Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scene classification from degraded images: comparing human Scene classification from degraded images: comparing human and computer vision performance and computer vision performance

People can recognize the context of a scene with just a brief glance. Visual information such as color, objects and their properties, and texture are all important in correctly determining the type of scene (e.g. indoors versus outdoors). Although these properties are all useful, it is unclear which features of an image play a more important role in the task of scene recognition. To this aim, we compare and contrast a state-of-the-art neural network and GIST model with human performance on the task of classifying images as indoors or outdoors. We analyze the impact of image manipulations, such as blurring and scrambling, on computational models of scene recognition and human perception. We then create and analyze a measure of local-global information to represent how each perceptual system relies on local and global image features. Finally, we train a variety of neural networks on degraded images to attempt to build a neural network that emulates human performance on both classiﬁcaton accuracies and this local-global measure.
Time‐frequency balanced spectral entropy as a measure of anesthetic drug effect in central nervous system during sevoflurane, propofol, and thiopental anesthesia

Background: Time‐frequency balanced spectral entropy of electroencephalogram (EEG) and frontal electromyogram (FEMG) is a novel measure of hypnosis during anesthesia. Two Entropy parameters are described: Response entropy (RE) is calculated from EEG and FEMG; and State Entropy (SE) is calculated mainly from EEG. This study was performed to validate their performance during transition from consciousness to unconsciousness under different anesthetic agents.
Seasonal and racial incidence of infantile gastroenteritis in South Africa.

The etiology of summer diarrhea, which formerly caused extensive mortality in children living in industrialized countries, was never discovered. This condition no longer occurs in developed countries, having been replaced by winter diarrhea, which is associated with a low mortality. Summer epidemics of diarrhea still take place in black South African infants, whereas, in white South African children, the pattern of diarrhea is similar to that seen in children in industrialized countries today. In 1977-1980, the author studied the records of patients less than two years of age admitted for treatment of dehydrating diarrhea to two teaching hospitals in Johannesburg, the Johannesburg General and Baragwanath Hospitals, which serve the needs of white and black patients, respectively. The incidence of severe diarrhea (i.e., diarrhea necessitating hospitalization) showed highly significant seasonality (p less than 0.001) and distinctive patterns by race. Dehydrating diarrhea in black children was strongly associated with warm weather, while diarrhea in white children occurred more regularly throughout the year, with a peak incidence in late fall. Laboratory studies have shown that bacteria, in particular "classical" enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, are the leading cause of diarrhea in black South African children, and that diarrhea in white children is largely attributable to rotaviruses. The association of enteropathogenic E. coli with diarrhea in black children suggests that these bacteria were responsible for earlier outbreaks of summer diarrhea. The finding that the etiology of diarrhea varies according to socioeconomic class has important implications for diarrhea control programs.
The Effect of Chronic Sulfonylurea Therapy on Hepatic Glucose Production in Non-insulin-dependent Diabetes

In 20 patients with untreated non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), there was a positive relationship between fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glucose production rate, calculated by the isotope dilution technique (r = 0.72, P < 0.001). This suggests that glucose production rate is an important determinant of FPG in untreated NIDDM. Fifteen patients were also studied during therapy with chlorpropamide for 3–6 mo. During therapy, FPG was lower (133 ± 9 vs. 216 ± 20 mg/dl, mean ± SEM; P < 0.001), glucose production was lower (59.5 ± 2.0 vs 77.6 ± 4.9 mg/m2/min; P < 0.005), and there was a significant correlation between the fall in glucose production and the fall in FPG (r = 0.59, P < 0.05). Fasting IRI levels increased in some, but not all, patients during chlorpropamide (untreated 18 ± 2, treated 21 ± 2 μU/ml; P = NS). However, there was a significant relationship between the percent rise in IRI and the fall in glucose production during treatment (r = 0.75, P < 0.001). Patients with a rise in fasting insulin during therapy had a greater fall in glucose production than those whose insulin did not rise (25.4 ± 8.1 vs. 7.8 ± 2.4 mg/m2/min; P < 0.005). When a low-dose insulin infusion was given to approximate the increases of portal venous insulin during therapy, similar falls of glucose production occurred. We conclude that inhibition of endogenous glucose production during chronic chlorpropamide therapy is an important mechanism for the lowering of FPG and that enhanced insulin secretion is the reason for the major part of this inhibition. The small fall in glucose production in those patients whose insulin level did not rise during therapy suggests an additional contribution by some other mechanism.
What is the Importance of Monetary and Fiscal Shocks in Explaining US Macroeconomic Fluctuations?

This paper analyzes the importance of monetary and fiscal policy shocks in explaining US macroeconomic fluctuations, and establishes new stylized facts. The novelty of our empirical analysis is that we jointly consider both monetary and fiscal policy, whereas the existing literature only focuses on either one or the other. Our main findings are twofold: fiscal shocks are relatively more important in explaining medium cycle fluctuations whereas monetary policy shocks are relatively more important in explaining business cycle fluctuations; and failing to recognize that both monetary and fiscal policy simultaneously affect macroeconomic variables might incorrectly attribute the fluctuations to the wrong source.
Human brain mapping of auditory imagery: event-related functional MRI study

We used event-related fMRI methodology to investigate human brain activity during auditory imagery. A series of susceptibility-weighted MR images covering the whole brain were acquired to obtain blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes associated with the imagery event of hearing simple monotone. Group analysis across the 12 right-handed subjects revealed activations in the medial and inferior frontal gyri, precuneus, middle frontal gyri, superior temporal gyri, and anterior cingulate gyri. Bilateral primary and secondary auditory areas in the superior temporal gyri also exhibited the event-related MR signal changes. The proposed method allowed for the analysis of brain areas responsive to the event of auditory imagery while our results suggest that auditory imagery and actual audition share common neural substrates.
Sonography of the Coracoid Process Region

Sonography is widely known as an accurate imaging tool for assessment of the rotator cuff of the shoulder, the long head of the biceps tendon, and joint disorders, but it is rarely performed to evaluate the coracoid process and the adjacent soft tissues. Nevertheless, sonography can show anatomic details of this region and be used to assess several pathologic conditions. The aims of this pictorial essay are to briefly review the anatomy of the coracoid process region, describe examination technique and normal sonographic appearances, and present the sonographic findings of the main disorders affecting this region.
Advancing the Theory of Adaptive Structuration: The Development of a Scale to Measure Faithfulness of Appropriation

Adaptive Structuration Theory AST is rapidly becoming an influential theoretical perspective in research on advanced information technologies. However, there still exists a paucity of methods to capture critical AST constructs. This paper describes the development of an instrument to capture the extent to which users of an advanced information technology believe they have appropriated its structures faithfully. The development of such instruments is considered critical if the theoretical base provided by AST is to be fully exploited in understanding the use of advanced information technologies. The development procedure, which occurred in the context of the use of an electronic meeting system, was carried out in three phases that began with initial item development and proceeded through an exploratory to a confirmatory phase. Three experiments, two in the exploratory phase and one in the confirmatory phase, were performed. In the final phase, structural equation modeling techniques were used to confirm the convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of the resulting five-item scale.
Disease‐Associated Visual Image Degradation and Spherical Refractive Errors in Children

ABSTRACT Retrospective clinical data from 496 eyes of 256 children attending a low vision clinic were analyzed to determine the relation between disease states which involve visual image degradation and refractive error. Refractive data from 1023 normal vision children were used as a control. The low vision children were grouped according to their disease classification and the acknowledged age‐of‐onset of their visual disability. It was found that there was an overall inability to emmetropize and a trend towards myopia. It was also observed that the diseases which led to myopia were associated with a peripheral or peripheral plus central impairment of vision and that those conditions in which foveal vision was primarily impaired showed a mild hypermetropic trend. Eyes in which the visual impairment was not congenital but occurred before the age of 3 years tended to develop hypermetropia. The deviation from emmetropia decreased with increasing age‐of‐onset of the visual impairment, as did the variation about the mean refraction. The plastic period for emmetropization is estimated to end at 8 to 9 years of age.
Cortical Rhythms Induced by TMS Stimulation - Analysis with a Neural Mass Model

Knowledge of cortical rhythms represents an important aspect of modern neuroscience, to understand how the brain realizes its functions. Recent data suggest that different regions in the brain may exhibit distinct rhythms when perturbed by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) (Rosanova et al., 2009) and that these rhythms can change due to the connectivity among regions. In this context, neural mass models can be very useful to simulate specific aspects of electrical brain activity and, above all, to analyze and identify the overall frequency content of EEG in a cortical region of interest (ROI). In this work we implemented a model of connectivity among cortical regions (Ursino, Cona and Zavaglia, 2010) to fit the impulse responses in three ROIs during an experiment of TMS stimulation. In particular we investigated Brodmann Area (BA) 19 (occipital lobe), BA 7 (parietal lobe) and BA 6 (frontal lobe). Results show that the model can reproduce the natural rhythms of the three regions quite well, acting on a few internal parameters. Moreover, model can explain most rhythm changes induced by stimulation of another region, by using just a few long-range connectivity parameters among ROIs.
Neurocirculatory asthenia, anxiety neurosis or the effort syndrome.

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to summarize some of the conclusions and data from a comprehensive study of patients with neurocirculatory asthenia, anxiety neurosis or the effort syndrome. 1 These studies were conducted over a five year period 1a (1942 to 1947), for the most part on service personnel. It is intended that this summary should be of use to those who are now handling or studying problems associated with this disorder. Although most of the important investigations on the subject have been made during and immediately after wars, 2 the problem of neurocirculatory asthenia is important in civilian life. In this paper we shall emphasize the data from our studies and the conclusions of the authors and shall not attempt to summarize the abundant literature on neurocirculatory asthenia; nor will we attempt to present in detail all the studies of the project, as they are being reported
Studies on herpesvirus infections of goats in Turkey: Prevalence of antibodies to bovine herpesvirus 1

SUMMARY This study was planed to achieve serological evidence and prevalence of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) infection in goat flocks in Turkey. A total of 615 adult goats located in 5 different provinces were sampled for serological examinations. Out of 615, 34 (5.52 %) were detected as to be positive for neutralising antibodies against BHV-1 using micro-neutralisation assay. Prevalence of the infection was monitored varying between 2 % to 31.57 % according to provinces. By discussing the results of this study together with the previous data on BHV-1 in cattle, it was concluded that infection of goats with BHV-1 should take into consideration for successful control of the disease in Turkey. It is concluded that latently infected goats can introduce the infection to the virus-free cattle populations.
A Gabor Filter Based Fingerprint Enhancement Scheme Using Average Frequency

Fingerprint minutiae are prevalently used in fingerprint recognition systems. The extraction of fingerprint minutiae is heavily affected by the quality of fingerprint images. This leads to the incorporation of a fingerprint enhancement module in fingerprint recognition systems to make the system robust with respect to the quality of input fingerprint images. Most of existing enhancement methods suffer from two main kinds of defects: (1) time consuming and thus unusable in time critical applications; and (2) blocky and directional effects in the enhanced image. This paper proposes an improved fingerprint enhancement scheme based on the Gabor filter tuning its frequency to the average frequency of the input image and changing its shape from square to circle and dynamically adjusting the filter's size based on the average frequency. This scheme can enhance the fingerprint image rapidly and overcome the blocky and directional effects and does improve the performance of minutiae detection.
Bed and shower baths: comparing the perceptions of patients with acute myocardial infarction.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To compare the perceptions of patients with acute myocardial infarction concerning bed and shower baths and evaluate how antecedent variables influence their perceptions. BACKGROUND Professionals are often oblivious to the fact that, when performing a bed bath, they are manipulating someone else's body and invading someone's privacy and intimacy. This lack of awareness may trigger various responses in patients, such as dissatisfaction and anxiety. Several studies assessing the perceptions of patients when receiving a bed bath, and most are qualitative. Thus, there is a need to quantify these perceptions. DESIGN The research was a crossover study. METHODS The sample consisted of 71 patients with acute myocardial infarction, admitted to coronary units. Patients were evaluated on two occasions: after their second bed bath and after their second shower bath. A Semantic Differential Scale was constructed and validated prior to data collection. RESULTS The perception of patients receiving shower baths was significantly more positive than those of patients receiving bed baths (<0·0001). The only variable that interfered with the general perception of patients was prior hospitalisation (p = 0·0468). Patients who previously experienced a hospitalisation had a less positive perception, concerning both the bed and shower baths, than those who were hospitalised for the first time. CONCLUSION The perceptions of patients receiving bed baths were less positive than those of patients receiving shower baths. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The perceptions of patients receiving baths are very important to guiding nursing care and developing strategies to minimise patient dissatisfaction.
Correlation of Serum Leptin Levels With the Disease Activity in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease affecting 0.5-1% of general population. Among the adipokines secreted by the adipocytes, Leptin act as a new mediator of the inflammatory process and plays a major role in the pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Serum Leptin levels was determined and correlated with the disease activity in the Rheumatoid arthritis patients.60 Rheumatoid arthritis patients diagnosed by American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria 2010 aged 25-55years were included in the study. Serum Leptin levels, Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were studied and the disease severity calculated and categorised. The mean serum Leptin concentration in RA patients with high disease activity (n=26) was more (51.32+ 33.81ng/mL) than that in moderate activity (n=34) (46.83+30.92ng/mL), though the difference in the mean between the two groups was not statistically significant. As the serum Leptin levels were significantly higher in the RA patients than in the controls it is understood that Leptin plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of RA as a proinflammatory cytokine. However no correlation was observed between serum Leptin levels and disease activity of the RA patients.
Tx Leakage Cancellers for 24 GHz and 77 GHz Vehicular Radar Applications

Tx leakage cancellers for 24 and 77 GHz vehicular radar systems are presented. These have high Tx-to-Rx isolation and wideband characteristics. Tx leakage cancellers are composed of four Lange couplers, a 90deg delay line, and a Wilkinson combiner. Tx leakage cancellers are implemented on GaAs substrate. A 24 GHz Tx leakage canceller shows the transmitting loss of 5.7 dB and Tx leakage cancellation of 28.1 dB. Also a 77 GHz Tx leakage canceller shows the transmitting loss of 3.6 dB and Tx leakage cancellation of 28.2 dB. Isolations due to Lange coupler are 15.1 dB in 24 GHz Tx leakage cancellers and 13.1 dB in 77 GHz Tx leakage cancellers, respectively. The isolations due to the topology of the Tx leakage canceller are expected to be 13 dB and 15.1 dB, respectively. These compact Tx leakage cancellers show wideband characteristics of bandwidth beyond 4 GHz
Implementation of Basic Arithmetic Operations Using Cellular Automaton

This paper presents hardware architecture to perform the basic arithmetic operation addition using cellular automata (CA). This age old problem of addition were previously solved by ripple circuit or carry look ahead circuit or by using a combination of them. Each of these circuits is purely combinational in nature and their complexity is centered on the number of logic gates and the associated gate delays. On the contrary, in our CA based design the complexity is mainly centered on the number of clock cycles required to finish the computation instead of the gate delays.
Linking Genetics and Political Attitudes: Reconceptualizing Political Ideology

In this paper, we trace the route by which genetics could ultimately connect to issue attitudes and suggest that central to this connection are chronic dispositional preferences for mass-scale social rules, order, and conduct—what we label political ideology. The need to resolve bedrock social dilemmas concerning such matters as leadership style, protection from outgroups, and the degree to which norms of conduct are malleable, is present in any large-scale social unit at any time. This universality is important in that it leaves open the possibility that genetics could influence stances on issues of the day. Here, we measure orientation to these bedrock principles in two ways—a survey of conscious, self-reported positions and an implicit association test (IAT) of latent orientations toward fixed or flexible rules of social conduct. In an initial test, both measures were predictive of stances on issues of the day as well as of ideological self-labeling, thereby suggesting that the heritability of specific issue attitudes could be the result of the heritability of general orientations toward bedrock principles of mass-scale group life.
Very high-Q solenoid RF inductors for SiP LTCC integration

Design and fabrication of radio frequency (RF) inductors in multi-layer Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) materials are discussed and experimental results are presented. Compact high-Q three-dimensional inductor topologies have been designed to achieve high quality factor (Q>75) and high self-resonance frequency (SRF > 4.5 GHz) with inductance-value between 2–7 nH at 2 GHz. The inductors were made using the lowest possible number of LTCC layers and fine line LTCC process (width/space 2 mil/2 mil). The fabricated LTCC inductors are suitable for RF system-on-package (SiP) applications that require high Q factors.
A randomized comparative effectiveness study of oral triple therapy versus etanercept plus methotrexate in early aggressive rheumatoid arthritis: the treatment of Early Aggressive Rheumatoid Arthritis Trial.

OBJECTIVE To assess whether it is better to intensively treat all patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using combinations of drugs or to reserve this approach for patients who do not have an appropriate response (as determined by a Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using the erythrocyte sedimentation rate [DAS28-ESR] of ≥ 3.2 at week 24) to methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy, and to assess whether combination therapy with MTX plus etanercept is superior to the combination of MTX plus sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine. METHODS The Treatment of Early Aggressive Rheumatoid Arthritis (TEAR) study is a 2-year, randomized, double-blind trial. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to randomly assign subjects to 1 of 4 treatment arms: immediate treatment with MTX plus etanercept, immediate oral triple therapy (MTX plus sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine), or step-up from MTX monotherapy to one of the combination therapies (MTX plus etanercept or MTX plus sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine) at week 24 if the DAS28-ESR was ≥ 3.2. All treatment arms included matching placebos. The primary outcome was an observed-group analysis of DAS28-ESR values from week 48 to week 102. RESULTS At week 24 (beginning of the step-up period), subjects in the 2 immediate-treatment groups demonstrated a greater reduction in the DAS28-ESR compared with those in the 2 step-up groups (3.6 versus 4.2; P < 0.0001); no differences between the combination-therapy regimens were observed. Between week 48 and week 102, subjects randomized to the step-up arms had a DAS28-ESR clinical response that was not different from that of subjects who initially received combination therapy, regardless of the treatment arm. There was no significant difference in the DAS28-ESR between subjects randomized to oral triple therapy and those randomized to receive MTX plus etanercept. By week 102, there was a statistically significant difference in the change in radiographic measurements from baseline between the group receiving MTX plus etanercept and the group receiving oral triple therapy (0.64 versus 1.69; P = 0.047). CONCLUSION There were no differences in the mean DAS28-ESR during weeks 48-102 between subjects randomized to receive MTX plus etanercept and those randomized to triple therapy, regardless of whether they received immediate combination treatment or step-up from MTX monotherapy. At 102 weeks, immediate combination treatment with either strategy was more effective than MTX monotherapy prior to the initiation of step-up therapy. Initial use of MTX monotherapy with the addition of sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine (or etanercept, if necessary, after 6 months) is a reasonable therapeutic strategy for patients with early RA. Treatment with the combination of MTX plus etanercept resulted in a statistically significant radiographic benefit compared with oral triple therapy.