Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Haematological Parameters in Stroke Patients in South-Western Nigeria

Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of both ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke which has been linked to chronic and acute inflammation. Variations in the biochemical status of stroke patients might be accountable for the high morbidity and mortality associated with stroke. Aims of the Study: This study was designed to investigate haematological parameters namely Parked cell volume(PCV), Total Leucocyte Count(WBC), Platelet Count, and Differential Leucocyte Count(Neutrophil and Erythrocyte) in stroke patients attending various teaching and general hospitals in South-Western part of Nigeria. Place and Duration of the Study: This study included already diagnosed stroke patients attending Teaching Hospitals and general hospitals in south-Western Nigeria and was carried out between 2015 to 2017. Methodology: Packed Cell Volume (PCV), total leucocyte (WBC), differential leukocyte and platelet count was determined using the method of Cheesbrough, (1999). Results: The result of this study revealed a significant increase p<0.05 in platelet count in stroke patients when compared with the control. Similarly, there is a significant increase p<0.05 in differential leukocyte count(neutrophil and lymphocyte count) in these patients when compared with the control. However, the WBC level in these patients is not significantly p<0.05 different from the control subjects. The PCV in stroke patients is significantly lowered p<0.05 when compared with the control subjects. Conclusion: This study reveals alterations in most of the haematological parameters considered in this patients which is a pointer to the fact that these parameters with further investigations could give clues to the diagnosis and management of stroke thereby reducing its morbidity and mortality.
A Comparative Study on Polyp Classification and Localization from Colonoscopy Videos

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer with a high mortality rate. It typically develops from small clumps of benign cells called polyp. The adenomatous polyp has a higher chance of developing into cancer compared to the hyperplastic polyp. Colonoscopy is the preferred procedure for colorectal cancer screening and to minimize its risk by performing a biopsy on found polyps. Thus, a good polyp detection model can assist physicians and increase the effectiveness of colonoscopy. Several models using handcrafted features and deep learning approaches have been proposed for the polyp detection task. In this study, we compare the performances of the previous state-of-the-art general object detection models for polyp detection and classification (into adenomatous and hyperplastic class). Specifically, we compare the performances of FasterRCNN, SSD, YOLOv3, RefineDet, RetinaNet, and FasterRCNN with DetNet backbone. This comparative study serves as an initial analysis of the effectiveness of these models and to choose a base model that we will improve further for polyp detection.
regenerable reduced microstructure representations q

Many of the physical properties of materials are critically dependent on their microstructure. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in using computer simulations based on phase-field models for the spatial and temporal evolution of microstructures. Although such simulations are computationally expensive, the generated set of microstructures can be stored in a repository and used for further analysis in materials design. However, such an approach requires a substantial amount of storage, for example, approximately 1 Terabyte for a single binary alloy. In this paper, we develop fast data compression and regeneration schemes for two-dimensional microstructures that can reduce storage requirements without compromising the accuracy of computed values, such as stress fields used in analysis. Our main contribution is the development and evaluation of a sparse skeletal representation scheme which outperforms traditional compression schemes. Our results indicate that our scheme can reduce microstructure data size by more than two orders of magnitude while achieving better accuracies for the computed stress fields and order parameters. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 81.40. z; 87.16. Ac
Bibliometric Study of the Journal Ingeniería (2010-2017)

espanolIngenieria es una revista cientifica editada en Colombia por la Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas, que publica investigacion multidisciplinaria en todos los campos de la ingenieria. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar un analisis bibliometrico de su produccion cientifica durante el periodo 2010-2017. Metodo: Se examino un corpus de 144 articulos publicados, se recopilaron sus metadatos bibliograficos y se realizaron varios analisis bibliometricos, incluidos productividad, autoria, citas, cobertura geografica y tematica, redes de colaboracion, mapas conceptuales tematicos y metricas de impacto. Resultados: Entre los resultados se encuentran: promedio de citas por articulo de 2.1, indice de colaboracion de 2.22, tasa de crecimiento de publicacion es 19 %, h-index de h = 10, g-index de g = 13, hi5-index de hi5 = 9, el total de citas es de 298, hay diez grupos de autores muy conectados y cuatro grupos tematicos obtenidos a partir del analisis de coincidencia de las palabras clave y los resumenes. Conclusiones: El perfil de la revista con respecto a citaciones e impacto es prometedor, aunque requiere mejorar su visibilidad y reconocimiento, ya que las metricas de cobertura, autoria y areas tematicas, parecen incipientes. Tambien es deseable ampliar las redes de colaboracion de su base de autores. EnglishIngenieria is a scholarly journal edited in Colombia by Universidad Distrital FJC, publishing multi–disciplinary research across all fields of engineering. The aim of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of its scientific output during the period 2010–2017. Method: A corpus of 144 published papers were examined, their bibliographic metadata collected, and several bibliometric analysis were conducted, including productivity, authorship, citation, subject and geographic coverage, along with collaboration networks, thematic conceptual maps and impact metrics. Results: Some of our findings include: the average citations per article is 2.1, the collaboration index is 2.22, the output growth rate is 19%, h-index of h = 10, g-index of g = 13, hi5-index of hi5 = 9, total cites are 298, there are 10 strongly connected cluster of authors, and 4 thematic clusters obtained from co–ocurrence analysis of the keywords and abstracts. Conclusions: The profile of the journal regarding citation and impact metrics is promising, although it needs to improve its visibility and recognition, as locality of coverage and authorship metrics as well as incipient thematic areas seem to suggest. Extending its authorship base to broader collaboration networks is also desirable.
Microstructure, growth and remodeling of the non-deformed and deformed vertebrae of the Red Porgy (Pagrus pagrus)

Master Oficial en Cultivos Marinos. VI Master Internacional en Acuicultura. Trabajo presentado como requisito parcial para la obtencion del Titulo de Master Oficial en Cultivos Marinos, otorgado por la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), el Instituto Canario de Ciencias Marinas (ICCM), y el Centro Internacional de Altos Estudios Agronomicos Mediterraneos de Zaragoza (CIHEAM)
Bimodal analysis of the directional wave spectra of some sea storms recorded offshore the Italian coasts

This paper deals with the bimodality of the directional wave spectra,which can occur when swell and sea waves coming from different directions are superimposed. In order to study the bimodality of the directional spreading function, a lot of directional wave spectra recorded by the Italian Wave Measurement Network at the stations of Crotone (offshore the Jonian Calabrian coast) and Mazara del Vallo (offshore the coasts of Sicily) were analyzed. These sites can be characterized, due to their geographical position, by the occurrence of bimodal sea states. The analysis consisted in a preliminary selection of the sea states, after which a comparison of the efficiency of some criteria to detect the bimodality of the sea states was made. The results show that only the site of Crotone exibits some bimodal spectra, for which the different bimodality criteria have been applied and compared.
Urine cytological examination: an appropriate method that can be used to detect a wide range of urinary abnormalities

Background: Urine cytology is a method that can be used for the primary detection of urothelial carcinoma, as well as other diseases related to the urinary system, including hematuria and infectious agents. In this study we aimed at investigating urine abnormalities among Sudanese patients attending Omdurman teaching hospital. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2016 to October 2017. A voided urine samples were collected and stained using Papanicolaou stain. Results: A total of 1238 urine samples were meticulously examined, 832 (67.2%) from males (mean age 41.7±12.67), and 406 (32.8%) from females (mean age 43.8±10.94). 147 (11.9%) patients had an underlying medical condition, either AIDs, diabetes mellitus type 2 or historical renal transplantation. Hematuria was more frequent amongst males than females, 100 (68.9%) and 45 (31.1%), respectively. Urine cytology diagnosis was 43 cases (3.5%) of candidiasis, 36 cases (2.9%) of reactive urothelial cells, 11 cases (0.9%) of cryptococcosis, 9 cases (0.7%) of urothelial carcinoma, 9 (0.7%) human papilloma virus (HPV) diagnoses, 8 (0.6%) polyomavirus (BKV) diagnoses, 6 (0.5%) schistosomiasis diagnoses and 3 cases (0.2%) of low grade urothelial cells. Conclusion: Urine cytology seems to be a non-invasive technique that is suitable for all patients with urinary tract infections; those with diabetes, renal transplants, and HIV; and patients with macroscopic or microscopic hematuria for the detection of infectious agents and malignancy.
Two-layer optimisation policy for improvement of application performance and resource utilisation in grid environments

The main contribution of this article is to propose a two-layer optimisation policy for improvement of application performance and resource utilisation in grid environments. We exploit the coupling of application layer and fabric layer of grid architecture for resource scheduling in grid computing environment. The objectives of the individual grid applications at the application layer, and individual grid resources at the fabric layer are likely to be in conflict. Interplay of application layer and fabric layer strives to find an optimal balance between application performance and resource utilisation. The two-layer optimisation model attempts to maximise the aggregate grid user utilities and revenues of resource provider. The article uses the Lagrangian method that leads to a decomposition of the utility maximisation problem into two smaller subproblems, each of which may be solved independently. This article presents a two-layer optimisation grid scheduling algorithm. The simulation studies show how the performance of two-layer optimisation algorithm is affected by the change of different environment parameters.
Regional variation in components of child-spacing: the role of womens education.

This chapter assesses the effect of female education on each of the fertility components separately as well as together with respect to child spacing. Only the postpartum variables (lactation lactation amenorrhea postpartum abstinence) and contraception. The data used come from the World Fertility Survey. The analysis strategy is largely based on relating levels or differentials by age and education in the various components of child spacing to contextual characteristics of 33 regions of sub-Saharan Africa. The sample is weighted towards West Africa. Individual schooling reduces breast feeding and abstinence and enhances contraceptive use-effectiveness virtually in every region although magnitude varies considerably. The continues existence of traditional religion in an area supports traditional methods of spacing that is prolonged breast feeding and the long postpartum taboo but has a negative effect on contraception. The Islamic character of an area strongly reduces postpartum nonsusceptibility mainly as a result of eroding the postpartum taboo. Christianity is less supportive of traditional forms of spacing than traditional religion but less erosive with respect to the postpartum taboo than Islam. The tradition of female self-reliance has a modest but overall positive effect on nonsusceptibility thanks to its positive effect on the length of postpartum abstinence. The effect of the regional development variable on the postpartum variables is negative but the religious variables have a stronger predictive power. The age effect only measured for illiterate women cannot be predicted adequately by the contextual variables. The effect of individual female education measured for the youngest and the middle age groups is largely determined by the regional levels of development. Overall child spacing declines most with individual schooling in areas that have low development scores high proportions Muslim or traditional religion and no female economic self-reliance. Overall child spacing improves with individual education in a few regions only. The main conclusion to be drawn from this analysis is that female education is of paramount importance for the future of the demographic transition in sub-Saharan Africa.
Protocols for The Meeting Businessmen Problem

Assume that some businessmen wish to have a meeting. For this to occur, they usuallyhave to meet somewhere. If they cannot meet physically, then they can take part in a video (oraudio) conference to discuss whatever needs to be discussed. But what if their meeting is meant tobe private? In this case they need a cryptographic protocol that allows them to exchange their ideasremotely, while keeping them secure from any potential eavesdropper. In this paper we list all thenecessary requirements that a cryptographic protocol must have in order to allow several businessmento exchange their ideas securely over the Internet. Moreover, and based on the standard taxonomy ofcryptographic protocols, we suggest several approaches on how to design cryptographic protocols thatenable us to achieve our aim. Finally, we propose the design of a protocol that solves the meetingbusinessmen problem.
Implementation Aspects of an Industrial Programmable Controller Using PID Control on a FSW Process

R & D Journal of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering 2016, 32, 9-22 http://www.saimeche. org.za (open access) © SAIMechE All rights reserved. 9 The work presented in this paper illustrates a practical implementation of PID control on an industrial machine which is controlled by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The control system was developed for controlling Friction Stir Weld (FSW) temperature although the principles of the implementation can be applied to many industrial control processes. The Ziegler Nichols PID tuning method was implemented in this example. A mathematical system model was produced using the Matlab system identification tool. The model was simulated with Matlab Simulink and the results were compared to the performance of the actual controller which was implemented on the FSW process. Derivative filters were tested and modified in order to attenuate the component of the derivative term which is produced in response to noise on the feedback signal (thermocouple sensor signal). The thermal disturbance rejection of the PID control system was tested; which rendered excellent results.
Enhancement of kinesthetic perception for microsurgical teleoperation using impedance-shaping

A new control scheme is developed in this paper for a bilateral teleoperation system for microsurgical applications. The main objective of the proposed control scheme is to enhance the kinesthetic perception of the operator. First, the kinesthetic perception, based on psychophysics, is classified into three metrics of detection, sensitivity of detection, and discrimination. Additionally, a new performance index is introduced as a combination of these three metrics to quantify the kinesthetic performance. Second, modified macro-micro bilateral control system using an impedance-shaping method is proposed. The proposed controller can increase kinesthetic perception by shaping and magnifying the transmitted impedance to the operator. Finally, the performance of the proposed controller is verified in a comparison with the two-channel position-position (PP) controller, the two-channel force-position (FP) controller, and the four-channel transparency- optimized controller.
Operator Impedance During Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Estimation and Validation

As the frequency and complexity of physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) increases, so does the need to understand the dynamics of this coupled system in real-time. For haptic displays, which provide information to our senses of touch and proprioception, information regarding the human impedance and intent can drastically improve transparency while maintaining operator safety. Numerous online impedance estimators have been proposed in the literature which make continuous approximations of the coupled dynamics available online, obviating the need for perturbations or cumbersome sensors. However, characterizing and validating the performance of these estimators for pHRI is challenging, since it requires precise knowledge of known, time-varying reference impedances. This thesis explores the characterization of online impedance estimators using two serial manipulators (known as the BURT system), coupled at their end effectors, to physically simulate pHRI. One acts as the human, displaying a reference impedance relative to a desired trajectory, while the other runs the estimation algorithm and tracks a perturbing trajectory. Several least-squared impedance estimation strategies from the literature are validated on the experimental setup, demonstrating its efficacy and utility. The importance of accounting for the desired human trajectory is highlighted, and future research to apply results from the field of human motor control is proposed. A bimanual circle-drawing sensorimotor experiment was also conducted with the BURT systsem. Visual feedback on the task performance was withdrawn from one hand at a time and relationships between subject handedness, visual feedback, tracing speed, and circularity were studied. Results show that the non-dominant hand tends to trace less circular trajectories than the dominant hand while both are visible, but inconsistent differences in circularity are present across participants when comparing the performance of each hand in its invisible condition. Both hands showed higher tracing speed when only a single hand was receiving visual feedback, and traced more slowly in the free visual condition.
Does distributed development affect software quality?

Existing literature on distributed development in software engineering, and other fields discusses various challenges, including cultural barriers, expertise transfer difficulties, and communication and coordination overhead. Conventional wisdom, in fact, holds that distributed software development is riskier and more challenging than collocated development. We revisit this belief, empirically studying the overall development of Windows Vista and comparing the post-release failures of components that were developed in a distributed fashion with those that were developed by collocated teams. We found a negligible difference in failures. This difference becomes even less significant when controlling for the number of developers working on a binary. Furthermore, we also found that component characteristics (such as code churn, complexity, dependency information, and test code coverage) differ very little between distributed and collocated components. Finally, we examine the software process used during the Vista development cycle and examine how it may have mitigated some of the difficulties of distributed development introduced in prior work in this area.
Influence of batch structure on cluster computing performance - complex systems approach

This work presents the problem of clusters computing performance optimization. An assessment of the impact of computing architecture, applications, and communications equipment on the system performance was done. Processing bottlenecks were identified, showing that in order to obtain an optimum usage of computational structure the system should be treated as a complex one in which it is impossible to isolate and optimize each element independently.
Reinforcement-based denoising of distantly supervised NER with partial annotation

Existing named entity recognition (NER) systems rely on large amounts of human-labeled data for supervision. However, obtaining large-scale annotated data is challenging particularly in specific domains like health-care, e-commerce and so on. Given the availability of domain specific knowledge resources, (e.g., ontologies, dictionaries), distant supervision is a solution to generate automatically labeled training data to reduce human effort. The outcome of distant supervision for NER, however, is often noisy. False positive and false negative instances are the main issues that reduce performance on this kind of auto-generated data. In this paper, we explore distant supervision in a supervised setup. We adopt a technique of partial annotation to address false negative cases and implement a reinforcement learning strategy with a neural network policy to identify false positive instances. Our results establish a new state-of-the-art on four benchmark datasets taken from different domains and different languages. We then go on to show that our model reduces the amount of manually annotated data required to perform NER in a new domain.
Implementing Quality Control Procedures at NASS’s National Operations Center

Quality control and assurance are important aspects of any agency. The International Organization for Standardization defines quality as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements” (2005). Quality assurance involves ensuring that objectives or targets determined are met. Quality control involves the monitoring or evaluating a product or process to ensure that the desired standards are met. For the purpose of this article, the term “quality control” will be used, although both quality assurance and quality control are being examined. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-11 provides the following definitions:
The Curvature and Dimension of a Closed Surface

In this short memorandum, the curvature and dimension properties of the $2$-sphere surface of a 3-dimensional ball and the $2.x$-dimensional surface of a 3-dimensional fractal set are considered. Tessellation is used to approximate each surface, primarily because the $2.x$-dimensional surface of a 3-dimensional fractal set is otherwise non-differentiable (having no well-defined surface normals). It is found that the curvature of a closed surface {\it must} lead to fractional dimension. Notes are then given, including how this tessellation model applies to a toy Universe.