An online handwriting recognition system for Turkish

Despite recent developments in Tablet PC technology, there has not been any applications for recognizing handwritings in Turkish. In this paper, we present an online handwritten text recognition system for Turkish, developed using the Tablet PC interface. However, even though the system is developed for Turkish, the addressed issues are common to online handwriting recognition systems in general. Several dynamic features are extracted from the handwriting data for each recorded point and Hidden Markov Models (HMM) are used to train letter and word models. We experimented with using various features and HMM model topologies, and report on the effects of these experiments. We started with first and second derivatives of the x and y coordinates and relative change in the pen pressure as initial features. We found that using two more additional features, that is, number of neighboring points and relative heights of each point with respect to the base-line improve the recognition rate. In addition, extracting features within strokes and using a skipping state topology improve the system performance as well. The improved system performance is 94% in recognizing handwritten words from a 1000-word lexicon

Finding Similar/Diverse Solutions in Answer Set Programming

For some computational problems (e.g., product configuration, planning, diagnosis, query answering, phylogeny reconstruction) computing a set of similar/diverse solutions may be desirable for better decision-making. With this motivation, we studied several decision/optimization versions of this problem in the context of Answer Set Programming (ASP), analyzed their computational complexity, and introduced offline/online methods to compute similar/diverse solutions of such computational problems with respect to a given distance function. All these methods rely on the idea of computing solutions to a problem by means of finding the answer sets for an ASP program that describes the problem. The offline methods compute all solutions in advance using the ASP formulation of the problem with an ASP solver, like Clasp, and then identify similar/diverse solutions using clustering methods. The online methods compute similar/diverse solutions following one of the three approaches: by reformulating the ASP representation of the problem to compute similar/diverse solutions at once using an ASP solver; by computing similar/diverse solutions iteratively (one after other) using an ASP solver; by modifying the search algorithm of an ASP solver to compute similar/diverse solutions incrementally. We modified Clasp to implement the last online method and called it Clasp-NK. In the first two online methods, the given distance function is represented in ASP; in the last one it is implemented in C++. We showed the applicability and the effectiveness of these methods on reconstruction of similar/diverse phylogenies for Indo-European languages, and on several planning problems in Blocks World. We observed that in terms of computational efficiency the last online method outperforms the others; also it allows us to compute similar/diverse solutions when the distance function cannot be represented in ASP.Comment: 57 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP

Implantation of foldable posterior chamber intraocular lens in aphakic vitrectomized eyes without capsular support

ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate the outcomes of three different surgical techniques for foldable posterior chamber intraocular lens (PCIOL) implantation in vitrectomized eyes without capsular support. Methods: A total of 60 patients with aphakic and vitrectomized eyes without capsular support were enrolled. All patients underwent three-piece foldable PCIOL implantation into the posterior chamber through a small corneal incision. Transscleral fixation (TSF), iris fixation (IF), and intrascleral tunnel fixation (ISF) surgical techniques were performed. Results: Postoperative PCIOL subluxation or dislocation occurred in one case in the TSF group and two cases in the ISF group. Intraoperative PCIOL dislocation occurred in two patients in the IF group. The incidence of temporary postoperative complications, such as mild intraocular hemorrhage and cystoid macular edema, was higher in the ISF group. No statistically significant difference in PCIOL-related astigmatism was observed between groups. Visual acuity improved in all groups. Conclusions: Postoperative outcomes were comparable between TSF, IF, and ISF for PCIOL in vitrectomized eyes without capsular support

The Role of Kinase Inhibitors in Cancer Therapies

Protein kinases are enzymes that transfer a phosphate group to the threonine, serine, or tyrosine residues of the target protein, regulating its activity. The activity of these enzymes are very important and strictly regulated in the cell as they promote cell proliferation, survival, and migration. In the case of any dysregulation of these enzymes, they can be associated with cancer initiation and progression. Small-molecule kinase inhibitors approved by the FDA for their improved clinical benefits are currently used in targeted therapy for the treatment of various cancers. So far, there are 62 FDA-approved therapeutic agents targeting different protein kinases, eight of which were approved in 2020. Today, kinase inhibitors are used as FDA approved cancer agents and newly developed ones are evaluated in clinical trials. Those protein kinase inhibitors can be grouped as growth factor receptor inhibitors, Ras/Raf/Mek inhibitors, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors, other targets, and agents such as protein kinase c and 3 phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1. In this chapter, these kinases, their pathways, and their inhibitors will be discussed in detail

Vitiligo in a Patient Treated with Interferon Alpha-2a for Behçet’s Disease

Behçet’s disease (BD) and vitiligo are diseases of unknown etiology. Interferon (IFN) alpha therapy is commonly used in Behçet uveitis. Interferon treatment in various diseases have also been observed causing certain autoimmune diseases such as vitiligo because of its immunomodulatory activity. The association between IFN therapy and vitiligo has been reported in the literature. We report a 21-year-old man with BD in whom vitiligo occurred during IFN treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of such an association

Serum indoxyl sulfate concentrations associate with progression of chronic kidney disease in children

The uremic toxins indoxyl sulfate (IS) and p-cresyl sulfate (pCS) accumulate in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) as a consequence of altered gut microbiota metabolism and a decline in renal excretion. Despite of solid experimental evidence for nephrotoxic effects, the impact of uremic toxins on the progression of CKD has not been investigated in representative patient cohorts. In this analysis, IS and pCS serum concentrations were measured in 604 pediatric participants (mean eGFR of 27 ± 11 ml/min/1.73m2) at enrolment into the prospective Cardiovascular Comorbidity in Children with CKD study. Associations with progression of CKD were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox proportional hazard models. During a median follow up time of 2.2 years (IQR 4.3-0.8 years), the composite renal survival endpoint, defined as 50% loss of eGFR, or eGFR <10ml/min/1.73m2 or start of renal replacement therapy, was reached by 360 patients (60%). Median survival time was shorter in patients with IS and pCS levels in the highest versus lowest quartile for both IS (1.5 years, 95%CI [1.1,2.0] versus 6.0 years, 95%CI [5.0,8.4]) and pCS (1.8 years, 95%CI [1.5,2.8] versus 4.4 years, 95%CI [3.4,6.0]). Multivariable Cox regression disclosed a significant association of IS, but not pCS, with renal survival, which was independent of other risk factors including baseline eGFR, proteinuria and blood pressure. In this exploratory analysis we provide the first data showing a significant association of IS, but not pCS serum concentrations with the progression of CKD in children, independent of other known risk factors. In the absence of comorbidities, which interfere with serum levels of uremic toxins, such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome, these results highlight the important role of uremic toxins and accentuate the unmet need of effective elimination strategies to lower the uremic toxin burden and abate progression of CKD