Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A MIMO APPROACH FOR THE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OF HISTORICAL URBAN CENTRES 1 / 6

The high complexity of the rehabilitation analysis of city centres requires a flexible multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) approach able to support the information arising from different sensors/techniques and to provide different levels of information to users with different requirements. In this paper, a MIMO approach to the capture, analysis and visualization of architectural heritage is addressed under a common support provided by a 3D time of flight (TOF) laser scanning system. The volumetric map generated by a 3D laser poses some interesting challenges for the information management. Indeed, different sensors in the capture stage and different requirements in the analysis or publication stage require a multilayered and multiresolution approach. A multilayered approach is necessary to satisfy metric, geometric, architectural and topographic constraints. A multiresolution approach helps in dealing with the limitation in computer visualization of large graphic files or models. Our approach combines a low-level compression for clouds of points in early processing and rendering, a simplification of volumetric data in intermediate stages for the adjustment to meaningful architectural elements, and an approximation to original refined meshes in final display for the incorporation of ornamental details. We illustrate our approach with an overview of several applications related to a visualization of recent modifications in the Plaza Mayor of Valladolid.
Attention Design: Seven issues to consider

In HCI research there is a body of work concerned with the development of systems capable of reasoning about users attention and how this might be most eectively guided for specic applications. The design of systems capable of assessing user attention, evaluating the effectiveness of focus of attention and capturing, shifting or maintaining attention, would best be informed by the literatures on attention and performance, psychophysical factors aecting attention, task demands, and an understanding of how errors typically arise and are dealt with in meeting those demands. Current work seeks to establish the relationship between attention, the users task, its situational context, and the users understanding of that context and the expectations this generates. In doing this, we have found it helpful to distinguish between benign situations and errorful situations. Our aim is, through better understanding of attention and its impact on the users ability to extract pertinent information in a timely manner, to extract design principles for supporting user activity.
Surgical treatment for apparent early stage endometrial cancer

Most experts would agree that the standard surgical treatment for endometrial cancer includes a hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy; however, the benefit of full surgical staging with lymph node dissection in patients with apparent early stage disease remains a topic of debate. Recent prospective data and advances in laparoscopic techniques have transformed this disease into one that can be successfully managed with minimally invasive surgery. This review will discuss the current surgical management of apparent early stage endometrial cancer and some of the new techniques that are being incorporated.
Relationship between Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Worry and Stress in Adolescent Girls

The aim of this study is to investigate prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) among adolescents and difference in worry and stress between normal and IBS groups. Questionnaire survey was conducted at a girl's middle and high school. Students from seventh to eleventh grade participated in the examination on Rome II criteria, lifestyle and dietary habits. Worry and stress were measured with the Korean version Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Children and the Korean version Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument. Worry score was significantly higher in the IBS group (22.07 ± 9.38, P < 0.001) than in the normal group (18.65 ± 8.99) and was higher in high school students than in middle school students (P = 0.02). Stress score also was higher in the IBS group than in the normal group (P < 0.001) and was higher in the high school girls than in the middle school ones (P = 0.04). Of all the lifestyle factors influencing IBS preference for fatty foods, preference for salty foods, drinking alcohol and sleeping for less than six hours a day were found to be significant. Worry and stress seem to be associated with IBS symptoms. The findings of this study draw a clue that less worry and stress will help decrease IBS symptoms.
A New Approach To Fingerprint Recognition

Fingerprint recognition continues to be the most widely used biometric system for security purposes. Still it is a complex pattern recognition problem. In this paper, a new approach for fingerprint recognition is developed. There are three steps: image preprocessing, minutiae extraction and minutiae matching. In the first stage the fingerprint image is preprocessed to produce a thinned image with noisy data deleted. Then for minutiae extraction, some heuristic rules have been developed based on the concept of neighboring pixels. This stage results in removal of spurious minutiae points and true minutiae points are detected. Finally an algorithm for minutiae matching has been designed to improve the performance and have accurate results.
A survey on augmented maps and environments: Approaches, interactions and applications

With the advent of ubiquitous computing infrastructures, Augmented Reality (AR) interfaces are evolving in various application domains. Classically, AR provides a set of methods to enhance the real environment with registered virtual information overlays, which has promising applications in the domains of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mobile mapping services. AR interfaces have a very close relation to GIScience and geo- visualization, most notably in that AR systems deal with large volumes of inherently spatial data. The development of scalable AR systems therefore draws on many infrastructures and algorithms from GIScience (e.g. efficient management and retrieval of spatial data, precise positioning). Moreover, the use of AR as a user interface paradigm has great potential for novel geospatial applications: most importantly, AR provides intuitive mechanisms for inter- action with spatial data and bridges the gap between the real environment and abstracted map representations. We overview the state-of-the-art on augmented maps and categorize applications using augmented maps. In addition we intend to outline current developments and future trends of augmented reality interfaces over the next decade.
Analysis of power efficiency for four-phase positive charge pumps

In this paper, the compact model of power efficiency for four-phase positive charge pump is derived. The model was verified by using post-layout simulation with 0. 25μm triple-well flash memory technology. By including parasitic effects in the pump, the discrepancies between the model and the post-layout simulation results are within 4%
Commercials and Trademarks Recognition

In this chapter we discuss the problem of detecting and recognizing the two main categories of advertisement present in television videos: explicit advertisement in the form of commercials, i.e. short video sequences advertising a product or a service, and indirect advertisement, i.e. placement of trademarks and logos. A thorough review on the current state-of-the-art algorithms and systems for commercial and trademark recognition in a variety of different video sequences, is provided. In addition, the chapter discusses an in-depth analysis of two real-time systems, one for detecting commercials, and another for trademark recognition.
M-ary FSK with Orthogonal Pulse Envelopes and its Noncoherent Detection

104705-06-0909 IJECS-IJENS © December 2010 IJENS I J E N S Abstract—Frequency shift keying (FSK) systems enjoy the highest power efficiencies among the available modulation schemes but are accompanied by the lowest bandwidth (BW) efficiencies. Additional receiver complexities arise due to accurate phase estimations required for a large number of carrier frequencies in phase-coherent synchronous receivers, a problem that can be alleviated by the use of noncoherent detection. We propose a scheme of using M-ary FSK (MFSK) systems with orthogonal envelopes of the RF pulses to improve BW efficiency of MFSK modulation. Hilbert transform (HT) based RF pulse pairs are used in an otherwise MFSK system for the proposed orthogonal pulse MFSK (OP-MFSK) system and continuous time (CT) analysis is performed using noncoherent detection for a single user in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel to obtain performance figures.
A Study on Improving Power-Consumption Performance Ratio in GPGPU Computing

Increased power consumption of computer has become an important issue in computer systems. Especially in high performance computing, its huge consumption is a serious issue. In this paper, we analyze relationship between performance and power consumption on GPGPU computing, and present a method of improving power-consumption performance ratio. First, we introduce an approach to measuring power consumption of a GPU. Second, we explore performance and power consumption, and discuss a way to improve its performance without substantial power consumption increase. Our experimental results demonstrate that memory access coalescing, utilizing shared memory, and making use of a large quantity of threads improve power-consumption performance ratio.
Progesterone Alleviates Endometriosis via Inhibition of Uterine Cell Proliferation, Inflammation and Angiogenesis in an Immunocompetent Mouse Model

Endometriosis, defined as growth of the endometrial cells outside the uterus, is an inflammatory disorder that is associated with chronic pelvic pain and infertility in women of childbearing age. Although the estrogen-dependence of endometriosis is well known, the role of progesterone in development of this disease remains poorly understood. In this study, we developed a disease model in which endometriosis was induced in the peritoneal cavities of immunocompetent female mice, and maintained with exogenous estrogen. The endometriosis-like lesions that were identified at a variety of ectopic locations exhibited abundant blood supply and extensive adhesions. Histological examination revealed that these lesions had a well-organized endometrial architecture and fibrotic response, resembling those recovered from clinical patients. In addition, an extensive proliferation, inflammatory response, and loss of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression were also observed in these lesions. Interestingly, administration of progesterone before, but not after, lesion induction suppressed lesion expansion and maintained ERα and PR expressions. These progesterone-pretreated lesions exhibited attenuation in KI67, CD31, and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression as well as macrophage infiltration, indicating that progesterone ameliorates endometriosis progression by inhibiting cell proliferation, inflammation and neovascularization. Our studies further showed that suppression of global DNA methylation by application of DNA methyltransferase inhibitor to female mice bearing ectopic lesions restrained lesion expansion and restored ERα and PR expression in eutopic endometrium and ectopic lesions. These results indicate that epigenetic regulation of target gene expression via DNA methylation contributes, at least in part, to progesterone resistance in endometriosis.
Superoxide Dismutase Inhibits the Expression of Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 and Intracellular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Induced by Tumor Necrosis Factor-&agr; in Human Endothelial Cells Through the JNK/p38 Pathways

Objective— Expression of adhesion molecules on endothelial cells and subsequent leukocyte recruitment are critical early events in the development of atherosclerosis. We tried to study possible effects of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) on adhesion molecule expression and its underlying mechanism in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disorders. Methods and Results— Human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were transfected with adenovirus carrying the human SOD gene (AdSOD) to investigate whether SOD expression in HAECs attenuated tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-&agr;–induced reactive oxygen species production and adhesion molecule expression and to define the mechanisms involved. SOD expression significantly suppressed TNF-&agr;–induced expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 and reduced the binding of the human neutrophils to TNF-&agr;–stimulated HAECs. SOD expression suppressed c-JUN N-terminal kinase and p38 phosphorylation. It also attenuated intracellular superoxide anion production and NADPH oxidase activity in TNF-&agr;–treated HAECs. Conclusions— These results provide evidence that SOD expression in endothelial cells attenuates TNF-&agr;–induced superoxide anion production and adhesion molecule expression, and that this protective effect is mediated by decreased JNK and p38 phosphorylation and activator protein-1 and nuclear factor &kgr;B inactivation. These results suggest that SOD has antiinflammatory properties and may play important roles in the prevention of atherosclerosis and inflammatory response.
Neuroendocrine Alterations in Obese Patients with Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a serious, prevalent condition that has significant morbidity and mortality when untreated. It is strongly associated with obesity and is characterized by changes in the serum levels or secretory patterns of several hormones. Obese patients with OSAS show a reduction of both spontaneous and stimulated growth hormone (GH) secretion coupled to reduced insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) concentrations and impaired peripheral sensitivity to GH. Hypoxemia and chronic sleep fragmentation could affect the sleep-entrained prolactin (PRL) rhythm. A disrupted Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis activity has been described in OSAS. Some derangement in Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH) secretion has been demonstrated by some authors, whereas a normal thyroid activity has been described by others. Changes of gonadal axis are common in patients with OSAS, who frequently show a hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Altogether, hormonal abnormalities may be considered as adaptive changes which indicate how a local upper airway dysfunction induces systemic consequences. The understanding of the complex interactions between hormones and OSAS may allow a multi-disciplinary approach to obese patients with this disturbance and lead to an effective management that improves quality of life and prevents associated morbidity or death.
MOSFETs in the Sub-threshold Region (i.e. a bit below VT)

In the depletion approximation for n-channel MOS structures we have neglected the electrons beneath the gate electrode when the gate voltage is less than the threshold voltage, VT. We said that it is only when the gate voltage is above threshold that they are significant, and that they are then the dominant negative charge under the gate. Furthermore, we say that above threshold all of the gate voltage in excess of VT induces electrons in the channel; thus our model is that the sheet charge density under the gate, qN, is
Refinement of the daily precipitation simulated by the CMIP5 models over the north of the Northeast of Brazil

The ability of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and the Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) in reproducing the area-average observed daily precipitation during the rainy season (Feb-Mar-Apr) over the north of the Northeast of Brazil (NEB) is examined. For the present climate of Dec-Jan-Feb from 1963 to 2003 period these statistical models are developed and validated using the observed daily precipitation and simulated from the historical outputs of 4 models of the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). The simulations from all the models during DJF and FMA seasons show an anomalous intensification of the ITCZ and southward displacement in comparison with the climatology. Correlations of 0.54, 0.66 and 0.66 are found between the simulated daily precipitation of the CCSM4, GFDL_ESM2M and MIROC_ESM models during DJF season and the observed values during FMA season. Only the CCSM4 model displays a slightly reasonable agreement with the observations. A comparison between the statistical downscaling using the nonlinear (ANN) and linear model (MLR) to identify the one most suitable for the analysis of daily precipitation was made. The ANN technique provides more ability to predict the present climate when compared to MLR technique. Based on this result, we examined the accuracy of the ANN model in project the changes for the future climate period from 2055 to 2095 over the same study region. For instance, a comparison between the daily precipitation changes projected indirectly from the ANN during Feb-Mar-Apr with those projected directly from the CMIP5 models forced by RCP 8.5 scenario is made. The results suggest that ANN model weights the CMIP5 projections according to the each model ability in simulating the present climate (and its variability). In others, the ANN model is a potentially promising approach to use as a complementary tool to improvement of the seasonal numerical simulations.
Integrated dialog act segmentation and classification using prosodic features and language models

This paper presents an integrated approach for the segmentation and classi(cid:12)cation of dialog acts (DA) in the Verbmobil project. In Verbmobil it is of- ten su(cid:14)cient to recognize the sequence of DAs oc-curring during a dialog between the two partners. In our previous work [5] we segmented and classi(cid:12)ed a dialog in two steps: (cid:12)rst we calculated hypotheses for the segment boundaries and decided for a boundary if the probabilities exceeded a prede(cid:12)ned threshold level. Second we classi(cid:12)ed the segments into DAs using semantic classi(cid:12)cation trees or stochastic lan- guage models. In our new approach we integrate the segmentation and classi(cid:12)cation in the A (cid:3) {algorithm to search for the optimal segmentation and classi(cid:12)ca- tion of DAs on the basis of word hypotheses graphs (WHGs). The hypotheses for the segment boundaries are calculated with the help of a stochastic language model operating on the word chain and a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) classifying prosodic features. The DA classi(cid:12)cation is done using a category based lan- guage model for each DA. For our experiments we used data from the Verbmobil -corpus.
Client Factors Affect Provider Adherence to Clinical Guidelines during First Antenatal Care

Background The first antenatal clinic (ANC) visit helps to distinguish pregnant women who require standard care, from those with specific problems and so require special attention. There are protocols to guide care providers to provide optimal care to women during ANC. Our objectives were to determine the level of provider adherence to first antenatal visit guidelines in the Safe Motherhood Protocol (SMP), and assess patient factors that determine complete provider adherence. Methods This cross-sectional study is part of a cohort study that recruited women who delivered in eleven health facilities and who had utilized antenatal care services during their pregnancy in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. A record review of the first antenatal visit of participants was carried out to assess the level of adherence to the SMP, using a thirteen-point checklist. Information on their socio-demographic characteristics and previous pregnancy history was collected using a questionnaire. Percentages of adherence levels and baseline characteristics were estimated and cluster-adjusted odds ratios (OR) calculated to identify determinants. Results A total of 948 women who had delivered in eleven public facilities were recruited with a mean age (SD) of 28.2 (5.4) years. Overall, complete adherence to guidelines pertained to only 48.1% of pregnant women. Providers were significantly more likely to completely adhere to guidelines when caring for multiparous women [OR = 5.43 (1.69–17.44), p<0.01] but less likely to do so when attending to women with history of previous pregnancy complications [OR = 0.50 (0.33–0.75), p<0.01]. Conclusion Complete provider adherence to first antenatal visit guidelines is low across different facility types in the Greater Accra region of Ghana and is determined by parity and history of previous pregnancy complication. Providers should be trained and supported to adhere to the guidelines during provision of care to all pregnant women.
Folate, Vitamin B12, and Risk of Ischemic and Hemorrhagic Stroke: A Prospective, Nested Case-Referent Study of Plasma Concentrations and Dietary Intake

Background and Purpose— Folate metabolism has been implicated in stroke. However, the possibility of a role for folate and vitamin B12, independent of their effects on homocysteine status, remains to be explored. The aim of this prospective, nested case-referent study was to relate plasma and dietary intake levels of folate and vitamin B12 to risk of stroke, taking into consideration plasma homocysteine concentrations and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase polymorphisms. Methods— Subjects were 334 ischemic and 62 hemorrhagic stroke cases and matched double referents from the population-based Northern Sweden Health and Disease Cohort. Results— Plasma folate was statistically significantly associated with risk of hemorrhagic stroke in an inverse linear manner, both in univariate analysis and after adjustment for conventional risk factors including hypertension (odds ratio [OR] for highest versus lowest quartile 0.21 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06 to 0.71; P for trend=0.008)). Risk estimates were attenuated by inclusion of homocysteine in the model (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.08 to 1.40; P for trend=0.088). A similar pattern was observed for increasing folate intake (multivariate OR, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.55; P for trend=0.031 without homocysteine, and OR, 0.16, 95% CI, 0.02 to 1.23; P for trend=0.118 with homocysteine in the analysis). We found little evidence of an association between plasma or dietary folate and risk of ischemic stroke. Neither plasma nor dietary vitamin B12 was associated with risk of either stroke subtype. Conclusions— The results of this study suggest a protective role for folate, possibly in addition to its effects on homocysteine status, in hemorrhagic but not ischemic stroke.
Naive Diversification Strategies in Defined Contribution Saving Plans

There is a worldwide trend toward defined contribution saving plans and growing interest in privatized Social Security plans. In both environments, individuals are given some responsibility to make their own asset-allocation decisions, raising concerns about how well they do at this task. This paper investigates one aspect of the task, namely diversification. We show that some investors follow the "1/n strategy": they divide their contributions evenly across the funds offered in the plan. Consistent with this naive notion of diversification, we find that the proportion invested in stocks depends strongly on the proportion of stock funds in the plan.