours. The proposed approach can effectively detect contours of objects and able to reduce irrelevant information generated from background with textures. The results of qualitative evaluation clearly validate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Evidence of functional mossy fiber sprouting in hippocampal formation of kainic acid-treated rats

In the rat hippocampal formation, degeneration of CA4-derived afferent fibers provokes the growth of mossy fiber collaterals into the fascia dentata. These aberrant fibers subsequently form granule cell-granule cell synapses. The hippocampal slice preparation was employed to determine whether these recurrent connections are electrophysiologically functional. Hippocampal slices were prepared 12 to 21 days after the bilateral destruction of CA4 neurons with either intracerebroventricular or intravenous kainic acid (KA). In slices from control rats, antidromic stimulation of the mossy fibers elicited a single population spike in the granular layer of the fascia dentata. In contrast, when slices from some KA-treated rats were similarly tested, antidromic stimulation elicited multiple population spikes. This effect was not reproduced by blocking inhibitory transmission with bicuculline methiodide. Slices from other KA-treated rats fired a single population spike, but an antidromic conditioning volley increased the amplitude of a subsequent antidromic population spike by 5 to 15%. In slices from control rats, on the other hand, an antidromic conditioning volley always either decreased or failed to alter the amplitude of an antidromic test response. Superfusion with Ca2+-free medium containing 3.8 mM Mg2+ reversibly abolished all effects of KA administration. Abnormal responses to antidromic stimulation correlated with the loss of CA4 neurons and the growth of supragranular mossy fiber collaterals in the same animals. These results suggest that supragranular mossy fiber collateral sprouts form a functional recurrent excitatory circuit. These aberrant connections may further compromise hippocampal function already disrupted by neuronal degeneration, such as by facilitating seizure activity.
(Re)Imagining Uganda Postcolony in Moses Isegawa’s Abyssinian Chronicles

Colonialism and its legacy continue to inspire a lot of debate among literary critics and theorists. Moses Isegawa’s novel, Abyssinian Chronicles , weaves interconnecting personal narratives which help illuminate the larger national stories of the postcolony nation-state, Uganda. The novel, through gendered narrativization, tells stories that represent Uganda’s socio-economic, cultural and political postcolonial state. Through close reading and critical analysis, this paper focuses on (re)construction of the postcolony by relying on the memory of the gendered subjectivities in the story. The chapter directs us to narratological, post-colonial and feminist literary critiques in which the narrative demonstrates its repudiations of stereotypes and reconfigurations of gender identities as part of an agent undertaking to recover the distinctive tradition of both the African man and woman.
The KLE's Subtopic Mining System for the NTCIR-11 IMine Task

This paper describes our subtopic mining system for the NTCIR-11 IMine task. We propose a method that mines second-level subtopics using simple patterns and a hierarchical structure of subtopic candidates based on sets of relevant documents, and combine the provided resources considering their characteristics. Our system generates firstlevel subtopics using keywords in second-level subtopics, and groups the results by word correlation.
Genetically modified Pseudomonas associated with plants: aspects for environmental risk assessment

Front cover: Double staining of P. syringae Cit7sp using FITC and CTC stains. In epi-fluorescence microscopy using 450-480 nm exciter filter and 515 nm barrier filter, cells stained green by FITC and respiring cells contained intracellular yellow CTC-formazan crystals. Original publications This thesis is based on the following publications, which in the text are referred to by their Roman numerals. High frequency of conjugation versus plasmid segregation of RP1 in epiphytic Pseudomonas syringae populations. Colonization strategies and conjugal gene transfer of inoculated Pseudomonas syringae on the leaf surface. The papers I-III are reprinted by kind permission from the publishers. Abbreviations ANOVA analysis of variance Ap ampicillin CCD coupled charged device CFU colony forming unit CLPP community level physiological profiles CTC 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium DGGE denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis EU European Union FITC fluorescein isothiocyanate GM genetically modified GMO genetically modified organism Hg mercury IPTG isopropylthiogalactoside kb kilobase pair Km kanamycin Nal nalidixic acid OECD Organisation for economic cooperation and development PCR polymerase chain reaction RFLP restriction fragment length polymorhpism Rif rifampicin Sp spectinomycin Tc tetracycline UPGMA unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means VBNC viable but non-culturable SUMMARY Bacteria belonging to the genus Pseudomonas can be used as biological control agents in association with plants, for protection against plant diseases or frost damage. Biological control is considered to be more environmentally friendly than the use of traditional chemical agents. In planned commercial products, there is however, often a need to improve the used bacterial strains by genetic engineering techniques. Because little is known about the behaviour and impact of introduced genetically modified bacteria in the environment, legislation requires a risk assessment to be performed, proving the strain to be safe to use, before genetically modified bacteria are allowed to be released into the environment. In this work, the survival and impact of introduced Pseudomonas bacteria were studied in two habitats likely to be the target for future biological plant protecting agents; the leaf surface and the roots. The bacteria were genetically modified by tagging with marker genes to facilitate monitoring. Experiments were performed in laboratory setups mimicking environmental conditions. Introduced Pseudomonas bacteria survived on the leaf surface regardless of the prevailing humidity. In soil and in the root system of birch, the introduced bacteria did not survive as large populations. In particular, at high soil temperatures, the bacteria disappeared when measured by plating techniques, but were detected using molecular techniques. This …
Mycoflora and deoxynivalenol in whole wheat grains (Triticum aestivum L.) from Southern Brazil

The fungal species Fusarium graminearum is related to deoxynivalenol (DON) formation. The aim of this study was to evaluate mycoflora and DON occurrence in 53 whole wheat grain samples collected in Southern Brazil during the 2012 crop. Wheat grains showed adequate values of water activity ranging from 0.48 to 0.72, within the required limits of moisture content, ranging from 9.1% to 13.9%. In addition, low counts of fungal colonies, ranging from 10 to 8.2 × 102, were found. For Fusarium genera, there was predominance of Fusarium verticillioides (34%) and F graminearum (30.2%). For Aspergillus species, 37.7% of Aspergillus flavus was determined. Regarding the Penicillium species, Penicillium digitatum (49%) was the most found species. DON was detected in 47.2% (25 out of 53) of the samples analysed, with levels ranging from 243.7 to 2281.3 µg kg−1 (mean: 641.9 µg kg−1).
Modeling of Multirate Input and Output Networked Control System

Asynchronous multirate sampling is a natural description for networked control system (NCS), while current research status on NCS has only focused on time-delay, data-packet loss, single-packet transmission, multiple-packets transmission, or their combinations. In this article, we will discuss modeling problem of NCS and then obtain an NCS model, which will take not only network-induced time-delay, but also asynchronous multirate sampling into account. We will only consider two kinds of asynchronous multirate NCS, i.e. multirate input and output NCS (MRINCS and MRONCS). And obvious advantages, e.g. MRINCS can improve control ability of digital controller and MRONCS can obtain more information about the plant and further increase control ability, will be seen from these two kinds of NCS.
An Ensemble of Cooperative Genetic Algorithms as an Intelligent Search Tool

Evolutionary algorithms become very popular due to their searching skill in a solution space. The problem arises when we try to adjust used genetic operators and parameters. In literature one can find various, often sophisticated new ge- netic operators, specific for the particular task. In the proposed method a user can use a number of cooperating and specialized genetic algorithms with simple genetic operators and presumed parameters, but an intelligent agent takes care of tuning the pa- rameters. The agent tunes parameters dynamically on the basis of observed results. We have defined a number of measures used bytheagentasinputsforafuzzycontrolsystem. Thesetoffuzzy rules can be defined using experts'knowledge. The main advantage of the proposed system is releasing of GAs usersfromonerousduty-thedeterminationofgeneticoperators and values of their parameters. It is usually a time consuming task requiring extensive experience. The proposed system is flexible enough to solve the problems which potential solution can be represented as a string of real values. The paper presents the initial studies as well as the final propo- sition: GAAgent, an ensemble of cooperating genetic algorithms controlled by a set of fuzzy rules. The exemplary results are presented and discussed.
Similarities and Differences in Victimization Risk Factors for Nonoffending and Offending Substance Users

ABSTRACT In this cross-sectional study of substance users in Norway, the authors describe the patterns of victimization and investigate the factors associated with victimization, for nonoffenders and offenders separately. Recent victimization was reported by 59%, and the victimization rate was higher among offenders compared with nonoffenders (69% and 43%, p < .001). Women, regardless of offender status, experienced more victimization. Unstable housing was associated with victimization among nonoffenders, whereas markers for more severe substance use and indicators for poor mental health were associated with victimization in both groups. Addressing these factors may be important in reducing victimization and its negative outcomes among substance users.
Type 2 Diabetes Family Histories, Body Composition and Fasting Glucose Levels: A Cross-Section Analysis in Healthy Sedentary Male and Female

Background: Diabetes type 2 is a world wide spread disease with a multifactorial pathogenetic evolution. Various factors like obesity, physical inactivity and poor lifestyle habits contribute to its development. The aim of this study was to verify if in young healthy sedentary male and female there is positive correlation between family history to type 2 diabetes and an increase in body weight and fat mass, or alterations in basal glycemia values. Methods: Totally183 male and 237 female healthy sedentary subjects were analysed in 2012, in Italy. They were divided in three groups: FH+ with first degree family history, FH++ with second degree family history and FH− with no family history. Anthropometrics, body composition and blood parameters were assessed. Results: Male had the highest BMI values (P<0.01). FH+ and FH++ had increased waist and hip circumferences and body weight (P<0.005 for men, P<0.0001 for women), body mass index (P< 0.0001 in both sexes), waist-hip ratio (P< 0.05 for men and women) and triceps skinfold (P< 0.0005 for both sexes). Obesity incidence was higher in FH+ and FH++ compared to control groups. Conclusions: The study confirms family history to diabetes type 2 as a risk factor for the development of the illness, mainly in a case of first degree of FH. Preventive interventions are necessary to promote significant life-style changes, such as increased physical activity and controlled quantity and quality of food intake.