Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Spinal Deformity Classification with Total Curvature Analysis and Artificial Neural Network

In this study, a multilayer feedforward, back-propagation artificial neural network is implemented to identify the classification patterns of the scoliotic spinal deformity. At first step the simplified three-dimensional spine model is constructed from coronal and sagittal X-ray images. The features of the central axis curve of the spinal deformity patterns in 3D space are extracted by the total curvature analysis. The discrete form of the total curvature, including the curvature and the torsion of the central axis of the simplified 3D spine model is derived from the difference quotients. The values of total curvature of 17 vertebrae from first thoracic to the fifth lumbar spine formed a Euclidean space of 17 dimensions. Either the curvature or the torsion of the three-dimensional curve of the central axis of the spine model could provide the input of the artificial neural network. The King classification model is tested on the neural network. Five sets of King spinal deformity patterns are randomly selected by the definition of King classification. The output layer of the artificial neural network has five neurons representing the five King classification types. The network validation was conducted by the hold-out method, one of cross-validation variant. The performance of the neural network is compared between two network topologies, one with one hidden layer and another with two hidden layers. The results are shown in a table with each of five datasets leave-out and all five datasets participating the training, with either one hidden layer or two hidden layer network
Learning a procedure that can solve hard bin-packing problems: a new GA-based approach to hyper-heuristics

The idea underlying hyper-heuristics is to discover some combination of familiar, straightforward heuristics that performs very well across a whole range of problems. To be worthwhile, such a combination should outperform all of the constituent heuristics. In this paper we describe a novel messy-GA-based approach that learns such a heuristic combination for solving one-dimensional bin-packing problems. When applied to a large set of benchmark problems, the learned procedure finds an optimal solution for nearly 80% of them, and for the rest produces an answer very close to optimal. When compared with its own constituent heuristics, it ranks first in 98% of the problems.
A cross-curricular approach to fostering innovation such as virtual reality development through student-led projects

As the Computer Science (CS) Curricula 2013 report states, CS programs should prepare students “for the workforce in a more holistic way than simply conveying technical facts. Indeed, soft skills (such as teamwork, verbal and written communication, time management, problem solving, and flexibility) and personal attributes (such as risk tolerance, collegiality, patience, work ethic, identification of opportunity .) play a critical role in the workplace. ” It also states that CS programs must “expose students to multiple programming languages, tools, paradigms, and technologies as well as the fundamental underlying principles”. Meeting all of these curricular goals is a challenge, especially for small CS programs, where resources are limited. This paper describes a model for enabling student innovation through the use of student-led projects, across the CS curriculum, within several foundational CS courses and as part of the senior design course. To illustrate how this model incorporates emerging technologies, sample student-led Virtual Reality (VR) projects are described. Results show student-led projects promote learning and help students express creativity and innovation while developing their soft skills and personal attributes. Additionally, this approach instills a culture of creativity and innovation embraced by the CS student body, where advanced students assist newer students as they embark on their journey; and it has had a significant impact on retaining CS students.
Understanding Consciousness : Nature Network Promotes Online Workshop

aSão Paulo State University (UNESP), Institute of Biosciences, 18618-000, Botucatu-SP, Brasil; e-mail: apj@ibb.unesp. br (Corresponding Author) bUniversity College, London, UK; e-mail: jo.edwards@ucl.ac. uk cThe KEY Institute for Brain-Mind Research, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Switzerland; e-mail: dlehmann@key.uzh. ch dAssociate Editor, Journal of Consciousness Studies, e-mail: cmhnunn@btinternet.com eDepartment of Psychology, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA; email: trehub@psych.umass. edu fDepartment of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London; e-mail: psa01mv@gold.ac. uk
Detailed FISH analysis of day 5 human embryos reveals the mechanisms leading to mosaic aneuploidy.

BACKGROUND Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis has shown that human embryos display a high level of chromosomal mosaicism at all preimplantation stages. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms involved by the use of two probes for each of three autosomes at different loci and to determine the true level of aneuploid mosaicism by excluding FISH artefacts. METHODS Embryos were cultured in two different types of medium: group I were cultured in standard cleavage medium for up to day 5 and group II were cultured from day 3 to day 5 in blastocyst medium. Three rounds of FISH were performed. In round 1, the probes used were 1pTel, 11qTel and 18CEP; in round 2, the probes used were 1satII/III, 11CEP and 18qTel; in round 3, the probes used were 18CEP, XCEP and YCEP. RESULTS A total of 21 embryos were analysed in each group. The FISH results revealed one uniformly diploid and 20 mosaic embryos for group I, and two uniformly diploid and 19 mosaic embryos for group II. The predominant type of mosaicism was diploid/aneuploid. The use of two different probes per autosome was able to distinguish FISH artefacts affecting 5% of nuclei from true single cell anomalies. CONCLUSIONS Post-zygotic chromosome loss was the most common mechanism leading to aneuploidy mosaicism for both groups, followed by chromosome gain, with fewer examples of mitotic non-disjunction.
Endocytosis and the recycling of plasma membrane

The study of endocytosis has traditionally focused on the contents of endocytic vacuoles, i.e., extracellular fluid, dissolved solutes, and macromolecules or particles which specifically or nonspecifically bind to the plasma membrane (PM). Substances that are endocytosed include important nutrients, toxins, effector molecules (growth factors, hormones, antibodies), enzymes, and pathogens. This article centers on the properties and dynamics of the endocytic vacuole membrane. In many instances we will stress observations on cultured mouse macrophages with which we are most familier. We will emphasize four points: (a) Movement of vesicles is rapid such that endocytosed membrane and contents move from one cellular compartment to another in seconds to minutes. (b) Vesicular movement requires the interiorization and flow of large amounts of PM) (c) In many instances, internalized PM must recycle or return intact to the cell surface. (d) During recycling, contents and membrane components can be sorted from one another; e.g., endocytosed contents can accumulate within the cell while the container (membrane) can move into and out of the cell after one or more fusion events with other endocytic vacuoles, lysosomes (Ly), or Golgi apparatus. While it has been difficult to obtain direct evidence, the literature is replete with examples in which rapid membrane flow and recycling readily explains the data. Two of the more striking examples derive from studies of pinocytosis in cultured ceils. Fibroblasts, for instance, interiorize the equivalent of 50% of their surface area and 5-10% of their cell volume during each hour of pinocytic activity. Yet, the overall dimensions of the cells and the vacuolar system remain constant throughout hours, even days, of endocytic activity. Since it is unlikely that internalized PM is rapidly degraded, it was proposed that
On The Design and Implementation of Argo A Global Array of Profiling Floats

II. THE SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE GLOBAL FLOAT ARRAY.4 A. THE GODAE/CLIVAR CONTEXT . 4 B. COMBINING PROFILING FLOATS AND ALTIMETRY FOR DIAGNOSIS OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM . 5 C. INITIALIZATION AND CONSTRAINT OF OPERATIONAL MODELS. 6 III. THE DESIGN OF ARGO . 8 A. THE EVOLUTION OF ARGO FROM THE EXISTING UPPER OCEAN THERMAL NETWORK. 8 B. USING TOPEX/POSEIDON ALTIMETRIC DATA IN THE DESIGN OF ARGO . 11 C. USING ARGO TO MEASURE ABSOLUTE PRESSURE IN THERMOCLINE AND INTERMEDIATE WATERS. 17 D. DESIGNING ARGO TO MONITOR CLIMATE SIGNALS. 18 E. THE NEEDS FOR ARGO IN TESTING AND CONSTRAINING OCEAN AND COUPLED MODELS OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM . 21 F. OTHER ELEMENTS OF A COMPREHENSIVE OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM. 25 IV. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARGO.25
Alcohol attitudes and behaviors among faculty at U.S. schools and colleges of pharmacy

Despite attempts to control college-aged drinking, binge and underage drinking continues at colleges and universities. Although often underutilized, faculty have the potential to influence students’ behaviors and attitudes towards drinking. Little information is available pertaining to college faculty drinking patterns, views on drinking, or their influence on college drinking. What little information is available predates the economic crisis, mandates for increased alcohol education, and the American Pharmacists Association’s call for increased alcohol awareness in pharmacists. Objective This study was designed to determine alcohol use patterns and viewpoints among faculty at U.S. colleges of pharmacy, in particular, to identify alcohol practices among faculty, use of alcohol with their students, mentioning alcohol in classroom as a social norm, and perceived drinking norms within their colleagues. Methods Following Institution Review Board approval, 2809 invitations were emailed to U.S. pharmacy faculty for this survey-based study. The survey consisted of demographic questions, the World Health Organization Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and questions pertaining to personal and institution attitudes on drinking and on drinking with students. Results More than 96% of 753 respondents had a total AUDIT score <8. Males and preceptors were more likely to have higher AUDIT scores. More than 75% of faculty reported never drinking with students. Conclusions In order to help pharmacy students address the extent of their alcohol use and misuse, pharmacy faculty must address their own use, along with their own and their institutions attitudes and behaviors towards alcohol use.
An optimization-based approach to decentralized assignability

This paper discusses the controllability of linear time-invariant (LTI) systems with decentralized controllers. Whether an LTI system is controllable (by LTI controllers) with respect to a given information structure can be determined by testing for fixed modes, but this gives a binary answer with no information about robustness. Measures have been developed to further determine how far a system is from having a fixed mode, in particular the decentralized assignability measure of Vaz and Davison in 1988, but these measures cannot actually be computed in most cases. We thus seek an easily computable, non-binary measure of controllability for LTI systems with decentralized controllers of arbitrary information structure. In this paper, we address this problem by utilizing modern optimization techniques to tackle the decentralized assignability measure. The main difficulties which have previously precluded its widespread use, are that it involves the minimization of the n-th singular value of a matrix, which must further be minimized over a power set of the subsystems. We will propose three methods to address its computation. First, we will discuss a relaxed convex problem, using the nuclear norm in place of the singular value, and expressing the power set minimization as binary constraints which can be relaxed to the hypercube. Our second algorithm simply entails rounding when the first method fails to reach a corner of the hypercube. Our final algorithm is developed using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), and is shown to decouple the effects of the binary variables, such that they can be optimized directly with per-iteration computations scaling linearly, rather than exponentially, with the number of subsystems. This final method is shown to produce results which closely track the assignability measure across a variety of fixed mode types.
Non-Rigid Image Registration Using a Parameter-Free Elastic Model

The paper presents a new parameter-freeapproach to non-rigid image registration, where displacements, obtained through a mapping of boundary structures in the source and target image, are incorporated as hard constraints into elastic image deformation. As a consequence, our approach does not contain any parameters of the deformation model (elastic constants). The approach guarantees the exact correspondence of boundary structures after elastic transformation provided that correct input data are available. We describe a linear and an incremental model, the latter model allows to cope also with large deformations. Experimental results for 2-D and 3-D synthetic as well as real medical images are presented.
Brain gender talk and the relationship between science and narrative : Situations in Japan

In many countries, discourse on “brain gender” has gained much attention in the popular media. Such discourse often exaggerates and over-interprets scientific knowledge. To find a way to cope with the negative social influence of such discourse, I will explore the background of its popularity. A crucial component of this discourse is that it contains factors irrelevant to science. Thus, a perspective other than a scientific one is needed. Here, I will examine such discourse from the viewpoint of narrative approaches. They can reveal the equivocal character of the discourse on “brain gender. ” I will also deal with some unique situations in Japan, including the problem of the medicalization of transgender.
Targeted Mutation Reveals Essential Functions of the Homeodomain Transcription Factor Shox2 in Sinoatrial and Pacemaking Development

Background— Identifying molecular pathways regulating the development of pacemaking and coordinated heartbeat is crucial for a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of arrhythmia-related diseases. Elucidation of these pathways has been complicated mainly by an insufficient definition of the developmental structures involved in these processes and the unavailability of animal models specifically targeting the relevant tissues. Here, we report on a highly restricted expression pattern of the homeodomain transcription factor Shox2 in the sinus venosus myocardium, including the sinoatrial nodal region and the venous valves. Methods and Results— To investigate its function in vivo, we have generated mouse lines carrying a targeted mutation of the Shox2 gene. Although heterozygous animals did not exhibit obvious defects, homozygosity of the targeted allele led to embryonic lethality at 11.5 to 13.5 dpc. Shox2−/− embryos exhibited severe hypoplasia of the sinus venosus myocardium in the posterior heart field, including the sinoatrial nodal region and venous valves. We furthermore demonstrate aberrant expression of connexin 40 and connexin 43 and the transcription factor Nkx2.5 in vivo specifically within the sinoatrial nodal region and show that Shox2 deficiency interferes with pacemaking function in zebrafish embryos. Conclusions— From these results, we postulate a critical function of Shox2 in the recruitment of sinus venosus myocardium comprising the sinoatrial nodal region.
A biped robot that keeps steps in time with musical beats while listening to music with its own ears

We aim at enabling a biped robot to interact with humans through real-world music in daily-life environments, e.g., to autonomously keep its steps (stamps) in time with musical beats. To achieve this, the robot should be able to robustly predict the beat times in real time while listening to musical performance with its own ears (head-embedded microphones). However, this has not previously been addressed in most studies on music-synchronized robots due to the difficulty in predicting the beat times in real-world music. To solve this problem, we implemented a beat-tracking method developed in the field of music information processing. The predicted beat times are then used by a feedback-control method that adjusts the robot's step intervals to synchronize its steps in time with the beats. The experimental results show that the robot can adjust its steps in time with the beat times as the tempo changes. The resulting robot needed about 25 [s] to recognize the tempo change after it and then synchronize its steps.
Entropy-Based Latent Structured Output Prediction

Recently several generalizations of the popular latent structural SVM framework have been proposed in the literature. Broadly speaking, the generalizations can be divided into two categories: (i) those that predict the output variables while either marginalizing the latent variables or estimating their most likely values, and (ii) those that predict the output variables by minimizing an entropy-based uncertainty measure over the latent space. In order to aid their application in computer vision, we study these generalizations with the aim of identifying their strengths and weaknesses. To this end, we propose a novel prediction criterion that includes as special cases all previous prediction criteria that have been used in the literature. Specifically, our framework's prediction criterion minimizes the Aczél and Daróczy entropy of the output. This in turn allows us to design a learning objective that provides a unified framework (UF) for latent structured prediction. We develop a single optimization algorithm and empirically show that it is as effective as the more complex approaches that have been previously employed for latent structured prediction. Using this algorithm, we provide empirical evidence that lends support to prediction via the minimization of the latent space uncertainty.
Epidemiological survey of enterovirus infections occurring in Taiwan between 2000 and 2005: Analysis of sentinel physician surveillance data

Enterovirus (EV) infections are common. There are more than 60 known serotypes, and each has different epidemiologic or medical importance. Over 700 physicians from 75% of basic administrative units of Taiwan participated in the “Sentinel Physician Surveillance of Infectious Disease” and reported weekly to the Center for Disease Control—Taiwan with data on various infections. Data of laboratory‐confirmed EV infections from this surveillance between 2000 and 2005 was analyzed. EV serotypes were determined by immunofluorescence staining and/or viral VP1 sequence analysis. A total of 12,236 EV cases, or approximately1,300–2,500 per year, were identified, and 52% of the cases occurred between April and July. The median age was 3 years, and 57.6% of patients were male. Coxsackievirus A (CA) 16 and EV71, which primarily manifest as hand‐foot‐and‐mouth disease, were the most prevalent serotypes every year except 2004. Other prevalent serotypes and associated symptoms varied from year to year. Echovirus (E) 30 and E6, which are associated with aseptic meningitis, were prevalent in 2001 and 2002, CA4 and CA10, which cause herpangina, were predominant in 2004, and coxsackievirus B (CB) 4 and CB3, which are associated with neonatal febrile disease, were most common in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Some of these epidemics overlapped with outbreaks of the same serotypes in other Asian Pacific countries. Of all serotypes, EV71 was associated with the highest number of severe complications in patients. Surveying the epidemic pattern, disease spectra, and severity associated with each EV serotype provided important information for public health and medical personnel. J. Med. Virol. 79:1850–1860, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Information in nineteenth century England : exploring contemporary socio-cultural perceptions and understandings

Historical interest in the information society and the tools and techniques of information processing and management has been the subject of much recent scholarship. In contrast, this research examines understandings of information from a social and cultural perspective and offers new insights into the chronology of `modern' information. The focus is on nineteenth century England and how contemporary society thought of and understood information. As a consequence of this, this work also investigates the role and manifestation of information according to these perceptions. The research explores perceptions from a variety of nineteenth century viewpoints, including etiquette and behavioural literature, Victorian periodicals, events such as the Channel Tunnel panics of the 1880s and discrete individual case studies. The thesis concludes that the nineteenth century formed the crux point between premodem understandings of information, and the start of what we would now term a period of modernity so far as information is concerned. The foundation of the research is nineteenth century published and archival material, contemporary newspapers, journals and private papers.
Flightplan flight tests of an experimental DA42 general aviation aircraft

The recent emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles asked for both well-performing auto-flight systems and fly-by-wire architectures. Towards this end, the trajectory control module of an integrated auto-flight control system is introduced in this paper, which utilizes nonlinear second-order error dynamics of the position error and uses nonlinear dynamic inversion as a control methodology. Flight test results of a flightplan mission conducted on the institute's general aviation aircraft — a DA42 augmented with experimental fly-by-wire — are presented and the controller's performance is evaluated.
Classification using Fuzzy Fusion of Average and Probabilistic Methods

In spite of the fact, a number of researchers everywhere throughout the globe are busy in broad research with the aim to overcome the problem of spam; although an effective solution is yet to be discovered. Due to the fact that spam filtering is perplexing issue, it is unrealistic to spam messages with one arrangement. As the spam emails structure is not constant, hence we require a solution which can be adapt as per the spam structure. In this work, spam filtering methods based on genetic algorithm is highlighted, two methods based on probabilistic and average based is detailed and the results are compared in terms of recognition rate.