Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Method and Application of Image Clearness in Bad Weather

Aiming at degraded phenomena of images taken in bad weather, in this paper, a new entirely self - adapting method of image clearness is proposed on the basis of an atmospheric scattering model. First, under the gray distributing characteristics of a degraded image, we can get the optimal normal distribution. Second, the gray mean of the sky distribution can be obtained according to the optimal normal distribution. At the same time, to use the gray histogram segments this original image, and we can obtain the iso-depth neighborhoods. Last, employing the model lists equations, and the values of normalized radiance can be gotten. Thereby, the overcast of degraded images can be cleared. Experiments show the method can effectively improve degraded images in bad weather.
Early formation of a beta hairpin during folding of staphylococcal nuclease H124L as detected by pulsed hydrogen exchange

Pulsed hydrogen exchange methods were used to follow the formation of structure during the refolding of acid‐denatured staphylococcal nuclease containing a stabilizing Leu substitution at position 124 (H124L SNase). The protection of more than 60 backbone amide protons in uniformly 15N‐labeled H124L SNase was monitored as a function of refolding time by heteronuclear two‐dimensional NMR spectroscopy. As found in previous studies of staphylococcal nuclease, partial protection was observed for a subset of amide protons even at the earliest folding time point (10 msec). Protection indicative of marginally stable hydrogen‐bonded structure in an early folding intermediate was observed at over 30 amide positions located primarily in the β‐barrel and to a lesser degree in the α‐helical domain of H124L SNase. To further characterize the folding intermediate, protection factors for individual amide sites were measured by varying the pH of the labeling pulse at a fixed refolding time of 16 msec. Protection factors >5.0 were observed only for amide positions in a β‐hairpin formed by strands 2 and 3 of the β‐barrel domain and a single site near the C‐terminus. The results indicate that formation of stable hydrogen‐bonded structure in a core region of the β‐sheet is among the earliest structural events in the folding of SNase and may serve as a nucleation site for further structure formation.
Semantic interoperability of large complex health datasets requires an ontological approach : a mixed method study

The 'connected world' forces us to think about 'interoperability' as a primary requirement when building health care databases in the present day. Whilst semantic interoperability has made a major contribution to data utilisation between systems it often has not been able to integrate some large heterogeneous datasets required for research. As health data gets 'bigger' and complex, we are required to shift to rapid and flexible ways of resolving problems related to semantic interoperability. Ontological approaches accelerate implementing interoperability due to the availability of robust tools and technology frameworks that promote reuse. This thesis reports the results of a mixed methods study that proposes a pragmatic methodology that maximises the use of ontologies across a multilayered research readiness model which can be used in data-driven health care research projects. The research examined evidence for the use of ontologies across a majority of layers in the reference model. The first part of the thesis examines the methods used for assessing readiness to participate in research across six dimensions of health care. It reports on existing ontological elements that boosts research readiness and also proposes ontological extensions for modelling the semantics of data sources and research study requirements. The second part of the thesis presents an ontology toolkit that supports rapid development of ontologies that can be used in health care research projects. It provides details of how an ontology toolkit for creating health care ontologies was developed through the consensus of a panel of informatics experts and clinicians. This toolkit evolved further to include a series of ontological building blocks that assist clinicians to rapidly build ontologies.
Estimation of project costs based on fuzzy neural network

Common cost estimation methods focus on subjective experience, but fuzzy Neural Network Technology makes relatively accurate estimates because it collects the respective advantages of the fuzzy theory and neural networks. This research constructs a model of neural networks and fuzzy neural network model comparing with mature COCOMO II model, and concludes that fuzzy neural network in software cost estimation is superior to neural network model. It is a good estimation model. The experimental calculation shows that the software cost estimation model constructed by fuzzy neural networks combines multiple advantages. It can be used for real estate information management system quickly and efficiently, and provides a basis for the development and maintenance of similar projects in the future.
Differentiated Protection of Video Layers to Improve Perceived Quality

Scalable video transmission over a network is easily adaptable to different types of mobile experiencing different network conditions. However the transmission of differentiated video packets in an error-prone wireless environment remains problematic. We propose and analyze a cross-layer error control scheme that exploits priority-aware block interleaving (PBI) in the MAC layer for video broadcasting in CDMA2000 systems. The PBI scheme allocates a higher priority to protecting the data which are more critical to the decoding of a video stream, and therefore has more effect on picture quality in the application layer. The use of Reed-Solomon coding in conjunction with PBI in the MAC layer can handle error bursts more effectively if its implementation takes account of underlying error distributions in the physical layer, and differentiates between different types of video packets in the application layer. We also calculate the maximum jitter from the variability of the Reed-Solomon decoding delay and determine the size of jitter buffer needed to prevent interruptions due to buffer underrun. Simulations demonstrate the extent to which we can improve the perceived quality of scalable video.
Optic disc and visual field progression in ocular hypertensive subjects: detection rates, specificity, and agreement.

PURPOSE To examine the detection rates, specificity, and agreement between visual field (VF) progression and Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT; Heidelberg Engineering, GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany) rim area (RA) progression in subjects with ocular hypertension (OHT). METHODS One hundred ninety-eight OHT and 21 control subjects were examined prospectively (1994-2001) with regular Humphrey VF (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA) and HRT testing. Point-wise linear regression (PLR) of sensitivity/time was used to assess VF progression, using standard and three-omitting (less stringent and stringent) criteria. The change in HRT-detected progression was assessed by linear regression of sectoral RA/time, defined as slope>1%/year, with significance level tailored according to series variability. Less stringent and stringent criteria were tested. Specificity was estimated by the proportions of control subjects with disease progression and significantly improving subjects (all). Agreement between disc and field progression in the subjects with OHT was assessed with specificities matched for both VF and HRT. RESULTS Specificity for VF PLR was estimated to be 85.7% to 95.4% when standard criteria were used, and for RA/time to be 88.1% to 90.5% with the less-stringent criteria. In this comparison, 21.2% progressed by RA alone and 20.2% by VF alone, and 12.1% progressed by both RA and VF. Specificity was estimated to be 95.2% to 98.2% for both VF PLR and RA/time, using the three-omitting criteria and the stringent RA/time criteria, respectively. In this comparison, 8.6% progressed by RA alone, 15.1% by VF alone, and 3.5% by both RA and VF. CONCLUSIONS A relatively high frequency of detected disease progression was observed with either method, with progression by VF occurring at least as frequently as progression by RA. Poor agreement between RA and VF progression was observed regardless of the specificity of the progression criteria. The results indicate that, in patients with ocular hypertension, monitoring of both VF and optic disc is necessary, as agreement between optic disc and VF progression is the exception rather than the rule.
A jerk threshold-based Involuntary Lateral Movement algorithm

Algorithms for automatic fall detection are often studied in the field of ambulatory human health supervision. These algorithms are developed to generate hospital emergency alarms. In the present paper, involuntary lateral movements (ILM) are presented. ILM are a premature sign of health deterioration. Therefore, this algorithm embedded in a sensor device could be used for continuous health monitoring in ambulatory situations. Several studies show that human bodies try to minimize acceleration body movements, so they are based on minimum jerk. The proposed algorithm is based on a jerk threshold detection. In this work it is supposed that ILM will produce important jerk values above other daily movements, so that they can be distinguished using a threshold.
Homogeneous nucleation of NAD and NAT in liquid stratospheric aerosols: insufficient to explain denitrification

Abstract. The nucleation of NAD and NAT from HNO3/H2O and HNO3/H2SO4/H2O solution droplets is investigated both theoretically and experimentally with respect to the formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). Our analysis shows that homogeneous NAD and NAT nucleation from liquid aerosols is insufficient to explain the number densities of large nitric acid containing particles recently observed in the Arctic stratosphere. This conclusion is based on new droplet freezing experiments employing optical microscopy combined with Raman spectroscopy. The homogeneous nucleation rate coefficients of NAD and NAT in liquid aerosols under polar stratospheric conditions derived from the experiments are
Simulation‐Based Medical Education: An Ethical Imperative

Medical training must at some point use live patients to hone the skills of health professionals. But there is also an obligation to provide optimal treatment and to ensure patients' safety and well-being. Balancing these two needs represents a fundamental ethical tension in medical education. Simulation-based learning can help mitigate this tension by developing health professionals' knowledge, skills, and attitudes while protecting patients from unnecessary risk. Simulation-based training has been institutionalized in other high-hazard professions, such as aviation, nuclear power, and the military, to maximize training safety and minimize risk. Health care has lagged behind in simulation applications for a number of reasons, including cost, lack of rigorous proof of effect, and resistance to change. Recently, the international patient safety movement and the U.S. federal policy agenda have created a receptive atmosphere for expanding the use of simulators in medical training, stressing the ethical imperative to “first do no harm” in the face of validated, large epidemiological studies describing unacceptable preventable injuries to patients as a result of medical management. Four themes provide a framework for an ethical analysis of simulation-based medical education: best standards of care and training, error management and patient safety, patient autonomy, and social justice and resource allocation. These themes are examined from the perspectives of patients, learners, educators, and society. The use of simulation wherever feasible conveys a critical educational and ethical message to all: patients are to be protected whenever possible and they are not commodities to be used as conveniences of training.
Early detection of nigro-striatal dysfunction by imaging

Reliable and well-validated imaging biomarkers for PD to identify individuals ‘at risk’ prior to motor symptoms, accurately diagnose individuals at the threshold of clinical PD, and monitor PD progression throughout its course would dramatically improve patient care and accelerate research into both PD etiology and therapeutics. Imaging biomarkers may be especially useful to identify individuals at risk during the pre-motor period of PD and to investigate the progression of PD during the pre-motor period. Both pathology and imaging studies have shown that PD patients have a prolonged period during which vulnerable neuronal populations are degenerating, but typical motor symptoms have not yet developed. Several studies show that about 40% -60% of dopamine neuronal markers have been lost at the threshold of motor symptoms (1, 2). While the duration of the pre-motor period is unclear, imaging and pathology data suggest that the duration is at least five years and may be as long as twenty years. Data from evaluation of post-mortem tissue has provided further evidence suggesting a characteristic temporal pattern of brain pathology in PD ascending from the brain stem to the basal ganglia and cortical regions (3). These data are consistent with the notion that there is a prolonged period during which an individual can be identified as ‘at risk’ by genetic testing, imaging evidence of neuronal degeneration, and/or early clinical signs associated with PD such as olfactory loss, REM behavior disorder, cognitive or autonomic dysfunction (4-7). Imaging tracers targeting pre-synaptic nigrostriatal function have been the most widely used biomarker to assess early PD. Most of these studies have used either FDopa and/or DAT tracers to monitor dopaminergic degeneration Specifically these imaging studies demonstrate asymmetric, putamen greater than caudate loss of dopaminergic uptake and the imaging loss correlates with worsening clinical symptoms in cross-sectional evaluation While many studies have demonstrated that imaging markers can identify individuals with typical motor PD even with mild early disease, if imaging biomarkers are to be useful in assessing pre-motor PD, studies must move ‘backwards’ to focus on subjects ‘at risk’ but not yet diagnosed. The challenge is how to find ‘at risk’ subjects. One approach to identifying those ‘at risk’ for PD is to assess those with one or more symptoms of parkinsonism and therefore suspected, but not diagnosed PD. The QUERY studies and the CUPS study have both examined the accuracy of DAT imaging in subjects with non-diagnostic motor symptoms (8, 9). These studies demonstrated that those individuals with suspected PD with a reduction in DAT density were at very high risk for a clinical diagnosis of PD. Similarly evaluation of nigral ultrasound also was able to distinguish among those with suspected parkinsonism, subjects likely to have an eventual clinical diagnosis of parkinsonism (10). Importantly these imaging markers cannot distinguish between idiopathic PD and other parkinsonisms like progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, corti-
Adaptive Collaboration in Peer-to-Peer Systems

We consider a simple model for reputation systems such as the one used by eBay. In the model there are n players, some of which may exhibit arbitrarily malicious (Byzantine) behavior, and there are m objects, some of which are bad. The goal of the honest players is to find a good object. To facilitate collaboration, the system maintains a shared billboard. A basic step of a player consists of consulting the billboard, probing an object to learn its true value, and posting the result on the billboard for the benefit of others. Probing an object incurs a unit cost to the player, and consulting the billboard is free. The dilemma of an honest player is how to balance between the desire to reduce its cost by taking advantage of the reports posted by honest peers, and the fear of being exploited by adopting reports posted by malicious players. In prior work, the authors presented an algorithm solving this problem in an asynchronous model, and the total cost of the probes made by honest players during the algorithm was analyzed. In this paper, the focus is on the individual cost, and a synchronous model in which each player takes a step in each round was considered. The prior algorithm has individual cost O(1/alphalog n) in this model, assuming that an alpha fraction of players are honest. In this paper, it is proven that no algorithm could guarantee individual cost of less than Omega(1/alpha), which is essentially constant if there are enough honest players. The main result is a new algorithm that achieves O(1) individual cost when there are many honest players, and achieves individual cost O((1/alpha)(log n/ log log n)) even when there are not. It is also shown that this algorithm generalizes to other interesting scenarios
Semaphorin 3A–Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-165 Balance Mediates Migration and Apoptosis of Neural Progenitor Cells by the Recruitment of Shared Receptor

The dynamic and coordinated interaction between cells and their microenvironment controls cell migration, proliferation, and apoptosis, mediated by different cell surface molecules. We have studied the response of a neuroectodermal progenitor cell line, Dev, to a guidance molecule, semaphorin 3A (Sema3A), described previously as a repellent–collapsing signal for axons, and we have shown that Sema3A acts as a repellent guidance cue for migrating progenitor cells and, on prolonged application, induces apoptosis. Both repulsion and induction of cell death are mediated by neuropilin-1, the ligand-binding component of the Sema3A receptor. The vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF165, antagonizes Sema3A-induced apoptosis and promotes cell survival, migration, and proliferation. Surprisingly, repulsion by Sema3A also depends on expression of VEGFR1, a VEGF165 receptor, expressed in Dev cells. Moreover, we found that these repulsive effects of Sema3A require tyrosine kinase activity, which can be attributed to VEGFR1. These results indicate that the balance between guidance molecules and angiogenic factors can modulate the migration, apoptosis (or survival), and proliferation of neural progenitor cells through shared receptors.
Tier-Aware Resource Allocation in OFDMA Macrocell-Small Cell Networks

We present a joint sub-channel and power allocation framework for downlink transmission in an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA)-based cellular network composed of a macrocell overlaid by small cells. In this framework, the resource allocation (RA) problems for both the macrocell and small cells are formulated as optimization problems. For the macrocell, we formulate an RA problem that is aware of the existence of the small cell tier. In this problem, the macrocell performs RA to satisfy the data rate requirements of macro user equipments (MUEs) while maximizing the tolerable interference from the small cell tier on its allocated sub-channels. Although the RA problem for the macrocell is shown to be a mixed integer nonlinear problem (MINLP), we prove that the macrocell can solve another alternate optimization problem that will yield the optimal solution with reduced complexity. For the small cells, following the same idea of tier-awareness, we formulate an optimization problem that accounts for both RA and admission control (AC) and aims at maximizing the number of admitted users while simultaneously minimizing the consumed bandwidth. Similar to the macrocell optimization problem, the small cell problem is shown to be an MINLP. We obtain a sub-optimal solution to the MINLP problem relying on convex relaxation. In addition, we employ the dual decomposition technique to have a distributed solution for the small cell tier. Numerical results confirm the performance gains of our proposed RA formulation for the macrocell over the traditional resource allocation based on minimizing the transmission power. Besides, it is shown that the formulation based on convex relaxation yields a similar behavior to the MINLP formulation. Also, the distributed solution converges to the same solution obtained by solving the corresponding convex optimization problem in a centralized fashion.
Yield Prediction for Integrated Circuits Manufacturing Through Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling of Spatial Defects

Accurate yield prediction to evaluate productivity, and to estimate production costs, is a critical issue in the highly competitive semiconductor industry. We propose yield models based on hierarchical Bayesian modeling of clustered spatial defects produced in integrated circuits (IC) manufacturing. We use spatial locations of the IC chips on the wafers as covariates, and develop four models based on Poisson regression, negative binomial (NB) regression, zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression, and zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression. Along with the hierarchical Bayesian approaches, spatial variations of defects within one wafer as well as among different wafers are effectively incorporated in the yield models. Wafermap data obtained from an industrial collaborator are used to illustrate the proposed models. The results indicate that the Poisson regression model consistently underestimates the true yield because of extraneous Poisson variation caused by defect clustering. On the contrary, NB regression, ZIP regression, and ZINB regression models provide more reliable yield estimation and prediction in real applications.
Visualized Voice Service System by VSXML

The paper presents voice service XML (VSXML) technologies to transform the traditional voice services into the visualized ones for mobile phone users. The technologies contain VSXML formatted files, VSXML designer, and VSXML renderer. The VSXML file encapsulates the interactive Question Units plus the communication protocols during the voice services conversation. The VSXML designer is a toolkit can provide visualizable and handy applications for voice service designers. The VSXML renderer generates the corresponding controls of the voice service conversion according to the VSXML file. The techniques have been designed and implemented to Motorola and Nokia mobile phones. We did the preliminary investigation regarding the VSXML Designer toolkit usage as well. The paper concludes the technologies are flexible and easy to adapt. In general, the voice services can be visualizable completely if there is no database accessing. We also addressed the future work of the technologies.
The long arm of childhood: The influence of early-life social conditions on men’s mortality

Increasingly, social scientists are turning to childhood to gain a better understanding of the fundamental social causes of adult mortality. However, evidence of the link between childhood and the mortality of adults is fragmentary, and the intervening mechanisms remain unclear. Drawing on the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, our analysis shows that men’s mortality is associated with an array of childhood conditions, including socioeconomic status, family living arrangements, mother’s work status, rural residence, and parents’ nativity. With the exception of parental nativity, socioeconomic-achievement processes in adulthood and lifestyle factors mediated these associations. Education, family income, household wealth, and occupation mediated the influence of socioeconomic status in childhood. Adult lifestyle factors, particularly body mass, mediated the effects of family living arrangements in childhood, mother’s work status, and rural residence. Our findings bring into sharp focus the idea that economic and educational policies that are targeted at children’s well-being are implicitly health policies with effects that reach far into the adult life course.