Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incorporating a Wavelet Transform into a Saliency-Based Method for Online Handwriting Segmentation

In the framework of a saliency-based approach for segmenting cursive handwriting into elementary strokes, we propose a smoothing technique based on the use of a Wavelet Transform to describe the electronic ink at different resolutions. According to such an approach, derived in analogy with those proposed in the literature for early visual tasks in primates, curvature maxima corresponding to actual segmentation points are separated from those produced by the different source of noise affecting the handwriting generation process. This is obtained by evaluating the curvature maxima at different levels of resolution, and by arranging them into a pyramidal structure, from which a saliency map is eventually achieved by combining the values across all possible scales. Such maps enjoy the property of exhibiting higher values in correspondence of regions of the original ink where curvature maxima survive along difference scales, thus indicating that those regions should correspond to the parts of the ink where two strokes join. Experiments performed by using both standard databases and one of online words collected in our laboratory, have shown high performance in terms of correct segmentation, stability and predictability of the results.
Controlled Inkjetting of a Conductive Pattern of Silver Nanoparticles Based on the Coffee‐Ring Effect

Conductive patterns with line widths of 5-10 µm are successfully fabricated by utilizing the coffee-ring effect in inkjet printing, resulting in transmittance values of up to 91.2% in the visible to near-infrared region. This non-lithographic approach broadens the range of fabrication procedures that can be used to create various nanoparticle-based microstructures and electronic devices.
Comparaison des mesures anthropométriques des enfants scolaires selon leur milieu de résidenc: Etude dans la province de Kenitra au Nord Ouest du Maroc

Stunting and wasting are still very important in Moroccan children. School age children are scarcely studied. Environment of residency may have an impact on children growth. The aim of this study is to determine prevalence of stunting and wasting in a sample of 263 school children enrolled in the sixth grade. Anthropometric measurements are done by a medical team, whereas socioeconomic data were collected by a survey team. Globally stunting and wasting are still high. Rural children are more stunted but less wasted. Parent education and especially the mother one is greater in urban area as so is the household income. Rural families are still large though Morocco is undergoing a demographic transition.
A segmented output stage H-bridge IC with tunable gate driver

In this paper, an integrated EDMOS H-bridge that incorporates both segmented output transistors and segmented gate drivers is presented. This fully segmented design approach allows the output resistance of the H-bridge and the output resistance of the gate drivers to be dynamically adjusted. Dynamic adjustment of these parameters allows for the continuous optimization of the power conversion efficiency of the H-bridge over a wide range of output currents. The IC chip is fabricated using TSMC's 0.18 μm BCD Gen-2 process technology. The H-bridge is operated with a 10 V input, 2 V output and a load current between 0.02 A and 4 A. The presented design achieves power conversion efficiency improvements of 32% and 8% at light load current and heavy load current, respectively, when compared to traditional fixed power transistor designs. Furthermore, the dynamically adjustable output resistance of the gate drivers allows for suppression of switching node ringing and conducted EMI (CEMI) by 5.5 dB with no a significant reduction in efficiency.
Talking Jazz: An Oral History

* Miles Davis * Gil Evans * Dizzy Gillespie * Jay McShann * Red Rodney * Frank Morgan * John Hendricks * Max Roach * Willie Ruff * Betty Carter * Jackie McLean * Horace Silver * Abdullah Ibrahim * Mose Allison * Sonny Rollins * Phil Woods * Johnny Griffin * Pepper Adams * Michael Petrucciani * McCoy Tyner * Max Gordon * Archie Shepp * Herbie Hancock * Tony Williams * Keith Jarrett * Branford Marsalis * Rudy Van Gelder * George Benson * Wynton Marsalis * Charles Brown * Dr. John * Joe Sample * Jack DeJohnette * Denny Zeitlin * Don Cherry * Carla Bley * David Murray * Steve Gold * Donald Fagen * Bobby McFerrin * Dave Grusin * Bob James
Intrusion Detection System Based on K-Star Classifier and Feature Set Reduction

Network security and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS’s) is an important security related research area. This paper applies K-star algorithm with filtering analysis in order to build a network intrusion detection system. For our experimental analysis and as a case study, we have used the new NSL-KDD dataset, which is a modified dataset for KDDCup 1999 intrusion detection benchmark dataset. With a split of 66.0% for the training set and the remainder for the testing set a 2 class classifications has been implemented. WEKA which is a java based open source software consists of a collection of machine learning algorithms for Data mining tasks has been used in the testing process. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is very accurate with low false positive rate and high true positive rate and it takes less learning time in comparison with other existing approaches used for efficient network intrusion detection.
Symptoms and Needs of Head and Neck Cancer Patients at Diagnosis of Incurability - Prevalences, Clinical Implications, and Feasibility of a Prospective Longitudinal Multicenter Cohort Study

Background: Little is known about the physical symptoms and psychosocial burden of patients at the time of diagnosis of an incurable situation, although cancer treatment guidelines demand early assessment and integration of palliative care concepts, beginning from the diagnosis of incurability. Methods: Therefore, we initiated a prospective longitudinal multicenter cohort study assessing the symptoms and needs of patients suffering from incurable cancer (various entities), from the time of diagnosing incurability (i.e., before palliative anticancer treatment was initiated) and in 3-monthly intervals thereafter, by using validated self-reporting tools. Here, we focus on patients with head and neck cancer and present preliminary results on symptoms and need prevalences, on clinical implications, and on the feasibility of a methodologically complex assessment procedure in a particularly vulnerable study population. Results: 22 patients completed the first visit. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance scores and most physical symptoms and psychosocial items varied between the extremes, from a virtually uncompromised condition to extremely perceived symptoms and needs. If intense face-to-face study support was provided, the study concept proved to be feasible, despite the complexity of assessment, problems in interdisciplinary and patient communication, comorbidities, and early death from complications. Conclusions: The striking variability in the perceived symptom and need intensities requires a highly individualized approach. For clinical purposes, a less complex screening procedure would be desirable, in order to enable a routine, early and comprehensive support, including palliative care services.
Some Important Statistical Issues Courts Should Consider in Their Assessment of Statistical Analyses Submitted in Class Certification Motions: Implications for Dukes v. Wal-Mart

When many individual plaintiffs have similar claims against the same defendant, often it is more efficient for them to be combined into a single class action. Due to their increased complexity and larger stakes, in the United States there are special criteria a party seeking to proceed as a class action needs to satisfy. Statistical evidence is often submitted to establish that the members of the proposed class were affected by a common event or policy. In equal employment cases involving an employer with a number of locations or sub-units, defendants may argue that the data should be examined separately for each unit while plaintiffs may pool the data into one or several large samples or focus on a few units in which statistical significance was observed. After describing the statistical issues involved, it will be seen that requiring plaintiffs to demonstrate a statistically significant disparity in a pre-set fraction, e.g. majority of the sub-units is too stringent as the power of the statistical test to detect a meaningful disparity in most sub-units is too small. On the other hand, when many statistical tests are calculated on data from a fair system, a small percentage of significant disparities will be obtained. Thus, allowing a class action to proceed if the plaintiffs can demonstrate a statistically significant difference in a few sub-units is too lax. The use of established methods for combining statistical tests for data organized by appropriate subgroups will be illustrated on data from two recent cases. Using the concept of power, the expected number, E, of sub-units in which a statistically significant result would occur if there were a legally meaningful disparity can be determined. Then the observed number, O, of units with a significant disparity can be compared to E, to see whether data are consistent with a pattern, O close to E, indicating unfairness or O clearly less than E, reflecting fairness. Without such a comparison, the number of units with a statistically significant disparity is not meaningful. Both parties in Dukes v. Wal-Mart introduced summaries of the p-values of many individual statistical tests that grouped them into a small number of categories. An appropriate overall procedure combines them into a single summary statistic. This analysis shows that the promotion data for the 40 or 41 regions in the Wal-Mart case are consistent with an overall system in which the odds an eligible female had of being promoted were about 70 to 80 percent of those of a male. A similar analysis of the p-values of Wal-Mart’s sub-unit regressions also is consistent with a general pattern of a degree of underpayment of female employees relative to that of similarly qualified males.
Patients’ Global Evaluation of Analgesia and Safety of Injected Parecoxib for Postoperative Pain: A Quantitative Systematic Review

Parecoxib is the only parenterally administered cyclooxygenase-2-selective inhibitor available. We performed a systematic review, including full reports of randomized comparisons of parecoxib compared with any other analgesic intervention for prophylaxis or treatment of postoperative pain. Dichotomous data on patients’ global evaluation of their analgesic regimen were extracted by means of the fraction of patients who rated their medication as “good” or “excellent. ” For safety analysis, data on any reported adverse effects were extracted. Relative risk (RR), number needed to treat (NNT), or number-needed-to-harm were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Data from 9 trials of 50 initially screened were finally analyzed. One thousand thirteen patients were randomized to receive parecoxib, 218 patients were allocated to an active control, and 507 patients received a placebo. With prophylactic administration, the pooled NNT to obtain the desired outcome (“good”/“excellent” rating) with parecoxib 20 and 40 mg compared with placebo was 4.5 (RR, 1.42; 95% CI, 0.91–2.24) and 4.0 (RR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.10–1.79), respectively. In the treatment trials, the NNT to obtain the outcome of interest with parecoxib 20 mg was 2.1 (RR, 3.44; 95% CI, 1.49–7.96), 5.3 (RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.01–2.02), and −8.3 (RR, 0.85; 95%CI,0.75–0.97)for the comparisons with placebo, morphine, and ketorolac, respectively. The corresponding NNT for treatment with parecoxib 40 mg was 1.7 (RR, 4.65; 95% CI, 2.04–10.61), 3.7 (RR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.21–2.16), and 50 (RR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.89–1.18) for the comparisons with placebo, morphine, and ketorolac, respectively. Overall adverse effects for parecoxib 20 and 40 mg were not different from those with placebo, morphine, or ketorolac. These results suggest a favorable profile for parecoxib compared with inactive or active controls. The optimaldose, timing, and frequency of administration need to be determined.
Probabilistic Approaches to Recommendations

The importance of accurate recommender systems has been widely recognized by academia and industry, and recommendation is rapidly becoming one of the most successful applications of data mining and machine learning. Understanding and predicting the choices and preferences of users is a challenging task: real-world scenarios involve users behaving in complex situations, where prior beliefs, specific tendencies, and reciprocal influences jointly contribute to determining the preferences of users toward huge amounts of information, services, and products. Probabilistic modeling represents a robust formal mathematical framework to model these assumptions and study their effects in the recommendation process. This book starts with a brief summary of the recommendation problem and its challenges and a review of some widely used techniques Next, we introduce and discuss probabilistic approaches for modeling preference data. We focus our attention on methods based on latent factors, such as mixture models, probabilistic matrix factorization, and topic models, for explicit and implicit preference data. These methods represent a significant advance in the research and technology of recommendation. The resulting models allow us to identify complex patterns in preference data, which can be exploited to predict future purchases effectively. The extreme sparsity of preference data poses serious challenges to the modeling of user preferences, especially in the cases where few observations are available. Bayesian inference techniques elegantly address the need for regularization, and their integration with latent factor modeling helps to boost the performances of the basic techniques. We summarize the strengths and weakness of several approaches by considering two different but related evaluation perspectives, namely, rating prediction and recommendation accuracy. Furthermore, we describe how probabilistic methods based on latent factors enable the exploitation of preference patterns in novel applications beyond rating prediction or recommendation accuracy. We finally discuss the application of probabilistic techniques in two additional scenarios, characterized by the availability of side information besides preference data. In summary, the book categorizes the myriad probabilistic approaches to recommendations and provides guidelines for their adoption in real-world situations.
The Increasing Impact of Laboratory Medicine on Clinical Cardiology

Abstract The practice of cardiology continues to evolve along with a better understanding of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease and the development of new therapeutic procedures. Consequently, new demands are being made on the in vitro diagnostics industry to improve the performance of existing cardiac markers and to develop novel markers for new cardiac disease indications. Indeed, in the last 20 years there has been a progressive increase in new laboratory tests for markers of cardiac diseases. Several highly sensitive and/or specific assays for the detection of myocardial ischemic damage as well as some immunoassays for cardiac natriuretic hormones, now considered a reliable marker of myocardial function, have become commercially available. In parallel, a growing number of some novel risk factors, which can be assessed and monitored by laboratory methods, have been added to the classical risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Finally, the recent explosion of genetic analysis may soon place at the clinical cardiologist's disposal many laboratory tests for defining the diagnosis at the molecular level, assessing new risk factors, and better targeting the pharmaceutical approaches in patients with cardiovascular disease. In the present article, after a brief description of the analytical tests included in these four groups, each group's impact on clinical cardiology is discussed in detail.
MiR-15a and miR-16-1 cluster functions in human leukemia

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs regulating gene expression that play roles in human diseases, including cancer. Each miRNA is predicted to regulate hundreds of transcripts, but only few have experimental validation. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common adult human leukemia, miR-15a and miR-16-1 are lost or down-regulated in the majority of cases. After our previous work indicating a tumor suppressor function of miR-15a/16-1 by targeting the BCL2 oncogene, here, we produced a high-throughput profiling of genes modulated by miR-15a/16-1 in a leukemic cell line model (MEG-01) and in primary CLL samples. By combining experimental and bioinformatics data, we identified a miR-15a/16-1-gene signature in leukemic cells. Among the components of the miR-15a/16-1 signature, we observed a statistically significant enrichment in AU-rich elements (AREs). By examining the Gene Ontology (GO) database, a significant enrichment in cancer genes (such as MCL1, BCL2, ETS1, or JUN) that directly or indirectly affect apoptosis and cell cycle was found.
The reception of David Hume in Europe

Series Editor's Preface - Elinor Shaffer Acknowledgements List of Contributors Timeline Introduction - Peter Jones 1. Hume's Reception in Ireland - M.A. Stewart 2. The Early British Reception of Hume's Writings on Religion - M.A. Stewart 3. Hume's Reception in France - Michel Malherbe 4. The Reception of Hume in Germany - Manfred Kuehn 5. David Hume and Sir James Steuart - Andrew S. Skinner 6. Italian Responses to David Hume - Paola Zanardi 7. Translations of Hume's Works in Italy - Emilio Mazza 8. Hume in Russia Tatiana V. Artemieva and Mikhail I. Mikeshin 9. The Reception of David Hume's Philosophy in Sweden - Henrik Lagerlund 10. David Hume and Polish Philosophical and Social Thought - Bozena Kusnierz 11. 'Ignoramus': David Hume's Ideas in the Hungarian Enlightenment - Pal Acs 12. The Reception of David Hume in Czech Thought - Josef Moural 13. The Reception of David Hume in Romania - Andreea Deciu Ritivoi 14. Canonization and Critique: Hume's Reputation as a Historian - Mark Salber Phillips and Dale R. Smith 15. The Reception of Hume in Nineteenth-Century British Philosophy - James A. Harris 16. The Scientific Reception of Hume's Theory of Causation: Establishing the Positivist Interpretation in Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland - John P. Wright Bibliography Index
Nitric Oxide Regulation of Na, K‐ATPase Activity in Ocular Ciliary Epithelium Involves Src Family Kinase

The nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) is known to reduce aqueous humor (AH) secretion in the isolated porcine eye. Previously, SNP was found to inhibit Na,K‐ATPase activity in nonpigmented ciliary epithelium (NPE), AH‐secreting cells, through a cGMP/protein kinase G (PKG)‐mediated pathway. Here we show Src family kinase (SFK) activation in the Na,K‐ATPase activity response to SNP. Ouabain‐sensitive 86Rb uptake was reduced by >35% in cultured NPE cells exposed to SNP (100 µM) or exogenously added cGMP (8‐Br‐cGMP) (100 µM) and the SFK inhibitor PP2 (10 µM) prevented the response. Ouabain‐sensitive ATP hydrolysis was reduced by ∼40% in samples detected in material obtained from SNP‐ and 8‐Br‐cGMP‐treated cells following homogenization, pointing to an intrinsic change of Na,K‐ATPase activity. Tyrosine‐10 phosphorylation of Na,K‐ATPase α1 subunit was detected in SNP and L‐arginine‐treated cells and the response prevented by PP2. SNP elicited an increase in cell cGMP. Cells exposed to 8‐Br‐cGMP displayed SFK activation (phosphorylation) and inhibition of both ouabain‐sensitive 86Rb uptake and Na,K‐ATPase activity that was prevented by PP2. SFK activation, which also occurred in SNP‐treated cells, was suppressed by inhibitors of soluble guanylate cyclase (ODQ; 10 µM) and PKG (KT5823; 1 µM). SNP and 8‐Br‐cGMP also increased phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK and the response prevented by PP2. However, U0126 did not prevent SNP or 8‐Br‐cGMP‐induced inhibition of Na,K‐ATPase activity. Taken together, the results suggest that NO activates guanylate cyclase to cause a rise in cGMP and subsequent PKG‐dependent SFK activation. Inhibition of Na,K‐ATPase activity depends on SFK activation. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 343–352, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Ex Vivo Activity of Endoperoxide Antimalarials, Including Artemisone and Arterolane, against Multidrug-Resistant Plasmodium falciparum Isolates from Cambodia

ABSTRACT Novel synthetic endoperoxides are being evaluated as new components of artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) to treat artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria. We conducted blinded ex vivo activity testing of fully synthetic (OZ78 and OZ277) and semisynthetic (artemisone, artemiside, artesunate, and dihydroartemisinin) endoperoxides in the histidine-rich protein 2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against 200 P. falciparum isolates from areas of artemisinin-resistant malaria in western and northern Cambodia in 2009 and 2010. The order of potency and geometric mean (GM) 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50s) were as follows: artemisone (2.40 nM) > artesunate (8.49 nM) > dihydroartemisinin (11.26 nM) > artemiside (15.28 nM) > OZ277 (31.25 nM) > OZ78 (755.27 nM). Ex vivo activities of test endoperoxides positively correlated with dihydroartemisinin and artesunate. The isolates were over 2-fold less susceptible to dihydroartemisinin than the artemisinin-sensitive P. falciparum W2 clone and showed sensitivity comparable to those with test endoperoxides and artesunate, with isolate/W2 IC50 susceptibility ratios of <2.0. All isolates had P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter mutations, with negative correlations in sensitivity to endoperoxides and chloroquine. The activities of endoperoxides (artesunate, dihydroartemisinin, OZ277, and artemisone) significantly correlated with that of the ACT partner drug, mefloquine. Isolates had mutations associated with clinical resistance to mefloquine, with 35% prevalence of P. falciparum multidrug resistance gene 1 (pfmdr1) amplification and 84.5% occurrence of the pfmdr1 Y184F mutation. GM IC50s for mefloquine, lumefantrine, and endoperoxides (artesunate, dihydroartemisinin, OZ277, OZ78, and artemisone) correlated with pfmdr1 copy number. Given that current ACTs are failing potentially from reduced sensitivity to artemisinins and partner drugs, newly identified mutations associated with artemisinin resistance reported in the literature and pfmdr1 mutations should be examined for their combined contributions to emerging ACT resistance.
Speeding up Online POMDP Planning - Unification of Observation Branches by Belief-state Compression Via Expected Feature Values

A novel algorithm to speed up online planning in partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) is introduced. I propose a method for compressing nodes in belief-decision-trees while planning occurs. Whereas belief-decision-trees branch on actions and observations, with my method, they branch only on actions. This is achieved by unifying the branches required due to the nondeterminism of observations. The method is based on the expected values of domain features. The new algorithm is experimentally compared to three other online POMDP algorithms, outperforming them on the given test domain.