Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EVALUATION OF ATTENUATION CORRECTION PROCESS IN CARDIAC SPECT IMAGES

Introduction: Attenuation correction is a useful process for improving myocardial perfusion SPECT and is dependent on activity and distribution of attenuation coefficients in the body (attenuation map). Attenuation artifacts are a common problem in myocardial perfusion SPECT. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of attenuation correction using different attenuation maps and different activities in a specially designed heart phantom. Methods: The SPECT imaging for different activities and different body contours were performed by a phantom using tissue-equivalent boluses for making different thicknesses. The activity was ranged from 0.3-2mCi and the images were acquired in 180 degree, 32 steps. The images were reconstructed by OSEM method in a PC computer using Matlab software. Attenuation map were derived from CT images of the phantom. Two quality and quantity indices, derived from universal image quality index have been used to investigate the effect of attenuation correction in each SPECT image. Results: The result of our measurements showed that the quantity index of corrected image was in the range of 3.5 to 5.2 for minimum and maximum tissue thickness and was independent of activity. Comparing attenuation corrected and uncorrected images, the quality index of corrected image improved by increasing body thickness and decreasing activity of the voxels. Conclusion: Attenuation correction was more effective for images with low activity or phantoms with more thickness. In our study, the location of the pixel relative to the associated attenuator tissues was another important factor in attenuation correction. The more accurate the registration process (attenuation map and SPECT) the better the result of attenuation correction.
Designer Grapes: The Socio‐Technical Construction of the Seedless Table Grapes. A Case Study of Quality Control

This paper focuses on agrifood production in Murcia, Spain, and analyses the socio-technical production processes of the seedless table grape. In the agrifood industry, a focus on quality has driven an unstoppable process of bio-technological innovation, which is also evident in the object of this study. Before these technological innovations, taste, colour and calibre as specific qualities of the grape were not considered a determinable characteristic. They had only emerged in the context of certain productive, technological and institutional conditions of possibility and the establishment of particular relationships between the agents implicated in its cultivation. By using Callon's contribution to Actor Network Theory, the article examines how the different qualities of the seedless table grape are constructed through quality control procedures that try to stabilise the relationship between human (labour) and non-human (technology, insects, fungi, water, sun) actors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Citation network visualization of CiteSeer dataset

Citation networks are very dense and large networks. The visualization of such dense networks is a tough task. Furthermore, most of the available tools provide visualization of such networks in the form of static images. However, the static images are not of any use for the users as user cannot interact with the system and cannot find the required information. In this paper, we have implemented a system that generates a dynamic network of citations. We have used CiteSeer dataset for citation network. We have provided the functionalities where a user can magnify the shown graph and can view all the citations of the required selected paper in a radial tree form. We have also provided a lens facility that provides a hyperbolic view and user can zoom in and out the graph in the area of lens. We created this citation network in Pajek tool and then extended the tool by incorporating JUNG libraries of java.
Trigger elimination of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation by catheter ablation: trigger and substrate modification

Abstract Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a malignant arrhythmia, usually initiated by a ventricular premature contraction (VPC) during the vulnerable period of cardiac repolarization. Ablation therapy for VF has been described and increasingly reported. Targets for VF triggers are VPCs preceded by Purkinje potentials or from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) in structurally normal hearts, and VPC triggers preceded by Purkinje potentials in ischemic cardiomyopathy. During the session, mapping should be focused on the earliest activation and determining the earliest potential is the key to a successful ablation. However, suppression of VF can be achieved by not only the elimination of triggering VPCs, but also by substrate modification of possible reentry circuits in the Purkinje network, or between the PA and RVOT. The most important issue before the ablation session is the recording of the 12-lead ECG of the triggering event, which can prove invaluable in regionalizing the origin of the triggering VPC for more detailed mapping. In cases where the VPC is not spontaneous or inducible, ablation may be performed by pace mapping. Further studies are needed to evaluate the precise mechanisms of this arrhythmia.
Audio-visual Interaction in Model Adaptation for Multi-modal Speech Recognition

This paper investigates audio-visual interaction, i.e. inter-modal influences, in linear-regressive model adaptation for multi-modal speech recognition. In the multi-modal adaptation, inter-modal information may contribute the performance of speech recognition. Thus the influence and advantage of intermodal elements should be examined. Experiments were conducted to evaluate several transformation matrices including or excluding inter-modal and intra-modal elements, using noisy data in an audio-visual corpus. From the experimental results, the importance of effective use of audio-visual interaction is clarified.
Designing Stable Concentric Tube Robots Using Piecewise Straight Tubes

Concentric tube robots experience elastic instability when the potential energy stored in torsional twisting of the tubes is suddenly released. To date, ensuring stability for all possible rotational configurations has involved constraining the precurvatures and / or precurved lengths of the tubes comprising the robot, which results in limitations on robot curvature and workspace. This paper presents a design approach that eliminates the constraints on tube precurvature and length for stable rotation. The idea is to compose designs in which, at every point along the length of a robot, a single tube is precurved and the others are straight. The resulting designs do not experience any precurvature-induced torsional tube twisting and so are stable regardless of precurvature and length. This design concept can be usefully employed at the tip of a robot to provide a large stable range of tip orientation angles. A stability analysis is provided for designs composed of an arbitrary number of tubes and design rules are provided for tube pairs that can produce tip angles varying from zero to a desired maximum value. The method is validated experimentally for a tube pair comprised of three sections.
A Survey on Bioinformatics Data and Service Integration Using Ontology and Declarative Workflow Query Language

Formulating and executing queries over distributed, autonomous and heterogeneous resources is an important topic within e-science in general and bioinformatics in particular. The advent of the Internet and the Web and their subsequent ubiquity have brought forth opportunities to connect biological information sources across all types of boundaries. Examples of such information sources include databases, XML documents, and other unstructured sources. Uniformly querying those information sources has been extensively investigated. We survey the current research on the fundamental problems to efficiently process and optimize queries over Web Data integration systems. Bioinformatics domain has been chosen to illustrate the query processing capabilities over the heterogeneous information sources. We surveyed different approaches to data integration such as warehouse, mediator-based and navigational. The complex biological data stored in bioinformatics databases often require the addition of knowledge to specify and constrain the values held in the database. One way of capturing knowledge within bioinformatics applications and databases is the use of ontologies. The ontology is also central to the query processing and reconciliation of heterogeneities. For efficient query processing, we advocate for the selection of relevant information sources; the use of meta data as well as to use source constraints. We propose that current data integration approaches should be enhanced by ontological knowledge and ISA relationships and inter-ontology mappings in ontologies should be explored. Electronically available data on the Web is exploding at an ever increasing pace. Much of this data is unstructured, which makes searching hard and traditional database querying impossible. Many Web documents, however, contain an abundance of recognizable constants that together describe the essence of a documents content. For these kinds of data-rich, multiple-record documents (e.g. advertisements, movie reviews, weather reports, travel information, sports summaries, financial statements etc) we can apply a conceptual-modeling approach to extract and structure data automatically. we can automatically produce a database scheme and recognizers for constants and keywords, and then invoke routines to recognize and extract data from unstructured web documents and structure it according to the generated database scheme, which can later be used in declarative ad hoc query. The transition of the World Wide Web from a paradigm of static Web pages to one of dynamic Web services provides new and exciting opportunities for bioinformatics with respect to data dissemination,transformation, and integration. Integration of data and service from heterogeneous sources demand significant advances in middleware system, which we plan to implement.
Holding the Un-grievable: A Psychoanalytic Approach to the Environmental Crisis. Review of Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis, and Radical Ethics, by Donna M. Orange. New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. 148 pp.

Orange, D. M. (1992). Perspectival Realism and Social Constructivism: Commentary on Irwin Hoffman’s “Discussion: Toward a social-constructivist view of the psychoanalytic situation”. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2, 561–565. doi:10.1080/10481889209538952 Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry. New York: Norton. Tarnas, R. (1991). Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the ideas that have shaped our world views. New York: Harmony. Tennes, M. (2007). Beyond Intersubjectivity: The transpersonal dimension of the psychoanalytic encounter. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 43, 505–525. doi:10.1080/00107530.2007. 10745929
Affective response to a lottery prize moderates processing of payoffs and probabilities: An eye-tracking study

Abstract Expected utility theory posits that our preferences for gambles result from the weighting of utilities of monetary payoffs by their probabilities. However, recent studies have shown that combining payoffs and probabilities is often distorted by affective responses. In the current study, we hypothesized that affective response to a lottery prize moderates processing of payoffs and probabilities. Attentional engagement (measured by the number of fixations in the eye tracking experiment) was predicted by probability, value of an outcome, and their interaction, but only for affect-poor lottery tickets. A corresponding pattern of results was not observed in affect-rich lottery tickets, suggesting more simplified processing of such lotteries.
Reliability Challenges and Enhancement Approaches for Pipeline Sensor and Actor Networks

Sensor and actor networks are used to monitor and control pipeline infrastructures. This paper discusses and compares different sensor and actor network architectures for water, gas, and oil pipeline infrastructures monitoring. These architectures are wired networks, wireless networks, separated wired and wireless networks, and integrated wired and wireless networks. The paper also discusses the reliability challenges and enhancement approaches for these network architectures. The reliability characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages among these architectures are discussed and compared. Three reliability factors are used for the discussion and comparison: the network connectivity, the continuity of power supply for the network, and network maintainability. This paper discusses and compares different sensor and actor network architectures for water, gas, and oil pipeline infrastructure monitoring and control. The proposed architectures are wired networks, wireless networks, separated wired and wireless networks, and integrated wired and wireless networks. Three reliability factors are used to compare the architectures: network connectivity, continuity of power supply for the network, and network maintainability. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of each of these architectures are discussed.
Towards a theory of mediated interaction : a study of mobile phone communication

The last decade has seen a proliferation of interpersonal communication channels. These new forms of communication seem to shape interaction and create new ways of interacting. My research traces connections between the affordances of a communication channel and the social interaction that it facilitates, developing a typology of interactional channel characteristics. These characteristics shape communication in terms of meaning construction and interpretation, as well as content. Although users often take communication channels for granted, they are aware of their different interactional characteristics, and this is relevant to choice and usage. The study focuses on mobile phones, because they combine two communication channels in a single device, facilitating a comparison of the interactional characteristics of these channels. However, the research includes users' perceptions of their whole communication repertoires, and the findings are relevant to other communication channels. I argue that text messages are a new form of interaction with unique interactional characteristics, and that mobile phone communication has positive effects on the development and maintenance of relationships. The main contribution of my thesis is the development of a theoretical framework that facilitates analysis of the differences between mediated communication channels. The work has potential practical application, both in the design of new communication technologies and within organisations where recognition of the interactional characteristics of different channels could improve communication effectiveness. My work also contributes to the theory of communication, emphasising the two different paradigms that apply to traditional channels and showing how the specific characteristics of communication channels create a spectrum of different forms of interaction. In terms of social significance, the major findings of my work include the diversity of interaction afforded by different media, the discovery that for a number of people phone calls are problematic, and my identification of some of the mechanisms through which mobile phones affect relationships.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of students’ science inquiry skills in grades 5 and 6 of primary education

In most primary science classes, students are taught science inquiry skills by way of learning by doing. Research shows that explicit instruction may be more effective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of inquiry skills. Participants included 705 Dutch fifth and sixth graders. Students in an explicit instruction condition received an eight-week intervention of explicit instruction on inquiry skills. In the lessons of the implicit condition, all aspects of explicit instruction were absent. Students in the baseline condition followed their regular science curriculum. In a quasi-experimental pre-test – post-test design, two paper-and-pencil tests and three performance assessments were used to examine the acquisition and transfer of inquiry skills. Additionally, questionnaires were used to measure metacognitive skills. The results of a multilevel analysis controlling for pre-tests, general cognitive ability, age, gender and grade level indicated that explicit instruction facilitates the acquisition of science inquiry skills. Specifically on the performance assessment with an unfamiliar topic, students in the explicit condition outperformed students of both the implicit and baseline condition. Therefore, this study provides a strong argument for including an explicit teaching method for developing inquiry skills in primary science education.
Indoor pedestrian localization for mobile devices the model

Indoor localization using mobile devices is one of the emerging areas of today's interest. This paper presents a model for indoor localization based on 802.11 Wi-Fi fingerprinting in combination of inertial navigation running in parallel. We introduce a novel model scheme, where we use a state-of-the-art Compass system. The system is enhanced by clustering and the position calculation is influenced by the distance travelled between each fingerprinting, allowing us to eliminate improbable location estimations. Proposed system is supposed to be resilient to received signal strength blocking caused by a human body, and also to be more accurate than other up-to-date solutions.
A Compositional Framework for Passive Linear Networks

Passive linear networks are used in a wide variety of engineering applications, but the best studied are electrical circuits made of resistors, inductors and capacitors. We describe a category where a morphism is a circuit of this sort with marked input and output terminals. In this category, composition describes the process of attaching the outputs of one circuit to the inputs of another. We construct a functor, dubbed the ‘black box functor’, that takes a circuit, forgets its internal structure, and remembers only its external behavior. Two circuits have the same external behavior if and only if they impose same relation between currents and potentials at their terminals. The space of these currents and potentials naturally has the structure of a symplectic vector space, and the relation imposed by a circuit is a Lagrangian linear relation. Thus, the black box functor goes from our category of circuits to the category of symplectic vector spaces and Lagrangian linear relations. We prove that this functor is a symmetric monoidal dagger functor between dagger compact categories. We assume the reader has some familiarity with category theory, but none with circuit theory or symplectic linear algebra.
Spring-Based Manipulation Tools for Virtual Environments

In this paper we present new tools for user interaction with virtual worlds, to bring more natural behavior into the manipulation of objects in virtual environments. We present some principles of physically realistic behavior of virtual objects and a set of user input techniques suitable for semi-immersive VR devices such as the Responsive Workbench. We introduce springs, spring-forks and spring-probes as new tools for assisting direct manipulation of objects in VEs. In this paper we focus on controlling rotational motions.
Robust second-order tracking of multi-vehicle systems without velocity measurements on directed communication topologies

Second-order consensus tracking problem of uncertain multi-vehicle systems without velocity measurements is studied on the directed communication topologies. We first construct two dynamic controllers via a passivity-based approach for the nominal vehicle model, which are linear and bounded (nonlinear) respectively. We then develop conditions on linear uncertainty and disturbance estimators (UDEs) for the situation having neither velocity measurements nor their asymptotic estimates. Finally, a lowest-order, improved UDE is combined with the two controllers, yielding two robust controllers for the disturbed vehicle model. Numerical simulation cases are presented to show the effectiveness of the controllers.
Correlations among the properties of galaxies found in a blind H I survey, which also have SDSS optical data

ABSTRACT We have used the Parkes Multibeam system and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) toassemble a sample of 195 galaxies selected originally from their H I signature to avoid biasesagainst unevolved or low surface brightness objects. For each source 9 intrinsic properties aremeasured homogeneously, as well as inclination and an optical spectrum. The sample, whichshould be almost entirely free of either misidentiﬁcation o r confusion, includes a wide diver-sity of galaxies ranging from inchoate, low surface brightness dwarfs to giant spirals. Despitethis diversitythere are 5 clear correlationsamongtheir properties.Theyincludea commondy-namical mass-to-light ratio within their optical radii, a correlation between surface-brightnessand Luminosity and a common H I surface-density. Such correlation should provide strongconstrains on models of galaxy formation and evolution.Key words: galaxies: fundamental parameters – galaxies: evolution – g alaxies: general –galaxies: structure – galaxies: peculiar.
Association rules for data mining in item classification algorithm: Web service approach

The student's assessment is the core of learning process, which facilitates teachers to evaluate a student's knowledge level; furthermore, the precise measurement helps the students knowledge development reaches their full potential. Usually, this assessment method is also known as computer adaptive testing (CAT). The conventional CAT systems contain its own item bank, which is stored separately in many repositories over the Internet. The collection of the items from many repositories of database together makes these items were reused, sharable, valuable, and also makes the larger item bank. Unfortunately, the combined items make the tangled data, and greater data size. The problem of data overloaded occurs, and a large number of irrelevant and redundant data should be eliminated. This paper has attempted to formulate the data mining model in manipulate the optimal item-set from the different sources of the item. The item data from many repositories were mined in order to extract the implicit, useful information and interesting patterns from the huge irrelevant and redundant data collections. Therefore, the association rules were established by applying the knowledge pattern, decision trees, adaptive testing and related theory. The result shows that the association rules and mining process are used to create the optimal item-set. This optimal item-set was delivered through Web service to the CAT applications. The result also shows that data mining works properly. Moreover, the precise items help the students improve their knowledge reach their full potential.