Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Object Search Using Orientation Code Matching

A new method for object search is proposed. The proposed scheme is based on matching gradient information around each pixel, computed in the form of orientation codes, rather than the gray levels directly and is robust against irregularities occurring in the real world scenes. A probabilistic model for robust matching is given and verified by real image data. Experimental results for real world scenes demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for object search in the presence of different potential causes of mismatches.
EGFR mutation detection on lung cancer cytological specimens by the novel fully automated PCR-based Idylla EGFR Mutation Assay

Aims In everyday practice, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) testing is centralised in referral laboratories that receive paucicellular cytological specimens. Ideally, EGFR testing should be carried out in the centre where the patient is diagnosed such that the most cellular slide can be selected from in-house collected cytological material. However, available techniques are little standardised and difficult to be implemented in settings with little expertise in molecular testing. The Idylla EGFR prototype assay is a rapid and fully automated test which may easily be adopted by a wider number of pathological centres. This study assessed whether an Idylla EGFR prototype assay can be reliably applied to cytological lung cancer specimens. Methods The limit of detection (LOD) of the Idylla EGFR prototype assay was assessed by cell line dilution studies. A total of 10 ng was directly placed inside an Idylla EGFR prototype assay cartridge. Idylla results were compared with fragment length (exon 19 del) and Taqman assays. Results The Idylla EGFR prototype assay showed an LOD of 1% mutant allele and yielded valid results in 74/76 (97.3%) samples, detecting all the mutant cases (n=32) identified by standard techniques; in addition, Idylla detected two low abundance EGFR exon 19 deletions and two G719X exon 18 point mutations, not covered by our standard reference method. Conclusions Idylla EGFR prototype assay is sensitive on extracted DNA and can reliably be applied on cytological samples, enabling implementation of EGFR testing even in less experienced diagnostic units.
A Maximally Permissive Deadlock Prevention Policy for FMS Based on Petri Net Siphon Control and the Theory of Regions

This paper addresses the deadlock problems in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) by using a Petri net siphon control method and the theory of regions. The proposed policy consists of two stages. The first one, called siphons control, is to add, for every siphon that we identify, a monitor to the original net model such that it is optimally invariant controlled. In the second stage, the theory of regions is utilized to derive the net supervisors such that deadlocks can be prevented. The first-stage work significantly lowers the computational cost compared with the approach where the theory of regions is used alone. An FMS example is presented to illustrate the technique. By varying the markings of given net structures, this paper shows its computational advantages.
The Intersection of Gender, Race and Cultural Boundaries, or Why is Computer Science in Malaysia Dominated by Women?

This paper reports an investigation on how and why computer science in Malaysia is dominated by women. Inspired by recent critical interventions in gender and technology studies, the paper aims to open up more culturally situated analyses of the gendering of technology or the technology of gendering, with the Malaysian case exemplifying the core of the argument. The paper argues along four different strands of critical thought: (1) a critique of the analytical asymmetry in the process of co-production in gender and technology studies; (2) a critique of a western bias in gender and technology studies, advocating more context sensitivity and focus on the cultural embeddedness of gender and technology relations; (3) a critique that pays more attention to spatial practices and body politics in regard to race, class and gender in relation to technology; and (4) a critique of ‘western’ positional notions of gender configurations that opens up for more fluid constructions of gender identity, including the many crossovers between relational and positional definitions of femininity and masculinity.
The electronic service quality model: The moderating effect of customer self‐efficacy

The research in the area has largely ignored the moderating effects of the customer trait, self-efficacy, on the electronic service quality model. This study examines the degree to which electronic service quality dimensions influence overall service quality, which in turn affects customer satisfaction and loyalty. On the basis of self-efficacy theory, this paper argues that outcome quality is the most important predictor of overall quality, whereas environment quality is the least important predictor of overall quality, particularly when self-efficacy is high. Additionally, the paper demonstrates that self-efficacy strengthens the link between customer satisfaction and both repurchase intention and word of mouth. Data collected from 162 participants provide support for most of these hypotheses.
Neuroimaging in the Courtroom: Normative Frameworks and Consensual Practices

Neuroimaging is increasingly playing a role in courtrooms where judges take into account representations of the suspect’s brain as evidence to determine their accountability and the sentence. Berlin (in press) presents an intriguing and timely overview of relevant developments and challenges in this regard. Focusing on issues related to criminal behaviour and criminal prosecution, we, however, have a twofold concern with his arguments. First, after having pointed out current controversies concerning the use of neuroimaging techniques, Berlin concludes that future scientific discoveries will solve current conflicts (p. 13). To our opinion, however, the mere accumulation of scientific findings will not suffice. normative framework that guides decision making is needed. Second, Berlin assumes that in the upcoming decades “the neurobiological and legal communities will continue to struggle with issues bearing on accountability and punishment” (p.6). Unfortunately, it remains open how this struggle might evolve and under what circumstances it could lead to more satisfactory applications. Addressing this challenge, we will present a plan to structure and approach this struggle. NORMATIVE GUIDANCE OF SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS The past decades have been characterized by an overwhelming interest in the biomedical foundations of criminal behavior in general and the genetic, neurobiological and neurophysiologic aspects of juvenile delinquency and youth violence in particular (van Goozen et al. 2007). It has been shown that groups of offenders differ from non-offenders regarding genetic polymorphisms, structure and function of the brain, psycho-physiological response to stress, and in gene-brain-environment interactions. Even though much is still unknown and scientific evidence is far from conclusive, these developments trigger high hopes and expectations concerning the development of more accurate methods both for early detection of children at-risk and for more effective forms of early prevention and treatment.
Datamining and Islamic knowledge extraction: alhadith as a knowledge resource

Qur'an, AL-Sunnah and Islamic traditional books are the rich resources for Muslims that used as the sole authoritative source of knowledge, wisdom and law. The challenge for computer scientists is to extract and represent these knowledge, wisdom and law in computer systems, this knowledge is directed or underlying, therefore, to build an intelligent systems which can answer any question with knowledge from Quran, Al-Sunnah and other Islamic books, special techniques for mining data must be used to deal with this issue, which can help society, both Muslim and non-Muslim, to understand and appreciate the Islamic religion, this paper attempts to understand how the new techniques in data mining can extract Islamic knowledge from its resources, and represent these knowledge in meaningful for the user. Moreover, this study concentrates on Hadith as knowledge resource, and proposes approach to classify Hadith to its categories using supervised learning classification. The finding of this study shows that there are several ways to extract knowledge from Hadith depending on the goal of the knowledge.
Choroidal neovascularization in eyes with choroidal vascular hyperpermeability.

PURPOSE We describe the clinical and genetic characteristics of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in eyes with choroidal vascular hyperpermeability (CVH). METHODS This cross-sectional study consisted of 438 consecutive patients who underwent fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography for macular disease. We used the genotypes of 1576 age-related macular degeneration (AMD) cases and 3248 general population controls as reference groups for genetic association analyses. RESULTS Of 871 eyes (438 patients) examined, CVH was found in 227 eyes (26.1%). Of these 227 eyes, 52 (22.6%) had CNV in the macular area. The proportion of patients with drusen and the choroidal thickness were not different between eyes with and without CNV, after adjusting for age (P = 0.21 and 0.95). Of the 52 eyes with CNV, 51 had type 1 CNV and only one eye had pure type 2 CNV. Of the 51 eyes with type 1 CNV, polypoidal lesions were observed in 17 eyes (33.3%). Genotype distributions of ARMS2 (A69S) and CFH (I62V) in patients with CVH and type 1 CNV significantly differed from those of AMD cases (P = 0.0014 and 0.0098, respectively), but not from general population controls (P = 0.33 and 0.82, statistical power of 88.5% and 72.9%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS In patients with CVH, type 1 CNV may occur frequently and sometimes accompanies type 2 CNV or polypoidal lesions. In terms of ARMS2 and CFH, genetic background of patients with CVH and type 1 CNV was different from those with AMD, but rather similar to the general Japanese population.
Sex-Related Differences in Mathematics Achievement and Related Factors: A Further Study.

In the past, many researchers have concluded that male superiority in mathematics achievement is almost always found (Glennon & Callahan, 1968); but many are currently suggesting that sex-related differences in mathematics achievement are not as prevalent as had been believed and that they are age related (Callahan & Glennon, 1975; Fennema, 1974, 1977; Hilton & Bergltind, 1974; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Suydam & Weaver, 1975). Although the National Longitudinal Study of Mathematical Abilities (NLSMA) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) do report sex-related differences in favor of males (Wilson, 1972; Mullis, Note 1), inspection of their data indicates that these differences increase as learners progress from grade 6 to grade 12. Fennema and Sherman (1977) reported that when the number of years of studying mathematics was controlled, sex-related differences were found in only half the high schools studied.
Inter-relationships between inflammatory markers in patients with stable COPD with bronchitis: intra-patient and inter-patient variability

Background: Measurements of pulmonary biomarkers can be used to monitor airway inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but the variability of sampled biomarkers and their inter-relationships are poorly understood. A study was undertaken to examine the intra- and inter-patient variability in spontaneous sputum samples from patients in the stable state and to describe the relationship between biomarkers, cell counts and markers of disease. Methods: Sputum interleukin-1β, tumour necrosis factor α, interleukin 8, myeloperoxidase, leucotriene B4, growth-related oncogene α and differential cell counts were measured in patients with moderate to severe stable COPD (n = 14) on 11 occasions over a 1-month period. Results: There was significant variability in all inflammatory indices (median intra-patient coefficient of variation (CV) 35% (IQR 22–69), median inter-patient CV 102% (IQR 61–145)). Variability could be reduced by using a rolling mean of individual patient data points. Sample size calculations were undertaken to determine the number of patients required to detect a 50% reduction in neutrophil count. Using a crossover design of a putative effective treatment, the number needed using one data point per patient was 72, reducing to 23 when a mean of three data points was used. Significant correlations were demonstrated both between the inflammatory biomarkers themselves and between inflammatory biomarkers and markers of disease. Some relationships were not apparent when results from a single sample were used. The reliability of inter-relationships improved as more data points were used for each patient. Conclusions: Clear relationships exist between inflammatory biomarkers in patients with stable COPD. Sequential sampling reduced the variability of individual mediators and the potential number of patients needed to power proof of concept interventional studies.
A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Social Skills Interventions for Youth With High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study examined the effects of two social skills interventions, Sociodramatic Affective Relational Intervention (SDARI) and Skillstreaming, to compare their treatment mechanisms, social performance- and knowledge-training. A total of 13 youth with autism spectrum disorders were randomly assigned to 4 weeks of 1-day/week SDARI or Skillstreaming. Groups were matched on parent and child demographics, and intervention staff training. Participants were assessed on social behavior during treatment sessions, peer sociometrics, staff-reported social skills, and parent-reported social skill generalization. Results indicated that both groups increased in reciprocated friendship nominations and staff-reported social skills. Relative to Skillstreaming participants, SDARI participants liked and interacted more with each other after a single session. However, Skillstreaming participants increased in peer liking and interaction over the course of the intervention; SDARI participants decreased slightly. Parents reported no change in social functioning at home. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Fostering Student Learning: The Relationship of Collective Teacher Efficacy and Student Achievement

Collective teacher efficacy (CTE) refers to the collective perception that teachers in a given school make an educational difference to their students over and above the educational impact of their homes and communities. Significant positive relationships were found between CTE and student achievement on the grade 8 math, writing, and English tests. In addition, significant relationships were found between the both the instruction and discipline subscales of CTE with all three tests of student achievement. When controlling for socioeconomic status, CTE made a significant independent contribution to the grade 8 writing scores; however it did not independently explain math and English achievement.
Realizing being imitated: Vowel mapping with clearer articulation

The previous approach to vowel imitation learning between a caregiver and an infant (robot) has assumed that the robot can segment the caregiverpsilas utterance into its phoneme category, where the caregiver always imitates the robot utterance. However, in real situations, the caregiver does not always imitate the robot utterance, nor the robot does have the phoneme category (no segmentation capability). This paper presents a method to solve these issues, a weakly-supervised learning along with auto-regulation, that is active selection of action and data with underdeveloped classifier. To cope with not-always imitation problem, a weakly-supervised learning method is applied that is capable to handle incompletely segmented samples (not perfectly imitated voices). Further, the regulation classifier of the imitated voices is recursively applied in order to select good vocal primitives and to segment caregiverpsilas imitated voices that improve the performance of the classifier itself. The simulation results are shown and the future issues are given.
Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide and migraine

Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide (PACAP) is found in human trigeminocervical complex and can trigger migraine. PACAP levels were measured using a sensitive radioimmunoassay. Stimulation of the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) in cat elevated PACAP levels in cranial blood. Patients with moderate or severe migraine headache had elevated PACAP in the external jugular vein during headache (n = 15), that was reduced 1 h after treatment with sumatriptan 6 mg (n = 11), and further reduced interictally (n = 9). The data suggest PACAP, or its receptors, are a promising target for migraine therapeutics.
Network partitioning into tree hierarchies

This paper addresses the problem of partitioning a circuit into a tree hierarchy with an objective of minimizing a global interconnection cost. An efficient and effective algorithm is necessary when the circuit is huge and the tree has many levels of hierarchy. We propose a heuristic algorithm for improving a partition with respect to a given tree structure. The algorithm utilizes the tree hierarchy as an efficient mechanism for iterative improvement. We also extend the tree hierarchy to apply a multi-phase partitioning approach. Experimental results show that the algorithm significantly improves the initial partitions produced by multiway partitioning and by recursive partitioning.
Acclimation of Plant Populations to Shade: Photosynthesis, Respiration, and Carbon Use Efficiency

Cloudy days cause an abrupt reduction in daily photosynthetic photon fl ux (PPF), but we have a poor un- derstanding of how plants acclimate to this change. We used a unique 10-chamber, steady-state, gas-exchange system to continuously measure daily photosynthesis and night respiration of populations of a starch accumulator (tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Micro-Tina)) and a sucrose accumulator (lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Grand Rap- ids)) over 42 days. All measurements were done at elevated CO2 (1200 μmol·mol -1 ) to avoid any CO2 limitations and included both shoots and roots. We integrated photosynthesis and respiration measurements separately to determine daily net carbon gain and carbon use effi ciency (CUE) as the ratio of daily net C gain to total day-time C fi xed over the 42-day period. After 16 to 20 days of growth in constant PPF, plants in some chambers were subjected to an abrupt PPF reduction to simulate shade or a series of cloudy days. The immediate effect and the long term acclimation rate were assessed from canopy quantum yield and carbon use effi ciency. The effect of shade on carbon use effi ciency and acclimation was much slower than predicted by widely used growth models. It took 12 days for tomato populations to recover their original CUE and lettuce CUE never completely acclimated. Tomatoes, the starch accumulator, ac- climated to low light more rapidly than lettuce, the sucrose accumulator. Plant growth models should be modifi ed to include the photosynthesis/respiration imbalance and resulting ineffi ciency of carbon gain associated with changing PPF conditions on cloudy days.
The Dance of Power: Ritual and Agency among Unionized American Health Care Workers

The authors illustrate the roles of agency and structure as workers, management, and a union representative use ritual encounters for their own ends in an American hospital. They also discuss the symbolism of the union contract as a charter for ritual and indicate how it and the structure that defines it subvert the broader goals of the union.
American dog tick (Acari: Ixodidae), summer activity on equine premises enzootic for Potomac horse fever in south-central Maryland.

The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say), was the only ixodid tick found feeding on horses in Montgomery County, Md. , from May to August. Average tick burdens were low (less than one tick per horse per week), but >80% of 33 horses examined weekly were exposed to tick feeding during the summer. Of the 98 ticks collected, 78% were attached to the tail and 12% were present in the mane. Host-seeking adult D. variabilis were active on vegetation in pastures from May to early August, with most specimens along hedgerows, woods margins, and horse paths.
The purse and the butterfly: A mathematical psychology approach to the genome in the new reality

Abstract George Lakoff 's theory of categories renews a global epistemological struggle over who best describes reality. Color perception becomes a prototype solution as Lakoff enlists the aid of anthropology and biopsychology to challenge claims from contemporary psycholinguistics, philosophy, mathematics and psychology. The problem is that the color perception prototype upon which Lakoff bases his metaphor is flawed in the same way and for the same reasons that Lakoff attacks conventional approaches and paradigms. This thesis is tantamount to embracing and extending Lakoff 's approach, but with judicious substitutions. Most important, morphogenesis (the development of the human embryo) is substituted for Lakoff 's biopsychology of the brain. In addition to the radical breakdown of logic, language and mathematics encountered by Lakoff, irreconcilable differences between diverse paradigms and diverse cultures add to the numbers of difficult problems. Substituting Thom's morphogenesis mathematics for conventional mathematics resolves the problems with mathematics but distorts conventional logic, language and paradigms to the point of crashing. Supplementing Lakoff 's adaptation of anthropological prototypes with Maruyama's formulation of mindscapes is the first step toward resolving irreconcilable differences between diverse paradigms and cultures. Combining Maruyama's formulation of a morphogenic paradigm with Lakoff 's approach to categories precludes distortion by incompatible paradigms. Outsourcing logic to Eastern countries is the cost effective strategy for resolving reasoning problems. Finally there is the crucial problem of ecological validity, a problem not covered by Lakoff 's cognitive psychology. Direct observations in natural environments and mathematical models that make natural environment predictions supporting the morphogenesis paradigm resolve the problem of ecological validity. Fashion fabrics and twilight color displays falsify predictions made by the color vision prototype. Falsification of this paper will rest primarily on the paper's prediction of demographic catastrophes that are to occur as a consequence of X chromosome intelligence.
Model predictive tracking control using a state-dependent gain-scheduled feedback

In this paper, we propose a method of synthesizing a model predictive control (MPC) law for linear dynamical systems with input constraints. The proposed control law is composed of a finite horizon open-loop optimal control law and state-dependent gain-scheduled feedback control law. By using the proposed MPC, both high control performance and large region of attraction can be achieved. We show that, by using the control law, the closed-loop stability can be guaranteed and the tracking error converges to zero in the case where a reference signal to be tracked is generated by a certain linear dynamics. The control algorithm is reduced to a convex optimization problem.