Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient HDTV and 3DTV Services over DVB-T2 using multiple PLPs with layered media

The high bit rates of high-definition or 3D-services require a huge share of the valuable terrestrial spectrum, especially when targeting wide coverage areas. This article describes how to provide future services with the state-of-the-art digital terrestrial TV technology DVB-T2 in a flexible and cost-efficient way. The combination of layered media such as the scalable and 3D extension of the H.264/AVC or emerging H.265/HEVC format with the physical layer pipes feature of DVB-T2 enables flexible broadcast of services with differentiated protection of the quality layers. This opens up new ways of service provisioning such as graceful degradation for mobile or fixed reception. This article shows how existing DVB-T2 and MPEG-2 transport stream mechanisms need to be configured for offering such services over DVB-T2. A detailed description of the setup of such services and the involved components is given.
Comparison of IOP measurement using GAT and DCT in patients with penetrating keratoplasties

Recent studies evaluating intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements by dynamic contour tonometry (DCT) have shown that they are more comparable to true manometric IOP than Goldmann applanation tonometry (GAT),1 and less affected by changes in naturally occurring central corneal thickness (CCT)2,3 as well as surgically induced thinning of the cornea following laser in situ keratomileusis.4 Following penetrating keratoplasty, further errors in the measurement of IOP by GAT may also occur due to irregular astigmatism, and technical difficulties in aligning distorted mires on the tonometer head. We prospectively studied 10 patients with unilateral keratoplasty to detect a significant …
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a primer for the primary care physician

HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION has been used for many years to treat various malignant and nonmalignant hematologic conditions. However, the high-dose conditioning regimen can lead to major organ dysfunction, life-threatening infection and bleeding. In the allogeneic setting, graft-versus-host disease may also develop, making post-transplant management complex. Once a transplant recipient is discharged from hospital and returns to his or her local community, the primary care physician can play an important role in care. Recipients of stem cell transplants may be severely immunocompromised for many months after transplantation, especially if they are still taking immunosuppressive drugs. Furthermore, endocrine and metabolic deficiencies can develop, and transplant survivors are at risk of a second malignant disease. This review is intended as a basic overview of allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantation with a special focus on long-term follow-up issues relevant to primary care providers.
Localizing value of epileptic visual auras

It is difficult to differentiate between seizures of occipital or temporal lobe origin in patients with focal epileptic seizures associated with visual aura. These are often suspected to originate from the visual cortex, which causes reluctance to propose resection as treatment for the affected patient. To determine the value of localizing different types of visual auras, we report on 20 patients experiencing visual aura from a series of 878 surgically treated patients suffering from intractable focal seizures. In all of these patients, a morphological abnormality was identified on MRI (n = 18) or cranial CT (n = 2). These abnormalities were shown to represent the morphological correlate of the epileptogenic zone in each case, as demonstrated by intracranial ictal EEG recordings and/or seizure freedom after focal resective surgery. Elementary hallucinations, illusions and visual loss were reported not only by all patients with occipital lobe epilepsy, but also by patients with occipitotemporal and anteromedial temporal seizure onset. Complex hallucinations never occurred in occipital lobe seizures but were present in the two other groups. The same correlation was found for concentric changes of visual field (tunnel vision), a newly described ictal phenomenon. We conclude that elementary hallucinations, illusions and visual loss, although typical for occipital lobe epilepsy, can also occur in anteromedial temporal or occipitotemporal seizures and are therefore not a discordant feature in presurgical evaluation of patients with suspected temporal lobe epilepsy. Complex hallucinations and tunnel vision, however, should be considered concordant only with the assumption of an anteromedial temporal or occipitotemporal seizure onset.
Co-existence of Functionally Different Vesicular Neurotransmitter Transporters

The vesicular transmitter transporters VGLUT, VGAT, VMAT2 and VAChT, define phenotype and physiological properties of neuronal subtypes. VGLUTs concentrate the excitatory amino acid glutamate, VGAT the inhibitory amino acid GABA, VMAT2 monoamines, and VAChT acetylcholine (ACh) into synaptic vesicle (SV). Following membrane depolarization SV release their content into the synaptic cleft. A strict segregation of vesicular transporters is mandatory for the precise functioning of synaptic communication and of neuronal circuits. In the last years, evidence accumulates that subsets of neurons express more than one of these transporters leading to synaptic co-release of different and functionally opposing transmitters and modulation of synaptic plasticity. Synaptic co-existence of transporters may change during pathological scenarios in order to ameliorate misbalances in neuronal activity. In addition, evidence increases that transporters also co-exist on the same vesicle providing another layer of regulation. Generally, vesicular transmitter loading relies on an electrochemical gradient ΔμH+ driven by the proton ATPase rendering the lumen of the vesicle with respect to the cytosol positive (Δψ) and acidic (ΔpH). While the activity of VGLUT mainly depends on the Δψ component, VMAT, VGAT and VAChT work best at a high ΔpH. Thus, a vesicular synergy of transporters depending on the combination may increase or decrease the filling of SV with the principal transmitter. We provide an overview on synaptic co-existence of vesicular transmitter transporters including changes in the excitatory/inhibitory balance under pathological conditions. Additionally, we discuss functional aspects of vesicular synergy of transmitter transporters.
Graded Reinstatement in Belief Revision

An important issue in belief revision is the possible loss of previous information which later might turn to be correct when new information becomes available to the agent. Starting from the fuzzy argument labeling based on trust, we mirror argument reinstatement in belief reinstatement, and we show the conditions under which the belief reinstatement is total, partial, or nonexistent.
Adult Stem Cells on Methacrylic Acid Grafted Cocoon Silky Fibrous Scaffolds

Nature often provides the stimulus for new insights into material science though vivid varieties of synthetic degradable biomaterials are in use. Natural silk fibers as biomaterials have fascinated researchers due to their unusual appearance, biocompatibility and remarkable mechanical properties including high strength and toughness. In the present study, we have characterized the silk fibers obtained from Bombyx mori cocoons and ascertained their non-cytotoxic nature in contact with L929 fibroblast cells. Simultaneously cytocompatibility of the silk fibers were also assessed using rat, goat and human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells using Light, Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy. The results have depicted that this natural fibrous silky scaffold is capable of supporting and maintaining mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. In order to achieve desirable scaffolding architecture with improved hydrophilicity and mechanical properties favoring cell attachment, nutrient exchange and neo-tissue organization, we have attempted to modify the natural cocoon silk fibers by grafting poly methacrylic acid. FT-IR studies on grafted silk has identified an additional peak at 1741 cm -1 characteristic of C=O stretching. This modified surface has enhanced the affinity of cells which is presumed to be due to the altered surface architecture. Admiring the remarkable qualities of natural silk, this silky scaffold with cells can be engineered to build up “living tissue constructs” especially for the augmentation and repair of worn out ligaments and tendons of the human skeletal body. © Society for Biomaterials and Artificial Organs (India).
Identification of H-type resonances on a flat graphene strip grating in a dielectric slab

We considered the scattering and absorption of the H-polarized plane wave by an infinite flat graphene-strip grating in a dielectric slab, in the THz range. Accurate numerical treatment was based on the singular integral equation (IE) and projection to orthogonal polynomials. The resulting numerical algorithm possesses guaranteed convergence and controlled accuracy of computations including the vicinities of sharp resonances. Reflectance, transmittance, and absorbance by the graphene-strip grating were studied. The resonances on the surface-plasmon modes, grating modes, and slab modes were identified.
Time-Dependent Afterslip of the 2009 Mw 6.3 Dachaidan Earthquake (China) and Viscosity beneath the Qaidam Basin Inferred from Postseismic Deformation Observations

The 28 August 2009 Mw 6.3 Dachaidan (DCD) earthquake occurred at the Qaidam Basin’s northern side. To explain its postseismic deformation time series, the method of modeling them with a combination model of afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation is improved to simultaneously assess the time-dependent afterslip and the viscosity. The coseismic slip model in the layered model is first inverted, showing a slip pattern close to that in the elastic half-space. The postseismic deformation time series can be explained by the combination model, with a total root mean square (RMS) misfit of 0.37 cm. The preferred time-dependent afterslip mainly occurs at a depth from the surface to about 9.1 km underground and increases with time, indicating that afterslip will continue after 28 July 2010. By 334 days after the main shock, the moment released by the afterslip is 0.91 × 1018 N∙m (Mw 5.94), approximately 24.3% of that released by the coseismic slip. The preferred lower bound of the viscosity beneath the Qaidam Basin’s northern side is 1 × 1019 Pa·s, close to that beneath its southern side. This result also indicates that the viscosity structure beneath the Tibet Plateau may vary laterally.
An assessment of the rate, types and severity of prescribing errors in a tertiary hospital in southwestern Nigeria.

BACKGROUND Accurate medication prescribing is an important process in ensuring the best possible outcomes in patient care. Worldwide literature is replete with studies reporting high prevalence of prescribing error which are the most common type of avoidable medication errors and hence are an important target for improvement. OBJECTIVES This study assessed types and prevalence of prescribing errors, their clinical significance, when in the prescribing process they occurred and the medications commonly associated with prescribing errors. METHODS A retrospective review of 2010 in-patients' records from medical and paediatric specialties of a tertiary hospital in South West Nigeria was undertaken. Prescriptions that met the standard as enumerated in the Nigeria Standard Treatment Guideline (STG) were assessed. Prescription error rates for potentially clinically serious and total errors were determined. RESULTS The total prescribing error rate was 40.9% (95% CI 37.8 to 41.4) with 1.3% (95% CI -1.1 to 3.7) being clinically serious. Omitting to write an ending date or duration for therapy and unsafe abbreviations were the most common errors. Prescriptions involving antimicrobials produced the bulk of errant prescriptions. CONCLUSION Prescribing errors were found to be common. There was poor compliance with the Nigeria Standard Treatment Guidelines which outline the essential elements of a prescription. Continuing prescriber education on proper prescription writing and rational drug use is recommended as a way to reduce prescribing errors.
SLM and PTS peak-power reduction of OFDM signals without side information

Selected mapping (SLM) and partial transmit sequence (PTS) are well-known techniques for peak-power reduction in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). We derive a simplified maximum likelihood (ML) decoder for SLM and PTS that operates without side information. This decoder exploits the fact that the modulation symbols belong to a given constellation and that the multiple signals generated by the PTS or SLM processes are widely different in a Hamming distance sense. Pairwise error probability (PEP) analysis suggests how SLM and PTS vectors should be chosen. The decoder performs well over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, fading channels, and amplifier nonlinearities.
An approach for fault-tolerance in hard real-time distributed systems

The presence of hard timing constraints makes the design of fault tolerant systems difficult because when tasks are replicated to treat errors, both the task replicas and the fault tolerance building blocks (e.g., consensus) must be taken into account in the feasibility tests. This paper is devoted to the description of an approach for managing failures in hard real time distributed systems. Our approach is based on the use of a task replication tool named Hydra which makes tasks fault-tolerant off-line through the replication of parts to their code. The contribution of our work is not to provide new replication strategies but rather to provide replication strategies that are simultaneously suited to real time constraints, transparent to application designers and flexible (i.e., adaptable to application requirements and with low dependence with the underlying run-time support and hardware). Further details on Hydra can be found in (Chevochot and Puaut, 1999).
Bovine Mastitis: Frontiers in Immunogenetics

Mastitis is one of the most prevalent and costly diseases in the dairy industry with losses attributable to reduced milk production, discarded milk, early culling, veterinary services, and labor costs. Typically, mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland most often, but not limited to, bacterial infection, and is characterized by the movement of leukocytes and serum proteins from the blood to the site of infection. It contributes to compromised milk quality and the potential spread of antimicrobial resistance if antibiotic treatment is not astutely applied. Despite the implementation of management practises and genetic selection approaches, bovine mastitis control continues to be inadequate. However, some novel genetic strategies have recently been demonstrated to reduce mastitis incidence by taking advantage of a cow’s natural ability to make appropriate immune responses against invading pathogens. Specifically, dairy cattle with enhanced and balanced immune responses have a lower occurrence of disease, including mastitis, and they can be identified and selected for using the high immune response (HIR) technology. Enhanced immune responsiveness is also associated with improved response to vaccination, increased milk, and colostrum quality. Since immunity is an important fitness trait, beneficial associations with longevity and reproduction are also often noted. This review highlights the genetic regulation of the bovine immune system and its vital contributions to disease resistance. Genetic selection approaches currently used in the dairy industry to reduce the incidence of disease are reviewed, including the HIR technology, genomics to improve disease resistance or immune response, as well as the Immunity+™ sire line. Improving the overall immune responsiveness of cattle is expected to provide superior disease resistance, increasing animal welfare and food quality while maintaining favorable production levels to feed a growing population.
Segmenting CT Prostate Images Using Population and Patient-Specific Statistics for Radiotherapy

PURPOSE In the segmentation of sequential treatment-time CT prostate images acquired in image-guided radiotherapy, accurately capturing the intrapatient variation of the patient under therapy is more important than capturing interpatient variation. However, using the traditional deformable-model-based segmentation methods, it is difficult to capture intrapatient variation when the number of samples from the same patient is limited. This article presents a new deformable model, designed specifically for segmenting sequential CT images of the prostate, which leverages both population and patient-specific statistics to accurately capture the intrapatient variation of the patient under therapy. METHODS The novelty of the proposed method is twofold: First, a weighted combination of gradient and probability distribution function (PDF) features is used to build the appearance model to guide model deformation. The strengths of each feature type are emphasized by dynamically adjusting the weight between the profile-based gradient features and the local-region-based PDF features during the optimization process. An additional novel aspect of the gradient-based features is that, to alleviate the effect of feature inconsistency in the regions of gas and bone adjacent to the prostate, the optimal profile length at each landmark is calculated by statistically investigating the intensity profile in the training set. The resulting gradient-PDF combined feature produces more accurate and robust segmentations than general gradient features. Second, an online learning mechanism is used to build shape and appearance statistics for accurately capturing intrapatient variation. RESULTS The performance of the proposed method was evaluated on 306 images of the 24 patients. Compared to traditional gradient features, the proposed gradient-PDF combination features brought 5.2% increment in the success ratio of segmentation (from 94.1% to 99.3%). To evaluate the effectiveness of online learning mechanism, the authors carried out a comparison between partial online update strategy and full online update strategy. Using the full online update strategy, the mean DSC was improved from 86.6% to 89.3% with 2.8% gain. On the basis of full online update strategy, the manual modification before online update strategy was introduced and tested, the best performance was obtained; here, the mean DSC and the mean ASD achieved 92.4% and 1.47 mm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The proposed prostate segmentation method provided accurate and robust segmentation results for CT images even under the situation where the samples of patient under radiotherapy were limited. A conclusion that the proposed method is suitable for clinical application can be drawn.
Applications and challenges of the 802.11e EDCA mechanism: an experimental study

In this article we conduct an experimental study of the enhanced distributed channel access mechanism of the upcoming 802.11e standard. The main focus of the study is on two applications of EDCA: traffic engineering and service guarantees. With traffic engineering we aim at distributing the bandwidth in the WLAN according to a given throughput allocation criterion. With service guarantees the objective is to ensure that the performance metrics (throughput and delay) experienced by a station meet a given quality criterion. We build a testbed with wireless cards that support a substantial subset of the EDCA functionality and analyze performance against different sets of requirements. Experimental results show that EDCA can effectively be used for traffic engineering purposes. The goal of providing service guarantees with EDCA is shown to be more challenging; we identify future research directions that need to be addressed in order to achieve this goal.
Malayalam Morphological Analyzer: A Simple Approach

— this paper discusses the methods involved in the development of a Simple Malayalam Verb and Noun Morphological Analyzer. Since in Malayalam, words can be derived from a root word, a purely dictionary based approach for Morphological analysis is not practical. Hence, a ‘Rule-cum-Dictionary’ based approach is followed along with the Suffix Stripping concept. The grammatical behavior of the language, the formation of words with multiple suffixes and the preparation of the language are dealt with here, with examples of noun and verb forms in detail.
The Dual of Denial : Two Uses of Discon rmations in Dialogue andTheir Prosodic Correlates

In human-human communication, dialogue participants are continuously sending and receiving signals on the status of the information being exchanged. These signals may either be positive (`go on') or negative (`go back'), where it is usually found that the latter are comparatively marked to make sure that the dialogue partner is made aware of a communication problem. This article focuses on the users' signaling of information status in human-machine interactions, and in particular looks at the role prosody may play in this respect. Using a corpus of interactions with two Dutch spoken dialogue systems, prosodic correlates of users' discon rmations were investigated. In this corpus, discon rmations can have two uses: they may serve as a positive signal in one context and as a negative signal in another. With the data obtained from the corpus an acoustic and a perception experiment have been carried out. The acoustic analysis shows that the di erence in signaling function is re ected in the distribution of the various types of discon rmations as well as in di erent prosodic variables (pause, duration, intonation contour and pitch range). The perception experiment revealed that subjects are very good at classifying discon rmations as positive or negative signals (without context), which strongly suggests that the acoustic features have communicative relevance. The implications of these results for human-machine communication are discussed. 3 \But does he deserve to be stabbed to death with an ice pick? " I ask. \No," says Douglas, and keeps on saying it, \no, no, no, no, no, no, no"1
Stress-Related Growth, Coming Out, and Internalized Homonegativity in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth. An Examination of Stress-Related Growth Within the Minority Stress Model

This study investigates how young lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals deal with coming out and how perceived personal growth may result from that experience. We considered stress-related growth as a mediator between coming-out experiences and internalized homonegativity (IH). Our sample was taken from an online survey and is comprised of 502 LGBs aged 14–30. The social environment's acceptance of an individual's sexual orientation and the individual's social identification influence stress-related growth. Several coming-out indicators influence internalized homonegativity and, although growth perception does not function as a mediator between coming out and internalized homonegativity, it has a direct effect on IH.