Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histogram Equalization Techniques For Image Enhancement

Various enhancement schemes are used for enhancing an image which includes gray scale manipulation, filtering and Histogram Equalization (HE). Histogram equalization is one of the well known imaget enhancement technique. It became a popular technique for contrast enhancement because this method is simple and effective. In the latter case, preserving the input brightness of the image is required to avoid the generation of non-existing artifacts in the output image. Although these methods preserve the input brightness on the output image with a significant contrast enhancement, they may produce images with do not look as natural as the input ones. The basic idea of HE method is to re-map the gray levels of an image. HE tends to introduce some annoying artifacts and unnatural enhancement. To overcome these drawbacks different brightness preserving techniques are used which are covered in the literature survey. Comparative analysis of different enhancement techniques will be carried out. This comparison will be done on the basis of subjective and objective parameters. Subjective parameters are visual quality and computation time and objective parameters are Peak signalto-noise ratio (PSNR), Mean squared error (MSE), Normalized Absolute Error (NAE), Normalized Correlation, Error Color and Composite Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (CPSNR).
Ad Hoc Collaborative Filtering for Mobile Networks

This work introduces a recommender system designed to augment the information discovery and dissemination in mobile networks. We use the system to optimize the podcast providing mechanism of the HyCast application. The presented recommender system is based on collaborative filtering and provides two different algorithms to determine similar network neighbors, which are used to incrementally build up a locally stored model for the final prediction calculation.
Hijacking Components of the Cellular Secretory Pathway for Replication of Poliovirus RNA

ABSTRACT Infection of cells with poliovirus induces a massive intracellular membrane reorganization to form vesicle-like structures where viral RNA replication occurs. The mechanism of membrane remodeling remains unknown, although some observations have implicated components of the cellular secretory and/or autophagy pathways. Recently, we showed that some members of the Arf family of small GTPases, which control secretory trafficking, became membrane-bound after the synthesis of poliovirus proteins in vitro and associated with newly formed membranous RNA replication complexes in infected cells. The recruitment of Arfs to specific target membranes is mediated by a group of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that recycle Arf from its inactive, GDP-bound state to an active GTP-bound form. Here we show that two different viral proteins independently recruit different Arf GEFs (GBF1 and BIG1/2) to the new structures that support virus replication. Intracellular Arf-GTP levels increase ∼4-fold during poliovirus infection. The requirement for these GEFs explains the sensitivity of virus growth to brefeldin A, which can be rescued by the overexpression of GBF1. The recruitment of Arf to membranes via specific GEFs by poliovirus proteins provides an important clue toward identifying cellular pathways utilized by the virus to form its membranous replication complex.
Circadian regulation of abiotic stress tolerance in plants

Extremes of temperatures, drought and salinity cause widespread crop losses throughout the world and impose severe limitations on the amount of land that can be used for agricultural purposes. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop crops that perform better under such abiotic stress conditions. Here, we discuss intriguing, recent evidence that circadian clock contributes to plants’ ability to tolerate different types of environmental stress, and to acclimate to them. The clock controls expression of a large fraction of abiotic stress-responsive genes, as well as biosynthesis and signaling downstream of stress response hormones. Conversely, abiotic stress results in altered expression and differential splicing of the clock genes, leading to altered oscillations of downstream stress-response pathways. We propose a range of mechanisms by which this intimate coupling between the circadian clock and environmental stress-response pathways may contribute to plant growth and survival under abiotic stress.
Evolutionary stability of pricing strategies in a retail market with service

This paper analyzes the evolutionary stability of pricing strategies in a retail market by adopting an indirect evolutionary approach. We consider one population consisting of retailers who randomly compete with each other in pairs. Given their strategies (preferences), retailers rationally choose service level to maximize their utilities. We describe the interaction by a symmetric game and derive the conditions under which the pricing strategies are evolutionary stable. It is shown that the outcome mainly depends on the market scale, the substitutability coefficient of strategic interaction and the corresponding probability of promotional pricing strategy. We present the evolutionary stable strategies, service levels and profits of the retailers by numerical examples.
MaxSub: an automated measure for the assessment of protein structure prediction quality

MOTIVATION Evaluating the accuracy of predicted models is critical for assessing structure prediction methods. Because this problem is not trivial, a large number of different assessment measures have been proposed by various authors, and it has already become an active subfield of research (Moult et al. (1997,1999) and CAFASP (Fischer et al. 1999) prediction experiments have demonstrated that it has been difficult to choose one single, 'best' method to be used in the evaluation. Consequently, the CASP3 evaluation was carried out using an extensive set of especially developed numerical measures, coupled with human-expert intervention. As part of our efforts towards a higher level of automation in the structure prediction field, here we investigate the suitability of a fully automated, simple, objective, quantitative and reproducible method that can be used in the automatic assessment of models in the upcoming CAFASP2 experiment. Such a method should (a) produce one single number that measures the quality of a predicted model and (b) perform similarly to human-expert evaluations. RESULTS MaxSub is a new and independently developed method that further builds and extends some of the evaluation methods introduced at CASP3. MaxSub aims at identifying the largest subset of C(alpha) atoms of a model that superimpose 'well' over the experimental structure, and produces a single normalized score that represents the quality of the model. Because there exists no evaluation method for assessment measures of predicted models, it is not easy to evaluate how good our new measure is. Even though an exact comparison of MaxSub and the CASP3 assessment is not straightforward, here we use a test-bed extracted from the CASP3 fold-recognition models. A rough qualitative comparison of the performance of MaxSub vis-a-vis the human-expert assessment carried out at CASP3 shows that there is a good agreement for the more accurate models and for the better predicting groups. As expected, some differences were observed among the medium to poor models and groups. Overall, the top six predicting groups ranked using the fully automated MaxSub are also the top six groups ranked at CASP3. We conclude that MaxSub is a suitable method for the automatic evaluation of models.
Trypanosomatidae produce acetate via a mitochondrial acetate:succinate CoA transferase.

Hydrogenosome-containing anaerobic protists, such as the trichomonads, produce large amounts of acetate by an acetate:succinate CoA transferase (ASCT)/succinyl CoA synthetase cycle. The notion that mitochondria and hydrogenosomes may have originated from the same alpha-proteobacterial endosymbiont has led us to look for the presence of a similar metabolic pathway in trypanosomatids because these are the earliest-branching mitochondriate eukaryotes and because they also are known to produce acetate. The mechanism of acetate production in these organisms, however, has remained unknown. Four different members of the trypanosomatid family: promastigotes of Leishmania mexicana mexicana, L. infantum and Phytomonas sp. , and procyclics of Trypanosoma brucei were analyzed as well as the parasitic helminth Fasciola hepatica. They all use a mitochondrial ASCT for the production of acetate from acetyl CoA. The succinyl CoA that is produced during acetate formation by ASCT is recycled presumably to succinate by a mitochondrial succinyl CoA synthetase, concomitantly producing ATP from ADP. The ASCT of L. mexicana mexicana promastigotes was further characterized after partial purification of the enzyme. It has a high affinity for acetyl CoA (Km 0.26 mM) and a low affinity for succinate (Km 6.9 mM), which shows that significant acetate production can occur only when high mitochondrial succinate concentrations prevail. This study identifies a metabolic pathway common to mitochondria and hydrogenosomes, which strongly supports a common origin for these two organelles.
A Gaze Controller for Coordinating Mutual Gaze During Conversational Turn-Taking in Human-Robot Interaction

This report proposes a method for modelling conversational mutual gaze from human interaction data in a way that allows the resulting gaze controller to be used in combination with any dialog manager that controls turn-taking. It also describes a set of experimental measures that will be used to investigate the effect of the gaze controller on people's impressions of the robot and the quality of the interaction.
Towards Semi-Supervised Classification of Discourse Relations using Feature Correlations

Two of the main corpora available for training discourse relation classifiers are the RST Discourse Treebank (RST-DT) and the Penn Discourse Treebank (PDTB), which are both based on the Wall Street Journal corpus. Most recent work using discourse relation classifiers have employed fully-supervised methods on these corpora. However, certain discourse relations have little labeled data, causing low classification performance for their associated classes. In this paper, we attempt to tackle this problem by employing a semi-supervised method for discourse relation classification. The proposed method is based on the analysis of feature cooccurrences in unlabeled data. This information is then used as a basis to extend the feature vectors during training. The proposed method is evaluated on both RST-DT and PDTB, where it significantly outperformed baseline classifiers. We believe that the proposed method is a first step towards improving classification performance, particularly for discourse relations lacking annotated data.
Regulation and functions of diacylglycerol kinases.

4.1. Regulation of Immune Function 6194 4.2. Cell Proliferation and Cancer 6195 4.3. Brain Function 6196 4.4. Cardiac Function 6197 4.5. Glucose Homeostasis 6197 4.6. Vision 6198 5. Inter-relationships 6198 5.1. Role of PA Derived from DGK Activity 6198 5.2. Deacylation of PA To Form LPA Signals 6199 5.3. Acylation and Deacylation of DAG 6200 5.4. Other Sources of DAG: PA-Phosphohydrolases, PLC, Sphingomyelin Synthetase 6201
The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience

PROLOGUE GENERAL BACKGROUND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS METHODOLOGY AND GENERAL STRUCTURE ATMOSPHERE AND GENERAL EFFECTS OPEN EYE VISUALIZATIONS A STRUCTURAL TYPOLOGY OF AYAHUASCA VISUALIZATIONS INTERACTION AND NARRATION THE CONTENTS OF VISIONS THE THEMES OF VISIONS IDEAS, INSIGHTS, AND REFLECTIONS NON-VISUAL PERCEPTIONS CONSCIOUSNESS I TRANSFORMATIONS TIME MEANING AND SEMANTICS CONSCIOUSNESS II LIGHT STAGES AND ORDER CONTEXTUAL CONSIDERATIONS COGNITIVE PARAMETERS DYNAMICS A GENERAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE CONCLUDING PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS EPILOGUE APPENDIX (QUANTITATIVE DATA) BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 At-Risk Prediction Instruments , Early-Alert Systems & Exit Interviews : A Proactive-to-Reactive Continuum of Efforts to Promote Student Success

b) Intrusive support: the college should initiate supportive action by reaching out to students and bringing support to them, rather than passively waiting and anticipating that students will seek out support on their own. (Research indicates that student use of campus support services is woefully low.) Aggressive campus outreach increases the probability that support programs will reach more students and will exert more a systemic salutary effect.
Stacked auto-encoder for ASR error detection and word error rate prediction

Recently, Stacked Auto-Encoders (SAE) have been successfully used for learning imbalanced datasets. In this paper, for the ﬁrst time, we propose to use a Neural Network classiﬁer fur-nished by an SAE structure for detecting the errors made by a strong Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system. Error detection on an automatic transcription provided by a ”strong” ASR system, i.e. exhibiting a small word error rate, is difﬁcult due to the limited number of ”positive” examples (i.e. words erroneously recognized) available for training a binary classi-ﬁer. In this paper we investigate and compare different types of classiﬁers for automatically detecting ASR errors, including the one based on a stacked auto-encoder architecture. We show the effectiveness of the latter by measuring and comparing performance on the automatic transcriptions of an English corpus collected from TED talks. Performance of each investigated classiﬁer is evaluated both via receiving operating curve and via a measure, called mean absolute error, related to the quality in predicting the corresponding word error rate. The results demonstrates that the classiﬁer based on SAE detects the ASR errors better than the other classiﬁcation methods.
Blood Flow and Ischemia within Traumatic Cerebral Contusions

OBJECTIVE To provide evidence of irreversible ischemia in cerebral contusions among patients with severe traumatic brain injuries and to clarify the potential viability of tissue in the pericontusional zone, quantitative regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurements obtained with the xenon-enhanced computed tomographic method were correlated with the areas of contusions, by using image fusion. METHODS rCBF measurements obtained during the acute phase (mean, 2 d after injury; range, 0–10 d) were statistically correlated with the extent of tissue necrosis identified as focal atrophy on late follow-up computed tomographic scans (mean time after the xenon-enhanced computed tomographic cerebral blood flow investigation, 265 d; range, 30–1047 d). RESULTS Seventeen patients exhibited 26 traumatic contusions. All contusions progressed to late focal atrophic areas on the follow-up computed tomographic scans. The rCBF values within the traumatic contusions ranged from 0.5 to 22.0 ml/100 g/min, with a mean of 5.9 ± 5.9 ml/100 g/min. The contusions exhibited a specific rCBF profile, presenting as a core of severe lethal ischemia surrounded by variable but gradually increasing perfusion with increasing distance from the ischemic core. CONCLUSION The ischemic profile of the contusions, with a pericontusional zone of low rCBF, presents the potential risk of secondary ischemic insults, similar to the risk in the ischemic penumbral zones surrounding areas of acute ischemic stroke.
A Comparison of Bayesian Prediction Techniques for Mobile Robot Trajectory Tracking

This paper presents an assessment of different estimation and prediction techniques applied to the tracking of multiple robots. The main assessment criteria are the magnitude of the estimation or prediction error, the computational effort and the robustness of each method under non-Gaussian noise. Among the different techniques compared are the well known Kalman filters and their different variants (extended and unscented), and the more recent techniques relying on sequential Monte Carlo sampling methods, such as particle filters, and sigma-points filters
Atypical cognitive deficits in developmental disorders : implications for brain function

Contents: I. Rapin, Foreword. L.P. Lipsitt, Preface. S.H. Broman, J. Grafman, Introduction. Part I:Cognition and Neurostructure. P.S. Goldman-Rakic, Specification of Higher Cortical Functions. Part II:Studies of Developmental Disorders. Section I:Williams Syndrome. U. Bellugi, P.P. Wang, T.L. Jernigan, Williams Syndrome: An Unusual Neuropsychological Profile. T.L. Jernigan, U. Bellugi, Neuroanatomical Distinctions Between Williams and Down Syndromes. H.J. Neville, D.L. Mills, U. Bellugi, Effects of Altered Auditory Sensitivity and Age of Language Acquisition on the Development of Language-Relevant Neural Systems: Preliminary Studies of Williams Syndrome. Section II:Autism. E. Schopler, Neurobiologic Correlates in the Classification and Study of Autism. E. Courchesne, J.P. Townsend, N.A. Akshoomoff, R. Yeung- Courchesne, G.A. Press, J.W. Murakami, A.J. Lincoln, H.E. James, O. Saitoh, B. Egaas, R.H. Haas, L. Schreibman, A New Finding: Impairment in Shifting Attention in Autistic and Cerebellar Patients. M. Sigman, What Are the Core Deficits in Autism? L. Waterhouse, Severity of Impairment in Autism. Section III:Turner Syndrome. B.J. White, The Turner Syndrome: Origin, Cytogenetic Variants, and Factors Influencing the Phenotype. B.G. Bender, M.G. Linden, A. Robinson, Neurocognitive and Psychosocial Phenotypes Associated with Turner Syndrome. R. Johnson, Jr., J.L. Ross, Event-Related Potential Indications of Altered Brain Development in Turner Syndrome. Part III:Research Methods. E. Bates, M. Appelbaum, Methods of Studying Small Samples: Issues and Examples. Part IV:Commentary. M.B. Denckla, Interpretations of a Behavioral Neurologist. J.M. Fletcher, Afterword: Behavior-Brain Relationships in Children.
Dependence of electron channel mobility on Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface microroughness

The effect of the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface microroughness on the electron channel mobility of n-MOSFETs was investigated. The surface microroughness was controlled by changing the mixing ratio of NH/sub 4/OH in the NH/sub 4/OH-H/sub 2/O/sub 2/-H/sub 2/O solution in the RCA cleaning procedure. The gate oxide was etched, following the evaluation of the electrical characteristics of MOS transistors, to measure the microroughness of the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). As the interface microroughness increases, the electron channel mobility, which can be obtained from the current-voltage characteristics of the MOSFET, gets lower. The channel mobility is around 360 cm/sup 2//V-s when the average interface microroughness is 0.2 nm, where the substrate impurity concentration is 4.5*10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/, i.e. the electron bulk mobility is 400 cm/sup 2//V-s. It goes down to 100 cm/sup 2//V-s when the interface microroughness exceeds 1 nm. <<ETX>>
Analysis and Comparison of Somatic Mutations in Paired Primary and Recurrent Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Samples

The TP53 mutations have been proved to be predominated in ovarian cancer in a study from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). However, the molecular characteristics of recurrent ovarian cancers following initial treatment have been poorly estimated. This study was to investigate the pattern of somatic point mutations in matched paired samples of primary and recurrent epithelial ovarian cancers, using the OncoMap mutation detection protocol. We have adapted a high-throughput genotyping platform to determine the mutation status of a large panel of known cancer genes. OncoMap v.4. 4 was used to evaluate genomic DNA isolated from a set of 92 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumors, consisting of matched paired samples of initially diagnosed and recurrent tumors from 46 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients. Mutations were observed in 33.7% of the samples, with 29.3% of these samples having a single mutation and the remaining 4.3% having two or more mutations. Among the 41 genes analyzed, 35 mutations were found in four genes, namely, CDKN2A (2.2%), KRAS (6.5%), MLH1 (8.2%) and TP53 (20.7%). TP53 was the most frequently mutated gene, but there was no correlation between the presence of mutation in any gene and clinical prognosis. Furthermore, somatic mutations did not differ between primary and recurrent ovarian carcinomas. Every mutation present in recurrent samples was detected in the corresponding primary sample. In conclusion, these OncoMap data of Korean EOC samples provide that somatic mutations were found in CDKN2A, KRAS, MLH1, and TP53. No differences in mutational status between primary and recurrent samples were detected. To understand the biology of tumor recurrence in epithelial ovarian cancer, more studies are necessary, including epigenetic modifications or additional mutations in other genes.
A double-blind, multicenter trial comparing duloxetine with placebo in the treatment of fibromyalgia patients with or without major depressive disorder.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy and safety of duloxetine, a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, in subjects with primary fibromyalgia, with or without current major depressive disorder. METHODS This study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted in 18 outpatient research centers in the US. A total of 207 subjects meeting the American College of Rheumatology criteria for primary fibromyalgia were enrolled (89% female, 87% white, mean age 49 years, 38% with current major depressive disorder). After single-blind placebo treatment for 1 week, subjects were randomly assigned to receive duloxetine 60 mg twice a day (n = 104) or placebo (n = 103) for 12 weeks. Co-primary outcome measures were the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) total score (score range 0-80, with 0 indicating no impact) and FIQ pain score (score range 0-10). Secondary outcome measures included mean tender point pain threshold, number of tender points, FIQ fatigue, tiredness on awakening, and stiffness scores, Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-Severity) scale, Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-Improvement) scale, Brief Pain Inventory (short form), Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36, Quality of Life in Depression Scale, and Sheehan Disability Scale. RESULTS Compared with placebo-treated subjects, duloxetine-treated subjects improved significantly more (P = 0.027) on the FIQ total score, with a treatment difference of -5.53 (95% confidence interval -10.43, -0.63), but not significantly more on the FIQ pain score (P = 0.130). Compared with placebo-treated subjects, duloxetine-treated subjects had significantly greater reductions in Brief Pain Inventory average pain severity score (P = 0.008), Brief Pain Inventory average interference from pain score (P = 0.004), number of tender points (P = 0.002), and FIQ stiffness score (P = 0.048), and had significantly greater improvement in mean tender point pain threshold (P = 0.002), CGI-Severity (P = 0.048), PGI-Improvement (P = 0.033), and several quality-of-life measures. Duloxetine treatment improved fibromyalgia symptoms and pain severity regardless of baseline status of major depressive disorder. Compared with placebo-treated female subjects (n = 92), duloxetine-treated female subjects (n = 92) demonstrated significantly greater improvement on most efficacy measures, while duloxetine-treated male subjects (n = 12) failed to improve significantly on any efficacy measure. The treatment effect on significant pain reduction in female subjects was independent of the effect on mood or anxiety. Duloxetine was safely administered and well tolerated. CONCLUSION In this randomized, controlled, 12-week trial (with a 1-week placebo lead-in phase), duloxetine was an effective and safe treatment for many of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia in subjects with or without major depressive disorder, particularly for women, who had significant improvement across most outcome measures.