Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UNDISTURBED COLLABORATIVE DEMONSTRATION FOR PATTERN CLASSIFICATION

The sparse coding methods have been successfully used in various image restoration applications which are inspired by the sparse coding methods of human vision system in recent years. In this paper, how the object should be represented is a critical issue to be investigated as standardize linear representation learning has led to interesting results in image classification. A novel relaxed collaborative representation (RCR) model is proposed to effectively exploit the similarity and distinctiveness of features by considering the fact that the different features in a sample should contribute differently to the pattern representation and classification. In RCR, to allow flexibility of feature coding each feature vector is coded on its associated dictionary, while the inconsistency of coding vectors is minimized to address the resemblance among features. In addition, the uniqueness of different features is exploited by weighting its distance to other features in the coding domain. The proposed RCR is straightforward, while our extensive experimental results on benchmark image databases show that it is very aggressive with state-of-the-art image classification methods.
On the detection of pod slurping attacks 5

Time is recognised to be a dimension of paramount importance in computer forensics. In this paper, we report on the potential of identifying past pod slurping type of attacks by constructing a synthetic metric based on information contained in filesystem timestamps. More specifically, by inferring the transfer rate of a file from last access timestamps and correlating that to the characteristic transfer rate capabilities of a suspicious USB found in the Windows registry, one could assess the probability of having suffered an unauthorised copy of files. Preliminary findings indicate that file transfer rates can be associated with the make and model of the USB storage device and give supporting information to the forensic analyst to identify file leakages. a 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Absence of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Is a Reproducible Predictive Factor for Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis: A Multicenter Database Study by the Brazilian Melanoma Group

Aims The aim of this study is to confirm the function of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 633 patients with invasive melanoma who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy in 7 referral centers certified by the Brazilian Melanoma Group. Independent risk factors of sentinel node metastasis (SNL) were identified by multiple logistic regression. Results SLN metastasis was detected in 101 of 633 cases (16.1%) and in 93 of 428 patients (21.7%) when melanomas ≤ 1mm were excluded. By multiple logistic regression, the absence of TILs was as an independent risk factor of SLN metastasis (OR = 1.8; 95%CI: 1.1–3.0), in addition to Breslow index (greater than 2.00 mm), lymph vascular invasion, and presence of mitosis. Conclusion SLNB can identify patients who might benefit from immunotherapy, and the determination of predictors of SLNB positivity can help select the proper population for this type of therapy. The absence of TILs is a reproducible parameter that can predict SLNB positivity in melanoma patients, since this study was made with several centers with different dermatopathologists.
Hyperbilirubinaemia in HIV–HCV co-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy: drug effect or liver disease severity?

Objective Hyperbilirubinaemia (HB) is common in HIV and hepatitis C virus (HIV–HCV) co-infected patients and poses a unique challenge in management as it may be due to medications such as the protease inhibitors (PIs) or to hepatic dysfunction. There are no data on the relationship of HB to liver histology and PI use in this population. Clinicians caring for these patients are faced with the difficult task of determining whether increasing serum bilirubin is due to drug effects or progression of liver disease. Methods To address this gap in knowledge, we performed a retrospective analysis of 344 consecutive HIV–HCV co-infected patients undergoing liver biopsy to identify factors associated with HB. Demographic, clinical, laboratory data were collected. Advanced fibrosis was defined as bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis. Those with hepatitis B virus, hepatic decompensation or hepatocellular carcinoma were excluded. Results The prevalence of HB (range 1.3–9.4) was 33% and more common in those on a PI (46%) than those who were not (10%; p≤0.001) and mostly in those on indinavir (40%) or atazanavir (46%). Of the patients on these PIs, HB was not associated with fibrosis grade, demographics, or other clinical variables. Conversely, in those not on a PI, HB was associated with fibrosis grade (p≤0.0001) after adjusting for other clinical and demographic variables. Conclusions In the setting of indinavir or atazanavir use, HB is common and unrelated to underlying disease severity and the medications can be continued safely. Conversely, HB in HIV–HCV co-infected patients not on a PI is due to their underlying liver disease and suggests these patients require closer monitoring.
Cluster synchronization of coupled systems with nonidentical linear dynamics

This paper considers the cluster synchronization problem of generic linear dynamical systems whose system models are distinct in different clusters. These nonidentical linear models render control design and coupling conditions highly correlated if static couplings are used for all individual systems. In this paper, a dynamic coupling structure, which incorporates a global weighting factor and a vanishing auxiliary control variable, is proposed for each agent and is shown to be a feasible solution. Lower bounds on the global and local weighting factors are derived under the condition that every interaction subgraph associated with each cluster admits a directed spanning tree. The spanning tree requirement is further shown to be a necessary condition when the clusters connect acyclically with each other. Simulations for two applications, cluster heading alignment of nonidentical ships and cluster phase synchronization of nonidentical harmonic oscillators, illustrate essential parts of the derived theoretical results. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluation of the efficacy of additional measures introduced for the protection of healthcare personnel handling antineoplastic drugs.

OBJECTIVES Due to their adverse effects, antineoplastic drugs are considered as a potential health risk to healthcare personnel. The objective of the study was to compare the surface contamination level of the conventional preparation room and outpatient clinic before and after the implementation of a set of additional protective measures. METHODS The measures were targeted at eliminating potential sources of environmental contamination, and modification of the cleaning procedure. The measures introduced into the preparation room consisted of (i) the introduction of manual cleaning of drug vials before they enter the preparation room, (ii) the modification of the routine cleaning procedure performed at the end of each working day (i.e. shifting the cleaning of the isolators as the most contaminated objects from the beginning of the cleaning process to the end), and (iii) the introduction of regular cleaning of the work table every 2 h. The measures introduced into the outpatient clinic consisted of (i) replacement of the standard infusion sets with multichannel sets for safe drug administration, (ii) the introduction of self-cleaning seats to the patient lavatories supporting hygienic and contamination-free seated urination, and (iii) replacement of standard infusion stands with wall-mounted stands, supporting the regular and proper cleaning of the floor beneath. To determine the surface contamination level with antineoplastic drugs, cyclophosphamide and platinum were determined in wipe samples with high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. RESULTS In the preparation room, depending on the sampling spot and analyte, median concentrations ranged from 5 to 267 pg cm(-2) and from 2 to 368 pg cm(-2) before and after implementation of the measures, respectively. In the outpatient clinic, median concentrations ranged from 5 to 5310 pg cm(-2) and from <0.2 to 574 pg cm(-2) before and after implementation of the measures, respectively. Depending on the sampling spot, median contamination of the outpatient clinic with cyclophosphamide and platinum was reduced by 57-99% and 61-98%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The measures implemented in the outpatient clinic were shown to reduce workplace contamination effectively. Therefore, they can be recommended also for other workplaces where antineoplastic drugs are administered. In contrast, measures implemented in the preparation room, where relatively strict regulations had already been adopted before the study, were less effective. To decrease the actual contamination of the preparation room, other protective measures (e.g. closed-system transfer devices) should be considered.
Recommendation of text tags using linked data

We illustrate our approach to recommending short texts according to their semantic similarity to a given one. We make use of Linked Data on the Web to discover similarity between words, and then we analyze the syntax of sentences to compute a degree of similarity between them. We show some preliminary experimental results as well as some directions for future research.
Sensitivity of a linear detection procedure to the accuracy of empirical orthogonal functions

Empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) and the corresponding eigenvalues are an important ingredient in formulating the linear detection algorithm developed by North et al. [1995]. Naturally, reliability of this detection method is an important issue when only inaccurate EOFs and eigenvalues are available for constructing a detection filter. To address this issue, this study examines how sensitive the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is, which is an important property of a detection filter, to the accuracy of EOFs and eigenvalues. A relationship is derived between an error bound of the signal-to-noise ratio squared (SNR2) and EOF and eigenvalue errors [Kim, this issue]. The derived error bound estimate for SNR2 rather accurately delineates the actual SNR2 error due to an inaccurate filter providing that the EOFs and eigenvalues constructing a detection filter are “reasonably” accurate. Whether or not a set of EOFs and eigenvalues is reasonably accurate depends upon the magnitude of sampling error and is addressed in terms of the sampling insufficiency in space and time, and the cutoff eigenvalue which is the minimum eigenvalue retained for formulating a detection filter. If the cutoff eigenvalue is very low, an error bound tends to seriously underestimate an actual SNR2 error. The utility of the derived error bound is demonstrated by examining the relative uncertainty in the SNR of a hypothetical greenhouse warming signal when using two different sets of EOFs and eigenvalues.
A NANO INTERDIGITATED ELECTRODES ARRAY ON POLYMER FOR DISPOSABLE IMPEDIMETRIC BIOSENSORS

A telephone transaction processing system is disclosed, Processing of telephone transactions, such as credit card transactions, financial account debiting, or information collection, is facilitated by an agent that may be integrated into the transport of the carrier as an enhanced service, the telephone network of a local or long distance company, or a private branch exchange or computer or separate processor supporting said telephone call. The agent may be invoked through touch tones or voice commands by any party on a completed telephone call and may be invoked multiple times during a conversation.
A parallel pipelined processor with conditional instruction execution

In a recent paper by Smith, Lam and Horowitz [1] the concept of 'boosting' was introduced, where instructions from one of the possible instruction streams following a conditional branch were scheduled by the compiler for execution in the basic block containing the branch itself. This paper describes how code from both instruction streams following a conditional branch can be considered for execution in the basic block containing the branch. Branch conditions are stored in Boolean registers and all instructions are conditionally executed based on the value in a Boolean register. The two instruction streams can therefore be executed on complementary values of the same Boolean register.
Program Derivation by Correctness Enhacements

Relative correctness is the property of a program to be more-correct than another program with respect to a given specification. Among the many properties of relative correctness, that which we found most intriguing is the property that program P' refines program P if and only if P' is more-correct than P with respect to any specification. This inspires us to reconsider program derivation by successive refinements: each step of this process mandates that we transform a program P into a program P' that refines P, i.e. P' is more-correct than P with respect to any specification. This raises the question: why should we want to make P' more-correct than P with respect to any specification, when we only have to satisfy specification R? In this paper, we discuss a process of program derivation that replaces traditional sequence of refinement-based correctness-preserving transformations starting from specification R by a sequence of relative correctness-based correctness-enhancing transformations starting from abort.
Clustering with Beta Divergences

Clustering algorithms start with a fixed divergence metric, which captures the possibly asymmetric distance between two samples. In a mixture model, the sample distribution plays the role of a divergence metric. It is often the case that the distributional assumption is not validated, which calls for an adaptive approach. We consider a richer model where the underlying distribution belongs to a parametrized exponential family, called Tweedie Models. We first show the connection between the Tweedie models and beta divergences, and derive the corresponding hard-assignment clustering algorithm. We exploit this connection to identify moment conditions and use Generalized Method of Moments(GMoM) to learn the data distribution. Based on this adaptive approach, we propose four new hard clustering algorithms and compare them to the classical k-means and DP-means on synthetic data as well as seven UCI datasets and one large gene expression dataset. We further compare the GMoM routine to an approximate maximum likelihood routine and validate the computational benefits of the GMoM approach.
A plasma modified fiber sensor for breath rate monitoring

The paper describes a new sensor for breath activity monitoring that, being based on optical fibers, is specifically conceived for applications where the intrinsic safety and the immunity to strong electromagnetic fields are mandatory, such as during MRI. The sensor is based on a plastic optical fiber (POF) in contact with the patient chest and properly modified to be extremely sensitive to deformations induced by normal breathing activity. The paper presents the sensor development procedure, the fiber modification process based on a cold plasma facility, and experimental results carried out during rest and sleeping conditions.
The Effect of Religious Clothing on Gaze Behavior: An Eye-Tracking Experiment

ABSTRACT There are very few experimental studies regarding religious clothing. In the current study, we hypothesized that the function of conservative clothing hiding female curvaceous body features is to restrict visual access and consequently decreases female physical attractiveness. Using eye-tracking, we quantified dwell times and number of fixations on religious clothing, ranging from conservative to liberal. Results showed that conservative religious clothing decreased visual access to female curvaceous body features and instead focused visual attention to the head/face region. Results were discussed in terms of the roles of conservative clothing in women’s clothing choice, men’s mate retention tactics, and parent-offspring conflict over mate choice.
INF 380 E : Crowdsourcing Uncovered-A Literature Review

As the price and scope of information processing, and in some cases generation, continues to grow various institutions have begun to turn to crowdsourcing in an effort to alleviate some of the burden on their own resources. This literature review takes a broad look at the current state of crowdsourcing as it finds itself being put into use by various institutions. While crowdsourcing itself exists as a separate entity from the idea of human computation, it does share many of the same attributes. In the course of evaluating different concepts we have identified as components of crowdsourcing as we know it, such as the specific qualities of requesters and workers we also discuss the various challenges associated with implementing crowdsourcing.
Characterization of the Freesound online community

There are many online communities with member-generated and openly available multimedia content. Their success depends on having active contributing users and on producing useful content. With this criterion, the community of sound practitioners that has emerged in Freesound is a successful case of interest to be studied. But to understand it and support it further we need an appropriate analysis methodology. In this paper we propose some qualitative and quantitative approaches for its characterization, focusing on the analysis of organizational structure, shared goals, user interactions and vocabulary sharing. We think that the proposed approach can be applied to other online communities with similar characteristics.
FPGA Implementation of Linearized Bregman Algorithm and Efficient Recovery in Compressive Sensing

Hardware implementation in FPGA enables parallel operation facility and high speed. This paper proposes an efficient method for retrieval of compressive measurements through an advanced L1 optimization algorithm known as Linearized Bregman algorithm. Hardware used floating point unit arithmetic operation, so that it gives the same results as that obtained in microcontroller and Matlab simulation. Linearized Bregman Algorithm (LBA) has good convergence properties and gives fast retrieval of the original information. Our Hardware implementation shows that the recovered images are truly representative of what is obtained by computation.
Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams, 1999-2000: A National Reconnaissance

To provide the first nationwide reconnaissance of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) in water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey used five newly developed analytical methods to measure concentrations of 95 OWCs in water samples from a network of 139 streams across 30 states during 1999 and 2000. The selection of sampling sites was biased toward streams susceptible to contamination (i.e. downstream of intense urbanization and livestock production). OWCs were prevalent during this study, being found in 80% of the streams sampled. The compounds detected represent a wide range of residential, industrial, and agricultural origins and uses with 82 of the 95 OWCs being found during this study. The most frequently detected compounds were coprostanol (fecal steroid), cholesterol (plant and animal steroid), N,N-diethyltoluamide (insect repellant), caffeine (stimulant), triclosan (antimicrobial disinfectant), tri(2-chloroethyl)phosphate (fire retardant), and 4-nonylphenol (nonionic detergent metabolite). Measured concentrations for this study were generally low and rarely exceeded drinking-water guidelines, drinking-water health advisories, or aquatic-life criteria. Many compounds, however, do not have such guidelines established. The detection of multiple OWCs was common for this study, with a median of seven and as many as 38 OWCs being found in a given water sample. Little is known about the potential interactive effects (such as synergistic or antagonistic toxicity) that may occur from complex mixtures of OWCs in the environment. In addition, results of this study demonstrate the importance of obtaining data on metabolites to fully understand not only the fate and transport of OWCs in the hydrologic system but also their ultimate overall effect on human health and the environment.
Third Eye Retina Scan–Thought Force Technology

Experiments prove thought force is an existing force that can leave our heads. Thought force is a new fundamental interaction which is not in our physics books. In order to understand this new fundamental interaction, we need a new theory that describes it. This is the space-matter model. In this model, thought is a force that appears as a change of the wavelengths of space waves. Thought as a space wave is more than just a standalone, lonely act. According to our brains, forces that appear in a given spectrum of wavelengths of space waves are thoughts, regardless of who or what created these forces: we ourselves, other humans or inanimate (non-living) things. We send and receive thoughts as forces. Thought is a kind of communication. The force of thought and thought force communication can be used in the industry. They make it possible to increase safety and to find new solutions that nobody has dreamed of until now.
Compensation of Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor Function by Altering Sarco-Endoplasmic Reticulum Calcium ATPase Activity in the Drosophila Flight Circuit

Ionic Ca2+ functions as a second messenger to control several intracellular processes. It also influences intercellular communication. The release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores through the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (InsP3R) occurs in both excitable and nonexcitable cells. In Drosophila, InsP3R activity is required in aminergic interneurons during pupal development for normal flight behavior. By altering intracellular Ca2+ and InsP3 levels through genetic means, we now show that signaling through the InsP3R is required at multiple steps for generating the neural circuit required in air puff-stimulated Drosophila flight. Decreased Ca2+ release in aminergic neurons during development of the flight circuit can be compensated by reducing Ca2+ uptake from the cytosol to intracellular stores. However, this mode of increasing intracellular Ca2+ is insufficient for maintenance of flight patterns over time periods necessary for normal flight. Our study suggests that processes such as maintenance of wing posture and formation of the flight circuit require InsP3 receptor function at a slow timescale and can thus be modulated by altering levels of cytosolic Ca2+ and InsP3. In contrast, maintenance of flight patterns probably requires fast modulation of Ca2+ levels, in which the intrinsic properties of the InsP3R play a pivotal role.