Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Improved Privacy Policy Inference over the Socially Shared Images with Automated Annotation Process

Usage of social media’s increased considerably in today world which enables the user to share their personal information like images with the other. This improved technology leads to privacy violation where the users are sharing the large volumes of images across more number of peoples. To provide security for the information, automated annotation of images are introduced which aims to create the meta data information about the images by using the novel approach called Semantic annotated Markovian Semantic Indexing(SMSI) for retrieving the images. The proposed system automatically annotates the images using hidden Markov model and features are extracted by using color histogram and Scale-invariant feature transform (or SIFT) descriptor method. After annotating these images, semantic retrieval of images can be done by using Natural Language processing tool namely Word Net for measuring semantic similarity of annotated images in the database. Experimental result provides better retrieval performance when compare with the existing system. Keywords— Semantic annotated Markovian Semantic Indexing, hidden Markov model, Hidden Markov Model.
Development of the Nasopharyngeal Microbiota in Infants with Cystic Fibrosis.

RATIONALE Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by early structural lung disease caused by pulmonary infections. The nasopharynx of infants is a major ecological reservoir of potential respiratory pathogens. OBJECTIVES To investigate the development of nasopharyngeal microbiota profiles in infants with CF compared with those of healthy control subjects during the first 6 months of life. METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study, from the time of diagnosis onward, in which we collected questionnaires and 324 nasopharynx samples from 20 infants with CF and 45 age-matched healthy control subjects. Microbiota profiles were characterized by 16S ribosomal RNA-based sequencing. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS We observed significant differences in microbial community composition (P < 0.0002 by permutational multivariate analysis of variance) and development between groups. In infants with CF, early Staphylococcus aureus and, to a lesser extent, Corynebacterium spp. and Moraxella spp. dominance were followed by a switch to Streptococcus mitis predominance after 3 months of age. In control subjects, Moraxella spp. enrichment occurred throughout the first 6 months of life. In a multivariate analysis, S. aureus, S. mitis, Corynebacterium accolens, and bacilli were significantly more abundant in infants with CF, whereas Moraxella spp. , Corynebacterium pseudodiphtericum and Corynebacterium propinquum and Haemophilus influenzae were significantly more abundant in control subjects, after correction for age, antibiotic use, and respiratory symptoms. Antibiotic use was independently associated with increased colonization of gram-negative bacteria such as Burkholderia spp. and members of the Enterobacteriaceae bacteria family and reduced colonization of potential beneficial commensals. CONCLUSIONS From diagnosis onward, we observed distinct patterns of nasopharyngeal microbiota development in infants with CF under 6 months of age compared with control subjects and a marked effect of antibiotic therapy leading toward a gram-negative microbial composition.
Design and control of cooperative ball juggling DELTA robots without visual guidance

SUMMARY Cooperative ball juggling is one of the most difficult tasks when performed through autonomous robots. States of the ball (position and velocity) play a vital role for the stability and duration of a long rally. Cameras are normally used in ball juggling to calculate these parameters, the use of which is not only computationally expensive but also requires a lot of hardware to determine. In this paper, we propose a control loop for cooperative ball juggling using parallel DELTA robots without visual guidance. In contrast to using a visual system for ball states feedback, an observer based on the reflection laws is designed to calculate the continuous position and velocity of the ball during juggling. Besides the conventional controller blocks, the proposed control loop consists of the ball prediction and the plate striking movement generation blocks. Two controllers are designed for the stability and tracking of variable reference height of the ball during juggling: One controller calculates the velocity of the striking plate to achieve the reference height of the ball during juggling and the second controls the actuator angles. A simulation study and hardware experiments show applicability of the designed observer and validation of the proposed control loop.
Optimal piecewise-constant signal design for active fault detection

Recently there has been an increasing interest in active fault detection when traditional approaches are not effective or cannot be used. Previous papers have shown how to construct continuously varying test (auxiliary) signals for use in fault detection and identification. Such signals may not always be easy to implement. In this paper a new algorithm is presented to compute optimal piecewise constant test signals. In the important case where the test signal changes values a small number of times, the new test signals can be both smaller and more effective than test signals computed by other means. Two computational examples are given to illustrate both computational issues and differences between different types of piecewise constant signals.
Evaluation of Design Trade-offs for Adders in Approximate Datapath

Releasing the stringent accuracy requirement would potentially offer greater freedom to create a design with better performance or energy efficiency. In this paper, we evaluate the design trade-offs for adders, which are key building blocks for many applications. We demonstrate the optimum design metric for adders, under the consideration of various design constraints, such as accuracy, operating frequency, silicon area, different types of adder structure and alternative form of computer arithmetic for adder implementation. Two design scenarios are compared: one is the conventional design scenario where timing closure is met by adjusting operand word-lengths. The other is an overclocking scenario where timing violations are allowed to occur. We show that applying the overclocking approach to ripple carry adders can be more beneficial than using fast adders to achieve similar latency, because the worst cases only happen with very small probabilities. We also show that using the conventional approach on adders with new form of computer arithmetic is optimal for a wide range of design constraints. Keywords—approximate computing; adder; overclocking; online arithmetic;
Peritoneal and hemodialysis: I. Differences in patient characteristics at initiation.

BACKGROUND Comparisons of mortality outcomes between peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD) patients have shown varying results, which may be caused by the unequally distributed clinical conditions of patients at initiation. To address this issue, we evaluated the clinical characteristics of 105,954 patients at the initiation of PD and HD, using the U.S. national incidence data on treated end-stage renal disease from the Medical Evidence Form, 1995 to 1997. METHODS A general linear model was used to analyze differences of age, albumin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and hematocrit; categorical data analysis to evaluate body mass index (BMI), grouped into four categories: < 19, 19-25 (< 25), 25-30 (< 30), and 30+; and logistic regression to assess the likelihood of initiating PD versus HD. Diabetics (DM) were analyzed separately from non-diabetics (NDM). Explanatory variables in the logistic regression included incidence year, race, gender, age, BMI, albumin, creatinine, BUN, and hematocrit. Race included white and black. Age was categorized into four groups: 20-44, 45-64, 65-74, and 75+. RESULTS At the initiation of dialysis PD patients were approximately 6 years younger (P < 0.0001) than HD patients. PD patients also had higher (P < 0.0001) albumin (+0.35 g/dL for DM and +0.23 g/dL for NDM) and hematocrit (+1.64% for DM and +1.71% for NDM) levels, and lower (P < 0.04) BUN (-8.75 mg/dL for DM and -5.24 mg/dL for NDM) and creatinine (-0.51 mg/dL for DM and -0.23 mg/dL for NDM) levels than HD patients. Whites had a higher (P < 0.0001) likelihood of starting PD than blacks, and patients with BMI <19 had a lower (P < 0.0001) chance of beginning on PD. CONCLUSION PD patients had favorable clinical conditions at the initiation of dialysis, which should be taken into consideration when comparing dialysis outcomes between the two modalities.
Identification of the Nuclear Localization Signal of Rat Liver CTP:Phosphocholine Cytidylyltransferase (*)

CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase (CT) is a major regulatory enzyme in phosphatidylcholine synthesis in mammalian cells. CT is found in both soluble and particulate forms, both of which are nuclear. We report here the identification of a 21-residue sequence at the amino terminus of CT, 8KVNSRKRRKEVPGPNGATEED, which was sufficient to direct β-galactosidase into the cell nucleus. Further deletions from either end of this sequence greatly reduced the nuclear localization of β-galactosidase. Deletions of amino acids within the nuclear localization signal or of the entire signal disrupted CT nuclear localization, but CT was not completely excluded from the nucleus. Clones of stable transfectants of the nuclear localization signal-deficient CT expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) 58 cells, which is temperature-sensitive for growth and CT activity, were isolated and characterized. The deletion mutants were active under the same conditions as the wild-type enzyme. Despite the difference in subcellular location from wild-type CT, the nuclear localization mutants were fully able to complement the CT-deficient cell line CHO 58 for both growth and choline incorporation into phosphatidylcholine at the nonpermissive temperature. The mobility of the mutant enzymes on SDS gels was altered relative to the mobility of wild-type CT; however, the extent of phosphorylation of the mutant enzymes was decreased only slightly. Thus, the distribution of CT in both cytoplasm and nucleus, rather than exclusively nucleus, has little effect on the ability of CT to function in growing CHO cells.
ITCOLE Project IST-2000-26249 D 2 . 1 Perspectives of CSCL in Europe : A Review

The purpose of the document is to analyse the current practices of using ICT and CSCL in European education, crystallize and concretise pedagogical ideas of collaborative knowledge building to guide the design of ITCOLE CSCL, and provide good examples and models for pedagogical practices. The document is based on CSCL research literature review and information about current practices of using the Internet and networked learning environments for instructional purposes in the participating countries.
Predictors of positive airway pressure therapy adherence in children: a prospective study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Children with obstructive sleep apnea are increasingly being treated with positive airway pressure (PAP), particularly if they have underlying medical conditions. Although PAP is an effective treatment, its use is challenging due to poor adherence. We hypothesized that demographic, psychosocial, and polysomnographic parameters would be related to PAP adherence. We therefore prospectively collected data potentially pertaining to PAP adherence, and correlated it with PAP use. METHODS Fifty-six patients and their parents completed a series of psychosocial questionnaires prior to PAP initiation. Objective adherence data were obtained after 1 and 3 months of PAP use. RESULTS The population was primarily obese; 23% had neurodevelopmental disabilities. PAP adherence varied widely, with PAP being worn 22 ± 8 nights in month-1, but mean use was only 3 ± 3 h/night. The greatest predictor of use was maternal education (p = 0.002 for nights used; p = 0.033 for mean h used/night). Adherence was lower in African American children vs other races (p = 0.021). In the typically developing subgroup, adherence correlated inversely with age. Adherence did not correlate with severity of apnea, pressure levels, or psychosocial parameters other than a correlation between family social support and nights of PAP use in month-3. CONCLUSIONS PAP adherence in children and adolescents is related primarily to family and demographic factors rather than severity of apnea or measures of psychosocial functioning. Further research is needed to determine the relative contributions of maternal education, socioeconomic status and cultural beliefs to PAP adherence in children, in order to develop better adherence programs.
Object oriented discrete event based simulation and control of complex 3D systems

The combination of discrete event systems with 3D simulation and control technology seems to be at the first glance a contradiction in terms because of mixing up two totally different application classes. But here, the newly developed state oriented modeling methodology comes into play providing a comprehensive and flexible object oriented framework for the development of complex discrete event systems. State oriented modeling establishes a link between these two worlds using object oriented Petri nets for the discrete part as well as application specific mappings between continuous and discrete state variables. Integrated in a versatile 3D simulation system, state oriented modeling enables the efficient realization of a large class of applications ranging from industrial automation through a variety of new virtual reality applications up to controller synthesis for multi robot manipulator workcells.
Neuraxial Anesthesia Decreases Postoperative Systemic Infection Risk Compared with General Anesthesia in Knee Arthroplasty

BACKGROUND:Surgical stress has been shown to result in immune disturbance. Neuraxial anesthesia (NA) has long been hypothesized to blunt undesired surgical insults and thus limit immune compromise and improve surgical outcomes. We hypothesized that NA would decrease postoperative infectious complications compared with general anesthesia (GA) among knee arthroplasty patients. METHODS:We studied the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database from 2005 to 2010. There were 16,555 patients included in our final cohort, with 9167 patients receiving GA and 7388 patients receiving spinal or epidural anesthesia. Outcomes of interest included infection-related 30-day postoperative complications, including surgical site–related infections, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, sepsis, septic shock, and a composite end point of any systemic infection. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to test for effect of anesthesia type while adjusting for the influence of preexisting comorbidities. RESULTS:The overall mortality was 0.24% and 0.15% among NA and GA subjects, respectively (P = 0.214). NA subjects had fewer unadjusted incidences of pneumonia (P = 0.035) and composite systemic infection (P = 0.006). After risk adjustment for preexisting comorbidities, NA was associated with lower odds of pneumonia (odds ratio = 0.51 [95% confidence interval, 0.29–0.90]) and lower odds of composite systemic infection (odds ratio = 0.77 [95% confidence interval, 0.64–0.92]). CONCLUSIONS:Our study suggested that NA was associated with lower adjusted odds of both pneumonia and a composite outcome of any systemic infectious complication within 30 days of surgery compared with GA.
LIMB AND ORAL PRAXIC ABILITIES OF CHILDREN WITH VERBAL SEQUENCING DEFICITS

This study was concerned with children with impaired articulation, with a specific deficit in verbal sequences of consonant‐vowel syllables; i.e. verbal sequenced motion rate (SMR). Speech‐disordered children with and without this SMR disorder were compared with a group of control children on their performance of single limb and oral gestures and sequences of limb and oral gestures. Performances of an action requiring four different responses and of one requiring the same repeated response were also examined. The children with verbal SMR disorder had greater difficulty in performing both single and sequences of limb and oral gestures compared with the other two groups, as they also had in the task requiring four different responses. There were no differences between the groups in the task requiring the same repeated response. These findings suggest that children with verbal SMR disorder may have a generalized motor disorder which affects performance of both single gestures and sequences of gestures.
Characterizing Resonating Cantilevers for Liquid Property Sensing

Miniaturized liquid sensors are essential devices in online process or condition monitoring. In case of viscosity and density sensing, microacoustic sensors such as quartz crystal resonators or SAW devices have proved particularly useful. However, these devices basically measure a thin-film viscosity, which is often not comparable to macroscopic measurements. Miniaturized cantilever-based devices are interesting alternatives for such applications, but here the interaction between the liquid and the oscillating beam is more involved. In our contribution we describe a measurement setup, which allows the investigation of this interaction for different beam cross-sections. We present an analytical model based on an approximation of the immersed cantilever as an oscillating sphere comprising the effective mass and the intrinsic damping of the cantilever and additional mass and damping due to the liquid loading. The model parameters are obtained by a curve fitting procedure.
Poster: An Adaptive Copy Spraying Scheme for Data Forwarding in Mobile Opportunistic Networks

Mobile opportunistic network (MON) is a new paradigm which exploits node contacts to forward data, enabling numerous and impressive applications. The data copy spraying scheme is a challenging problem in MON, due to the mobility of nodes and lack of global knowledge, it hence captures great interests from research communities. Traditional algorithms allocate data copies with node's statistical information and neglect the temporal contact feature, resulting in a poor delivery performance. We propose AS, an adaptive data copy spraying scheme in MON. AS adjusts the number of copies dynamically based on the temporal contact feature among nodes. Theoretical analysis verifies that AS achieves a lower mean delivery delay than SprayWait, one of the state-of-the-art works. Simulation results show that AS improves the packet delivery ratio simultaneously.
Velocity Obstacle Based 3D Collision Avoidance Scheme for Low-Cost Micro UAVs

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) must be able to safely reach its destination even, when it can only gather limited information about its environment. When an obstacle is detected, the UAV must be able to choose a path that will avoid collision with the obstacle. For the collision avoidance scheme, we apply the velocity obstacle approach since it is applicable even with the UAV’s limited sensing capability. To be able to apply the velocity obstacle approach, we need to know the parameter values of the obstacle such as its size, current velocity and current position. However, due to the UAV’s limited sensing capability, such information about the obstacle is not available. Thus, by evaluating sensor readings, we get the changes in the possible positions of the obstacle in order to generate the velocity obstacle and make the UAV choose a collision-free trajectory towards the destination. We performed simulation on different obstacle movements and the collision-free trajectory of the UAV is shown in the simulation results.
An analysis of brand relationship with the perceptive of customer based brand equity pyramid

The construct of a brand relationship is quite complex. Numerous types of brand relationships can be identify and each of them is associated with different emotions and norms. Works on relationship marketing implies that developing relationship between consumers and their preferred brand is important. The presence of strong brand in the market is the source of various financial rewards to organization and due to this, creation strong brand is top priority for many organizations. Brand resonance is the term which focuses on the various stages of consumer brand relationship through which consumer connected with brand. Our move toward a science of consumer-brand relationships presents many challenges, many doubts that something so idiosyncratic can be brought to the level of generalizability that science requires. Literature of branding verify that the brand resonance is not depends on one thing only; it shows the impact of many brand related factors. Marketers must know the nature and mode of the consumer’s relationship with their brand. This study presents the brief discussion on brand resonance with help of literature of branding.
MMSE CHANNEL PREDICTION FOR SYMBOL-BY-SYMBOL ADAPTIVE OFDM SYSTEMS

Subband Adaptive Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) constitutes an effective method of compensating for the frequency selective fading incurred by mobile receivers. The channel transfer function estimation error increases as a function of the Doppler frequency and of the subband modem mode signalling delay. This leads to a degradation of the system performance. In this contribution a 2D-MMSE channel-predictor is investigated as a means of compensating for these effects, which incorporates the scheme proposed in [I] into adaptive OFDM.
Novel anti‐angiogenic peptides derived From ELR‐containing CXC chemokines

Angiogenesis is tightly regulated by numerous endogenous pro‐ and anti‐angiogenic proteins and peptides. Among these are the CXC chemokines, a set of multifunctional peptides. CXC chemokines containing the ELR motif act as pro‐angiogenic agents by regulating both endothelial cell proliferation and migration. Here we show that a set of six 22–24‐amino acid peptides derived from the pro‐angiogenic ELR‐containing CXC chemokines exhibit notable anti‐proliferative and anti‐migratory activity in vitro; we call these peptides chemokinostatins. The ability of the identified peptides to inhibit the basic components of angiogenesis even though they are derived from pro‐angiogenic proteins contributes towards the understanding of the diverse role of the CXC chemokine family in angiogenesis. J. Cell. Biochem. 104: 1356–1363, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Laser-assisted Optical Rotational Cell Analyzer (LORCA) as red blood cell aggregometer.

The Laser-assisted Optical Rotational Cell Analyzer (LORCA) is unique in its capacity to measure at least two important hemorheological parameters, i.e., deformability of red blood cells (RBC) as well as their aggregation behaviour. In this communication the main principles and characteristics of the aggregometer mode of this instrument are described. Via syllectometry (i.e., laser backscatter versus time), the method allows the measure of both static and kinetic parameters of the aggregation process, e.g., total extent of aggregation, aggregation half time and a combination of these, defined as aggregation index. When the syllectogram deviates from that representing normal rouleaux formation, e.g., in the case of RBC clump formation, this is signalled by a fit error. Maximal flexibility is obtained by various options like an automated re-iteration procedure (which enables to measure the aggregation tendency and/or the aggregate stability) and aggregation at low shear rate. Experiments dealing with reproducibility, stability and sensitivity of the instrument are described. The latter include a few "classic" methods for inducing subtle changes in RBC aggregation behaviour both regarding cellular factors (heat treatment) and changes in medium constituents (fibrinogen, dextrans). It can be concluded that the aggregometer mode of the LORCA considerably increases the feasibility of this instrument for hemorheological investigations.