Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Kinect-Based Segmentation of Touching-Pigs for Real-Time Monitoring

Segmenting touching-pigs in real-time is an important issue for surveillance cameras intended for the 24-h tracking of individual pigs. However, methods to do so have not yet been reported. We particularly focus on the segmentation of touching-pigs in a crowded pig room with low-contrast images obtained using a Kinect depth sensor. We reduce the execution time by combining object detection techniques based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) with image processing techniques instead of applying time-consuming operations, such as optimization-based segmentation. We first apply the fastest CNN-based object detection technique (i.e., You Only Look Once, YOLO) to solve the separation problem for touching-pigs. If the quality of the YOLO output is not satisfied, then we try to find the possible boundary line between the touching-pigs by analyzing the shape. Our experimental results show that this method is effective to separate touching-pigs in terms of both accuracy (i.e., 91.96%) and execution time (i.e., real-time execution), even with low-contrast images obtained using a Kinect depth sensor.
The Moderating Effect of Higher Education on Intergenerational Spatial Inequality

It is well-known that socioeconomic outcomes and (dis)advantage over the life course can be transmitted from parent to child. It is increasingly suggested that these intergenerational effects also have a spatial dimension, although empirical research into this topic remains scarce. Previous research from Sweden and the United States shows that children who grow up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods experience long-term exposure to such neighbourhoods in their adult lives. This study contributes to the literature by examining to what extent educational attainment can break the link between parental neighbourhood disadvantage and the neighbourhood experiences of children as adults up to 12 years after leaving the parental home. We use longitudinal register data from the Netherlands to study a complete cohort of parental home leavers, covering 119,167 individuals who were followed from 1999 to 2012. Using sequence analyses as a visualisation method, and multilevel logit models, we demonstrate that children who lived in deprived neighbourhoods with their parents are more likely to live in similar neighbourhoods later in life than children who grew up in more affluent neighbourhoods. We find that intergenerational neighbourhood patterns of disadvantage can be discontinued when individuals attain higher education over time. Discontinuation is however less prevalent among individuals from ethnic minority groups.
Superpixel-Based Extended Random Walker for Hyperspectral Image Classification

In this paper, a novel SuperPixel-based Extended Random Walker (SPERW) classification method for hyperspectral images is proposed that consists of three main steps. First, a multiscale segmentation algorithm is adopted to generate many superpixels, each of which represents a homogeneous region of adaptive shape and size. Then, a new weighted graph is constructed based on the superpixels in which the nodes correspond to the superpixels and the edges correspond to the links connecting two adjacent superpixels. Each edge has a weight that defines the similarity between the two superpixels. Second, a widely used pixelwise classifier, i.e., the support vector machine, is adopted to obtain classification probability maps for a hyperspectral image, which are then used to approximate the prior probabilities of the superpixels. Finally, the obtained prior probability maps of the superpixels are optimized by using the Extended Random Walker (ERW) algorithm, which encodes the spatial information both among and within the superpixels of the hyperspectral image in a weighted graph. Compared with the spectrum of a single pixel, the spectrum of a superpixel is more stable and less affected by noise; therefore, superpixels are more appropriate for adoption as the basic elements in the hyperspectral image classification. Because the spectral correlation between pixels within the same superpixel and the spatial correlation among adjacent superpixels are both well considered in the ERW-based global optimization framework, the proposed method shows high classification accuracy on four widely used real hyperspectral data sets even when the number of training samples is relatively small.
Importance of Non-HLA Gene Polymorphisms in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

In the last 10 years, non-HLA genotypes have been investigated for their potential roles in the occurrence and severity of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) as well as for their contribution to overall transplant-related mortality, infectious episodes, and overall survival. These non-HLA-encoded genes include polymorphisms within the regulatory sequences of the cytokine genes, or genes associating with innate immunity: KIR (killer immunoglobulinlike receptor) genes, MIC (MHC class I chain-related) genes, and others. The first studied non-HLA genes were polymorphisms in regulatory cytokine genes because of cytokine role in GvHD immunopathogenesis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in several regions of cytokine genes were correlated with the transplant overcome in several studies (Kim et al., 2005; Laguila Visentainer et al., 2005; Lin et al., 2003; Mlynarczewska et al., 2004; Viel et al., 2007; reviewed in Dickinson, 2008).
A topic-based cross-language retrieval model with PLSA and TF-IDF

Cross-language document retrieval is an important research topic in information retrieval. This paper proposes a cross-language retrieval model, which can retrieve English documents for a Chinese query. The model includes two parts: topic-processing and online retrieval. The topic-processing could be executed once the library of literature is updated. It extracts topics from semantics of texts and then clusters documents of different languages with the extracted topics. Three crucial algorithms are adopted in topic-processing: Probability Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) analyzes the topics of documents, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) identifies keywords for the topics, and word co-occurrence method with dictionary-based translation generates the association among words of different languages. Practical retrieval runs whenever a retrieval request is submitted by a user. It achieves our goal of cross-languages retrieval by analyzing the correlation between query terms and topics, and using document correlation results from topic-processing to find appropriate document results.
Flagella-Associated WDR-Containing Protein CrFAP89 Regulates Growth and Lipid Accumulation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

WD40-repeat (WDR) domain-containing proteins are subunits of multi-protein E3 ligase complexes regulating various cellular and developmental activities in eukaryotes. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii serves as a model organism to study lipid metabolism in microalgae. Under nutrition deficient conditions, C. reinhardtii accumulates lipids for survival. The proteins in C. reinhardtii flagella have diverse functions, such as controlling the motility and cell cycle, and environment sensing. Here, we characterized the function of CrFAP89, a flagella-associated WDR-containing protein, which was identified from C. reinhardtii nitrogen deficiency transcriptome analysis. Quantitative real time-PCR showed that the transcription levels of CrFAP89 were significantly enhanced upon nutrient deprivation, including nitrogen, sulfur, or iron starvation, which is considered an effective condition to promote triacylglycerol (TAG) accumulation in microalgae. Under sulfur starvation, the expression of CrFAP89 was 32.2-fold higher than the control. Furthermore, two lines of RNAi mutants of CrFAP89 were generated by transformation, with gene silencing of 24.9 and 16.4%, respectively. Inhibiting the expression of the CrFAP89 gene drastically increased cell density by 112–125% and resulted in larger cells, that more tolerant to nutrition starvation. However, the content of neutral lipids declined by 12.8–19.6%. The fatty acid content in the transgenic algae decreased by 12.4 and 13.3%, mostly decreasing the content of C16:0, C16:4, C18, and C20:1 fatty acids, while the C16:1 fatty acid in the CrFAP89 RNAi lines increased by 238.5 to 318.5%. Suppressed expression of TAG biosynthesis-related genes, such as CrDGAT1 and CrDGTTs, were detected in CrFAP89 gene silencing cells, with a reduction of 16–78%. Overall our results suggest that down-regulating of the expression of CrFAP89 in C. reinhardtii, resulting in an increase of cell growth and a decrease of fatty acid synthesis with the most significant decrease occurring in C16:0, C16:4, C18, and C20:1 fatty acid. CrFAP89 might be a regulator for lipid accumulation in C. reinhardtii.
Segmentation technique for medical image processing: A survey

Segmentation is one of the popular and efficient technique in context to medical image analysis. The purpose of the segmentation is to clearly extract the Region of Interest from the medical images. The main focus of this paper is to review and summarize an efficient segmentation method. While doing the comparison study on segmentation methods using the Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest and the Convolutional Neural Network for medical image analysis identifies that Convolutional Neural Network works efficiently for doing in-depth analysis. The Convolutional Neural Network can be used as segmentation technique for achieving the high accuracy on medical image analysis.
Evans Blue Dye: A Revisit of Its Applications in Biomedicine

Evans blue (EB) dye has owned a long history as a biological dye and diagnostic agent since its first staining application by Herbert McLean Evans in 1914. Due to its high water solubility and slow excretion, as well as its tight binding to serum albumin, EB has been widely used in biomedicine, including its use in estimating blood volume and vascular permeability, detecting lymph nodes, and localizing the tumor lesions. Recently, a series of EB derivatives have been labeled with PET isotopes and can be used as theranostics with a broad potential due to their improved half-life in the blood and reduced release. Some of EB derivatives have even been used in translational applications in clinics. In addition, a novel necrosis-avid feature of EB has recently been reported in some preclinical animal studies. Given all these interesting and important advances in EB study, a comprehensive revisiting of EB has been made in its biomedical applications in the review.
Risk factors for primary Sjögren syndrome-associated interstitial lung disease.

Background Primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that is characterized by lymphocytic infiltration of the exocrine glands and extraglandular organ systems. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is common in pSS patients and is one of the independent risk factors for a poor prognosis. The previously reported characteristics and potential risks contributing to pSS-associated ILD have been controversial. Methods A cohort of 201 newly diagnosed pSS patients were studied over a period of 3 years. Data were from clinical charts. The pSS patients were classified into two groups, namely pSS-ILD or pSS without ILD, according to the lung evaluation. Results In total, the prevalence of pSS-associated ILD was 78.6%. The pSS patients associated ILD were more likely to be male, older and smokers in comparison to the pSS patients without ILD. There were no significant differences in multiorgan involvement between the two groups. Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) was the most common radiological pattern (45.5%). pSS with ILD was associated with increasing age [odds ratio (OR) =1.073], smoking (OR =8.544) and antinuclear antibody (ANA) positive (OR =3.286). Over a median follow-up period of 24 months (range, 18-30 months), no patients died, experienced acute exacerbation of ILD, or had newly diagnosed pSS-ILD. Conclusions pSS associated ILD were more commonly in males, older patients and smokers. Aging, cigarette smoking, and ANA positivity may be potential risk factors contributing to ILD in pSS patients.
Dietary Calcium Intake in Sample of School Age Children in City of Rabat, Morocco

Calcium is an important mineral playing a vital role to maintain bone health. Calcium intake is considered as one of the most important determinants to assess the calcium status and to evaluate the calcium deficiency in the human body. Our study aims at estimating calcium intake in a sample of children and adolescent to be used in the global strategy to reduce calcium deficiency disorders in Morocco. Thus, 131 children and adolescents were recruited from public schools at Rabat and its regions in the framework of a descriptive cross-sectional study. For each participant, anthropometric parameters were measured. Calcium status was assessed by 24 h dietary recall. Food frequency questionnaire was used to evaluate children's nutritional habits and to assess the consumption of calcium-rich food. Overall, the mean calcium intake was 522.0 ± 297.0 mg/day, and 85.5% of subjects highlighted calcium deficiency, with no significant difference between boys and girls. Calcium intake was significantly different according to age groups, and high consumption of calcium was found in subjects aged from 14 to 18 years (776.86 ±290.07 mg/day), giving evidence of the low calcium status of the studied population. Daily food intake and food frequency analysis showed that bread, vegetables, and fruits are the most consumed food and the main source of daily calcium intake. Consumption of dairy products, considered as the best source of calcium, is lower and represents only 14% of total calcium intake. Our study clearly showed that calcium status is very lower in Moroccan children and adolescents and a large proportion of this population have inadequate calcium intake. Hence, there's an urgent need of specific strategies, including children sensitisation and nutritional education, to increase calcium intake and therefore reduce calcium deficiency disorders impacting the whole body during childhood and in adult age.
FACULTATEA DE INGINERIE ELECTRICA

A new algebraically simple five-minimum-term approach to an existing FDNR-based chaotic circuit is presented. An existing piecewise-linear model of a diode is replaced with a new better model using a conventional diode equation. Such a new model results in algebraically simple five minimum terms in three coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Not only are the ODEs reduced from six to five minimum algebraic terms, but also from two nonlinear terms to a single nonlinear term. Better versions of chaotic attractors, a new bifurcation diagram and a new largest Lyapunov exponent are depicted. In particular, a new homoclinic orbit of the circuit is illustrated.
Circulating tumor cells in clinical research and monitoring patients with colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer remains a frequent disease to which screening and target therapy exist, but despite this is still marked by a high mortality rate. Even though radical surgery may be performed in many cases, patients relapse with metastatic disease. Circulating tumor cells were incriminated for tumor recurrence, that's why vigorous research started on their field. Owning prognostic and predictive value, it was revealed their usefulness in disease monitoring. Moreover, they may serve as liquid biopsies for genetic tests in cases where tissue biopsy is contraindicated or cannot be performed. In spite of these advantages, they were not included in clinical guidelines, despite CellSearch and many other detection methods were developed to ease the identification of circulating tumor cells. This review highlights the implication of circulating tumor cells in metastasis cascade, intrinsic tumor cells mechanisms and correlations with clinical parameters along with their utility for medical practice and detection techniques.
Rewilding South American Landscapes rehistoric and historic baselines for trophic rewilding in the eotropics

A promising, but also controversial approach to ecological restoration is trophic rewilding, i.e., species introductions to restore top-down trophic interactions and associated trophic cascades to promote selfregulating biodiverse ecosystems. To provide historically-informed base-lines for trophic rewilding in the Neotropics, we aggregate data on late-Quaternary (last 130,000 years) large-bodied (megafauna, here: ≥10 kg body mass) mammals to estimate two base-lines: megafaunas including historically (post-1500 AD) extinct species and accounting for regional extirpations of extant species (historic base-line), and megafaunas additionally including Late Pleistocene-Holocene prehistorically extinct species (prehistoric base-line). The historic base-line is less controversial, while the prehistoric base-line is more relevant from an evolutionary, long-term perspective. The estimated potential distributions indicate strong scope for trophic rewilding, with high levels for the prehistoric baseline (with >20 species missing in many regions and biomes), but also considerable values for the historical baseline. Many areas have strongly reduced diversities for a range of functional and phylogenetic subgroups. We discuss implications, highlighting the need for a more nuanced view on non-native megafauna species as they may sometimes represent taxon substitutions for missing species. We emphasize that trophic rewilding should be implemented flexibly and in dialogue with society, e.g., handling human–wildlife conflicts and ensuring benefits for local livelihoods. © 2017 Associação Brasileira de Ciência Ecológica e Conservação. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
Co-imaging of the tumor oxygenation and metabolism using electron paramagnetic resonance imaging and 13-C hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging before and after irradiation

To examine the relationship between local oxygen partial pressure and energy metabolism in the tumor, electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with hyperpolarized [1-13C] pyruvate were performed. SCCVII and HT29 solid tumors implanted in the mouse leg were imaged by EPRI using OX063, a paramagnetic probe and 13C-MRI using hyperpolarized [1-13C] pyruvate. Local partial oxygen pressure and pyruvate metabolism in the two tumor implants were examined. The effect of a single dose of 5-Gy irradiation on the pO2 and metabolism was also investigated by sequential imaging of EPRI and 13C-MRI in HT29 tumors. A phantom study using tubes filled with different concentration of [1-13C] pyruvate, [1-13C] lactate, and OX063 at different levels of oxygen confirmed the validity of this sequential imaging of EPRI and hyperpolarized 13C-MRI. In vivo studies revealed SCCVII tumor had a significantly larger hypoxic fraction (pO2 < 8 mmHg) compared to HT29 tumor. The flux of pyruvate-to-lactate conversion was also higher in SCCVII than HT29. The lactate-to-pyruvate ratio in hypoxic regions (pO2 < 8 mmHg) 24 hours after 5-Gy irradiation was significantly higher than those without irradiation (0.76 vs. 0.36) in HT29 tumor. The in vitro study showed an increase in extracellular acidification rate after irradiation. In conclusion, co-imaging of pO2 and pyruvate-to-lactate conversion kinetics successfully showed the local metabolic changes especially in hypoxic area induced by radiation therapy.
Osteomeles schwerinae Extract Prevents Diabetes-Induced Renal Injury in Spontaneously Diabetic Torii Rats

Mesangial cell proliferation contributes to the development of glomerulosclerosis in diabetic nephropathy. This study was aimed at determining whether Osteomeles schwerinae (OSSC) extract can ameliorate renal damage in Spontaneously Diabetic Torii (SDT) rats. OSSC extract (100 and 250 mg/kg/day) was administered to the SDT rats through oral gavage for 17 weeks. At the end of the experiment, glucose, HbA1c, and albuminuria were measured. In addition, the levels of mesangial proliferation-related proteins were determined by western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Our results show that albuminuria, accumulation of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and renal expansion were markedly restored by OSSC extract administration. The OSSC treatment also inhibited α-smooth muscle actin and transforming growth factor-β1 protein expression. In addition, OSSC and its bioactive compounds hyperoside and quercitrin inhibited the platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB)/platelet-derived growth factor-B receptor (PDGFR-β) ligand binding in an in vitro assay. Taken together, these results indicate that OSSC inhibits ECM accumulation and mesangial proliferation of the glomeruli in SDT rats through inhibition of the interaction between PDGF-BB and PDGFR-β. OSSC has ameliorating effects on the initiation and progression of diabetes complications and can be used for the treatment of early diabetic renal dysfunction.
Adversarial Regularizers in Inverse Problems

Inverse Problems in medical imaging and computer vision are traditionally solved using purely model-based methods. Among those variational regularization models are one of the most popular approaches. We propose a new framework for applying data-driven approaches to inverse problems, using a neural network as a regularization functional. The network learns to discriminate between the distribution of ground truth images and the distribution of unregularized reconstructions. Once trained, the network is applied to the inverse problem by solving the corresponding variational problem. Unlike other data-based approaches for inverse problems, the algorithm can be applied even if only unsupervised training data is available. Experiments demonstrate the potential of the framework for denoising on the BSDS dataset and for computed tomography reconstruction on the LIDC dataset.
Design of 1.8-mW PLL-Free 2.4-GHz Receiver Utilizing Temperature-Compensated FBAR Resonator

This paper presents a 1.8-mW 2.4-GHz channelized receiver for ISM-band applications. Unlike traditional ISM-band radios which typically require a phase-locked loop (PLL) for channelization, we propose a modified sliding-IF receiver architecture with a suitable local oscillator (LO) frequency plan utilizing a temperature-compensated thin film bulk acoustic-wave resonator (FBAR). This strategy completely eliminates the need for a PLL by directly dividing down the fixed FBAR oscillator frequency. An inductor-less current-reuse balun LNA is proposed allowing a low-power wideband matching as well as noise cancelling. The frequency conversion is achieved by a hybrid mixer, which stacks a switching mixer on a switched- $g_{m}$ mixer for current reuse. It also features good voltage headroom and common-mode noise rejection. The FBAR-based Colpitts oscillator achieves the phase noise of −144 dBc/Hz at 3.5-MHz offset. The measured RX gain, noise figure, and in-band IIP3 are 57.8 dB, 15.7 dB, and −18.5 dBm, respectively, without external crystal and on-chip inductors, which allows us to reduce the size and weight of the receiver system. It dissipates 0.86 mW (RX) and 0.92 mW (LO) from a single 1-V supply.