Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new dual-baseline polarimetric SAR interferometry for vegetation height inversion using complex least squares adjustment

Vegetation height is an important parameter in quantifying the terrestrial carbon cycle effectively. P band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is good at monitoring forest areas, which is sensitive to the contributions from vegetation layer and ground. Random Volume over Ground (RVoG) model has been widely applied to forest height inversion. Corresponding single baseline or muti-baseline methods have been established, such as three-stage and nonlinear iteration methods, whose good performance have been test with differential wavelength and areas. However, all the methods do not pay much attention to the complex coherence errors, and take measure to reduce the errors. In this paper, a new dual-baseline polarimetric SAR interferometry vegetation height inversion method, dual-baseline complex least squares adjustment (DBCLSA), is proposed. The DBCLSA method behind the concept of complex least squares adjustment. The main idea of DBCLSA method is as follow. Firstly, the adjustment model is summarized as combined adjustment of complex real and imagine parts. And then, stochastic model is established based on Cramer-Rao bounds. After that, we show the linearization method and parameter solving method. At last, the obtained volume-only coherence values are used to vegetation height retrieval. The DBCLSA is validated on E-SAR P band data of BioSAR2008 in Sweden. The results of Cloude dual-baseline method are computed at the same time. Compared with ground true measurement data, the result of new approach is more accurate.
On Bayesian Network Classifiers with Reduced Precision Parameters

Bayesian network classifier (BNCs) are typically implemented on nowadays desktop computers. However, many real world applications require classifier implementation on embedded or low power systems. Aspects for this purpose have not been studied rigorously. We partly close this gap by analyzing reduced precision implementations of BNCs. In detail, we investigate the quantization of the parameters of BNCs with discrete valued nodes including the implications on the classification rate (CR). We derive worst-case and probabilistic bounds on the CR for different bit-widths. These bounds are evaluated on several benchmark datasets. Furthermore, we compare the classification performance and the robustness of BNCs with generatively and discriminatively optimized parameters, i.e. parameters optimized for high data likelihood and parameters optimized for classification, with respect to parameter quantization. Generatively optimized parameters are more robust for very low bit-widths, i.e. less classifications change because of quantization. However, classification performance is better for discriminatively optimized parameters for all but very low bit-widths. Additionally, we perform analysis for margin-optimized tree augmented network (TAN) structures which outperform generatively optimized TAN structures in terms of CR and robustness.
Mobile phone technologies and advanced data analysis towards the enhancement of diabetes self-management

Advances in the area of mobile and wireless communication for healthcare (m-Health) along with the improvements in information science allow the design and development of new patient-centric models for the provision of personalised healthcare services, increase of patient independence and improvement of patient's self-control and self-management capabilities. This paper comprises a brief overview of the m-Health applications towards the self-management of individuals with diabetes mellitus and the enhancement of their quality of life. Furthermore, the design and development of a mobile phone application for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) self-management is presented. The technical evaluation of the application, which permits the management of blood glucose measurements, blood pressure measurements, insulin dosage, food/drink intake and physical activity, has shown that the use of the mobile phone technologies along with data analysis methods might improve the self-management of T1DM.
Bacterial Translocation and Plasma Cytokines During Transcatheter and Open-Heart Aortic Valve Implantation

ABSTRACT Objective: To determine whether the good safety profile of transarterial aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is related to lower levels of systemic bacterial translocation and systemic inflammation compared with open-heart surgery. Background: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation via the transfemoral approach is increasingly used in very high-risk patients with aortic stenosis. The outcomes seem similar to those after open-heart aortic valve replacement (OHAVR). Methods: Each of 26 consecutive high-risk patients (EuroSCORE >20% for risk of operative death) who underwent TAVI (cases) was matched to the first low-risk patient treated next in our department using elective OHAVR without coronary artery bypass (control subjects). We collected severity, outcome, and echocardiography indicators before and after surgery; complications; proinflammatory cytokine levels; and markers for microbial translocation. Results: Despite greater illness severity, the TAVI patients had significantly lower vasopressor agent requirements, lower delirium rates, shorter hospital stays, and better hemodynamic findings compared with OHAVR patients. Vascular complications were more common after TAVI than after OHAVR (12, with seven requiring interventional therapy vs. 0, P = 0.006). Patients who underwent TAVI had lower blood transfusion requirements. Two TAVI patients died: one from iliac artery injury and the other from intracardiac prosthesis migration. Patients who underwent TAVI had lower plasma levels of endotoxin and bacterial peptidoglycan, as well as lower proinflammatory cytokine levels, suggesting less gastrointestinal bacterial translocation compared with OHAVR. Conclusions: Compared with OHAVR, TAVI was associated with decreases in bacterial translocation and inflammation. These differences may explain the lower delirium rate and better hemodynamic stability observed, despite the greater disease severity in TAVI patients.
Crosstalk between the NF-κB activating IKK-complex and the CSN signalosome

A great variety of signalling pathways regulating inflammation, cell development and cell survival require NF‐κB transcription factors, which are normally inactive due to binding to inhibitors, such as IκBα. The canonical activation pathway of NF‐κB is initiated by phosphorylation of the inhibitor by an IκB kinase (IKK) complex triggering ubiquitination of IκB molecules by SCF‐type E3‐ligase complexes and rapid degradation by 26S‐proteasomes. The ubiquitination machinery is regulated by the COP9 signalosome (CSN). We show that IκB kinases interact with the CSN‐complex, as well as the SCF‐ubiquitination machinery, providing an explanation for the rapid signalling‐induced ubiquitination and degradation of IκBα. Furthermore, we reveal that IKK’s phosphorylate not only IκBα, but also the CSN‐subunit Csn5/JAB1 (c‐Jun activation domain binding protein‐1) and that IKK2 influences ubiquitination of Csn5/JAB1. Our observations imply that the CSN complex acts as an inhibitor of constitutive NF‐κB activity in non‐activated cells. Knock‐down of Csn5/JAB1 clearly enhanced basal NF‐κB activity and improved cell survival under stress. The inhibitory effect of Csn5/JAB1 requires a functional MPN+ metalloprotease domain, which is responsible for cleaving ubiquitin‐like Nedd8‐modifications. Upon activation of cells with tumour necrosis factor‐α, the CSN complex dissociates from IKK’s allowing full and rapid activation of the NF‐κB pathway by the concerted action of interacting protein complexes.
Development of the Child Interpersonal Relationship and Attitudes Assessment (CIRAA)

The purpose of this study was to develop a parent report instrument congruent with child-centered play therapy (CCPT) philosophy with acceptable levels of construct validity, reliability, and sensitivity to clinical attitudes, and responsiveness to intervention. The instrument in development, the Child Interpersonal Relationships and Attitudes Assessment (CIRAA), and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) were administered to 136 parents of children aged 3 to 10. The children of the parents in the sample consisted of 90 males and 46 females. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted for construct validity. The factor solution explained 53.86% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was conducted for total scale and all subscales. Reliability coefficients for total and subscale scores were acceptable, with an overall reliability coefficient of . 93. A Pearson’s r was conducted for concurrent validity between the instrument, the CBC, and the PSI, with Pearsons’ r of . 75 and . 74, respectively. Paired-sample t tests using the pre- and posttest scores of the CIRAA examined the responsiveness of the instrument to play therapy intervention at the same level as the CBC and PSI. ROC curve analysis indicated acceptable discrimination of clinical scores and adaptive scores, with a clinical score being generated from the analysis. It is the first parent-report form developed for CCPT, and provides an efficient, philosophically consistent instrument for CCPT practitioners to use in clinical and research applications.
Sexual Anxiety and Eroticism Predict the Development of Sexual Problems in Youth With a History of Sexual Abuse

Youth with confirmed histories of sexual abuse (N = 118) were followed longitudinally to examine associations between their initial sexual reactions to abuse and subsequent sexual functioning. Participants were interviewed at abuse discovery (ages 8 through 15) and again 1 and 6 years later. Eroticism and sexual anxiety emerged as distinct indices of abuse-specific sexual reactions and predicted subsequent sexual functioning. Eroticism was associated with indicators of heightened sexuality, including more sexual risk behavior and views of sexual intimacy focused on partners' needs. Sexual anxiety was associated with indicators of diminished sexuality, including few sexual partners and avoidant views of sexual intimacy. Age at abuse discovery moderated some associations, suggesting that the timing of abuse-specific reactions affects trajectories of sexual development. Findings point to the need for a developmental approach to understanding how abuse-specific sexual reactions disrupt sexual development and the need for early interventions promoting healthy sexual development.
Assessment of Tear Film Optical Quality Dynamics.

PURPOSE To investigate tear film optical quality dynamics by analyzing the postblink temporal changes of objective scatter index (OSI). METHODS A total of 109 myopic subjects without symptoms of dry eye and 32 myopic subjects diagnosed with dry eye disease were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The right eye for each subject was analyzed. Serial measurements of OSI were performed for 20 seconds in the interval of 0.5 second using a double-pass instrument, and 10 successive seconds of nonblinking immediately after a blink was selected to analyze the tear film optical quality dynamics. The tear breakup time (TBUT) was also measured. The mean OSI in 10 successive seconds and the correlation coefficient between OSI and time were analyzed. RESULTS For subjects without symptoms of dry eye, 109 eyes were divided into two categories based on the correlation coefficient between OSI and time: category A (without positive correlation) and category B (with positive correlation). Categories A and B were further divided into four categories based on the mean OSI for 10 seconds: category A1 (36.7%, lower than 1.00); category A2 (33.0%, equal to or greater than 1.00); category B1 (13.8%, lower than 1.00), and category B2 (16.5%, equal to or greater than 1.00). Dry eye subjects were set as category C for comparison. There was no significant difference in the TBUT among the five categories (A1, A2, B1, B2, C) except between category C and category A1 (P < 0.01) and category C and category A2 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Dynamic changes of OSI after blinking showed variations even in clinically asymptomatic subjects, and four categories of tear film were proposed based on the optical quality dynamics. The procedure using serial measurements of OSI as a noninvasive and objective method may have potential applications for detecting preclinical phase of dry eye disease in asymptomatic subjects.
Preprocessing of High Dimensional Dataset for Developing Expert IR System

Now-a-days due to increase in the availability of computing facilities, large amount of data in electronic form is been generated. The data generated is to be analyzed in order to maximize the benefit of intelligent decision making. Text categorization is an important and extensively studied problem in machine learning. The basic phases in the text categorization include preprocessing features like removing stop words from documents and applying TF-IDF is used which results into increase efficiency and deletion of irrelevant data from huge dataset. This paper discusses the implication of Information Retrieval system for text-based data using different clustering approaches. Applying TF-IDF algorithm on dataset gives weight for each word which summarized by Weight matrix.
Contextual dictionaries for image super resolution

Traditional super resolution (SR) methods based on sparse representation have shown their excellent performance, however, the methods usually perform even worse when the input images and the training samples are diverse. Considering this problem, this paper presents a novel super resolution method based on sparse representation with contextual dictionary. Through adopting discriminative features instead of common features, the method train and use contextual dictionary in the SR process. Additionally, the method uses the first-order and second-order gradients of patch as representation, which ensures the neighbor information is introduced in the SR processing. The experiment results demonstrate the performance of this method has been promoted than other traditional method
Photonic band structure of multilayer photonic crystals

A rigorous computational method has been proposed for calculation of the photonic-band structure of multilayer one-dimensional photonic crystals (MLPCs). With the help of this method, the full wave analysis of the structure can be reduced to the analysis of an equivalent multiconductor transmission line. In this work, we present an analytical characteristic equation for the evaluation of the band-structure of MLPCs. The approach which is based on an equivalent matrix formulation of Maxwell's equations also characterizes guided modes of MLPCs.
Adoptive immunotherapy with donor lymphocyte infusionsafter allogeneic HPC transplantation

due to the loss of the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect thathas been recognized as an important component of theanti-leukemic efficacy of allogeneic HPC transplantation,particularly for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Thedemonstration of this GVL effect and of the primordial roleof T-lymphocytes led investigators to transfuse donor lym-phocytes to CML patients relapsing after HPC transplanta-tion.
Endocannabinoid transport tightly controls 2‐arachidonoyl glycerol actions in the hippocampus: effects of low temperature and the transport inhibitor AM404

The control of endocannabinoid actions on cortical neurons by a putative carrier‐mediated uptake is still poorly understood at the level of synaptic transmission. We investigated the effect of an endocannabinoid, 2‐arachidonoyl glycerol (2‐AG), on inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in hippocampal slices under physiological conditions, and when uptake was altered by a selective blocker or lower temperature. Bath application of 2‐AG (20 µm) caused a 40% reduction in the amplitude of IPSCs evoked in the perisomatic region of CA1 pyramidal neurons at room temperature; this effect could be blocked by a specific CB1 receptor antagonist, AM251. By contrast, a smaller (20%) but significant suppression of inhibitory transmission was found by 2‐AG at 33–35 °C. This reduced blocking effect at physiological temperature could be brought back to 40% by coapplying the endocannabinoid uptake blocker, AM404 (10 or 20 µm) with 2‐AG. In parallel experiments, we measured [3H]2‐AG uptake at different temperatures in primary cultures prepared from cortical neurons. These data confirmed a striking inhibition of [3H]2‐AG uptake at room temperature compared with values observed at 37 °C. Uptake could be significantly modified by anandamide, 2‐AG and AM404, suggesting a common transporter for the two endocannabinoids. These findings together demonstrate the presence of an effective endocannabinoid uptake in cortical neurons, which could considerably alter the spatial and temporal constraints of endocannabinoid signalling at physiological temperature, and which may critically change the interpretation of findings at room temperature.
A Compact Analytical Model for the Drain Current of Gate-All-Around Nanowire Tunnel FET Accurate From Sub-Threshold to ON-State

We present a compact analytical model for the drain current of a gate-all-around nanowire tunneling field effect transistor. The model takes into account the effect of oxide thickness, body doping, drain voltage, and gate metal work function. The model uses a tangent line approximation method to integrate the tunneling generation rate in the source-body depletion region. The accuracy of the model is tested against three dimensional numerical simulations calibrated using experimental results. The model predicts the drain current accurately in both the on-state (strong inversion), as well as in the sub-threshold region.
Identification of a Chitin-Binding Protein Secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT One of the major proteins secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a 43-kDa protein, which is cleaved by elastase into smaller fragments, including a 30-kDa and a 23-kDa fragment. The N-terminal 23-kDa fragment was previously suggested as corresponding to a staphylolytic protease and was designated LasD (S. Park and D. R. Galloway, Mol. Microbiol. 16:263–270, 1995). However, the sequence of the gene encoding this 43-kDa protein revealed that the N-terminal half of the protein is homologous to the chitin-binding proteins CHB1 of Streptomyces olivaceoviridis and CBP21 of Serratia marcescens and to the cellulose-binding protein p40 ofStreptomyces halstedii. Furthermore, a short C-terminal fragment shows homology to a part of chitinase A of Vibrio harveyi. The full-length 43-kDa protein could bind chitin and was thereby protected against the proteolytic activity of elastase, whereas the degradation products did not bind chitin. The purified 43-kDa chitin-binding protein had no staphylolytic activity, and comparison of the enzymatic activities in the extracellular medium of a wild-type strain and a chitin-binding protein-deficient mutant indicated that the 43-kDa protein supports neither chitinolytic nor staphylolytic activity. We conclude that the 43-kDa protein, which was found to be produced by many clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa, is a chitin-binding protein, and we propose to name it CbpD (chitin-binding protein D).
Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world’s most remote and pristine islands

Significance The isolation of remote islands has, until recently, afforded protection from most human activities. However, society’s increasing desire for plastic products has resulted in plastic becoming ubiquitous in the marine environment, where it persists for decades. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the quantity and source of beach-washed plastic debris on one of the world’s remotest islands. The density of debris was the highest recorded anywhere in the world, suggesting that remote islands close to oceanic plastic accumulation zones act as important sinks for some of the waste accumulated in these areas. As global plastic production continues to increase exponentially, it will further impact the exceptional natural beauty and biodiversity for which remote islands have been recognized. In just over half a century plastic products have revolutionized human society and have infiltrated terrestrial and marine environments in every corner of the globe. The hazard plastic debris poses to biodiversity is well established, but mitigation and planning are often hampered by a lack of quantitative data on accumulation patterns. Here we document the amount of debris and rate of accumulation on Henderson Island, a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific. The density of debris was the highest reported anywhere in the world, up to 671.6 items/m2 (mean ± SD: 239.4 ± 347.3 items/m2) on the surface of the beaches. Approximately 68% of debris (up to 4,496.9 pieces/m2) on the beach was buried <10 cm in the sediment. An estimated 37.7 million debris items weighing a total of 17.6 tons are currently present on Henderson, with up to 26.8 new items/m accumulating daily. Rarely visited by humans, Henderson Island and other remote islands may be sinks for some of the world’s increasing volume of waste.
Second Order Stochastic Dominance Portfolio Optimization for an Electric Energy Company

This paper presents a framework of portfolio optimization for energy markets from an electric energy company's perspective. The objective of this research is to determine the best possible investment plan by combining two potentially conflicting portfolio investment goals. First, given the general characteristics of the generating assets and forecast of market variables, the decision maker selects an efficient set of portfolios by optimizing the expected portfolio return. Secondly, an optimal portfolio is chosen based on company's risk profile. This risk is controlled by guaranteeing that the portfolio model has second-order stochastic dominance (SSD) over the cumulative distribution of a minimum tolerable reference distribution. Decision criteria are then applied to obtain an optimal and robust portfolio. The proposed approach is used to determine the amount of optimal market share value that maximizes the expected value of the profit. This is performed by treating risk as a distribution that represents the minimum expected profit acceptable by the energy company. Results show that different risk profile leads to different optimal portfolio. The optimal portfolio which gives the highest expected profit may not have the best robustness. This approach is also applicable to problems characterized by other sources of epistemic uncertainty besides unknown dependencies.