Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Processing Stationary Noise: Model and Parameter Selection in Variational Methods

Additive or multiplicative stationary noise recently became an important issue in applied fields such as microscopy or satellite imaging. Relatively few works address the design of dedicated denoising methods compared to the usual white noise setting. We recently proposed a variational algorithm to tackle this issue. In this paper, we analyze this problem from a statistical point of view and provide deterministic properties of the solutions of the associated variational problems. In the first part of this work, we demonstrate that in many practical problems, the noise can be assimilated to a colored Gaussian noise. We provide a quantitative measure of the distance between a stationary process and the corresponding Gaussian process. In the second part, we focus on the Gaussian setting and analyze denoising methods which consist of minimizing the sum of a total variation term and an $l^2$ data fidelity term. While the constrained formulation of this problem allows to easily tune the parameters, the Lagrangian formulation can be solved more efficiently since the problem is strongly convex. Our second contribution consists in providing analytical values of the regularization parameter in order to approximately satisfy Morozov's discrepancy principle.
Integrating Verbal and Nonverbal Communication in a Dynamic Neural Field Architecture for Human–Robot Interaction

How do humans coordinate their intentions, goals and motor behaviors when performing joint action tasks? Recent experimental evidence suggests that resonance processes in the observer's motor system are crucially involved in our ability to understand actions of others’, to infer their goals and even to comprehend their action-related language. In this paper, we present a control architecture for human–robot collaboration that exploits this close perception-action linkage as a means to achieve more natural and efficient communication grounded in sensorimotor experiences. The architecture is formalized by a coupled system of dynamic neural fields representing a distributed network of neural populations that encode in their activation patterns goals, actions and shared task knowledge. We validate the verbal and nonverbal communication skills of the robot in a joint assembly task in which the human–robot team has to construct toy objects from their components. The experiments focus on the robot's capacity to anticipate the user's needs and to detect and communicate unexpected events that may occur during joint task execution.
Elastic-plastic behaviour of polycrystalline metals and composites

Stress-strain behaviour of polycrystals and composites is explored with self-consistent models based on the elastic-plastic properties of the single crystal constituents. Based on Hill’s (1965a) model, tensile stress-strain curves and the associated yield surfaces are calculated for polycrystals and composites comprised of face-centred cubic crystals. Single crystal elastic anisotropy and strain hardening are taken into account. Stress-strain behaviour at a corner of the yield surface is determined with the model proposed by Kröner (1961) and Budiansky & Wu (1962).
Joint Relay Selection and Spectrum Allocation Scheme in Cooperative Relay Networks

Joint relay selection and spectrum allocation scheme with multiple source-destination pairs and multiple potential relays in cooperative relay networks is proposed in this paper. In cooperative relay networks, the selected relay nodes and spectrum resource allocated to each source-destination pair have great impact on the system performance. It is an optimization problem for which relay nodes are selected and which spectrum resources are assigned. The exhaustive search can solve this problem but the complexity will increase factorially with the network size (i.e., the number of source-destination pairs and the number of relays in the network) and exponentially with the number of available spectrum resources. This paper proposes a novel quantum particle swarm optimization (QPSO) based relay selection and spectrum allocation scheme which can maximize three definitions of system throughput but has less computational complexity. Simulation results show that QPSO based scheme has the ability to find global optimal solution compared with other schemes in the literature.
A Review of Outcome Measures Used in Cleft Care

This article provides a summary of the main outcome measures currently available and in use within modern cleft care. The fact that there are such a diverse range, including surgical, orthodontic, dental, speech and patient satisfaction measures, is a reflection of the complex, multidisciplinary and longitudinal nature of the care provided. The use of such measures of outcome is essential in the auditing and drive for continued improvements in the standards of care for patients affected with cleft lip and palate.
Managing Patient Expectations

Understanding and managing patient expectations is one of the most important aspects of refractive surgery. Each patient needs to be well informed before surgery to diminish possible problems with postoperative expectations that have not been met. This allows the best possible scenario for long-term patient satisfaction. Patients should have a thorough ocular health evaluation and counseling session before the surgery. This allows them to make an educated decision regarding their prognosis and likelihood of success. This definition of success depends on their visual needs and the goals they want to achieve with refractive surgery. Patients with high refractive errors should be counseled as to their chance of success with the refractive procedure and need to be counseled regarding their options in terms of surgical procedures. Presbyopic and prepresbyopic patients should be thoroughly informed of the options for near correction. We must be aware of the potential for problems associated with presbyopia and loss of near vision. Normal side effects should be discussed, and the patient should be aware of the potential risks involved with the surgery. Even though such risks are rare, understanding them will make for a much more informed refractive surgery candidate.
Tension type headache

Tension type headaches are common in clinical practice. Earlier known by various names, the diagnosis has had psychological connotations. Recent evidence has helped clarify the neurobiological basis and the disorder is increasingly considered more in the preview of neurologists. The classification, clinical features, differential diagnosis and treatment of tension type headache are discussed in this paper.
Relationship between Pyruvate Kinase Activity and Cariogenic Biofilm Formation in Streptococcus mutans Biotypes in Caries Patients

Streptococcus mutans (MS) and its biotype I are the strains most frequently found in dental plaque of young children. Our results indicate that in children pyruvate kinase (PK) activity increases significantly in dental plaque, and this corresponds with caries progression. The MS strains isolated in this study or their main glycolytic metabolism connected with PK enzymes might be useful risk factors for studying the pathogenesis and target points of novel therapies for dental caries. The relationship between PK activity, cariogenic biofilm formation and selected biotypes occurrence was studied. S. mutans dental plaque samples were collected from supragingival plaque of individual deciduous molars in 143 subjects. PK activity was measured at different time points during biofilm formation. Patients were divided into two groups: initial stage decay, and extensive decay. Non-parametric analysis of variance and analysis of covariance were used to determine the connections between S. mutans levels, PK activity and dental caries biotypes. A total of 143 strains were derived from subjects with caries. Biotyping data showed that 62, 23, 50, and 8 strains were classified as biotypes I, II, III, IV, respectively. PK activity in biotypes I, II, and IV was significantly higher in comparison to that in biotype III. The correlation between the level of S. mutans in dental plaque and PK activity was both statistically significant (p < 0.05) and positive. The greater the level of S. mutans in the biofilm (colony count and total biomass), the higher the PK activity; similarly, a low bacterial count correlated with low PK activity.
Beneficial effects of N-acetylcysteine in treatment resistant schizophrenia

Poor response to antipsychotics is still an important problem in the treatment of many schizophrenia patients. N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is a compound that exerts anti-oxidant and scavenging actions against reactive oxygen species. This paper reports a case of poorly responsive schizophrenia patient who improved considerably with add-on NAC 600 mg/day. The NAC might work through activating cysteine-glutamate antiporters or reducing in nitric oxide (NO) metabolites, free radicals and cytokines or through both of these mechanisms.
Role of Negative Pressure Therapy in Healing of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Thirty patients (17 female and 13 males) with chronic diabetic foot ulceration, age ranged from 50 to 65 years (53.4+ 4.1years), were selected from outpatient clinic of Benha teaching hospitals, Egypt from April 2013 to March 2014. Aim: Foot ulceration is one of the most common and severe complications of diabetes. The aim of the current was to clarify the effectiveness of topical negative pressure as a non invasive treatment approach for diabetic ulcers. Methods: Patients were divided into two equal groups; the first group was the control group and treated by traditional dressing while the second one was treated by negative pressure. The treatment course was extended up to six weeks; dressing was changed daily for the first group and day after day for the second group. Assessment was carried out before starting the course and after six weeks of treatment for both groups. The ulcer volume assessment was done by using a 10 cm syringe filled by terramycin ointment, and the wound surface area by using a graded plastic sheet. Student t-test was used to analyze the gained data of wound volume and surface area. Results: There was a significant improvement in the wound volume and surface area in the negative pressure group than that of the control group. Conclusion: It could be concluded that topical negative pressure is an effective non-invasive method in treating chronic diabetic foot ulceration.
Properties and origins of high-performance poly(phenylene oxide)/cyanate ester resins for high-frequency copper-clad laminates

A high-performance matrix is the key base for the fabrication of high-frequency copper-clad laminates. A high-performance resin system based on commercial poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO) and 2,2′-bis(4-cyanatophenyl) isopropylidene (BADCy), coded as PPO-n/BADCy (where n is the weight parts of PPO per 100 weight parts of BADCy), was developed. The effect of PPO on the key properties, including the dielectric and thermal properties, water resistance, and toughness, of the cured resins was investigated extensively. The results show that PPO not only catalyzed the curing reaction of BADCy but also reacted with BADCy to form a single-phase structure. Furthermore, compared with the cured BADCy resin with 1 phr epoxy resin as a catalyst, the cured PPO-n/BADCy resins had significantly increased impact strengths and decreased dielectric constants, loss, and water resistance. The reasons behind these desirable improvements are discussed from the view of structure–property relationships. These results suggest that the PPO-n/BADCy system has great potential to be used as a matrix for high-frequency copper-clad laminates or other advanced composites. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011
Dynamically adapting to system load and program behavior in multiprogrammed multiprocessor systems

Parallel execution of application programs on a multiprocessor system may lead to performance degradation if the workload of a parallel region is not large enough to amortize the overheads associated with the parallel execution. Furthermore, if too many processes are running on the system in a multiprogrammed environment, the performance of the parallel application may degrade due to resource contention. This work proposes a comprehensive dynamic processor allocation scheme that takes both program behavior and system load into consideration when dynamically allocating processors. This mechanism was implemented on the Solaris operating system to dynamically control the execution of parallel C and Java application programs. Performance results show the effectiveness of this scheme in dynamically adapting to the current execution environment and program behavior, and that it outperforms a conventional time‐shared system. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
On the Off-Axis Strength Test for Anisotropic Materials1

Difficulty in the experimental determination of the interaction com ponent of strength tensor of boron-epoxy composites by off axis tests is discussed. Although off axis data agree well with the prediction of the strength tensor theory, the uniaxial data cannot be used to back calculate the interaction term. The data also showed that responses due to normal and shear stresses can be uncoupled in the linear as well as nonlinear regions.
Epilepsy and genetic malformations of the cerebral cortex.

Malformations of the cerebral cortex are an important cause of developmental disabilities and epilepsy. Here we review those malformations for which a genetic basis has been elucidated or is suspected and the types of associated epilepsy. Schizencephaly (cleft brain) has a wide anatomo-clinical spectrum, including partial epilepsy in most patients. Familial occurrence is rare. Heterozygous mutations in the EMX2 gene were reported in 13 patients. X-linked bilateral periventricular nodular heterotopia (BPNH) consists of typical BPNH with epilepsy in females and prenatal lethality in males. About 88% of patients have partial epilepsy. Filamin A mutations, all leading to a truncated protein, have been reported in three families and in sporadic patients. The most frequent forms of lissencephaly (agyria-pachygyria) are caused by mutations of LIS1. XLIS mutations cause classical lissencephaly in hemizygous males and subcortical band heterotopia (SBH) in heterozygous females. The thickness of the heterotopic band and the degree of pachygyria correlate with the likelihood of developing Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Mutations of the coding region of XLIS were found in all reported pedigrees and in 38-91% of sporadic female patients with SBH. With few exceptions, children with LIS1 mutations have isolated lissencephaly, with severe developmental delay and infantile spasms. Autosomal recessive lissencephaly with cerebellar hypoplasia, accompanied by severe developmental delay, seizures, and hypotonia has been associated with mutations of the reelin gene. Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy is due to mutations of the fukutin gene and is accompanied by polymicrogyria. Febrile seizures and epilepsy with generalized tonic-convulsions appear in about 50% of children but are usually not severe. Tuberous sclerosis (TS) is caused by mutations in at least two genes, TSC1 and TSC2; 75% of cases are sporadic; 60% of patients have epilepsy, manifested in 50% of them as infantile spasms. TSC1 mutations seem to cause a milder disease with fewer cortical tubers and lower frequency of seizures. Among several syndromes featuring polymicrogyria, bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria had familial occurrence on several occasions. Genetic heterogeneity is likely, including autosomal recessive, X-linked dominant, X-linked recessive inheritance, and association with 22q11.2 deletions. About 65% of patients have severe epilepsy, often Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
Association Between Reduced Risk of Intracerebral Hemorrhage and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Abstract This study examines whether pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) facilitates the development of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). By using outpatient claims data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan, we included the data of 25,508 patients who were newly diagnosed with PID between 1999 and 2004, and also from the Taiwan NHIRD, we randomly selected 102,032 women without PID, who were frequency-matched by age and entry-year and with 4 times the number of the PID patients, as the control cohort. We measured ICH risks associated with PID and comorbidities, including hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and atrial fibrillation, by the end of 2011. In comparison with the controls, the ICH hazard was less in the PID group with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 0.67 (95% confidence interval [CI]:0.50–0.90), which was noted by calculation with the Cox proportional regression model. The ICH risk in the PID patients reduced progressively with the advance of age, with aHRs of 0.75 (95% CI:0.41–1.39) and 0.50 (95% CI:0.29–0.88), respectively, in the age <35-year and age ≥50-year groups. ICH risk lowered gradually with the progress of PID severity, from mild PID with an aHR of 0.72 (95% CI:0.53–0.98) to severe PID with that of 0.30 (95% CI:0.10–0.92). PID patients without any comorbidites had lower ICH risk (aHR = 0.63, 95% CI:0.42–0.94) than the controls without any comorbidites did. Our findings revealed that PID is associated with reduced ICH development, especially for older patients.
Immunogenicity and efficacy of a recombinant DNA hepatitis B vaccine, GenHevac B Pasteur in high risk neonates, school children and healthy adults.

The immunogenicity and the protective efficacy of a recombinant DNA hepatitis B vaccine, GenHevac B Pasteur with or without passive immunization with hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) in high risk neonates born from HBsAg and HBeAg positive mothers was evaluated. Twenty-six neonates (group A) received HBIG 100 IU intramuscularly at birth plus GenHevac B Pasteur 20 micrograms at birth, 1, 2 and 12 months of age while another 23 neonates (group B) received only GenHevac B Pasteur vaccine. Forty high risk newborns who received no immunization served as control group. It was found that at months 4, 12, 13 and 24 the seroconversion rate in both group A and B were very high in the range of 95-100% with the GMT ranging from 10-160,000 mlU/ml. In the control group of infants, 85% had HBsAg positive at one year of age but it was only 3.8% and 8.7% in vaccinated groups A and B, respectively. The protective efficacy in neonates group A and B were 95.5% and 89.8% at one year, respectively, with no statistically significant difference. In 46 normal school children (group C) and 48 healthy adults (group D) who received the same dose of GenHevac B Pasteur the seroconversion rates at month 4 after receiving 3 doses of vaccination were 97.8% and 83.3% in group C and group D, respectively. At month 12, the seroconversion rate in group C rose to 100% and was significantly higher than the 89.6% of group D. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Max-To-Mean Ratio Detection for Cognitive Radio

Signal detection is a crucial phase in building a cognitive radio system. However, energy detection, as well as other 'moment detector', has been shown to exhibit considerable performance degradation in the presence of noise power uncertainty. In this paper, we discuss another method that employs fast Fourier transform (FFT) and max-to-mean ratio (MMR) to detect weak narrowband signals. An analytical approximation of the threshold used is derived, and compared with the empirically simulated constants to assess the degree of accuracy of the former. Simulation results are then presented to illustrate the impact of different parameters on the performance of the detector. Finally, comparisons with energy detector are drawn to highlight some important advantages of the MMR method, i.e. noise power independence and lower sample size requirement.
Simplified analysis and design of outphasing transmitters using class-E power amplifiers

The outphasing technique can enhance a transmitter efficiency at power levels other than peakenvelope power. Its analysis is straightforward for various power amplifier classes. However, when using class-E power amplifiers, the outphasing analysis requires several steps in order to achieve performance prediction. In this paper, a simplified analysis and design of class-E outphasing transmitters is proposed as an alternative method that predicts efficiency and output power as a function of input drive phase difference based on classic design equations of the class-E amplifier. It is shown that the efficiency at backoff power can be optimized by the asymmetric combiner electrical lengths and the design parameters are then simplified so that they can be used in an actual prototype.
Enumerative counting is hard

An n-variable Boolean formula can have anywhere from 0 to 2/sup n/ satisfying assignments. The question of whether a polynomial-time machine, given such a formula, can reduce this exponential number of possibilities to a small number of possibilities is explored. Such a machine is called an enumerator, and it is proved that if there is a good polynomial-time enumerator for Hash P (i.e. one where the small set has at most O( mod f mod /sup 1-e/) numbers), then P=NP=P/sup Hash P/ and probabilistic polynomial time equals polynomial time. Furthermore, Hash P and enumerating Hash P are polynomial-time Turing equivalent. <<ETX>>
Development of thick film PECVD amorphous silicon with low stress for MEMS applications

This paper presents a solution for the deposition of thick amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactors for MEMS applications. Thick α-Si film up to 2 μm is widely used as a sacrificial layer in the MEMS release process, however, the film quality and smoothness are limited by the cracking or peeling of thick film due to their intrinsic stress. This achievement of as thick as 12 μm film was possible by tuning the deposition parameters to a 'zero' value of the residual stress in the α-Si:H layer. The influence of the PECVD process parameters, such as power, frequency mode, temperature, pressure and SiH4/Ar flow rates on tuning the residual stress and a good deposition rate was analyzed. As a result, an almost "zero-stress" α-Si:H film and a deposition rate of 85nm/min was achieved for a temperature of 200ºC, a pressure of 800 mTorr, a high-frequency power of 120W, with SiH4 flow rate of 120 sccm and Ar flow rate of 500 sccm. The deposition of low-stress and thick (more than 12 μm in our case) α-Si:H layers was possible without generation of peeling or hillock defects. Finally, the paper presents some MEMS applications of such a deposited α-Si:H layer: a very good masking layer for dry and deep wet etching of glass; and a sacrificial layer for dry or wet release of bridge/cavity structure.