Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Threshold based Algorithm to Detect Peripapillary Atrophy for Glaucoma Diagnosis

presence of a Peripapillary Atrophy (PPA) is one of the conditions for Glaucoma to develop. This paper is divided into three parts. The first part of this paper describes the terminology related to the diagnosis of glaucoma. The second part of this paper describes various existing algorithms to detect and segment human PPA from a digital fundus retinal image. The paper compares the performances and contrasts the various shortcomings of these described algorithms. The third part of this paper proposes a threshold-based algorithm to detect the PPA of a human eye to aid the diagnosis of Glaucoma. The proposed algorithm calculates the Red by Green ratio for each pixel in the Region of Interest (ROI) and segments the Optic Disc (OD) from the PPA, having different pixel ratios. The algorithm can be further improved by applying sub-algorithms of false region elimination. The proposed algorithm should, theoretically, overcome most of the problems faced by the described algorithms.
Numeral-Based Crosstalk Avoidance Coding to Reliable NoC Design

This paper proposes a Numeral-Based Crosstalk Avoidance Coding (NB-CAC) to protect communication channels of Network-on-Chips (NoCs) against crosstalk faults. The NB-CAC scheme produces code words without bit patterns '101' and '010' to eliminate harmful transition patterns from NoC channels. This is done by the use of a new numeral system proposed in the paper. Using the proposed numeral system, the NB-CAC scheme 1) can be utilized in NoC channels with any arbitrary width, and 2) can be implemented with low area, power, and timing overheads. VHDL and SPICE simulations have been carried out for a wide range of channel widths to evaluate delay, area, and power consumption of the NB-CAC codecs. Results of simulations reveal that the NB-CAC scheme completely removes crosstalk faults from NoC channel. In addition, the NB-CAC scheme provides reductions of 17.3% in area and 31.9% in power-delay product with respect to Fibonacci-based coding which has been recently proposed in literature.
Transition by head-on collision: mechanically mediated manoeuvres in cockroaches and small robots

Exceptional performance is often considered to be elegant and free of ‘errors’ or missteps. During the most extreme escape behaviours, neural control can approach or exceed its operating limits in response time and bandwidth. Here we show that small, rapid running cockroaches with robust exoskeletons select head-on collisions with obstacles to maintain the fastest escape speeds possible to transition up a vertical wall. Instead of avoidance, animals use their passive body shape and compliance to negotiate challenging environments. Cockroaches running at over 1 m or 50 body lengths per second transition from the floor to a vertical wall within 75 ms by using their head like an automobile bumper, mechanically mediating the manoeuvre. Inspired by the animal's behaviour, we demonstrate a passive, high-speed, mechanically mediated vertical transitions with a small, palm-sized legged robot. By creating a collision model for animal and human materials, we suggest a size dependence favouring mechanical mediation below 1 kg that we term the ‘Haldane limit’. Relying on the mechanical control offered by soft exoskeletons represents a paradigm shift for understanding the control of small animals and the next generation of running, climbing and flying robots where the use of the body can off-load the demand for rapid sensing and actuation.
Occupational exposure to carcinogens in the European Union

OBJECTIVES To construct a computer assisted information system for the estimation of the numbers of workers exposed to established and suspected human carcinogens in the member states of the European Union (EU). METHODS A database called CAREX (carcinogen exposure) was designed to provide selected exposure data and documented estimates of the number of workers exposed to carcinogens by country, carcinogen, and industry. CAREX includes data on agents evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (all agents in groups 1 and 2A as of February 1995, and selected agents in group 2B) and on ionising radiation, displayed across the 55 industrial classes. The 1990–3 occupational exposure was estimated in two phases. Firstly, estimates were generated by the CAREX system on the basis of national labour force data and exposure prevalence estimates from two reference countries (Finland and the United States) which had the most comprehensive data available on exposures to these agents. For selected countries, these estimates were then refined by national experts in view of the perceived exposure patterns in their own countries compared with those of the reference countries. RESULTS About 32 million workers (23% of those employed) in the EU were exposed to agents covered by CAREX. At least 22 million workers were exposed to IARC group 1 carcinogens. The exposed workers had altogether 42 million exposures (1.3 mean exposures for each exposed worker). The most common exposures were solar radiation (9.1 million workers exposed at least 75% of working time), environmental tobacco smoke (7.5 million workers exposed at least 75% of working time), crystalline silica (3.2 million exposed), diesel exhaust (3.0 million), radon (2.7 million), and wood dust (2.6 million). CONCLUSION These preliminary estimates indicate that in the early 1990s, a substantial proportion of workers in the EU were exposed to carcinogens.
Dynamics of Simultaneous Overlay Network Routing

Peer-to-peer and overlay networks allow routing to be controlled at the application layer. Consider several independent overlay flows, each with a set of available overlay routes to send their data on. If they each select the route with the most available bandwidth, i.e., they are “greedy”, a significant degree of instability could result, leading to degraded performance. We investigate this possibility, and a wide variety of factors that affect routing performance, by simulations. We find that some measure of “restraint” is crucial for obtaining acceptable performance of route selection in such scenarios. Specifically, we investigate three forms of restraint randomization of route selection, utilizing an appropriate hysteresis threshold when switching routes, and increasing the time intervals between route-change considerations. Our results indicate that randomization can significantly reduce loss-rates (typically by half) more importantly, it is sufficient to utilize load information from a small subset of overlay paths to obtain such results. This approach would significantly reduce the path measurement overhead imposed by applications. Secondly, we find that appropriate values of the hysteresis threshold ( ) can be heavily dependent on the parameters of the system. Therefore we propose that flows determine dynamically; we suggest and evaluate an algorithm based on multiplicative increase and decrease of for this purpose. This algorithm is found to reduce loss rates of the basic greedy method by at least half. Finally, we investigate the scenario when a subset of unrestrained overlay flows (the “cheaters”) select the best of all available routes, while the remainder use suitable hysteresis thresholds or randomization.
A 1GHz signal bandwidth 4-channel-I/Q polyphase-FFT filter bank

This paper presents a prototype analog 4-channel-I/Q polyphase-FFT filter bank (PFFB) using passive switched capacitor circuits to channelize wideband signals. Like FFTs, the proposed PFFB shares computations for low power. The PFFB allows for a longer “effective window length” than is possible in a standard FFT. This characteristic of the PFFB maintains a narrow main-lobe bandwidth combined with low side-lobe amplitudes. The passive switched capacitor structure enables high linearity and low power implementation. The measured performance of the prototype fabricated in TSMC 65nm CMOS shows >40dB side-lobe suppression, +25dBm IIP3, and 208μVrms integrated output noise for all channels at 1GS/s operation. The total power consumption for the PFFB (8-channels total) is 34.6mW (34.6pJ/conv).
Towards a Model of Context-Aware Recommender System

Users often have difficulties to use large-scale information systems efficiently because of their complexity. Additionally, these systems might be context dependent. If these context dependencies are taken into account during the system’s run-time phase, the most appropriate functionality might be provided to users in the form of recommendations for each context situation. The paper proposes to account for the context dependencies by using context aware recommendations and outlines an approach for modeling such recommendations. This approach is based on methodological foundations of Capability Driven Development. The paper discusses a motivational case for developing context aware recommendations and presents the initial method for recommendation modelling.
Toward Low‐Level Turbulence Forecasting at Eddy‐Resolving Scales

Microscale turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is characterized by significant spatiotemporal variability. Consequently, a change in the turbulence forecasting paradigm needs to occur, moving beyond average turbulence estimates at mesoscale grid resolutions (several kilometers) to eddy‐resolving forecasts. To that end, the viability of dynamic downscaling to large‐eddy simulation scales is evaluated. We present for the first time, multiday dynamic downscaling from currently available numerical weather prediction forecasts to a high‐resolution grid spacing of 25 m. It is found that these eddy‐resolving forecasts can realistically reproduce turbulence levels and peak events in the bulk of the daytime ABL, adequately capturing turbulence variability at subminute intervals. Moreover, probability distributions of turbulence quantities are in very good agreement when compared to in situ sonic‐anemometer observations. These results demonstrate the feasibility of eddy‐resolving forecasts to derive accurate probabilistic estimates of turbulence in the ABL and provide a path toward real‐time large‐eddy simulation scale prediction.
MiR-191 Regulates Primary Human Fibroblast Proliferation and Directly Targets Multiple Oncogenes

miRNAs play a central role in numerous pathologies including multiple cancer types. miR-191 has predominantly been studied as an oncogene, but the role of miR-191 in the proliferation of primary cells is not well characterized, and the miR-191 targetome has not been experimentally profiled. Here we utilized RNA induced silencing complex immunoprecipitations as well as gene expression profiling to construct a genome wide miR-191 target profile. We show that miR-191 represses proliferation in primary human fibroblasts, identify multiple proto-oncogenes as novel miR-191 targets, including CDK9, NOTCH2, and RPS6KA3, and present evidence that miR-191 extensively mediates target expression through coding sequence (CDS) pairing. Our results provide a comprehensive genome wide miR-191 target profile, and demonstrate miR-191’s regulation of primary human fibroblast proliferation.
Triangle Fixer: Edge-based Connectivity Compression

Encoding the connectivity of triangle meshes has recently been the subject of intense study and many representations have been proposed [9, 10, 4, 8, 2, 5]. The sudden interest in this area is fueled by the emerging demand for interactive visualization of 3D data sets in a networked environment (e.g. VRML over the Internet). Since transmission bandwidth across wide-area networks is a scarce resource, compact encodings for 3D models are of great advantage. Common representations for triangle meshes use two lists: a list of vertices and a list of triangles. The list of vertices contains coordinates that specify a physical location for each mesh vertex. This is referred to as the geometry of the triangle mesh. The list of triangles contains triplets of indices into the vertex list that specify the three vertices of each triangle. This is referred to as the connectivity of the triangle mesh. For triangle meshes with v vertices, the triangle list uses at least 3 log 2 v bits per triangle. Euler’s relation implies that there are approximately twice as many triangles as vertices, giving a total of 6v log 2 v bits for the mesh connectivity. In this paper we introduce a simple and efficient scheme for encoding the connectivity of a triangle mesh. Using seven operations our algorithm traverses all edges of the mesh and records a sequence of corresponding labels T, R, L, S, E, H, and M. For every triangle there is a label of type T, for every hole there is a label of type H, and for every handle there is a label of type M. The remaining labels R, L, S, and E correspond to the edges of a vertex spanning tree that ‘fixes’ triangles and holes together.
How to identify and estimate the largest traffic matrix elements in a dynamic environment

In this paper we investigate a new idea for traffic matrix estimation that makes the basic problem less under-constrained, by deliberately changing the routing to obtain additional measurements. Because all these measurements are collected over disparate time intervals, we need to establish models for each Origin-Destination (OD) pair to capture the complex behaviours of internet traffic. We model each OD pair with two components: the diurnal pattern and the fluctuation process. We provide models that incorporate the two components above, to estimate both the first and second order moments of traffic matrices. We do this for both stationary and cyclo-stationary traffic scenarios. We formalize the problem of estimating the second order moment in a way that is completely independent from the first order moment. Moreover, we can estimate the second order moment without needing any routing changes (i.e., without explicit changes to IGP link weights). We prove for the first time, that such a result holds for any realistic topology under the assumption of minimum cost routing and strictly positive link weights. We highlight how the second order moment helps the identification of the top largest OD flows carrying the most significant fraction of network traffic. We then propose a refined methodology consisting of using our variance estimator (without routing changes) to identify the top largest flows, and estimate only these flows. The benefit of this method is that it dramatically reduces the number of routing changes needed. We validate the effectiveness of our methodology and the intuitions behind it by using real aggregated sampled netflow data collected from a commercial Tier-1 backbone.
Emotion-mapped Robotic Facial Expressions based on Philosophical Theories of Vagueness

As the field of robotics matures robots will need some method of displaying and modeling emotions. One way of doing this is to use a human-like face on which the robot can make facial expressions corresponding to its emotional state. Yet the connection between a robot’s emotional state and its physical facial expression is not an obvious one: while a smile can gradually increase or decrease in size, there is no principled method of using boolean logic to map changes in facial expressions to changes in emotional states. We give a philosophical analysis of the problem and show that it is rooted in the vagueness of robot emotions. We then outline several methods that have been used in the philosophical literature to model vagueness and propose an experiment that uses our humanoid robot head to determine which philosophical theory is best suited to the task.
Robust Patchwork-Based Embedding and Decoding Scheme for Digital Audio Watermarking

This paper presents a novel patchwork-based embedding and decoding scheme for digital audio watermarking. At the embedding stage, an audio segment is divided into two subsegments and the discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of the subsegments are computed. The DCT coefficients related to a specified frequency region are then partitioned into a number of frame pairs. The DCT frame pairs suitable for watermark embedding are chosen by a selection criterion and watermarks are embedded into the selected DCT frame pairs by modifying their coefficients, controlled by a secret key. The modifications are conducted in such a way that the selection criterion used at the embedding stage can be applied at the decoding stage to identify the watermarked DCT frame pairs. At the decoding stage, the secret key is utilized to extract watermarks from the watermarked DCT frame pairs. Compared with existing patchwork watermarking methods, the proposed scheme does not require information of which frame pairs of the watermarked audio signal enclose watermarks and is more robust to conventional attacks.
Effects of n‐3 fatty acids on blood rheology

Abstract. In spite of the recent flurry of interest in n‐3 fatty acids, haemorheological effects have been somewhat neglected. When quantifying blood rheology by means of blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, haematocrit, red cell deformability and red cell aggregation measurements, it is observed that all these parameters (except for haematocrit) are altered significantly when an increasing dose of n‐3 fatty acids is given to volunteers. In patients with hyperlipoproteinaemias similar effects are seen during an 8‐week medication period, n‐3 fatty acids seem to increase blood fluidity by at least two independent mechanisms: changing red cell deformability possibly by altering the cell membrane composition, and lowering plasma viscosity possibly by altering the protein pattern of the plasma. The therapeutic potential of the observed changes lies in increasing blood flow in ischaemic tissues and needs to be explored more thoroughly.
Impacts of salmon lice emanating from salmon farms on wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout

Results from scientific studies on the impacts of salmon lice on Atlantic salmon and sea trout are summarized here. Considerable evidence exists that that there is a link between farm-intensive areas and the spread of salmon lice to wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout. Several studies have shown that the effects of salmon lice from fish farms on wild salmon and sea trout populations can be severe, ultimately reducing the number of adult fish due to salmon lice induced mortality, resulting in reduced stocks and reduced opportunities for fisheries. Depending on the population size, elevated salmon lice levels can also result in too few spawners to reach conservation limits.
CDMA Codeword optimization: Interference avoidance and convergence via class warfare

Interference avoidance has been shown to reduce total square correlation (TSC) for given ensembles of user signature waveforms (codewords) in a synchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system. In all experiments we have conducted, sequential application of interference avoidance produces an optimal codeword set when starting from randomly chosen initial codewords. Here we provide the first formal proof of convergence to optimal codeword ensembles for greedy interference avoidance algorithms augmented by a technique called "class warfare" whereby users which reside in more heavily loaded areas of the signal space purposely interfere with (attack) the reception of users in less crowded areas. Coordination of deliberate interference by a complete class of aggrieved user is also sometimes necessary. Such "attacks" and subsequent codeword adjustment by attacked users are shown to strictly decrease TSC. Along the way we also show using linear algebra and a variant of stochastic ordering, equivalence between minimization of TSC and maximization of sum capacity.
Modular Interdependency in Complex Dynamical Systems

Herbert A. Simon's characterization of modularity in dynamical systems describes subsystems as having dynamics that are approximately independent of those of other subsystems (in the short term). This fits with the general intuition that modules must, by definition, be approximately independent. In the evolution of complex systems, such modularity may enable subsystems to be modified and adapted independently of other subsystems, whereas in a nonmodular system, modifications to one part of the system may result in deleterious side effects elsewhere in the system. But this notion of modularity and its effect on evolvability is not well quantified and is rather simplistic. In particular, modularity need not imply that intermodule dependences are weak or unimportant. In dynamical systems this is acknowledged by Simon's suggestion that, in the long term, the dynamical behaviors of subsystems do interact with one another, albeit in an aggregate mannerbut this kind of intermodule interaction is omitted in models of modularity for evolvability. In this brief discussion we seek to unify notions of modularity in dynamical systems with notions of how modularity affects evolvability. This leads to a quantifiable measure of modularity and a different understanding of its effect on evolvability.
Molecular Cloning of cDNA Encoding the Ca 2 + Release Channel ( Ryanodine Receptor ) of Rabbit Cardiac Muscle Sarcoplasmic Reticulum *

We have cloned and sequenced cDNA encoding the Ca2+ release channel (ryanodine receptor) of rabbit cardiac muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum. The cDNA, 16,532 base pairs in length, encodes a protein of 4,969 amino acids with a M, of 564,711. The deduced amino acid sequence is 66% identical with that of the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor, but analysis of predicted secondary structures and hydropathy plots suggests that the two isoforms exhibit the same topology in both transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. A potential ATP binding domain was identified at residues 26192652, a potential phosphorylation site at residue 2809, and potential calmodulin binding sites at residues 2775-2807,2877-2898, and 2998-3016. We suggest that a modulator binding domain in the protein lies between residues 2619 and 3016. Northern blot analysis of mRNA from a variety of tissues demonstrated that the cardiac isoform is expressed in heart and brain, while the skeletal muscle isoform is expressed in both fastand slow-twitch muscle. No ryanodine receptor mRNA was detected in extracts from smooth muscle or any other non-muscle tissue examined. The two receptors are clearly the products of separate genes, and the gene encoding the cardiac muscle ryanodine receptor was localized to chromosome 1.