Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Algorithms for Lossless LiDAR Data Compression

Contemporary Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems are capable to rapidly gather the data from large geographical areas with high precision and great density. As a result, obtained datasets can contain several tens of millions of points, making LiDAR data compression an important issue. In this paper, three domain-specific compression algorithms are compared against a general-purpose algorithm. Selected testing LiDAR datasets are derived from the practice to challenge common data compression issues. In this way, influences of the terrain type, point density, and number of contained points on the compression efficiency are studied.
Cytocompatibility and biologic characteristics of synthetic scaffold materials of rabbit acellular vascular matrix combining with human-like collagen I

Scaffold material provides a three-dimensional growing environment for seed cells in the research field of tissue engineering. In the present study, rabbit arterial blood vessel cells were chemically removed with trypsin and Triton X-100 to prepare rabbit acellular vascular matrix scaffold material. Observation by He&Masson staining revealed that no cellular components or nuclei existed in the vascular intima and media after decellularization. Human-like collagen I was combined with acellular vascular matrix by freeze-drying to prepare an acellular vascular matrix-0.25% human-like collagen I scaffold to compensate for the extracellular matrix loss during the decellularization process. We next performed a series of experiments to test the water absorbing quality, biomechanics, pressure resistance, cytotoxicity, and ultra-micro structure of the acellular vascular matrix composite material and natural rabbit artery and found that the acellular vascular matrix-0.25% human-like collagen I material behaved similarly to natural rabbit artery. In conclusion, the acellular vascular matrix-0.25% human-like collagen I composite material provides a new approach and lays the foundation for novel scaffold material research into tissue engineering of blood vessels.
Accuracy of five electronic foramen locators with different operating systems: an ex vivo study

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate, ex vivo, the precision of five electronic root canal length measurement devices (ERCLMDs) with different operating systems: the Root ZX, Mini Apex Locator, Propex II, iPex, and RomiApex A-15, and the possible influence of the positioning of the instrument tips short of the apical foramen. Material and Methods: Forty-two mandibular bicuspids had their real canal lengths (RL) previously determined. Electronic measurements were performed 1.0 mm short of the apical foramen (-1.0), followed by measurements at the apical foramen (0.0). The data resulting from the comparison of the ERCLMD measurements and the RL were evaluated by the Wilcoxon and Friedman tests at a significance level of 5%. Results: Considering the measurements performed at 0.0 and -1.0, the precision rates for the ERCLMDs were: 73.5% and 47.1% (Root ZX), 73.5% and 55.9% (Mini Apex Locator), 67.6% and 41.1% (Propex II), 61.7% and 44.1% (iPex), and 79.4% and 44.1% (RomiApex A-15), respectively, considering ±0.5 mm of tolerance. Regarding the mean discrepancies, no differences were observed at 0.0; however, in the measurements at -1.0, the iPex, a multi-frequency ERCLMD, had significantly more discrepant readings short of the apical foramen than the other devices, except for the Propex II, which had intermediate results. When the ERCLMDs measurements at -1.0 were compared with those at 0.0, the Propex II, iPex and RomiApex A-15 presented significantly higher discrepancies in their readings. Conclusions: Under the conditions of the present study, all the ERCLMDs provided acceptable measurements at the 0.0 position. However, at the -1.0 position, the ERCLMDs had a lower precision, with statistically significant differences for the Propex II, iPex, and RomiApex A-15.
Does Greater Risk-Bearing in Stock Option Compensation Reduce the Influence of Problem Framing On Managerial Risk-Taking Behavior?

ABSTRACT: We examine the extent to which the behavioral agency model reflects the relation between greater risk-bearing in stock option compensation and managerial risk-taking. The behavioral agency model predicts that managers with greater wealth at stake will avoid risky projects that threaten their wealth. This greater risk-bearing effect moderates the problem-framing effect, which predicts that loss-averse managers will be more (less) risk-taking when choosing among loss (gain) projects. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with 108 M.B.A. students acting as managers, we find that managers are more risk-taking in the loss context than in the gain context when they have at-the-money stock options but not when they have wealth at stake through in-the-money stock options. Further, we find that managers with in-the-money stock options are less risk-taking than managers with at-the-money stock options in the loss context. These findings support the behavioral agency model prediction that greater risk-.
Reproductive careers of Thoroughbred broodmares before and after surgical correction of ≥360 degree large colon volvulus

BACKGROUND Limited data exist describing broodmare longevity and reproductive efficiency after surgical correction of ≥360 degree large colon volvulus (° LCV). OBJECTIVES Compare career duration and foals delivered for broodmares before and after ≥360° LCV surgery. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective case series. METHODS Broodmares registered with The Jockey Club that had surgical correction of ≥360° LCV and survived to hospital discharge at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2015 were included. Information was collected from the hospital's medical data base and The Jockey Club produce records about the mares' reproductive careers. Data were evaluated using parametric and nonparametric tests, P≤0.05. RESULTS Mares that were bred but never foaled prior to surgery (n = 19) had shorter careers (mean ± standard deviation [s.d.]), 4.4 ± 4.5 years, and fewer foals, 3.1 ± 3.3, compared with mares that delivered ≥1 foal before surgery (n = 565), 10.4 ± 4.5 years and 7.4 ± 3.4 foals, respectively, P<0.001. Broodmares that delivered foals before surgery produced more foals in the years before surgery, 4.8 ± 3.0, than after surgery, 2.6 ± 2.4, P<0.001, and had longer breeding careers, 5.9 ± 3.8 vs. 4.5 ± 3.3 years before compared with after surgery, P<0.001. No significant differences in career length or number of foals delivered were detected for mares with a single compared with multiple LCV surgeries. Mares that were 3-11 years old at the time of surgery had significantly more foals after surgery compared with mares ≥12 years old, P<0.001, as expected. MAIN LIMITATIONS Retrospective collection of data. CONCLUSIONS Broodmares had productive careers following surgery for ≥360° LCV that were largely influenced by the mares' age at the time of surgery.
Towards Fast and Robust Watermarking Scheme for H.264 Video

Most available H.264 watermarking methods either require large expense of time or are rather fragile to intended attacks. In this paper, we present a novel watermarking scheme, which satisfies with the requirements of both rapidity and robustness. The proposed scheme directly embeds watermarks into H.264 bit streams at the decoder by modifying the quantized DC coefficients in luma residual blocks. To increase the robustness while maintaining the perceptual quality of the video, we employ a texture-masking-based perceptual model to adaptively choose the watermark strength for each block. A crucial problem of decoder-based watermarking algorithms is error drift, which refers to the watermark error accumulations among different blocks during intra or inter predictions. To eliminate the effects of error drift, we propose a drift compensation algorithm by estimating a compensation signal for each block before embedding the watermark bit. Experimental results show that the watermarks are highly imperceptible and resistant to common attacks. In addition, our scheme is faster and causes less increase in bit rate than previous methods.
Consumer taste uncertainty in the context of store brand and national brand competition

In this paper, we focus on the uncertainty in consumer taste and study how a retailer can benefit from acquiring that taste information in the presence of competition between the retailer's store brand and a manufacturer's national brand. In this context, we also identify the optimal information sharing strategy of the retailer with the manufacturer as well as the equilibrium product positioning and pricing of the two brands. We model a competitive setting in which there is ex-ante uncertainty about consumer preferences for different product features and the retailer has a distinct advantage in terms of resolving this uncertainty, given his close proximity to the consumers. We identify two important effects of retailer's information acquisition and sharing decisions about consumer taste. The direct effect is that having taste information allows the retailer to make better SB introduction and positioning decisions. The indirect effect is that information sharing enables the manufacturer to make better NB positioning decisions - which in return may benefit or hurt the retailer. Furthermore, we show that these effects interact with each other and the nature of their interaction depends on three external factors: relative popularity of different product features, the vertical differentiation between the two brands, and the cost of store brand introduction. This interaction is most striking when the store brand introduction is not very costly. In this case, if one of the features is quite popular, then the retailer voluntarily shares information with the manufacturer because the indirect effect augments the value of the direct effect - even though this increases the competition between the brands. Otherwise, the retailer refrains from information sharing because the indirect effect then diminishes the value of the direct effect. We also generate managerial insights as to when it is most valuable for the retailer to acquire taste information as well its worth for the manufacturer.
Cancer in banana plantation workers in Costa Rica.

BACKGROUND Costa Rica has population and disease registries with potential value for epidemiological research. Pesticides have been intensively used on banana plantations, for example dibromochloropropane (DBCP). This study was planned to examine the quality of the cancer and civil registries and the feasibility of record linkages, and to explore cancer patterns among a highly exposed group. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was carried out. Workers on the payrolls of banana companies, as reported to the Social Security System at any time between 1972 and 1979, were followed up in the cancer registry between 1981 and 1992: 29 565 men and 4892 women for 407 468 person-years. The observed cases of cancer were compared to the expected values, derived from the national incidence rates. RESULTS We identified 368 cancer cases, 292 among men (standardized incidence ratio [SIR] = 76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 67-84) and 76 among women (SIR = 116, 95% CI: 90-142). Among men increased SIR were observed for melanoma (SIR = 197, 95% CI: 94-362) and penile cancer (SIR = 149, 95% CI: 55-324); among women for cervix cancer (SIR = 182, 95% CI: 122-241) and leukaemia (SIR = 274, 95% CI: 86-639). Risk estimates for lung cancer were evaluated among male workers with the longest time of employment. CONCLUSIONS Follow-up was difficult due to deficient identification variables in the cancer registry and to easier identification of the living compared to the decreased in the civil registry at the end of the observation period. The various systematic errors in this study are likely to produce an underestimation of the relative risk estimates. This study contributes to improvements of the registries and increases the potential for cancer epidemiology in Costa Rica and other developing countries.
Affinity Proteomics Reveals Elevated Muscle Proteins in Plasma of Children with Cerebral Malaria

Systemic inflammation and sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes are central processes in the pathophysiology of severe Plasmodium falciparum childhood malaria. However, it is still not understood why some children are more at risks to develop malaria complications than others. To identify human proteins in plasma related to childhood malaria syndromes, multiplex antibody suspension bead arrays were employed. Out of the 1,015 proteins analyzed in plasma from more than 700 children, 41 differed between malaria infected children and community controls, whereas 13 discriminated uncomplicated malaria from severe malaria syndromes. Markers of oxidative stress were found related to severe malaria anemia while markers of endothelial activation, platelet adhesion and muscular damage were identified in relation to children with cerebral malaria. These findings suggest the presence of generalized vascular inflammation, vascular wall modulations, activation of endothelium and unbalanced glucose metabolism in severe malaria. The increased levels of specific muscle proteins in plasma implicate potential muscle damage and microvasculature lesions during the course of cerebral malaria.
Investigation of drugs responsible for perioperative anaphylactic reactions using cellular allergen stimulation test

Background Anaphylactic reactions during anesthesia and operation are common and life threatening. Follow‐up investigation is necessary for avoiding potential re‐exposure of the patients to the offending drugs. The purpose of this study was to assess cellular allergen stimulation test (CAST) as a diagnostic instrument in immunoglobulin E (IgE)‐ and non‐IgE‐mediated anaphylactic reactions. Methods This study included 25 patients who developed perioperative anaphylactic reactions and 10 subjects that tolerated anesthetics and other drugs during perioperative period from September 2009 to October 2013 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. We performed skin tests and flow cytometric analysis of basophil activation‐based CAST in all subjects. Results Of the 25 patients, 17 had IgE‐mediated anaphylactic reactions (causative agent identified by skin tests) and 8 had non‐IgE‐mediated anaphylactic reactions (negative skin tests). CAST showed a sensitivity of 42.9%, specificity of 90%, and negative predictive value of 80.6% for neuromuscular blocking agents. Conclusions CAST may be useful for the diagnosis of anaphylactic reactions during perioperative period. Our findings call for further investigation to increase the sensitivity of the test.
Algorithm and Data Structures for Efficient Energy Maintenance during Monte Carlo Simulation of Proteins

Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is a common methodology to compute pathways and thermodynamic properties of proteins. A simulation run is a series of random steps in conformation space, each perturbing some degrees of freedom of the molecule. A step is accepted with a probability that depends on the change in value of an energy function. Typical energy functions sum many terms. The most costly ones to compute are contributed by atom pairs closer than some cutoff distance. This paper introduces a new method that speeds up MCS by exploiting the facts that proteins are long kinematic chains and that few degrees of freedom are changed at each step. A novel data structure, called the ChainTree, captures both the kinematics and the shape of a protein at successive levels of detail. It is used to efficiently detect self-collision (steric clash between atoms) and/or find all atom pairs contributing to the energy. It also makes it possible to identify partial energy sums left unchanged by a perturbation, thus allowing the energy value to be incrementally updated. Computational tests on four proteins of sizes ranging from 68 to 755 amino acids show that MCS with the ChainTree method is significantly faster (as much as 10 times faster for the largest protein) than with the widely used grid method. They also indicate that speed-up increases with larger proteins.
Adaptive Blind Watermarking Based on Improved Noise Sensitivity

By improving existing technology used in noise sensitivity, a novel adaptive blind watermarking algorithm is proposed. The embedding procedure operates adaptively in the domain of intermediate coefficients, according to the noise sensitivity. Robustness of it on selected attacks like Gaussian noise, median filtering, JPEG compression and cropping is tested. In addition, the perceptual transparency has been improved as well. Furthermore, the watermark can be detected without the original image.
On the Plurality of Grounds

© 2014 Shamik Dasgupta This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License. R ecent metaphysics has contained a good deal of discussion about the notion of ground. The notion is intuitive enough. For instance, suppose there is a conference occurring. One might say that this is grounded in how its participants are acting, meaning (roughly) that the conference “consists in” or is “explained by” or is “nothing over and above” those ac tions, or that there is a conference “in virtue of” those actions. The idea is that once you have participants acting in a certain way, this “makes it the case” that there is a conference. Regardless of whether this claim about the conference’s ground is true, we understand it reasonably well. One reason why the notion of ground has sparked such interest is the idea that it is needed to formulate many core philosophical issues. Con sider for example theses like materialism about consciousness, normative naturalism, and phenomenalism. These claim that certain facts — about conscious states, norms, and external objects (respectively) — “arise out of” or are “determined by” or “fixed by” various underlying facts — about my brain, or natural properties, or sense data (respectively). But how should this talk of “determination” or “fixing” be understood? One might suggest that it be understood in terms of supervenience, or analysis, or identity. But a number of philosophers have argued that it is best understood in terms of ground.1 On their view, the above theses state (respectively) that the material state of my brain grounds my conscious states, that the natu­ ral facts ground the normative, and that patterns of sense data ground the existence of external objects. If they are right, the notion of ground itself becomes an obvious topic of interest in its own right. In this spirit, one aim of this paper is to argue that ground is irreducibly plural. It is well known that something’s ground can be a plurality — the occurrence of a conference is an example of something that is presumably grounded in a multitude of facts concerning the actions of its many par ticipants. Those facts together are what explains why there is a conference occurring, even though none of them is a sufficient explanation individu ally. But the literature uniformly
The Deep Brain Stimulation of the Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus

Objective. The aim of the present study was to describe the surgical and clinical outcomes of the implantation and stimulation of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus in humans. Materials and Methods. Fourteen patients affected by movement disorders (12 Parkinson's disease and 2 progressive supranuclear palsy) underwent surgery for bilateral or monolateral implantation of stimulating electrodes in the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus. The correct placement of electrodes was established and verified by combining angio‐CT scans with magnetic resonance imaging. Intraoperative and postoperative evaluations were made to assess the clinical effectiveness of stimulation according to different Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale items and neurophysiologic parameters. Results. No major complications occurred following the insertion of electrodes into the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus. Neuroimaging showed that the electrode contacts were always correctly placed below the ponto‐mesencephalic line. Stimulation of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus improved gait, posture, and speech, and modulated reflexes integrated at spinal or pontine levels. Conclusions. The surgical targeting of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus requires a careful adaptation of the traditional stereotactic approaches owing to the high variability of brainstem anatomy from one patient to another. The insertion of the leads in the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus as well as their activation did not appear to induce serious adverse effects. The correct positioning of stimulating electrodes in pontine structures such as the pedunculopontine nucleus may be ascertained not only through neuroimaging techniques but also through clinical neurophysiology. The evolution of the surgical planning that we have developed emphasizes the limited value of single‐unit recordings to identify the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus and highlights the opportunities offered by functional evaluations of neurophysiologic parameters. As far as the clinical efficacy is concerned, our data suggest a promising outcome for simultaneous implantations of different basal ganglia nuclei in Parkinsonian and in progressive supranuclear palsy patients as well.
The FCC Spectrum Auctions: An Early Assessment

This paper analyzes six spectrum auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from July 1994 to May 1996. These auctions were simultaneous multipleround auctions in which collections of licenses were auctioned simultaneously. This auction form proved remarkably successful. Similar items sold for similar prices and bidders successfully formed efficient aggregations of licenses. Bidding behavior differed substantially in the auctions. The extent of bidder competition and price uncertainty played an important role in determining behavior. Bidding credits and installment payments also played a major role in several of the auctions.
Genetic parameters and performance of sugarcane families under cold stress in the South of Brazil

The objective of this work was to estimate the genetic parameters for the performance prediction of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) families under natural cold stress, in Southern Brazil, and to identify the best combinations of parents aiming at the selection for tolerance to cold. Fifty-three full-sib families were evaluated in an incomplete block design, with five replicates per family, in the municipality of Pelotas, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Harvest occurred in August 2013, nine months after planting and after cold spells with negative temperatures down to -2.2oC. Statistical analyses, performed with the mixed model methodology, detected significant differences among families. Heritability estimates among progeny means were higher than those of individual heritability. Estimates of genetic progress for the traits megagrams of stalks per hectare, megagrams of brix per hectare, and number of stalks indicated gains of 93.8, 91.0, and 53.3%, respectively. A set of eight promising families that combine high estimates for yield and cold stress tolerance was obtained.