Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Material discrimination study of dual-energy imaging using photon counting detector

Photon counting detectors with electronic spectrum splitting, such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors have been widely used in x-ray imaging. We research the feasibility of material discrimination using dual energy imaging with CZT photon counting detector. The initial x-ray spectrum is from the X-ray tube with a voltage of 160 kVp, and the x-ray spectrum is calculated by Monte-Carlo method. A linear CZT detector with 32 pixels was used and an experiment with different materials was conducted. For each scanned object, three images under different photon energies are obtained simultaneously. We chose two of them for dual-energy imaging. A method of material discrimination is presented, using transmission data in different energy regions, we can calculate the atomic number of them. The results show its feasibility and possible of material discrimination using this kind of energy resolving detector. Compared with the typical dual-energy imaging system, this method can achieve higher precision. Using dual-energy imaging method, photon counting detectors can be used in explosive detection and luggage screening, which is proved to be effective.
A bibliometric approach demonstrates the impact of a social care data set on research and policy.

BACKGROUND The National Minimum Dataset for Social Care (NMDS-SC) has provided detailed data since 2006 on the workforce for adult social care services in England. In 2012, the organisation responsible for the data set commissioned an evaluation into the impact of the data set on researchers and policymakers. OBJECTIVE Discusses how a novel wide-ranging bibliometric approach, complemented by interviews of key informants, demonstrated the developing impact of the data set. METHODS The evaluation comprised web metrics to assess NMDS-SC-related traffic on relevant websites; bibliometrics to assess the use of NMDS-SC data in scholarly publications and grey literature; telephone interviews with 12 key users of the data set; and an online survey completed by 24 key users of the data set. A theoretical framework for research impact was used. RESULTS The web metrics demonstrated increase in traffic on the relevant pages of the organisation's website. There were references to the data set in 175 separate publications (15% from academic journals, 50% as policy/practice reports and 35% as media communications. Interviews evidenced many impacts, for example provision of robust data for secondary analysis that challenged conventional views about the social care workforce. CONCLUSION Bibliometrics plus interviews provided a rounded picture of the data set's impact.
Conception optimale des Systèmes Instrumentés de Sécurité en présence d'incertitudes

Les Systemes Instrumentes de Securite (SIS) sont des systemes utilises pour assurer la securite fonctionnelle des installations. Pour concevoir les SIS, deux normes de securite sont generalement utilisees : l'IEC 61508 et l'IEC 61511. Cependant, les fiabilistes ont beaucoup de difficultes a mettre en œuvre les prescriptions de ces deux normes pour la conception des SIS qui doivent satisfaire a un niveau d'Integrite de Securite (SIL) exige. En outre, dans la plupart des travaux d'allocation, on suppose que les donnees de fiabilite des composants (taux de defaillance, taux de reparation, etc.) fournies par les bases de donnees sont precis et sans incertitudes. Nous pouvons cependant nous interroger sur leur adaptation a des systemes hautement fiables pour lesquels les defaillances sont tres rares comme les SIS. Dans ce cas, le retour d'experience est insuffisant pour valider avec precision les taux de defaillance. Parmi les nouveaux defi de la maitrise de risque et la conception des systeme de securite, la prise en compte de ces incertitudes et la proposition d'autres methodes que les approches probabilistes classiques (en particulier les ensembles flous) qui peuvent etre utilisees avantageusement pour prendre en compte l'imprecision liee a ces taux de defaillance et estimer les probabilites de defaillance des composants ainsi que les disponibilites des SIS lors du processus de conception optimale. L'etude que nous proposons s'inscrit donc dans la conception optimale des SIS en presence d'incertitudes entachant les donnees de fiabilite des composants.
Terrien's marginal degeneration associated with posterior polymorphous dystrophy.

PURPOSE To document an association between Terrien's marginal degeneration and posterior polymorphous dystrophy. METHODS A 23-year-old Saudi man presented with decreased vision, peripheral corneal thinning with vascularization and scarring, and abnormalities of the posterior stroma and Descemet's membrane. RESULTS Clinical examination, corneal topography, and specular microscopy were consistent with a diagnosis of Terrien's marginal degeneration and posterior polymorphous dystrophy. CONCLUSION We report the first case, to our knowledge, of the simultaneous occurrence of Terrien's marginal degeneration with posterior polymorphous dystrophy.
Detecção de faces humanas em imagens digitais: um algoritmo baseado em lógica nebulosa

The present paper aims to develop a methodology based on Fuzzy Pattern to detect human faces in digital images. Considering that “ people are easily able to recognize human faces”, this study foresees the research of the relative information to this recognition using the acquired results, in a “Fuzzy” scheme, for the identification of human faces in digital images. It ́s proposed an algorithm which automatically classifies or not the regions of an image in human faces. It is based on the information acquired from people by means of a field research where the answers are stored numerically for the creation of the fuzzy classification. Drawings “line-draw” were created to represent human faces and were presented to the people interviewed to give information for the creation of the fuzzy rules. After that the algorithm was able to identify human faces in digitalized images. Key Works: Face detection, Fuzzy Logic, Biometry, Image Processing. 1. Introdução A detecção e o reconhecimento de faces humanas é uma área muito promissora, é uma das áreas mais desafiadoras no campo da visão computacional e do reconhecimento de padrões [YOW & CIPOLLA, 1997]. A face humana é o principal atributo anatômico através da qual as pessoas são reconhecidas. Este fato sugere o desenvolvimento de sistemas automáticos de detecção, rastreamento e reconhecimento facial e promovem aplicações como autenticação de usuários, monitoramento de ambientes, controle de acesso, vigilância, etc. Inserido no contexto do Sistema de Visão Artificial, o processo de detecção e reconhecimento de faces humanas em cenas tem crescido significativamente. No campo científico e no campo comercial, buscam-se melhorias na interface entre homem e máquina, por meio do reconhecimento facial. 2. Metodologia 2.1 Pesquisa de campo Para determinação dos graus de pertinência “Fuzzy”,foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa de campo realizada com 100 pessoas, durante quatro meses. Foram gerados 100 desenhos representativos de faces humanas (“linedraw”) medindo 5 x 5 cm, baseados em imagens processadas. Esses desenhos foram mostrados isoladamente a diferentes pessoas que classificaram dentro de uma escala de 0 a 100, cada um deles considerando semelhança com uma face humana ou não. A Tabela 1 mostra o resultado parcial dessa classificação. Figuras
Molecular epidemiology provides evidence of genotypic heterogeneity of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O:12 outbreak isolates from a pediatric hospital

Ribotyping randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis were used for the epidemiologic evaluation of eight Pseudomonas aeruginosa O:12 isolates obtained from eight children and two P. aeruginosa O:12 environmental isolates from a hematology ward. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis were able to discriminate isolates that were indistinguishable by biochemical typing, O serotyping or ribotyping.
A comparative study of anticoagulant control in patients on long-term warfarin using home and hospital monitoring of the international normalised ratio

Background: Capillary whole-blood point-of-care prothrombin-INR (PT-INR) testing at home is an alternative to hospital-based monitoring for patients on lifelong warfarin. Aim: To retrospectively assess the safety and efficacy of home point-of-care testing for children on long-term warfarin. Method: All patients who had been on point-of-care home monitoring for at least 6 months were included in the study. Their warfarin control was assessed while on home monitoring and compared to that achieved in a similar period before changing from hospital monitoring. Results: Thirty-seven patients were studied for a mean of 1.0 year on clinic monitoring and 1.07 years on home monitoring. The clinic monitoring tests were within a therapeutic range for a median 70.0 (inter-quartile range 34.5) and the home monitoring were within range for median 75.0 (inter-quartile range 44.5). There were no major haemorrhagic or thrombotic complications in either group during the study period. Only 2.3% of all tests had an INR greater than 6.0 with no statistical differences seen between the clinic and home monitoring groups. Conclusion: Home point-of-care testing in children on lifelong warfarin is safe, effective and offers a number of advantages to the child and family. Ongoing training and support for the families is essential for this service.
Comparative Effects of CT Imaging Measurement on RECIST End Points and Tumor Growth Kinetics Modeling

Quantitative assessments of tumor burden and modeling of longitudinal growth could improve phase II oncology trials. To identify obstacles to wider use of quantitative measures we obtained recorded linear tumor measurements from three published lung cancer trials. Model‐based parameters of tumor burden change were estimated and compared with similarly sized samples from separate trials. Time‐to‐tumor growth (TTG) was computed from measurements recorded on case report forms and a second radiologist blinded to the form data. Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST)‐based progression‐free survival (PFS) measures were perfectly concordant between the original forms data and the blinded radiologist re‐evaluation (intraclass correlation coefficient = 1), but these routine interrater differences in the identification and measurement of target lesions were associated with an average 18‐week delay (range, −20 to 55 weeks) in TTG (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.32). To exploit computational metrics for improving statistical power in small clinical trials will require increased precision of tumor burden assessments.
Tweet Timeline Generation with Determinantal Point Processes

The task of tweet timeline generation (TTG) aims at selecting a small set of representative tweets to generate a meaningful timeline and providing enough coverage for a given topical query. This paper presents an approach based on determinantal point processes (DPPs) by jointly modeling the topical relevance of each selected tweet and overall selectional diversity. Aiming at better treatment for balancing relevance and diversity, we introduce two novel strategies, namely spectral rescaling and topical prior. Extensive experiments on the public TREC 2014 dataset demonstrate that our proposed DPP model along with the two strategies can achieve fairly competitive results against the state-of-the-art TTG systems.
Genome Sequence of Listeria monocytogenes Strain F6540 (Sequence Type 360) Collected from Food Samples in Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT Comparative genomic analysis between pathogenic and nonpathogenic Listeria monocytogenes strains provides a good model for studying the virulence of this organism. Here, we report the genome sequence of the nonpathogenic L. monocytogenes strain F6540 (sequence type 360) identified specifically in food samples in Ontario, Canada, in 2010.
Metal stents: a bridge to surgery in hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND Obstructive jaundice in patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma is a known risk factor for hepatic failure after liver resection. Plastic stents are most widely used for preoperative drainage. However, plastic stents are known to have limited patency time and therefore, in palliative settings, the self-expanding metal stent (SEMS) is used. This type of stent has been shown to be superior because it allows for rapid biliary decompression and a reduced complication rate after insertion. This study explores the use of the SEMS for biliary decompression in patients with operable hilar cholangiocarcinoma. METHODS A retrospective evaluation of a prospectively maintained database at a tertiary hepatobiliary referral centre was carried out. All patients with resectable cholangiocarcinoma were recorded. RESULTS Of 260 patients referred to this unit with cholangiocarcinoma between January 2008 and April 2012, 50 patients presented with operable cholangiocarcinoma and 27 of these had obstructive jaundice requiring stenting. Ten patients were initially treated with SEMSs; no stent failure occurred in these patients. Seventeen patients initially received plastic stents, seven of which failed in the interval between stent placement and laparotomy. These stents were replaced by SEMSs in four patients and by plastic stents in three patients. Median time to laparotomy was 45 days and 68 days in patients with SEMSs and plastic stents, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Self-expanding metal stents provide adequate and rapid biliary drainage in patients with obstruction caused by hilar cholangiocarcinoma. No re-interventions were required. This probably reflects the relatively short interval between stent placement and laparotomy.
Courtship in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: an early cell-cell interaction during mating

During conjugation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two cells of opposite mating type (MATa and MAT alpha) fuse to form a diploid zygote. Conjugation requires that each cell locate an appropriate mating partner. To investigate how yeast cells select a mating partner, we developed a competition mating assay in which wild-type MAT alpha cells have a choice of two MATa cell mating partners. We first demonstrated that sterile MAT alpha 1 cells (expressing no a- or alpha-specific gene products) do not compete with fertile MATa cells in the assay; hence, wild-type MATa and MAT alpha cells can efficiently locate an appropriate mating partner. Second, we showed that a MATa strain need not be fertile to compete with a fertile MATa strain in the assay. This result defines an early step in conjugation, which we term courtship. We showed that the ability to agglutinate is not necessary in MATa cells for courtship but that production of a-pheromone and response to alpha-pheromone are necessary. Thus, MATa cells must not only transmit but must also receive and then respond to information for effective courtship; hence, there is a "conversation" between the courting cells. We showed that the only alpha-pheromone-induced response necessary in MATa cells for courtship is production of a-pheromone. In all cases tested, a strain producing a higher level of a-pheromone was more proficient in courtship than one producing a lower level. We propose that during courtship, a MAT alpha cell selects the adjacent MATa cell producing the highest level of a-pheromone.
A Data-driven Approach to Detection of Interruptions in Human-human Conversations

We report the results of our initial efforts towards automatic detection of user’s interruptions in a spoken human– machine dialogue. In a first step, we explored the use of automatically extractable acoustic features, frequency and intensity, in discriminating listener’s interruptions in human–human conversations. A preliminary analysis of interaction snippets from the HCRC Map Task corpus suggests that for the task at hand, intensity is a stronger feature than frequency, and using intensity in combination with feature loudness offers the best results for a k-means clustering algorithm.
Üretim İşletmelerindeki Lojistik Faaliyetlerin Finansal Performansa Etkisinin İşletme Yetkilileri Algısı: Sivas İlinde Bir Araştırma

﻿ Finansal performansa etkisi acisindan uretim isletmelerinde lojistik faaliyetlere yonelik dusunceleri belirlemek amaciyla Sivas Ticaret ve Sanayi Odasi’na kayitli olan OSB’de fiilen uretimlerine devam eden isletmeler uzerinde bir arastirma yapilmistir. Konunun amacina ulasmak icin katilimcilara, demografik ozellikleri, isletme bilgileri ayrica 24 maddeden olusan 5’li likert olcegine gore hazirlanmis anket uygulanmistir. Elde edilen veriler SPSS 22 paket programindan yararlanilarak analiz edilip yorumlanmistir Sivas ilindeki OSB’de ki uretim isletmelerinde lojistik faaliyetlerin etkin, verimli bir sekilde kullanilmasi finansal performanslari uzerinde dogrudan etki ettigi gorulmektedir. Cesitli istatistiksel yontemler kullanilarak yapilan farklilik analizlerinde ise demografik degiskenler arasinda anlamli bir farklilik bulunamamistir. ﻿
Improving the Canny Edge Detector Using Automatic Programming: Improving Hysteresis Thresholding

We have used automatic programming to improve the hysteresis thresholding stage of the popular Canny edge detector—without increasing the computational complexity or adding extra information. The F-measure has been increased by 1.8% on a test set of natural images, and a paired student-t test and a Wilcoxon signed rank test show that the improvement is statistically significant. This is the first time evolutionary computation and automatic programming has been used to improve hysteresis thresholding. The new program has introduced complex recursive patterns that make the algorithm perform better with weak edges and retain more detail. The findings provide further evidence that an automatically designed algorithm can outperform manually created algorithms on low level image analysis problems, and that automatic programming is ideally suited for inferring suitable heuristics for such problems.
Survey Design From the Ground Up: Collaboratively Creating the Toronto Teen Survey

The Toronto Teen Survey is a community-based participatory research study whose aim is to gather information on the accessibility and relevance of sexual health services for diverse groups of urban youth (13 to 17 years of age). This information will be used to develop a proactive, citywide strategy to improve sexual health outcomes for Toronto adolescents. In this article, the authors focus on the processes of collaboratively developing a survey tool with youth, academics, and community stakeholders. An overview of the project and examples from the design stage are provided. In addition, recommendations are given toward developing best practices when working with young people on research and survey design.
Benchmarking carbon fluxes of the ISIMIP2a biome models

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the eight ISIMIP2a biome models against independent estimates of long-term net carbon fluxes (i.e. Net Biome Productivity, NBP) over terrestrial ecosystems for the recent four decades (1971–2010). We evaluate modeled global NBP against 1) the updated global residual land sink (RLS) plus land use emissions (ELUC) from the Global Carbon Project (GCP), presented as R + L in this study by Le Quéré et al (), and 2) the land CO2 fluxes from two atmospheric inversion systems: Jena CarboScope s81_v3. 8 and CAMS v15r2, referred to as FJena and FCAMS respectively. The model ensemble-mean NBP (that includes seven models with land-use change) is higher than but within the uncertainty of R + L, while the simulated positive NBP trend over the last 30 yr is lower than that from R + L and from the two inversion systems. ISIMIP2a biome models well capture the interannual variation of global net terrestrial ecosystem carbon fluxes. Tropical NBP represents 31 ± 17% of global total NBP during the past decades, and the year-to-year variation of tropical NBP contributes most of the interannual variation of global NBP. According to the models, increasing Net Primary Productivity (NPP) was the main cause for the generally increasing NBP. Significant global NBP anomalies from the long-term mean between the two phases of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events are simulated by all models (p < 0.05), which is consistent with the R + L estimate (p = 0.06), also mainly attributed to NPP anomalies, rather than to changes in heterotrophic respiration (Rh). The global NPP and NBP anomalies during ENSO events are dominated by their anomalies in tropical regions impacted by tropical climate variability. Multiple regressions between R + L, FJena and FCAMS interannual variations and tropical climate variations reveal a significant negative response of global net terrestrial ecosystem carbon fluxes to tropical mean annual temperature variation, and a non-significant response to tropical annual precipitation variation. According to the models, tropical precipitation is a more important driver, suggesting that some models do not capture the roles of precipitation and temperature changes adequately.
Stability of bandwidth request control based on dual feedback in BWA networks

In order for the base station to respond quickly and efficiently to the uplink bandwidth request in broadband wireless access (BWA) networks using time-division duplex (TDD), a dual feedback control algorithm has recently been proposed [3]. In this algorithm the bandwidth request is adjusted in accordance with both the length of the backlogged queue and the mismatch between packet arrival and service rates. This paper presents a thorough study of the stability of the dual feedback algorithm in both continuous-time and discrete-time domains. It turns out that the stability condition in [3] is necessary but not sufficient to guarantee the stability of its discrete-time implementation.
Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

OBJECTIVE: To thoroughly and critically review the pharmacologic treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to review the symptomatology, diagnosis, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and assessment of PTSD. DATA SOURCES: A MEDLINE search (1966–October 1999) in the English language specifying PTSD drug treatment as the search term was used to identify articles. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: All articles identified were reviewed; emphasis was given to randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. DATA SYNTHESIS: It appears that a five-week medication trial is necessary to assess clinical effects on PTSD symptoms. The monoamine oxidase inhibitors appear to be superior to the tricyclic antidepressants in improving reexperiencing and avoidance symptoms. Most studies used assessment tools that neglected hyperarousal symptoms; therefore, no conclusions regarding this symptom cluster can be drawn. Other pharmacotherapeutic interventions reported in open-label trials have yielded varying success. CONCLUSIONS: The current literature does not bear a sufficient number of double-blind, placebo-controlled studies using assessment tools that evaluate the three symptom clusters of PTSD to allow for a definite treatment modality to be formulated. Nonetheless, a treatment hierarchy appears to be in order based on the greatest number of double-blind, placebo-controlled studies evaluating antidepressants. Alternate modalities such as mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, and adrenergic blockers should not be considered the mainstays of therapy.