Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An overview of artificial intelligence in diabetic retinopathy and other ocular diseases

Artificial intelligence (AI), also known as machine intelligence, is a branch of science that empowers machines using human intelligence. AI refers to the technology of rendering human intelligence through computer programs. From healthcare to the precise prevention, diagnosis, and management of diseases, AI is progressing rapidly in various interdisciplinary fields, including ophthalmology. Ophthalmology is at the forefront of AI in medicine because the diagnosis of ocular diseases heavy reliance on imaging. Recently, deep learning-based AI screening and prediction models have been applied to the most common visual impairment and blindness diseases, including glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), and diabetic retinopathy (DR). The success of AI in medicine is primarily attributed to the development of deep learning algorithms, which are computational models composed of multiple layers of simulated neurons. These models can learn the representations of data at multiple levels of abstraction. The Inception-v3 algorithm and transfer learning concept have been applied in DR and ARMD to reuse fundus image features learned from natural images (non-medical images) to train an AI system with a fraction of the commonly used training data (<1%). The trained AI system achieved performance comparable to that of human experts in classifying ARMD and diabetic macular edema on optical coherence tomography images. In this study, we highlight the fundamental concepts of AI and its application in these four major ocular diseases and further discuss the current challenges, as well as the prospects in ophthalmology.
The 3-dimensional oscillon equation

On a bounded three-dimensional smooth domain, we consider the generalized oscillon equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, with time-dependent damping and time-dependent squared speed of propagation. Under structural assumptions on the damping and the speed of propagation, which include the relevant physical case of reheating phase of inflation, we establish the existence of a pullback global attractor of optimal regularity, and finite-dimensionality of the kernel sections.
Integrating energy in the conceptual design stage to optimize building form

In architecture, Integrated Energy Design (IED) entails considering energy during each design phase, especially in the early design stage. The form of a building is an important factor in this stage due to its considerable impact on energy consumption. Finding the optimal form is a time-consuming process, and computational design techniques can help designers to facilitate this process and achieve a design solution with acceptable performance in terms of CO2 emission. Moreover, the surrounding buildings, trees and urban elements can affect the energy and daylight of the project by casting shadows. Considering all these elements throughout the design process can be very demanding and take several working days. Today, digital tools make it possible to parametrically analyze morphological characteristics of buildings to identify the most efficient solution. The present study proposes an environmental-simulation based design workflow to be used in the early design stage to determine the building’s form parameters (height, angle,.) in a given urban area based on the weather data and the surrounding context. This process is done by parametric design tools and environmental simulations in Rhino3D®, Grasshopper®, and ladybug Tools®. The typical Norwegian cabin’s form parameters are applied in the visual coding program (Grasshopper®) to generate the initial geometry for optimization. Due to the great effect of the energy consumption on the CO2 emission, minimizing energy, maximizing thermal comfort and the sky view percentage were the main objectives. To test the workflow the weather data of Tromsø (Norway) and 3d model of the surrounding context of a design location was applied as inputs. The output of this application was several building’s form alternatives for that specific location. This study showed using the digital tools and parametric design thinking can help the designers to apply the climatic data in the design process to narrow down the design solutions.
Starting conversations with new customers: a research note on the moderating effect of experience on responses to small talk

Abstract In this research note, we explore when salespeople should begin conversations with new customers with small talk. During initial meetings with customers, salespeople can choose to begin with small talk about topics not related to the task to break the ice or they can move straight to business and provide task-relevant information. Both approaches have garnered some support from different literature streams, and it remains unclear which approach is best. In two experiments with 399 and 365 respondents respectively, we compare customers’ responses to small talk versus task talk initiated by salespeople during an initial meeting. We consider whether the customer’s previous level of experience with the offering category moderates the effects and explore an explanatory mechanism for why this occurs. Findings indicate that customers’ responses to small talk versus task talk vary depending on their level of experience. When the salesperson starts with small talk, novice customers’ intentions to do business with the salesperson increase because small talk makes them feel more comfortable. We conclude that salespeople should consider a customers’ level of experience and adapt their communication tactics accordingly.
A 24 GHz CMOS Direct-Conversion RF Receiver with I/Q Mismatch Calibration for Radar Sensor Applications

A 24 GHz millimeter-wave direct-conversion radio-frequency (RF) receiver with wide-range and precise I/Q mismatch calibration is designed in 65 nm CMOS technology for radar sensor applications. The CMOS RF receiver is based on a quadrature direct-conversion architecture. Analytic relations are derived to clearly exhibit the individual contributions of the I/Q amplitude and phase mismatches to the image-rejection ratio (IRR) degradation, which provides a useful design guide for determining the range and resolution of the I/Q mismatch calibration circuit. The designed CMOS RF receiver comprises a low-noise amplifier, quadrature down-conversion mixer, baseband amplifier, and quadrature LO generator. Controlling the individual gate bias voltages of the switching FETs in the down-conversion mixer having a resistive load is found to induce significant changes at the amplitude and phase of the output signal. In the calibration process, the mixer gate bias tuning is first performed for the amplitude mismatch calibration, and the remaining phase mismatch is then calibrated out by the varactor capacitance tuning at the LO buffer’s LC load. Implemented in 65 nm CMOS process, the RF receiver achieves 31.5 dB power gain, −35.2 dBm input-referred 1 dB compression power, and 4.8–7.1 dB noise figure across 22.5–26.1 GHz band, while dissipating 106.2 mA from a 1.2 V supply. The effectiveness of the proposed I/Q mismatch calibration is successfully verified by observing that the amplitude and phase mismatches are improved from 1.0–1.5 dB to 0.02–0.19 dB, and from 10.8–23.8 to 1.1–3.2 degrees, respectively.
A Nash game approach to mixed H/sub 2//H/sub /spl infin// control

The established theory of nonzero sum games is used to solve a mixed H/sub 2//H/sub /spl infin//, control problem. Our idea is to use the two pay-off functions associated with a two-player Nash game to represent the H/sub 2/ and H/sub /spl infin// criteria separately. We treat the state-feedback problem and we find necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution. Both the finite and infinite time problems are considered. In the infinite horizon case we present a full stability analysis. The resulting controller is a constant state-feedback law, characterized by the solution to a pair of cross-coupled Riccati equations, which may be solved using a standard numerical integration procedure. We begin our development by considering strategy sets containing linear controllers only. At the end of the paper we broaden the strategy sets to include a class of nonlinear controls. It turns out that this extension has no effect on the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution or on the nature of the controllers. >
Signal-to-noise properties of correlation plenoptic imaging with chaotic light

Correlation Plenoptic Imaging (CPI) is a novel imaging technique, that exploits the correlations between the intensity fluctuations of light to perform the typical tasks of plenoptic imaging (namely, refocusing out-of-focus parts of the scene, extending the depth of field, and performing 3D reconstruction), without entailing a loss of spatial resolution. Here, we consider two different CPI schemes based on chaotic light, both employing ghost imaging: the first one to image the object, the second one to image the focusing element. We characterize their noise properties in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and compare their performances. We find that the SNR can be significantly higher and easier to control in the second CPI scheme, involving standard imaging of the object; under adequate conditions, this scheme enables reducing by one order of magnitude the number of frames for achieving the same SNR.
Impact of social influence on users' continuance intention toward sports and fitness applications

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social influence (SI), which is disaggregated into subjective norms (SN), social image (SIM), and social identity (SID), predicts perceived usefulness (PU), perceived pleasure (PP), and continuance intention (CI) toward sports and fitness applications. The underlying context is the socialization and gamification of exercise during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the theory of SI and the technology acceptance model, a theoretical framework was built where PU and PP mediate the influence of SI on CI, and proposed hypotheses were tested. The responses of 296 Keep users (a popular sports and fitness application in China) to a questionnaire survey were analyzed. SN and SIM were found to have significant positive effects on SID; SID has significant positive effects on PU and PP; both PU and PP have significant positive effects on the CI of users; SID and PU positively and significantly mediate the relationship between SN/SIM and CI; PU positively and significantly mediates the SID-CI relationship. However, the role of PP in mediating the influence of SI on CI is non-significant. This paper deepens the current understanding of the mechanisms that influence the relationship between SI and CI under the context of socialization and gamification services.
Four-Fermion Theories with Exact Chiral Symmetry in Three Dimensions

We investigate a class of four-fermion theories which includes well-known models like the Gross-Neveu model and the Thirring model. In three spacetime dimensions, they are used to model interesting solid state systems like high temperature superconductors and graphene. Additionally, they serve as toy models to study chiral symmetry breaking (CSB). For any number of fermion flavours the Gross-Neveu model has a broken and a symmetric phase, while the existence of a broken phase in the Thirring model depends on the number of flavours. The critical number of fermion flavours beyond which there exists no CSB is still subject of ongoing discussions. Using SLAC fermions we simulate the Thirring model with exact chiral symmetry. To obtain a chiral condensate one can introduce a symmetry-breaking mass term and carefully study the limits of infinite lattice and zero-mass. So far, we did not see CSB within this approach for the Thirring model with 2 or more (reducible) flavours. The talk presents alternative approaches to investigate these findings. We employ certain Fierz identities to map the Thirring model into equivalent four-fermion models, for which the chiral condensate does not seem to vanish. In the new formulations based on reshuffled degrees of freedom we find a sign problem (which is not present in the original formulation). For this reason we developed an algorithm similar to fermion bags, which may solve this problem. As a further approach, we embed the multi-flavour Thirring model in a larger class of four-fermion theories to study the chiral symmetry and its breaking in a wider context.
The Enrollment of Racially Minoritized Students in Law School: Factors Predicting Within-School Changes Over Time

ABSTRACT Given the substantial lack of racial diversity within the U.S. legal profession, it is important to understand how to improve the representation of racially minoritized students at law schools. This study uses panel data from the 2010s to consider several types of factors that may shape the number and percentage of incoming law school students from several racially minoritized groups: finances (regarding financial aid and cost of attendance), demographic representation (of current students, faculty, and community members), and rankings (from U.S. News). The results of fixed effects analyses revealed that increases in the representation of Latinx and Asian students as well as Faculty of Color predict subsequent decreases in the percentage of incoming racially minoritized students, which suggests that law schools’ efforts to recruit racially minoritized students may depend on recent changes in student and faculty representation. Moreover, increases in the ingroup racial representation within the state (in which the law school is primarily housed) and U.S. News rankings are both associated with greater subsequent numbers of incoming Black and Latinx law students; the provision of conditional scholarships and the combined total of tuition and fees are also significant predictors. These findings have salient implications for policy and practice.
Chemical analysis of very metal-poor turn-off stars from SDSS-DR12

Context. The most metal-poor stars are the relics of the early chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Their chemical composition is an important tool to constrain the nucleosynthesis in the first generation of stars. The aim is to observe a sample of extremely metal-poor star (EMP stars) candidates selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12) and determine their chemical composition. Aims. We obtain medium resolution spectra of a sample of six stars using the X-shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and we used ATLAS models to compute the abundances. Methods. Five stars of the sample have a metallicity [Fe/H] between −2.5 dex and −3.2 dex. We confirm the recent discovery of SDSS J002314.00+030758.0 as a star with an extremely low [Fe/H] ratio. Assuming the α-enhancement [Ca/Fe] = +0.4 dex, we obtain [Fe/H] = −6.1 dex. Results. We could also determine its magnesium abundance and found that this star exhibits a very high ratio [Mg/Fe]≤ +3.60 dex assuming [Fe/H] = −6.13 dex. We determined the carbon abundance and found A(C) = 6.4 dex. From this carbon abundance, this stars belongs to the lower band of the A(C)–[Fe/H] diagram.
An estimate assay for low-level exposure to ionizing radiation based on mass spectrometry quantification of γ-H2AX in human peripheral blood lymphocytes

Exposure to environmental ionizing radiation (IR) is ubiquitous, and large-dose exposure to IR is known to cause DNA damage and genotoxicity which is associated with an increased risk of cancer. Whether such detrimental effects are caused by exposure to low-dose IR is still debated. Therefore, rapid and early estimation of absorbed doses of IR in individuals, especially at low levels, using radiation response markers is a pivotal step for early triage during radiological incidents to provide adequate and timely clinical interventions. However, there is currently a crucial shortage of methods capable of determining the extent of low-dose IR exposure to human beings. The phosphorylation of histone H2AX on serine 139 (designated γ-H2AX), a classic biological dosimeter, can be used to evaluate the DNA damage response. We have developed an estimation assay for low-level exposure to IR based on the mass spectrometry quantification of γ-H2AX in blood. Human peripheral blood lymphocytes sensitive to low-dose IR, maintaining low temperature (4°C) and adding enzyme inhibitor are proven to be key steps, possibly insuring that a stable and marked γ-H2AX signal in blood cells exposed to low-dose IR could be detected. For the first time, DNA damage at low dose exposures to IR as low as 0.01 Gy were observed using the sensitive variation of γ-H2AX with high throughput mass spectrometry quantification in human peripheral blood, which is more accurate than the previously reported methods by virtue of isotope-dilution mass spectrometry, and can observe the time effect of DNA damage. These in vitro cellular dynamic monitoring experiments show that DNA damage occurred rapidly and then was repaired slowly over the passage of post-irradiation time even after exposure to very low IR doses. This assay was also used to assess different radiation exposures at the in vitro cellular level. These results demonstrate the potential utility of this assay in radiation biodosimetry and environmental risk assessment.
The effect of hand-held weights on vertical take-off velocity during a countermovement jump

THE EFFECT OF HAND-HELD WEIGHTS ON VERTICAL TAKE-OFF VELOCITY DURING A COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect that 2 lb and 5 lb hand-held weights had on vertical jump performance as assessed by vertical takeoff velocity. Secondary analyses were conducted to provide additional insight into the observed results. Thirty-one male athletes performed three countermovement jumps (CMJ) with an arm-swing under three different treatment conditions: holding a 2lb hand weight in each hand (CMJ2), holding a 5lb weight in each hand (CMJ5), and without holding onto any weight (CMJO). All jumps were performed on a forceplate, which permitted the calculation of vertical take-off velocity (vto), average force during the upward jump phase (avgforceup) and the duration of the upward jump phase (timeup). A repeated measures ANOV A was used to test for significant differences between the three treatment conditions for both the primary and secondary analyses. The primary analysis indicated that CMJ2 and CMJ 5 exhibited significantly greater take-off velocities and thus, jump heights, than CMJO. However, CMJ2 and CMJ5 were not significantly different from each other (p<0.05). The secondary analyses revealed that timeup was significantly greater between the three treatment conditions and that avgforceup decreased from CMJO to CMJ5. An increase in the duration of the upward jump phase appears to be the primary contributor in enhancing vertical jump height with hand weights. These results indicate that increases in vertical jump height can be facilitated by the use of optimized magnitudes of hand weights.
Science Majoring Background Modulates the Psychological Responses to Stress on Numerical Task

Numerical tasks have become part of the daily activities of individuals even in academic potential tests which have the potential to cause stress to individuals. The background of majoring in science is thought to be one of the factors that influence the individual's physiological response to stress when doing numerical tasks. This study aims to investigate whether there are differences in the final results and processing stages on numerical tasks between students majoring in science and social studies. A simple mathematical numerical task was given to participants to respond by adding numbers that were close to each other within a predetermined time limit. Twenty-two participants took the test twice with a one-week gap between tests. Recording of participants' electrodermal activity while working on a task using a galvanic meter. The results show that there is no difference in performance between students in majoring in social science and science (t = 0.552; p = 0.587), however, there are indications of different stress dynamics, where students in majoring in science show a positive effect of stress, while students in majoring in social science show the opposite. Further discussed the stress response on the difference in the frequency of meetings with numerical tasks during education at school.
Emergence of Long Period Antiferromagnetic Orders from Haldane Phase in S=1 Heisenberg Chains with D-Modulation

The effect of spatial modulation of the single-site anisotropy D on the ground state of the S =1 Heisenberg chains is investigated. In the case of period 2 modulation, it is found that the phase diagram contains the Haldane phase, large- D phase, Neel phase of udud-type and u0d0-type. It is shown that the hidden antiferromagnetic order in the Haldane phase compatible with the spatial modulation of D -term get frozen resulting in the emergence of various types of Neel orders. The investigation of the model with longer period D -modulation also confirms this picture.
Learning Cephalometric Landmarks for Diagnostic Features Using Regression Trees

Lateral cephalograms provide important information regarding dental, skeletal, and soft-tissue parameters that are critical for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. Several machine learning methods have previously been used for the automated localization of diagnostically relevant landmarks on lateral cephalograms. In this study, we applied an ensemble of regression trees to solve this problem. We found that despite the limited size of manually labeled images, we can improve the performance of landmark detection by augmenting the training set using a battery of simple image transforms. We further demonstrated the calculation of second-order features encoding the relative locations of landmarks, which are diagnostically more important than individual landmarks.
Evolution of LysM-RLK Gene Family in Wild and Cultivated Peanut Species

In legumes, a LysM-RLK perception of rhizobial lipo-chitooligosaccharides (LCOs) known as Nod factors (NFs), triggers a signaling pathway related to the onset of symbiosis development. On the other hand, activation of LysM-RLKs upon recognition of chitin-derived short-chitooligosaccharides initiates defense responses. In this work, we identified the members of the LysM-RLK family in cultivated (Arachis hypogaea L.) and wild (A. duranensis and A. ipaensis) peanut genomes, and reconstructed the evolutionary history of the family. Phylogenetic analyses allowed the building of a framework to reinterpret the functional data reported on peanut LysM-RLKs. In addition, the potential involvement of two identified proteins in NF perception and immunity was assessed by gene expression analyses. Results indicated that peanut LysM-RLK is a highly diverse family. Digital expression analyses indicated that some A. hypogaea LysM-RLK receptors were upregulated during the early and late stages of symbiosis. In addition, expression profiles of selected LysM-RLKs proteins suggest participation in the receptor network mediating NF and/or chitosan perception. The analyses of LysM-RLK in the non-model legume peanut can contribute to gaining insight into the molecular basis of legume–microbe interactions and to the understanding of the evolutionary history of this gene family within the Fabaceae.
Cueing motion blur for registration of inclined planar scenes

Existing image registration methods that work in the presence of motion blur assume the scene to be fronto-parallel. In this work, we extend the state-of-the-art by cueing motion blur itself to infer plane inclination. This is achieved by matching extremities of blur kernels computed at different locations in the image. Because these extremities correspond to the same homography, we show that it is possible to find the orientation. Following this, we propose a registration method that reorients the source image to the target plane within a reblur-difference framework to detect the actual changes.