Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multispectral Image-Based Estimation of Drought Patterns and Intensity around Lake Chad, Africa

As the world population keeps increasing and cultivating more land, the extraction of vegetation conditions using remote sensing is important for monitoring land changes in areas with limited ground observations. Water supply in wetlands directly affects plant growth and biodiversity, which makes monitoring drought an important aspect in such areas. Vegetation Temperature Condition Index (VTCI) which depends on thermal stress and vegetation state, is widely used as an indicator for drought monitoring using satellite data. In this study, using clear-sky Landsat multispectral images, VTCI was derived from Land Surface Temperature (LST) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Derived VTCI was used to observe the drought patterns of the wetlands in Lake Chad between 1999 and 2018. The proportion of vegetation from WorldView-3 images was later introduced to evaluate the methods used. With an overall accuracy exceeding 90% and a kappa coefficient greater than 0.8, these methods accurately acquired vegetation training samples and adaptive thresholds, allowing for accurate estimations of the spatially distributed VTCI. The results obtained present a coherent spatial distribution of VTCI values estimated using LST and NDVI. Most areas during the study period experienced mild drought conditions, though severe cases were often seen around the northern part of the lake. With limited in-situ data in this area, this study presents how VTCI estimations can be developed for drought monitoring using satellite observations. This further shows the usefulness of remote sensing to improve the information about areas that are difficult to access or with poor availability of conventional meteorological data.
Fertility Preservation in Benign Gynecological Diseases: Current Approaches and Future Perspectives

Although fertility preservation is a growing topic in the management of oncological diseases, different benign gynecological pathologies are able to compromise the ovarian reserve due to mechanisms related to the pathology itself or secondary to the performed treatments. Endometriosis, benign ovarian tumors, adnexal torsion, familiarity and genetic syndromes are all benign conditions that can compromise the ovarian reserve. Endometriosis and particularly endometriomas provide a direct damage to ovarian reserve, with different mechanisms, and an indirect damage related to surgery. Similarly, benign ovarian tumors can provide a detrimental effect on ovarian reserve for the surgical treatment, especially for bilateral or recurrent tumors, and in case of secondary adnexal torsion with late diagnosis. Different fertility preservation options are available and should be considered particularly in cases with bilateral or recurrent pathology and/or surgery. In general, the identification of patients at risk of early ovarian failure, for benign gynecological disease or based on known genetic causes or familiarity, is of paramount importance in order to apply fertility preservation techniques before the complete depletion of ovarian reserve.
Bayesian op miza on for selec ng training and valida on data for supervised machine learning

Validation and verification in machine learning is an open problem which becomes increasingly important as its applications becomes more critical. Amongst the applications are autonomous vehicles and medical diagnostics. These systems all needs to be validated before being put into use or else the consequences might be fatal. This master’s thesis focuses on improving both learning and validating machine learning models in cases where data can either be generated or collected based on a chosen position. This can for example be taking and labeling photos at the position or running some simulation which generates data from the chosen positions. The approach is twofold. The first part concerns modeling the relationship between any fixed-size set of positions and some real valued performance measure. The second part involves calculating such a performance measure by estimating the performance over a region of positions. The result is two different algorithms, both variations of Bayesian optimization. The first algorithm models the relationship between a set of points and some performance measure while also optimizing the function and thus finding the set of points which yields the highest performance. The second algorithm uses Bayesian optimization to approximate the integral of performance over the region of interest. The resulting algorithms are validated in two different simulated environments. The resulting algorithms are applicable not only to machine learning but can also be used to optimize any function which takes a set of positions and returns a value, but are more suitable when the function is expensive to evaluate.
Re: American Botanical Council REVISED Public Comment on NTP Draft Toxicology Report on Ginkgo Biloba Extract:

We are writing to you under the aegis of the American Botanical Council, an independent nonprofit research and education organization, tax-exempt under IRS Code 501(c)(3). We, the undersigned, represent numerous levels of expertise in various fields related to herbal science, including extensive history within the herb manufacturing and research community; clinical herbal medicine and herb-related safety issues; herbal pharmacology, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacokinetics; toxicology and pharmacovigilance and of dietary supplements and other consumer products, among others.
A new parameterization scheme for the real part of the ambient urban aerosol refractive index

Abstract. The refractive index of ambient aerosols, which directly determines the aerosol optical properties, is widely used in atmospheric models and remote sensing. Traditionally, the real part of the refractive index (RRI) is parameterized by the measurement of ambient aerosol main inorganic components. In this paper, the characteristics of the ambient aerosol RRI are studied based on field measurements in East China. The results show that the measured ambient aerosol RRI varies significantly between 1.36 and 1.56. The direct aerosol radiative forcing is estimated to vary by 40 % when the RRI values were varied between 1.36 and 1.56. We find that the ambient aerosol RRI is highly correlated with the aerosol effective density (ρeff) rather than the main chemical components. However, the parameterization of the ambient aerosol RRI by ρeff is not available due to the lack of corresponding simultaneous field measurements. For the first time, the size-resolved ambient aerosol RRI and ρeff are measured simultaneously by our designed measurement system. A new parameterization scheme for the ambient aerosol RRI using ρeff is proposed for urban environments. The measured and parameterized RRI values agree well, with a correlation coefficient of 0.75 and slope of 0.99. Knowledge of the ambient aerosol RRI would improve our understanding of ambient aerosol radiative effects.
The Antimicrobial Properties of Terminalia Glaucescens and Zanthoxylum Zanthoxyloides Extracts and the Spectrum of their Activity

The antimicrobial activity of the ethanol extracts of two Nigerian chewing sticks (Terminalia glaucescens and Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides) against oral bacteria and fungi isolates implicated in dental caries were assessed. The aim of the study is to isolate microbial organisms associated with dental caries and to assess the antimicrobial activity of the ethanol extracts of Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides and Terminalia glaucescens stem used as chewing sticks. The dental extracts from 20 (twenty) patients with clinical features of dental caries were collected from School of dental technology and therapy clinic, Trans-ekulu, Enugu. The patients comprised of 8 males and 12 females with ages ranging from 16-40 years. The disc diffusion method was used in evaluating sensitivity to the extracts and it was observed that all the isolates were sensitive to T. glaucescens at different levels of concentration with a MIC and MBC of 6.25mg/ml for S. pyogenes. The isolated and tested dental pathogens were Escherisia coli, Pseudomonas aerugenosa, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. However, of the all the isolates E. coli proved resistant to Z. zanthoxyloides extract. Conventional antibiotics were used as positive control while distilled water was used as negative control. The ability of T. glaucescens and Z. zanthoxyloides extracts to inhibit the growth of the bacteria and fungi in this study is an indication that the plant can be used as a source for antimicrobial agent in the formulation of toothpaste and mouth wash, thus justifying the use of the plant locally as chewing sticks.
Fingerprinting the genetic variation and intergeneric hybrid dynamics in the family Asteraceae (genera Helianthus, Echinaceae, Tagetes and Verbesina) using iPBS markers

Transposable elements constitute a large fraction of plant genomes and represent a powerful marker tool for genetic diversity studies. Here, the retrotransposon-based marker method inter primer binding sites (iPBS) was used to assess the genetic variation and intergeneric hybrid dynamics in the family Asteraceae by studying genera Helianthus, Echinaceae, Tagetes, Tithonia and Verbesina. Two selected iPBS primers (2222 and 2224) detected intergeneric polymorphism in the range 44.8% - 93.3% (mean 70%) and 85.7% - 100% (mean 89.5%) respectively. Moreover, iPBS markers allowed the genetic discrimination at within-species level between varieties of H. annuus (35.7% and 19.1%) but also between single cross’s segregating intergeneric hybrids (28.6% and 40%). The inheritance of iPBS markers and the parental genomes respectively in intergeneric hybrids of H. annuus has been manifested by the non-random elimination of markers mainly of origin of wild species and the preferential inheritance of markers unique to H. annuus. Such instability evidences genomic reconstruction involving LTR elements. In conclusion, the iPBS method stands as a reliable approach for the evaluation of genetic diversity of Asteraceae germplasms and perspective for use in the breeding practice of sunflower and related species.
1 User Interface Management Systems : Present and Future

This report presents the current state of the art, ongoing work, and future research directions in the domain of User Interface Management Systems (UIMS). We first define what a UIMS is, a task made difficult by the overloading of this term over the past ten years. We then present two major categories of UIMSs: those based on a language approach, and those dedicated to direct manipulation techniques. Finally, we present the active areas of research.
AIS Based Shipping Routes Using the Dijkstra Algorithm

This paper proposes an approach for identifying and characterizing shipping routes using information contained in Automatic Identification System messages broadcasted by ships and recorded by the coastal Vessel Traffic Service centre. The approach consists of using historical Automatic Identification System data to build a graph, where nodes are cells of a grid covering the geographical area being studied and the weights of directional edges are inversely related to ship movements between cells. Based on this graph, the Dijkstra algorithm is used to identify a potential safe route, assumed to be the most used route by ships between two locations. A second graph is created simultaneously, with the same nodes and edges, but with edge weights equal to the average speed of transitions between cells, thus allowing the determination of the average speed profile for any possible path within the graph. The proposed approach is applied to two scenarios: an approach to the port of Lisbon and the entry through the fairway to a RO‐RO terminal in the port of Setubal in Portugal. http://www.transnav. eu the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation Volume 13
ANALYZING THE ROLE OF DIGITAL MEDIA IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: A DISTRIBUTED COGNITION APPROACH

Science education is a difficult cognitive process because (1) the dynamic phenomena science studies are often not available to human perception and (2) students are required to imagine dynamic phenomena in detail using dense, opaque static representations developed over many iterations and revisions in science practice. In the traditional classroom, the teacher attempts to animate the static representations to aid students’ imagination. The advent of digital media, with its potential for dynamic representations, provides new ways of solving this problem, heralding systemic changes in science education that are difficult to analyse and predict. We use a distributed cognition framework to analyse a case study of a private school in Mumbai, examining how cognition is distributed across teachers, learners and representations in a static media classroom, and how this distributed structure of cognition is changed by one form of digital media.
Protection from the Pathogenesis of Neurodegenerative Disorders, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Huntington’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Diseases, through the Mitigation of Reactive Oxygen Species

In order for the central nervous system (CNS) to function normally, the brain should be free from biochemical impairments [1,2]. Oxidative stress (OS) is one of the main factors that contribute to the biochemical impairment of the brain [3]. Due to its high oxygen consumption and lipid content, the brain is highly susceptible to OS [4,5]. OS stems from an imbalance in the cellular antioxidant response system, which can occur as a result of low dietary antioxidant consumption [6,7]. In particular, OS denotes an imbalance between the creation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the mitigating effects of antioxidants [5]. In turn, excessive cellular oxidant levels are known to reduce antioxidant levels [8]. Accordingly, high oxygen consumption is known to cause extensive ROS production, with the resulting accumulation of ROS contributing to a decline in cellular antioxidants [5,9]. In this review, we emphasize the role of ROS in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD), and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Abstract
QoE-oriented resource allocation for multiuser-multiservice femtocell networks

The pursuit of high data rate and assurance of quality of experience (QoE) for end users represent the main goals of future wireless communication systems. By introducing MOS (Mean Opinion Score) based assessment models for different types of applications, this paper proposed novel QoE-oriented radio resource allocation (RRA) algorithms for multiuser-multiservice femtocell networks. An optimal QoE-oriented RRA strategy is first analyzed using time-sharing method which is applicable to best effort applications. RRA algorithms based on the cross-layer architecture are then proposed for all types of applications by considering parameters extracted from different layers of networking protocols. In the proposed algorithms, a priority mechanism is employed to ensure fairness. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can significantly improve the overall perceived quality from the users' perspective in comparison with traditional Quality of Service (QoS) oriented algorithms.
[Prevalence of HTLV-1 virus in pregnant women from West Africa Martinique and migrant population living in France]

The progression of the HIV virus has overshadowed attention to the HTLV-1 virus which is transmitted almost exactly like the HIV. HTLV-1 is not screened in blood supplies or in high-risk populations but it is not benign. It is implicated in acute T-cell leukemia and in chronic neuromyelopathies. Blood samples of pregnant women in Africa and Martinique and of women of foreign origin living in France were screened for HTLV-1. 814 samples were from rural and urban Ivory Coast and 565 were from urban Togo. 63 samples from Mali 61 from Niger and 281 from Senegal were taken in rural areas. 716 samples were obtained in rural Martinique mainly in maternal-child health centers. The French samples were from 840 women seen in a hospital center in Limoges between 1984-87. The samples were screened by an indirect immunofluorescence technique and positive or doubtful cases were confirmed by Western blot. 2.37% of the samples from Martinique and 1.34% from the African countries were positive. The results for Africa confirmed findings in the literature of a geographic progression of HTLV-1 infection from the north to the south and from the west to the east. The seropositivity rates were 1.84% for the Ivory Coast 0 for Mali 1.64% for Niger . 34% for Senegal and 1.4% for Togo. In both groups there was a significant increase in seropositivity rates with age from 1.1% to 2.44% in Africa and from 0 to 3.88% in Martinique between women under 20 and those over 40. Negative results were obtained for all the foreign women living in France even those from Africa or southeast Asia.
Type B Insulin Resistance: A Rare Type of Diabetes Mellitus

ABSTRACT Objective: Recognize the clinical and diagnostic features of diabetes caused by type B insulin resistance and treat with immunosuppressive therapy. Methods: A 27-year-old Asian male with a recent diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) presented to his primary care physician complaining of a 2-month history of polydipsia, polyuria, unintentional 20-pound weight loss, and darkening of the skin on his posterior neck, back, and axilla. He had no family history of diabetes. The patient was presumed to have type 2 diabetes mellitus and started on oral medications. He continued to have poor glycemic control for 8 months despite treatment with multiple oral hypoglycemic agents (metformin, pioglitazone, sulfonylurea), glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist, and high doses of insulin. Given the history of SLE, hypercatabolic state, and severe acanthosis nigricans on examination, type B insulin resistance was suspected. The diagnosis was confirmed by the presence of high titer of insulin receptor antibodi.
Application of response surface methodology to optimize the drying condition of black tea using superheated steam dryer

Drying conditions of black tea using superheated steam (SHS) was optimized based on central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM). The effects of independent variables (temperature and time) towards the total phenolic content (TPC), scavenging free radical ability, ferric-reducing antioxidant power assay and sensory attributes (infusion colour, aroma, flavour and astringency) were analysed using regression polynomial equations. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that quadratic model fitted the experimental design well, with a p-value less than 0.05 and highest coefficient of 0.9474. The optimum drying conditions were achieved at 166.74°C and 21.2 minutes where the experimental values were in accordance with predicted values, with percentage errors (PE) less than 10%. Temperature (140°C – 180°C) was concluded to have most significant effect and showed a positive direction in most responses. This effect definitely able to support the application of a SHS dryer for the quality production (antioxidant and sensory properties) of black tea.
Multi-Instance Learning With Emerging Novel Class

Diverse applications involving complicated data objects such as proteins and images are solved by applying multi-instance learning (MIL) algorithms. However, few MIL algorithms can deal with problems in an open and dynamic environment, where new categories of samples emerge. In this type of emerging novel class setting, algorithms should be able to not only classify the samples from the observed classes accurately, but also recognize the samples from the novel class. In this paper, we focus on the Multi-Instance learning with Emerging Novel class (MIEN) problem, and formulate MIEN from a metric learning perspective. We extract key instances to form the “super-bag” for each observed class, and non-key instances from all the observed classes to form a “meta super-bag”. Based on these super-bags, we propose the MIEN-metric method to learn discriminative metrics for classifying MIL bags from the observed classes and recognizing bags from the novel class. Experimental results of diverse domains, e.g., biological function annotation, text categorization, and object-centric/scene-centric image classification, show MIEN-metric outperforms other baseline methods significantly when the novel class emerges. Meanwhile, MIEN-metric is comparable with state-of-the-art MIL algorithms for binary classification in the traditional MIL setting.
HYPOTENSIVE ACTIVITY OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF BERBERIS VULGARIS (ROOT PULP AND BARK)

Many plants have been recommended in alternative systems of medicine for hypotensive activity although few systematic studies have been done. In this study, the hypotensive activity was studied in normotensive albino rats at different doses of BRPM and BB. The receptor activity was assessed by the drugs Ach on rat heart. Administration of different methanolic extract (BRPM, BB) showed significant reduction in blood pressure comparable to its respective control. Both methanolic extract completely blocked the Ach receptors in heart. This study suggests that the methanolic extract (BRPM, BB) have significant Ach receptor blocking and hypotensive activity and may be recommended for further investigation.
Effect of Dietary Vitamin E on Dimethyihydrazine-inducedColonic Tumors in Mice

This study investigates the effect of variations in dietary vitamin E on the incidence of dimethylhydrazine-inducedco Ionic tumors in mice. Two groups of 65 LACA mice were given 28 weekly s.c. injections of dimethylhydmazmne. only difference in the management of the two groups was the dietary content of vitamin E; one group received 10 mg/kg, and the other group received 600 mg/kg. Of these two groups, 42 and 51 mice, respectively, survived, and there were significantly more ade nomas, more adenomaswith pleomonphiccytology, and more invasive carcinomas in the group receiving a low vitamin E supplementto their diet. It is suggested that vitamin E may have some part to play in the multifactonialeffect of diet on colonectalcarcinogenesis.
Hábitos de alimentación en niños con sobrepeso y obesidad

In order to know the eating habits of the overweight and obese children we made a transversal study at the Rioverde Hospital of Security and Social Services for State’s Workers Institute (ISSSTE). We included 223 children receiving medical care, 98 female (44%) and 125 male (56%). 27% were 2 to 4 years old, 43% 5 to 9 years old and 30% 10 to 15 years old. 96 children (43%) had body mass index (BMI) higher than 75th percentile, from them 26 (11.7%) had overweight, 29 (13%) were obese and 41 (18.4%) had severe obesity. A questionnaire was applied and we found 2 variables associated with overweight and obesity: older age and eating more than adults. We concluded: 1) older age is associated with overweight and obesity, 2) older age explain 6% of the cases of overweight and obesity from the pediatric population studied, 3) 8% of the cases with normal weight were explain by the fact of eating less than adults.