Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual-Force ISOMAP: A New Relevance Feedback Method for Medical Image Retrieval

With great potential for assisting radiological image interpretation and decision making, content-based image retrieval in the medical domain has become a hot topic in recent years. Many methods to enhance the performance of content-based medical image retrieval have been proposed, among which the relevance feedback (RF) scheme is one of the most promising. Given user feedback information, RF algorithms interactively learn a user’s preferences to bridge the “semantic gap” between low-level computerized visual features and high-level human semantic perception and thus improve retrieval performance. However, most existing RF algorithms perform in the original high-dimensional feature space and ignore the manifold structure of the low-level visual features of images. In this paper, we propose a new method, termed dual-force ISOMAP (DFISOMAP), for content-based medical image retrieval. Under the assumption that medical images lie on a low-dimensional manifold embedded in a high-dimensional ambient space, DFISOMAP operates in the following three stages. First, the geometric structure of positive examples in the learned low-dimensional embedding is preserved according to the isometric feature mapping (ISOMAP) criterion. To precisely model the geometric structure, a reconstruction error constraint is also added. Second, the average distance between positive and negative examples is maximized to separate them; this margin maximization acts as a force that pushes negative examples far away from positive examples. Finally, the similarity propagation technique is utilized to provide negative examples with another force that will pull them back into the negative sample set. We evaluate the proposed method on a subset of the IRMA medical image dataset with a RF-based medical image retrieval framework. Experimental results show that DFISOMAP outperforms popular approaches for content-based medical image retrieval in terms of accuracy and stability.
A differentially expressed set of microRNAs in cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) can diagnose CNS malignancies

Central Nervous System malignancies often require stereotactic biopsy or biopsy for differential diagnosis, and for tumor staging and grading. Furthermore, stereotactic biopsy can be non-diagnostic or underestimate grading. Hence, there is a compelling need of new diagnostic biomarkers to avoid such invasive procedures. Several biological markers have been proposed, but they can only identify specific prognostic subtype of Central Nervous System tumors, and none of them has found a standardized clinical application. The aim of the study was to identify a Cerebro-Spinal Fluid microRNA signature that could differentiate among Central Nervous System malignancies. CSF total RNA of 34 neoplastic and of 14 non-diseased patients was processed by NanoString. Comparison among groups (Normal, Benign, Glioblastoma, Medulloblastoma, Metastasis and Lymphoma) lead to the identification of a microRNA profile that was further confirmed by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. Hsa-miR-451, -711, 935, -223 and -125b were significantly differentially expressed among the above mentioned groups, allowing us to draw an hypothetical diagnostic chart for Central Nervous System malignancies. This is the first study to employ the NanoString technique for Cerebro-Spinal Fluid microRNA profiling. In this article, we demonstrated that Cerebro-Spinal Fluid microRNA profiling mirrors Central Nervous System physiologic or pathologic conditions. Although more cases need to be tested, we identified a diagnostic Cerebro-Spinal Fluid microRNA signature with good perspectives for future diagnostic clinical applications.
Robust scalable video multicast and performance issues in wireless LANs

The successful deployment of multimedia streaming services, over a multiservice IP-based heterogeneous infrastructure, requires resource-efficient, scalable and reliable network transport. This can be achieved using end-to-end methods, e.g. adaptive application-level source and channel coding. Network assistance can also be employed, e.g. multicast routing and Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning mechanisms. Multicast transport in particular presents many challenges with respect to scalability, reliability and congestion control. Furthermore, with an increasing use of bandwidth-constrained and unreliable access networks such as Wireless LAN (WLAN) networks, implementing adaptive schemes which can utilize the scarce network resources is important. In this thesis, topics in the area of adaptive rate, congestion and error control schemes for video streaming applications over heterogeneous networks are studied. The contributions evaluate the end-to-end video quality gain from using a network-driven approach, based on router priority dropping and temporal video scalability. Furthermore, the end-to-end video quality gain from using a receiverdriven layered video multicast scheme is studied, using a dynamic Forward Error Correction (FEC) based error control scheme to enhance transport robustness. The scheme is evaluated in a WLAN infrastructure network setting. Finally, a model-based measurement study of WLAN access point forwarding behavior is included.
East West University, Bangladesh anticipating ethical challenges of RFID

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology based on the need for remote recognition of objects. It is a fairly simple technology involving radio wave communication between a microchip and an electronic reader, in which information stored on the chip is transmitted and processed. The potential use of this technology includes RFID-chipped passports, human implants, item-level tagging, inventory tracking and access control systems. However, when tags begin to be associated with individuals, privacy is threatened. Good RFID use policies and privacy protecting technologies, while providing a good first step, are not enough to protect individual privacy. RFID is a new type of threat to personal information and must be treated as such; indeed, it must be recognized that existing privacy legislation is not adequate. This paper examines the privacy and ethical issues arising from its use, as well as addressing potential means of handling those issues.
The Protection of Modular Exponentiation Operands from Their Reconstruction by Simple Power Analysis

: The goal of this research is to point out the potential vulnerabilities of modular exponentiation operands reconstruction by power dynamic analysis and to elaborate countermeasures. It has been shown that exponent of modular exponentiation which is the secret key of RSA, El-Gamal and DSA can be reconstructed by timing power analysis. As a countermeasure, a special algorithm for modular exponentiation has been worked out. The proposed algorithm does not use conditional operators and includes false operators which inhibit timing power analysis. It has been shown that the implementation of the proposed approach requires about 25 % more time for modular exponentiation.
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN EVEN-DIMENSIONAL SPACE–TIMES

The basic concepts and mathematical constructions of the Maxwell–Lorentz electrodynamics in flat space–time of an arbitrary even dimension d = 2n are briefly reviewed. We show that the retarded field strength due to a point charge living in a 2n-dimensional world can be algebraically expressed in terms of the retarded vector potentials generated by this charge as if it were accommodated in 2m-dimensional worlds nearby, 2 ≤ m ≤ n+1. With this finding, the rate of radiated energy–momentum of the electromagnetic field takes a compact form.
DISTRIBUTED SECURE DATA AGGREGATION USING GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR MARITIME NETWORKS

Ad-Hoc on Demand Networks is distributed open networks that establish communication on request with a minimal routing overhead. Data aggregation is alone par tedious due to its random scattered deployment. Mobile sinks, security threats, key sharing delay, etc. also influence seamless transmission between nodes. Currently existing works depend on the behavior of the nodes, by appropriately determining a gateway-like node to transmit its data and other information. The joint data aggregation and routing technique, initiated from the source recommends the collection path for each source and mobile sinks. It ensures minimum data loss and less communication disruption. The proposed system use HEC algorithm which provides low overhead in key distribution, encryption and decryption deduction when compared to the previous approaches. The joint aggregation integrating mobile sink navigation and secure hashing techniques, improves the performance of a network in terms of throughput, drop, security factor and encryption delay. Maritime tactical network requires high performance and security are one of the mainly used areas of MANET. Maritime tactical network are composed of mobile nodes (submarine, ship, aircraft etc.) and static nodes (shore stations), which can only couple with each other through radio electromagnetic spectrum.
“Taller and Shorter”: Human 3-D Spatial Memory Distorts Familiar Multilevel Buildings

Animal experiments report contradictory findings on the presence of a behavioural and neuronal anisotropy exhibited in vertical and horizontal capabilities of spatial orientation and navigation. We performed a pointing experiment in humans on the imagined 3-D direction of the location of various invisible goals that were distributed horizontally and vertically in a familiar multilevel hospital building. The 21 participants were employees who had worked for years in this building. The hypothesis was that comparison of the experimentally determined directions and the true directions would reveal systematic inaccuracy or dimensional anisotropy of the localizations. The study provides first evidence that the internal representation of a familiar multilevel building was distorted compared to the dimensions of the true building: vertically 215% taller and horizontally 51% shorter. This was not only demonstrated in the mathematical reconstruction of the mental model based on the analysis of the pointing experiments but also by the participants’ drawings of the front view and the ground plan of the building. Thus, in the mental model both planes were altered in different directions: compressed for the horizontal floor plane and stretched for the vertical column plane. This could be related to human anisotropic behavioural performance of horizontal and vertical navigation in such buildings.
Are Racial and Ethnic Minorities Less Willing to Participate in Health Research?

Background It is widely claimed that racial and ethnic minorities, especially in the US, are less willing than non-minority individuals to participate in health research. Yet, there is a paucity of empirical data to substantiate this claim. Methods and Findings We performed a comprehensive literature search to identify all published health research studies that report consent rates by race or ethnicity. We found 20 health research studies that reported consent rates by race or ethnicity. These 20 studies reported the enrollment decisions of over 70,000 individuals for a broad range of research, from interviews to drug treatment to surgical trials. Eighteen of the twenty studies were single-site studies conducted exclusively in the US or multi-site studies where the majority of sites (i.e., at least 2/3) were in the US. Of the remaining two studies, the Concorde study was conducted at 74 sites in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, while the Delta study was conducted at 152 sites in Europe and 23 sites in Australia and New Zealand. For the three interview or non-intervention studies, African-Americans had a nonsignificantly lower overall consent rate than non-Hispanic whites (82.2% versus 83.5%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.84–1.02). For these same three studies, Hispanics had a nonsignificantly higher overall consent rate than non-Hispanic whites (86.1% versus 83.5%; OR = 1.37; 95% CI 0.94–1.98). For the ten clinical intervention studies, African-Americans' overall consent rate was nonsignificantly higher than that of non-Hispanic whites (45.3% versus 41.8%; OR = 1.06; 95% CI 0.78–1.45). For these same ten studies, Hispanics had a statistically significant higher overall consent rate than non-Hispanic whites (55.9% versus 41.8%; OR = 1.33; 95% CI 1.08–1.65). For the seven surgery trials, which report all minority groups together, minorities as a group had a nonsignificantly higher overall consent rate than non-Hispanic whites (65.8% versus 47.8%; OR = 1.26; 95% CI 0.89–1.77). Given the preponderance of US sites, the vast majority of these individuals from minority groups were African-Americans or Hispanics from the US. Conclusions We found very small differences in the willingness of minorities, most of whom were African-Americans and Hispanics in the US, to participate in health research compared to non-Hispanic whites. These findings, based on the research enrollment decisions of over 70,000 individuals, the vast majority from the US, suggest that racial and ethnic minorities in the US are as willing as non-Hispanic whites to participate in health research. Hence, efforts to increase minority participation in health research should focus on ensuring access to health research for all groups, rather than changing minority attitudes.
Multimodal person verification from video sequences

In this paper, a multimodal person verification system based on fusing information derived from face speech signals is proposed. Principle component analysis and independent component analysis techniques are used for face verification and melfrequency-cepstral coefficients are used for speaker verification. The matching scores from individual modalities are combined using the sum rule. The results indicate that fusing indivual modalities improve overall performance of the verification system.
Extracellular Bacterial Pathogen Induces Host Cell Surface Reorganization to Resist Shear Stress

Bacterial infections targeting the bloodstream lead to a wide array of devastating diseases such as septic shock and meningitis. To study this crucial type of infection, its specific environment needs to be taken into account, in particular the mechanical forces generated by the blood flow. In a previous study using Neisseria meningitidis as a model, we observed that bacterial microcolonies forming on the endothelial cell surface in the vessel lumen are remarkably resistant to mechanical stress. The present study aims to identify the molecular basis of this resistance. N. meningitidis forms aggregates independently of host cells, yet we demonstrate here that cohesive forces involved in these bacterial aggregates are not sufficient to explain the stability of colonies on cell surfaces. Results imply that host cell attributes enhance microcolony cohesion. Microcolonies on the cell surface induce a cellular response consisting of numerous cellular protrusions similar to filopodia that come in close contact with all the bacteria in the microcolony. Consistent with a role of this cellular response, host cell lipid microdomain disruption simultaneously inhibited this response and rendered microcolonies sensitive to blood flow–generated drag forces. We then identified, by a genetic approach, the type IV pili component PilV as a triggering factor of plasma membrane reorganization, and consistently found that microcolonies formed by a pilV mutant are highly sensitive to shear stress. Our study shows that bacteria manipulate host cell functions to reorganize the host cell surface to form filopodia-like structures that enhance the cohesion of the microcolonies and therefore blood vessel colonization under the harsh conditions of the bloodstream.
Some new methods for exploratory factor analysis of socioeconomic data

Some new methods for factor analyzing socioeconomic data are presented, discussed and illustrated with analyses of new and old datasets. A general socioeconomic factor (S) was found in a dataset of 47 French-speaking Swiss provinces from 1888. It was strongly related (r’s .64 to .70) to cognitive ability as measured by an army examination. Fertility had a strong negative loading (r -.44 to -.67). Results were similar when using rank-transformed data. The S factor of international rankings data was found to have a split-half factor reliability of . 93, that of the general factor of personality extracted from 25 OCEAN items . 55, and that of the general cognitive ability factor . 68 based on 16 items from the International Cognitive Ability Resource.
The asymptotic equipartition property for Mth-order nonhomogeneous Markov information sources

In this correspondence, we first establish a limit theorem for averages of the functions of m+1 variables of mth-order nonhomogeneous Markov information sources. As corollaries, we obtain several limit theorems for frequency of occurrence of the states and a limit theorem of the entropy density for these information sources. Finally, we prove the asymptotic equipartition property (AEP) for a class of nonhomogeneous Markov information sources.
Stereotypes of People with Physical Disabilities and Speech Impairments as Detected by Partially Structured Attitude Measures

Partially Structured Attitude Measures (PSAMs) are non-reaction-time based measures of implicit attitudes. Participants’ attitudes are measured by the degree to which they react toward ambiguous stimuli. The authors developed a series of PSAMs to examine six stereotypes of people with disabilities: asexual, unappealing, isolated, dependent, entitled, and unemployable. In two studies, they found that PSAMs detected implicit endorsements of stereotypes toward people with a physical disability, speech impairment, or combination of the two. Compared to people without disabilities, stereotypes were endorsed for people with disabilities, with unappealing, dependent and unemployable being more prominent for physically disabled targets and dependent, entitled and isolated being more prominent for speech disabled targets. Implications for understanding the stereotyping of people with physical and speech disabilities are discussed. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-725-1.ch014
UE Geo-Positioning in Heterogeneous Network

In near future, user equipment (UE) will operate in a multimode heterogeneous system, providing speech, data and new emerging value-added services to the wireless user. In this paper, we propose a UE geo-positioning method that harnesses on the cellular and peer-to-peer connectivity capabilities of the heterogeneous system, introducing higher accuracy in the estimated UE location. The UE-to-UE direct connectivity is exploited to provide additional information for the weighted least-squares estimator, giving a better estimate in the UE position J.H Yap et al
New optimization and security approaches to enhance the Smart Grid performance and reliability

Nowadays, the Smart Grid (SG) is becoming smarter thanks to the integration of different information and communication technologies to enhance the reliability and efficiency of the power grid. However, several issues should be met to ensure high SG performance. Among these issues, we cite the problem of electric vehicles (EVs) integration into the SG to avoid electricity intermittence due to the important load that EVs can create. Another issue is the SG communication network security that can be attempted by malicious intruders in order to create damages and make the power grid instable. In this context, we propose at a first level a Bayesian game-theory model that aims to integrate optimally EVs into the SG and maintain the equilibrium between the offer and the demand. At a second level, we propose an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to protect the SG from attacks that aim to disturb the state estimation. Numerical results prove the efficiency and robustness of our proposed models.
Mission-Aware Medium Access Control in Random Access Networks

We study mission-critical networking in wireless communication networks, where network users are subject to critical events such as emergencies and crises. If a critical event occurs to a user, the user needs to send necessary information for help as early as possible. However, most existing medium access control (MAC) protocols are not adequate to meet the urgent need for information transmission by users in a critical situation. In this paer, we propose a novel class of MAC protocols that utilize available past information as well as current information. Our proposed protocols are mission-aware since they prescribe different transmission decision rules to users in different situations. We show that the proposed protocols perform well not only when the system faces a critical situation but also when there is no critical situation. By utilizing past information, the proposed protocols coordinate transmissions by users to achieve high throughput in the normal phase of operation and to let a user in a critical situation make successful transmissions while it is in the critical situation. Moreover, the proposed protocols require short memory and no message exchanges.
A WEBSITE INTERFACE DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR THE COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED: A STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium and the US Congress have advanced recommendations intended to make Information Technology more accessible to impaired users. These include guidelines specifically intended for the cognitively challenged, such as people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, there is little research evidence to date demonstrating the value of complying with these guidelines. In this paper, we introduce a four-element, theoretical framework and outline a research agenda that identifies important considerations for developers of website interfaces for those with AD. This Website Accessibility Framework may be used as the basis for investigating the impacts of interfaces with differing degrees of guideline compliance, ranging from no compliance to full compliance, on people with AD.
Potential of Al2O3/GaN/Sapphire layered structure for high temperature SAW sensors

This paper describes the investigation of the potential of packageless structures for acoustic wave sensor applications based on Al2O3/IDT/GaN/Sapphire structure. The finite elements modeling predicts the possibility of acoustically isolated waveguiding layer acoustic wave (WLAW) to propagate inside this structure with very low displacement at the top surface of the topmost Al2O3 layer. This layer serves as a protecting layer against oxidation of internal layers as well as an acoustically isolating layer, providing a mean for packageless packaging of this structure. The modeling results get confirmation in experiments with the precursor IDT/GaN/Sapphire structure thus supporting hopes on the predicted correct operation of the final Al2O3/IDT/GaN/Sapphire structure.
The contribution of facial regions to judgements of happiness and trustworthiness from dynamic expressions

ABSTRACT What expressive facial features and processing mechanisms make a person look trustworthy, relative to happy? Participants judged the un/happiness or un/trustworthiness of people with dynamic expressions in which the eyes and/or the mouth unfolded from neutral to happy or vice versa. Faces with an unfolding smile looked more trustworthy and happier than faces with a neutral mouth, regardless of the eye expression. Unfolding happy eyes increased both trustworthiness and happiness only in the presence of a congruent unfolding smiling mouth. Nevertheless, the contribution of the mouth was greater for happiness than for trustworthiness; and the mouth was especially visually salient for expressions favouring happiness more than trustworthiness. We conclude that the categorisation of facial happiness is more automatically driven by the visual saliency of a single feature, that is, the smiling mouth, while perception of trustworthiness is more strategic, with the eyes being necessarily incorporated into a configural face representation.