Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust Video Content Analysis via Transductive Learning

Reliable video content analysis is an essential prerequisite for effective video search. An important current research question is how to develop robust video content analysis methods that produce satisfactory results for a large variety of video sources, distribution platforms, genres, and content. The work presented in this article exploits the observation that the appearance of objects and events is often related to a particular video sequence, episode, program, or broadcast. This motivates our idea of considering the content analysis task for a single video or episode as a transductive setting: the final classification model must be optimal for the given video only, and not in general, as expected for inductive learning. For this purpose, the unlabeled video test data have to be used in the learning process. In this article, a transductive learning framework for robust video content analysis based on feature selection and ensemble classification is presented. In contrast to related transductive approaches for video analysis (e.g., for concept detection), the framework is designed in a general manner and not only for a single task. The proposed framework is applied to the following video analysis tasks: shot boundary detection, face recognition, semantic video retrieval, and semantic indexing of computer game sequences. Experimental results for diverse video analysis tasks and large test sets demonstrate that the proposed transductive framework improves the robustness of the underlying state-of-the-art approaches, whereas transductive support vector machines do not solve particular tasks in a satisfactory manner.
The effects of norepinephrine on myocardial biology: Implications for the therapy of heart failure

Increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in patients with heart failure may help to support cardiovascular function. However, increased SNS activity, particularly if prolonged, may exert deleterious effects on cardiovascular structure and function by stimulating pathologic myocardial remodeling. In vitro, norepinephrine mimics many features of myocardial remodeling, including hypertrophy of individual myocytes and reinduction of fetal genes. Furthermore, stimulation of the beta‐adrenergic pathway has been shown to stimulate apoptosis of cardiac myocytes in vitro, in rats infused with isoproterenol, and in mice that overexpress the stimulatory G‐protein, Gs. Thus, increased SNS activity, acting via beta‐adrenergic receptors, may play an important role in the progression of myocardial failure by acting directly on myocytes and other cell types in the heart to regulate fundamental biologic properties such as growth, apoptosis, and the composition of the extracellular matrix. This thesis provides a mechanism by which beta‐adrenergic antagonists may inhibit or reverse pathologic remodeling, improve myocardial structure and function, and prolong patient survival.
A fast coupling aware delay estimation scheme based on simplified circuit model

In this paper, we present a fast coupling aware delay estimation algorithm based on a simplified interconnect circuit model. The interconnect model consist of a coupled PI segment which represents the coupled interconnects after mapping and reduction of general coupled lines. Closed-form analytical formulas are derived for both propagating and crosstalk waveforms. Best-case and worst-case delays are obtained by using superposition to create composite waveforms without an expensive search process. The circuit model has been verified by comparing it with SPICE simulations, and it provides an efficient and reasonably accurate way to estimate timing transition intervals in the presence of cross-coupling.
MECHANISM OF ACTION OF NALIDIXIC ACID ON ESCHERICHIA COLI

Goss, William A. (Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute, Rensselaer, N.Y.), William H. Dietz, and Thomas M. Cook. Mechanism of action of nalidixic acid on Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 88:1112–1118. 1964. —Nalidixic acid was lethal for proliferating cultures of Escherichia coli. Associated with this lethal effect was the formation of elongated, serpentine forms. Cultures treated with nalidixic acid were osmotically stable; lethality was observed in the presence of stabilizers. Although it was possible to demonstrate leakage of intracellular components from treated cells, this effect occurred only after 99% of the cells were nonviable. Nalidixic acid had little or no effect on respiration with glucose as substrate. If cellular growth was restricted by suboptimal temperature or nutritional deficiencies, the drug was not lethal. Chemical analysis of cellular constituents revealed that lipid, protein, and ribonucleic acid levels were of the same order of magnitude in control and drug-treated cells. Only deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) levels were markedly lowered in drug-treated cells. These facts are consistent with the view that nalidixic acid interferes with the synthesis of E. coli DNA.
The efficacy of microarray screening for autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa in routine clinical practice

Purpose To determine the efficacy of multiple versions of a commercially available arrayed primer extension (APEX) microarray chip for autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (arRP). Methods We included 250 probands suspected of arRP who were genetically analyzed with the APEX microarray between January 2008 and November 2013. The mode of inheritance had to be autosomal recessive according to the pedigree (including isolated cases). If the microarray identified a heterozygous mutation, we performed Sanger sequencing of exons and exon–intron boundaries of that specific gene. The efficacy of this microarray chip with the additional Sanger sequencing approach was determined by the percentage of patients that received a molecular diagnosis. We also collected data from genetic tests other than the APEX analysis for arRP to provide a detailed description of the molecular diagnoses in our study cohort. Results The APEX microarray chip for arRP identified the molecular diagnosis in 21 (8.5%) of the patients in our cohort. Additional Sanger sequencing yielded a second mutation in 17 patients (6.8%), thereby establishing the molecular diagnosis. In total, 38 patients (15.2%) received a molecular diagnosis after analysis using the microarray and additional Sanger sequencing approach. Further genetic analyses after a negative result of the arRP microarray (n = 107) resulted in a molecular diagnosis of arRP (n = 23), autosomal dominant RP (n = 5), X-linked RP (n = 2), and choroideremia (n = 1). Conclusions The efficacy of the commercially available APEX microarray chips for arRP appears to be low, most likely caused by the limitations of this technique and the genetic and allelic heterogeneity of RP. Diagnostic yields up to 40% have been reported for next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques that, as expected, thereby outperform targeted APEX analysis.
Using Statistical Assertions to Guide Self-Adaptive Systems

Self-adaptive systems need to monitor themselves, to check their internal behaviour and design assumptions about runtime inputs and conditions. This kind of monitoring for self-adaptive systems can include collecting statistics about such systems themselves which can be computationally intensive (for detailed statistics) and hence time consuming, with possible negative impact on self-adaptive response time. To mitigate this limitation, we extend the technique of in-circuit runtime assertions to cover statistical assertions in hardware. The presented designs implement several statistical operators that can be exploited by self-adaptive systems; a novel optimization is developed for reducing the number of pairwise operators from O(N) to O(log (N)). To illustrate the practicability and industrial relevance of our proposed approach, we evaluate our designs, chosen from a class of possible application scenarios, for their resource usage and the tradeoffs between hardware and software implementations.
Spatial data mining to support pandemic preparedness

Effective detection of and response to pandemic disease outbreaks require significant advances in data mining. Contributions to the recently held SIAM DM 2006 Workshop on Spatial Data Mining highlighted key challenges, directions, and progress in this context. We summarize here the main themes presented at the workshop as well as promising research directions for the data mining community.
Synthesizer, A Pattern Language for Designing Digital Modular Synthesis Software

Synthesizer is a pattern language for designing digital synthesizers using modular synthesis in software to generate sound. Software developed according to this pattern language emulates the abilities of an analog synthesizer. Modular synthesis is one of the oldest sound synthesis techniques. It was used in the earliest analog synthesizers, like the Moog [1] and ARP [2]. These machines introduced the oscillator-filter-amplifier paradigm, where sound generated by an oscillator is passed through a series of filters and amplifers before being sent to a speaker. These first machines had physical modules through which electrical signals were passed. These modules can be emulated in software, and the Synthesizer pattern language captures the software design patterns embodied in this approach.
DEPRESSION BY ANTIBODY OF THE IMMUNE RESPONSE TO HOMOGRAFTS AND ITS ROLE IN IMMUNOLOGICAL ENHANCEMENT

This paper reports tests of two hypotheses that have been proposed to account for the enhanced growth of tumor homografts in the presence of antiserum reactive with the graft (immunological enhancement). According to the first hypothesis, enhancement is due to some "physiological" alteration in the tumor, induced by its contact with antiserum, which insures its survival despite the hostile response of the host. According to the second hypothesis, antiserum alters the response of the host. By blocking the development of the cellular type of immunity, which is the main agent in graft destruction, it permits the graft to survive. To test hypothesis 1, strain A tumor SaI was passed from A's, and from enhanced B10.D2's, into untreated B10.D2's. The per cent of deaths was essentially the same in both groups (48 and 44 per cent, respectively); there was no evidence that passage through enhanced B10.D2's altered the capacity of the tumor to grow in the foreign strain. Several other groups of mice included in the experiment all confirmed this conclusion. The experiment failed to confirm hypothesis 1. In the tests of hypothesis 2, the effect of isoantiserum on immune responses of both the humoral and cellular type was measured. When antiserum was given together with foreign strain lymphoid cells (antigen), almost no additional antibody was manufactured; in contrast with this, controls receiving foreign cells only produced red cell agglutinating antibody in high titer. The effect of antiserum on the development of immunity of the cellular type was tested by the method of Winn. In this assay, presumptively immune node cells, in various dilutions, are mixed with tumor cells and injected into appropriate mice. Immunity is indicated by inhibited tumor growth. Antiserum given at the same time as a tumor homograft greatly depressed the immunity of the cells expressed from the draining nodes. At 6 days after the graft, the level of immunity of cells from treated mice was 1/24th to 1/32nd that of cells from controls receiving tumor alone. The same sort of depressing effect was noted when the immunizing tissue was foreign thymus or embryo. Antiserum given 1 or more days after the immunizing tissue also resulted in a lower level of cellular immunity (but the assay used in this case was a less critical one). These results provide an adequate explanation of the phenomenon of immunological enhancement, at least as it occurs in the particular test system used in these experiments. Since it is cellular immunity rather than humoral antibody that inhibits the growth of most grafts (transplantable leukemias are an exception), the depression of this immunity by antibody is favorable to the growth of a homograft.
Costs of immunity: immune responsiveness reduces survival in a vertebrate

Immune defences are undoubtedly of great benefit to the host, reducing the impact of infectious organisms. However, mounting immune responses also entails costs, which may be measured by inducing immune responses against artificial infections. We injected common eider (Somateria mollissima) females with three different non–pathogenic antigens, sheep red blood cells (SRBC), diphtheria toxoid and tetanus toxoid, early in their incubation period. In the group of females that mounted a humoral immune response against SRBC, the return rate was only 27%, whereas the group of females that did not mount a response against SRBC had a return rate of 72–. Moreover, responding against diphtheria toxoid when also responding against SRBC led to a further reduction in return rate. These results are repeatable, as the same effect occurred independently in two study years. The severely reduced return rate of females producing antibodies against SRBC and diphtheria toxoid implies that these birds experienced considerably impaired long–term survival. This study thus documents severe costs of mounting humoral immune responses in a vertebrate. Such costs may explain why many organisms suppress immunity when under stress or when malnourished, and why infections may sometimes be tolerated without eliciting immune responses.
Prognostic Impact of Cigarette Smoking on the Survival of Patients with Established Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Background: Cigarette smoking is associated with the etiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma; however, the influence of smoking on survival in patients with established nasopharyngeal carcinoma remains unknown. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 1,849 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma who were categorized as never, former, and current smokers. Cumulative effect of smoking was defined in terms of pack-years. Associations between cigarette exposure and survival were estimated by Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The risks of death, progression, locoregional relapse, and distant metastasis were significantly higher for former and current smokers (all P ≤ 0.002) than never smokers. Heavy smokers with high pack-years had HRs for death of 3.31 [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.58–4.26; P < 0.001], for progression of 2.53 (95% CI, 2.03–3.16; P < 0.001), and for distant metastasis of 2.65 (95% CI, 1.89–3.70; P < 0.001). Specifically, in the cohort of 495 patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy/three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, we obtained similarly significant results. All of the survival outcomes remained significant in multivariate analyses. Conclusions: Pretreatment cigarette smoking is an independent, poor prognostic factor for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is associated with increased risk of death, progression, locoregional relapse, and distant metastasis, with the risk increasing with pack-years. Impact: It is clear that cigarette smoking not only promotes carcinogenesis in the normal nasopharyngeal epithelium, but also affects the survival of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(12); 2285–94. ©2013 AACR.
Hyperuricemia Causes Glomerular Hypertrophy in the Rat

Background/Aims: Rats with mild hyperuricemia develop systemic hypertension, interstitial renal disease, afferent arteriolopathy, and increased renin expression [Mazzali et al.: Am J Physiol 2002;6:F991–F997]. We hypothesized that hyperuricemia might also induce glomerular changes. Methods: We reviewed renal biopsies of rats previously made hyperuricemic for 7 weeks with the uricase inhibitor, oxonic acid. Controls included normal rats and oxonic acid-treated rats administered allopurinol, benziodarone, hydrochlorothiazide, or enalapril. Glomeruli were examined for size (computer image analysis) and structure (histology). An additional group of rats were administered oxonic acid or control diet for 6 months. Results: Renal biopsies showed that hyperuricemic rats had a 30% increase in glomerular tuft area (p < 0.01); these changes were prevented by allopurinol and benziodarone. Control of blood pressure with hydrochlorothiazide did not prevent the development of glomerular hypertrophy, whereas enalapril partially reduced the glomerular hypertrophy. Prolonged hyperuricemia was associated with the development of microalbuminuria (p < 0.05) and glomerulosclerosis (22 vs. 10%, p < 0.05) compared to control rats. Conclusions: Hyperuricemic rats develop glomerular hypertrophy that can be prevented in part by ACE inhibitor therapy. Prolonged hyperuricemia is associated with the development of glomerulosclerosis in the rat.
Instantly Decodable Network Coding for Completion Time or Decoding Delay Reduction in Cooperative Data Exchange Systems

In this paper, we investigate the use of instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) for improving two fundamental performance metrics, namely, the completion time (as a measure of throughput) and mean decoding delay, in multicast cooperative data exchange (CDE) systems, where a group of geographically close clients cooperate with each other to obtain their missing packets. Here, an IDNC scheme is used for the transmissions across these clients. We utilize the stochastic shortest path (SSP) technique to study the minimum mean completion time problem. However, since finding the optimum solution is intractable, we use the obtained formulation to draw some theoretical guidelines to heuristically find solutions that can efficiently reduce the completion time. Second, we formulate the minimum mean decoding delay problem as selecting the appropriate maximal clique over well-structured graphs at the clients, and in order to reduce its complexity, we propose a simple heuristic algorithm for it. The effectiveness of our proposed algorithms is verified through extensive simulations and comparisons with existing techniques.
Integrated microcantilever fluid sensor as a blood coagulometer

The work presented concerns the improvement in mechanical to thermal signal of a microcantilever fluid probe for monitoring patient prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR) based on the physical measurement of the clotting cascade. The current device overcomes hydrodynamic damping limitations by providing an internal thermal actuation force and is realised as a disposable sensor using an integrated piezoresistive deflection measurement. Unfortunately, the piezoresistor is sensitive to thermal changes and in the current design the signal is saturated by the thermal actuation. Overcoming this problem is critical for demonstrating a blood coagulometer and in the wider field as a microsensor capable of simultaneously monitoring rheological and thermal measurements of micro-litre samples. Thermal, electrical, and mechanical testing of a new design indicates a significant reduction in the thermal crosstalk and has led to a breakthrough in distinguishing the mechanical signal when operated in moderately viscous fluids (2-3 cP). A clinical evaluation has been conducted at The Royal London Hospital to measure the accuracy and precision of the improved microcantilever fluid probe. The correlation against the standard laboratory analyser INR, from a wide range of patient clotting times (INR 0.9-6.08) is equal to 0.987 (n=87) and precision of the device measured as the percentage coefficient of variation, excluding patient samples tested < 3 times, is equal to 4.00% (n=64). The accuracy and precision is comparable to that of currently available point-of-care PT/INR devices. The response of the fluid probe in glycerol solutions indicates the potential for simultaneous measurement of rheological and thermal properties though further work is required to establish the accuracy and range of the device as a MEMS based viscometer. For Sarah and my family. Acknowledgements Thank you to Ejaz Huq, Ajoy Kar, John Curtis and Jeremy Peckham for the opportunity to work on a great project and the continued support from all. Special thanks to Slava Djakov for supervision during the project, productive discussions, and to the dedication of Slava and Ejaz to drive the technology forward. Thank you to the Microvisk team who it has been a pleasure to work with and special thanks to Joe Booth for his many contributions and stimulating questions. Many thanks’ to John Pasi and his colleagues at The Royal London Hospital for the opportunity and support of clinical measurements, and to Bob Ibbotson for his early support of the first measurements in Chester and for performing mechanical sensitivity measurements. The author acknowledges the contribution of Microvisk Ltd in the clinical evaluation presented in this thesis, which includes, performing the patient tests onsite at The Royal London Hospital, the choice of noise filter applied to the clinical data, and performing an excel routine to extract clotting time from the filtered data.
Caveolae and cancer: A new mechanical perspective

Caveolae are small invaginations of the plasma membrane in cells. In addition to their classically described functions in cell signaling and membrane trafficking, it was recently shown that caveolae act also as plasma membrane sensors that respond immediately to acute mechanical stresses. Caveolin 1 (Cav1), the main component of caveolae, is a multifunctional scaffolding protein that can remodel the extracellular environment. Caveolae dysfunction, due to mutations in caveolins, has been linked to several human diseases called "caveolinopathies," including muscular dystrophies, cardiac disease, infection, osteoporosis, and cancer. The role of caveolae and/or Cav1 remains controversial particularly in tumor progression. Cav1 function has been associated with several steps of cancerogenesis such as tumor growth, cell migration, metastasis, and angiogenesis, yet it was observed that Cav1 could affect these steps in a positive or negative manner. Here, we discuss the possible function of caveolae and Cav1 in tumor progression in the context of their recently discovered role in cell mechanics.
Linking the chemistry and physics of food with health and nutrition

This study was conducted to determine the tolerance and e ﬀ ects of the prebiotic xylooligosaccharide (XOS) on the composition of human colonic microbiota, pH and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) in order to determine whether signi ﬁ cant changes in the microbiota would be achievable without side e ﬀ ects. Healthy adult subjects ( n ¼ 32) were recruited in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Subjects received 1.4 g XOS, 2.8 g XOS or placebo in daily doses. The study consisted of a 2 week run-in, an 8 week intervention, and a 2 week washout phase. Stool samples were collected at baseline, after 4 and 8 weeks of intervention and 2 weeks after cessation of intervention. Samples were subjected to culture, pyrosequencing of community DNA, pH and SCFA analyses. Tolerance was evaluated by daily symptom charts. XOS was tolerated without signi ﬁ cant gastrointestinal side e ﬀ ects. Bi ﬁ dobacterium counts increased in both XOS groups compared to the placebo subjects, the 2.8 g per day group showed signi ﬁ cantly greater increases than the 1.4 g per day group. Total anaerobic counts and Bacteroides fragilis group counts were signi ﬁ cantly higher in the 2.8 g per day XOS group. There were no signi ﬁ cant di ﬀ erences in the counts of Lactobacillus , Enterobacteriaceae and Clostridium between the three groups. XOS intervention had no signi ﬁ cant e ﬀ ect on stool pH, SCFA or lactic acid. Pyrosequencing showed no notable shifts in bacterial diversity. XOS supplementation may be bene ﬁ cial to gastrointestinal microbiota and 2.8 g per day may be more e ﬀ ective than 1.4 g per day. The low dose required and lack of gastrointestinal side e ﬀ ects makes the use of XOS as a food supplement feasible.