Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sampled Multi-scale Color Local Binary Patterns

In this paper, we propose a novel representation, called sampled multi-scale color Local Binary Pattern (SMC-LBP), and apply it to Visual Object Classes (VOC) Recognition. The Local Binary Pattern (LBP) has been proven to be effective for image representation, but it is too local to be robust. Meanwhile such a design cannot fully exploit the discriminative capacity of the features available and deal with various changes in lighting and viewing conditions in real-world scenes. In order to address these problems, we propose SMC-LBP, which randomly samples the neighboring pixels across different scale circles, instead of pixels from individual circular in the original LBP scheme. The proposed descriptor presents several advantages: (1) It encodes not only single scale but also multiple scales of image patterns, and hence provides a more complete image information than the original LBP descriptor; (2) It cooperates with color information, therefore its photometric invariance property and discriminative power is enhanced. The experimental results on the PASCAL VOC 2007 image benchmark show significant accuracy improvement by the proposed descriptor compared with both the original LBP and other popular texture descriptors.
Resource Allocation for OFDMA Relay-Enhanced System with Cooperative Selection Diversity

The cooperative selection diversity (CSD) scheme which dynamically selects the best transmission scheme between decode-and-forward relaying and direct transmission outperforms the other complex cooperative diversity schemes in terms of throughput and implementation complexity. In this paper, we formulate the optimal resource allocation problem with a fairness constraint in the downlink of OFDMA relay-enhanced system when CSD based transmissions are considered. The problem is linearized into a binary integer programming problem by using a constant power allocation. To solve the linear programming problem, we proposed a heuristic joint path selection and sub-channel allocation algorithm. Moreover, a void filling algorithm is designed to make full use of the resources. Simulation results demonstrate that our path selection rule based on the end-to-end achievable data rate and the void filling algorithm achieve more system throughput especially when the proportion of the two zones used in the two-slot relaying pattern is far away from the optimal value. The heuristic resource allocation algorithm provides a suboptimal solution to gain a tradeoff between system throughput maximization and fairness.
How I Treat How I treat double-hit lymphoma

A53-year-oldman presentswith a 2-month history of left hip pain. He did not respond to initial conservativemanagement, including rest andphysical therapy.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the left hipwas eventually performed and showed a destructive, enhancing lesion involving the left iliac wing, acetabulum, and pubic ramus, measuring 8 3 7 3 7 cm. Computed tomographic (CT) scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis was then performed, demonstrating enlarged left supraclavicular and right hilar lymph nodes. The soft tissue component of the dominant mass contacted the prostate gland and displaced the urinary bladder. A lucency was also seen in the left T11 pedicle. A biopsy of the bone lesion was performed, revealing a poorly differentiated and pleomorphic infiltrate of large malignant cells, with extensive areas of necrosis. Immunohistochemical stains demonstrated that the infiltratewas CD20 andCD79a positive. This findingwasconsistentwithdiffuse largeB-cell lymphoma(DLBCL), stage IVA. Clinical risk factors included high-stage, high-LDH, and extranodal disease;performancestatuswasnormal,making thishigh intermediate-risk disease based on the international prognostic index and the age-adjusted international prognostic index. Subsequent immunohistochemical stains revealed the lymphoma to be positive for BCL-6, BCL-2, and MYC and negative for CD10, CD30, MUM1, and EBER; the Ki-67 fraction was 50%. This suggests the tumor is of germinal-center origin (using the Hans algorithm) and a double-expressor phenotype (MYC and BCL-2). The patient was started urgently on standard rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (RCHOP) therapy. One week later, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) results returned demonstrating the presence of a myc rearrangement, a bcl-6 rearrangement, and evidence of the t(14;18) bcl-2 rearrangement, consistent with a triple-hit lymphoma.
High level parallel programming and the efficient implementation of numerical algorithms

Bibliography 138 Preface High-level programming languages generally enable less eecient programs than their lower-level counterparts do. This drawback has lead to a restricted use of high-level approaches in areas where eeciency is essential, such as parallel processing. On the other hand, parallel processing could beneet enormously from programming paradigms that offer a high abstraction level. The present thesis aims to demonstrate that the two opposite goals, high level and eeciency, can be uniied into a good trade-oo. Moreover, it shows that high-level programming can be employed successfully in solving real-world problems in parallel. The approach described here is based on the concept of algorithmic skeletons, representing useful patterns of parallel computations that are embedded in a sequential programming language. Being implemented as polymorphic higher-order functions, skeletons are endowed with a high generality and exibility. This thesis shows that, in spite of their high level, skeletons enable writing parallel programs that reach a high eeciency and scalability. The rst part of the dissertation deals with the sequential host language Skil, an imperative language enhanced with a series of functional features. The imperative character of Skil, together with a specially developed compile-time technique for the elimination of the functional features, leads to a highly eecient implementation of Skil programs. This is demonstrated by a series of parallel matrix applications, which run several times faster than previous skeleton-based implementations that use functional languages. At the same time, the Skil programs run only between 3% and 40% slower than the corresponding hand-coded C programs with message-passing. The second part of the dissertation concentrates on the use of skeletons in solving real-world problems in parallel. The application area considered here is that of multigrid methods, a class of numerical algorithms that provides the fastest known solvers for systems of discretized partial diierential equations. Apart from their importance in numerical mathematics, multigrid methods are generally suited for parallelization. Moreover, these methods t naturally in the skeletal concept, as they use a small set of basic operations as building blocks. Run-time results show that the skeleton-based implementations of two multigrid applications achieve a high scalability, with an eeciency of up to 70% on 256 processors.
An Exploratory Study of Selected Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes of Indiana Adults

Abstract Although there are numerous ways to obtain accurate information about sexuality, research suggests that many American adults do not have accurate sexuality and sexual health knowledge. This research investigated selected sexual knowledge and attitudes of adults in Indiana. A representative sample of men (n = 158) and women (n = 340) aged 18 to 89 was surveyed via telephone interviews regarding sexuality-related topics. The level of sexual knowledge was determined from 14 content based questions, for example questions about sexually transmitted infections, gender, sexual orientation, and other reproductive health topics. Additionally, Indiana adults were surveyed about their beliefs regarding certain sources of influence over young peoples' sexual values. Key findings of the research indicate that adults in Indiana do not have accurate information about sexuality and seem to have wide-spread sexuality-related misperceptions and misinformation. This lack of sexual knowledge or misinformation may negatively impact the sexual health of Indiana adults and, by extension, their children. Additional findings and implications for educators, health professionals, and policymakers are discussed.
Photoperiodically Driven Changes in Fos Expression within the Basal Tuberal Hypothalamus and Median Eminence of Japanese Quail

The rapid photoperiodic response in Japanese quail is so precise that it allows neural analyses of how photoperiodic information is transduced into an endocrine response. After transfer from short [SD; 6L:18D (6:18 hr light/dark cycle)] to long (LD; 20L:4D) days, luteinizing hormone (LH) first rises 20 hr after dawn. Using Fos immunocytochemistry, we examined the basal tuberal hypothalamus (BtH) to determine the relationship between brain cell activation and the first endocrine changes. Two separate cell populations within the BtH expressed Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) by hour 18 of the first LD. Importantly, this activation occurred before the LH rise. Median eminence activation appeared within glial cells, whereas activated infundibular nucleus cells were neuronal, providing support to the view that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) release can be controlled at the terminals by glia. The FLI induction parallels LH changes, suggesting that gene expression may be involved in events preceding photostimulation and is the earliest photoperiodically stimulated physiological change yet reported. Additional experiments provided further support for this hypothesis. First, photoperiodically induced activation is not a result peculiar to castrates because intact birds displayed similar results. Second, the critical length of 14 hr of light had to be exceeded to cause both BtH activation and a LH rise 30 hr from dawn. Finally, valuable evidence of the response specificity was provided by using a unique property of the quail photoperiodic clock in which exposure to 10L:26D, but not 10L:14D, causes photoinduction. The 36 hr paradigm increased both plasma LH and BtH activation.
Audio Watermarking Implementation – Covert Communication

The hardware implementation of an audio watermarking helps to achieve real time performance by integrating an audio watermarking chip with an existing audio electronic devices. For the secure communication of the secret messages and for the data protection, the watermarking should provide good imperceptible, good robustness, high capacity (pay load) and high speed. This paper presents a new VLSI architecture to implement an audio watermarking using chirp spread spectrum technique. By using chirp signal as a secret key, the message can be transmitted as a noise signal such that intruder cannot retrieve the message which is transmitted, and the message can be retrieve at the receiver side only with the help of secret key. Hence it provides high security with a low power and less complexity and it is very difficult to detect and intercept, hence it is used for the application of military and wireless communication to provide a covert communication. There are plenty of software based audio watermarking implementation are available, to our knowledge, we are the first authors to propose the hardware implementation of audio watermarking. The secret communication between the transmitter and the receiver plays a major role in militaries, radar and wireless communication. The rapid growth of the internet has greatly facilitated the unauthorized distribution and hacking of digital media (text, images, audio and video) systems is easier due to the availability of processing platforms. As a result, the music industry claims a multibillion dollar annual revenue loss due to piracy [1]. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) created the secure digital music initiative (SDMI) with the goal to develop open technology specifications for protected digital music distribution. The traditional data protection methods such as scramble or encryption cannot be used since the content must be played back in the original form, at which point, it can always be rerecorded and then freely distributed [2]. Hence watermarking provides the promising solution to this problem. The watermark is a method of inserting information into digital content by adding a signal to the content data [3]. The process of embedding information into audio can be termed as audio watermarking [4]. It provides proof of ownership-tracing the delivery of content by inserting the details about the buyer and distributor and provides the covert communication, this helps for the military communication. The spatial domain watermarking, modifies the signal by slightly changing the bits values. It is also called …
Chronic Cough, Reflux, Postnasal Drip Syndrome, and the Otolaryngologist

Objectives. Chronic cough is a multifactorial symptom that requires multidisciplinary approach. Over the last years, general practitioners refer increasingly more chronic cough patients directly to the otolaryngologist. The aim of this paper is to highlight the issues in diagnosis and management of chronic cough patients from the otolaryngologist perspective. Design. Literature review. Results. Gastroesophageal reflux and postnasal drip syndrome remain one of the most common causes of chronic cough. Better diagnostic modalities, noninvasive tests, and high technology radiological and endoscopic innovations have made diagnosis of these difficult-to-treat patients relatively easier. Multidisciplinary assessment has also meant that at least some of these cases can be dealt with confidently in one stop clinics. Conclusions. As the number of referrals of chronic cough patients to an Ear Nose Throat Clinic increases, the otolaryngologist plays a pivotal role in managing these difficult cases.
Evaluating the role of Netrin-1 during the early phase of peripheral nerve regeneration using the mouse median nerve model.

BACKGROUND Less is known about the role of Netrin-1 in the peripheral nervous system. In this study, we evaluated the role of Netrin-1 using the mouse median nerve model for assessment of peripheral nerve regeneration. METHODS Using real-time PCR and western blot analysis, we examined expression changes of netrin-1 mRNA and Netrin-1 protein after transection and repair of the mouse median nerve in Wild-type animals. We further evaluated histomorphometrical changes as well as the functional recovery of the grasping force after median nerve transection and repair in WT mice and Netrin-1(+/-) heterozygous mice. RESULTS RT-PCR revealed a 1, 9 fold increase of Netrin-1 mRNA two weeks after nerve transection and repair in the nerve segment distal to the injury site. In Western blot analysis, we could show a high increase of Netrin-1 in the nerve segment distal to the injury site at day 14. Histomorphometrical analysis showed significantly higher cross sectional area and a lower fibre density in heterozygous Netrin-1(+/-) mice. Using the functional grasping test, we could show that peripheral nerve regeneration is significantly diminished in heterozygous Netrin-1(+/-) mice. CONCLUSIONS Employing the mouse median nerve model in transgenic animals, we demonstrate that Netrin-1 plays an important role during peripheral nerve regeneration.
Current Evidence for the Use of Laminar Flow in Reducing Infection Rates in Total Joint Arthroplasty

Since the introduction of laminar air flow in orthopaedic theatres by Sir John Charnley, it has widely become accepted as the standard during orthopaedic procedures such as joint arthroplasty. We present a review of available current literature for the use of laminar flow operating theatre ventilation during total joint arthroplasty and examines the effectiveness of laminar flow ventilated operating theatres in preventing post-operative wound infection. Results of our findings suggest that while bacterial and air particulate is reduced by laminar air flow systems, there is no conclusive effect on the reduction of post-operative wound infections following total joint arthroplasty. We conclude that a combination of strict aseptic technique, prophylactic antibiotics and good anaesthetic control during surgery remains crucial to reduce post-operative surgical infections.
L'amélioration de la qualité des données par l'électronisation des échanges à l'épreuve des fiches produit dans le secteur de la grande distribution

Notre recherche interroge l’influence de l’organisation de l’electronisation des echanges sur l’amelioration de la qualite des donnees de la fiche produit. La fiche produit est definie comme un ensemble de donnees decrivant le produit, donnees qui servent au referencement des produits des industriels par les distributeurs. L’organisation de l’electronisation, dans une perspective processuelle, se refere aux systemes d’emission des donnees, aux systemes de reception des donnees et a l’interconnexion entre ces systemes d’information. Une recherche qualitative fondee sur une approche comparative d’etudes de cas est menee aupres des distributeurs francais et d’industriels. Nous montrons alors que la perception de l’amelioration de differentes dimensions de la qualite des donnees est dependante de plusieurs elements : les architectures mises en place par les organisations et les structures de leurs interconnexions, le degre d’automatisation du processus d’echange et la standardisation des echanges. Notre principale contribution theorique est de mettre en evidence que cet ensemble d’elements constitutifs de l’electronisation des echanges peut etre conceptualise a travers l’interdependance entre organisations, definie selon trois niveaux : technique, informationnel et organisationnel. Dans chacun de ces niveaux d’interdependance, nous construisons un continuum entre deux extremes que sont interdependance dyadique et interdependance sectorielle. L’interdependance dyadique renvoie a un ensemble d’interdependances sequentielles entre deux participants. L’interdependance sectorielle se refere a une interdependance en pool pour l’ensemble des participants.
Automated Code Generation from System Requirements in Natural Language

An initial stage of a software development is specification of the system requirements. Typically, these requirements are expressed in UML and consist of use cases and domain model. A use case is a sequence of tasks, which have to be performed to achieve a specific goal. The tasks of the use case are written in a natural language. The domain model describes objects used in the use cases. In this paper, we present an approach that allows automated generation of executable code directly from the use cases written in a natural language. Usage of the generation significantly accelerates the system development, e.g. it makes immediate verification of requirements completeness possible and the generated code can be used as a starting point for the final implementation. A prototype implementation of the approach is also described in the paper.
Mental health practices of school psychologists

The current literature suggests an increasing need for mental health services for school-age children (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999; Friedman, Katz-Levey, Manderschied, and Sondhiemer 1996; Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, and Angold, 2003; Kataoka, Zhang, and Wells 2002 and Kessler, Berglund, Demier, Jin, Merkangas, and Walters, 2005). Research indicates that the schools may be the ideal place for children to receive such services. Studies have found that school psychologists do spend some of their time providing counseling, however the time spent on these services is significantly limited (Curtis et al, 1999; Bramlett et al 2002; Yates 2003; and Villarin,2005; and Curtis et al, 2008). While other studies have examined the provision of individual and group counseling by school psychologists, they have not provided operational definitions of what constitutes mental health services. Moreover, a review of mental health services provided by school psychologists has not been conducted since the reauthorization of IDEA in 2004, which may have impacted the amount of time school psychologists have to provide various services in schools. The purpose of this study was to examine if school psychologists currently provide mental health services. In addition this study examined if school psychologists perceived providing mental health services as their role, and their level of satisfaction with their current role and function. A sample of 118 of 1,000 school psychologists from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) listserv completed the survey. The results indicated that, the majority (83.3%) of school psychologists reported being satisfied with their current role and function. The majority (75.2%) of school psychologists also perceived the provision of mental health services as part of their role. While the majority of school psychologists indicated that they provided mental health service, the amount of time dedicated to the provision of services was less than 10% of time per week. The most frequent barriers to providing mental health services were limited time, and the need for additional training. The most frequent barriers for provision of services, by participants not currently providing
Survivin Loss in Thymocytes Triggers p53-mediated Growth Arrest and p53-independent Cell Death

Because survivin-null embryos die at an early embryonic stage, the role of survivin in thymocyte development is unknown. We have investigated the role by deleting the survivin gene only in the T lineage and show here that loss of survivin blocks the transition from CD4− CD8− double negative (DN) thymocytes to CD4+ CD8+ double positive cells. Although the pre–T cell receptor signaling pathway is intact in survivin-deficient thymocytes, the cells cannot respond to its signals. In response to proliferative stimuli, cycling survivin-deficient DN cells exhibit cell cycle arrest, a spindle formation defect, and increased cell death. Strikingly, loss of survivin activates the tumor suppressor p53. However, the developmental defects caused by survivin deficiency cannot be rescued by p53 inactivation or introduction of Bcl-2. These lines of evidence indicate that developing thymocytes depend on the cytoprotective function of survivin and that this function is tightly coupled to cell proliferation but independent of p53 and Bcl-2. Thus, survivin plays a critical role in early thymocyte development.
E2F1 overexpression in quiescent fibroblasts leads to induction of cellular DNA synthesis and apoptosis

Various experiments have demonstrated a role for the E2F transcription factor in the regulation of cell growth during the G0/G1/S phase transition. Indeed, overexpression of the E2F1 product, a component of the cellular E2F activity, induces DNA synthesis in quiescent fibroblasts. To provide an approach to a more detailed biochemical analysis of these events, we have made use of a recombinant adenovirus containing the E2F1 cDNA in order to efficiently express the E2F1 product in an entire population of cells. We demonstrate an induction of DNA synthesis when quiescent cells are infected with the E2F1 recombinant virus. However, we also find that the induction does not lead to a complete replication of the cellular genome, as revealed by flow cytometry. The incomplete nature of cellular DNA replication is due, at least in part, to the fact that E2F1 overexpression leads to massive cell death that is characteristic of apoptosis. This E2F1-mediated induction of apoptosis is largely dependent on endogenous wild-type p53 activity and can be subverted by introducing mutant forms of p53 into these cells or by overexpressing E2F1 in fibroblasts derived from p53-null mouse embryos. We conclude that E2F1 can induce events leading to S phase but that the process is not normal and appears to result from the activation of a cell death pathway.